Fri, 27 Jan 2006 08:17:58 -0800 (PST)
Blog set up and Spider Bites

It appears that the company in Spain which offered me a job has filed the paperwork for the work permit. The CEO went to the government office in Barcelona, and did the application, so I should be moving back to Barcelona in a few months (3 or 4).

My Portuguese is coming along really fast, and I can already communicate pretty well. It is very similar to spanish, and once you know some basic rules for translating between the two languages, it is not so difficult. I am taking 2 hours a day of Spanish lessons every morning, which leaves the afternoons free for other liesure activities.

I have been doing some kite boarding, which is much more difficult than it appears. Many people have died doing this sport, becuase the kite (which is actually the size of a parachute) has the ability to pull you at high speeds high into the air, and slam you into whatever gets in your way. It also has the ability to rip of your fingers (or even your head), if you get tangled in the lines. Anyway, one of the basic skills of kiteboarding is to be able to cut against the wind, and I am finally able to do this. Without this skill, you will always end up at one end of the beach (or lake) that you dont want to be at, and you have to walk back long distances. The people who do kiteboarding here are cool, and there seem to be a lot of people who can speak english (if you can afford a $2000 kite, you are probably educated). I have met a lot of people doing this sport, some of who I will describe here.

I have been hanging out with a real estate developer from Malibu who seems to be doing quite well financially. He is going to be staying here until the end of March as well, and so we have been hanging out a fair bit. Last week, I also met a couple of Canadian guys who were really cool, and extremely funny. I went out for a few meals with these guys, and on numerous occasions our table was asked to quite down. One guy named Chris is an ex-firefighter who started a furniture company and has done well for himself. He talked non stop at extremely high volumes in very nice restraunts about masterbation, sex, and shitting. It may not sound funny, but it was halarious. Once of the stories he told is the following (there were at least 50 others of the same genere):

"When Chris was a kid, him and his brother get into a marshmellow fight against two other kids from their neighbourhood. This happens at their house while their mother is outside in the yard. They are throwing the marshmellows at each other, and then they realize that if they lick them they will stick better. So, they form a system in which chris is hiding behind his brother, and is pulling the marshmellows out of the bag to pass to his brother, who then licks and throws the marshmellow. Chris decides to add a little flavor to the game, and decides to wipe his ass with a marshmellow and pass it to his brother. Just at that moment, his mother was plasterd against the window, banging on it and giving hand signals to the brother not to lick the marshmellow. At the last minute, as the marshmellow was going towards his mouth, he sees the mothers warning, and stops just in time." ... Hmmm .. maybe it was funnier when he told it at extremely high volumes in a really nice restaurant.

I also met some other americans that totally pissed me off. They were a guy and a girl in which the firl is some kind of extreme kiteboard surf chick. She claimed to be 30, but I would give her no less than 45. Either she spent too much time in the sun, or she is just a liar. So, when I first met them the girl (being a typical american) starts the conversation with "so what do you do" ... I go on to say that I did an MBA in Europe, and have been travelling around for about 8 months. She goes on with "Europe?, why would anyone go there for an MBA" .. this already started to get my blood boiling a bit, and so I retorted with The Economist MBA ranking, followed by the assertion that I am sure she has never read The Economist being as she is from the great land of the United States. Then I continued with saying that it is a bilinugal MBA, etc... and she starts to make fun of the way that I pronounced the word bilinugal ... I said "bi-ling-you-al", and she says "it is pronounced ´bi-ling-ual´" ... I was like Whatever, and decided that this chick did not deserve for me to waste another breath speaking to her.

I also woke up a few days ago, and noticed that my finger had a small pimple-like bump on it. Then as the day progressed, my finger started swelling and swelling. It got to the point where my entire finger was swollen from my knuckle to my finger tip. I was actually getting a bit worried, and thought that I might have to go to the hospital. I started askingpeople what the hell could have happened, and apparently the most likely thing is that my finger got bitten by a poisonous spider during my sleep.