...made a fox for their hunt.
I am Stateside. Its good to be home. I had a fantastic trip abroad - minus the fact that i ate only cold food for like 5 straight days. Last night I ordered like $30 of Chinese food and ate about two bites, haunted by the fact that a) my stomach must have shrunk and b) I was so tired that chewing was difficult. Jet lag really sucks. I emailed friends, updated the requisite social networking sites, and took a 30 minute shower and then laid in bed watching Top Chef. That is the best way to recover. I awoke this morning feeling refreshed and have cleaned my apartment and am awaiting my laundry to finish drying.
I will post photos on flickr when Eduardo comes around this weekend - he and I took tons of shots with our cameras and I would rather just provide images to explain how fantastic the trip was. I think I look better in Spain.
The country was beautiful, the weather perfect (hello upper 50s, lower 60s in December - January) - the amount of European culture I soaked up in just a week was phenomenal and its committed me to wanting to learn or catch up on my French even more - I took it for three years total so you'd think i'd remember or know more. Time to pull out that Rosetta Stone again. Brussels was cold but very euro centric as far as the whole centre for the EU/NATO locale goes....lots of different languages, lots of different people...including a giant sized French athletic team. Its questionable what sport they played but I think basketball? Eduardo says it popular over in France and they were so tall...soccer would be a surprise as would like, cricket so basketball is my best deduction with the minor sleuthing skills I have.
The only downsides to the trip were that Edurado was sick for much of it - not dying sick but flu/cold sick and its hard to treat that abroad - the Spanish pharmacy's (when they're not closed for Siestas - truly, from about 1-4, things are literally closed. its interesting but when ill, an inconvenience) have a bright, neon light, green cross indicating they sell drugs - its an odd system. You walk into this small store with wall to wall drugs and then speak to a spanish pharmacist who then gives you whatever they feel your symptoms warrant...you just sort of have to trust them be/c the medications are all given out per them...the walls are filled with like, baby formula and contact solution. No candy though. That would be in the amazing candy stores where I spent a fair amount of time. I bought up one store's entire styrofoam like, saucer/sour candy for my brother who claims he cannot find it in the states (neither could I) and bought all these little fizzy candies that looked like smarties. I also took a picture of the spanish equivalent of the Strawberry Puff for Lena. It was all a delicious haven.
Eduardo and I mainly walked around, ate at pastry shops and crepe stands, took the Barcelona public transit everywhere, and slept. It was relaxing and refreshing.
I must say that I was disheartened to watch CNN Europe's coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution....there is something about all of these...problems that keep cropping up regarding the method and means in which he was put to death. Truth be told, a hanging is so biblical that a stoning might as well have accompanied it as well, but at the end of the day, after the full footage had been shown, I couldn't help but feel like this horrible dictator, who did commit atrocious sins against humanity, ended up being a fox for this hunt that we called "bringing democracy" to Iraq. The violence is worse than ever, Saddam was only found guilty of crimes against humanty but only per the crimes against the Shiites but what about crimes against Sunnis and Kurds? Maybe his entire trial is indicative of how these groups aren't and can never be aligned as equal although they are indeed seperate. I don't know. I just feel like something was amiss for the entire trial and incarceration and execution. Is this why I want to be a lawyer? To defend basic justice and rights that all people should be entitled to? The rights of the ethnic and religious groups to get their day in court for the crimes they had committed against them, the rights of even the most horrible and dispicable people to be protected and for an execution to represent the civility that we have progressed to? I don't know but I just didn't feel good about what transpired and I still don't. As the news continues to illustrate, more people are being arrested for the execution but maybe this shows how far away the US is from being able to liberate or democratize Iraq...the Iraq president pushed for Hussein to be executed before the new year be/c of a "promise" he made - as nice as it is for a politician to make good on a promise, at what cost? And the Iraqi PM was not on board with that as far as I know, but there was some resolution passed which made his approval unnecessary...I am not sure how legitimate this is and it worries me - inexplicably as I thinks Hussein was a dictator who did commit grave crimes but...I don't know. I dislike this unsettling feeling I have everytime I see the photos and the footage of a man being put to death the way he was. Or the prospect of how eager the people were to publicize and capitalize on the footage...whatever. I am sure I am not alone in these feelings so musing about them in such a circular fashion is not that helpful. Just...it was a really shameful way for the global community to ring in 2007. I'll leave it at that.
I am Stateside. Its good to be home. I had a fantastic trip abroad - minus the fact that i ate only cold food for like 5 straight days. Last night I ordered like $30 of Chinese food and ate about two bites, haunted by the fact that a) my stomach must have shrunk and b) I was so tired that chewing was difficult. Jet lag really sucks. I emailed friends, updated the requisite social networking sites, and took a 30 minute shower and then laid in bed watching Top Chef. That is the best way to recover. I awoke this morning feeling refreshed and have cleaned my apartment and am awaiting my laundry to finish drying.
I will post photos on flickr when Eduardo comes around this weekend - he and I took tons of shots with our cameras and I would rather just provide images to explain how fantastic the trip was. I think I look better in Spain.
The country was beautiful, the weather perfect (hello upper 50s, lower 60s in December - January) - the amount of European culture I soaked up in just a week was phenomenal and its committed me to wanting to learn or catch up on my French even more - I took it for three years total so you'd think i'd remember or know more. Time to pull out that Rosetta Stone again. Brussels was cold but very euro centric as far as the whole centre for the EU/NATO locale goes....lots of different languages, lots of different people...including a giant sized French athletic team. Its questionable what sport they played but I think basketball? Eduardo says it popular over in France and they were so tall...soccer would be a surprise as would like, cricket so basketball is my best deduction with the minor sleuthing skills I have.
The only downsides to the trip were that Edurado was sick for much of it - not dying sick but flu/cold sick and its hard to treat that abroad - the Spanish pharmacy's (when they're not closed for Siestas - truly, from about 1-4, things are literally closed. its interesting but when ill, an inconvenience) have a bright, neon light, green cross indicating they sell drugs - its an odd system. You walk into this small store with wall to wall drugs and then speak to a spanish pharmacist who then gives you whatever they feel your symptoms warrant...you just sort of have to trust them be/c the medications are all given out per them...the walls are filled with like, baby formula and contact solution. No candy though. That would be in the amazing candy stores where I spent a fair amount of time. I bought up one store's entire styrofoam like, saucer/sour candy for my brother who claims he cannot find it in the states (neither could I) and bought all these little fizzy candies that looked like smarties. I also took a picture of the spanish equivalent of the Strawberry Puff for Lena. It was all a delicious haven.
Eduardo and I mainly walked around, ate at pastry shops and crepe stands, took the Barcelona public transit everywhere, and slept. It was relaxing and refreshing.
I must say that I was disheartened to watch CNN Europe's coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution....there is something about all of these...problems that keep cropping up regarding the method and means in which he was put to death. Truth be told, a hanging is so biblical that a stoning might as well have accompanied it as well, but at the end of the day, after the full footage had been shown, I couldn't help but feel like this horrible dictator, who did commit atrocious sins against humanity, ended up being a fox for this hunt that we called "bringing democracy" to Iraq. The violence is worse than ever, Saddam was only found guilty of crimes against humanty but only per the crimes against the Shiites but what about crimes against Sunnis and Kurds? Maybe his entire trial is indicative of how these groups aren't and can never be aligned as equal although they are indeed seperate. I don't know. I just feel like something was amiss for the entire trial and incarceration and execution. Is this why I want to be a lawyer? To defend basic justice and rights that all people should be entitled to? The rights of the ethnic and religious groups to get their day in court for the crimes they had committed against them, the rights of even the most horrible and dispicable people to be protected and for an execution to represent the civility that we have progressed to? I don't know but I just didn't feel good about what transpired and I still don't. As the news continues to illustrate, more people are being arrested for the execution but maybe this shows how far away the US is from being able to liberate or democratize Iraq...the Iraq president pushed for Hussein to be executed before the new year be/c of a "promise" he made - as nice as it is for a politician to make good on a promise, at what cost? And the Iraqi PM was not on board with that as far as I know, but there was some resolution passed which made his approval unnecessary...I am not sure how legitimate this is and it worries me - inexplicably as I thinks Hussein was a dictator who did commit grave crimes but...I don't know. I dislike this unsettling feeling I have everytime I see the photos and the footage of a man being put to death the way he was. Or the prospect of how eager the people were to publicize and capitalize on the footage...whatever. I am sure I am not alone in these feelings so musing about them in such a circular fashion is not that helpful. Just...it was a really shameful way for the global community to ring in 2007. I'll leave it at that.