Subject:   Finally ...

Date:   12/6/2003 9:53:30 AM

 

 

 

.... I´ve been mugged!

 

 

Well not really mugged. And not really me. But twice!

 

So, I´m in Barcelona now staying at a hostel with a bunch of younger folks

who like to drink. And around the corner from a store with 78 cent bottles

of wine[1]. So we had some wine and tried to go out to a bar. Those of you

who come on the [2]fishing[3] trip know that I have bad luck trying to stick

with a group of people[4]. Anyway, a guy named Dave and I somehow got

seperated from the group and ended up walking around La Rambla[5] looking at

the people, when we suddenly realized that our bladders are the size of

thimbles and we had to empty them. So into the Burger King[6] and down the

stairs we stumbled. When we got into the bathroom, someone had spilt soap

on the floor and it was slippery. I washed my hands and walked out just as

two other guys walked in. After a couple of seconds I opened the door to

see the two guys grabbing my friend and reaching in his pockets. So

naturally I grabbed the closer guy and basically threw him across the burger

king basement into some chairs in a very olde tyme tavern fight kind of way,

and my friend was able to get away from the other guy and we left.

 

It turns out these guys put soap on the bathroom floor and when I left the

bathroom, the one guy pretended to be slipping and bumped into my friend,

who naturally tried to help him. He didn´t think anything of it, but then

the other guy came in and did the same thing. Scam!

 

When we were walking home someone else started reaching into my friend´s

pockets near the hostel, but I don´t remember very much of that. I think we

just walked away. By then he had put all his important things in his money

belt so he was fine, if a little molested.

 

Adventure!

 

I purchased one of those little micro-cassette recorders to try and record

some of the sounds on my travels. Even though it´s ´micro´, it´s still a

pain to carry around and I wasn´t getting anything good on it, so yesterday

I left it in the hostel when I went out walking. By leaving it behind I was

guaranteed to come across plenty of wonderful sounds. When I was leaving

the market, a woman stopped me to tell me something in Catalan. She was

well-dressed and definitely not homeless. I´m not sure what she was telling

me, but it took 15 minutes and involved the words Catalan, medicamente,

doctor, professoria, and quite a lot of other words. As best I could

figure, she was 85 years old, she was born in Barcelona and she was either a

medical doctor, or she needed to see a medical doctor. I tried and tried to

get away, but she kept telling me things and althogh I didn´t want to

interrupt her stories, I don´t understand enough Catalan to know when the

important parts of the story were coming up.

 

Once I got away from her, I went over to the University of Barcelona, which

looks like a combination of a gothic library and an art museum. None of the

students ever graduate because they are constantly stunned by the beautiful

building. My fate still being determined by the microcassette recorder

sitting in my hostel locker, I stumbled into a lecture hall where a choir

was singing. About 15 people who sounded like angels. Really fantastic.

 

The courtyard of the university has orange trees with oranges growing on

them. I´m sure many of you don´t find that amazing, but I´m pretty sure the

only orange tree in Windsor is Scott's little tree that Stacy gve me to take

care of[7]. In the reception area, there is a flyer telling students that

the University of Barcelona has an affilliation with ... you guessed it,

University of Illinois! So I was standing in Barcelona looking at a picture

of the UIUC quad.

 

Well, now I´m off to see some buildings architectified by Gaudi and maybe

tomorrow I´ll go to Sevillia. My attempt to learn some Spanish has been

greatly slowed here because the hostel is full of Canadians.

 

Bien dia eh,

jay

 

 

 

[1] called ´mesa´ wine because it tastes like dirt from Arizona.

[2] "

[3] "

[4] next year we´ll all hold onto a rope.

[5] 'La Rambla' basically means the main street in Catalan.

[6] 'Burger King' means public washroom in many languages.

[7] ´Don´t worry Stacy, it´s in good hands!