Nonsense, Drivel, and Balderdash

I have been pretty busy hanging out since I have been back in madrid, but here are some Camp Photos if you wanna see em.

I am officially done with my teaching at camp days! I am free until tomorrow morning when I see the kids off. Yay! I have never been this happy to finish a job. Apparently I am the equivalent of The Office (US version) character Ryan. The name is appropriate. I think I will be buying some seasons of this series when I go to the US next week. Which Office Character Are You? You are Ryan. You are extremely smart and perceptive, and it irritates you to no end when inferior people try to tell you what to do. Sometimes, though, your critical eye makes you come off as aloof and bitter to others, and it may take awhile for people to get to know you. Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com I just ordered a new computer . Yay x2. It is the first time I have bought a new one since the summer before I left for college over 5 years ago. It is a refurbished macbook pro. It is the model before the current one. By buying the refurbished thing I was able to save a very pretty penny. A previous model ...

And as time ticks away (I have 6 days left of camp) I have found myself taking midnight walks again. The camp area is in a wooded area next to a river, riddled with walking paths, which I have mostly traversed to and from Burgos (the nearest city, about an hours walk from here). But lately my end-of-summer restlessness has driven me to the trails once the sun has gone down. Late night walks used to be a common part of my life. At Gordon I would walk in the woods after dark several times a week; enjoying that rich, pungent, smell of wet earth that appears as the temperatures drop below dew-point. I like the thrill of darkness. I like having to rely on other senses, and the way they come awake on their own when the visibility is low. Suddenly every crunch of the leaves, rustle in the trees, and bird chirps are heard plainly. The smells of rotting leaves, dust, mud, water, flowers... they become singular and identifiable. The change of wind and the dips and jumps in temperature become cl...

Two things are making me happy. One, the episode of Freaks and Geeks that I am watching right now (the best "high school" show since The Wonder Years). Two, I have been unconsciously making a list of things that I want to do in Boston since I found out that I was going to the US. So, why not name some of them? We will assume that "seeing friends" does not need to be mentioned since I am actually going to Boston for that very purpose. - Eat at Nicks Famous Roast Beef in North Beverly. Anyone who has eaten there knows exactly what I am talking about. I seriously dream about a Super Beef on an onion roll. With bbq sauce. - Go to singing beach It isn't really anything special. Its just a beach, though the sand squeaks when you walk on it. Apparently this happens in other places, but on the north shore I think it only happens there. But I want to go there for the memories more than anything else. - Hang out at Gordon for a while ... there are sub-categories on this...

Two more weeks. Two more weeks and I am done with my current employment at summer camp. I have already been here a month and half. Some kids have been nice or fun, but most have just been an add bit of stress to my life. But really, it isn't so much the kids as the environment. You are with the kids from dawn till dusk, literally. And dusk does not come soon in a Spanish summer. In some ways I feel that the summer has been stolen from me this year. I still have the student`s concept of summer: Long idle days, drenched in heat and sunlight and water, passed with friends by the pool, in the TV room, in parks and cafes. The warm nights spent awake, talking with friends as we swat away mosquitoes. Waking up late with nothing to do. Waking up early and sweating as the sun turns the side of the house into a brick oven. The morning rummage through empty pizza boxes to find the breakfast slice, the munch of stale popcorn on the way to the shower or pool (the are the interchangeable in the...

I just got woken up by an earthquake. Seriously. Not metaphorically. The third camp is over and the fourth camp doesnt start until monday, so I decided to come to Madrid for a couple days before the last one starts up. There is not a single person in madrid right now. It is mid august, which means that this is a ghost city, with all its inhabitants off to the coast for a while. But anyway, I was lying in my bed, asleep, when I was jolted awake by some movement and the sound of the chandelier tinkling. It was such a strange feeling that I immediately thought "earthquake" though I wasnt worried because it didnt last long and it wasnt that strong. It finished a second after I woke up. I got up and went to the balcony to see if anyone else had noticed anything. I also searched the horizon for any sign of smoke or something, because I thought that perhaps it had been an explosion (though in retrospect I would have heard something). When I was a small child there was a terrorist bo...

After much deliberation, I´ve decided what the title of this blog says. Even though I dont have a job for the fall figured out yet, I´m going to the US in september. If I dont go now I dont know when I will, and every year that I put off going makes it even less probable that my friends will still be around Boston. So many have already “upped and gone” and I’m afraid that more will so that if I wait any longer no one will be there. Also, although my dad won’t be going anywhere, I hate to have to go a whole year without seeing him. So yeah, most likely I will be on the North Shore from around the 30th of August to the 6th of September. Then I will go down south to visit my dad for a week and a bit. Then I will be back up to Boston for a couple of days and then back to the motherland.