Santander at 3 AM

I made Spanish friends last night! Juancarlos, Marco, and Marcos! Full-blown Santander locals, and decent guys too. I was out at the bar Bhengala last night, which happened to be packed wall to wall with the music blaring, so I had to yell just to hold a conversation. Mind you, I was yelling in Spanish. I lost my voice quicker than I thought I would. Probably because the air here is 10% oxygen, 75% cigarette smoke, and and 13% perfume/cologne (for you math studs out there, wondering what happened to the last 2%, I´d venture to say that it´s hairspray. There are some robust Euro-Mullets here that are held down by something, and my best guess is hair product. Speaking of Euro-Mullets, I´m dying to take a picture of one and post it...soon, very soon.)

I had a really good conversation last night with my host family, expressing my frustration with not knowing anyone Spanish, and always spending my time with our group of Americans, where we only speak English. I tried to make a vow to myself before the trip that I wouldn´t speak any while I was here, but that crumbled quickly. I want to speak more Spanish. And was a bit frustrated by that. Also, I barely have any homework here at my school. Really, I´ve had none. But it´s ok. Living here amoungs Spaniards is classroom enough for anyone.

This morning I toured a cathedral that was built in the 13th century. It was pretty dang big, but I´d say it was small for a cathedral. Also, there were old ruins of Roman bath that were on display in the Church (it was built over them). The Catholic churches are new for me. My host mom made me sad last night when I was trying to tell her a verse from Romans, and she was kind of unresponsive and said, ¨we catholics don´t read the bible much.¨

But anyways, I think I´m going to try surfing on the beach today...maybe. I´m also trying to save my money, so we´ll see. Pictures will come later, but I didn´t bring any of the cords with me right now. Oh, and I´ll try to include myself in these pictures, that way you´ll all know that I am ACTUALLY here.

Last night was awesome!

So I was in this bar a few nights ago (bars in Spain are where everyone goes to pass the time, whether or not you get a drink, but most everyone does), and I saw a flyer for a jazz concert. I went to it last night, and turns out it was a benefit concert for the victims of hurricain Katrina. I was moved by these Spaniards reaching out like that. And moreover, the music moved me too. Some incredibly talented jazz artists were playing. After that, I went and saw this low key bossa nova show in a small bar. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself there too. It´s actually kind of hard to find live music here in Santander, so I feel lucky to have gotten a double dose in one night. Oh, and I ate dinner at the Peter Pan bar last night. The tavern´s logo is just this huge image of Disney´s rendition of the character. I don´t have much to say for the bar, but I found that interesting. Along that line, there´s a Friends bar in town with the exact font and style of the TV show. I haven´t gone in though. Well there´s an update. I´ll get some more pictures coming soon. Laters.

The AGONY!!!!

For the second time in a row, I erased a blog of immense proportions. I should have looked up the word ¨suprimer¨or whatever it was before I clicked it, cause it means to delete! I have to click everything looking at all the words on the selection menus in spanish. I don´t have a whole lot of English on the screen. Crap. Ok, well I suppose the cool details are going to be left out again, and you´ll have to make do with just pictures. Shoot. That really put me in a bad mood. Ok well everyone, go here:

http://oregonstate.edu/~normansj/pictures/

That´s where I´m storing all the pictures. Bummer. I feel like someone from an older generation who is horrible with these computers and can´t even work the mouse. Well, have at it everyone. I have to go get changed and listen to some live music...some bossa nova something or other. Man, I´m in a bad mood.

ok here...

This took way to long to upload, but go to this website here to look at a picture of downtown.

http://oregonstate.edu/~normansj/pictures/downtown%20santander

I´ll get more up.

I´m a little angry right now

I just wrote you all the most fantastic blog entry ever and then managed to click it all right into oblivion. Sorry. I wish I had time to tell you all again what exactly has been happening, but don´t worry, I´ll get around to it again. For now though, I´m having trouble posting my pictures. Maybe they´re too big. Don´t know. Well, Santander is amazing. I wish you all could be here with me. I don´t wish it were the other way around yet. I live downtown, so here´s a picture of it...which I probably can´t get to show up, so just imagine it for right now. I suppose the important thing is that I´m alive. I´ll keep this updated. See you guys.

test run

Just testing to see if I could, in fact, blog via email.

Last Runthrough Before Spain

Alright, so I'm going to try and use this thing to keep everyone updated on my adventures in Europe. My other option was to send out mass emails, and the mere thought of that make me sick to my stomach. K, and here's a sample picture to let you know I practiced at posting them.



Buy this album if you ever get the chance. K, see you in Spain next.