Noche Larga

Tonight I´m lying here feeling absolutely lost and out of element. I can´t cook, I can´t play music, I can´t hang out with my friends, I can´t call anyone, I can hardly e-mail anyone, I can´t easily find or get in contact with the people here - I can´t watch TV, I can´t hang out in any particular place to meet people... All therre is is to see people in the morning in class, walk around the city alone, talk to mama, go to bars and suffocate and be bored or get drunk with the others at night, or buy stuff. Not a very enticing list, methinks.

There is nothing right now that I want more thatn to just be in the arms of my girl and tell her everything and make some food and then either watch Iron Chef or hang out with some friends watching a movie or playing a game or whatever.

Some of these girls are so them-central and superficial, and it´s just uncomfortable for me. More than that, they seem just uninterested in cultural involvement or adaptation. There are two guys who are really good Spanish speakers, but the rest don´t seem to really care about anything but going out as many nights as possible.

I noted in a store today with Katie that Bethany would like some of the arrings they had. She seemed surprised and enquired if I was sure and how would I know that? Intrigued, I asker her to continue, wherein she told me that she wouldn´t expect a guy to know these things. My response was that absolutely it´s my job to take care of, furnish and protect a girl if and/or when I can, which seemed to srprise her that I would think that. I did add, though, that a girl has responsibilities as well: they are to keep a guy happy enough that he would like to provide these things for her. ´Most guys expect that without giving anything,´ responded Katie. While I´m sad that those would be her expectations, it does seem to make things easier for those of us who like to think of relationships as reciprocal actions. Anyways, spending that time thinking about what Bethany would like only made me miss her all the more and so I was perhaps a bit quiet and distant the rest of the day after I parted ways with Katie and her house-mate Erin, so that I could go to my doctors appointment.

Yeah... so I never mentioned what became of my extremely painful leg. By the end of my stay in Paris, my foot hurt so bad that I could barely lift it, and had to resot to a king of flat-footed flop with my right foot. The pain, of course, only got worse as I continued to walk on it until I got to Spain (and even while here). Still the tendon connecting the top of my foot to my ankle region continued to hurt and so I asked our director, Jesus to see our doctor. Luckily the visit was free and with a progrnosis of tendonitis and a presciption for anti'inflammatory drugs, off I went to spend the rest of my evening, what else, walking around by myself.

While I was walking around, I thought something that could cheer me up would be a visit to a computer where hopefully I´ll h ave a nice e-mail from Bethany and hopefully a comment or two on the blog and perhaps something I just might want to look up in Google or Wikipedia.
So the first place I thought of that I could use for a computer was the Salamanca JMU office. We were all first brought there the second day as part of our ´important sights tour,´and it began as with everything, with a stroll through a confusing maze of corners and calles (Spanish for streets). In an inconspicuous nice apartment complex, we were led up for an unassuming enclosure which turned out to house 5 computers, a bit TV, a conference room, a picture of Wilson Hall from JMU, Jesús´office, and a kitchen that we were told would hold snacks for our usage. We were also told it would be OPEN from Monday to Friday, 4-9pm.
SO with these times in mind at about 7pm I was searching Salamanca for the Calle Dimas Madariaga. I was growing impatient. And... I couldn´t remember which number the place was. Alone and frustrated, it came to me to text message Katie to ask the number. For whatever reason, I was actually kind of angry that she didn´t know even know of course we don´t carry these bits of info with us everywhere. Upset that I couldn´t figure it out, I went all the way back to my home (appr. 15-20 min walk from JMU office) and got the info myself. Ok, got the address, so I went all the way back and was graciously let in the complex by a lady after noone answered my buzzings... then I found the room... Fermé. Cerrado. Closed. Why? I could not understand and could least of all be satisfied. Grumpily I sallied forth an found an internet cafe. Declaring to myself that no matter the cost I would use it, I went in and got a pepsi and sat down. €1/hour? Not bad at all. This might not be so terrible. After a very pleasant conversation with the Spaniard next to me whose wife is coincidentally from VA, a Carribbean man walked in and started talking in one of the international phone booths. No. He wasn´t talking. He was indiscriminately and angrily shouting in some pidgin French dialect for some 10 minutes ' with the entire room staring at him with surprise. He didn´t close the door to his booth because he was standing up and gesturing angrily. We´ll just imagine that he was fighting for the transportation of food to a remote village to feed hungry people. After he left I soon ran out of time and ran home to some delicious roast chicken, potatoes, fried fish and salsa picante. I must have been quiet and surly at dinner because afterwards Austin very nicely pointed out that if I needed to talk about anything that he´d be more than happy to do so. But he and Ian went out for the night, which didn´t interest me with all the smoking and beer. So I hand'wrote a letter to B ethany anf still had trouble getting to sleep, and so here I am, laying and writing in the middle of the night feeling triste y aislado and just wishing to be sleeping somwhere familiar.

Today I bought notebooks (the class books are free) and a new mochila (book-bag) in the one-shoulder mail-carrier style, except light enough to be comfortable and reasonably inexpensive. I think to fit in better here with the locals I will soon buy new shoes and a big scarf. Maybe also a Salamanca University sweatshirt for warmth. The reason all this purchasing seems reasonable to me is that right now Salamanca stores are undergoing something of a holiday in itself -Rebajas (literally sales or rebates) where everything has ridiculously low prices with 50% or 70% - the post Christmas rush if you will.

I also had old building adventures, but these will wait for another day.