What happens now?

As usual, I have fallen off the face of the blog planet. I have such a love/hate relationship with technology, its bound to happen time and time again.

So, no, I have not spent the past few months trying to get my mother back across the border. We have both arrived safely back to the U.S. I spent some time in Sacramento, Tahoe, San Jose, and San Diego before I came back to the place where I can fry an egg on my sidewalk...Phoenix.

So what happens now? After being on the road for 10 weeks, I admit it is a HUGE letdown to come back to a place where I must walk at least a mile to see another human being. It is a letdown to come back to a job that I don't love and can't imagine doing the rest of my life. It is a letdown to go from being surrounded by people practically 24/7 to going back to being by myself. So what is the solution? Its time to pack up my things, move to California, and go to law school. Oh yes, you've heard it hear first! Its a plan I started in motion at the end of last year, but was sort of top secret since I wasn't truly sure it was right for me.

Now to the questions:

Where am I going to school? Santa Clara University
Where will I be living? Um...good question?
When am I moving? Yet another good question...
Where are the rest of the sabbatical pictures? Hey! What does this have to do with me moving?

Ok, ok..so I hear you all loud and clear. I'm not the best planner, and technology and I have only recently started speaking to each other again. All I know at this time is that I have given AZ a valiant effort, and in the words of Jon Bon Jovi, "I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all!" So watch out California! If you aren't ready for gay marriage, you may not be ready for K.Love!

Movin on up

Yesterday, we took a roadtrip to a small town called Avila. Its about half the size of Salamanca and it has the best preserved medievil fortress wall thing surrounding the city. For a few Euro, we were able to scale the wall and run around looking at the city from above. So they are getting ready to kick us out of the internet cafe, and this may be my last entry since its my last day in Salamanca. Today is my mother´s birthday, and she was more than excited to spend it in the streets of Salamanca. She somehow managed to accidentally meet a bartender friend of mine named Carlos, who I didn´t even recognize right away because it was daylight. Its pretty rare I´m out and about during the day since the nightlife rarely dies before the sun comes up. Anyways, tomorrow we are off to Madrid! I have spoken to Raul, my new friend in Madrid, a few times on the phone this week, and he said its a big party weekend this weekend. He will be taking me out tomorrow, so it will be nice to have a tour guide instead of me fumbling around and trying to figure out things on my own. On Monday, Luis will head back to the U.S. and I will be moving on to Barcelona with my mother. Javier Bardem is filming there as we speak, so I´m hoping to chase him down and tackle him if for no other reason than to say I did. Oh, and also, I found out that my mother somehow managed to sneak her tiny self into this country. She never went through customs, we actually aren´t clear how she got around it, but she has no stamp or paperwork saying she entered through Barcelona, so should be fun trying to get her home. Hasta Luego!

Hurricane Georgina

I thought mom visiting would be a blessing, but I was kind of doing better on my own. She took the same path I did getting here, fly to Barcelona, pass through Madrid, and arrive at Salamanca. What took me 5-6 hour took her almost 15. Why? I can´t even begin to explain, especially she since knows the language way better than I do. Upon her arrival she managed to blow out both of my energy converters and almost started a small fire in my apartment. However, she is now settled here, and having a fabulous time. She met more people on her first day here than I have in three weeks! The awesome thing was that she was able to get me some antibiotics from the pharmacy, and I´m FINALLY on the mend. I´ve gone shopping with her, and finally sat down and wrote out some postcards, so they are on their way kids. On the nightlife front, I got a little to excited with the Ponche chupitos the other night. I helped Luis meet some American´s since he´s having such a hard time with the language, but then got so drunk that I ran away to go dancing. On the plus side I met a nice group of guys from Madrid that kept me out until 1 o´clock the next afternoon. Of course, my life can never go smoothly, so upon saying a nice goodbye to one of them, I proceeded to skid and fall down a small staircase. I now have one butt cheek that is basically black from the bruise. Also, I will add that my mother has been kind enough to invest in several scarves for me so I can walk out in public and not be embarrassed, if you get my meaning. Anyways, I will be meeting up with them again when I head to Madrid on Saturday. I´m down to my last 2 days here. It will be hard to leave. I suppose I´m kind of well known around here now. One bouncer at the Irish Rover wants to meet my mother before I leave. I can´t walk into a club or on the street even without someone saying hello. My cell phone is even ringing with Spanish numbers I don´t recognize! I´m not sure what kind of impression I have left of myself here, but as we all know, K.Love can´t help but leave her mark.

Mom´s on her way

Well this week has gone by fast. Aside from me sleeping through most of it, Luis and I have enjoyed the city as well as the night life. We are both ancy to get back into tourist mode, but are waiting the arrival of my mother so we can city hop. This is my last week in Salamanca, next weekend I head to Madrid! Highlights from these week include us being able to find a table and a restaurant and order food we actually liked, going to a Spanish film, and discovering a love of wine. He has tried to blend in a bit and taken up smoking temporarily. Its seems to work well here. Guys and girls come up to him constantly now either to bum a cigarette or borrow a light. His knowledge of the Spanish language is more limited than mine, so he´s getting a bit frustrated. No matter how hard we look, people who understand English seem non existent here.

There was some celebration last night going on that we didn´t understand. I thought we´d be daring and go to a new dance club. Apparently I found the little vegas section of this small city because all the hard core drugs you can imagine were being done out in the open. I suppose the strangest part for me was that the cops were just standing and talking right outside the door. We didn´t stay long and went back to my favorite place where I scored some rediculously oversized hat and ran around until the morning not being able to see a freakin thing. Go me!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Of course things had to be going to well! Lets see, well when Katy was here she was maced, and someone thieved my PSP. Now, I´m on my fourth day of being sick trying to entertain my buddy Luis. Its hard to try and entertain when I feel awful. I hope it goes away soon. I have no idea about medical terminology in Spanish, but sadly, I think I may need a doctor. I wanted to visit some other towns this week, but don´t know if I can manage. Things will get better I´m sure, but its no fun being since, especially in a different country.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Ok, well today I´m feeling much better, so here goes my attempt at a better blog entry! Katy has been here a week, and the first few days we did all the touristy things like viewing the churches and museums, and walking down around the river. Since then we have joined the spanish crowd for their lively night life. Things I´ve noticed since I´ve been here. The food is very bland. I´ve tried authentic dishes such as paella, and while its ok, I thought it would have a lot more flavor. Their pastries make up for it though. I can´t describe how amazing it all is. The fashion is very different. The spanish aren´t afraid of color! Red pants are very popular here. Also, the guys wear the most beautiful scarves. What else...while everyone here owns a cell phone you wouldn´t know it since texting isn´t a big deal. Even then, I don´t really see anyone walking around talking. Its pretty cool to see people actually socializing in person, instead of only over the phone. Siesta time runs from around 2-5, which now makes complete sense to me since we´ve been going to sleep at 9 a.m. Nobody really speaks or understands English is this particular city, but they are very patient and helpful when they try to communicate with Katy. All the students hang out in Plaza Mayor to talk with their friends, nap, sunbathe, you name it.

Katy has had so much fun here, that she changed her flight to stay a few more days. Since everyone smokes here, we decided to do laundry yesterday. What we failed to remember is that we have no dryer, and that jeans take a wicked long time to airdry. Since so many people recognize us, we hid in our apartment wearing our workout clothes because we were too embarrassed to see anyone. After sitting around for about 6 or 7 hours, they were still wet, but it was her last night, so we slipped them on and went out anyway. We were pretty miserable, and doing our best not to let anyone touch us. It was pretty hilarious. Tonight will be pretty sad since she is leaving, however, tomorrow morning Luis arrives! I´m very interested to see how people react to us. Unless I completely butcher a sentence, people don´t know I´m not Spanish. Luis is hispanic as well, and is going to attempt to speak Spanish, so I wonder if we´ll be able to convince people we are natives. hasta Luego

Happy St Patty´s Day

Here I sit, a broken survivor of the Salmanca night life. Our schedule here has been to sleep a few hours mid morning, walk around the town all afternoon, sit in our balcony and stair at the passersby til evening, the go out and stay out until the sun comes up. If I weren´t so hungover, I would be able to better describe all we´ve done. On the plus side I´ve been working my butt off practicing my spanish. I think about it so much, I have even started to dream in spanish. Very odd. Salamanca is a smaller town than I thought. Last night, Katy and I kept running into people we had met over the week. One guy recognized me immediately as I walked in the door and I had no clue that he had been our bartender just a few nights before. We ended up stumbling on a club that was full of people that spoke English. The funny thing was we hated it. We felt like we were back in the U.S. and now that I´ve experience a little bit of the European style of going out, it seemed like everyone was completely rude. Its really hard to explain unless you experience it. Lets see, what else...oh yes, we´ve managed to be kicked out of a place everyday since we´ve been here. Every museum and store keeps its own hours, and we have no idea when things open or close, so we usually get chased out of each place we try and visit. The crazy event of yesterday was a woman had some sort of anger tantrum because she couldn´t find the water in the grocery store, and attacked the poor cashier in the front. I, being as brave as I am, ran around the corner and hit trying to avoid being scratched by her. I´m pretty sad, because tonight is my last night with Katy. However, I only get a day to recover because then my buddy Luis will be showing up. When I can finally for more coherent thoughts, I will write a better blog, but I am alive and all is well. Oh yes, and I have lots of pictures!