AH! Again tons to say! What would you like to hear first - exciting personal news or detailed account of my weekend? Exciting personal news it is! A spoonful of exciting personal news helps the detailed account of the weekend go down - that´s what I always say!
So I don´t know how many of you had the distinct privilege of visiting Gartland G2 last year, but if you did you certainly remember the glorious C Room that I shared with Miss Alana Linsinbigler. We had a prime location away from the noise but still close to the bathroom and kitchen and, if you ask me, we had a very impressive collection of classic art on the walls. We also created a new,innovative storage system known as ¨the floordrobe." And you can too! Basically all laundry and clothes that werent quite ready to be washed rested on the floor next to Alana´s bed - creating a soft landing for me coming down from the loft and also creating a time-space vortex into the next dimension. Long story short- we never saw our floor and no one came to visit our room out of sheer terrror. And we liked it like that. My family can attest that I have a tendency to EXPLODE ( Copyright Kim Levine 2007) in any room that I am staying in and you can usually retrace all of my steps in a day because I leave a trail of books, plates, clothes etc. in my wake.
Cut to me eating with Paquita ( duh - ps last night I had a hot dog and cream cheese sandwich for dinner - top that!) and Paquita was sharing some horror stories from some of her past homestays. She then said that things with me were going perfectly - I communicated with her, I liked her food, I was considerate of her schedule and................
My room is " phenomenally clean"
Yeah that´s right - PHENOMENALLY
This ain´t no amateur hour. Sure I have a few less things than I do back in the states but I have to give myself a pat on the back. My room IS phenomenally clean! Proof that people really can change - at least for now. My next roommate Jacel, who is not a creater/founder of the floordrobe, will undoubtedly appreciate this improvement. Also if anyone is thinking of going abroad I 123890% recommend doing a homestay. Besides the fact that you get to practice more language and end up with a gem like Paquita - it is a pretty sweet deal. Delicious food, funny stories, a clean, quiet house.. and your underwear gets folded. No lie.
Ok so this weekend was rather jampacked with fun and adventures. On Friday we went to the bullfights! I was so nervous and a bullfight isn´t really the place for a east coast pseudo hippie or the sister of Julie: Animal Warrior. But when in Spain... and the tickets were only 20 euro so I went with it. The Plaza de Toros in Salamanca is a classic and according to Paquita, Salamanca is one of the bull capitals of Spain- meaning that all the best bulls used in la corrida come from just outside of Salamanca. There used to be a saying Salamanca: arte, saber, y toro
s. ( Salamanca: arte, culture, bulls). Everyone was excited to see the very famous bullfighter Cayetano (basically the Cher/ Madonna of Bullfights). He used to be an Armani model and if I do say so myself- DAMN. Well it turns out that Cayetano should maybe stick to his day job. He did not do so well in the fight- he couldn't get the sword in at the end of the fight and he was very impatient and wasn't waiting for the right moment. The older aficionados around me were very very disappointed in him- their voices were dripping with sadness.The younger Salamanca native ended up winning - and deservedly so. In the first 5 minutes of the fight, the bulls horn hooked onto his bolero jacket and he was basically under a 490 kilo raging bull. If you do a good job, you get one ear of the bull. If you do really well you get 2 ears and if you are phenomenal you get two ears and a tail. The winner got two ears each time - there were six bulls and three toreros. Definitely an iconic experience - one I am not likely to have again. By the end I was kind of desensitized to what was going on but at the end when the bull is dying , they stab them in the head with a shorter knife and that NEVER gets easier to watch.
The next day, the girls and I decided to see something new in Salamanca. We visited the cathedral, which is right next to the school of filología. You know Spain has spoiled you when you are not bowled over by the Salamanca cathedral. After Toledo, everything else is just peanuts- but we did take a sweet Power Ranger picture outside. Then we visited the Museo de Casa Lis, which is the art deco/art nouveou museum here that used to be someone's house. It's full of knick-knacks basically but very cool 1920s knick knacks and lots of art that looks like it's by Picasso or Degás, but is really not. These people also liked clowns and antique dolls a lot. Kinda weird but it's their house I guess. Then we went to the movies right around the corner and saw a fantasic Japanese film ( dubbed over in Spanish=trippy) called Despedidas. I will spare you the synopsis and just include a link to the trailer. ( Sorry it's in Spanish :-)
Other news from Spain: I have played 375 games of Free Cell and have won 91% of those games. And I wonder why I'm single. Rather than focus my attention on the Spanish mullet I am choosing to do an in depth study on the use of jorts in the culture of the Spanish male. For those of you unfamiliar with the term jeans+shorts=jorts. I have some sort of bug that Paquita has deemed a "gripe." According to Paquita : La gripe A: mala. La otra: esta bien. This bug is severely limiting my ability to eat cured meats which is disturbing to both Paquita and I. I am a little bit homesick these days because classes are getting difficult and being sick also makes you miss home. I wouldn't mind an after dinner walk with my fam, a boopadoo with the MD, Chain Reaction with the girlsm or a little bit of swing dancing here and there. I'm definitely very excited for people to visit me and to start travelling. Next up is Porto, Portugal!
Still fighting the gripe so forgive me if this blog isn't high on inspiration/wit. I will be back to normal soon! I just had to fit in an update bc nothing annoys me more than abandoned blogs- and I couldn't do that to you guys!
Love - Fio
Photo Credits: Cayetano http://manolobig.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/toreador.jpg
s. ( Salamanca: arte, culture, bulls). Everyone was excited to see the very famous bullfighter Cayetano (basically the Cher/ Madonna of Bullfights). He used to be an Armani model and if I do say so myself- DAMN. Well it turns out that Cayetano should maybe stick to his day job. He did not do so well in the fight- he couldn't get the sword in at the end of the fight and he was very impatient and wasn't waiting for the right moment. The older aficionados around me were very very disappointed in him- their voices were dripping with sadness.The younger Salamanca native ended up winning - and deservedly so. In the first 5 minutes of the fight, the bulls horn hooked onto his bolero jacket and he was basically under a 490 kilo raging bull. If you do a good job, you get one ear of the bull. If you do really well you get 2 ears and if you are phenomenal you get two ears and a tail. The winner got two ears each time - there were six bulls and three toreros. Definitely an iconic experience - one I am not likely to have again. By the end I was kind of desensitized to what was going on but at the end when the bull is dying , they stab them in the head with a shorter knife and that NEVER gets easier to watch.The next day, the girls and I decided to see something new in Salamanca. We visited the cathedral, which is right next to the school of filología. You know Spain has spoiled you when you are not bowled over by the Salamanca cathedral. After Toledo, everything else is just peanuts- but we did take a sweet Power Ranger picture outside. Then we visited the Museo de Casa Lis, which is the art deco/art nouveou museum here that used to be someone's house. It's full of knick-knacks basically but very cool 1920s knick knacks and lots of art that looks like it's by Picasso or Degás, but is really not. These people also liked clowns and antique dolls a lot. Kinda weird but it's their house I guess. Then we went to the movies right around the corner and saw a fantasic Japanese film ( dubbed over in Spanish=trippy) called Despedidas. I will spare you the synopsis and just include a link to the trailer. ( Sorry it's in Spanish :-)
Other news from Spain: I have played 375 games of Free Cell and have won 91% of those games. And I wonder why I'm single. Rather than focus my attention on the Spanish mullet I am choosing to do an in depth study on the use of jorts in the culture of the Spanish male. For those of you unfamiliar with the term jeans+shorts=jorts. I have some sort of bug that Paquita has deemed a "gripe." According to Paquita : La gripe A: mala. La otra: esta bien. This bug is severely limiting my ability to eat cured meats which is disturbing to both Paquita and I. I am a little bit homesick these days because classes are getting difficult and being sick also makes you miss home. I wouldn't mind an after dinner walk with my fam, a boopadoo with the MD, Chain Reaction with the girlsm or a little bit of swing dancing here and there. I'm definitely very excited for people to visit me and to start travelling. Next up is Porto, Portugal!
Still fighting the gripe so forgive me if this blog isn't high on inspiration/wit. I will be back to normal soon! I just had to fit in an update bc nothing annoys me more than abandoned blogs- and I couldn't do that to you guys!
Love - Fio
Photo Credits: Cayetano http://manolobig.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/toreador.jpg
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