Saturday, June 23, 2007

Juege futbol

I played football on Playa de la Concha the other day with some lads from school. I will tell you this, when one is barefoot on the sand, that soccer ball is really hard. All of our feet were bright red and really swollen. Lots of people had cuts and bruises as well. one gent had to go to hospital because his foot got infected. All for the love of the game I suppose.
It was quite a short pitch, not a lot of space, so my philosophy was to shoot as soon as I got sight of goal. Only problem was the keeper kept making brilliant saves on my shots. And I mean world class saves. At least as far as you know. People who have seen me play are shaking their heads and smiling right now.
Anyway, one good thing about San Sebastian is that it stays light really late. Our game started at about 9 and went until 10:30 at night, which of course was the perfect time to hit the bars for some sangria and calimocho. It was a good day in Spain.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Fui a correr


After a couple of days in San Sebastian I was over my cold and able to get out for a run. It ended up being a good one as well. Temperature of about 68 degrees and sunny, so I was able got about 5 miles right along the shore at a pretty good pace.

I was in a good mood after that, so when I got home and Juergen observed that I was quite sweaty, I decided to let it go. He would have none of it though. ¨¿Vas a ducharte?" he asked me. "Are you going to shower?" Well, yeah, of course. That was when he informed me that I was only permitted one hot shower a day. He then asked if I was aware of this. "I wouldn't be sitting here soaked in sweat if I was, now would I?"

So then he insisted we look at the list of house rules the school had given me. Of course, there was nothing there limiting the number of showers. Well, Juergen was not at all happy about this. He ended up allowing me to take a hot shower, my second of the day, because he was concerned about the smell I might generate, but he insisted I talk with the housing co-ordinator at the school the next day. The sitcom continues...

Next week, Dennis tries to read and listen to the radio at the same time, giving Juergen no choice but to turn off the buildings electricity.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Llegada


I arrived in San Sebastian to discover that it was raining and the German man I would be living with had a specific pot that had to be used for tea, and a different pot that must be used for soup. I was also instructed which pillow to use in my bed, and which light to use in the bathroom. Incidently, this bathroom light turns off when the toilet flushes. It was Sunday, so all the shops were closed, but my vegetarian flatmate was kind enough to offer me a cheese sandwich.

This is quickly turning into a sitcom. "He is a 50 something German, he is a 20 something American. He lives in Spain to be near his daughter, he is visiting Spain to study Spanish. What will happen when these two crazy guys live together in San Sebastian."

Iam Fullovit from the Post says "It is the new Odd Couple."

Don Twatchett from the Daily news says "That Juergen is a laugh a minute."

"Tune in next week to see what happens when Dennis uses the wrong frying pan to saute spinach."