Kinda abandoned this of late due to not having done much, sorry to my vehement followers in Alaska (sure blogger's statistics are false). Recently I have been living a life pretty similar to that I did in Britain. It is with great shame that I admit to having wallowed in my room in this South American UNESCO World Heritage site waiting for the weekend and the punishment alcohol will deliver. Have gotten inebriated in some pretty interesting environments though, particularly la Fiesta de Guapulo....it was really interesting seeing such a party and the view from Guapulo is something I will keep with me forever. I will even cherish the memory of the gay dwarf being overbearing in his pursuit of me, certainly I regret my inauthentic "Puto" remark. I have some pretty funny things I could maybe include but I'm not sure if I want to divulge (don't worry Ma, it's not me and Paul Gascoigne with hookers and cocaine in a hotel room or anything, I just think that my humour is too much of an acquired taste and so I'd rather share with my friends only certain observations/events than potentially offend anybody).
As I'm sure all the non-Alaskan/Russians that are reading this will be aware due to the fact that you are most likely my Facebook and/or genuine friend, this morning I was offered a position teaching in Madrid which I have taken. Therefore, my Ecuadorean experience will come to a close this Wednesday. For a place I have only known a month, definitely a feel anomalous amount of grief over leaving. Also, I have yet to do anything of the touristic things so today/tomorrow I must make a flying tour of the city. I mean, I feel like I have gotten to know the city in a more genuine way and scratched the tourist veneer so this I don't really regret, but it would be nice to get some snaps of the place or whatever. Even though I don't really understand that touristy thing of taking photos of yourself in places to say you went there when you only really go there to take a photo of yourself there in the first place....I'm not a crazy nihilist who is about to go against such norms, I don't even have a piercing for God's sake.
If this blog is a little manic/inarticulate then I am placing the blame on me being slightly sleep-deprived, because of the time difference my interview was at 4am, stayed up to find out the news and haven't been able to sleep since on account of the million and one thoughts in my mind. I feel really muddled over the fact that I am now switching continents again and on such short notice, I think there's a real chance of me losing my grip of reality on the flight back and trying to hijack the plane with my on-flight meal or something. Let's be honest, I've never been the most sane person to start with.
One thing I will remember on the way back is to put my laptop in my hand luggage, rookie error thinking it'd be safe cushioned in it's bag and between clothes means I'm having to mess around with the browser window here to avoid the parts of the screen where it is cracked, I'm an idiot. Maybe I'll just put my pillow in my suitcase as I didn't really utilise it anyway and it was causing trouble in Frankfurt (does 'explosive dust' truly exist or have customs read too much Philip Pullman?)
In my sleep-deprived excitement I've just purchased a Bon Iver ticket for next month in Madrid despite having no money.....if anybody wants to come I'd really like that. Also, if anybody has any friends in Madrid who aren't easily annoyed perhaps you could put us in touch. Preferably they'd be a beautiful female or Falcao, I'm not too fussed though as long as it's not Pepe or 'CR7'. Sorry overload of football references, just excited to be back in Europe and watch the continental games in the evening/3 o'clock KOs in the afternoon again. Shit, my excitement has me rambling so I'll draw this to a close. I should also mention that the school I am to be teaching at looks really nice and I'm excited about that also, there are 11 other native speakers (English/German/Russian) working there which is cool and the women who interviewed me, who are to be my bosses, seemed really easy to get along with.
All in all, I have excitement which is personally unparalleled and really can't wait to get to Spain, but would like to say again that it is not without a heavy heart that I leave Ecuador and a big thank you to all those who have made me feel so welcome.
Monday, 17 September 2012
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Todos los ninos estan locos
Title of this is just borrowed from The Doors translated into Spanish, not really saying children are insane or anything it's just that I couldn't conjure up a title and I'm watching Apocalypse Now with Spanish subs at the moment. Nor am I saying that I don't think all children are insane - there's a good chance they are, just that I don't really have an opinion either way about it. You'd really think I'd have just changed the title instead of writing this verbose explanation but there we are, the legacy of my struggling to meet the word count in academic essays I suppose.
I don't know if I have done enough of interest in the last couple of days to warrant this (just to warn anybody bored enough to continue reading despite that last paragraph), but I've had a really boring day and feel like a release through writing which doesn't involve littering my notepad with more inarticulate writings that resemble the work of My Chemical Romance (hyperbole - almost certain they're not nearly as depressing nor as shite).
For the last couple of days I've been staying in a Hotel, 'Hotel Cumbaya', living the high life....relatively. Having said that, yesterday I lost my key and couldn't leave on account of the fact I couldn't get back in without being able to explain the situation to the guy at reception, which I could not. Couldn't even leave the place to get food or water....was like 127 Hours only 7 Hours and I didn't have to drink my own piss or cut my own arm off, still though, pretty intense.
Don't want to mislead you and make it sound as though being locked in a room for 7 hours was the most entertaining thing to happen to me since I wrote one of these, it's just the first thing that came to my head to write of. Thursday and yesterday I went to a couple of gigs, which were both really good and opened my eyes to the fact that good music is produced in countries such as Ecuador, something which I guess I was too ignorant to have thought the case before I came here. Also I kinda liked the fact that I couldn't understand the lyrics, I think when you're listening to unfamiliar music live trying to follow and comprehend the lyrics can be detrimental to your overall comprehension of the music and therefore kinda ruin things. That's just me anyway, perhaps I'm just a little too slow for it all. The bars that I've been to so far are really cool too, far more akin to the bars of Liverpool than I anticipated. Still getting used to the fact that when people here go to 'parties' after gigs and stuff, that isn't synonymous with getting shitfaced and causing irreparable damage to your liver and integrity though. I mean, my brain can recognise that it's a good thing, but my alcohol-dependent British heart/liver say different.
Tomorrow I might go visit the British Embassy to see about getting a Visa. Still debating whether or not to do so though because apparently that Julian Assange debacle means that there's loads of Ecuadoreans protesting down there every day and I think that me showing up might result in them presuming I'm some colonial wanker and setting me alight or something. In any case I read that if you just stay illegally, the only consequence is that you incur a 9 month ban from the country on departure. Just enough time to get a girl pregnant at home and retreat to Ecuador when the kid comes (tasteless/poor joke, sorry).
Gonna leave it here because I haven't much more to say, indeed reading that ^ back it would appear I had little to say in the first place. I will mention though, earlier I went to McDonalds and managed to order a whole meal and say I was eating in, all that shit, without any problems. Small victory but I'm reveling in it after numerous frustrations in food places. You could even say I'm lovin' it (holy shiittttt - new low). Gonna make these entries more sporadic after this, and hopefully more entertaining as a result.
P.S. My Ecuadorean Television career is over before it truly begun....gonna watch Brando's performance in this film even more attentively than usual.
I don't know if I have done enough of interest in the last couple of days to warrant this (just to warn anybody bored enough to continue reading despite that last paragraph), but I've had a really boring day and feel like a release through writing which doesn't involve littering my notepad with more inarticulate writings that resemble the work of My Chemical Romance (hyperbole - almost certain they're not nearly as depressing nor as shite).
For the last couple of days I've been staying in a Hotel, 'Hotel Cumbaya', living the high life....relatively. Having said that, yesterday I lost my key and couldn't leave on account of the fact I couldn't get back in without being able to explain the situation to the guy at reception, which I could not. Couldn't even leave the place to get food or water....was like 127 Hours only 7 Hours and I didn't have to drink my own piss or cut my own arm off, still though, pretty intense.
Don't want to mislead you and make it sound as though being locked in a room for 7 hours was the most entertaining thing to happen to me since I wrote one of these, it's just the first thing that came to my head to write of. Thursday and yesterday I went to a couple of gigs, which were both really good and opened my eyes to the fact that good music is produced in countries such as Ecuador, something which I guess I was too ignorant to have thought the case before I came here. Also I kinda liked the fact that I couldn't understand the lyrics, I think when you're listening to unfamiliar music live trying to follow and comprehend the lyrics can be detrimental to your overall comprehension of the music and therefore kinda ruin things. That's just me anyway, perhaps I'm just a little too slow for it all. The bars that I've been to so far are really cool too, far more akin to the bars of Liverpool than I anticipated. Still getting used to the fact that when people here go to 'parties' after gigs and stuff, that isn't synonymous with getting shitfaced and causing irreparable damage to your liver and integrity though. I mean, my brain can recognise that it's a good thing, but my alcohol-dependent British heart/liver say different.
Tomorrow I might go visit the British Embassy to see about getting a Visa. Still debating whether or not to do so though because apparently that Julian Assange debacle means that there's loads of Ecuadoreans protesting down there every day and I think that me showing up might result in them presuming I'm some colonial wanker and setting me alight or something. In any case I read that if you just stay illegally, the only consequence is that you incur a 9 month ban from the country on departure. Just enough time to get a girl pregnant at home and retreat to Ecuador when the kid comes (tasteless/poor joke, sorry).
Gonna leave it here because I haven't much more to say, indeed reading that ^ back it would appear I had little to say in the first place. I will mention though, earlier I went to McDonalds and managed to order a whole meal and say I was eating in, all that shit, without any problems. Small victory but I'm reveling in it after numerous frustrations in food places. You could even say I'm lovin' it (holy shiittttt - new low). Gonna make these entries more sporadic after this, and hopefully more entertaining as a result.
P.S. My Ecuadorean Television career is over before it truly begun....gonna watch Brando's performance in this film even more attentively than usual.
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