Hey remember me? Yeah... I know...

So hey… Remember me? I’d like to say that I haven’t written in a while in honor of the WGA strike but that’d be complete BS. A lot have things have happened (surprise!) over the past however long it’s been since I’ve written. For example: I went to Pisa/Florence, Segovia, and today I’m going to France. I got mugged in Retiro and got my camera stolen and my face punched (yay!). I’ve seen an opera (bad…) and a couple of plays (even worse…). Laura offered me a good deal on pot from a friend of hers and today I found a jar filled with the stuff on top of the cabinets in the kitchen… The foods been okay; the anchovies hadn’t made a come back until two nights ago but oh well, you win some, you lose some. I actually had to do some schoolwork (SHOCKING! I know…) and that might have been another reason I haven’t written (when the bullshitting muscles are working full force sometimes it’s hard to be creative when writing…).

Anyway, why didn’t I write? Well to be honest, I was tired, bored, a little over being here (I still am, I mean I’m really glad I chose to come here and all that jazz but when it comes down to it, I need to get back to my real life, to the real world. You know me, I like to work. As much as I complain when I’m super busy, I’m happy.) SO yeah, I’ve been a little down (nothing bad) and some people here have really started to bother me to death (I cannot tell you how much this feels like I’m back in high school, or really more of what my junior high experience was like, but anywho…) and I really can’t wait to get back to my norm, what’s comfortable, and most of all to feeling like I’m accomplishing something again.

On a side note, I haven’t been reading as much lately but I have developed a strange affinity for Japanese animated movies dubbed into English (say what you will, but they’re pretty and relaxing…) I’m not talking Dragonball Z or stuff like that, more along the lines of Spirited Away…( PS. The not-so-legal downloading of movies, which I don’t really support, is pretty much a way of life for American students in foreign countries…) I also watched Sicko, you know the newest Michael Moore rant-a-thon… Well let me tell you something, I’ve never been so affected by a movie… And I know that it’s not the most unbiased film on the matter, but still it’s a must see…

Hmmmm….. Other things on my mind while I procrastinate packing and showering and going to the institute to see if my happy pills and Laura’s iPod have arrived… Well, I miss my grandma a lot… (sappy personal time…) I guess ‘cuz I haven’t really had the time to go through some of those 5 stages of mourning (AP Psych, anyone?) since coming here has kinda been a whirlwind of craziness and all… So yeah, that’s something that I’m dealing with a bit… And, um, let’s see… The regular life shit too,. You know what I mean. Oh! I’ve been listening to Christmas music a lot lately (you gotta love it, I mean come on, holiday spirit!) And the Starbucks’ here all have a really great Christmas loop that they play so I’ve been doing the tall (which can I tell you, they can’t say here and you always look like an ass if you don’t just order a pequeño…) vanilla soy chai thing again.

Other than that… Let’s see… In like under two weeks the program is done and my mom’ll be here and we’ll be doing the European tourist stuff so that’ll be good and then it’s back to America. And school (last semester, what!!?) and stress (can’t lie, I’m kinda excited…) And then finding a job… YIKES!

So there’s the rant/explanation of my MIA-ness… Anyway here are some stories:

So, let me re-introduce you to Jasoñ (or me in Spain): big loser, with too much free time who has kind of lost the will to go out much or drink (I mean, why? I normally go out or grab a drink if I’m stressed to help me relaxed. When everything is relaxed what’s the point? I mean, I’m really over the drinking-to-get-drunk-so-I-can-pretend-that-stupid decisions-I-made-were-not-my-fault phase of life… So what have I been doing? Still going out and stuff… Not as much, lot’s of Laura and me time. And like I said I’ve been going to the opera/theatre/dance (BAD. WORSE. AMAZING respectively). I went to see the opera alone which was actually really cool for me… I like doing things on my own, it kind of reaffirms my independence… Funny story actually: the opera (which, if you’re under 26 and show up 1:30 a head of time, you get a 90% discount. So yeah I got a €145,00 ticket for €14,50) was the Rape of Lucretia which we did at BU 3 years ago... And when I saw it I sat in the front row... Once again, I sat in the front row... Oh well... So yeah so that was the opera…

Laura and I went to see a play. It’s called Las Persas (supposedly based on Escoles’ [sp] play of the same name…) Basically it was an hour and a half anti-war rant/actors get to (figuratively) masturbate on stage time from the Spanish soldiers point of view… It was so Spanish in fact that they sang a lot of American anti-war songs from the Vietnam era… (oh did I not mention that it was a rock-opera??? Yeah…) Well let me tell you, after it was over (Laura and I were sitting in different places) we met up in the lobby and the first thing she says to me, in English, was “Great high school play, huh?” and I quickly responded with “You’re giving it too much credit…” Anyway afterwards Laura, her friend (who she swears is an actual bruja (witch)) went out for some food/drink. Laura asked me to, please, express my complete and utter distaste for the play to here in English so I could express myself to the fullest… 20 minutes later we had some wine…

Dance. I went to see some dance. Pilobolus? Never heard of them? They’re an American dance company based in NY (remember the Oscars when the people made shapes with their bodies? That was them…) It was absolutely GORGEOUS… See them if you can…

Okay, so I got mugged… Yep… Fun times… anyway I was sitting in Retiro park on a bench by what I like to call my “magic fountain” ‘cuz it’s super pretty and likes Lord of the Rings-esque… Anyway for the first time in a while I was starting to feel pretty good again… I had bought a tortilla sandwich and was sitting there feeding the birds and humming or something and taking pictures of my new pigeon and sparrow friends (Hi my name is Jason and I have a problem. I take too many pictures of f-ing birds…). Anyway there I am being relaxed, enjoying nature, and feeling pretty good about being alive when all of a sudden I see these two kids walking into the area of the fountain. I told the birds (yeah, I was talking to them… I told you I’m a little looney…) to watch out for the people as they walked by when all of a sudden one of the little punks comes up to me. [Everything was in Spanish, you get to read it in English]

“You got something for me?”

“No”

“Give me some money…”

“I don’t have anything…”

“It looks like you got something.” As he grabs my camera…

“Give it back!”

“If you give me a Euro I’ll give you the camera…” Now I can bee pretty stupid so I gave the kid 2 Euros and then asked for my camera back.

“The little mariposa [Spanish not-so-nice slang for gay] wants his camera back.” At this point friend to says they should leave and little punk 1 says no… I reach for the camera and he reaches for my neck. While kinda strangling me he says:

“You don’t wanna mess with me man… Yo soy Latin King!” And he then proceeds to make some sort of hand gesture… Anyway, I’ve had enough so I decided to cut my losses (at least he didn’t get my bag with my laptop in it…) and get the hell out of there… As I grab my stuff and stand up WHAM! He punches me right in the left eye… Now there were people watching the whole time, like across the fountain... People walked by as this was happening… I guess good Samaritan is not a real popular thing here in the ‘Drid… Anyway I walk away, they (and my camera) walk away… I get a little pissed/upset so I throw the tin of haring in dill crème that Laura gave me into the garbage and walk off… Not knowing exactly what I should do at that point… I call my father and then decided to go to the Institute… I got there, went to the police station, filed a report and expected nothing to come of it… Anyway, when I got home and told the dynamic duo (Laura and everyone’s favorite Edson) some hilarity ensued… Edson was sure that it was foreigners that did this to me… Not Spaniards! Spanish people don’t mug people! Only Latin American foreigners do that… Oh Edson… Laura got pissed at his blatant racism (which is really fashionable here… If you’re Asian, I’d say you’re better off in another country… Also they don’t love the Jews or African Americans…) and they yelled a little… So there you have it: the mugging story.

What else…. Hmmm… Next week before exams I’m going to Bilbao… That should be fun… I’ve seen some Spanish movies in the theaters (most of them bad… there’s a trend with Spain and the arts that I’m discovering)… And, um… I bought a new camera… It’s okay… And, oh Pisa/Florence! I’ll spare you the reading time, but go. To both. If you can, they’re both super pretty and amazing in there own ways, and let’s face it, Italian food and wine in Italy… Does it get any better? I think not…

So there you have it… An update on the gran viaje… Ask me questions I’ll tell you stories. I can’t wait to see all of you (if anyone still reads this) soon!

Much love,
Jason

OH! London! Did I write about London? Well I loved it there! Absolutely loved it! Like I-could-live-there loved it! Super fun times! Okay… Sorry… BYEEE!

Oh, I also went to see an amazing photography exhibit with Laura… It was wonderful. And one of the headlining photos was one of my grandparent’s and then another headlining artist was from the good old HP… Crazy, I know! Okay, now I’m done… For real…