3-13 or 14-93
I am beginning to think that I was born in the wrong country – I love Spain! Everyone here is very warm and friendly – so much like Maiol! Now I understand why he is the way he is, and I love it!
Maiol and I went out last night and didn’t get in until 5:30 this morning. Albert drove me to meet Maiol after basketball practice. We went to a bar so Maiol could eat some dinner. He ordered a hamburger. It was made from meat and was served on a roll with lettuce and tomato, but that’s where the similarity to American burgers ends. The meat was like a ground-up salt pork, and the roll was crunchy French bread. Maiol asked for ketchup and mayonaise and the waiter didn’t believe him. When the waiter finally realized that Maiol was serious, the cook delivered the goods by hand, then stood there and watched as Maiol liberally drenched the burger. Apparently here they don’t eat ketchup and mayonaise together.
After dinner we went to a bar that belongs to a former player on Maiol’s basketball team. I stuck to beer. I got to meet all of the basketball players and Oscar (yes, he is very tall) and I got to meet Jemma. She seems to be very nice, though she strikes me as being very young, though that may be just her looks. About 2:30 we left the bar and went en masse (all 20 of us) to a discoteck (spelling?). I danced for three hours straight –Yikes! We came home and Albert tried to wake us up at 8 and 9, but he didn’t succeed until 11:30. I got up, took a shower, and we drove north for two hours (yes, I have no idea where we went) to Dali’s town.
Let’s see here, I guess that there is no way to explain the museum – it was surrealistic to the point that it gave me a headache. However, that could also be a hangover. Anyways, five stories of Dali’s work was enough to make several impressions on me. First – he was into sexual expression – phallic and genital symbols were everywhere. Second, he saw the world in a light much different from that of the average person. Third, I’ll bet that a conversation with him would leave one’s head spinning.
I guess that I was rather ignorant, but I seriously thought that all he did was paintings. I love his sculpture, the optical illusions, and the sketches. I bought 16 postcard and one poster of my favorite painting that I saw there.
Unfortunately, my two favorite Dali paintings, "The Last Supper" and the flowing clocks are located elsewhere.
Before I write anymore I’m going to write a joke so I don’t forget it. Ferran told it to me yesterday in the bar. Here it is:
A man and a woman were in a hotel room doing bad things (translated = having sex) and he phone rings. The man answers and a voice asks: Are you Kissinger? The man answers: NO, I am fucking her!
Back to today (or rather yesterday, as it’s now almost 2 am). We went out for lunch and they ordered for me – first, toast with olive oil, sweet red peppers, and sardines, then a steak with a cream, wine, and peppercorn sauce – Yum!
We came home and Oscar and his family came over to watch the soccer championships. Barcelona won! It was fun to watch the men watch the game, as they got more into it than Americans do with football. They argued, swore at the TV, and yelled alot.
Then we had dinner – cold cuts, bread, etc. The table wasn’t big enough for all of us, so Maria had the men take a door off the hinges and lay it across the regular table and covered it with tablecloths – it worked out fine.
Oscar’s family was very nice. The father spoke a little English and he made an effort to talk to me. I wanted to ask Maria a question about dinner, so I asked Maiol to translate for me – he translated in English!
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