Funky.

Last night we all had a pre-game at my apartment with a LOT more people than we had expected, we had to use cereal bowls to drink sangria and Calimocho. Have I said anything about Calimocho yet?

Calimocho = 1 part wine, 1 part coca cola. Sounds gross, but it's actually pretty tasty. Especially from a bowl.

We all then went to our standard Thursday night club, atxiki (really small bar with tons of macho spanish douches). But after 30 minutes, our friend David (from Spain) invites us to a jazz club with jam sessions, so of course I'm down.

We arrive and david hops up on stage and lays down some bass and then guitar, with some solid sax player and a flashy drummer. David then invites me to play.

At this point I'm a little tipsy, nervous because these guys are playing jazz standards that I've never heard of, and the drummer that had just played showed up everyone.

But as I plop down in the throne, after the bass player has turned a few leafs in his fakebook, I hear him play around with the bass line from no other than Herbie Hancock's 'Chameleon'. So at this point I'm pretty excited because they couldn't have picked a song that I knew better, or an easier song to play to, really.

The sax player leans over to say something to me, his face contorted in thought to find the right words to tell me what or how I should play, and finally says:

"Funky."

I nod, smile and say "Herbie Hancock?"

*Thumbs up*

Needless to say it was really fun, even if I was a little rusty, and afterwards I gave the house drummer a gracious thanks and had a small conversation with him about the jazz scene in Pamplona, which apparently has a pretty nice school of music.

Here are a few pictures that I snapped this past weekend, please visit my flickr to see them full-sized, as they look like crap in this blog.

The last one is the view from my apartment. Woot.

Best things about Spain so far:

-Girls asking me what "Shawty" means in English.
-Chang saying "HUUWOOOW!"
-Beer in the school cafeterias
-Coffee

Worst things about Spain so far:

-Pretending to understand political philosophy in very fast colloquial Spanish and then being called on....
-Trying to understand how their classes work
-Paying 2 euro every time I want to use the internet in this cafe

Better.

Today has been much better so far. I got up fairly early and got some shopping done, breakfast with coffee and fresh bread ( I freaking love buying fresh food every day). The weather is awesome today, blue skies and it's slightly warmer. If I had more time I would have gone on a photography excursion.

I finally found a cafe with internet really close to me, one that works anyway (Wifi pronounced "Wee Fee"). Although I feel obligated to buy a coffee or beer every time I walk into one of these places, so I spent quite a few euros trying out internet in different places until I found this one. I drink way too much coffee over here.

The spanish is still getting better, it's much easier to understand people now, except the owners of my apartment. They are both in their 80's with very thick accents, and they won't slow tongues for anyone. Not to mention that any time that we ask a question, they bicker and give us completely different answers, in retrospect it's pretty funny.

I'd really like everyone to message me with times that they could skype, like general hours and days that would be good, and I'll see if I can manage it at this bar. Just facebook me, respond here, or email me at jmw5f@mtsu.edu

Classes start next week, I'm slightly nervous because my advisor meeting isn't until the 19th, so I have no idea what to do until then.

We had a house warming party the other night with a bunch of erasmus kids (P.S. you can buy a bottle of wine over here for 0.80 euros which is about $1). This part of the city is really awe-inspiring, it's extremely old yet very clean, and there are sooo many little cool shops. I plan to go out this weekend somewhere new and take a lot of pictures, you guys should get to see some soon.

Lemme know whats up with you guys! Facebook me or something, how's murfreesboro?

uuyyysh.

Everything is broken, missing, or just not working. The only way to turn off the water in the shower is to turn off the water to the whole apartment. And the water is only hot in the shower for a few minutes, and of course I woke up last. I basically haven't showered for 3 days. My new, expensive phone from home doesn't work with the SIM cards over here, and the one from verizon is too expensive I think. It also only stays charged for a few hours. Oh and the alarm doesn't work for some reason.

The heat only works in a few rooms.

I tried running my head under the faucet this morning and it was so cold that my scalp was burning for the next 5 minutes.

I tried taking a bus home the other day and almost ended up in France. For those of you who know me well, this is no surprise. That was a 2 hour adventure home that should have taken 20 minutes.

My computer doesn't work with the internet in the Wifi cafe close to our apartment, and it seems to be the only Wifi within a mile or so. Ugh. I'd really like to skype with everyone but with the time change and scarcity of internet it's difficult to even check my email.

I can't freaking wait till it starts warming up a bit here. They say it's only sunny like 3 days every month.

I think I'm just entering the difficult phase of immersion, the frustration with making myself understood, the rain and cold, the lack of privacy (this is the first time I've been by myself for even one second for a week), and not communicating with everyone back home. Not to mention that I probably smell like fish and cigarette smoke. It could be much worse though, so we'll see how I fare in a week or so.

Jeez.

I could probably write a small novel about what has happened so far. I'll try to shorten it to a modest length.

Best things about Spain so far:
-Piercings
-Women with Piercings
-Pinchos
-A spanish version of Dale
-"Vale"
-Cañas
-Siesta.

Worst things about Spain:
-Snow. All day. It's so cold in the D....(coren, omar, and brian)
-Deeeeeep accents. My most frequently used word : Como?
-So cold.
-Long walks in the cold.
-Ice.
-Siesta.

I've met many people, most all of them exchange students. From the US, Germany, Italy, Australia, and France. The South Americans come this week I think. Everyone is friendly. In fact, a Spanish "Dale Meier" had a large party with all the new and old exchange students. Yes, Coren, he exists. We stayed up till probably 4am, when people were still just arriving at the bar, but I had already had wine, beer, vodka, whiskey, tequila, some mixed drink, and some other ....thing.

I'm rooming right now with a German, Niklas, with a family. The old lady's son, whos seems to be around 30, only speaks of food and women while making wide-eyed, obscene gestures. He's perfect.

I wasn't able to find spanish speaking roommates, but I am rooming with Niklas, Michelle from Australia, and Christina from New York. They are serious about learning Spanish, though, so I still plan to learn much, and next semester I should be able to find an apartment with spaniards.

Our Apartment....is.....the shit. It's in the old part of town, extremely beautiful, roomy, and fairly cheap. We all went to speak to the lady who is renting it out, and a group of 8 could barely decipher what she was saying. Although it didn't help that she and her husband couldn't agree on anything and always spoke at the exact same time.

I'm very sorry that I haven't spoken to many of you yet, not only have I been extremely busy, but my phone still does not work, and I can only use the internet in noisy cafes when I can find the time. My dad almost shat his pants when I didn't call for the first 24 hours. I start spanish classes Monday, and then have to move in to the new place while figuring out my bank account on campus and buying X number of things for the apartment. We plan on installing internet, but it might be a while.

My computer is about to die, I don't have an adapter and the plug is across the room anyways, but I'll find some more time to write this week.

I miss you all.

Arrival

Today. Was. TIRING. 26 straight hours of air travel, connecting flights, finding buses, waiting for buses, connecting buses, and taxi rides.

But I made it safe and sound, as I sit here with my first friend Niklas from Germany (go figure) in an internet cafe. The city is much bigger than I expected, and very clean. I actually like the way it looks better than Madrid.

I will fill everyone in when I have plenty of time to blog, I have a busy day tomorrow.