Come on, Vámonos...

Everybody let’s go! Dora the Explorer fans or not, you can come along with me on my walk to school. This daily trek usually takes 17 minutes walking at my normal pace (pretty brisk). Once, I made it in an impressive 14. I’m sorry for the choppiness of the video. No, I did not hire a crazed 6-year-old to hold the camera, but I took it while I was walking so it’s really bumpy. I do not recommend watching it fullscreen. You might get motion sickness.

A note on walking in the streets: It is very different here. Back at Trinity and in life, I like saying hello to people as I pass them on the sidewalk or street. It’s just generally good to acknowledge the presence of other human beings. As Wilfred Gesch (my grandpa) famously says, “It doesn’t cost anything to be friendly.” Unfortunately, Spain does not heed his words of wisdom. It was a rude awakening for me. Most people are listening to their iPod and walking in their own little world, and the people who don’t have headphones on act as though they do. There really isn’t any greeting, smiling, head nodding, or sorry-for-bumping-into-you-ing going on. The only communication that DOES happen on my walk to school or elsewhere are guys/old men saying “ayyyyy guappaaa” or making hissing noises at girls as they pass by in an effort to get a reaction. It’s not a huge deal at all and I guess mostly in good fun, but still, super annoying and skeezy. So let me take this moment to thank two groups: 1) Friendly people who are nice to strangers on the sidewalks. Keep it up. 2) American males. You guys have it tough sometimes, with having to pay for dates, putting up with Twilight fans, and us females getting preference for scholarships and all that, but I want to thank you for not making chirping noises at me when I walk by. And thank you for being nice just because you want to be NICE, not because you want to be a creeper. I affirm your personhood. (Yes, Uncle Kevin, I just affirmed everyone's personhood).