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  • En españa—Parte 1

    I’m responding to an email from David:

    On 5/4/07, David Hansen wrote:

    Hey Josh!
    How was the flight? How are you enjoying your first day outside of US/Canada? It’s pretty mind blowing being somewhere for your first time that English isn’t the native language. It’s cool to see another language all over the street signs and on all the buildings. Hope you’re having a great time!
    David

    On 5/4/07, Josh Hansen wrote:

    Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. It’s not quite as intense as it could be though, since a lot of the advertizing in Madrid is targetted at English speakers. It’s so cool to actually find myself somewhat able to communicate with people, like at different stores we’ve gone to. Today my alarm went off but I slept through it and finally woke up ten minutes before our free breakfast at the hotel ended. I woke up my roommates, Chris and Tommy, and we ran as fast as we could to get something to eat. It was chocolate cereal with really rich, creamy milk for me, then a quick shower, and off to the Palacio Real for a guided tour. The palace and the monestary right in front of it are so incredible! I love old stuff, and it was totally full of it: tapestries from the 15th century, paintings, clocks, armor for caballeros and caballos, just like Don Quijote would have envisioned himself wearing during his delusional escapades as a knight. After the Palacio we went on a tour bus around Madrid, so we saw ten billion different churches and puertas, which are gigantic arch-gates a lot like the Arc d’Triumph in Paris. The city is so amazing, around every corner there’s a plaza dedicated to a famous author or paintor, like Goya or Cervantes or whoever. They don’t seem to have just slapped together any of the city, since it all has been evolving for hundreds of years. There’s history everywhere! I wish I had longer to write about it all, but I was cheap and only bought a half a euro worth of time here at the internet cafe, so I’ll have to wrap it up quickly.

    Later today we’ll probably go see Spiderman 3. We were going to go to the temple in the newer part of the city, but I’m so exhausted I didn’t think it was a good idea. I think I’ll probably sleep through Spiderman as well, but at least I won’t feel bad about that. Okay later1

  • Read This

    A summary of surveys on Muslim attitudes towards sharia, a “global Caliphate,” democracy, and the West: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0425/p01s04-wome.html

  • Another Late Post

    I just found that there are support sites on the Internet for people who are afraid of flying! That’s been one of my main concerns about going to Spain: the extremely long flight there and back. The hour and a half from here to Washington can be bad enough (or it can be extremely pleasant, it’s kind of random) but 14 hours or whatever could be a nightmare! Well, that’s not really the case, since I know that my panic attacks are worst in the first two hours or so of a situation that causes them, like freeway driving or being stuck in a big meeting, for example. If I can survive for that long—and I always can—then I start to relax and end up enjoying myself in whatever the activity is. But anyway, maybe I can watch videos of flying on YouTube so I can get more used to the idea, so then it will eliminate any unneeded anxiety. Who knows!