12-4-11

I have realized that I haven't written a blog since before Thanksgiving, and I guess it is time to update all of the worried parents out there, namely my own, about some of the stuff that has been going on around here.

We have finals tomorrow through Wednesday, then it is off to see Greece, Turkey, Israel, Italy and Rome for the next month. We are very excited about the trip, but there is a lot of stuff to do between now and the time we leave. We are talking with other ACA students going on the cruise about taking a tour in Jerusalem of all of the Biblical sights, and the dead sea. Aside from that, there are things to buy, documents to print, money to retrieve, stuff to pack, and sleep to get all during finals.

On Thanksgiving day, all of the ACA students put together a Thanksgiving meal for everyone here on campus, and it was quite a success. I helped a little bit with the cooking, but my main job was taking pictures and putting together a slideshow of all of the preparation that went into it. I am particularly proud of the time-laps that was a joint effort between Eric and I; I took the pictures, but I was in a hurry, Eric did me a huge favor, and put them all together while I made the rest of the slideshow. During the program, I was supposed to get up there and say what I was thankful for in Spanish. In Spanish, there is no way to say, "I am thankful for...", you have to say, "I give thanks for...", or at least that's what I have been told. When I was asked to get up and tell what I am thankful for, I thought, "no big deal, I will just get up there and wing it just like I do in English, no biggie". I sat in front with everyone else who had to give a speech, and I noticed that everyone of them had a note card or a small pad, or something with writing on it. That should have been my first clue to write something down, but I didn't take it. As it came closer to my time to talk, I began to get nervous. I haven't been nervous up front in a long, long while. Maybe it was because it was in Spanish, who knows. Anyways, when you are nervous, and up front, funny stuff comes out of your mouth sometimes, as I quickly found out. When I am up front talking in English, words usually just come to me and I say them; in Spanish, I am like a Windows 98 dial-up computer in a fiber-optic world; I need extra time to think, process, conjugate, arrange, format, then speak. Instead of saying, "doy gracias por..." I said, "estoy gracias por..." In other words, I didn't say "I give thanks for...", I said, "I am thank you for...". No one said anything to me after, but immediately after I sat down, I realized what I had said, and just started laughing to myself. Next time; a note card.

This last Wednesday,  the 30th, our class, group C, went to the mall in Castellon to eat together, and just hang out. Chelo and Antonio took us in the van, and Antonio's car. We had a great time with Chelo in the car talking about all sorts of stuff, and when we got there, we had about two hours before dinner to just hang out in the mall. I hung out with Ally for the time, and before I continue, I think it is vital to the story to inform you of my position on malls.

     I believe that malls were thought of, planned for, planned by, and built, for and by women. Usually there are a total of about two stores that guys like me don't feel totally weird going into, or looking around in; Radio Shack and Lids; electronics and a hat store. Usually, when we go to the mall, I either follow a girl around if I am with one, or I just find a nice place to sit down and think and unwind until it is time to leave. 

Okay, so we were at the mall, and malls in Europe consist of clothing and jewelry; that's it. Not a Lids and definitely not a Radio Shack anywhere in sight. Since this is Europe, there is no American Eagle, Pac Sun, or anything else that is its equivalent. Ally and I just started walking and found ourselves, wouldn't you know it, in a clothing store. The funny thing about this store was that all of the clothes were ridiculously cheap. Ally likes to pick out clothes for guys, and I was bored after about 10 minutes, so I made a huge sacrifice on my part; "Alley, I will make you a deal, you pick out any shirt here in this store, and I will try it on." Those were the words that got me in nice and deep. Guess what her response was as her eyes lit up? "Can I pick out pants and a jacket too!?" At that point, I knew I was in too deep, but I guess there was no going back. I just said, "fine". Long story short, for the next 15 minutes, we walked around the mens' dept. and she looked at almost every single shirt when finally she picked them all out; pants, shirts, shoes and sweaters- stuff that wasn't even part of the bargain! Anyways, long story short, for the next hour and a half, I went into the dressing room, walked out to where she could see me, changed an article with something she had in her hand, walked back to the dressing room, changed out whatever she had in her hands for what I was wearing, repeat steps 1 through 4.  Notice, I told her I would try on one shirt, and here I must have tried on at least 5 different shirts, 5 different pairs of jeans, 3 different sweaters, and all of the different combinations within those items. After the fact, I will say that I had an amazing time that night, but as it was happening I felt like Ally was sucking the life out of me with a drinking straw. Thirty euros later, I had a look that went from 'guy that looks like he is from America while in Europe', to 'A guy that could pass as a European as long as he doesn't talk too much'.

As I look back, I haven't really been clothes shopping like that in two or three years, so I guess as my old jeans and shirts were starting to wear out anyways, it was time to get new ones. Now while we are traveling, and even here in Spain, it won't be quite as easy to just look at me and go, "Oh that guy is definitely not from here". For thirty Euros, I am set on clothes for another year or two at least. Can't complain. Thank you Ally.

On Friday, my Folklore class put on a Christmas party for all of ESDES, and I volunteered to be a scaled down MC for the event. The other MC is a girl in our class named Lupe. I feel bad because she wrote a script for us in Spanish and ever since high school, I have never just said the line as it is written. I am pretty sure anyone who has every seen me do anything up front can attest to that. I read for the main idea the line is trying to portray, and just keep on rambling until I somewhat make the point of that line. I am guessing Lupe hasn't had much experience with people like me, and she didn't seem like the type to be able to improvise, even though her Spanish is much better than my own. I didn't think I could improvise in Spanish, but it turns out, rambling in Spanish is becoming just as easy as rambling in English while I am up front. Despite my rambling, and Lupe's fun trying to keep up with me and trying to read the lines exactly how they were even after I had partially, and wholly  said her lines, the party was still a huge success, and everyone had a great time.

Now that I have new, more "up to date with the times" clothes, I have been told that I don't have the right shoes. Whatever happened to the days when a good ole' pair of Nike's worked for everything? I have been having fun wearing my new fashionable clothes with my old "unfashionable" shoes and sandals. I have a pair of sandals here that I love to death because they served well as we were backpacking this summer, and have come in handy many times since then. I tried them with my new jeans tonight, just to see how they look, and I kind of like the look. I went to one of my fashion savvy friends on my hall as we were passing, and asked if the sandals worked with the jeans. Without even turning around, in the most serious voice, rather rudely, he said, "Not at all". I kind of figured "Steven Style", and "Europe Style" weren't exactly seeing eye-to-eye, but in a way, it made me glad that my sandals didn't go with my jeans. The problem I see with fashion as it is here is the mindset seems to me to be, "what do I have to do to fit in? I need all of the latest fashions to feel good about myself", and I have been asking myself if getting these new clothes would make me feel the same way; if I would want to go buy accessories for everything, and spend another 100 euros on more shirts, shoes, etc.. I realized that even though I have some nicer clothes, the person wearing them hasn't changed; the person that likes the way stuff looks and doesn't care that everyone else thinks it is absurd, and who wears it proudly anyways. Now it is too cold to wear my sandals with my new jeans, but when spring time comes, you can bet on my sandals and my jeans becoming better aquanted. They will become like old friends.

Now, it is Sunday night, and there are finals tomorrow, so I guess it is time to get crackin'. We are on the road for the next month starting Wednesday, so I am sure I will have plenty of opportunity to write then.

Hasta la proxima vez...