HAPPY 2003

As we bring in the new year, I can officially say I've eaten McDonald's in 5 foreign countries (4 continents, and maybe 7 cities, hehe): Mexico, "Israel," Egypt, France, and now Spain. What have you accomplished? :-P

So I've finally come back from yet another one of my travels. The day after Christmas, I jetted the hell out of here & headed across the Atlantic. I hate spending hours in planes, butcha gotta do whatcha gotta do if you wanna see the world. And to stay sane - (at least for me). My way of keeping my sanity is escaping the ennui of my vain existence. *sigh*

When I was on my way to the airport, I saw a girl I recognized from school on the bus. I didn't talk to her until we were at the airport and I discovered we were on the same flight to Germany. She was headed to Kazakstan, which is where she is from originally. And me - final destination: paradise. Ha. Not really.

So, anyway - later, as me and this chick are walking to our gate, I spot a familiar person and shout, "Dana!" It was my old roommate from my last two years of undergrad. I hadn't seen her since right before I graduated, I suppose. (Although, once in a while we exchange a few words via messenger). But anyway, that was cool to run into her. We had someone to kill time with as we waited hours before we could actually board our own flights.

To skip all of that... I finally arrived to my final destination on December 27: the Canary Islands. I spent roughly 10 days there. Most of my time was spent in the city of Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria. (For those who don't know their geography, the Canary Islands is an archipelago belonging to Spain and located right off the coast of Morocco.) I met a few of my internet buddies in Las Palmas. I met a couple other in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is on the island of Tenerife. It was cool to meet these peeps, but I would have been much better satisfied had I a travel companion. I hate traveling alone. But - ah, well!

So, what can I say about the Islands? Well, the weather was cool - literally. When I got there, it was cloudy and it even rained in the evening. But after that, there were also days of sunshine. Definitely much warmer than home. The temperature was in the 20's (centigrade, of course) for the most part. I don't know what that converts to in Fahrenheit.

The food was decent. Didn't really try a whole lot of Spanish foods. But there's this one Canary dish - papas canarias con mojo. I liked that. I also went to a Singaporean restuaraunt, Chinese, and Korean. All I gotsta say about those places in the Islands, is that Chinese & Korean taste better in the U.S.!

Yeah, there are quite a number of immigrants there: Black Africans, North Africans, Chinese, Korean, Filipinos... I thought that was pretty interesting. It's just that being an American, I guess I kinda expect immigrants, when not speaking their native tongue, to speak English. And to hear them rattling off in Spanish - it throws me off! lol

The Canarians are nice peeps. Better than the Madrilenians (people of Madrid). I also spent about a week in Madrid. Some people who study at my university are from Madrid. When I got there, my roommate and her dad picked me up from the airport late at night. We went back to their place for a while. But then they had to bring me to my other friend's apartment because she would arrive in the morning and I needed to be there to let her in. She had given me the keys to her place when we were both in the States. So nice of her! She was only there with me part of the time. When she left for the States, I went out on my own and hung out a couple times with my roommate's sister and her boyfriend.

The weather in Madrid was colder. During the day it was above zero. It wasn't so bad. It rained a few times, but I wasn't out for that. I did some shopping there and sightseeing. Hung out with my friend and her friends. Even went to the famous Prado museum. Was not impressed. I don't know what I was expecting. Lots of bells and lights or something. Ha. Nah... I just didn't think it was all that. I like much better the National Gallery of Art in Washington. :-P And Goya - I have no clue why he's a famous painter. His works suck. Hehe... Maybe I just gotta get used to him 'cause that's how I feel/felt about Picasso when I saw his artwork. Anyway, El Greco had much better works. I remember I did I report on him for Spanish class in middle school.

Okay - this blog entry is not so chronological and not super-duper detailed cuz I don't feel like explaining and remembering everything. If I did, this entry would be just way too long. So lemme try to think of a few other highlights of my trip... Back in Las Palmas I met this one guy and hung out with him my first night and last day and somewhere in between. He was feelin' me. Haha. But he was cool. Took me to a few bars, restaurants, a club where he goes with his friends, invited me to his house, made me some food... I also met his mom and he had his brother-in-law take me to the airport when I was headed to the mainland.

Another guy I met took me to this really tranquil part of the city. Like a park by the Santa Catalina hotel. It was really pretty. And you could see this building on top of a hill and I'm like, is that a church? And he tells me it's a Korean one. Pretty weird.

I also met the man of my dreams. But like all happy endings, he's taken. D'oh! But yeah, I met him and he was cool. He hung out with me a few times. We went for beers. One night he even took me to a Lebanese restaurant. He helped me buy my boat ticket I needed to go to that other island, Tenerife, for New Year's Eve. After we bought my ticket he was like, let's look at some music. So we were checkin' out the CDs saying who we liked or what we'd heard and this and that. He purchased some CDs and then he hands a bag to me and is like, this is for you. Aww!! He had bought me a CD of one of his favorite groups! He was such a sweety. A really good catch. Too bad I didn't get to meet him in person before he hooked up with his current girlfriend. Hehe. Hey - there's always tomorrow. :) He also gave me this tape of Brazilian music he had recorded for me. Aww. I wish there were more guys like him... I tell ya - they just don't make 'em like they used to! LoL. Oh, and he did seem kinda jealous when he met the guy who had taken me to the park. The guy who had taken me to the park was waitin' with me as I was waiting for the other guy, so I ended up introducing him. When "park boy" left, my other friend made some kind of comment like he looks like a boy or something. But they're both the same age. Hehe.. Anyhoo...

So, I went to Tenerife for a New Year's party. My one internet friend, who's like head bouncer and does promotions for some clubs was at the port in Santa Cruz to pick up his friends he had invited from Las Palmas to the party. They were entertainers and what not. And then he had one of his friends take me to my hotel. I think his friend was a DJ for one of the radio stations in Spain (Los 40 Principales).

And this friend of mine, in the words of my sister and my friend, Nadine, he's "hot." Hehe. Yeah, he's a cutie, the kind you'd think would have lots of women. But he confessed to me that he's actually pretty shy. So, yeah, he got me into this club for New Year's and it was open bar. But I didn't drink much. Only had three drinks. Guess I didn't really feel like drinking much, and besides, I was sort of alone. I wouldn't wanna get drunk without a chaperone, ya know?

I met these entertainers... Some danced. Some sang and danced. Two of the groups performed. I was dancing with one of these guys that was a dancer. Then he pulled me off the floor, to a 'remote' area askin' for a kiss. Ha. I just said nope. Then there was this singing group. They performed, too and it was good. A Spanish R&B group called "3 de voz." Supposedly they've just signed with EMI and they're gonna do a tour of Latin America in the summer. We'll see.

So one of the guys in this group... we were diggin' each other. He was like a fake Jon B. LoL. You would have had to see him to know what I mean cuz he didn't actually look like Jon B. But dayum - his body was bangin'! Haha. He wasn't very tall or anything, but I found him cute. Guess it was his personality. Actually, the finest guy in the group had this skanky-lookin' girlfriend. Hehe. Lemme stop talkin' about people... Anyway - too bad I ain't kickin' out cuz I coulda got some. LoL. Coulda been a groupie. But nah, that's not my style. Had to turn down a piece of ass. lmao...

Anyway, next day I hung out for short while with the bouncer guy. He took me to a high scenic point to see the city. The next week when I spoke to him online he said he was thinking about kissing me when we were alone together. A-ha. Damn, I'm such a mack. Syke... But why can't I get any action in the US? From the cute guys, I mean? Dangit... :-P

At the stroke of midnight I was still at my hotel - this was before I had gotten to the club - in the lobby, eatin' uvas with a bunch of Argentinians, a Spaniard and a Moroccan. Haha. Craziness.

So that was my erratic recount of my 2-week vacation in Spain. I'm glad to be back home. I kind of didn't even want to leave. Dunno why. Maybe it's 'cause of this other guy I met on the 'net (and later in person) last month. He mad cool. Yet I don't know if that'll go anywhere. But, yeah... back in the US. Glad to be out of the pollution. My goodness - I hated having to be submersed in all the cigarette smoke. I just could not stand it. Every-freakin'-where! That's the one good thing about the States - smoking is forbidden in lots of places. I shouldn't have to be subjected to such a health hazard. I'd like to die on my own terms, thank you!

And there you have it. A run-down of the Adventures of Sheena. Next stop: ???. That's to be determined. But I will surely have more trips this year...