Spain Journal
9/1
I’m in Spain. This is absolutely insane. When I got to Philly where a bunch of us were I was freaking out. Apparently my hand was shaking when I sat down and took a sip of water, that’s what Tanner said. It might also be that I have the shakiest hands ever of all time. Anyway, the flight over was pretty fun, I was next to Katherine with AJ next to her, and Kelsey and a hot chick in front of us. She’s studying in Sevilla. I watched the Dragonball live action movie, totally worth it. And obviously I couldn’t sleep at all because I never can. I took 2 Benadryl at 4 am EST and the plane landed at like 7:30, so I was groggy as shit. The airport in Madrid was missserraabbbleeeee, we were all in this room in the food court just passed out everywhere, kind of funny now that I think about it. We were there for 5 hours. THEN we got to wait 2 more hours because Alexa and Lauren had like the worst day of travel I’ve ever heard of. Their flight got delayed, then redirected I think, they got here 2 hours late, and then their bags didn’t show up. They were all smiles when they got to the bus though, I would’ve been ripshit. On the bus ride to Salamanca everyone passed the eff out for 2 hours, very very good stuff I was incredibly tired. When we got there we met our host families, AJ Tanner and I’s madre se llama Carmen and she is very nice. We each have our own room in here, and Kelsey W and Megan are downstairs. Us 5 went walking around for a little bit and got some beers at a bar on our calle. 1 euro y 10 centavos for a beer. Yes please. Now I am lying in my bed trying to fall asleep while my internal clock is wayyyyy off. We are going to walk around Salamanca tomorrow and get to know it, which is awesome I am so excited. I cant wait to get to know these kids better, I really want us all to be tight, that would make this experience so fun. I am also excited to see all the students at the Universidad and see where all the clubs are. OH also I need to ask Jesus where the liquor stores at. Haha. OH OH also there are ham flavored chips here. It’s hilarious. AND I actually understand like 80% of what people are saying to me, and I can respond in crappy choppy childish sentences, so, awesome. LONG first day, but I am so excited for this semester.
Peace, Love, and Shout out ski team,
Tim
9/2
We had orientation this morning at 9. It was a little overwhelming because we had to listen to a lot of important information that Jesus had to tell us, and it was in Spanish obviously so I had to focus pretty hard to get all of it. After this we all kind of wandered around, we went to get internet at one of the buildings on campus because we don’t have any. At 6:30 we all met up at a bar to hang out and drink a little before group dinner. It was really fun, and it was here that I started to realize that I am super down with this group, everyone seems really cool. I was chatting with Reid and Tanner on the end of the table, and yelling stuff to people on the other side, it was great. Then we met up with Jesus and went to the JMU office here in Salamanca where we got our shitty little cell phones, mines the coolest obviously. I’m scared to call/text anyone because it costs money and I have to keep putting money on it. After that we went to dinner, had a great dinner, watched the Spanish national team beat Chile 3-2, and then the party started. We rolled 27 deep to la Plaza Mayor, and some girl came up to us and was like hiii do ju guys want to come to a barrr? And we were like hell yeah, went to a bar with 4 Euros, all the beers you want and got drunk. It was fun as fuck. Everyone was talking, joking, dancing, buying me shots, it was tight. We went to another club after this and everyone at it legit looked 15 years old, but they were selling alcohol there, I don’t get it. It was fun though; I was super drunk by then. Danced with blonde Kelsey, got fucking blue from her jeans all over my shorts that shit better come out. Anyway it was so fun. Its funny how open and relaxed people get with a little (a lot) alcohol in their system. Like after this night we are all really good friends now, like we all know each other and can joke around and stuff. I can honestly hang out with any of these people and I would enjoy it a lot they’re all really cool. Anddd this is what I wrote when we got home at like 3:15 after walking Olivia home. “Me encantan todos en este grupo. Todos. Este noche fue el mejor. Tengo que dormir.” Like I didn’t even think in English. Could be a good sign I guess?
Peace, Love, and No more vodka red bulls,
Tim
9/3
“omg Patrick im in love. HOT Australian chick, she goes to Georgetown. Joder. Literally in love.” And that was my entry from last night. So Saturday we met up with Jesús and Tkac and they made us walk to places using our maps and they didn’t help. It was alright because Reid used to live here so he knows where everything is haha. Afterwards we didn’t really do much, we went to a café and got some internet, walked around. Lunch was good again obviously, siesta was baller, slept from 2:30 to 6:00. AJ and I tried to find somewhere that we could watch college football but no dice, so we just chilled and had a beer. At like 10 we went downstairs to chill with Kelsey and her host brother and his wife, they are real cool. We smoked hookah for a little bit, I blew my first smoke ring. Baller. Then we went to meet people at O’Hara, I fell in love, etc. No for real though this girl was so cute AND she had an Australian accent. That shouldn’t be allowed. She lost her friends so she was chillin with us for a little bit, then she found her friends and left. Sad face. Oh and we met some kids from Colby, they know AFab and Julia and Gian. Pretty crazy stuff, it’s a small world. The night was pretty interesting after that. A bunch of people were pretty drunk and all I wanted to do was drink but I didn’t have anything to drink really until like 2 or 3. Fuck. We all started going to La Chupiteria, a shot bar, then we got split up and I didn’t want to wait with all the people who were drunker than me because I was getting mad again, so me and Haley dipped. We got pretty lost, which was annoying too but I was calming down. We did finally get there and I had like 3 shots of tequila I think. We went to Camelot after that, that was pretty fun. Ton of people there dancing, a bunch of us got up on stage hahahaha ok me and Kelsey tried to get up on the huge speaker and dance and when I tried to pull her up I fell off, I was pretty drunk at this point. But we managed it and we danced up there a little but it was super sketchy and wobbly so we got down pretty quick. Good times. Oh and then I almost got kicked out because I kept climbing up the fence upstairs. The bartender was throwing ice cubes at me to get me down. Sorry bout it bro. We left at like 5. Jesus. I am not used to that yet, like I didn’t feel that tired and I know that people stay out that late and even later here, but god damn. I slept until 1, and I felt kind of bad because Carmen’s just chillin like waiting for us to get up. Arite time for almuerzo.
Peace, Love, and I better see Australian Kelsey again,
Tim
9/4
Today was very chill. We woke up at like 2pm because we got home at 5 am. Lunch was great, obviously, then me and AJ just kinda hung out and talked about last night, then I took a nap haha. We went to a café at like 5 to get internet, we met up with a couple people. Alexa got fuckin robbed last night right next to her door, shit is fucked up, people here are so god damn aggressive towards girls it sucks. She seemed ok today though, he took Laurens phone from her pocket though. AJ, Kelsey W, Megan, Alexa, Lauren, and I went down to the river with Kelsey and Megan’s host cousin Luna. It was awesome, it was very peaceful down there. Luna was really really cool, she’s 17and knows English so we were asking her how to say certain things in Spanish like how to swear and shit. We came back for dinner at 9 and Tanner was here finally. I feel so bad he has anxiety issues and was with Tkac all day and had to get Xanax and stuff, such a bummer. He seemed better at dinner tonight though, he was laughing and talking and he actually ate. Dinner was awesome, she had some parmesan-ish cheese and fresh tomatoes in olive oil, I made lil sandwiches with the fresh bread, joder it was good. Then a couple of us went to the plaza mayor to hang out for a little bit, met up with some kids and chilled it was fun. Aight it’s bed time, we actually have class tomorrow. Seems weird, even though I know I’m here for classes.
Peace, Love, and Donuts ice cream
Tim
9/5
Jo. Der. Arite so we had class this morning at 9, we took a lil placement test to see what level everyone was at, because they had to separate the group into two classes because our group is so big. So that was alright, the last like 20 questions were hard as phuck, like I had no idea what was going on. The groups got split up and we had class, I am in the class with Javier as the professor, he is really cool and funny we all like him. He taught us that joder isn’t a bad word here. Joder. Class was fine, AJ and I went to get some internets afterwards and then we went to eat lunch. The lunch had like mad legumes and shit in it and it fucked my stomach up real bad so I took some Benadryl and slept for a while. When I woke up I felt way better and we went to walk around down by the river and found the like USal sports area, its pretty sweet, AJ played some bball with some Spanish ballers, one dude has a Kobe jersey on and one had Derrick Rose, that was legit. We went back and had dinner, and then we went out. Joder. AJ and I went out at 10 saying, let’s not get too drunk we have class tomorrow, lets just go to work at BP, collect our money, and go home. Yeah. That didn’t happen. SO this club/bar called the Irish Rover was having a beer pong tournament with a 50 euro prize. Obviously we went, got there at 10 there was no one there, and at 10:30 there were fuckin like 500 people. Clearly me and AJ were the favorites to win, like who in Spain is going to beat us? Serious question, we go to JMU, Spain found out about beer pong like 4 days ago. Come on now. So it started at 11 ish, there were 18 ish teams signed up, and we won our first game in approx 4 minutes. Wasn’t even fair. Then we began to wait. And wait. And wait. In like an hour and a half time 10 more games had happened, and fuckin like 50 more teams signed up. They let 100 TEAMS SIGN UP. Fuckin horseshit. So by this time everyone from the group was there and we all figured that this was going to be going on until like 8 in the morning because no one can play so we peaced out to another club we heard off. Keep in mind I had drank the cups from beerpong, after we won of course, like 3 shots and 2 beers. So, off to Medievo, and there was no one there. Which is surprising to me, because it was pretty cool inside, and one of the bartenders was legit the hottest girl I’ve seen here. And she had a glow in the dark tongue ring….so she’s down. Ella se llama Esmerelda. Ongh. The owner, I think he was the owner, was pretty young, knows English really well, and knows the other JMU kids that have been to Salamanca, so he hooked us up. Like. 20 free shots and a free giant ass cup of beer, which I got refilled. So it was like 1 ish by the time I think, more people showed up to the club, and they left some of us work behind the bar. Like they just let her work at the beer, she was taking orders and money from people, hilarious. Um, I don’t really remember a whole lot after that. We chilled there getting free drinks from our bartender til like 2 I want to say, and then we went back to the Rover to see if it was our second game yet. They had skipped us by the time we got there, I talked to some Spanish girl for a while there, no idea what she looks like or what her name is or what we talked about, but I think I remember that she said my accent was pretty good for only being there for 5 days. Maybe. And thennnn eventually me and AJ walked Alexa and Lauren home so they wouldn’t get robbed again. Then we got home somehow, at 4 oclock. Shit. Passed out.
9/6
Woke up at 8:15 I think, deffffffffinitely still drunk. That’s my favorite. Our madre thought it was pretty funny that we got back at 4 on a Monday, but she didn’t really care she was like yeah its normal, people go out here. Walked to class and was drunk for the majority of it, but I wasn’t tired so that was pretty legit. Probably shouldn’t do that very much though. Because when we got home for lunch I ate and then paasssedd out until like 6. Needless to say we didn’t do much after that, went to the JMU office to do some hw, chilled with people, went back for dinner. AJ basically just passed out after that, Tanner too because he cant really nap during the day. I went to chill with people on la Plaza Mayor. I love how we can just walk like 10 minutes to a place and be around so many people. So much different than NH, its so great. Then it was bed time f’sho. Adios
Peace, Love, and Joder
Tim
9/7
Wasn’t drunk in class today. Congratulations are in order. Class was fine today, nothing special. We are planning on going to the casetas today. Starting tonight is the Feria de Salamanca, which is a 2 week long festival here. There are these things I just mentioned, casetas, everywhere, they’re like mobile bars. You go up to one and order and beer and tapas, chill there for a while then go to another one. And apparently today and tomorrow people are going to be errrrrywhere. Its sounding like its going to be like Springfest, with more Spanish people, and less riot police. Sounds good to me. And there’s more beer pong, at Medievo, prize is 100 euro, and there is hopefully going to be fewer teams. We shall see. Wish me luck…..Yikes. That was interesting. So we went to the casetas to eat and drink at, it was really cool. They were playing music and everyone was outside. We went to go see the parade they had, with everyone in homemade traditional clothing, it was the celebration of the Virgen de la Vega. It was pretty cute, them all dancing and playing instruments, cool thing to see. There were also fireworks at 10, they went on forever it was legit. Then we started drinking. Went to the shot bar, no one was there, so we decided to do a shot of absinthe. Don’t do that. I felt that shit for like an hour. Um and like people kept making me take shots, we hung out there for a little bit until everyone got there, then went to Medievo because we told him we would. And the bartender kept giving the girls giant cups filled with like whatever and however much alcohol they wanted in it for 5 euros. People were putting like absinthe, vodka, rum, whisky, and Fanta together and shit, retarded. But it was cool because I didn’t have to buy any drinks because I would just drink theirs. I am just looking forward to Portugal; we are all going for the weekend, without supervision. So. Hmm. Giddy up.
Peace, Love, and Chill on the absinthe,
Tim
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