Ya know...I've never been the smartest guy, the most clever, and definitely never had an exceptional memory. But, before coming here I thought of myself as a fairly capable guy. Able to get things done, concentrate when need be, a fairly quick learner even. Well...I sure am glad I came here and started making sails so that I could clear all that up and realize I'm an idiot.
Its amazing...just amazing, how many stupid things I can do in one day, much less to one sail. Crooked batten diamonds, battens put in the wrong place, tapes cut to the wrong length...not being able to remember which way is up half the time. Its just amazing...and I have to ask the same questions every day, every day since I've been here. It truly is incredible that James hasn't just killed me in order to get things done properly.
Same thing on the Spanish front...sometimes I convince myself I'm getting better, but then people have to ask me simple question 5 times and then I struggle to answer it to the point where I don't think anyone wants me to help them do anything at this point.
Well...like it or not I guess all that is gonna have to change. Tomorrow my crutch gets pulled out from under me, no more training wheels, no more Yoda, no more translator. Tomorrow is James' last day before he finds some place to go snowboarding and Bastien is leaving to go home to France for good so I'm on my own.
Ok...not entirely, there is the new French guy who does speak English and enough Spanish to get around, and there are plenty of people downstairs who do speak English, but regardless, work is going to be a whole different ball game. I know I'm gonna realize I haven't learned near as much as I should have, but at the same time I'm a little excited because I know within a few weeks I will be much more self sufficient at work, and who knows....maybe in a few months I will be able to understand enough Spanish to have a conversation about something other than how bad my Spanish is and the ever popular "Que frio no?" Si...it is cold, yes.
Anyway, wish me luck on another Barcelona weekend before my short week on my own and then a weekend in Norway...should be interesting
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
vamos a la cine
So I missed a night of blogness....oops, but it was for a good reason...sort of. About 4 pm yesterday at work I got asked if I wanted to go to the movies (this took place in Spanish and thus took several attempts). My initial reaction was no because I had zero food in the house and needed to go shopping, plus it would throw off my routine...then I realized the reason I have a routine was because I couldn't find enough to do so I figured going to see some random horror movie in Spanish could be a fun adventure or at least something new.
So we went straight from work, which means I looked like a homeless person with hopelessly torn jeans a old regatta shirt that is now way too big and the good old red jacket. The movie was at Mataro Parc which is a huge and really cool mall just two towns over and it was getting all decorated up for Christmas which was fun and festive, but kinda made me miss home. We were about an hour early so we went and got a beer and some tapas, which was good, I haven't actually had any tapas in over a month now that I think about it. When we got there Carlos asked me if I wanted some popcorn or something which I kinda did, but not enough to pay that much for it so I passed. Although I felt kinda bad about it after cause everyone else got something and kept offering it too me, which I accepted with nothing to share back with...oh well.
The move was called "Rec" as in an abbreviation of Record and was filmed in Barcelona, although mostly in one building. It was a horror movie thats a cross between The Blair Witch Project and any zombie movie you've ever seen. So there was alot of running around and shaky camera stuff that kinda makes you feel sick after too long. Along with alot of overly loud screaming that kinda gives you a headache....so now that I'm nauseous with a headache I can try to enjoy the movie. Unfortunately it really wasn't that good....and not just because I couldn't understand half of the dialogue. Like the Blair which and most zombie movies, there wasn't much plot too it and it just kinda ended abruptly in a failed attempt to be dramatic.
On the plus side most of the dialogue was curse words when people freaked out and the "tranquilla" which was people telling them to calm down. So at least I could fallow it. Also it was actually fun just to go to the movies, which I haven't done in forever. And its always good to do something new, especially with some Spanish folk so I can try to practice and whatnot.
And now...well now its late and I'm tired so I'm gonna try to get a good night sleep and have a good Thursday, that leads to a great Friday and another exciting weekend.
PS: Movie theaters here have assigned seats and two different kinds of seats, no doubt with different prices. There were two rows right in the middle that were red with cup holders and head rests that the other chairs (like ours) did not have. But the theater wasn't full...so who cares if someone doesn't sit in their assigned seat?....This is the plan for next time
So we went straight from work, which means I looked like a homeless person with hopelessly torn jeans a old regatta shirt that is now way too big and the good old red jacket. The movie was at Mataro Parc which is a huge and really cool mall just two towns over and it was getting all decorated up for Christmas which was fun and festive, but kinda made me miss home. We were about an hour early so we went and got a beer and some tapas, which was good, I haven't actually had any tapas in over a month now that I think about it. When we got there Carlos asked me if I wanted some popcorn or something which I kinda did, but not enough to pay that much for it so I passed. Although I felt kinda bad about it after cause everyone else got something and kept offering it too me, which I accepted with nothing to share back with...oh well.
The move was called "Rec" as in an abbreviation of Record and was filmed in Barcelona, although mostly in one building. It was a horror movie thats a cross between The Blair Witch Project and any zombie movie you've ever seen. So there was alot of running around and shaky camera stuff that kinda makes you feel sick after too long. Along with alot of overly loud screaming that kinda gives you a headache....so now that I'm nauseous with a headache I can try to enjoy the movie. Unfortunately it really wasn't that good....and not just because I couldn't understand half of the dialogue. Like the Blair which and most zombie movies, there wasn't much plot too it and it just kinda ended abruptly in a failed attempt to be dramatic.
On the plus side most of the dialogue was curse words when people freaked out and the "tranquilla" which was people telling them to calm down. So at least I could fallow it. Also it was actually fun just to go to the movies, which I haven't done in forever. And its always good to do something new, especially with some Spanish folk so I can try to practice and whatnot.
And now...well now its late and I'm tired so I'm gonna try to get a good night sleep and have a good Thursday, that leads to a great Friday and another exciting weekend.
PS: Movie theaters here have assigned seats and two different kinds of seats, no doubt with different prices. There were two rows right in the middle that were red with cup holders and head rests that the other chairs (like ours) did not have. But the theater wasn't full...so who cares if someone doesn't sit in their assigned seat?....This is the plan for next time
Monday, November 26, 2007
survived another weekend
It's about ten pm and I'm working my way to sleep but I figured I'd comment on the weekend. I was unsuccessful in finding any of my friends that I had lost numbers for but in the process I did manage to find the bar where one used to work. It turned out to be much bigger and nicer than I had previously thought and ended up spending alot of time hanging out there. Its a huge Irish pub called Irish Rock Cafe, and they have some pretty good food, if you're willing to pay for it, and live music every weekend so I definitely plan on going to hang out every now and then. I saw a band play that was just 3 guys with a guitar, a bass, and what i think was a mandolin, but they played everything from Bob Marley to Irish jigs.
Friday I ended up meeting Alexis in Barcelona and it was great to have a friend to go wander around and bar hop. We had never really hung out without James and Helena so it was cool to hang out and actually have a conversation. Because it was Friday and I had been at work all day I was pretty tired...I had planed on a nap, but Guitar Hero got in the way...happens. Anyway, I started out tired and wondering how I was gonna make it through a long night, but after a few redbulls and adventuring into some new places I was energized and we ended up dancing on a stage at the Jamboree with a bunch of overly intoxicated tourists. But all and all it was alot of fun and now thats one more English speaking person I can call up to go hang out.
Most of Saturday was spent watching a cd of old English tv that James gave me...Fawlty Towers and Men Behaving Badly. Ridiculous and funny and very English but it was a good way to recover from a late night. I managed to convince myself to go out again that night and planned to meet up with my roommates Bastien and Mathew but unfortunately never got ahold of them once I was downtown. I went back to that Irish bar, this was the night I saw the live music and had a decent hamburger, and then hung around Las Ramblas eventually ending up back at the Jamboree in hops of bumping into some people I know go there alot. Unfortunately, this did not happen and I spent too much of the night just kinda hanging around there, and occasionally getting the energy to go dance with random people. Toward the end of the night I did get hit on shamelessly by a 32 year old English teacher from Venezuela ,which was interesting but by that time I was glad to have someone to talk to. Unfortunatly, by that time I was also feeling kind of sick from the giant hamburger and fries I had had for dinner....its sad, but I don't eat that kinda stuff much any more and apparently it didn't sit well. Anyway, thats a long way of saying dancing wasn't really gonna happen with my stomach not feeling so hot and the teacher eventually gave up and went dancing with her Italian friends. Although, I did end up talking with one of her friends who was visiting from Venezuela and spoke no English. It was slow going in a very loud night club, but I was glad I'm able to understand enough to have a slow broken chat in Spanish at 4 am. if need be.
I also learned an important lesson about walking home from the clubs....if you're a decently dressed white guy and you're alone...then don't. Find some other way, take a bus, or train or something, but don't walk up Las Rambles unless you want to get harassed by an African "Lady of the evening" every 20 feet. Live and learn.
Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I'm now entering my last week of work with James and Bastien still there so I should get some sleep so I can practice being self sufficient in the morning.
Buenas Noches self and anyone who may read
Friday I ended up meeting Alexis in Barcelona and it was great to have a friend to go wander around and bar hop. We had never really hung out without James and Helena so it was cool to hang out and actually have a conversation. Because it was Friday and I had been at work all day I was pretty tired...I had planed on a nap, but Guitar Hero got in the way...happens. Anyway, I started out tired and wondering how I was gonna make it through a long night, but after a few redbulls and adventuring into some new places I was energized and we ended up dancing on a stage at the Jamboree with a bunch of overly intoxicated tourists. But all and all it was alot of fun and now thats one more English speaking person I can call up to go hang out.
Most of Saturday was spent watching a cd of old English tv that James gave me...Fawlty Towers and Men Behaving Badly. Ridiculous and funny and very English but it was a good way to recover from a late night. I managed to convince myself to go out again that night and planned to meet up with my roommates Bastien and Mathew but unfortunately never got ahold of them once I was downtown. I went back to that Irish bar, this was the night I saw the live music and had a decent hamburger, and then hung around Las Ramblas eventually ending up back at the Jamboree in hops of bumping into some people I know go there alot. Unfortunately, this did not happen and I spent too much of the night just kinda hanging around there, and occasionally getting the energy to go dance with random people. Toward the end of the night I did get hit on shamelessly by a 32 year old English teacher from Venezuela ,which was interesting but by that time I was glad to have someone to talk to. Unfortunatly, by that time I was also feeling kind of sick from the giant hamburger and fries I had had for dinner....its sad, but I don't eat that kinda stuff much any more and apparently it didn't sit well. Anyway, thats a long way of saying dancing wasn't really gonna happen with my stomach not feeling so hot and the teacher eventually gave up and went dancing with her Italian friends. Although, I did end up talking with one of her friends who was visiting from Venezuela and spoke no English. It was slow going in a very loud night club, but I was glad I'm able to understand enough to have a slow broken chat in Spanish at 4 am. if need be.
I also learned an important lesson about walking home from the clubs....if you're a decently dressed white guy and you're alone...then don't. Find some other way, take a bus, or train or something, but don't walk up Las Rambles unless you want to get harassed by an African "Lady of the evening" every 20 feet. Live and learn.
Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I'm now entering my last week of work with James and Bastien still there so I should get some sleep so I can practice being self sufficient in the morning.
Buenas Noches self and anyone who may read
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Another day, another dollar
I can feel work slowing down. Day by day, there is less and less to to do and we spend more time at the end of the days looking, or avoiding looking, for work. I don't know if its a good or bad thing really. It can be kinda nice not to be crawling around the floor all day, but I hate just pacing around looking for sails that aren't there, especially when there are alot of other people in the loft working. I think that's the problem really, not working when others are. Even if there really aren't sails to be put together I see other people doing stuff and feel like I should be helping, or at least not standing around.
Oh well, so it was kinda a slow day today. Although, we got in some sails that were made in South Africa and all we had to do was put on the luff and measure them. Interesting side note about sails from Africa; they have to get sprayed with insecticide that smells like diesel and after about an hr they kinda make your head and stomach hurt. Also, they are a hundred times cleaner than the ones that come out of our loft, and less wrinkled, which makes me think we should be taking more steps to keep the loft clean so the sails don't come out looking used.
Anyway, enough of business. It's almost Friday!! Wahoo, I'm excited. Although, the big plans for the office football match seem to have fallen through because we didn't reserve the field or some nonsense. I guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow, but either way at least its the weekend. Not sure what all I'll end up doing...at least one day, maybe tomorrow, I'll head into Barcelona and see if my friend still works at this bar called McCarthy's bar and maybe I can reclaim some phone numbers. Also I think I'm gonna do a flashback and write about "buscando setes"...Here we go~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (bet you didn't know this is what a flashback looks like)~~~~~~~~
So this last weekend was defiantly an adventure. I had been giving James a hard time about it all Friday and neither one of us could think of any reason why anyone would wake up at 8 am on a Saturday, to drive 2 hrs into the mountains to look for mushrooms. But somehow by the end of hanging out Friday night, I was going too. So the next morning, Helena, James, Alexis (James' sister), and I piled in the car for a journey into the mountains. The car ride consisted of drifting in and out of sleep while bad techno remixes played on the radio. We stopped once at a roadside diner type place and ordered some food and coffee, but it was really crowded and they took so long we just left. Finally we finally got "there". There, was the side of the road on a curve like a hundred we had passed on the way but apparently, it was the good spot to be. So we hop out, and it is much colder than I would have liked in my T-shirt, but the view is very nice. Rolling hills and mountains that go on and on and nothing but one or too small random homes with a few goats and cows milling about. The thing that immediately surprised me was that there were no fences. We just walked off the side of the road off into the hills in sight of a small cabin but no fences surrounding property the way you see along the highways of Texas.
So looking for mushrooms is just that, you tromp around with your head down searching the ground for mushrooms, but not just any....oh no...there is a special kind and nothing that I find that fits the description is right. after a few minutes of that I get a little tired of looking at the ground so I just kinda explore. It was amazing, just running around the woods in the mountains, fallowing random little creeks, and climbing up inclines. At one point I heard Helena call my name and looked down and they were all about 60 feet below me fallowing a little stream so I ran back around and met up with them again. My camera was unfortunately out of battery for this whole thing, but James and his sis got some pictures, so when I get those from them I'll put a few up.
We did find a few mushrooms...and by we I mean Helena (the mushroom authority that turned all our finds down) and by "a few" I mean 2. I guess we were out there for about 3 hrs so I don't know if it was worth the 2 mushrooms but it was defiantly worth the views. And I think I found something better anyway....a whole cow skeleton. Just laying there in the woods. At first all I saw was a giant leg bone which kinda freaked me out and then I looked a little farther down and there was the whole back and a big skull, which was much more interesting than the mushrooms. It had been dead a long time and picked pretty clean but if you got really close it still smelled pretty funky, I tried to convince James to put the skull on the front of Helena's car but he wasn't touching it and Helena would have killed him. So after that whole excitement we decided to head back which was a quite a long way especially when you don't know exactly how to get back but we did fine. At one point we actually did hit a fence out in the middle of the woods, but not like a barbwire fence or anything, just a wire that we all thought was surely electric... all of us except Helena who, before any of us could stop her, touched it. Well, she got lucky and we found out a few feet down there was a break in the wire but it was a close call. That is till we came to another one at the road that we all stopped and stared at again. All except Helena who reached out and tapped it...Again nothing. So she put her hand on it and stepped over, but as soon as she had gotten her leg over to the other side she started jumping around waving her hand and screaming....we all laughed and jumped it without touching. Apparently it had given her a pretty big jolt and burned her hand and feet, but not too bad to cause any lasting damage or anything.
So we finally got back to the car and headed to a restaurant in a very small town on the way home. Unfortunately it was full, because it smelled amazing but we were able to find another place a little farther down the road. This place was interesting, it was quite literally someones home and looked and felt it. It was as if someone had just set up alot of tables around their house and had strangers come eat....which now that I think about it is exactly what it was. It was a nice meal too, or at least mine was good, the others had a few complaints about there and eyed mine jealously, but we had a nice Spanish/English chat and then headed home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Flash forward looks very similar to flash back)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So that was Buscando setes, or Bolets, if you're Catalan. It was one of several stories I'll be slipping in along the way with this new semi-daily routine. I say semi-daily because tomorrow is the weekend and every rigid, disciplined routine I've come up with here disappears on the weekends so it's very likely I wont be back on till Sunday or Monday. But have no fear all you eager readers, I shall return with more interesting stories to keep you entertained while you're at work at your desk jobs or sitting in class not listening to professors. Until then I wish you all the best and ask you to pray for the well being of me and my belonging over another dangerous weekend in Barcelona.
Abrazos,
Barrett
Oh well, so it was kinda a slow day today. Although, we got in some sails that were made in South Africa and all we had to do was put on the luff and measure them. Interesting side note about sails from Africa; they have to get sprayed with insecticide that smells like diesel and after about an hr they kinda make your head and stomach hurt. Also, they are a hundred times cleaner than the ones that come out of our loft, and less wrinkled, which makes me think we should be taking more steps to keep the loft clean so the sails don't come out looking used.
Anyway, enough of business. It's almost Friday!! Wahoo, I'm excited. Although, the big plans for the office football match seem to have fallen through because we didn't reserve the field or some nonsense. I guess I'll find out for sure tomorrow, but either way at least its the weekend. Not sure what all I'll end up doing...at least one day, maybe tomorrow, I'll head into Barcelona and see if my friend still works at this bar called McCarthy's bar and maybe I can reclaim some phone numbers. Also I think I'm gonna do a flashback and write about "buscando setes"...Here we go~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (bet you didn't know this is what a flashback looks like)~~~~~~~~
So this last weekend was defiantly an adventure. I had been giving James a hard time about it all Friday and neither one of us could think of any reason why anyone would wake up at 8 am on a Saturday, to drive 2 hrs into the mountains to look for mushrooms. But somehow by the end of hanging out Friday night, I was going too. So the next morning, Helena, James, Alexis (James' sister), and I piled in the car for a journey into the mountains. The car ride consisted of drifting in and out of sleep while bad techno remixes played on the radio. We stopped once at a roadside diner type place and ordered some food and coffee, but it was really crowded and they took so long we just left. Finally we finally got "there". There, was the side of the road on a curve like a hundred we had passed on the way but apparently, it was the good spot to be. So we hop out, and it is much colder than I would have liked in my T-shirt, but the view is very nice. Rolling hills and mountains that go on and on and nothing but one or too small random homes with a few goats and cows milling about. The thing that immediately surprised me was that there were no fences. We just walked off the side of the road off into the hills in sight of a small cabin but no fences surrounding property the way you see along the highways of Texas.
So looking for mushrooms is just that, you tromp around with your head down searching the ground for mushrooms, but not just any....oh no...there is a special kind and nothing that I find that fits the description is right. after a few minutes of that I get a little tired of looking at the ground so I just kinda explore. It was amazing, just running around the woods in the mountains, fallowing random little creeks, and climbing up inclines. At one point I heard Helena call my name and looked down and they were all about 60 feet below me fallowing a little stream so I ran back around and met up with them again. My camera was unfortunately out of battery for this whole thing, but James and his sis got some pictures, so when I get those from them I'll put a few up.
We did find a few mushrooms...and by we I mean Helena (the mushroom authority that turned all our finds down) and by "a few" I mean 2. I guess we were out there for about 3 hrs so I don't know if it was worth the 2 mushrooms but it was defiantly worth the views. And I think I found something better anyway....a whole cow skeleton. Just laying there in the woods. At first all I saw was a giant leg bone which kinda freaked me out and then I looked a little farther down and there was the whole back and a big skull, which was much more interesting than the mushrooms. It had been dead a long time and picked pretty clean but if you got really close it still smelled pretty funky, I tried to convince James to put the skull on the front of Helena's car but he wasn't touching it and Helena would have killed him. So after that whole excitement we decided to head back which was a quite a long way especially when you don't know exactly how to get back but we did fine. At one point we actually did hit a fence out in the middle of the woods, but not like a barbwire fence or anything, just a wire that we all thought was surely electric... all of us except Helena who, before any of us could stop her, touched it. Well, she got lucky and we found out a few feet down there was a break in the wire but it was a close call. That is till we came to another one at the road that we all stopped and stared at again. All except Helena who reached out and tapped it...Again nothing. So she put her hand on it and stepped over, but as soon as she had gotten her leg over to the other side she started jumping around waving her hand and screaming....we all laughed and jumped it without touching. Apparently it had given her a pretty big jolt and burned her hand and feet, but not too bad to cause any lasting damage or anything.
So we finally got back to the car and headed to a restaurant in a very small town on the way home. Unfortunately it was full, because it smelled amazing but we were able to find another place a little farther down the road. This place was interesting, it was quite literally someones home and looked and felt it. It was as if someone had just set up alot of tables around their house and had strangers come eat....which now that I think about it is exactly what it was. It was a nice meal too, or at least mine was good, the others had a few complaints about there and eyed mine jealously, but we had a nice Spanish/English chat and then headed home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Flash forward looks very similar to flash back)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So that was Buscando setes, or Bolets, if you're Catalan. It was one of several stories I'll be slipping in along the way with this new semi-daily routine. I say semi-daily because tomorrow is the weekend and every rigid, disciplined routine I've come up with here disappears on the weekends so it's very likely I wont be back on till Sunday or Monday. But have no fear all you eager readers, I shall return with more interesting stories to keep you entertained while you're at work at your desk jobs or sitting in class not listening to professors. Until then I wish you all the best and ask you to pray for the well being of me and my belonging over another dangerous weekend in Barcelona.
Abrazos,
Barrett
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Turning over a new leaf
So I haven't been on here in a long time...another month about. Seems like that's how long before I start feeling guilty and come back to it. There really are a lot of thing I keep replaying in my head and trying not to forget before I write them down in here. But I don't think I'm going to try to do that today. Today I hope will be the start of regular posting again. I think if I just come home and write a little each day then it will become a habit and I wont have month long gaps in between entries. Also maybe I'll end up writing something other than play by plays of my weekends.
For all those who may actually look at this from time to time, I'm doing well and still very much alive. I'm getting to a point now at work were I can do sails alone which actually makes the days go by much faster but also means I am working alone most of the time. Which is probably a good thing to get used to because in the next few weeks James and Bastien are leavin so that takes away the usual people I would work with. Although there is a new player at the loft and in the apt. A new French guy named Mathew (pronounced with a thick French accent so it kinda sounds like a sneeze) but he seems like a cool guy and speaks English well.
I recently booked a trip to Norway for a weekend for my every-three-month-leave-the-EU-adventure. Should, if nothing else, be an adventure. I'm meeting up with a guy named Thomas Okslo and actually gonna go sailing.....in Norway....in December....BBBRRRRRrrrrr. But hopefully that shouldn't be too bad.
Also, I had a great weekend, two weeks ago, when I got to go see the start of the Barcelona World Race, which was amazing. I've never seen such a crowd, literally hundreds of spectator boats came out to watch. Everything from million dollar yachts, to a guy speeding around in an A-cat, as well as myself and a few people from the loft in a double decker party-esk boat. It was a great start as well, people were worried because there wasn't much breeze but it picked up a bit right before the start. And right at the beginning of this downwind start one of the boats starts struggling against the edge of spectator boats trying to find a good angle with clean air and as he does a boat comes from right behind him, pops the spinnaker and flies into the crowd at top speed with boats scattering but staying close as he speeds by to take a huge lead at the start with most of the fleet fallowing his lead into the crowd. It was a crazy scene with boats clamoring to get out of the way while others rushed to get closer and helicopters buzzing around only feet above the masts of some of the boats. I have a million pictures of all this to sort through but when I get the highlights I'll put them up on here.
In general, everything is goin pretty good. I do get a bit homesick from time to time when work gets tedious or when I can't find anything to do on the weekends, but I'm making new friends too. I had a decent little group of friends that I met who are going to school here but unfortunately last weekend I lost my phone....actually it and my ipod were stolen when I fell asleep on the train....I know...I'm an idiot...lets all just move on. So now I don't have any of their numbers anymore and no way to get a hold of them. I think I remember where one of them works however, so this weekend I'm gonna try to go find em, but chances are slim that I'll run into them again.
Well for everyone back at home, I love you all and hope everything is going great. Oh! and enjoy Thanksgiving....I keep sayin I'm gonna make a turkey or somethin, but the more I think about it the less I see myself coming home from work and cooking all afternoon to have solo Thanksgiving. Everyone keep in touch, and for those of you who don't have it, go download Skype, its a free online phone and then we have bi-coastal chats!
Adeu,
Barrett
For all those who may actually look at this from time to time, I'm doing well and still very much alive. I'm getting to a point now at work were I can do sails alone which actually makes the days go by much faster but also means I am working alone most of the time. Which is probably a good thing to get used to because in the next few weeks James and Bastien are leavin so that takes away the usual people I would work with. Although there is a new player at the loft and in the apt. A new French guy named Mathew (pronounced with a thick French accent so it kinda sounds like a sneeze) but he seems like a cool guy and speaks English well.
I recently booked a trip to Norway for a weekend for my every-three-month-leave-the-EU-adventure. Should, if nothing else, be an adventure. I'm meeting up with a guy named Thomas Okslo and actually gonna go sailing.....in Norway....in December....BBBRRRRRrrrrr. But hopefully that shouldn't be too bad.
Also, I had a great weekend, two weeks ago, when I got to go see the start of the Barcelona World Race, which was amazing. I've never seen such a crowd, literally hundreds of spectator boats came out to watch. Everything from million dollar yachts, to a guy speeding around in an A-cat, as well as myself and a few people from the loft in a double decker party-esk boat. It was a great start as well, people were worried because there wasn't much breeze but it picked up a bit right before the start. And right at the beginning of this downwind start one of the boats starts struggling against the edge of spectator boats trying to find a good angle with clean air and as he does a boat comes from right behind him, pops the spinnaker and flies into the crowd at top speed with boats scattering but staying close as he speeds by to take a huge lead at the start with most of the fleet fallowing his lead into the crowd. It was a crazy scene with boats clamoring to get out of the way while others rushed to get closer and helicopters buzzing around only feet above the masts of some of the boats. I have a million pictures of all this to sort through but when I get the highlights I'll put them up on here.
In general, everything is goin pretty good. I do get a bit homesick from time to time when work gets tedious or when I can't find anything to do on the weekends, but I'm making new friends too. I had a decent little group of friends that I met who are going to school here but unfortunately last weekend I lost my phone....actually it and my ipod were stolen when I fell asleep on the train....I know...I'm an idiot...lets all just move on. So now I don't have any of their numbers anymore and no way to get a hold of them. I think I remember where one of them works however, so this weekend I'm gonna try to go find em, but chances are slim that I'll run into them again.
Well for everyone back at home, I love you all and hope everything is going great. Oh! and enjoy Thanksgiving....I keep sayin I'm gonna make a turkey or somethin, but the more I think about it the less I see myself coming home from work and cooking all afternoon to have solo Thanksgiving. Everyone keep in touch, and for those of you who don't have it, go download Skype, its a free online phone and then we have bi-coastal chats!
Adeu,
Barrett
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