Jazz, Lieber Jazz!

Sehr geehrte Blogleser:

Nach einer kurzen Pause, bin ich endlich wieder da. Danke sehr für Ihre Geduld. Ich weiss nicht genau was ich hier in der Zukunft machen will, aber im Moment bin ich wieder zufrieden, in guter Laune, und angemeldet!

Vielen Dank,
-Sepp-

Chiroptology

Sometimes i wish i could just...

hang upside down

sleep during the day

come out at night

eat insects


.
.
.

Ghost bats are gentle, warm-blooded mammals.

Cycling Rocks

The Rule


World Cup Biking


Orange Cup Biking


Bike to save the universe, bike to save yourself from becoming a blob, bicycle because it's good for you!


"Bicycle! Bicycle! I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike! I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my, bicycle! Bicycle!" -Q-

Aventura III...al revés

Getting back to the United States can be rough. Really rough. Actually telling the story in reverse would be very hard (i tried) so i'll just do it in steps: Resting my head on a pillow atop an air mattress in Raleigh, North Carolina last Saturday night at about 3 am EST, i reflected on the last…who knows how many hours. i now find myself in a library in Cape Carteret, North Carolina near Emerald Isle where i've been at the beach house for five days. Kirsten is probably in Ukraine by now (pray for her!) and Ukraine’s Football Club (that’s soccer) also plays today. i arrived in Raleigh on Saturday evening a whole day after I was supposed to. i arrived at New York’s JFK early Friday night in order to catch a flight to Raleigh, but found that my flight was cancelled due to weather. Not only that, but i find that all the flights out of JFK to Raleigh for the next three days are booked solid with filled standby lists. There are some options: La Guardia Airport has some flights which leave tomorrow, but i've only got $40 US. Of course neither American Airlines (the associate airline i'm flying with) nor British Airways (the line I bought the ticket from) will do anything to help me—no transportation, no lodging, nothing. Having just arrived from London and before that Málaga, i'm tired, but i decide, hey, i'll take the 4pm flight out of La Guardia, get a cheap place to stay and see the city in the morning before having to get to the airport! Right… Except that i'm in New York City, one of the most expensive places in the world and i've got my suitcase, my guitar, and my backpack. For now i don’t really dwell on this fact, but instead go to visit Kyle Warner who is also in the airport after his flight. We left Spain at the same time, only he went through Madrid. His flight leaves early in the morning to LA. When all is said and done, he will actually be on Catalina Island before i leave New York (quite a feat, Catalina Express ride included). Unfortunately for him he’s got a busted toe. The cab ride from JFK to La Guardia would have cost me $25 minimum, and up to $35 or higher, so I opt to “do it my way.” i board the Airtrain (JFK’s tram service) which connects me to the Subway system. To exit costs me $5. i also buy two dollars’ worth of credit to get me on the subway in the right direction. Of course, no trains actually go to La Guardia so i'll have to change to a bus. Bus Q33 to be precise. i exit the Subway system at 74th/Roosevelt in Queens and i look for some food. i head across the rain-kissed New York street to a Subway sandwich establishment and get a footlong—half for now, half for later. Boarding the bus, i expect to have to pay another $2, but an attendant informs me that my $2 for the Subway ride actually covers my transfer (sweet!) so i make it to La Guardia having spend about $12 total: $5 for a sandwich and $7 for transportation. Of course it took me longer and was slightly more difficult, but certainly more adventurous. At least now i still have some money to buy food. What’s really great is that since my arrival i've been able to use my cell phone which has free nationwide roaming! i had been contemplating my options to find out if there was anyone i knew in New York with whom i could stay for the evening, but no one came to mind, at least that i could get into contact with immediately. i ended up sleeping for about 3 choppy hours atop my luggage while i waited for the AA ticketing counter to open to try to get on an earlier flight. i got on standby for a flight in the morning, but it got cancelled, too. So i ended up going out on my initial 4pm flight. After i FINALLY got to Raleigh, i met up with my aunt, got picked up by my grandma, went back to the house, took a nap, and then picked up my family en route from San Jose…

Big Toe. Sweet movie from some Chapman film students, and also Kyle’s problem. After staying up all night our last night in Granada and going to the sulfur thermal baths (Los Baños Santa Fe) we arrive back at the house to pack up our stuff and catch the bus to our flight. Kyle grabs his stuff and proceeds to loudly fall down the stairs and smash his toe. He’s limping the whole way and says it might be broken. Later he finds out it’s not, but he sprained it and jammed his toenail in a bit (ouch!).

During our stay in Granada we were with Kyle’s host family, seen below. They were extremely hospitable and generous with their time and space and FOOD! (it was VERY excellent, let me tell you) We got laundry done, went swimming in their pool, slept like kings, drank Gazpacho every day (at least i did!), and got a great sampling of other choice Spanish cuisine, gracias a Mariola. It was great to see Kyle in his habitat, and share some experiences with him that no one else ever will! Some highlights include: visits to La Bodeguilla with friends and family, Susana’s birthday party in the countryside, riding with Rober, Popy, Eva, driving to Pampaneira, Celia’s cumpleaños, La Alhambra, self-cleaning public toilets, a new office party, La Feria (yikes!), and little to no sleep. Kyle got more photos of folks on his digital camera than i got on my disposables (what you see below) so check those out if you get a chance.

To close (or begin) the last part of our story, our trip to Granada was as follows: we left Barcelona (with sad hearts…Pijus and Ivan der Schreckliche were great hosts!) and we took a bus to Valencia. After arriving in Valencia we found a hostal and went to go see a free blues concert by a band from Chicago! We had passed them warming up when we were looking for a place to spend the night and got the scoop. The next day we went to El Mercado Central de Valencia and it was AMAZING! Very cool and lots of fun—we got food for the whole day. We got our stuff and boarded a bus to Murcia for the next leg of the journey. We played on the street for a final time in the central square in front of the Cathedral as we waited for the office of tourism to open so we could find a place to stay. After finding a place, we walked around town a bit and saw some stuff and then went back to the pensión to get some rest and talk about the next leg of the journey. Getting up the next day, we went to the Mercado Central, this time in Murcia, and did the same thing. So fun! i wish we had stuff like that in the US. Then we went to Granada.

May i just take this opportunity to say that i am so blessed to have been able to travel with Kyle Christopher Warner. A man of God and an encouragement in many ways (also a challenge!), Kyle taught me more about what true fellowship is like. We grew as friends and as brothers in Christ and i hope that the Lord has great things in store for us for years to come.
Proverbs 27:17


Welcome to Granada!
left to right: Luisa, Cándido (El Candi), Enríque, Celia, Cristóbal, Maria, Mariola


Refuge from el calor plastante.


View from windows of La Alhambra toward Granada.


Sueños de La Alhambra. El Cielo que brilla.


¡Qué modelos!


Maria y Cristóbal en el autobús


L2R: Cristóbal, Maria, Popy, Pili


¡Hasta luego amigas, compañeras!
L2R: Cristóbal, Luisa, Popy, Maria, Eva, y yo

Aventura II

Leaving Barcelona...
Backpackers House BCN has been very good to us and the international atmosphere is fantastic. We have met people from all over Europe (Poland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Italia, England, Austria -- at least) and even some folks from our side of the globe, both north and south (The Great White North, Oregon, Minnesota, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Chile). Much like my last time in Barcelona about a year ago (Al of Alberguest, an affiliate of the hostal we´re staying in saved Kirsten and i from wandering Las Ramblas at 3 in the morning!) this place has been a great home base and a lot of fun. i hope we can find other places like it before we get to Granada, but we´ll see. One thing Kyle and i have been finding is that it doesn´t matter where you go in our world because you will always meet people from all over the place, so in a sense one need not travel to experience world cultures. Of course there is something unique about going to a foreign place and seeing things of eras-gone-by and the deeds of men and women of yore, but essentially what we´ve found is that one ought to keep an open mind about people in general or one will learn nothing. You can travel across the globe and still not learn anything about mankind, yourself, the world, or the deepest yearning in the depths of your soul. This is something that we´ll have to keep in mind when we get back stateside and is something that we hope you all are doing no matter where you are: listening to people. Relating to them, hearing there story, being present to their needs and being ready to serve them, whether or not you´ll get anything in return. Even in smaller community there are things you´ve never seen or discovered, often because people and things become masked by routine. Like the sage Pijus once said, "lo peor es la rutina" (routine sucks!), but as we all know, it is necessary in part for people to function together and to get anything done. Like the words of the song "El Ritmo del Mundo" say, "cada día descubro secretos nuevos / y me dan el principio para soñar." Let´s discover the new secrets in our lives, and maybe, if we´re daring, dream a little.

FOTOS!!!





Lute/Laúd


A less well know work of Gaudí


Siempre de moda








Mmmmmmm...


¡Hasta Luego!

Aventura 1

We arrive in Málaga. Really Kyle is already there and he´s got a hostel all ready for us at €15 a night. Little do i know that i´m going to get eaten alive by a million mosquitos at this place. ...and kill not a few on the walls, splattering their (my?) blood everywhere. Anyway, we walk around, talk a hike up the hill for a breath taking view of the city and we sleep. We eat at a place called Quitapenas and have tapas. The next day we eat at a restaurant for breakfast and meet a waiter from La Mancha. He recommends Mago de Oz and Extremaduro as good Spanish music we should check out. We go to Candilelas, the music store he also recommends, and find out that both seem like crazy metal/hard rock which we opt to check out when we get back to the States, especially since we have no CD player. We then go to the Arab baths and stay for 3 and a half hours with an exfoliating massage with oil and salt (whoa!) enjoying the sala de descanso (rest room) drinking tea and sitting on pillows and recliners. Tranquilo. Then we check out the Alcazaba of Málaga, which has many similarities to La Alhambra de Granada, which we may see later. We do some more stuff and go to sleep. We wake up, go to the pedestrian zone, and play some tunes. We break two strings and earn €3. We then take bus 19 to the highway and start to hitch-hike. Rafael from Paraguay, a truck driver, picks us up. Then Noah, an East German. Then two blokes from the UK. Then 3 Spanish gypsies. After a long day of travelling, we arrive in Ronda. BEAUTIFUL. God´s country. We spend some days in Ronda, hitch-hike to Sevilla, ride the bus back to Ronda with Lilia and do some more stuff in Ronda and send her on her way back to Granada. There was some more stuff, blah blah blah and i left out some details, so deal with it. We are currently in Barcelona. Here´s some documentation:

La Alcazaba de Málaga


El campo alrededor de Ronda


La puente nueva de Ronda


Autostop II


Kyle has slightly more trouble getting rides...


Grant and his kids came too.


Stay tuned: more adventures to come!

BCN

Bueno. Hemos Llegado. Tenemos cuentos de aventura hasta el cuello. Que vendrán pronto, ¿vale?

-Cristóbal y Pepe-

¡Venga, hombre!

Couldn't resist.

Rock and Roll?
Drugs?

Hostage Being Held

until someone does something awesome such as fill my house with hand-woven baskets from ceiling to floor, builds a samoan hammock hut in the back yard for ten, or...

comes over and cooks me dinner and hangs out with me.


Those are my terms and they are non-negotiable, otherwise webface here get whacked.

Happy Mother's Day

to all the mothers out there! i would in particular like to thank my mom, Cheryl and my grandmothers Grandma Jones and Grandma Choate. Let's all take a moment to let the women in our life know that they are special!

Two Points

1.Old Man: "Looks like you were up before breakfast this morning..."
Whipper-Snapper: "Well, i wasn't eating in my sleep!"


2. "i can't find your shorts, so i guess you're just going to have to go without them!"

i wish.

Moving on...

Well.
in other news.

school is almost out and i've a few more projects/essays left over. This week is going to be particularly crazy and assignmentful. i'm really excited for school to be over and for this summer to begin. It's high time.

Wow, that was random! Sorry about that...



i'm really stoked for the play to premiere as well. It's been faily cool to be part of, but unfortunately quite stressful and annoying as well. It should be good...i hope.

Due to brain farts and prolonged staring i'm going to wrap this up and hope that i don't explode.

Snippets of: An Interview with Carmen Laforet

"You are sweetness and light, I can see myself in your eyes."
(a Mother's Day poem from Agustin to his mother, Carmen)

Interviewer: If you could speak with a writer from the past, whom would you pick?
Laforet: No one, because I have their works. I believe that writers are their books, although once in a while you may meet someone wonderful who is both a writer and your friend.
(My true feelings about Aro...*sigh*)

CL: ...I also won a prize for La mujer nueva, but I forget what it was called.
Interviewer: Not only one, but two of the most prestigious ones: the Menorca Prize and the National Prize for Literature. So I know more about your work than you do, and I am going to become your biographer along with your son!
CL:Yes, you know a lot more, because I forget about things like this.
(yeah!)

CL:...My father remarried, which was a very trying thing for me because my stepmother was very nasty.
Interviewer: You were determined to leave home and study in Barcelona?
CL: My father and stepmother didn't want me to take the trip. So I had to blackmail my father with something I don't want to talk about. I actually turned eighteen on the boat on my way over to the mainland.
(crazy! i laughed a lot when i read this.)

"Carmencita, tell us a story, tell us a story." My brothers still remember the stories I made up about captains who had to be three years old because if they were older they were not worth mentioning.

Interviewer: Do you still play with reality and fantasy? Can you keep them apart?
CL: It is one and the same thing. Reality is made up of dreams, impulses, friendships. Sometimes I think there is no reality at all. But I don't like to philosophize, you know...
(sorry Grant!)

CL: I lead a very quiet and peaceful life, I am always available to help out someone in need, and I value my freedom, so I don't like to be surrounded by many things. In fact, I throw many things way. The other day, I came across a blouse a friend of mine gave me when I lost my suitcase during one of my trips. She thought it was a tragedy, but I didn't see it that way. I didn't mind going to the lecture not wearing a pretty dress and nice shoes. I like to think that I own very little, and that it can all fit in those two suitcases I never open. The next time I go on a trip I will take only hand baggage.
Interviewer: Who is Carmen Laforet?
CL: Who is she? I don't know.
Interviewer: But you have known her all your life! Who is she?
CL: Nobody, nobody.
Interviewer: What do you mean by nobody?
CL: An average person, for whom at any given moment friendship is what matters most. What I cannot bear is that false publicity given about me.

He's got the whole world in His hands

I fear no evil for You are with me
Strong to deliver mighty to save

He's got the whole world in His hands

Progress

My first phone. AT&T Wireless (before they went belly up). An old Nokia.


My second phone. On AT&T Wireless to start and then devoured by Cingular, which still somehow has no idea what they're doing and doesn't care about how many people got screwed by being 'transferred' from AT&T. Another Nokia. This one got stolen or lost (i think i left it in front of my house). 'Twas a shame because i had some cool old pics on it which i'll never get back. :(



Sort of the same deal as the last phone. Crappy ATT/Cingular/something/no service (no reception in my house including my own room and a crazy pirate signal which hijacks any and all speakers or radio systems causing them to malfunction and make weird noises. How i hated this.) The phone was ok in some ways, but very annoying in others. Special thanks to Krista of the Pine Street house for letting me have this though, to tide me over 'til the switch.


My current phone. Sleek, new, exciting, sly. Mostly great features, a few annoyances. The best part, though, is no pirate radio hijacking and reception EVERYWHERE IN MY HOUSE. Great reception most places, actually. Verizon kicks Cingular's singular cellular butt.

Engrish

"If any native speaker of English would have seen this, they could have easily told them to fix it! Horrible."
-Kirsten

(click on image to read it
...sorry it's unreadable as is)

Aro poignantly pointed out how lost we'd all be trying to write in Vietnamese. All the characters are so similar, so how could you tell the difference between them, like, say between an 'l' and a 't'?

i like positor food, myself.

Slap!

This year it occurs on Thursday April 20th.
Check it out!

Also-video! A little long with a few unneccessary parts, but definitely worth braving for a few minutes!



it's coming....

Brandon White

He's a magnetic poet
Shifting slightly,
Pondering cautiously,
Trying to determine
the perfect order
of words and rhythm
and perhaps rhyme.

He arranges the pieces
on the refridgerator
He magnetizes his audience,
attracted by his artful essence.