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| So this is the center of Alcala. The main plaza is down the street and to the right. The University is to the left. |
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| Laundry and graffiti and Megan. |
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| It was such a long tour of the University of Alcala. I had to lay down... |
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| ...I mean, I had to lay up! |
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| This is the road I walk every day to get to the University of Alcala. Very beautiful. |
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| First night. First churros with chocolate. First time I had a crush on Spain. |
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| Is this one of the cutest little girls you have ever seen? I didn't realize it would be odd to take her photo until after I'd taken it: her mom gave me a funny glare. |
I just love foreign moments. This is a funny story that reminded me I'm in a foreign country. So I was going to print off some pictures to send to my friends on missions since they can't look at my blog. Megan and I went to a random little shop that said the words "imprimir" and "kodak" somewhere on signs outside the building so I figured it would be a place to print photos. I went in and asked the man working there if they printed photos. He said they did and gestured to me to sit at a computer to upload my pics. (I pretty much just go by gestures because sometimes the language is a giant blur.) I just followed the steps on the computer and neither Megan or I knew what was going on. The computer really could have said "click this button to give us access to your bank account" and I would have just hit 'siguente' and not even known what was going on I was that lost. (Really I don't think there is a way to describe that we really didn't know what was going on. I'm just laughing at how foreign and confusing the experience was.) Also it was ridiculously sweaty and stinky because everyone has B.O. because (even though it's the 21st century) I'm finding out that deodorant hasn't been spread to all corners of the earth yet. I finally finished blindly guessing which buttons to push to get my task done and then waited in crowd of people in front of the desk. There were a lot of people there and none of them were forming a line. So my photos printed 8 1/2 x 11 black and white on regular copy paper. So the answer was, yes, they print photos. And no, they are not printed like a normal photo. And yes, this will cost you 1.40 Euros. I was laughing so hard. THEN megan and I were laughing because the picture on top was of her and I and it just really looked so awkward. Because we both go into the shop and print a giant picture of her and I together...he may or may not have thought that we had a crush on each other. Oh i'm still laughing about it...
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| We took a picture on this bench because there were a lot of other people taking pictures on this bench. In front of Cervantes' house. |
From my personal experience, a lot of people here stare shamelessly. Usually in America if you combat a stranger's stare with your own stare, the first to stare backs down. But here, the starer still continues, even if you reciprocate a stare. And I get stared at a lot. I feel like a white person in the middle of a lot of spaniards...oh wait, that's exactly what it is. Maybe people stare at me because I have slightly red hair? Or maybe because I wear bright red pants. But a lot of people here wear red pants... But seriously, today we were walking in a group and my friend said "wait, lexy, everyone was looking at you. just you, out of the whole group." That's it, I'm never wearing red pants again. Another funny thing I laughed about was that even our tour guide was singling me out completely in the group. My roommate and I were laughing about it later because he gave the entire tour to me. I didn't think being singled out could potentially be a dangerous thing until yesterday. Mom, don't read this. Actually, you can read this because it's a good ending. Basically my roommate and I were at the plaza de cervantes for a parade and big celebration (picture featured above)(oh and I am also probably singled out because I look like a tourist taking pictures every five seconds). We were having lots of fun. Then we were watching some street performers do a routine of juggling and dancing. Their routine turned out to be an hour long, so it was about 11:30 or 12 when we thought we'd better leave because it was getting late. We started walking away. I turned to my left and there was a man (probably 25 yrs or so) RIGHT behind me. Like as close to me as he could be without touching me. (Pretty much ghosting me.) And it startled me and so I kind of jumped/quickly moved away from him and then he said "quiero conocerte" (I want to know you) and I said "No ahora" (not now) (OR EVER but I couldn't remember how to say "not ever" in Spanish under pressure so I just said not now) and then he kept following me and pursuing me and so my roommate and I started walking really fast. And he kept following us. And so we started running. He was still following us but the distance was getting bigger. We ran for probably a hundred yards through the crowds. Good luck with the fact that I was wearing those my bright red pants! So I took off my button up shirt (over my t-shirt) and wrapped it around my waste to try to camouflage my pants and then I put my hair up in a pony tail. I don't know if that even helped change my appearance at all, but I felt like it maybe helped a little since it slightly changed how I looked in case he was still looking for me. It was such a scary feeling. I felt like a vulnerable young nineteen year old. I think he came after us because he knew that we were foreigners. He was probably just going to try to take something from us...Or kidnap us. Just kidding, but maybe. The moral of the story is: don't wear red pants or take too many pictures and also look around occasionally just in case there is a creepy guy to your left.