Driving 2 hours with the top down in the Florida sun is a bad idea. Even though it was only 1030 when we left, I was a little sunburned by the time we got to the airport. Right as we were pulling into the terminal at the airport my Blackberry fell apart and now I have to be careful not to lose the The flights went smoothly and I met a bunch of people from our program along the way.
From the airport we navigated the metro to the train station for 2 euros. All of us were really tired and had to lug our bags all around Madrid for a few hours. In the train station we found a store that sells cell phones and all of us got a prepaid phone. I paid 11 euros for a phone with credit already on it. It was cheaper to get a new phone than to get a sim card for my old phone, go figure. The train finally came and it was only then that I fell asleep for the first time in almost 36 hours. The train ride was really smooth and except for a rambunctious toddler was really peaceful. We agreed the countryside of Extremadura is like that of western Texas.
From the train we caught a cab to the hostel, by which time there were 6 of us as we met more people in the train station and on the train. It was nice to get out of Madrid as everything was expensive and today there is a strike that is slowing down public transportation. Even though we were really tired, we all went out for tapas and drinks in Caceres our first night. The food was good and I think I’m going to have to drink more wine since it really is almost as cheap as water here. The little that we have seen of the town looks beautiful, but they are doing major construction in the town square right now.
The hostel we are staying has clean, nice rooms and is huge. Last night there was what sounded like a elementary school band practicing on one of the upper floors. They must be in town for a competition as there are buses in the parking lot.
I really don’t know what I’m doing here right now. After so much travel, nothing feels permanent. It’s like a vacation right now, hopefully soon it’ll start to feel like home. Also everything so far has been expensive, I need to find a place soon before I burn through all my money! My camera is broken from the Gators game, so hopefully it shouldn't cost too much to fix!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuscaloosa is wonderful!
The other night I drove into Tuscaloosa to stop there for the night. After an hour of backwood country roads I finally made it into the town. It's pretty remote. I almost ran over an armadillo on the way in, I wonder how strong it's armor is?
After freshening up in my hotel, I followed the advice of a friend and former Bama student and headed towards "the strip". Right next to campus, "the strip" is where all the students hang out and it was pretty awesome. I went into this pizza joint and sat down at the bar and watched baseball for a bit. It was still early, so I was kind of just killing time. I met some Bama guys at the bar who told me I should go to another place just down the street, as the pizza joint was closing and was dying down.
The second place was a bar that was having a pretty awesome happy hour: $5 bottles of wine, or $3 pitchers of bud light. Needless to say I grabbed a pitcher and set out for the outdoor patio. Upon finding a table to sit at, I didn't even manage to sit down before a girl told me I could sit with them at their table. Southern hospitality ftw.
I introduced myself to the people sitting at the table, a groovy redhead named Molli who had a flower dress on and was listening to music on her iPod, the outspoken brunettte named Allie, and their friend the bouncer who was working, sort of.
I found out that Molli worked at the bar too, but wasn't working tonight. Allie worked for some company with connections to the school, which explained her business attire at 9pm on a Wednesday. After we chatted for a while, Allie offered to take me on a tour of the campus, so we hopped in her beemer and drove through the school.
Bama really does seem like an awesome place to go to school. We walked into the rec center and I was blown away. They had tons of gym equipment, dance rooms, basketball courts, running tracks, video games, a climbing wall room, indoor soccer even, I could go on for hours. After the tour, we went to this other bar that had a live band playing southern rock style covers of reggae bands like Sublime. It was pretty good, and the bar was alive. I couldn't get over the fashion in Alabama. Girls go out to bars with t-shirts and running shorts like they came straight from the gym. And this is totally accepted by everyone. Only in the South.
I had a lot of fun in Tuscaloosa, and I hope I find myself there again one day.
After freshening up in my hotel, I followed the advice of a friend and former Bama student and headed towards "the strip". Right next to campus, "the strip" is where all the students hang out and it was pretty awesome. I went into this pizza joint and sat down at the bar and watched baseball for a bit. It was still early, so I was kind of just killing time. I met some Bama guys at the bar who told me I should go to another place just down the street, as the pizza joint was closing and was dying down.
The second place was a bar that was having a pretty awesome happy hour: $5 bottles of wine, or $3 pitchers of bud light. Needless to say I grabbed a pitcher and set out for the outdoor patio. Upon finding a table to sit at, I didn't even manage to sit down before a girl told me I could sit with them at their table. Southern hospitality ftw.
I introduced myself to the people sitting at the table, a groovy redhead named Molli who had a flower dress on and was listening to music on her iPod, the outspoken brunettte named Allie, and their friend the bouncer who was working, sort of.
I found out that Molli worked at the bar too, but wasn't working tonight. Allie worked for some company with connections to the school, which explained her business attire at 9pm on a Wednesday. After we chatted for a while, Allie offered to take me on a tour of the campus, so we hopped in her beemer and drove through the school.
Bama really does seem like an awesome place to go to school. We walked into the rec center and I was blown away. They had tons of gym equipment, dance rooms, basketball courts, running tracks, video games, a climbing wall room, indoor soccer even, I could go on for hours. After the tour, we went to this other bar that had a live band playing southern rock style covers of reggae bands like Sublime. It was pretty good, and the bar was alive. I couldn't get over the fashion in Alabama. Girls go out to bars with t-shirts and running shorts like they came straight from the gym. And this is totally accepted by everyone. Only in the South.
I had a lot of fun in Tuscaloosa, and I hope I find myself there again one day.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Driving Sucks
Right now, I’m sitting in a comfy chair inside the Washington University medical school in St. Louis. Earlier today I woke up on an inflatable mattress in Omaha. Between now and then I drove for 7 hours, only stopping to get gas in Columbia, Missouri, home of Mizzou. I drove around the campus for a couple minutes, it was nice and really big. Not as nice at CU though, it’s still my favorite.
I’m already getting sick of the 1250 songs I put on my Blackberry before I left California and it’s only been 4 days of driving. On the plus side, at least I get reception in the Midwest, I had nothing between Reno and Denver.
I got to STL around 4 today and since I had some time to kill before Lawrence got done with school, I went directly to the gateway arch. After driving around in circles looking for parking, I finally found a garage and made my way over the the Arch. It’s cool because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where to go, just go to where the bottom of that huge steel arc meets the ground. No worrying about getting lost. The arch is MUCH bigger than I had imagined, the thing towers over you when you stand below it. I walked past security under the foot down to the underground lobby of the museum (which was free) and bought a ticket for a ride to the top. It cost only $10 so I think that’s a good value. The elevator stop was really weird, we had to wait on a flight of stairs essentially and wait for the thing to stop at the bottom. Once the doors opened up, a bunch of people ducked out of the little pods they were in and we got in. There were 5 little seats in the circular pod-shaped car. The ride up only took a couple minutes, but it was weird since the pod kept tilting as is was going up. When we got to the top there was only a little hallway sized observatory with windows for peeking out. I snapped a couple photos and stayed up there for a few minutes, but I wasn’t really feeling it since you could feel the arch swaying in the wind. Not cool. I took the first available ride down and was glad to be back on terra firma.
The coolest thing to me was the gift shops, I’m a sucker for a good gift shop. They had all kinds of historical things about America, not just St. Louis. I bought some replica documents for a couple bucks each (the Constitution, the Declaration, and the I Have a Dream Speech) and also a book about Lewis & Clark for kids. I’ll probably bring those with me to Spain and give them to the English teacher as a gift.
Earlier this evening my buddy Lawrence and his wife Gabby took me to a pizza joint called Pi that Obama visited not long ago. It was pretty bomb I must say. I've had more pizza on this road trip than in the last 3 months combined!
Tomorrow I'm off for Tuscaloosa, Alabama!
I’m already getting sick of the 1250 songs I put on my Blackberry before I left California and it’s only been 4 days of driving. On the plus side, at least I get reception in the Midwest, I had nothing between Reno and Denver.
I got to STL around 4 today and since I had some time to kill before Lawrence got done with school, I went directly to the gateway arch. After driving around in circles looking for parking, I finally found a garage and made my way over the the Arch. It’s cool because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where to go, just go to where the bottom of that huge steel arc meets the ground. No worrying about getting lost. The arch is MUCH bigger than I had imagined, the thing towers over you when you stand below it. I walked past security under the foot down to the underground lobby of the museum (which was free) and bought a ticket for a ride to the top. It cost only $10 so I think that’s a good value. The elevator stop was really weird, we had to wait on a flight of stairs essentially and wait for the thing to stop at the bottom. Once the doors opened up, a bunch of people ducked out of the little pods they were in and we got in. There were 5 little seats in the circular pod-shaped car. The ride up only took a couple minutes, but it was weird since the pod kept tilting as is was going up. When we got to the top there was only a little hallway sized observatory with windows for peeking out. I snapped a couple photos and stayed up there for a few minutes, but I wasn’t really feeling it since you could feel the arch swaying in the wind. Not cool. I took the first available ride down and was glad to be back on terra firma.
The coolest thing to me was the gift shops, I’m a sucker for a good gift shop. They had all kinds of historical things about America, not just St. Louis. I bought some replica documents for a couple bucks each (the Constitution, the Declaration, and the I Have a Dream Speech) and also a book about Lewis & Clark for kids. I’ll probably bring those with me to Spain and give them to the English teacher as a gift.
Earlier this evening my buddy Lawrence and his wife Gabby took me to a pizza joint called Pi that Obama visited not long ago. It was pretty bomb I must say. I've had more pizza on this road trip than in the last 3 months combined!
Tomorrow I'm off for Tuscaloosa, Alabama!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
At the Top of the Roller Coaster
Right now I feel like I'm at the apex of a roller coaster and I can finally see the track ahead. Today was my last day working for Safeway. It was fun, and I made some nice acquantances, but I got other things to do! It felt good to clock out for the last time at Safeway. One more milestone passed on the way to Spain. I was really lucky to have found a job there as quickly as I did, and I'm thankful for the chance to earn money while essentially living for free at my parents' house. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to Spain if I had to pay rent for the last three months.
Moving to Spain is rapidly becoming real. The past few weeks I have tried to contain my excitement, but I'm packing up tomorrow, and kissing my mother goodbye so there's no more time to put it off. I have 3,000 miles of highway ahead of me with Tampa airport at the end.
Since my last post I've decided to take some detours along the way across the country. After I leave my sister's house in Denver, I'm going to drive through Omaha to visit my friend and former roommate Aaron who is at Creighton law school. Hopefully we'll be able to grab some beers and catch up the night I'm there. Monday night football maybe? From Omaha I'm going to visit a high school buddy Lawrence who is in St. Louis for med school.
My dad surprised me this morning with his generous offer of his laptop in exchange for my desktop. It'll come in handy and I'll take good care of it, Dad. My loving mother has hand-crafted me a version of her award winning photo albums to take with me to Spain so that I can have something to do with the photos I take. I'll be sure to add some trinkets to give it some Spanish flavor. They say they won't come visit me in Spain, but I have a feeling they'll be at Barajas before too long. ..
Moving to Spain is rapidly becoming real. The past few weeks I have tried to contain my excitement, but I'm packing up tomorrow, and kissing my mother goodbye so there's no more time to put it off. I have 3,000 miles of highway ahead of me with Tampa airport at the end.
Since my last post I've decided to take some detours along the way across the country. After I leave my sister's house in Denver, I'm going to drive through Omaha to visit my friend and former roommate Aaron who is at Creighton law school. Hopefully we'll be able to grab some beers and catch up the night I'm there. Monday night football maybe? From Omaha I'm going to visit a high school buddy Lawrence who is in St. Louis for med school.
My dad surprised me this morning with his generous offer of his laptop in exchange for my desktop. It'll come in handy and I'll take good care of it, Dad. My loving mother has hand-crafted me a version of her award winning photo albums to take with me to Spain so that I can have something to do with the photos I take. I'll be sure to add some trinkets to give it some Spanish flavor. They say they won't come visit me in Spain, but I have a feeling they'll be at Barajas before too long. ..
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