Sevilla, Bullfighting, and Church

Sorry for taking so long to talk about the weekend, I've just been busy and wiped out. My body is still having trouble adjusting. I usually sleep like 4 hours a night without taking sleeping pills.

So Friday a bunch of people from base were invited to go to a bullfight in Sevilla and about 30 went. The bus ride took a long time because there is only like one freeway to Sevilla and it was rush-hour when we left. Along the way we saw this amazing Mosque, but the view from the bus was really difficult to get a shot with the camera so you'll have to wait for that. The road system is pretty similar to the US, but some signs are different. Also we saw a lot of graffiti and this one spot was amazing. It had a couple of faces and other cool things painted on the wall; probably professionally done.

We finally got to Sevilla and got off the bus in front of the stadium. The entrance was like 20ft tall and really cool. It only cost 34E (euro, I don't have a euro button so just assume E next to a number means euro) which is like $40. Think of the Colosseum and how it's a complete circle with stone seats, it was a lot like that. Everyone dresses very very nice. There was a 15 year old kid that was wearing a suit...I had on jeans and a Tshirt.

The Matadors wear very bright colors and very tight clothes. The bright colors are to attract the attention of the bull and the tight clothes are so they don't get caught on the bull's horns. The bull comes out with a small spear in the top of its back to make it angry and want to attack the Matadors. So there are three Matadors with capes/flags/whatever that they flail around in front of the bull to make it charge them. After a while there will come another Matador with two arm length spears that they jab into the bulls back. Once that is done a single Matador will be out there with a cape and sword. They yell "Hey!" at the bull and make these crazy stances when the bull charges literally inches from them and the Matador doesn't move at all when the bull charges. When the fight ends, the Matador stabs the bull in the spine with the entire 2ft sword, hoping to kill it. If it doesn't die, then another guy comes out with a small dagger and stabs the bull trying to sever the brain stem; if they hit the stem then the bull drops dead instantly. The whole spectacle is very bloody and violent, so it's not something that I would go to often but I wanted to experience it. One bull was stabbed in the lung through his back and he was puking up buckets of blood; it was sad.

Sevilla is large and beautiful. The city really comes to life at night with cars, trains, and people everywhere. They have McDonalds, KFC, and a few other American things around. I spent the night with 4 girls and walked around. We stopped at an ice-cream place kind of like Cold Stone. Lots of stores have windows that open up to the outside and people can come order right off the street. It's considered rude to enter any store without saying "hola". The Rio Grande in Sevilla is about two football fields wide and at one point there is literally a basketball court in the water...I'm not kidding. One day I want to go play in it. The architecture(?) is amazing. Everything is old and has shingles like in Arizona. I only saw the Cathedral from a distance and don't have a picture yet, but I will go back one day and get a few nice shots of it soon.

Church was pretty cool. It's held in a building in an alley, not it's own separate building like in the States. There were only about 60 people total and probably half of them spoke English. Anyone that spoke only English got to listen the lessons being translated on headphones. Emily, you would absolutely love this place. Singing hymns in Spanish is really fun and to my surprise, all the songs still rhyme. There are only a few singles around my age (meaning 18-30). The couple that brought me to church are American; the Carlyles. They are moving out of there house at the end of the month and I am going to be moving in after them. They cooked me and the Bishops family dinner last night and it was amazing. Apparently, according to everyone, the Spanish food is really bland so it looks like I'll be cooking a lot at home.

Well that's pretty much it for now. Later.

Day 3

Yesterday was my first day of work, although it was more of an introduction to where I am working than anything. Our base is small, with only one runway, and only a few hundred U.S. military stationed here. My job is going to be very very slow, even slower than Scott if you can believe it. However we do have a few times where it can get chaotic. For example, we are one of three abort sites for shuttle launches. Yesterday the Discovery was sent into orbit to resupply the space station and we went on alert as the primary abort site. It was very cool to watch the launch and know that we have something, even if only in emergency, to do with missions going to space.

I still can't sleep more than four or five hours straight. Last night I went to bed at like 1130 and I have been awake since at least 0430 this morning. I tried to go back to sleep, but it just did not happen. Hopefully I will have more energy than yesterday; came home from work and passed out for three hours.

I have some pretty cool ideas kicking around in my head for my story so hopefully I will have the motivation and energy to write today. Plus, I really need to work out cuz I'm getting pudgy.

Halfway around the world in one night

If you are reading this, chances are you are my friend or know me at least enough to give a crap about what's going on in my life. With that being said, you'll understand that I think your every day blogs are pretty friggin gay. Oh man, you popped your tire on your way to work today? Please oh please let me read about how fascinating that is.......stupid. Anyway, now that I have officially pissed off half of you reading this :) it's time to get on with it. (P.s. I'm in fricking Spain people, hence the "my blog might actually be interesting") Yeah, I'm a dick, but I've made peace with that.

So in the last 9 days I have been in flight for over 20 hours; not wait time in the airport or travel time to the airport, but my fat butt (edited for the mommy) has been on a jet for 22 hours. It all started when I flew out to Utah/Arizona to see my family before I left the country. I am very very blessed to have such an awesome family. For the most part I just go home to chill and feel like a normal person cuz I don't often feel that way. I got to play with the midgets and hang out with fatty. Almost got eaten by dogs on the golf course one day. Ripped an 8 inch hole in my pants cuz I got fat off all the food I ate out there. Had the best freakin dinner ever at my mom's: Glazed ham, Augrattin potatoes with bacon and spinach, and the best home made rolls ever. Then I had to come back to Illinois to leave. Had to go into work cuz they messed up some paperwork, but I got to see Val and Ms Black so I'm cool with it.

Now to the interesting part. I started by flying from STL to Chicago. Then to Brussels, it's in Belgium for those of you who don't know (I didn't cuz I suck at geography). Then to Sevilla. The flight to Chicago was boring. The flight to Brussels was about 8 hours long and went through the night. First time ever that I was given a free meal or movie on a plane. The food was mediocre, but whatever. The flight was barely full so I got to lay down across 3 seats, although the arm-rests dug into my back so I didn't sleep at all. Oh, first time ever that I talked with someone from Brussels. Didn't catch her name, but she was kinda cute. Speaking of good looking, holy crap are people in Europe hot. Or at least at the Brussels airport. Seriously, they all have fashion sense, most everyone has a great body, and they are mostly good looking. Even the janitor was hot; for all those who just made a gay joke, haha you are original...out of your system? Good. It was this little 5'3'' dark haired girl that was cleaning the bathrooms. Guess I'm just used to the American janitors being crusty old guys, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Lot's of Africans in the airport, or I'm guessing they were cuz they were black and wearing like Muslim robe things and hat/bandanna/dew-rag things. Most everyone spoke at least two or three languages which still impresses the hell out of me.

So then I got on the plane for Sevilla. There was one guy sitting next to me that spoke English, and since the plane is really loud I couldn't hear any accent at first so I asked him if he was American, he said no and that he was Italian...I was close...Anwho, so we talked for a little while. I asked him tons of questions about Europe and the people, where the best vacation spots are, how they like Americans, etc etc. Totally surprised me when he said that Naples, Italy sucks and is very very dangerous. He says they love tall blond men and I've very exotic since I'm those two things plus American :) Go me. But that Sevillian women are like Texan girls; traditional and a bit harder to get to know than other places. He said Barcelona is a crazy party town, where Madrid and Sevilla are more laid back. His name was Andy, fyi (was totally expecting like Frederico or Marco or something). Anywho, he also said to check out the Canary Islands, Ibiza, and Grenada while in Spain. Basically he said that each European capital is a must. So I'm half surprised, half not, that everything tv and movie related over here is pretty much reliant on the U.S. His favorite shows were Family Guy, Simpsons, Grey's Anatomy, and so on. Same thing with movies. He saw Avatar and a couple other things. Seems like they are just a little bit behind the release dates, but I'm not too worried.

As the plane was arriving in Sevilla I was glued to the window trying to see what my new home looked like. The olive groves here are like the corn fields of IL; freaking everywhere. Lost and lots of green and tons of palm trees. Small mountains here and there, sort of the size of Camelback in AZ. So far I only drove through Sevilla briefly, but from what I can tell it's pretty neat. Everything is in Kilometers and liters for driving. Don't know if all Spaniards are crappy drivers, but my taxi driver was pretty scary. Other than that the road systems are pretty similar to America. Drive on the right side, highways and small roads, lots of German cars, etc. Oh, totally surprised to see that tons of the Spanish here are straight up White instead of all tan like Mexicans. Yes, there are a lot that are really tan, but I just wasn't expecting so many to be white. I'll stand out, but not as much as I originally thought.

A girl named Leona picked me up from the Airport, which is good cuz I have no cell phone and didn't know the number to base so I thought I was boned. She works with me, but will only be here through the summer. She showed me around base and I asked her a bunch of questions. She doesn't have a car so she hasn't got out much, which means I'll have to pick someone else's brain about the life around here. For now I'm staying in a hotel and eating at the chow hall again; boo, but whatever. Hope my stuff gets here fast cuz I want to have a good meal instead of burgers and lame salad. Our job is very easy apparently and we don't have much to do all of the time so I'll have plenty of time for school, reading, and writing.

Went to sleep at 9pm last night cuz I wanted to try to adjust to the time difference. It's 0530 as I'm writing this, so I think I made an ok adjustment all things considered.

Final thought: I am amazed at humanity and it's innovations. Yes, I know we fly to the moon and have crazy inventions, but I am supremely amazed that in less than a day I can go halfway across the Earth. It's an amazing concept when you experience it for yourself.