Jamie Fehr

This morning after a really good night’s rest I went downtown to buy some new skate board shoes (my old ones had a hole in the heel that was so big that when I walked my sock actually touched the ground) and in the two hours I was downtown a few very interesting things came to my attention and I thought that I would share them with the world.

Spring

Worth noting is that the temperature this afternoon is a balmy 24ºC with lots of sun and minimal wind. I think that spring has sprung.

On a side note, last Tuesday my spanish teacher asked what’s the deal with the animal that says how long winter is? She thought it was some kind of animal sacrfice (I guess all the people she saw on the television were dressed in black for this event). So I tried to explain the basic principle to her, which she eventually understood, but I really had a hard time trying to figure out what a ground hog is called in Spanish, and we never really did figure it out. So in my spare time, I did a little digging and found out that in spanish a ground hog is called a marmotta canadiense or a Canadian Marmot, who’d of thunk?

Carnaval

Today begins probably one of the most pagan celebrations imaginable here in Malaga and I do intend to check out what’s going on. My little shopping excursion took me through Plaza de la Constitución and it is plain to see that something big is happening tonight.

Retirees

Today in my journeys I encountered two men, both retired, both in their sixties, but very different people indeed.

Retiree #1
This old man entered the bus a few stops down the line from where I got on and it very quickly became apparent that he had little control of his mental function. He was saying all kinds of crazy things like:

I was born in Puerto De La Torre, it’s my land!

Or,

My wife is in love with me, she gave¹ me a roll of toilet paper.

He then proceeded to clap and dance in flamenco style, except for that it appeared as though I knew more flamenco than he did.

My heart goes out to him, but honestly I really didn’t my best to stay out of his way and to not laugh behind his back.

Retiree #2
This man seemed to still have most of his wit about him. I met him at the bus stop as I was on my way back home. He asked me if I could show him how to view missed calls on his cell phone, I said yes. He gave me his cell and a few moments later I passed it back to him so that he could see who was the last person who tried calling him.

He wasn’t finished talking then. I guess it can be lonely being retired. We chatted for a little while, I shared with him where I was from and what I was doing in Spain, he told me that he wanted to practice his english (he told me he spent a summer in England ten years ago) and that we should exchange phone numbers so that we could meet up at a later date. I agreed to this and when the bus finally did come his parting words were; we will see eachother, right?

How can I say no, I’ll give him a call next week and see if he wants to meet for lunch.

Other

Tomorrow I intend to go watch my first fútbol game here in Málaga. And when I say my first game, I really mean to say my first live game, as in I will be in the Stadium. I’m so excited.

Footnotes:

1. The actual verb used here was regalar which means to give a gift. Were it proper english I would have translated what he said to: My wife is in love with me, she gifted me a role of toilet paper