this is... the moment.

This is… the moment.

These quickly infamous words were uttered on Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at around 2:30 am in the Indian, a very smoky, somewhat sleazy “American” themed bar in Santander. Not even a week has passed since the strange Spanish man whispered these words to Caitlyn, and this phrase has become the theme of our stay in Spain.

Now, this probably means nothing to you, and maybe this is just a case of “you had to be there” stories, but judging by how much we use this phrase, I think I should enlighten all my avid blog readers (Rebs – she just likes the word blog) on the background of this phrase.

So, as we all do on Friday nights, we got together to rage blackout. Actually, there hasn’t been any raging or blacking out in Europe as of yet, but that doesn’t matter. So Caitlyn, Hillary, Matt (Caitlyn’s brother), and I met up at Plaza Cañadío, the square where we meet up every night we go out. Before they arrived at the plaza, Caitlyn, Hillary and Matt went to Peter Pan’s (probably the cheapest and sketchiest bar in Santander) for some drinks. There, they met our Spanish Amigo. He had been learning English, and wanted to try it out on some native speakers. Apparently he was awful (but who am I to speak, have you read my Spanish?). They spoke with him for a few minutes and made their way to the plaza.

So, that night we met up with all the Erasmus students (European students studying abroad). Giovanni, this pretty great Italian guy, brought us around to a few clubs, but we never actually went into one. It was a group of about 20 of us, and it brought me back to Orientation Week freshman year. Not only would there have been “too many dicks on the dance floor” as the saying goes, but probably too many spoken languages, too.

But I digress.

After following the Italian around for about half an hour, we Americans gave up on partying with the Erasmus students and broke off. We noticed that we always form an “Atlantic Ocean” between us Americans and the rest of Europe. We don’t do this on purpose, it just happens that way, I swear. But anyways, we broke off with some Belgians and an Austrian and made our way to a bar a little across the city that the Belgians were fans of. It was closed. Great. Europeans are the best at partying with (that slight isn’t fair, it just wasn’t a good night for them). So we ditched the last of the Belgians and went into The Indian.

I want to stress that this is quite a walk from Peter Pan.

So we hung out, just us Americans, when guess who happened to make it into this bar – yep – our Spanish Amigo. Joder. So he joined our group and was talking to us, it was kind of creepy, but we didn’t think too much about it (okay, actually it was super creepy and we acknowledged it). We continued to talk and dance when our Spanish Amigo leans over to Caitlyn and whispers, “It is… the moment… where we take off our clothes” in a thick Spanish accent, and proceeds to TAKE OFF HIS CLOTHES!!! No lie, he took off his shirt and started to unbutton his pants, all the while looking around to see if we were buying it. Yo, dude, too far. He saw we weren’t joining him and started dressing himself again while we all thought of ways that we could make it out of The Indian without him. Eventually we all had to go to the bathroom and ducked out of the bar.

It was 5 o’clock by now and Josh had joined us in the midst of this situation. We were all hungry so we made it to churro restaurant. After a round of churros and chocolate con leche we stuck around a little to recount how our night had taken a creepy turn for the worse when in walked none other than our Spanish Amigo. Oh, come on, there is no way this was by coincidence. The churro place was a good 15 minute walk from The Indian. How could this keep happening? Needless to say, we paid quickly and left as soon as possible.

Again, I’m not sure if you had to be there for this to really strike a chord with you, but like I said, it has become a go to reference for everything, and will probably be brought back to Cornell, just hopefully our Spanish Amigo doesn’t come with…

Sorry I don´t have a Spanish version, right now I am lazy and feel I can relay this story better in Englsih anyways.

piso.

7 Septiembre. 2010.

Pues, he estado sin internet por solo unos días, pero ha sentido como meses. Me gustaría ver mi Facebook y lo que es popular en Youtube, pero lo que quiero más es ver mi familia y mis amigos en Skype. Quiero contactar a todos, saber que está pasando en sus vidas y decirles que estoy bien, pero sin internet o teléfono, me siento un poco solo. Sí, tengo mis amigos de Cornell aquí, pero es un poco diferente. Acabé de encontrar a ellos hace una semana y están en una diferente clase que yo para los idiomas.

Pero, la vida sigue.

Entonces, el fin de la semana pasada encontré un piso. El piso está atrás la calle de la universidad. Para mis clases de español solo tengo que caminar por 2 minutos. El edificio de Caminos (Ingeniería Civil en España) está más lejos, pero solo un camino de 5 minutos. El piso, como puedes adivinar, no tiene internet, pero no es malo. Mi habitación es un poco más grande que una habitación en Cornell. La cocina tiene un horno, (que mis amigas encontraron no es lo normal cuando movieron a su piso) pero es pequeño, y el salón es bastante grande con televisor y unas sofás. Vivo con dos españoles, se llaman Pablo, un estudiante de empresas, y Elena, trabaja en un hospital. Los dos son amables, pero Elena se moverá al fin de semana y Pablo está buscando otro piso. Entonces, un chico, se llama Alberto (de veras no estoy seguro es su nombre) va a tomar la habitación de Elena y tengo que esperar hasta Pablo encuentra otro piso para conocer con quién más voy vivir.

Pero, si estás en España o quieres enviarme cosas, mi dirección es

Piso 6 Letra A del Nº7 de la C/ Blas Cabrera

Santander, España 39005

Pues, creo que eso es mi dirección…

Si, vivir sin internet es difícil, pero Santander no es todo malo. Uno de mis favoritas partes de Santander (sin menciona de las playas, montañas, bares, etc.) es que cuando digo que estudio Caminos, todos dicen, “Pues, eso es el más difícil de la universidad, tienes que ser el más listo para estudiar Caminos. En España, si gradúas con una diploma de Caminos de la Universidad de Cantabria, inmediatamente tienes trabajo, y tienes trabajo por la vida.” Cuando les digo que en Cornell es la broma de ingenierías, se ponen sorprendidos, porque es tan difícil aquí. Finalmente, recibiré el respeto que desirvo. Somos “la leche, la puta madre” en Santander, ¡que te dé en el culo ingenieros mecánicos!

Otra cosa diferente en España, hay una tienda por cada cosa. Hay carnicerías para carne, fruterías para fruta, confiterías para dulces, panaderías para pan, zapaterías para zapatos, papelerías para papel, peluquerías, cervecerías y la lista continua. Todos tienen los horarios estúpidos en que no puedes ir de compras los domingos. EXCEPTO los chinos, las tiendas de los chinos tienen horas los domingos, están abiertas más tardes, y tienen más variedad, normalmente por menos.

Quiero internet.

September 7, 2010.

So, I have been without internet for a few days, but it has felt like months. I would like to see my Facebook and what is popular on Youtube, but what I really want is to see my family and friends on Skype. I want to contact everyone, to know what is happening in their lives and to tell them that I am good, but without internet or telephone, I feel a little lonely. Yes, I have my friends from Cornell here, but it’s a little different. I just met them a week ago and they are in a different language class than I am.

But life goes on.

So, this last weekend I found a flat. The flat is across the street from the university. For my Spanish class, I only have to walk 2 minutes. The civil engineering building is farther away, but only a 5 minute walk. The apartment, as you can guess, doesn’t have internet, but it’s not bad. My room is a little bigger than a single at Cornell. The kitchen has an oven, (which my friends found out isn’t the norm when they moved into their place) but is small, and the living room is pretty big, with a television and some sofas. I live with two Spaniards, named Pablo, a business student, and Elena, who works in a hospital. Both of them are nice, but Elena is moving out at the end of the week and Pablo is looking for another flat. So, a guy named Alberto (really I am not sure of his name) is going to take Elena’s room and I have to wait until Pablo finds a place to know who I am going to be living with for the rest of my stay.

But, if you are in Spain or want to send me things, my address is

Piso 6 Letra A del Nº7 de la C/ Blas Cabrera

Santander, España 39005

At least, I think that’s my address…

Yes, living with internet is difficult, but Santander isn’t all bad. One of my favorite parts of Santander (without mentioning the beaches, mountains, bars, etc.) is that when I say that I study civil engineering, everyone says, “Well, that is the most difficult major in the University, only the smartest study civil engineering. In Spain, if you graduate from the civil engineering program at the University of Cantabria, you will immediately have a job, and you will always have a job for life.” When I tell them that at Cornell it is the joke of engineering, (after OR, of course) they are surprised, because here it is the most difficult. Finally, I will receive the respect that I deserve. We are “the shit” (Spanish slang) in Santander. Suck it MechEs!

Another thing different here in Spain, there is a store for everything. There are meat stores, fruit stores, candy stores, bakeries, shoe stores, paper stores, etc. All of them have stupid hours where you can’t go shopping on Sundays, too. EXCEPT the Chinese, the stores run by the Chinese are open on Sundays, they are open later, and they usually have a greater variety at a lower price.

I want internet.

todavía vivo

¡No te preocupes, todavía estoy vivo! No tengo aceso al internet mucho, pero todavía he estado escribiendo y cuando tengo una oportunidad que es más largo que el tiempo entre clases escribiré más de que está pasando en mi vida.

¡Les echo de menos todo!

Don´t worry, I am still alive! I don´t really have access to the internet too much, but I have been writing still and when I get a chance that is longer than time between classes I will update you guys more on what is going on!

I miss you all!