Over Inspired

The reason I haven't been blogging isn't a lack of inspiration, or being too busy. I have actually had too much inspiration. Countless times I have sat down at my laptop, opened up Blogger and stared aimlessly at the screen until I decided to just go look at Facebook because I wasn't going to write anything. To alleviate the situation, I decided to by a small notebook in which to chronicle my thoughts. So, from now on instead a play-by-play recap of my time in Spain, it will be selected notes and observations. Enjoy:

10/22/08 on the train heading back from uni:

If Philadelphia is the city of Brotherly Love, then Madrid is the city of Platonic Love. This city drips lust and sex out of every one of its pores. The smell of the city and the prostitutes lining the streets create a city-wide horniness that manages to perverse every facet of our collective being. You can call it culture or obsession, but what ever it is, everyone feels it. Maybe it was the 30 years of sexual repression under Franco's regime, but there is definitely a sexual revolution occuring in Spain.

The evidence is in the streets.

There, lovers, prostitutes, and lovelorn singles cross paths everyday. Although most are looking for love, and some for the kind that can be bought, many have already found it. Perhaps it is the sexual acts I've seen in doorways, on street corners, and in the Metro on late weekend nights. Whatever it is, it's everywhere.

Ironically, this culture which displlays such affection towards those who are familiar, gives a cold shouler to outsiders. Glaring looks are received after accidentally bumping two entangled lovers. In this momoent they turn their love in to seemingly pure hatred for you. Hatred because you ruined that shear moment of passion, hatred because you existed, just pure hatred. They never resort to violence, but their death glares envoke the same amount of damage as any knife could.

This is the duality of Spanish love: passionate love balanced by nonverbal physical hatred. Viva amor.

Wi-fi: The Opiate of the Masses

So, I finally got wi-fi in my apartment, and let me tell you it's the best feeling in the world. I finally have some sort of connection with everyone back home! So on to stories from the last week. As you can see from my previous 2 posts, I was going through a bout of homesickness. I told my friend Mariah about it here and she decided to take me on a week of adventures. Things didn't exactly turn out how we had planned, but we managed to create a fun week out of our endeavours. To culminate our week, we decided to go on a daytrip to Toledo (south of Madrid). Funny enough, Toledo is about as far from Madrid as Toledo is from Detroit. Anywho, we got lost in the city, found a great pizza place (finished 3rd in the European pizza cup) and managed to get down all the way to the river and take some amazing pictures. Then we walked all the way back up to the top of the city and saw el Alcazar and the Toledo Military School from across the river. I'd keep describing it but my words do not do it any justice. The proof is in the Kodak, so check the pictures at the bottom of this post.

In other news, Spain has been good. Met some interesting people from all over the world (England, Ireland, Argentina, Switzerland, Sweeden, Finland, France, etc...). The strangest thing is the fact that I continually see people who look exaclty like the people from home.

So far I've seen: "Jillian", "John Vournakis", "Justin Rinke", and "Matt Embree" of rx bandits fame. The latter I've seen a million times, you have no idea how many dirty hippies there are in Spain.

Spain is rife with amazing grafitti, so take a look in the pictures to see what you're missing.

Anyways, here's the photos, take it sleasy.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032457&l=6b6ea&id=36202877
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032456&l=3f101&id=36202877
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032455&l=36d6f&id=36202877
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032389&id=36202877