My first days in Espana

So, I wish I had a chance to write about more that has happened so far, because by now it is far too much to remember.  I arrived at 9:00 in the morning, tried to get directions from this guy who said, "No hablo ingles," after I had only said excuse me, but I asked him where the train was, I am going to Barcelona, and he pointed towards the train for me.  I got to my host's apartment here in about an hour, but he wasn't home.  I found a park near his house where I took a nap in the sun.  (I know, I know, pickpockets, etc, but I woke up every time anyone came remotely close to me, and 90% of the people there were over 70, I've slept in a bus stop in downtown Chicago, if I can survive that I figured a nice park is acceptable).

I went off in search of an unprotected WIFI connection, which is insanely rare here.  I finally found one while I was sitting in a different park and found an email from my host saying he was at work and wouldn't be home until 7:00, which gave me like another 6 hours to kill.  I walked around everywhere, and about an hour before I was supposed to meet him, I had the balls to go try to buy a bottle of wine for my host.  It was pretty much the most anticlimactic thing ever.  First, I would like to say that alcohol here is literally cheaper than water, which confused the hell out of me.  I picked the most expensive bottle of wine I saw on the shelf, which was less than $2, and went to check out.  It was 1,25€ but when the cashier told me the price I only heard the 25, which sounded much more reasonable to me, so I tried to give her a 25€.  She just kept saying, mas pequeno, of which I only understood "more" in my flustered state, and I was beginning to think the wine was to expensive to be worth it when she finally just grabbed a 5€ bill from me and handed me my change.  I didn't get carded, I later learned that even a 16 year old could buy a bottle of wine or a case of beer.  They have graduated laws, so you can't buy hard liquor until you are 18, because, as it was explained to me, "You can't get drunk from wine or beer!"  Things certainly are different here...  Anyway, I couldn't find my host at 7:00, so I went back to the park to email him again.  We still have no idea what was going on that first night, it was odd.  I sat in the park for like an hour trying to figure out what was going on and watching some kids rolling joints in the corner.  I got bored and decided it was time to grow a pair, so I walked over to them and introduced myself.  They seemed kind of annoyed at my presence, and sort of confused about why I was trying to talk to them.  Then a guy showed up who "knows English" which consisted of a very spotty vocabulary and a minimal understanding of grammar, but his pronunciation was great, so I give him credit for that.  He asked me what the problem was, what did I need, and I kept trying to explain that there was no problem, that I just flew here and I am trying to learn Spanish, that I know only one person here.  Once they figured out why I was here they told me I was crazy, but they started warming up to me and offered me a beer and some "chocolate".  It turns out they weren't smoking pot, they were smoking hash, the super concentrated form of pot that stoners only dream of in the US.  Haha, who I am to turn down Spanish hospitality?  I asked them about the legality of drinking in public and smoking hash and they admitted that it was all illegal, but asked me where are the police, and true enough, I have only seen like two cops in my time here so far.  Apparently everyone does drugs here, lots of drugs, haha, but they warned me to stay away from coke, so I like them.  None of them speak English really at all, so hanging out with them forces me to improve my Spanish quickly, and just last night one of them complimented me on my improvement.  Yesterday we went to the beach, which was amazing.

 I swam in the Mediterrean, just to say I had, because it was cold as fuck, but apparently in a month or so it will warm up a ton.  I now have a pretty awful sunburn to prove my 8 hours on the beach.  There are two establishments on my street, and I'm not sure if they are strip clubs or brothels, but neither would surprise me anymore.  No one gives a fuck about anything here.  You can literally walk naked in the streets and it's perfectly legal.  Haha, but they don't have guns here, which everyone was quick to bring up the first night I was here.  Then everyone made fun of Bush, and talked about how much better Obama is.  I like it here.  I think it's about three days until I am officially an illegal alien.  I'm looking forward to it, and honestly, I'm not too concerned about deportation.

Above are a few of my friends, Oscar, Ciara, and Xavi.  We had a lot of fun getting trashed on the beach, and by this time my Spanish had actually improved enough that we made fun of these stupid American girls together.  I translated all the stupid shit they said for my friends, and then we would laugh about how shallow they are, and Ciara said they remind her of Paris Hilton.  I understand why Americans have such a bad reputation now...