Vale, here I am having finally found an internet cafe, and I want to upload some new photos. So, I have the cable, but this antiquated piece of junk doesn´t even have a USB port! Honestly, it should be in a museum.

And I had such wonderful pictures! Of the Plaza España, the Plaza de Armas station and a flamenco drag show. Ah well, another time, I guess. But it took me ages to find even this one, and it´s not too far away. Either everyone here has internet at home or they don´t know what it is.

The apartment I´m staying in is very nice. It´s a shared apartment with a seperate room which is kind of away from the rest of the house. The other two people are a married couple, around 37, if I understood correctly. It´s really cool to have this inside glimpse of a Spanish family house. With their flamenco music on watching Spanish television and stuff like that. And it´s on the top floor, it´s got a big terrace and from there you can watch the whole parade of life walk by. Young and old, ugly and handsome (and my, there are a lot of those, hehe).

However, they don´t speak a word of English. Which led to a hilarious 30 minute session of me trying to explain that I had rented a bicicleta and if it was okay if I stashed it in the hall. In the end I just looked up the word for ´come with me´ and just handgestured my way through. That ANWB Language Guide is a lifesaver.

But Sevilla´s nice, very nice. Lots of incredibly friendly and helpful people. And dozens of things to do or see. But halfway through the day today it started to rain! And it was siesta so everything was closed, except for the movies. So I went in and saw a movie with Tilda Swinton called Julia (in which they unfortunately also go to Mexico where of course they didn´t subtitle the Spanish in English). Pretty good movie, nice acting, and a weird storyline that just keeps on giving you twists and turns.

Anyway, I think I´m going to go and find myself a nice cup of coffee somewhere because this hangover is just not going away without some cafeine.

Oh and nice to see some comments! Keep ´em coming.

It can still amaze me, in the morning you wake up in your own bed and then, a bit over 12 hours later you suddenly find yourself in a place you´ve never been before. Struggling with a language you´ve hardly ever spoken before and a map that is curiously tilted on it´s side (the way it works is just to let go of concepts of North and South and just think ´it´s probably this way´). But it´s not going badly at all! I actually managed to order some pretty decent food. And it´s cheap, so cheap.

And I had a bit of luck, also. Because my apartment wasn´t available until Friday I had to spend a night in a hostel, but the key-reader thing on the door was broken (which I finally convinced the woman here of after coming down for the sixth time ´it still isn´t working, maybe it´s actually the door?!´. So now I´m sharing a room with just one other dude and even have a seperate bathroom.

Above: Alameda de Hercules, a quickly (and quite badly) taken picture.

Anyway, it´s getting late and all of you are probably in bed. But here, it´s all just getting started.

By the way, did you know you can register on this site to leave your comments?

Well, one chapter of my life is kind of officially over. I moved my stuff back to my parents’ house to get ready for my trip to Spain for my TEFL course after which it’s probably on to somewhere else. It’s kind of odd, you know. The supermarket I went to for over four years, the shops I visited, the saturday market, my old school, it’ll all have to manage without me now. The few traces I leave behind are coffee stains on floors, walls and ceilings, mostly. I really have to learn to keep my cup straight.

But I guess a new and probably more exciting period is about to begin. Different horizons, super- and saturday markets and schools under exotic new skies. And all new hardships, since it probably won’t all be easy. Language barriers and cultural differences and all that.

But now the annoying administrative part. Giving change of address notices to the bank, the council, the internet people and all that kind of jazz. And although it’s mostly done now, you just know the people at your old address will keep getting your mail for several years to come. Going through past residents’ mail was and probably is one of my favourite ways to kill time, hehe.

Below, by the way, is a CD-case cover I’m doing at the moment for the Fontys Conservatory. But man, musicians, they sure take their time delivering their materials. It’s driving me insane. I’ll be glad to finally close this chapter, at least!

Upgrading WordPress to 2.7.1 reset my theme. Fuckin’ jerks!

edit: well, it’s starting to look like it again. I’m getting good at this whole CSS business.

A lovely picture of the globe in my room. It lights up in the dark and everything! It’s a Canon PowerShot SX110 IS by the way – the camera, not the globe. The range upto which it can focus is quite incredible. This picture was actually taken with me actually pushing the camera lens against the globe. You can even see the colour breaking down into dots!

I’m kind of stunned by the price on it, also. This kind of camera would have been a wet dream for anyone working on the first generation of digital cameras, and at a fraction of the price, also. It’s stunning how quickly this area is developing. Though the amount of megapixels these things are getting is quite ridiculous. This one is a modest 9 megapixels, but there are cameras going up to 14.1 megapixels – and quite probably above that! I don’t particularly see the point in that unless you plan on putting your holiday pictures up on a football field sized billboard. And let’s face it, nobody wants to see bad pictures of themselves that big, or any size for that matter.

Okay, I’m absolutely loving the whole facebook thing to be honest, but there’s something that keeps puzzling me. What is the deal with people just adding someone to a friends list for the sake of it? I just can’t figure it out, not that I’ve been exactly wracking my brain, it like a process I’ve got running on the side.

Why would you call someone ‘a friend’ after never having spoken? You give them a complete view of your social circle, interests and even birthday. You might as well just announce your pin and social security number and be done with it. There are people with more than a thousand friends! Even spending just 5 minutes chatting to each of those would take you more than 4 days…

And let’s be honest, people you’ve only spoken to for 5 minutes can’t really be called friends, can they? Anyway, for now, the ‘ignore’ option is my friend.

The new Lost episode just finished downloading so I’ll stop ranting now, my apologies for wasting your time.

So me and my sister saw Slumdog Millionaire last night. Absolutely wonderful movie by director Danny Boyle (who is, at this moment, hopefully getting his well-deserved BAFTA, the awards of which I unfortunately forgot to watch). It’s witty, fresh and well constructed and really shows you the dark side of consumerism and a glance into a world of filth most of us could not possibly imagine. So if you haven’t yet, go see Slumdog Millionaire right away!

Also, did you know that kissing is considered an extreme perversity when done in public in India? Look at this if you don’t believe me.

They actually burned effigies of Richard Gere (which I would happily join in on, can’t stand the face on him), but it is still incredible.

Anyway, onto something else I think everyone should know. This blog is probably the best pick-me-up when feeling blue. It’s about Katie Sokoler in her day-to-day affairs. Doesn’t sound particularly interesting but her light and fresh look on the world around her makes the day just that little bit better. I’m a particularly big fan of Moo, her cat. Go check it out!

Anyone else reading any cool blogs?

Just noticed that the anti-christ – Internet Explorer – doesn’t quite agree with my stylesheet. As soon as I feel like it I’ll definately change that. Though on the other hand, why are you still using Internet Explorer when there is such a wonderful alternative out there? Which also isn’t owned by that evil, power-hungry company.

And yes, irony has it that for now I am still on a PC with Windows XP. But as soon as it blows up it’s Apple all the way.

This is a portrait I was inspired to do of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk after seeing the biopic about him in the cinema. It was actually fairly tricky because of  there being so few good images available (when compared to the resolution stuff is in today).

Anyway, I think his legacy is something that should be remembered. I was shocked that I had never heard of him myself, actually.

Well, it’s kind of based on the idea that in a few weeks time I’m leaving for Spain for a month for a TEFL course. And who knows what else after that. While I rather like my family and friends and all, I’m not quite looking forward to the idea of relating the same story seven times a day on the phone.

So, this old blog got an overhaul to kind of strip it of any excess functions. Because it doesn’t really need to do much more than show words and maybe a picture here and there.

And also the old database got annihilated somehow.

Bit of a temporary post while I work on this. It’s going to be very basic, though.