Eurotrip Videoblog

A few guys that I met down here are keeping a video blog of the trip. If you want to see what its like so far (since I don’t take pictures) feel free to check it out.

Visiting the towns around Spain

A lot has happened since my last entry! I’ve been pretty busy. Last Thursday we took a train to Medina del Campo. There’s not much there except a really big castle. The had a huge tower in the middle and a moat around the it (although it doesn’t have water in anymore). They were saying that in the summer, they bring bands into the castle and they have a concert in the moat, that would be cool to see! The train system here is very independent. It makes it difficult for people who don’t speak Spanish to catch the right train. Some from our group ended up getting on the wrong train and went 40 minutes away in the opposite direction.

Last Saturday we went to Salamanca. Salamanca is an extremely old city and actually has the oldest university in Europe (I think even in the world). Like everything here, it’s beautifully decorated and hosts a myth with a frog. It’s said that if you are able to find a frog in the immensely decorated front, you will return to Salamanca in a year and if you don’t you will fail your exams. After a while of searching, I found it (supposedly) but it doesn’t look like much a frog anymore. read more »

Goddamn Mother Nature

Who else woke this morning looked at the thermometer and promptly said, “What the Hell?!?”

Two days ago it was above 80°. This morning it’s 40°. When I get out of work, I refuse to acknowledge the elements if I see white shit falling from the sky.

What Sid does in the office all day.

When I go to the office in the morning, Sid goes to his “office”. And in the office, he has his collection of toys (or chompables) that normally keep him busy. It’s hard work chomping all those things beyond recognition. Obviously this time he had a different agenda. Apparently the Ikea Pug Bed (PAX THUBLÅD in Ikea speak) needed a few alterations.

Damn it.

Now Sid needs a new bed and certainly has his daily intake of fiber. Fiberfill that is.

New Goober Server

Goobertech is on a new server (and all the other goober-sites, too). Now there’s twice as much space and twice as much speed. There shouldn’t be anymore lags in load time and no more damn MySQL timeout errors. Woohoo.

¡Hola de Espana!

Hello Everyone! I safely arrived in Spain after traveling for almost 18 hours. The flights and everything were fine and they showed movies on the plane. I watched American Gangster then took an Ambien and when I woke up we were there.

In Spain its about 20-25 degrees Celsius (about 75F). It rains nearly every day so we always need to have a our rain coat with us. I live about 15 minutes away from the school. I have three other friends which live nearby so we walk to school together. Our apartment is really small. My bed is especially small and is not firm at all! I cannot sleep well at night, good thing we have siesta everyday and are required to take a 3 hour nap.

The first day we arrived (on Friday) was very hectic. We were all tired from the trip and arrived in Valladolid to meet our families at noon. Our host mom is Carmen and is very nice! She owns her own carniceria (butcher shop) and is an incredible cook. Each day she cooks us lunch at 2:30 and feeds us way to much. I’m going to gain at least 20 lbs this trip I think. After lunch, it’s pretty much required to have a nap because every store in Spain closes and there is nothing to do. After the nap on Friday, me and Mike (my roommate) explored the city and got lost for about an hour (we weren’t given maps yet!). We finally returned and ate supper (supper is served at 9-10). Afterwards we met up with other people and went to the bar. read more »

Cancer is so yesterday, on with the world traveler status.

And he is off!! By now Kevin should be somewhere over the Atlantic on the way to Madrid, Spain. 30 SJU and CSB students along with Kevin will be staying with host families in Valladolid (northwestern part of Spain) and attending the University there for May-term. They will also be touring and doing some fun stuff on w/e’s and throughout the month until returning on 6-20.

Kevin had a whirlwind last month with end of semester finals, term papers, projects, meetings for Spain and for fall study abroad in Australia. Even though his time was limited, he still managed to attend all the parties and social activities that were a necessity (according to him) for end of year bonding. Amidst all of that, he had numerous medical and dental apts since everything had to be completed before he left today. read more »

I'm inheriting $4,650,000 from Nigeria!

I probably get five of these a day, but this one was particularly clever. Not only did the sender do enough research to bypass my gmail filter, but he also sent it to my work email address. No “bot” could do that, you’d have to google search my name and find the various contact info. Kudos to the Nigerian scammer for being tenacious.

I was not aware of any Fuchs’s in Nigeria, but you never know right? My chances of that are probably better than winning the lottery with tickets I never buy. Anyway, here’s what Mr. Aroma sent: (love the name, no?) read more »