communicating babble

It's so cool the way life happens. I don't mean this from a scientific perspective, although things happen as equally bad-ass on a microscopic level, but rather through the lens of social interaction and chance. Someone else might sum this all of as normal networking,  but i'll take the long-winded road of trying to make it seem more complicated than it might be. What I'm referring to:  those moments when you can track the significance that one small and seemingly unimportant daily decision has made on your life. I read some articles a while back about how to be more creative and not get caught up in the hum-drum march of life when you stop taking notice of the small things because you naturally forget to observe them because you are so set in your daily routine (note to reader: i don't feel like using commas today). Not that I fervently have been trying to do this (nevermind), but the notion arises sometimes. For example... I used to walk to work the same way everyday on the same side of the street, but then I began to change which side of the street I walked on. Then i got a bike and still took the same way, although riding it gives me many more accessible ways to see different parts of the city on my way home. Sooo, I decided to mix it up every now and again. Doing this last Wednesday, I uncharacteristically stopped to grab dinner to take home from a local tapas bar. I almost didn't, because i have been training myself to eat at home because of all the new and costly hobbies i would like to maintain.

Alas, entering the place I noticed an American guy that i had met once before sitting at a table  with some other people. Here begins the intangibles. Why does one act or think differently from day to day? In my case, why do I sometimes not bother with social "risks", and other times have no qualms about them? This day I was second-guess free. Leaving the restaurant and passing their table, I said "hello fellow americans" and then sat down, chatted, and eventually had some beers and passed the next couple of hours. Since then i have hung out with one of the people, Lorena, a few times, and she seems to be a very interesting person that fits in with my other friends, and is helping me to better solidify some of those friendships nicely.

If you made it though that, i really just wanted to comment on how invigorating and sporadic life can be when you are creating and nurturing new experiences and friendships on a weekly basis. Being in a new country helps immensely, as well as speaking the local language (another aspect completely), but one can also still easily enclose him/herself in the same near-sighted routines that life so often throws at them if they are not careful. Don't hate on my lack of pronoun agreement.

I have other examples, as i'm sure everyone does, but the essence, i think, is how much of a difference the utterance of a few words can make on life. Here is where i should embark on an intellectual and technical discussion of ancient and modern communication, but i'll leave those words unuttered.

Instead, i'd like to invite those who read this to think of a personal example of some small coincidence or event that impacted your life in anyway and to share them in the comments section. Nothing extreme, maybe something you bought that has changed your daily routine and so on...

New Occurrences

1.   I went surfing for the first time. The bomb diggity. I was able to get to my feet and felt alive in the freezing water. You naturally feel supercool wearing a wetsuit and trotting toward the ocean with a surfboard at your side. I´m going again this weekend in hopes of trying to really catch a wave. Also, I am a now imagining a summer of surfing on virgin beaches with mountainous backdrops. Idealism is a beautiful thing.

2.  I´ve joined the local climbing/hiking community which should add some more excitement and friends to my life. It will also be a good outlet to hike through some of the beautiful countryside that i´ve mostly been seeing by car.

3.  I´ve picked up some private classes on the side which is a nice, easy bump to my monthly income.

4.  I´ve reached the 4 month mark. When i reached it in Mexico i was just starting to feel really comfortable with the life and language there, but then i went home. Now, I am feeling the same and have at least another 6 months to go.

5.  I´ve been lent some interesting books in spanish and so should be doing a lot more second language reading.

6.  I´ve begun to practice water paints. I´m still pretty bad.

7.  My roomies are helping me to learn the music creation/production software Ableton Live.

8.  I´ve decided that in the future, if nothing else grabs my attention, I will get an associate´s degree and become a physical therapist´s assistant. I think i could dig it. This would be after teaching english at a ski resort, though.

9. I´ve switched from drinking coffee from a french press to an Italian perculator. Playa´s so cultured!

Galiza é ben feita

The title sums up this blogpost, but allow me to elaborate. I mentioned in an earlier post how nice it was the first time I left the city and saw some of the countryside. Well, I have done it a few more times since then, and it continues to endlessly impress me. This specific trip, documented in photos on facebook, took me west of A Coruña along the Coast of Death. What a cool name, eh!? It´s called this because of the 60+ notable shipwrecks that have happened there in the past 100 years. For this reason, the many small towns are riddled with myths and legends and I hope to read up on some of these in the future. We stopped in Finisterre, which translates to ´the end of the earth´ because it was once thought to be so. On the cliffside overlooking the vast Atlantic, one can see scorched, black stone where the many modern pilgrims burn their shoes after thousands of kilometers spent walking in them. This reminds me of my dad´s story of he and his friends burning their school uniforms in the woods after graduation. Physical and mental journies both deserve a good fire I suppose. My friends Dan and I scaled the cliffs at our next stop and got as close to the crashing waves as we could. It was awesome, to say the least, to look up and only see rock and to look down and see that surging and powerful body of water throwing itself at the cliffs like a child does to the locked door in his room when he´s in timeout. Or maybe that was just me. But I was never in timeout because I was the good son, Macaulay Culkin style. The countryside leading to these virgin beaches and wild cliffsides was also impressive. It is filled with old rural houses clustered together in small enclaves on the hillside like barnacles on a rock. It is a cliche scene filled with grazing cattle and goats, fresh produce gardens, the deepest green grass and the cozy sight of smoke billowing out of chimneys. One can rent a house anywhere in this classic atmosphere for only a few hundred euros a month. Pastoral getaway, anyone?

-ity

(drop the bass)

Narrativity is my proclivity

If you didn't know - it's something close to divinity -

D'you have an affinity?

to do something to the best of your ability?

If you don't you better try from now until infinity

to find that thing that brings you closest to sanity

Why I'm European Now

1. I only drink coffee from a french press at home (this also falls into the subcategory of why i'm hipster).

2. I have a separate toilet in my bathroom just to wash my booty if i want (and i never will, unless toilet paper becomes a precious commodity).

3. I eat dinner now between 10 and 12 and I go out at 2 a.m. Sometimes I have trouble walking in the streets at 4 a.m. because they are so crowded (although this is more a Spanish thing).

4. I lean farther to the left.

5. I speak a foreign language when I am at home and English when I'm at work.

6. I sometimes have a beer or wine with meals during the day.

7. I travel by train.

8. I lean out of my window and hang my clothes on a line.

9. I use olive oil all day/everyday.

10. I shop and eat at privately owned places more than franchises.

Viva Mexico (and other things)

ahhh Mexico, what a beautiful, dirty tramp of a country! I realized the impact that my experience there had on me the other day when I went outside of Corunya to eat at a Mexican restaurant owned by guys from D.F. (Mexico City). My previous attempt to eat Mexican a couple of weeks ago was a complete failure. It was a restaurant near the shore, across from an Indian place (nice!), that was the equivalent of Span-Mex and severely overpriced. Mierda! Twas a disappointment quickly forgotten as I stepped foot into that heavenly establishment 2 nights ago. Mexican flags, Xmas pinyatas, lucha libre masks, and indian artwork covered the place. Irene and I sat down and the waiter approached soon to ask with his tequila-smooth mexican accent what we would like to drink.

"Time for the test," I thought. "Do you have micheladas?" I asked. 

"Of course," he said through those jalepenyo-shaped lips, "regular or a la cubana?"

Oh joyous occasion! Oh spicy-hot nectar of the gods! who knew the satisfaction that beer, tomato juice, hot sauce, salt, lime, and a dash of secret sauce could bring!? The almost unbearable sting of that blessed drink that simultaneously invokes love, hate, and heart attack brought a host of memories flooding back to me. I remembered countless different benches, restaurants, conversations and good times all lasso'd around that fiery red drink. And then we ordered food...

Simple, authentic, rich and delicious. nada mas que decir. 

 after dinner we struck up conversation with the owner,  a young guy of about 30. He's a graphic designer that has lived here for 7 years, and he opened the restaurant because the Crisis has put off most graphic design work. We talked about Mexico, business, beer, and music. It was great. He made my night when he gave me a can of jalepenyos to take home because they are all but impossible to buy on the shelf here in Spain. I'll take any suggestions on what to cook with this one hit wonder that I have in my possession...

Thus ended that unexpectedly awesome night. And now Xmas vacations are upon us. Two and a half weeks of paid vacation and relaxation. I could almost get used to this semi-professional lifestyle, although that human instinct (at least i think it is) to turn and run towards seasonal work, travel, fun and self sufficiency lacking in modern world capitalist values and practices still whispers to me in the dark. 

Less then one week and I'll be in Andalusia, the synecdoche of Spain.  

Weekend Trip (cont.)

Note to reader: I embellished just for fun on the last post. There was no chase scene, the guys in the car were policemen that were curious about me because I looked suspicious. 


I called the Australian guy at about 9, after a couple of hours of walking about the shore and the old part of the city. He was a friendly-ass guy that did ask where the shit I had been, because he was prepared to get up and let me in his house at 630. We stopped by the grocery store en route to his house, bought some cereal, and had breakfast before both crashing out for another 2 hours or so. In the afternoon we went to meet a friend of his at a cool restaurant, had some pinchos (typical bar delicacies of the region) and beer, and waited for the French folk to turn up. They arrived about 45 minutes later, and it was great to see Nathalie again after our fun couple of days together in Mexico. Her b/f  was really cool, and the whole group of them were surfers and had a really good vibe. We continued to eat and chat for the rest of the afternoon and hopped in the car to cross the border to Biarritz, France.

The Basque Country is really quite unique and beautiful. The aussie, Clint, was really almost pro-separatist and schooled me on why he thought they should just be recognized as their own country. The language, Euskera, was quite strange and not related to spanish in anyway.

France was great. Nick and Nath live in the top floor of a classic French apartment building whose shutters look over the other orange shingled roofs to the Bay of Biscay with its backdrop of the Pyrenees mountains in the distance. We went to a free concert that night in the renovated stables of an old castle and I enjoyed being surrounded by all of the Frenchies that I couldn't understand. The next day, we explored the city a bit, saw the lighthouse, had fresh oysters and white wine, and hit some golf balls on a course with a view of the setting sun behind the mountains and ocean. Totally picturesque, but I didn't bring a camera. We had a dinner party that night and had cheese and grilled meats and potatoes and wine. Bomb diggity. Then we watched IT. Interesting way to end the night. A great weekend overall, and I look forward to hopefully returning in the spring or summer to check out the surf scene.