The Six Million Dollar Man

I guess this was to be expected and had to happen sooner or later: I've spent the whole weekend alone, at home. And when I say 'alone' I truly mean it. I haven't actually seen anyone. (Skyping with LP doesn't count...) But you know what? I loved it! I actually got some studying done, for example. I even started practicing my drumming again! Bringing a pair of drum sticks (which I got from my teacher, TS. Thanks, btw...) and my practice pad to Spain was a fabulous idea! You should hear me playing 'Connecticut Halftime'. I simply rock. (I do love myself, don't I?)

But, anyways... That's enough about my weekend. There wasn't all that much to tell, was there? But, there was actually still something else that I wanted to share with the rest of the world. And that something is called Marta. (Are you ok with me writing your name here? If not, just punch me or something.) The short version of the story would of course be something like this: Thanks, Marta. You're the best 'buddy' ever!

And then the rest of the story, starting with some brain acrobatics:

Exercise 1: If we presume that the two statements given below are true, what is the most obvious logical outcome deducible from these statements?

1. 'Jope is one lazy bastard.'
2. 'Jope doesn't speak Spanish.' (Ok this isn't EXACTLY true, I know. Still, I suck more or less.)

Answer:

1 & 2 => 'Jope ends up in a situation in which he needs to print at the campus but doesn't know how to do it.' AND 'Jope needs to buy a sort-of-a-student-card-thingie but doesn't know how to do it.'

(The path to this answer is omitted because of its obviousness and simplicity. You just have to take 1, divide it by Jope's IQ and divide 0 by the result. The result which is completely undefined can then be combined with toothpaste to yield the result given above.)

Umm... Sorry about that. I haven't eaten much today since it's Sunday and I have nothing in the fridge. That wouldn't be a problem in Finland but here in Spain it really is one. There's not a single shop open around here!

So, the thing is that Marta, in all her awesomeness, agreed to help me with the two aswers of exercise 1. Against all odds, all went actually quite smoothly. It only took us some two hours to overcome these two enormous obstacles that have been blocking my UC3M path. Wow, way to go Marta!

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'Oh, well... Back to cleaning, I guesses!' said Caspenar the Imp.

'Hello everyone! I bid you welcome to our studio, folks! It's, once again, time for the next episode of our ever-so-fantastic 'Jope has been to this place but you haven't TV show! So, without further ado, let's begin our quick photo tour!'

'Here you can see a... church: simple and elegant. (It's on sale on eBay for a mere 120 000 000 euros!)'

'As you enter the city itself, you notice a gargantuan structure rising before you. What you see is a Roman aqueduct, no less.'

'Here, in this photo we have the Main Square of Segovia. You can see the Cathedral, too.'

'A view inside the cathedral main hall.'

'This is a nice pic, ain't it? It's taken in an inner courtyard of the cathedral. '

'One of the altars in the cathedral. And yes, I do mean ONE OF, literally...'

'... and here's a monument of some sort?'

'Ah, the Alcázar.'

'The fortress really is a place with excellent views around Segovia.'

'Here's another example. (You can buy this photo as a postcard in every shop in Segovia.)'

'If you step outside the city walls, you can find some spectacular scenery, such as this.'

'An inner courtyard of a monastery. Might be chilly during the winter, right?'

'Here you can see the church that's accompanying the monastery...'

'... and here you have a photo of the interior.'

'An interesting notion: all Segovians used to be Ku Klux Klan members.'

'Before we're done, we want to express our gratitude to all the people that helped us provide you with this footage. We'd like to especially thank LE and KP for their crucial contribution.'

'And that's all for today! Thank you, and good night!'

... was fun as hell.

Did you know that drinking in public is illegal in Spain? I mean, Spaniards sure don't know that. Ah, yeah! It's my birthday. That's always cool. Although, I do hate getting old. Don't you?

Yesterday morning I still thought that I'd be a good boy and that I'd go to an Erasmus party at 10 pm and leave after midnight, at around 1 am. That was the plan. Right. Then...

... I had Introduction to Bio-Engineering in the morning. After the class I spoke to a couple of my classmates and one of them invited me to Moncloa (a part of Madrid) at half past 11 in the evening. She told me that the Bio-Engineering students at UC3M had organized a get-together to get to know each other. All the 1st and 2nd year students were invited. Since these guys would be the ones I'll be (hopefully) spending most of my time with, I thought that 'what the hell - alright then!' And what was the outcome?

María, I hold you personally responsible for my headache!

(An extremely qualified neurologist told me that it's the lack of sleep that's making my head scream, not the alcohol...)

In Moncloa we (about 40 students in all) first sat on a platform by the metro station, drinking and socializing. Ah, yeah... People sang me the equivalent of the 'Happy Birthday' song TWO times! I tried my best to look like I wouldn't have liked to be the center of attention but the truth is, as many of you surely know, that being the center of attention is my main nutrition. I love it! Umm, I guess that's exactly the reason why I always advertise my posts in Facebook..? I dunno.

Anyways, at 3 am we finally started to drift ( vdrift = 0.015 m/s ) towards a disco! Great. I mean, I love dancing even though I look absolutely ridiculous while I wave and shake my hands and feet on the dance floor. Still I managed to spend three hours in the disco (I can't remember the name of the place) without people openly mocking my style, or the lack of it. In other words, we left at 6 am. I then accompanied a few others, and we took the metro back south (where Leganés is, for example).

Not a bad way to start being 22 years old. And maybe you could even say that I'm not too old yet, considering the way I use my spare time?

I was visited? By whom..?

Yes! LP, of course!

Starting on Friday, the 9th of September, and until this morning, Wednesday the 14th, I was visited by my girlfriend, LP. (She's in Lisbon at the moment as an ERASMUS exchange student.) We had actually agreed, that I'd be the first of the two of us to fly to meet her, not the opposite. I'm glad that I got to meet her a bit earlier than we had previously planned because I've been missing her, a lot. I mean like... umm... I-haven't-slept-properly-in-two-weeks kind of a lot.

But, let's get started with the story. So, LP came to the Madrid airport at around 9.30 am last Friday. She was accompanied by two of her friends who seemed ok enough by me. (Don't get me wrong, I guess you're brilliant guys! I just mean that I didn't get to know you in depth.) We escorted LP's two friends close to their hostels and went first to see my place in Leganés. LP also wanted to ditch most of her stuff at my place, reasonable at the very least. After taking a tour around the neighbourhood  surrounding my place we took a bus + metro combination to Madrid to see the Royal Palace, etc. In the evening we met up with a good friend of LP's, a Mexican guy called henceforth LE. He came to our meeting point at the Callao metro station with a (female) former classmate of his, KP. LE and KP gave us an introduction to the city centre, although they haven't lived here any longer than me. Isn't that a bit sad? Nevertheless, thanks for the tour! I had a blast with you guys on Friday.

On Saturday we slept late, until 11 o'clock. Although the day was red hot, we decided to visit the zoo. It was a fantastic place, I can recommend the place to anyone who's at least 10% child at heart. I love zoos, of course, being at the intellectual level of a 4-year-old. As the weather was scorching, we felt absolutely drained after our three hour trip around the zoo. After the zoo we headed to the centre, to Calle de las Infantas. There we went to a tapas bar that LE and KP had recommended to us. We ordered a glass of beer (yes, in Spain beer is usually served in normal sized glasses) and a glass of wine (also served in a regular glass) but what we got was a whole meal! You have to love this 'tapas' culture! The meal cost us 4 euros, and not a single dime more.

On Sunday the four of us (LP, LE, KP and me) went to Toledo. If you bought a Lonely Planet travel guide on Spain you'd notice that the description of Toledo stands out from the text: it's a wonderful piece of medieval Spain, a monument of exquisite grandeur, or something. But it's not. Sorry to say it, but it's true. It's an old place with old stuff, more or less. It's not a complete piece-of-junk tourist attraction as it has a couple of interesting sights but... It's not otherworldly, either. Still, I have to tell you this. If you ever go to Toledo the mosque (Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz) is a MUST! It's, well, by far the most beautiful building I've ever seen.

Disclaimer: You noticed the sarcasm there in the end of the last paragraph, right?

On Monday I had classes to attend to. Bummer! Yeap, it's sad but no can do. Hey, we still went to have a lunch picnic in the Retiro Park. And you know what? I was kinda bad... I carved 'Jope <3 LP' on a tree trunk after our little picnic! I'm so EVIL, I know. Well, I do hope the tree survives my assault. But, anyways: now it's there. And it's all true, too.

On Tuesday, well... I had even MORE classes! So, LP decided to go and explore the city centre all by herself. I joined my dove and LE in the evening and we sat in the Plaza de España for a while. Then we walked to see the Banco de España, the Prado Museum and the Museum Reina Sofia. After our quite thorough tour of the tourist attractions on and around Gran Vía we went to the Atocha train station. Finally at 23.30 pm we took a bus to the airport since LP's flight back to Portugal left early this morning. We spent the night sleeping side-by-side on the airport floor. If you ever have to do the same, be sure to bring a lot of clothing! I mean, it was freezing! But, it was bearable: I got to spend some more time with LP, at least.

And now, my life has come to a standstill: I'll be leaving for Lisbon on the 30th. Until then, I guess I have to find something to do to keep myself preoccupied.

Umm, maybe I could write colossal blog posts?

What do I mean by the title 'A Death of an Exchange Student - Sort of'? Well, you guessed it!

I spent last night in a club called Cocó. And then the details:

The party was organized by UC3M ESN (the Erasmus Student Network guys in UC3M). To get to the party I had to go to their office here at the Leganés campus. When I had bought the ticket, the guy who had sold it to me told me to come to Plaza del Rey (The King's Square in English) at 10 pm for some kind of a pre-party-thingie.

'Right, gotcha.'

So, I was there. I was actually there at 9.45 pm just to be there on time. I came a bit early because I had read from the UC3M ESN facebook page that the group who'd gather to the square would already leave at 10.15 pm.

'Bad mistake.'

I was getting a bit anxious when my watch was telling me that it was already 16 minutes past ten and I hadn't seen ANYONE who'd have looked like an exchange student. (What I actually saw was mainly gay couples making out on the benches of the plaza.) While I was waiting for anything to happen, a Spanish couple of about my age approached me. We spoke a while, mainly about where I was from, etc. They also asked whether I had any plans for the night. I told them that I was going to a discoteca (see, I know some Spanish) called Cocó. They laughed and told me that it's a gay disco! Right... The first disco that I'd go to in Spain would be a gay disco.

Finally, student-like people started pouring into the plaza. I soon found that I was ill-equipped for the occasion: I had nothing to drink with me! So, I had to join the 'Let's go and buy some beer' Task Force. After a few rounds around the surrounding blocks our TF had reached its goal. Mission accomplished. When we returned to the plaza I found out that we were going to stay there for a while. Why did I come early? I have to get rid of that exhausting habit.

'You're not in Finland, stupid.'

But, anyways. The people were nice. More than nice, let's say fabulous. Thanks for the evening. And I really was in need of someone to talk to because I haven't had too many conversations here in Madrid.

At around midnight we went to the disco. Well, actually we had to wait for about a century to get in. But hey, I'm not complaining because I was in good company. I won't go into detail about the disco itself because you can all more or less imagine what the place was like: light, music, alcohol, that sort of thingies. I stayed until 6 am and had to take a taxi to get home to Leganés. (See, I already called my flat my home!) I was soooo drunk, I'm telling you! It's a real wonder that the driver understood where I wanted to go to and even a greater wonder that I was able to climb the stairs up to my apartment. Although, when I woke up this morning I saw that I had been able to make a REAL mess of all my clothes and other basic, daily stuff: Everything was on the floor, gathered in heaps of all sizes. Great, way to go Jope.

And then I took a glimpse at my watch (which was on the floor, too). It was 3 o'clock. In other words, I had missed all my lectures today. Fantastic. On top of everything else, I had a major headache. I mean, on a scale from 1 to 10 the headache had to be at least 9.6. And I had nothing to ease the pain. At that point I could appreciate the fact that my parents are doctors and that they always maintain at least a half-decent medicine cabinet at home. (I was actually given pills to take with me to Madrid: something for diarrhea, allegy pills and antibiotics. But no painkillers!) So, I decided to sleep some more. When I finally woke up at 5 pm I understood that I had slept through the whole day. That's something I don't do every day. I can't actually remember any other day such as this. Wow, this exchange thing is amazing. I'm already experiencing new, wonderful stuff.

You know what? This day wouldn't have been all that important anyway. But tomorrow, on the other hand, IS a big day...  LP is coming to Madrid!

I attended my first UC3M lecture/class today. Fantastic. I had my expectations set quite high because the campuses in Getafe and Leganes are fancy, modernish, and most of all big. I was expecting something like this:

One of the lecture halls in Aalto University, Espoo.

But, do you know why it's always worth it to be a pessimist?
- 'Cause a real pessimist never gets disappointed.

What do I mean by that? Let me explain in detail:

I was well prepared. I woke up at 7.30 am, did my morning thingies and prepared my bag. And then I checked that I really had everything I could possibly need for my first chemistry lesson, including tissue paper. And then... I re-checked my bag. And then I did it again, and again... So, I was all stressed up and ready to go. I left my flat at 8.30 am sharp, thus I was at the campus at 8.38 am (seconds rounded down). I had to ask for directions to find my way to the accursed building number 7, but all in all everything went more-or-less smoothly. I was waiting by the classroom door at 8.47 am. I felt a bit disappointed by the lack of students next to the classroom. I mean, I would have liked to make new friends, and all that...

Finally, at 9.02 am the teacher arrived and entered the classroom. I followed her. At about ten past nine the teacher started the lesson. It was all of the yeah-whatever-variety: schedules, email addresses, etc. But that was to be expected, really. It's always the same, isn't it? The curious thing was that... In the classroom, there were four people in total: the teacher, me and two other students (E and D)!

But hey, who cares? Some people say that having a private teacher is the most efficient way to learn. Right, EP?

Yesterday I tried to connect to the secure, encrypted campus WiFi (eduroam) here in Leganés. There was something messing up my attempts to login, and so I was starting to get nervous: Would my life be a non-e-hell?

The answer is: NO! I got the secure campus WiFi (eduroam) working today! It worked just as you'd expect it to: just use that same universal username + password combination as everywhere else and you're ready to go! (Actually, there was a minor difference in the password. The network password has a limited length, and so I had to use a shortened version of my normal password. Anyway, that wasn't the problem yesterday because I figured that out almost immediately.) And now, here I am sitting inside the UC3M library and writing this blog post. So, I'll be able to stay in contact with all of you guys in Finland, for example. As hard as it may be to believe, that really is a major relief. :P

In other words, it turns out that I won't have to start offering the blood of young virgins to all sorts of different evil pagan gods to get the connection working. I'm sure some of the students here in Leganés can appreciate that.

Now it's time for me to send you some up-to-date, realistic pics of my apartment here in Madrid. Ok, so... Here we go!

First, I have to open about a dozen different types of locks to get inside my house. But that's fine by me because I hate robbers. And rubber ducks. When stepping inside the apartment you first enter a small entryway. From there you can either turn left to the kitchen or walk straight forward to the living room. Here's the first pic:

This is the view from my balcony to the front door.

I hate those cutesy, little thingies on the wall! I have to get rid of them. It's just a real bummer that I can't get rid of them COMPLETELY (as in burn 'em) because those damn pieces of decorative shit belong to my landlord... But, hey... At least I can throw them inside a closet. Here's another:



Same room, different viewpoint.

Ah, yeah. I already mentioned the kitchen. Here it is:



Here's the kitchen. It's nothing fancy, but I think I'll manage to warm up my frozen pizzas with this setup.


I know, this photo is very similar to one of the photos that I've put on display previously. But, I do have something I want to point out about the kitchen: There's no dishwasher! I hate doing the dishes, it's just plain boring. Maybe I could use paper plates and plastic utensils for 9 months? ... ok, let's move on.

Let's go to the balcony! Here's what we see:


First, let's take a glanze to the left...



... and then a  peek to the right.

 Not bad, aye? I even have a few clothes lines at the balcony, so I can dry my clothes. When it's not raining, that is.

I don't have too much to say about the two bedrooms so I'll just add the photos and be done with it:



The 'Master Bedroom' as seen from the door.



The Master Mushroom from next to the desk.



A pretty decent pic of the guest room.

I know the colors look horrible together. I'm working on it.

The nights are tough. They really are. I've noticed it in Finland too, but here in Spain it's definitely even harder. And no, I'm not talking about anything dirty: I'm talking about longing for LP. I know, I'm being a wuss and all that, but... I've grown to like sleeping together with my girl-friend. And now that I have to sleep all by myself, I find myself in front of my laptop at, say, 1:30 AM because I just can't relax and feel comfortable enough to sleep. Is it something to be ashamed of?

'... Yeap, it is. You're a wuss.''

At least there's always Skype. It really is a lifesaver. Anyways, I've just experienced my second day in Spain! [ISTANT RIMSHOT]

After breakfast, we (me, my mom and her husband) took a stroll: we headed to the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace in plain English):


The Palacio Real

 After a tour filled with about a hundred more-beautiful-than-J-Lo rooms filled with extravagant furniture, we continued our tour around Madrid. We took the metro ( a.k.a. the Underground or the Subway) to the Parque del Buen Retiro, or Retiro Park. It really is a must-see, I'm telling you. Here's a few pics:



A fancy fountain, right?



This is what my father calls 'the Duck Pond'.

Why don't people usually build their back yard gardens like this?

Right, now that I've made you guys envious as hell, we can continue with the story. After the park we took a look at the Botanical Garden which was a slight disappointment. Because of its run-of-the-mill appearance I don't have any photos of the place. Sorry.

Then it was time for the must-stuff. I mean, I had to register my courses here at UC3M, and to do that I had to go to Getafe. There's one of the UC3M campuses and about 150 000 people in the cozy satellite city. We took a train to get to Getafe. I have to tell you, the trains are superb: they accelerate incredibly smoothly, they're clean and fast. AND cheap. They are everything you could ever wish for. So, sell your house and start living in one of them. Now.

Um, yeah... Anyways, we got to Getafe in one piece. We even found the UC3M campus very easily because of all the gigantic signs saying 'Hey, dumb-ass! This way!' A few minutes after stepping out of the train I found myself in the middle of the campus asking a friendly, student-looking Spanish guy where I was supposed to go to. He told me to go to building number 10, first floor, rooms 30 and 31. And he even pointed me to the right direction. All in all, everything was going smootly, right?

Registration of courses: a question of life and death. If I got the courses that I wanted, everything would be fine. In other words, even if Earth was conquered by miniature space hamsters, I would be ok. There were about 10 people assisting the university newcomers in the Registration Room (RR). When I entered the RR I was greeted by a smile: a friendly Spaniard pointed me to sit beside him. 'Would you like me to assist you in English or Spanish?' he asked. I thought I was in HEAVEN: 'In English, of course... dumb-ass', I responded (more or less). After a few seconds the guy smiled and said something like: "Please, go to booth number 8." I was starting to get nervous. What's wrong? Oh, f...

There it was, number 8. I sat down in front of a brunette lady in her 30s. She told me that her English wasn't all too great and that's why she would be talking in Spanish. Oh, f..! This was my worst-case scenario: there was something wrong with my courses and I'd have to work my way out of the situation in SPANISH. Sounds bad.

... But it wasn't. I actually surprised myself: I spoke to the lady in Spanish and I even understood most of her mumbling! Haha! Thank you EP, I love you! (Don't get jealous my love 'cause I love you way more.) And then, the lady told me that there was nothing wrong: I had now been registered to all the courses that I had previously selected! Great.

Haha! You were hoping for something juicy, weren't you? Some kind of a 'everything is hell' story, right? Well, here's the thing: everything is fine, except for the constant longing for LP. But that's something only a high dose of amphetamine can cure and I don't do drugs when I'm not high.

This is it. I'm in Madrid. I'm scared and lonely, although my mom and her husband are here with me. But still, there's a bit of excitement in the air, too. You could even say that I'm starting to feel hopeful. Actually, I've more-or-less liked this city so far, really.

We're staying at the Hotel Praga in Madrid, room 4XX. The place is great, despite the construction site that's situated just outside the front doors. We even have a lovely view to a nearby apartment: this morning we noticed a very hairy madrileño doing his dishes without a single piece of clothing just a few meters away from our room window. Nice.

Now, the more interesting stuff. Yes, I've got an apartment! And it's great. I'll fill you in on the details later when I finally start living there. In other words, you'll just have to wait patiently for a few days. The owner is really great, too. And he even speaks English, thank God! The just one nagging little thing with the place: it's not possible to have an Internet connection, so I have to buy a 3G USB modem to be able to get online. Sounds cool, right? The downside is just that those thingies tend to be pricey. But, hey... Who cares? We're talking about an addict's access to his narcotic, for Christ's sake!