Pray for me

Ok this story is just so weird I had to share it with all of you.

I was checking my email this morning while nursing the hangover detailed below. As I'm catching up on emails and chatting with some people I was asked an interesting question. Below is a transcript from a conversation I had with Jenna Shission this morning.


Jenna: also, is there some ailment you are experiencing that i should know about?
me: I had food poisoning
why do you ask?
Jenna: oh i heard from my sources that people were praying for you at church
me: wtf
Jenna: so i thought id get right to the source
lol
me: what people are praying for me?
i mean i guess thats cool but im pretty healthy
Jenna: lol maybe not...
me: who told you that
Jenna: maybe god knows before you..
lol my sources
me: ok...
not sure why this would be a secret
Jenna: haha
bridget
me: at what church
Jenna: not sure actually
me: hmm, well dont say anything to her. i like the idea of having the church on my side
Jenna: lool
scamming the church i see?
me: well im not scamming anyone, I did not start the rumor.
I'm just asking you to keep insider info to yourself.
Jenna: lol alrighttt

So don't worry team, I'm A-okay.

It's a Tuesday

This morning is bringing back memories of a certain Dinks waitress who had so much unmasked disdain for me that it hurt. Just to bring everyone up to speed; a few years ago - I believe it was - Chaney, Greg, Kyle & I got wasted on a mixture of Brandy, natty and probably something else. This was on a Monday night. Tuesday morning we went to Dinks for breakfast and when the waitress asked how we were doing i replied "A little hungover" to which she said "It's a Tuesday" and walked away.



Today marked another Tuesday morning hangover after a Monday night binge. It is now 3:42PM and I have essentially not gotten out of bed yet today. Last night the plan was to go to La Champagneria with two of our flat-mates for some dinner and drinks. La Champagneria is a hole-in-the-wall bar where they serve really cheap, but good, cava (champagne from Catalonia) and you have to buy tapas for every few glasses you get. The sandwiches and Cava are excellent. It's standing room only and you have to yell your order at the bartender. It's pretty cool but we didn't go there at the best time as it was way too crowded. That was supposed to be the plan for the night, go there and come home.



Well one glass lead to another and when the bar closed at 10:30PM (its more of a restaurant) we decided to go to Chupitos and rip shots. They have hundreds of shots you can choose from most of them involve fire, you being dressed in some costume etc.etc. etc. One of the shots we took involved drinking some kind of green alcohol that sat in a pool of more alcohol through a straw, then the bartender would shove a glass in your face and you would basically huff vaporized alcohol. It was an intense experience. After 3 shots, and a lot of fun, we decided to keep things going.

We went to a few random pubs for a beer or a shot and finally we were going to go to a club but kyle and I were not meeting the dress code. At this point we tried to walk home which should have been a simple enough task. Somehow we did a massive loop around the city and ended up literally right back where we started and hour and a half earlier.



At this point we met back up with our flat-mates and decided to bus it home. The metro had closed around midnight but there was a bus system than ran all night. Anyway, only one of us made it on the bus, surprisingly enough it was not kyle or I.. At this point we wondered around the city for a few more hours met some random dudes from the US and somehow got into some heavy discussions about politics, religion etc. All the while we are buying individual beers off dudes on the street. Now its about 4:30ish and we part ways.



Finally we are on our way home again. We walked by a metro station and realized that they open at 5:00AM, so we waited the 5 minutes. En Route back to our place Kyle and our other flat mate Sebastian decide they are going to go get some McDonalds. I was not up for it so they got off the metro to find some food (unsuccessfully) and I came home to pass out. Kyle and Sebastian made it back at some point after me and I guess called it a night. Oddly enough when kyle woke up this morning he had 42 missed calls from Sebastian. 42. I tried to take a picture of his phone but it did not come out. The night started innocently enough but things definitely got out of hand.

***Update*** Apparently last night Sebastian realized he had lost his keys after him and kyle went to get food. He went back to be beach at sometime between 5AM and 6AM to look for them. He did not find them and was locked out hence the 42 calls to kyle.

Boiler Room

Around 4:30 Kyle and I were heading out the door for a meeting, thanks to my buddy J.Sully (not Kyle's dad) regarding a potential job, when I got a phone call. Earlier in the week I had applied to a financial sales job. I'm not exactly sure what I would be selling but I need work so it seemed like a smart play.

The number comes into my phone as restricted. I answer and the bro starts talking to me telling me he had read my resume and wanted to talk for a minute. It sounded promising at first so I asked Kyle to hold up when we hit a relatively quit part of the street.

First he asks me if I have any sales experience, so I lied and told him I had done some insurance sales and some bull shit telemarketing. After that I told him about some other experience I have and he seemed to think that would suffice.

To this point essentially all I had done was lie and reiterate stuff that he already knew. Now generally speaking in terms of finances and investments I feel much of the responsibility falls in the hands of the investor not the manager / salesman. My fiscal conservatism and pro capitalism mindset can be a flaw in the rarest of occasions, this happened to be one. The first real question the guy asked me, that could not be answered by my resume, was:

"Would you have trouble selling something to a client that benefits you financially while hurting them financially?" I told him thats an ethical question and then responded by saying: "So your asking me if I would be okay selling an asset to a client that I know will adversely effect them financially while befitting me financially at the same time?" The dude tells me that I am correct and have the gist of things. I told him I'm not sure I would be cool with that and that it's not even legal in the US. He then replied "Well this probably isn't for you then." At which point we exchanged pleasantries and ended the call.

Maybe I'm getting soft but I do not want to be barred from the financial services industry for life as a result of financially crippling some Spaniards.

Pre-Gaming Like Bastards

As you all know, drinks in any city are way over priced. Factor in the exchange rate, and the additional club surcharge on drinks, and you get the idea. With that in mind Kyle and I have been pre-gaming like bastards.


The liquor selection is pretty standard, and on a typical Friday & Saturday we go down that road. So far it has been what you would expect; either J&B, Johnny Red, Jägermeister (we live with Germans and they love it), and occasionally some sort of vodka. Kyle & I have gotten blacked out a few too many times already. These blackouts include mixing liquor, beer, & wine/champagne (sometimes) and I have yet to wake up hungover.

I cant really make sense of this. From what I have been told, the wine and beer does not have preservatives in them, but I didn't think liquor had any in it anyway. Whatever the reason, it's nice not being hungover.

Champagne is called Cava here, since, as all you world travelers know, it's technically only Champagne when its from Champagne, France. Anyway, we have not had too much of that but apparently a lot of people party with just Cava...

Beer. The beer selection is rather strange. Spain is not known for its beer which is probably why the selection is lacking and sub-par. Everywhere has Estrella, which from what I can gather is like miller lite. Other than that its anyones guess. Each supermarket has their own beer, some are ok, most are mediocre. Also, beer comes in 10.5oz cans but the alcohol is always 5+%. We have only found 12oz Amstel's and they are the cheapest in the store. Oddly enough you see people drinking all day every day, mainly beer too...


That brings me to my next point. They dont understand buying in bulk here. They package beer, water, pop, everything much like you would see in the U.S. The only difference is you can tear open packages and buy individual cans. This very act got myself and a few others banned from Giant Eagle for life cerca 8th grade. The point is, you can buy the whole package, 12 beers and they charge you as if you are buying 12 individual beers. There is zero price break. I could buy all the beer in the store and not see 1 cent of price relief. Its unreal. This picture represents the closest thing to functional capitalism and commerce in this country (and their pricing system is still totally fucked)

I could rant for hours about the inefficiencies in the Spanish economy, infrastructure, work ethic, and their lack of desire to engage in commerce. It really is no wonder they are pegged to be the next Greece. Spend one week here and you will have no doubt. But I digress, back to the point. All stores and markets are open strange hours and technically you cannot buy alcohol after 10pm - period. This rule of course means nothing if you find the right shops. The right shops are generally convenient store type places owned and operated by Pakistani guys.

Once the alcohol is secured We are generally partying at our flat till sometime between 1 & 2 then going to a club, bar or the beach. The beach is awesome and if any of you come to visit we will have a beach party.

Just a couple of bro's happy to be there...

TEFL 2010

post redacted

Food

If I had my camera on the ready at all times this post could consist of probably 100 pictures by now - Mexican Ketchup, massive pig legs, with some hair still on it etc. Unfortunately that has not been the case, here are a few of the highlights.


Frozen pepperoni pizza from the store - its not DiGiorno





Lemon Lime Gatorade - its not the right color, taste is close - just take my word for it.

Finally, a few hours ago Kyle and I were bored out of our minds, so we decided to head to the store. On our way back after buying chips, juice, and meatballs we found a store that was selling just fruits and vegetables. Realizing that out diets were lacking some essential components we popped in (not off) to pick up some apples and bananas. As I was checking out I noticed a big basket of cherries being sold next to the register. Up to that point I had never eaten a cherry so I figured it was time to cross something off my bucket list. I grabbed on cherry and placed it in front of the cashier who laughed at me and just handed it to me instead of weighing it (freebee). This is her.

Wednesday

Well the TEFL course Kyle and I have been taking has come to an end. We finished our grammar test (yes we're in 4th grade) and are now free. I can safely say I have never spent a month in "class" and learned less than I have this month. Anyway, we decided to get things going after the test - noon-ish.

First stop - Metro Bar. At the Espanya metro stop there are not one, but two bars to satisfy the needs of any alcoholic. Drinking at this bar has been a running joke since we first saw in 4 weeks ago. I dont know who would chose to drink at a bar in the Metro when there are other options, and when you dont have to wait more than 5 minutes for your train. Anyway, just before 12:30 Kyle and I started drinking. So far we had each eaten a chocolate croissant and had water. First drink of the day - Double shots of J&B. Those went down nicely. At this point we realized the benefit of the metro bar. 2 double shots of J&B cost us 5 euros. Since most of the people reading this have pretty solid math skills you can see that this is a good deal.

After taking down a few J&B shots we headed home to dump out backpacks and get some food. 40 minutes and one painfully long metro ride later and we're home. While we waited for the pizza to cook (clearly there is no preheating going on) we decided to shotgun some malt liquor. Volt Damm is 7.2% and tastes pretty bad. Unfortunately I don't have after-shots of us in pain but those did not go down well. It is now 2:00 and we are heading out to keep this party going.