I would NEVER get a euromullet.

Euromullets. Sick. I would never in a million years get one..but I would try to trick people into thinking that I had one! I was just going to upload a picture of a eurmullet off of the internet for proof of its heinous spread around Europe and what do ya know? I found a replica of the back of my head. This is the other side of the horrible hairdo. Not me at all. Unfortunately there are worst cases than this. I've been trying to take pictures of really good ones, but its kind of hard to get close enough to take their picture and remain unnoticed, so I've just had to learn to take pictures really fast and not get caught. Its kind of like hunting birds or something. They come out of no where and I have to be prepared to pull out my camera, turn it on, aim and fire in one swift motion. Its an art form and my stalking skills are getting pretty amazing.

I am so excited! Because tonight I actually ate authentic Mexican food! Me, Kaki and some friends from class went searching for a Mexican restaurant tonight and happened upon a place called 100% Mexicano. I know what you're thinking. With a classy name like that, how can you go wrong? You really can't. The food was really good and it helped that the place was run and owned by actual Mexicans. I'm just really glad that we found it, because I don't know how much longer I could have lasted chopping up tomatoes in a plastic bowl and trying to make salsa. It's difficult.

Two days ago, Kaki and I were walking back from class when all the sudden somebody started blasting a trumpet behind us. It kind of scared me and I turned around to see this tiny little man, with a trumpet in one hand and his groceries in the other. He was actually really good and he would just walk a little while and then bring up his trumpet and play for a few seconds. It was really cool flamenco sounding music and it made me want to shout ¡Ole!

After he got done playing, and since my high speed photography has gotten so good, of course I had to take a picture. This time however, I wasn't as sneaky as with my euromullet targets. He saw me take a picture and immediately got a really big smile on his face and posed for another picture. He played a few seconds and then came across the street to talk to me and Kaki. He told us that his name was El Gran Pancheco (or something like that)and that we could see him on the channel five news. He also said that he had been recognized as the best trumpet player in all of Spain but he couldn't play so well anymore because his memory was getting bad. After that he told me that I was very tall and that he was married to a model when he was younger. Then he shook our hands and continued on his way, toting groceries in one hand and holding his trumpet in the other.

Classes are continuing to go well but my crazy teacher is well..still crazy. She called me Treg, the entire first week of classes and then about mid way through the next week she all the sudden started to call me James. (Which she pronounces, Yames). Nobody else in the class had any idea why she called me Yames, they just looked at me funny and said,"I thought your name was Treg". So after class, I told her that my first name was James, but I went by my middle name instead. After hearing this she bobbed her head and said, Vaaaale, sí, sí, lo siento Treg. She remebered for like four days and then after the weekend she started calling me Yames again. I don't know if it will do any good to correct her anymore. One thing that's kind of funny and rude about some of the professors, is when they encounter an Asian name. When a professor finds a Chinese name that they can't pronounce, instead of learning to say it, they ask them if they have a Spanish name. At first I thought it was kind of funny but then I thought about it and it really is very rude. I don't know what my reaction would have been if they couldn't pronounce my name and said, "I can't say your name, so I'm going to call you Enrique." Its kind of like Bon Qui Qui saying, "I got a complicated orda" or "no you can have a coke". (If you don't know who Bon Qui Qui is, type it into youtube, its really funny.) And I can't believe that I just compared something to Bon Qui Qui. Some people allude to Shakespear or famous authors.. not me, I'll stick to quoting youtube videos.
In summary: I drink a cup of cafe con leche almost every day. My friend Hello Kitty girl has gone back to Korea. Along with my other thirty Korean neighbors. I think that cat lady must be very rich, because it takes a lot of cat food to feed all the gatos in Salamanca. It might snow tomorrow and I'm really excited. One of the rubber casings to my headphones has fallen off and when I put it in my ear and turned on the computer to listen to music, it started shocking me really hard. It hurt really bad. I still watch the Real World every week and I think that Kaitlyn looks like Andy Roddick. I also have started to eat ice cream at the plaza a lot, even if it is cold. Also I bought a baller umbrella and I hate smelling like smoke everywhere I go because everybody here wants cancer. But I love houka!!

I think they're American..oh, yep, Northface.

Ok, I'm sorry. I haven't posted a new blog in about a week..but don't worry, I'm not going to pull a Lane, and post one about every two months or so. (Sorry, inside joke.) Anyways, I've been really busy lately. Classes have been going really well and I am so glad that I don't have morning classes because I barely get to my eleven o'clock class. The good thing about Spain though, is that if you're running late, there's a good chance that your proffesor is later than you are. It's amazing! I mean in the states I run late for all sorts of things, but here I'm semi-punctual. My Spanish history professor shows up every day fifteen minutes late and then lets us go on time! Krisi, you would be annoyed a lot, because Spain is a land of turtles. If they say that they are going out at ten, they really mean ten-thirty and then you have to wait some more for the one or two Spaniards that run even later than the rest of the country. Oh, and I have a euromullet. Looks good, huh?
I'm learning a lot of Spanish but sometimes its hard because so many people in my classes speak English. I've met a lot of Americans too. Most of them are really nice but I have to remind myself that I'm here to learn Spanish..not work on my English. It's really funny too because a lot of Spaniards get annoyed by the loud Americans but I'm pretty sure that two Spaniards carrying on a normal conversation are louder than most Americans yelling. Also, its so easy to spot somebody from the U.S. when they're wearing Northface and Sperrys. I'm amazed how much the Spaniards love Obama. I'm pretty sure that he's almost reached sainthood here and he's only been in office for like two days. My professors love to talk about him too and they are amazed if they have a student that does't like him. One of my professors was talking about him they other day and asked us if they were going to change the name of the white house to the black house..yeah, I don't know about that. I am missing Mexican food SO bad right now. This is the longest period of time that I have gone without eating any Tex-Mex. I'm seriously having withdrawls. Yesterday I went to the market and found tortilla chips and bought ingrediants to make salsa. I must have looked really pathetic chopping up tomatoes and jalapeños in a little bowl with a plastic knife. I was so excited to have salsa and when I opened the bag of "cilantro" to mix it in, it turned out it was parsley..sick. I was really confused because it looked like a bag of chopped cilantro and it said something about salsa on the back of the bag, but it was definately not. Even without cilantro, I downed all of the salsa and shared two or three chips with Kaki and Andy.

Things are going pretty well here, I'm learning a whole lot but sometimes I get to the point where I just don't want to here another word of Spanish or my head will explode. When that happens it's usally when I'm really tired and I just kind of zone out when people talk to me. Other than those occasional moments, I really enjoy getting to talk in Spanish every day. I also might come back speaking Korean because thirty of them live on my floor. I felt really bad for them because one of the more immature Spanish freshman kept putting trash cans filled with water leaning on their doors and then when they opened their doors they got really wet..needless to say, he got caught and got in some trouble with the dorm director. Like I said, I felt sorry for them until last night. Last night I think they were having like the Korean olympics or something in the hall way. At four in the morning there were packs of ten to twelve Koreans racing down the hallway. Why they couldn't go outside? I have no clue. Then they had a birthday party for somebody and proceeded to sing a very long happy birthday (the Korean version), followed by screaming. Then I started putting trash cans filled with water on all their doors..just kidding. But really, the thought crossed my mind.

In other news, cat lady is still doing her part in fighting feline hunger, Hello Kitty girl is still repping the stereotype, Kaki was running in her room and slipped and hit the wall with her head, and I am becoming addicted to chocolate con churros, cafe con leche, tapas and these lemon cookies that I found at the market. I'm sad that I'm missing Amerian Idol but I'm sure that I can watch it online and I miss my friends and family. I love all of you!

¿So, are you Catholic or Jewish?

My last few days have been really busy! They have been really good though. Thursday and Friday were our first day of classes and they went very well. I like most of my professors, I don't really care for one that much, though. I don't know if its because it is a two hour grammar class, or because my teacher is painfully annoying, I think that it is definately a combo of severe boredom, with a side of overly dramitic, haughty and loud teacher, with a Spanish diva complex. I'm not mentioning a name, because I'm really scared that for some reason she will come across this and release her diva fury in full force...unlikely, I know but I'm not taking chances. I've met some really cool people in my classes and we have started to make some pretty good friends with the people that live in our residence hall. One thing that I was really worried about, was if we were going to be able to find a church here that wasn't catholic. Almost every student that I have talked to, has said that they either don't believe in God, are agnostic or just attend mass because their parents are Catholic. I met a kid a few nights ago, and he asked me if I were Christian. I said yes, but I'm not Catholic. He for some reason thought that if weren't Catholic I must be Jewish, so he replied by saying, "I'm not an ant-semite. I think Jews are cool." I didn't really see that answer coming, so I just tried to stifle my laughter and shook my head.
Last night though, we were eating with a girl that we met from Oaxaca, Mexico. We were talking about movies and I asked her if she liked Nacho Libre, because its one of my favorite movies. She said that the movie was filmed in her hometown and that she was a receptionist at the hotel that Jack Black and all the actors stayed at! She said that they never really talked to anybody though, so she didn't meet him. Even though she is awesome because she is from the land of Nacho, she is even more awesome because she invited us to church. We went this morning, and it was really amazing. I was really excited because I could understand a lot of the message and we knew some of their songs. The pastor and the college minister are both from England and the pastor invited us and some other new people to his house for lunch. His wife is from Spain and they were both so nice. I'm not sure what exactly she cooked for us, but it was amazing. It definately beat having lunch in the cafeteria. For dessert, we had a cake called the Rascon de los Reyes, which in English means the ring of the kings. Its a cake that they eat for the Christmas holidays, which are kind of different than ours. The day that they actually exchange gifts with their families is called El dia de los Reyes Magos (the day of the kings/magi) and that's on January 6th. Anyways, the cake that we ate had two figures baked into it and I was really pumped because I got a little owl. Sorry, I don't know how to rotate this picture, so that's just gonna have to do. Some other fun facts, The U.S. is not the only country that has crazy cat ladies. Last night I was walking home and their was this old Spanish lady that was feeding like ten stray cats right by our dorm. She had individual bowls of meat and cat food for almost all of them. Also, nobody in Spain can pronounce my name, I didn't think it would be that difficult for them but they tend to say it like T-r-a with flem on the end. So it sounds like they're coughing something up when they say my name. Also, the Koreans can't pronounce it either, one of them sounds like they are saying Crack when they say it.

In other news, the new season of the Real World is sick! But it's going to be a good season. I just can't handle Katelynn, she looks like a six foot three Shreck. Also, while watching the first episode, I predicted that the military guy was going to be the first person to break something and I was right. Maybe I'll do a Real World Spain...

No tengo miedo ( I'm not scared)

So now that I have moved into the dorm, things are feeling less crazy and foreign. It was really weird the first few days, because we arrived in Salamanca before most other students did; so the city was kind of empty and we knew absolutely nobody. Now that we live in the dorm, we get to eat in the cafeteria (which is about the equivalent of the Hardin-Simmons caf) and we have somewhere to put all our stuff! Which by the way, Kaki desperately needed because she's a girl and packed a whole lot. Even though they cafeteria food isn't the best that Spain has to offer, it's really cool to get to meet different people from around the world. A lot of the students are either Spanish, or have been there long enough to speak the language very well. That kind of scared us at first because they speak very fast, but yesterday a group of thirty Koreans moved into the dorm ,and they were way more shy than us and most of them don't speak Spanish very well. That was a big confidence booster. Take that Korea. Some of them do speak Spanish fairly well though and they are really nice. I can't ever remember their names though, so I just give them nicknames i.e. Hello Kitty Girl, because all she wears are Hello Kitty shoes.
Today we took our placement exam for classes and it was a little bit scary. We got split up in rooms and had to take a scantron test that had eighty questions. We only had thirty minutes to do it and it was pretty hard. After that, we had to have a one on one conversation with a professor for about three minutes. We got our results back this at around six and I was put in the intermediate classes! I'm excited because that's the one that I was shooting for. Classes start tomorrow and I'm pretty pumped about them. The hardest thing to get used to over here, is the eating/sleeping habits. Usually, people don't eat breakfast until around ten thirty or eleven, they don't eat lunch until two or three (which follows by the entire city pretty much shutting down for a two hour siesta.) Dinner is definately the hardest to get used to because the earliest that the cafeteria opens, is at eight thirty or nine. Also, the cafeteria workers, like Hardin-Simmons, are kind of mean. It's really cold here, I think that for the past two or three days, it hasn't been over thirty degrees. Its also been snowing off and on but not much has stuck. I'm slowly overcoming my fear of speaking Spanish to the natives, usually they are very helpful but of course we come across a snotty Spaniard every now and then. The old people are really funny, the old men all wear suits and really old school hats and most of them carry around a cane and a lot of the old woman wear shaws or giant fluffy fur coats. This morning we got up at around seven to get some things before we took our test and we went into an electronic store to get something. The man who owned the shop was an elderly man and was helping us find what we needed. After we were leaving, I said buenos noches ( good night) and wondered why he gave me a confused stare. After I was out the door I realized that I meant to say buenos dias because it was eight in the morning. Its ok though, I'll blame it on not having coffee that morning, and by the way, the coffee is really, really good. In other news, Spain doesn't have very many fat people or gingers, but has a plethora of euromullets and rat tails. Which should never be in style.

My trip and first few day in Spain

So, my trip over went way better than I expected. I can be a bit scatterbrained sometimes and so I was really nervous about traveling by myself. Especially because I had never flown alone before. My parents and I drove to Dallas the night before, (New Years Eve) because my flight was at eight-thirty that morning and we live about four hours away. So for the past two years, I havn't been able to celebrate the new year :( Last year my house almost burned down because of a grass fire and we had to move everything out.. it took awhile. I got through customs without a problem and landed in Detroit at around twelve. I had a four hour layover. That was fun, I just people watched and hoped that I might see Sufjan Stevens. My next flight was to Amsterdam and it lasted from four in the afternoon to six o'clock in the morning. I tried really hard to sleep but it was impossible. You try being six-five and stuffed into kiddy seat. Its not very comfortable, so I just watched movies the whole time. I landed in Amsterdam at six and had to get through customs in time for my flight to Spain at seven. It went pretty well, except I had to deal with a cranky Dutch airport guard who worked the x-ray machine thing. She was convinced that I had something dangerous in my pockets and made me take my paper money and chapstick and hold it over my head while standing with my feet spread apart. After I finally got past Helga, I had ten minutes to find which gate my flight left from and get there. I made it with two minutes to spare. Oh, yeah.

I landed in Madrid at nine-thirty and had to wait for my friends flight to come in at around twelve. I was pretty sure that I knew their flight information but I started second guessing myself when one o'clock rolled around and they still hadn't come. I was starting to freak out but then they came five minutes later and explained that their luggage had been lost for about thirty minutes. After meeting up with them, we got on the metro to the train station and took a three hour train ride from Madrid to Salamanca. When we got to Salamanca, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, but I really wanted to sleep so after finding the hostel and taking a shower, that is exactly what I did. The next day, we got up and grabbed some breakfast and then walked around the city. All the buildings are incredible, I'm not exactly sure how old the city is but I know that most of the buildings have been here since medieval times. Most of the university buildings are located by the two oldest cathedrals. We toured one of the cathedrals today and it was amazing. The pillars inside were probably the size of a big room in a house. I also learned today that Christopher Columbus used to live in Salamanca and taught at the university. I'm really excited, because tomorrow we move into our dorm! Nothing that unusual has happened yet, except for the food..its different. But I am looking foward to the days to come. I will try to keep this updated fairly often. I'm going to miss everyone back home and I love all of you!