J-walkin' with the locals

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I finally figured it out. You know those guys who sell stuff on the streets? They have fake brand-name watches, sunglasses, belts, purses, pirated movies, etc. and they just lay them out on blankets for people to look at when they walk by? I finally figured out what they remind me of! I realized it while watching one guy set out his batch of fake Gucci and D&G bags: they’re like the proud owners of show dogs. They take such good care of all of their products, and try so desperately to sell them to you. The handles of the bags are propped up just so that they look stuffed full with things. I was watching one of the guys, and one of the handles of the bags flopped over. He rushed over and propped it back up, but it wouldn’t stay. So he grabbed the bag by the sides and sort of fluffed it like a pillow and then tried again. This time the handles stayed but he hovered around it for a bit and then basically petted it as if to say “good job, stay like that and I’ll give you a biscuit later.” It was ridiculous. I think I might have to buy one of the bags just to try it out myself.

Anyway. Back to real life without the beach just minutes from my room. Classes actually went by really fast, but once back at Jardines it was difficult to look forward to anything because I had SOOOOO much work to do on my Canary Island project. Will took on Murcia while I typed up all my information. We just BARELY had enough time to print out our sheet for the class before the AIFS office closed. That was another adventure. It was about 5:45 and I figured I would only need 5 minutes on the computer and maybe 5 to get there as well. So I set off, jump drive in hand. I really felt like a local. J-walkin’ with the locals. I don’t think I crossed one street (one of the 3) either way on a green light. It’s just how it’s done here…you get more weird looks if you stand there and wait for the light to change. Sure, it’s illegal here too, but the cars basically wait for you to take your sweet time. HOWEVER watch out for the busses. Those things don’t stop. They just give you one little honk and if you don’t move, you’re toast. But really, it was fun to just run across town (illegally) with the rest of Granada.

Will and I spent the rest of the day just working on our project. After dinner I talked with Florian and Victor some more about the islands. They were still bickering about which one was better. But they did help me with some phrases that are different on the islands than they are here…for example, they call potatoes “papas”, not “patatas”. And they call the bus the “guagua”, not the “autobus”, haha. Will and I made a powerpoint and I wrote up what I was going to say. It was about 4 pages hand written, and Will had the same so I figured we were good to go. It was 1:30am when I finished! Yikes!