Salir/Lugo

Day 165-166: 2/13/09-2/14/09

Friday during the day, I didn’t really do that much. I had to wake up a bit early and take the bus into to town to see Pedro. The meeting with him went well. All I had to do was explain my reasoning for wanting to leave Spain a bit early to him, as he was worried about me and wanted to know if something different could have been done. I explained to him some of the problems I had with Rotary Spain, and what I felt could have been done differently. However, I didn’t mention Tommaso’s inappropriate behavior because I didn’t feel like talking about it, and besides, there’s nothing Pedro can do. He understood everything, took me back to the house, and then wished me farewell. By this time, it was about 1, so I just spent the afternoon hanging out as well as walking around. It was another rainless day, fortunately.

I ate lunch with Ana and María, and then decided to take a nap, so I woke up at 5 feeling rather refreshed. I went for a run, got back to the house, and then talked with Belén until it was time to get ready to go out with Ana. I put on some nice clothes and shoes, and then María took Ana and me into town, along with two more of Ana’s friends, Marta and Claudia. We got to a pizza place at about 10:30. There were six of us, and I’d met all of them before so I felt comfortable around them. Although from my time here, I’ve learned that I have to put all my awkwardness aside and just go into all situations and be prepared to make an ass of myself, which can happen from time to time.

We all got pizza for dinner, and I swear I waited for a half an hour while all the girls went to the bathroom to do whatever girls do in the bathroom. After this, we all started walking in the general direction of the center of Vigo, meeting more friends of Ana along the way. I think there were about 12 of us, although I couldn’t say for sure because I just kept on meeting people I didn’t know and lost count. About this time, Ana explained to me that we would be heading to the “Casco Antiguo” of Vigo. This is the old part of Vigo, and the part of Santiago that I’d been to the other day. I knew that Vigo had one, and I’ve been there before, but it’s pretty run down, and therefore, it doesn’t have the same allure that it does in other cities. Belén explained to me that it’s just gotten out of hand in the past years, and that while they are trying a restoration process, it’s not going that well.

I was not disappointed by the trashiness of the Casco Antiguo. The area smelled of piss and cigarette smoke. Eventually the group stopped at a bar called “Ovo”, which means “egg” in Galician. I don’t even know if you could call this a bar. It was a real dive. Not only was it in a terrible part of town, but this place was about the size of a walk-in closet. It consisted of a counter, and behind the counter was a plethora of alcohol and two men furiously trying to serve the crowd, which was rowdy and spilling out onto the street. I learned that it was 1 Euro for a “chupita”, or a shot. I guarantee you I was the kid closest to 18 there, which is the legal drinking age in Spain, but no one actually gives a shit because it is Spain, after all. Ana doesn’t drink, and I was more content just watching people make asses of themselves and the commotion that was unfolding around me. I really wish I had my camera. I would have taken a picture and subtitled it: “This is our future”. I’m kind of cynical when it comes to this stuff, I guess. After this first pre gaming session, we headed to another bar.

This bar was a little bit classier, but not by much. There wasn’t a mass influx of prepubescent persons, and there was actually room to stand and walk around. Here, I ended up talking to the bartender for a good half hour. He noticed that I was with a bunch of girls (it was me and all girls, after all), and after giving me a hard time, he wanted to know my secret, so I told him that it was probably because I was an exchange student. At first he didn’t believe me because he said I looked more Spanish than some of the girls (who have blond hair and blue eyes). After I convinced him that I am indeed American, he started talking to me in English because he had studied a while in England and Australia. He was a pretty funny guy, and I enjoyed talking to him.

Eventually at about 2 in the morning, we headed to a discoteca to dance the night away. Glancing into the club, I thought that there was a smoke machine inside, which I thought made sense because it adds to the ambiance. But then I realized that each person is their own separate smoke machine, as everyone in this country, even most of the youth, smokes. So in addition to being extremely hot, there was a sickening amount of cigarette smoke. I can’t really describe a discoteca, but I’ll do my best. Take a high school prom, add copious amounts of alcohol both beforehand and during, and then add a lot of cigarette smoke. And don’t forget the music, which somehow manages to be even crappier than the music they normally play at proms. Fortunately for me and my alveoli, Ana had to take a taxi home by 3 o’clock (which is an early curfew here), so I escaped with only an hour of semi-dancing and profuse sweating. I immediately showered when I got home, and then went to sleep.

Belén woke me up at 9 in the morning today to go with the family into Lugo. I wasn’t as tired as I would have thought because I knew that we would be doing something at least semi-interesting. I just slept during most of the two hour car ride there. Lugo is another fairly big city in Galicia, although it is in the Lugo province. There are about 90,000 inhabitants, and we spent our afternoon walking around downtown and the surrounding areas. The unique thing about Lugo is its Roman ruins. Lugo is the only city in Europe where the original Roman wall surrounding the center city is still intact. The walls create a 3 km path that circles the city, and it provides for some fairly good views. For me, it was just cool to be standing on something that is around 2,000 years old. After walking around, we went to Saint Mary’s cathedral, another beautiful cathedral. My favorite thing about the cathedrals is the smell. They all have a very old, earthy smell that is like nothing I’ve smelled before, but I’ll never forget it. I got pictures of all of this, but you’ll have to wait, as it’s late, and I don’t feel like uploading them right now.

We went to some fancy restaurant for lunch. Right about here, while looking at the menu of this fancy restaurant, I had an epiphany as to why I don’t really enjoy the food in Spain. In the US, I’m used to eating things with various sauces and of varying flavors as well. You can go to a restaurant and get “Mango Fish” or something like that. Here, in Spain, the only sort of sauce they seem to like is olive oil, and nothing else. Most of the menu is, very simply, “Grilled Halibut”, or “Boiled Shrimp”. None of these things have any sort of redeeming qualities, and they are just floating in olive oil. That’s why I don’t like the food here, and I feel good now that I’ve realized why. I did have lemon sorbet, though, and that was pretty tasty.

We walked around Lugo a bit more, and then went over to the pool, where Marta was swimming. Now, I’ve been to quite a few swim meets and therefore, pools, in my day. I have to say that this was the most suffocating, humid pool that I have ever been to, hands down. I thought that I was going to die. I could actually taste the chlorine, it was that bad. The good thing was that Marta actually ended up swimming pretty early, so we were only there for around an hour, and then I was able to get some fresh air.

I also slept on the ride back, having nothing else to do. When I got home, I went for a run, and then I watched a bit of “Toy Story” with Ana, and then everyone else went to bed and I started on this massive blog. Tomorrow will be my last day in Spain, and while it will be sad to say goodbye to my family, I’m excited to return to the US! Peace.