A Coruña

Today was an eventful day! I woke up around 12, and I’m still very tired because of my lack of sleep leading up to my trip. I went downstairs to find an empty house, and I figured that Both Juan Antonio and Elena were out and about. Having little to do, I turned on the television. While I don’t understand most of what is going down on the TV, I found it funny to watch. From what I can understand, there are twenty channels in Spain, which broadcast all around the country. Most of them have names like Channel One, The Two, and so on. The only channel I’ve found that is a direct replica of the US is Disney Channel, and I’ve got no problem watching that. I also found “The Simpsons” in Spanish, which was way cool to watch. Soccer is also abundant on the TV, so there will never be a lack of anything to watch. Elena came home around 1, and she told me I could have breakfast. After she took me through the whole kitchen, I decided on Corn Flakes (not translated) with “leche” (milk-whole, which will take some getting used to) and a “Nectarino” (nectarine).

Then I watched some more TV and got on the internet until 3, when Juan Antonio came home to eat lunch, which is the custom in Spain. In Spain, the meal times kind of suck. Breakfast is whenever you wake up, around 8 for most people. Then you eat lunch anywhere from 1:30-3:30, which is the biggest meal of the day by far. Dinner follows around 10 o’clock. I’m not adjusted to this at all. Elena served “Papas Pure” (think really runny mashed potatoes) and “Cerdo” (pork butt), with tons of “Aceite de Oliva” (Olive Oil). I was unable to eat all of she gave me, partly because I was not used to eating so much at this time, and also because my stomach can’t handle that much meat. She gave me 2 pieces, probably close to a pound of meat.

I then discussed politics with Juan Antonio because we had been watching the news, and he told me they refer to the election in the US and what is going on as “Obamania”. What a great word. There are two political parties in Spain, the People’s Socialist Party of Europe, and the People’s Party, which act similar to Democrats and Republicans. Juan Antonio took a nap, and Elena and I watched more TV, this time a show that was close to “The Soup” in English. I didn’t understand a damn thing. Delightful. After Juan Antonio went back to work, Elena told me that we would be meeting her sister and her niece whom both live in A Coruna. We walked to where they picked us up, and after that we took the bus into the equivalent of downtown. Ana Segoro, Elena’s niece, was very nice and she helped explain some of the things I saw, in simple terms, which is necessary at this point in time. I saw a lighthouse, and the name escapes me right now, that was once considered to be the western most point in the world until they discovered America. I also saw a lot of the Atlantic Ocean, and I ran out and touched it. The red flag was up, meaning that it was considered unsafe to swim, so I didn’t see anyone else out there. Also, I didn’t realize we would be doing all this today, so I neglected to take my camera, which I’m kicking myself for. We walked to the Plaza of Maria Pita, the focal point of which is the governor of A Coruna’s house. The next place we went was the equivalent of 16^th street mall, with tons of people, my first real glimpse at the varying Spanish culture.

Let me clear a couple of things up. One, Spanish women are indeed attractive. That is not to say that every single one of them is drop dead gorgeous, but as a whole, they rank better than America. Also, the Spanish men dress like flamboyant gays. A typical outfit will include: Man capris, Leather shoes, tight polo with popped collar, and a pastel hooded sweatshirt. The focal point of all this, however, is the hairstyle I have henceforth dubbed the “Spainlet”. Imagine hair, about my length (1.5-2 inches) on top, spiked up, the sides shaved to about a half an inch, and the back being hair so long that it meets the point where the neck turns into shoulders. It’s disgusting, and yet is by far the most popular haircut that I have seen here so far. But I’m so getting it when I go in for a haircut because I want to rock a mullet. Pictures will go down of both me and others. I tried to explain to Juan Antonio that this hairstyle is known as the “Mullet” in the US, its not popular at all, and that we associate it with Rednecks, but I don’t think he quite understood.

After the outdoor mall, we went to an indoor mall, where we walked around for a while longer. The most notable store we went into was a shoe store, because I was in heaven. European shoes rock, they are sleek and colorful, and I’m going to get a pair when I have the money from Rotary. Dinner happened next, which consisted of “Bocadillos” (tiny sandwiches) at the equivalent of the food court in the mall. By this point, it was almost ten, and I was starving, so you can imagine my dismay when I realized that we weren’t going to eat much at all. Juan Antonio made fun of some guy who was sagging his pants, which made me laugh quite a bit, and then asked if we had that problem in America. I answered with an enthusiastic yes, and then taught him the word “sagging”. Somehow the discussion turned to movies, and they liked that I had seen Pedro Almodovar’s movies, and Juan Antonio liked the fact that I thought Natalie Portman was more attractive than Scarlett Johanssen.

We got back to the house around 11, and Juan Antonio started watching a movie, “Cuatros Hermanos” (Four Brothers). I noticed that he had all the movies on what looked like a hard drive and that he was selecting from a bunch of movies (easily more than 100). He told me that he downloads them with “P2P”. I couldn’t have asked for anything more! A host family who pirates as much as I do! I’m very happy about this. Finally, I told them I was going to bed, and it is in my bedroom where I am writing this. I’m posting this tomorrow, because they don’t have wireless internet in this house, and I don’t feel like going back downstairs.

Tomorrow, we are going to Madrid and I will meet Marta, my host sister. It’s a six hour car ride, which I’m dreading because I don’t like the thought of more travel. I’m pretty sure that they don’t have internet at Juan Antonio’s parent’s house based on what he told me, but I’ll still write about what I’m doing during those 5 days. See you soon.

Peace.

P.S. You know in Spanish class where if you have a test and then you go to another class your mind is still kind of thinking in Spanish? My mind is doing that to the extreme at the moment, which I think is a good sign. I think of everything I can say in Spanish in a situation, and when I was writing this, I constantly had to delete what I was typing because it was in Spanish. This is pretty cool.