Trip photos (just a taste)

Bull fight in Malaga (Southern Spain)Paulo, Duwayne (Iain's Dad) and Iain (Spanish) outside the Ann Frank house in Amsterdam
Canal-side in Amsterdam my first day there. I was not run over by any bicycles (thank Allah).
I ate some seafood paella in Tangier and actually enjoyed it, which is odd because I generally hate seafood. Then, I continued my taste testing that night at a tapas bar with fried fish, calamares and bull teticles to top it all off.

On the beach with Erica in Casablanca... I stole her old-man blue blocker sunglasses

Monkey in the market in MarrakechErica in Marrakech monkey heaven.... she loved it. Just look at that smile.The market in Marrakech at night. Djemma al Fna Square with the monkeys, food vendors, fortune tellers, snake charmers, and the ever-present tourists (I am one to blame).

The adventure continues

This has been one interesting trip so far. I started out in Madrid and then made my way to Malaga for a few days on the beach. The hostel I stayed in there was full of Spaniards and Italians and none of them spoke English. My days were spent at the beach and my nights were spent going to see bull fights. I definitely had a good time, but what I really wanted was to be able to speak English! I´ve been holed up in Mali for a year and it would be nice to have regular contact with English speakers. Walking around Malaga on my last day there (or so I thought) I was kicking myself in the butt for not going to Amsterdam to meet up with my friend Iain from college. He had planned a trip with his dad and buddy Paulo for the August 11 - 16, and I was walking around Malaga with nothing to do on the 12th. So, I ran to the nearest internet and found a roundtrip flight leaving the next morning and coming back on the 16th. What the hell, I thought, and bought the ticket. This turned out to be a seriously awesome idea. The hostel I stayed at hooked me up with a ride to the airport the next morning at 6am, I had a layover in Madrid and then flew right on to Amsterdam. Freezing at the airport, I hopped on a train to Central Amsterdam for 5 Euros, checked out a map and compared it to the address of the apartment Iain was renting, and started walking.

Amsterdam all looks the same to me. Nearly every street is accompanied by a canal and the houses are thin, 3 storie tall buildings complete with a hook and rope. The reason for this is that when the houses were being built, the city collected a tax based on the width of the house, but not the height. People in turn built tall, thin homes with limited staircases. In order to raise furniture to the upper levels, the rope and pulley system was devised. Despite the similarities of the streets, I am a pretty good traveler and was at Iain´s apartment within 2 hours of flying in. Knocking on the door, I wondered if they were home and planned to settle down outside the house if they weren´t. Why not just wait? After a few minutes, Iain opened the door and was surprised to see me. They were very welcoming, offered me a Heineken and showed me how they had brought a computer hooked up with Comcast digital cable straight from Boston! That meant Red Sox games every night at 1am!

Amsterdam definitely rocked. We attempted to do something cultural like go to the Anne Frank house, but the line was down the block and around the corner. Plus, I´ve been there before the last time I was in Amsterdam (2006 for a school fieldtrip). Instead, we walked around, went to the park, and had some awesome Argentinian steaks (they were apparently imported straight from Argentina...). All in all, it was a good 3 days and I was very happy to see a friend.

I woke up early on the 16th and headed to the airport for my trip back to Malaga. Upon arriving, I planned to stay a night and then head out. Stupidly, I had neglected to write down the name of the hostel I booked, and ended up arriving on the biggest party day of the year. The bus took me to the center of Malaga and I walked around through the crowded streets full of drunken Spaniards yelling, screaming, singing, toasting, etc. Getting through the crowds with my big backpack was a challenge and I received a quite a few angry glances. Because it was such a big party day, absolutely nothing but bars were open and I needed to figure out where I was staying. I eventually walked into a square and a guy wearing a pink frilly apron (obviously wasted) asked me if I was lost. Confessing that I was, hedecided to be wicked helpful and brought me to a hostel where I was able to use the internet and find a map to where I was staying.

This hostel was all Italians, but they spoke English well enough. I hung out with a guy named Marco who spoke a little English and a little Spanish, so we had to communicate through a mix of the two. Soon we found some girls at the hostel from Italy that spoke English really well and went out for tapas and some beers with them. I stayed two nights and have no found myself in Algeciras. Today I will find a place to stay and then head to Tangier tomorrow, and then on to Casablanca.

Rock and Roll... ¿Spain?

After over a year sweating and bitching in Mali, I have finally left for a vacation of sorts. I arrived in Madrid 3 days ago and have been enjoying every aspect of it. It is seriously like coming out of a coma or prison; everything tastes better, smells better, feels better... Life is just that much better in Spain. Walking near Parque Buen Retiro this morning I caught a wiff of freshly cut grass and couldn´t help but reach down for a handful of it. Fresh cut grass is so incredibly nice when you haven´t smelled it in over a year. As you can imagine, there isn´t much fresh cut grass in Mali. Also, I have seen two baseball games (neither of which were very good), eaten more good food than one can imagine (therefore spent too much money already), and enjoyed the weather to it´s fullest. People are walking around Madrid complaining about the heat, but to me, it´s like a calm spring day. I survived the Malian hot season, right?

Right now I am killing time waiting for a midnight bus to Malaga where I will hopefully see a bullfight or two. As of now, I have no plans for when I arrive. Looking for hostels and hotels online, I could only find places for $40 plus a night. That´s way above my budget. But, not to fear, I´ve got my tent and some blankets and I can lock my bag up in the bus station terminal if necessary. If I can´t find a campsite, I´ll crash on the beach. Either way it´s gonna be an adventure. After Malaga I want to get to a town called Alora where I can go rock climbing at El Chorro, but that means actually finding someone to climb with. Or I can just go bouldering alone but that´s not nearly as fun. From Malaga-Alora I take a ferry to Melilla, Morocco and meander down to Casablanca where I meet up with Erica on the 22nd. It´s a ways off, but I will definitely be filling the time with some fun and adventure.

My language ability is so messed up right now. I can understand nearly everything that is said to me in Spanish, but actually formulating responses is practically impossible. I have this mix of Fulfulde, Bambara, Najamba and French running through my mind pushing English and Spanish all around. I tried to convert some money from Central Africa the other day and I must have gave the dude responses in at least 3 languages, which just confused me so I have no idea what it did to his head. Plus I am so Malian it hurts now. I refuse to do anything with my left hand even though it is completely acceptable here. The problem is that the faux-pas is so ingrained into me that I can´t let it go. To make matters worse, I am continually clicking for agreement, and making all those wierd Malian noises that happen in conversation or just general activities. Say a plate comes to the table, I, without thinking, emit one of two phrases... ´´Waaaallaahhh´´ or ´´uhh huuuuhhh!´´ It´s really quite embarrassing that I can´t stop this.

I am trying to drop these Malian characteristics for the time being, but it´s hard. Attempting to focus on solely Spanish has been difficult as well, but also rewarding. I picked up a English-Spanish dictionary the other day and it has helped tremendously. I spent about 3 hours wandering through the Prado Museum today with my dictionary in hand trying to figure out what was written under each painting. I gotta say, I amaze myself with how quickly I can learn and relearn languages... it´s just fun.

I had this new idea lately. I need to learn Arabic in order to ensure an awesome job in the future. I could work for the State Dept or some other agency and study Middle Eastern affairs and the ways of terrorism. This would first require learning Arabic in an intensive setting, studying Islam in all its forms, learning Middle East policy, etc. This is just an idea that has been mulling through my head, but I like where it´s heading. We´ll see where I can take it after the Peace Corps. If there is some agency that will invest time in me to learn Arabic than I believe I could do it and do it well. Plus, having this Peace Corps background proves that I am willing to stick it out, learn languages and not be afraid to use them and generally work through a whole slew of difficulties. Anyone got any ideas for how I can get this started?

Hasta Luego!