Nonsense, Drivel, and Balderdash

I must say, yesterday I was very stressed. I was tired from working, my boss was stressed; my bus home got stuck in traffic and I was distracted and missed my stop (which forced me to walk back for 20 minutes). The perfect cure for this is, of course, the movies. More aptly, going to see a no brainer action flick. Usually I will never go see an action movie at the theatre, but I felt like special effects and surround sound. Also, it is much cheaper to go watch a movie in Spain. So I got home and told David that I wanted to see a movie. We jumped in the car and headed off to the local mall. I told him that I didn't want something heady and I just wanted to relax. I told him that I felt like watching "The Day After Tomorrow." He was skeptical, and personally, I didn't blame him. Roland Emmerich isn't particularly famous for his quality films. Independence Day and Godzilla can prove that. However, Independence Day WAS entertaining when I saw it in the movie theatre ...

I cannot believe I have been here a week. In some senses it feels as if I never left; in others I feel like I dont belong here anymore. Either way, it is good to be back. It has been raining like crazy all week, ruining some of the royal wedding plans... The prince was married on Saturday. It was a very big deal, and all of madrid was primping for the event. A lot of useless protocol and stuff. It was still pretty cool though, downtown, where I work (I work 3 blocks from the royal palace) all the streets were shut down and 1500 security people were around securing the area for the prince. Twenty helicopters circled the city, and 200 snipers were on rooftops. It was INSANE. I was tempted to pay some unsuspecting tourist to walk up to the palace with a suspicious package and a turban. Instead I just served beer. Boring. I am trying to find David a job..... I think that subconsciously he doesnt wish to work, because he doesnt make a giant effort to seek for one; not that I blame him thoug...

Today was my first day of full work. I am currently working at a Bar in downtown madrid, between "el botín" and the plaza mayor. It is technically a Belgian bar, which basically means it still has mostly spanish "tapas" but only Belgian beer, go figure. But it has a LOT of beers; 50 different kinds to be exact. In the US I have never seen a bar with over 10 brands, in fact I have seen very few bars in spain with that many brands, but it is a bit more common. It is hard to keep track of all the different kinds. The bar is visited by several belgians or dutch patrons every day, and they DO know which kind they want. However, their accent and pronounciation is sometimes hard to pick up. In many ways it is easier when they know what they want. The worst is when they ask me for a recommendation, because obviously I have barely tasted any of them, and have a hard time remembering which is which anyways. Anyway, it will take me a while to taste them all, but I am willing t...

While I was on a plane bound for sunny spain, (Wow, that rhymes, I think I should be a poet) I came to some conclusions about flight travel. Some of you may think that the whole travel/airplane thing is fun. Well it is... but only for about two hours (or till you are done with the first in-flight movie). You start out excited about traveling, but that sentiment quickly changes into angst. Fortunately I was flying on a Boeing 777, which is by far the nicest aircraft to fly the skies. I had my own television with a plethora of movie choices. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is great on the way back from Spain, because you are supposed to stay awake to counteract the jet lag once you arrive. However, when you are flying east, it is far better to sleep on the flight. Unfortunately, I am in a sticky situation when the movies are before me... Yes, yes. I know. Just take a sleeping pill and slumber away. It sounds great in theory, but in practice it works very differently. First, you ...

It is my last night in Evans Hall. It has treated me well. It has been a good year all in all. Many of my close friends sort of raise an eyebrow at me when I say that, knowing all that I have gone through during the past semesters. And yet, though I have my complaints and questions, life is not bad. I just read a post that Charles, one of my best friends, put in his blog. He described the things he missed about Spain and didnt understand in his life. I resonate with you my friend. Many times I wonder why I am here, when I love another place so much more. Fortunately I have made good friends here. But still, it makes you wonder... I wish I lived closer to you man. I really do. It stinks to live so far from those that you really care about. On top of it all, one of my best friends from Gordon (if not my best) is transferring next semester so she will be gone. Weird... why are so many of my good friends far away. Oh well, I must continue to develop friendships around here to complement (n...

Well, finals are almost over. I still have to present my mediocre media production project, but other than that... I am done. My tests were pretty bad I think. French was darn hard, and English was just ridiculous. The english one had the dumbest questions I think I have ever seen. I studied decently for it, I re-read all the plays that were going to be on the exam, but it was no use. You would think that if you read all sorts of pieces of drama, that on the test you would be tested to see if you understood the themes, symbols, etc. No, not with this guy. A question on the test was "Where did Billy get slapped?" a) the head b) the neck c) the back d) the stomach The problem is, that billy is a secondary character that appears in the story for 2 pages and is gone. The fact that he is slapped is incidental. When I get questions like this wrong, it does not prove that I have not read the material. It proves that I don't remember stupid details. Whatever... I don't even c...

Yesterday I made an impulse buy. I picked up a new CD. I am always anxious to find new Christian artists that original and good. Some of you might remember a couple of years back there was a group called "Burlap to Cashmere." I always thought that they were talented, but I never really liked their music. When I heard that their frontman Steven Delopoulos was getting out a CD, I was intrigued. I listened to a couple of his tracks and liked them a lot. So I bought it. I remember thinking that many of the Burlap songs were lyrically simplistic, so I was pleased to find that this CD was made with a much finer lyrical craft than Steve's previous work with the old band. However, the music and lyrics are still approachable (more so than the pronunciation of his last name). It is a very acoustic CD. In fact I don't know that there is as much as one electric guitar on the album. Folky and Jazzy all at once. Musically I find him to be reminiscent of David Gray and Cat Stevens. ...

Tonight I went to the Idiom release party. The Idiom is the school's literary journal, which contains pieces written by students. I did not submit anything of my own, but I was on the staff that put it together. It was exciting to see the poetry that I critiqued and liked, bound between two covers. Later on at the release party, people read some poems. I sat on a blue couch, and listened to them. Some were quite good, while others were not. It made me realize what a fine line lies between pretentiousness and quality. I love words. I love obscure words, but I love precise words even more. It is great when they overlap, but I have realized that using flowery speech usually just sounds dumb. Strange how intellectual words can make you sound like an idiot. I don't know if it is because I am just paying more attention, or if it is because I am delving deeper into the English language; but I have recently started to listen to what people say when they speak. I don't just hear wha...

It has indeed been a long time since I have written here. The last week has been crazy. I have been working like crazy, enslaved to my work. I spent at least 16 hours doing a paper last week, and just as many working on a media project. The paper turned out OK, but the media project is merely mediocre. I have to do a 5-10 minute movie for media production class, and so I went with a documentary (because I love them). Unfortunately, it was a dumb choice. I am doing it on Yegue, a blind student from Chad that lives on my floor, but it isn't that great. The filming was really bad, because I wasn't shooting with editing in mind, and so now I am stuck with bad footage. Also, it is hard to work with Yegue because he is blind and there is only so much you can do with him. He also is very strict as to what he wants me to capture in my mini-documentary. Well, I think I should have just done a scripted short with a plot. It would have been much easier. When we show these in class, mine w...