Oh the Spanish - John´s First Blog Post thing-a-mo-bob

Now I´m all for learning new cultures and willing embrace them. Spain has so far been amazing, beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, beautiful .... oh wait I have a girlfriend.

But there are two particular stories that already stand out in my mind.

The first is our friend Jimmy (or Jaime as the Spanish call him) who was kind enough to put us up and feed us, decided to take us out on Saturday, upon getting in the car he informed us that we needed fuel, no big deal right?, well if you know what type your car takes, Jimmy does Not despite driving it quite regularly, it was on of life´s mysteries that had so far eluded him so he had to call his mother for clarification. Once the decision had been reached whether it was Diesel or Petrol the mountainous task of how to actually fill developed, this another Herculean like task was undertaken with much enthusiasm on Jimmy behalf, many "Oh Jesus you can´t be serious" on my part. After three trips into the store for confirmation on the matter Jimmy began to fill. And oh boy did he fill, anyone who drives their parents´cars from time to time will know you only put enough fuel to get you to where you are going and back and that´s all. Not our Jimmy, he was going hammer and tongs for it, bye bye €10, sayonara €20, this man was on to the fill the fucking tank. At the realisation that the kid as lovely as he is had no idea what was going on, we managed to flag the speedster down at €37. He siad that he wasn´t too sure if that was enough to drive for 20 minutes each way or not at this point we revoked all fuelling filling responibilitiess from Jimmy and have given themm to Chelsea coz I don´t like it on my soft hands,

The siesta which Spain is famous IS LIES. I had my first and last one there on Saturday. Ok I don´t like to be woken from slumber, like any reasonable sane person, I especially don´t like it when I´ve only been asleep for 45 bloody mins, complete mind bogging mayhem. You wake feeling some what groggy and dead with your consciousness trapped between Wonderland and Hell. I was woken from my darling sleep froma combination of demon heat and a "lovely" girlfriend, who decided that what I needed was a swim in the Artic Circle also known as Jimmy´s pool. Upon telling her that I was fine and just needed to be left Alone she insisted. I rolled out of bed and finding my swimming togs, now labelled Death, because that´s how it felt hittint the floor. Dragged out of the house by my left ankle, knuckles dragging, I had to cross the deck of burning fires to the pool. I stayed on the ladder for a while because .... well I want to have kids and that wasn´t going to happen if I went in. Eventually thanks to continously nagging I succumbed and plunged. On a scale of 1 to 10, that water for shagging freezing so about a 14, I think my brain still suffering now went into some kind of shock. I lost one of my nipples and am now down to 2. Oh well I guess it woke me up.

John.

Meet the Parents ¿

John and I have been desperately attempting to learn at least basic Spanish. We managed to fumble out enough coherent Spanish words to get us train tickets and food but other than that, when asking for directions we mostly just said the place we were looking for and pointed in either direction, hoping that they understood us enough to point us in the right way.

Jimmy's parents don't speak much English. In fact, his mother speaks none at all. Today, when we got back from visiting the Palacio Real, the Plaza Mayor and the Jardines del Moro, we were greeted with Jimmy's father, Eduardo. Eduardo spoke very good English considering the fact that he hasn't spoken much of it since he was 12. John and I pulled out our phrase book but it offered little help when attempting to carry on a conversation in essentially Spanglish, with John and myself throwing random words and phrases from the book. Conversations for the hour often went something like this:

Eduardo: "So are you enjoying your stay here?"

John: "Yes, err I mean si! Um....I can say colors to you...azul...rojo..."

Me:"I can tell you that my gums hurt in Spanish. Would that help move this conversation along?"

At one point we all had sat in silence for so long at the kitchen table, waiting for Jimmy to come home that I just blurted out not-so-subtly, "...Awkward..."

Jimmy thought it would help if we watched more television in Spanish, so he chose for us the German film,"The Downfall" which is spoken in German with Spanish subtitles. Needless to say my head is spinning!

One thing we did learn about Maria and Eduardo, Jimmy's parents, is that they are definitely people to be envied. For one, they are both doctors; two, they are both very good looking Spaniards; and three, they are currently out dancing and won't be back until well after 3 in the morning. Nice life!

Love to all!

The Backpack Debacle

Ok, story time.

So my boyfriend likes to fly by the seat of his pants or the skin of his teeth or whatever you'd like to call it. Bottom line: he's a take-chances, last-minute kind of guy. Two days ago, John got his license; supposedly he has been driving around Ireland for 9 months without one because he refused to replace his lost one. Yesterday, John got his travel insurance. Get the picture? So it should come as no surprise to anyone that when we arrived at the airport, we had no bags to check because we'd "chance carrying them on" even though mine was above the weight limit and his was well above the height limit, like 5 inches above.

Ryanair, for those that don't know, is a notoriously cheap airline for some very specific reasons: you can't adjust the seats, which are mainly plastic, you're charged €5 for a sandwich and they make back most of their revenue in charging you for ridiculous things--like charging €35 for your bag not fitting the height and weight parameters.

We spent a grueling 2 hours waiting at the gate as john desperately tried stuffing things in his pockets to make his bag smaller and I debated putting on two more shirts in order to lighten my load.

I was sweating bullets, fearing both public embarrassment and extortionate charges that were undeserved because my boyfriend had failed to listen to my pleas of checking the bags. As we queued up to get on the plane, we watched person after person being told to put their bag to the side to be checked luggage. John was in front of me, brushing off my hissing comments of making the next 6 weeks a living hell for him if this didn't work.

John walked confidently up to the measurement panel, and as I anxiously watched, he looked at the box and said, "Ah sure, that'll fit." He then proceeded to slam his bag in and by some miraculous crushing force, the bag fit within the parameters! He put his foot not so suddenly down on the box to pull up his bag out of it, and said to the attendant, "If mine will fit, hers will." With that said they waved me on with a slight look of shock on their faces.

¡Bienvenido a España!

I was unsure where to start, but I am so excited to be in Spain that I have to talk about that first and there will be more posts to follow regarding other stories that have happened recently.

When we arrived in Spain, we started sweating and remarking on how much warmer it was versus Ireland. Jimmy informed us that this was the coldest day of the week. When we arrived at his casa, located in a place called Pozuelo De Alarcón (which John and I prounced like ¨Buffalo blah bla´-on?") we were greeted with my dream home. Jimmy lives in the most beautiful three story Spanish home, filled with abstract paintings and expensive-looking artifacts collected by his parents (who both happen to be doctors--who knew!). John and I fully intend on taking a dip in Jimmy´s backyard pool tomorrow.

We're an hour ahead of Ireland now so it is nearly 10 p.m. and we are about to have our dinner. Apparently the way that Spaniards eat is a small breakfast, a gigantic lunch, a snack at 6 and then dinner late at night (I feel like I remember this vaguely from Spanish class 3 or 4 years ago).

John and I have been watching TV for the past hour and a half with Jimmy in order to better our Spanish; watching the news helps the most, since John and I can figure out the headlines and then pick up words here and there and relate them to the photos. We'll be fluent yet!

It is a gorgeous country so far, and tomorrow we will venture into the city to visit perhaps the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor, but who knows?! We're in Spain!

Quip about Irish girls and fun things I'm doing :P

I have to say something about Irish girls. In my time being here I've met a handful that I've liked, and they've been the vast minority of who I've met. I don't know if it's because I'm American or what, but they really don't need to be giving me nasty looks when I walk down the street. According to one (nice) Irish girl, apparently Irish girls just don't like other girls. Ok, I'm done with my rant, I was just ''accidentally'' pushed into one too many times in a store to not have to say something about it.

Back to what I've been up to:

It's been beautiful weather here in Ireland, but the countdown has begun to leave for Madrid (which I assume has nicer weather)! I was lucky enough to have a girl's night out at a cocktail place called Suas (the Irish for ''up'' which makes sense because it's upstairs on a balcony) with my lovely friend Anna Murphy :) I have to say that €8.45 for a cocktail is excessive but the atmosphere was well worth it. To all the girls reading this: a Debutante is a drink with chocolate schnapps, butterscotch schnapps, cream and chocolate shavings. HOW AMAZING DOES THAT SOUND??!

Before I went out, John and I met up with Colm and Sparky to watch a rugby match (our team lost) which is a sport that I'd say is understated in the states. I understand why soccer isn't that big but rugby is awesome and makes football look like golf.

John had a boy's night with some of his buddies at a pub and we met up around 11 and stayed out until after midnight (we're lame, we know).

I'm still down with a bit of a cough but eh, whatever, John worries enough for the two of us. I'm teaching him Spanish and we have to get to the train station but other than that we're pretty much ready to go!

Gotta go now, we're heading over to meet John's grandpa and hang out with his little sisters :)

love to all

Lonely Planet's #1 thing to do in Ireland...

So as you may know, Ireland has many beautiful qualities and miraculous sight-seeing places such as the Cliffs of Moher, or the Aran Islands or the Blarney Castle. But the number one thing to do in Ireland, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook is: Go to a Pub. Wow.

So, following the guidebook like it's my new bible, that's exactly what we did last night. If anyone wants to know, it takes approximately 4 shots to get me twisted (or flutered, trollied, cut, merry or any of the other Irish terms for being drunk) (sorry mom, I guess I am your daughter :) ).

Colm, Tomsy, John and I went out to several pubs, so I guess it's the Irish version of bar-hopping, but really we moved from pub to pub because they all close at different times so we were trying to beat the last call in each, known as a bar crawl.

It was a ton of fun, and Cork City is really nice out at night. Turns out I'm one of the happiest drunks the lads have ever met so they were happy with that.

Today (after sleeping in til noon) I went shopping and tonight I am going to a midsummer festival launch (some opera and music summer festival thing) and then we are possibly going out again tonight. I'll try to take more pictures than I have been and post a few on here.

Love to all, and Caitlyn, I will be in Bergen.

Back in Ireland: My Home Away from Home

So, despite the volcanic ash from Iceland I still managed to make it in to Dublin just minutes after the airport opened. It's so good to be back! John and I made it back down to Cork and visited with his family for the rest of the evening yesterday. This afternoon he had an exam so to keep myself busy, Emma (his roommate's girlfriend) and I made a cake from scratch with the limited tools that an apartment for two boys had for baking.

Not too much to report as of yet, but hopefully we are doing something fun tonight that I may be able to talk about in future messages! I'll be sure to keep you up to date (mom) and Caitlyn, I would love to see you in Bergen!

Take care :)