Mexican Party

Last night I cooked Mexican food for a bunch of folks in honor of Baek going home to Korea today. We've tried a few Mexican places in Barcelona and can't find anything decent, so he challenged me to cook something better before he left. It was actually a bit fun to hunt down all the ingredients to make guacamole, chicken & mushroom fajitas, and flan. I had to learn many more words, like the Spanish word for cumin (comino). The other residents of the apartment I'm staying at were surprised to see me cooking so much because I've never really used the kitchen in the three weeks I've lived here. When I cook, I cook!

New Pics of Spain and Italy

Starting here in the Spain 2005 album and in the Italy_2005 album are pics from Italy, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and San Sebastian. Enjoy!

Returning to Real Life

On September 12 I will fly back to the United States. This will have made my stay 3 months and a week long. While I am ready to return home, in the last couple of weeks I have been living as more of a local here. Having to do normal everyday things like grocery shopping, going to see a doctor, meet native Spaniards, see Spanish movies, etc. has gotten me curious about what it would be like to stay longer and really live here. Since I've been out of school for a while and away from students I've been slowly meeting some locals and foreigners who are living here for a long time. Plus I am getting comfortable with speaking everyday Spanish. I could certainly see myself staying for longer. But then I would need to get at least a part time job here, which was part of my original plan but never happened. My friend Diana is planning to stay in Barcelona for 6-12 months and has recently gotten a job working in a bar in order to make some money while she looks for a paying photography job. I guess that I would have to do something similar. I admire her dedication to starting a new life here.

However I need to return home. I never felt that I really adjusted to city life after I moved to downtown San Francisco a couple of years ago, since it was all too easy to continue the suburban life that I had been living for many years prior. My friend Sarah has always been really good at meeting people and always finding interesting things to do in San Francisco. I finally got into the habit of doing that here in Barcelona and think I will be much better at it when I return and will be better able to enjoy the beautiful and interesting city that I live in. Furthermore there is progress that I want to make in my current job and career in general.

But in the future... anything can happen. Now that I've gotten a taste of living in an interesting place outside of California I am sure that I will do something similar in the future. Next on my travel agenda is South America. Everyone I know who have traveled there have had only wonderful things to say about their experiences. Anyone want to come with me?

Modeling Pictures

I finally got copies of the pictures taken of me and other students for the International House's new marketing materials such as posters, brochures, etc. The folks in the marketing department were totally nice for letting me just copy them onto a memory stick. Other friends of mine were also photographed for the same purpose, so the new brochure they will use for the next three years will have pictures and quotes from me and my friends... sort of like a mini-yearbook! I saw a proof of the brochure today and top photo above is in it along with a quote of mine about meeting so many different types of people at the school.

Nivi is posing with me in the second photo above. She's totally sweet and has worked as a professional model in Bombay and Hong Kong. She was used as the primary model for the lifesize poster now hanging from the windows in front of the school. It was fun for me to see the modeling process from the other side of the camera. All of the pics I got copies of are here in the International House Model album.

Traveling around Spain

Last week Baek (roomate and friend from school) and I went to Valencia for a couple of days. The photo above is from the new Center for Arts and Sciences. Tonight we're off again along with Diana (newspaper photographer and another friend from school) to Bilbao and San Sebastian!

Night Shot Action!

So I've started taking night shots of cities again. In the past I've taken night shots with B&W film of Las Vegas, London, and Shanghai which you can see in this portfolio album. Tonight I started my Barcelona shooting with the biggest daddy of them all... the Sagrada Familia. Today I bought a $50 tripod to stabilize my Canon 20D for the long exposures required for this type of shot.

My Vacation Reading List

I usually read spy and tech thriller novels when I'm on vacation. Here's what I've read while riding the trains in Italy and relaxing back in Barcelona:

Angels and Demons Dan Brown
The Scorpoio Illusion Robert Ludlum
Deception Point Dan Brown

I'm now reading:

Pattern Recognition William Gibson

I'll probably read next:

Quicksilver Neal Stephenson

The Running of the Bulls

Now that I'm chillin' with some time on my hands I can catch up on some past stuff in my blog. On July 7 I went on a school trip to Pamplona to see the famous running of the bulls, which is also known as San Fermin. The bus left at four in the afternoon and dropped us off there late at night in Pamplona around 10pm. We didn't have any hotel booked and we were just supposed to stay up all night and party before watching the running the next morning at 8am.

The whole town was partying like crazy all night long by dancing and drinking indoors and out. The dress for everyone was white pants and shirt with a red scarf. While the rest of the group went to drink, Felicia and I instead went to a carnival to have fun on the rides and eat yummy junk food! We also watched some bands play in the park, etc. all of which was better than just drinking all night long. The carnival also had a really nice fireworks display, which made up for not seeing fireworks on the 4th of July.

At about 6am we found staked out spots along the route where the bulls would run by on the way to the stadium. The actual running of the bulls wasn't as big of a deal as I had thought. The entire run lasted for about three minutes, and by the time the bulls got to where I was they looked really tired and were just trotting casually. They didn't even look menacing! Everyone had told me not to run since it could be really dangerous. However I think it would have been fine. After the bulls ran through the streets they went into the bullfighting arena where people ran around and harassed them for the next 45 minutes. Seeing all of that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Soon after the run had taken place we saw it on the news in a cafe while we were getting breakfast. It looked much more exciting from the point of view of the news cameras which were in perfect locations on cranes and could zoom in, play in slow motion, etc. We had to leave soon after the morning run, but there was also a real bullfight in the arena that night. The partying, bull run in the morning, and bullfight at night were repeated every day for a week. What a big party! It was interesting to see it once, but that was enough. Actually the best part of the trip was hanging out with Felicia and getting to know her better.

It's Not You, It's Me

I just saw the Argentinian movie No Sos Vos, Soy Yo. It's a comedy (in Spanish) about a guy trying to date other women after his wife cheats on him and leaves him. Well, it's a sort of a comedy. Part of it is also sad. The movie got me thinking about how people can so easily grow apart in relationships. In this movie the wife strayed from him because she was missing passion even though they were in love. She didn't know that was the problem at the time she left him, but the movie made it pretty clear that he could not satisfy the women he was with.

This is the first movie I've watched here that's entirely in Spanish. Luckily I was able to understand most of it. But since it's a pretty standard relationship movie, anyone could probably understand it without speaking Spanish.

Back in Spain!

Today I returned to Barcelona from Italy. For the last couple of days we were in Venice enjoying the sights and even more Italian food. My diet recently has pretty much been pizza, pasta, and gelato with an occasional salad. Now I need to find an apartment for a month or so before I return home from this fantasy trip and come back to real life. I will probably come back mid-September, after my good friend Wei comes to visit me in Barcelona.

We saw and ate our way through many places in Italy: Milan, Parma, Pisa, Florence, Siena, Rome, Capri, Naples, Pompeii, Cinque Terre, and Venice! I have a much greater appreciation now for Italian food since I've learned much more about it. Hmmm... maybe I even like it better now than Mexican! Perhaps I need to do a similar trip through Mexico to really learn about its varying cuisines...

Eating at the Mafia Front

Today we went to lunch at an Italian restaurant near the central train station in Naples which was recommended by my Lonely Planet book. The guy at the entrance was very nice and ushered us in to sit down inside. We immediately noticed that there weren't any other customers inside, just some guys sitting around talking whom all seemed to know each other. Then as we ate, some big guys came in with briefcases. They all sat down and started talking seriously with each other. We weren't sure what to think so we ate up and didn't ask any questions. On the way out we noticed that the wife and son of one of the guys were waiting outside. I guess they knew to stay out of the way...