Today is the day of Saint James (Santiago), the patron saint of Spain. Spain is a predominately Catholic country, so this is a big deal. Especially here in Galicia that has Santiago de Compostela as its capital. The street in front of my uncle´s summer apartment is packed with people and for the past few days, every few hours there have been loud colorless fireworks (petardos). It's kind of fun in a way, but mostly kinda annoying.

Speaking of Galicia, there is a lot of talk about independencece from Spain. This is a typical feature of Spanish politics called nationalism. Some autonomous communities of Spain have separatist parties that seek to achieve, to some degree, greater independence from Spain. For an American point of view, this doesn't make much sense, and, indeed, most Spaniards consider separatism in an era of European unification to be prideful and stupid. But for many, it makes sense. Galicia is in many ways a different country. I'll have to elaborate later. It's gigantic two hour long lunch time.

First Post in Spain. I will begin with a summary of the time between this post and the last. The flight was uneventful and long. We arrived in Madrid early in the morning. Although my sister and I are Spanish citizens we entered Spain using our American passports because doing so will make returning to the States more simple. Here's a picture of us shortly after arrival. We're tired.

Our uncle Antonio picked us up from the airport and after getting lost in Madrid and driving in circles a bit we arrived at the Hospital were Lucia and I waited while our uncle did his rounds. My uncle Antonio is my mother´s only brother. He is calm and very intelligent but a bit absent-minded and distracted. I enjoy conversations with him.

We spent the first few days at my uncle`s home in Toledo. The first night my cousin Juan Pedro invited me to go out with him and his friends. I have an unfortunate tendancy to get sick every time I travel, so as to not tempt fate, I declined. He told me the next day that they were up the whole night drinking and smoking, so I did well in staying home. Most of those days in Toledo consisted of recovering from the jet lag and avoiding getting ill. I spent some time with my little cousins Victoria (age 12), Pilar (9) and Mercedes (2) (daughters of Antonio).

On Tuesday we (Lucia, Juan P and I) went to Galicia to stay with my aunt Dolores (my mother´s oldest sister) and uncle Manuel that are spending their summer vacation there with our grandfather, my cousin Blanca and her friend Maria. Maria is a daughter of the owner of a successful brick-making company. Her family is friends with my aunt Lola´s family.

So Maria's father invited us to eat lunch at a resturant in La Gaurdia whose owner is a very interesting woman. She personally greets everyone who walks in and the first thing she asks is if you are on the right politically. Then she informs you that not one of her costumers are socialists (the Left side of the two major political parties in Spain, on the Right is the Popular Party). On the wall is a shrine to Franco so we know she´s serious about kicking us out if we are "damned reds". The lady is clearly a bit out of her mind so we all just shut our mouths, tried not to laugh and sat down. The food was excellent. First plate was steamed langosta (similar to lobster, but without claws and with bigger legs. I dont know as many words for seafood in English as I do in Spanish. Perhaps there aren´t as many?), the second plate was merluza filets(a large fish) with potato, then for dessert a fruit, espresso, and a few shots of liquor. One of the best (and largest) meals I´ve ever had. Well worth putting up with a crazy old facist.

Well, I´m in a cyber cafe and my time is running out so I`ve got to go. I have more to say but I´ll have to save it for later.

This is the first entry in this blog. I am leaving tomorrow for Spain with my little sister Lucia. I'll be there for a full year. Lucia and I will spend the rest of the summer vacationing in Galicia with family. Lucia will go home right before her school starts in August. In September I'll move into an apartment in Madrid with my cousins Alejandro, Manolo, and Blanca. I will be attending la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid where I'll be studying computer science.

I was planning on just using my UMR website to keep this blog but I don't have much space left for pictures there and this blogger thing seems to be pretty good.

The idea of using a "web log" as an online journal has always seemed stupid to me. Pretending that these thoughts written here are personal and private is a pretentious self indulgence. The fantasy of writing a "private" diary that will be read by friends and strangers alike seems to be irresistable to many of the kids that subscribe to livejournal.com.

Anyway, this is not that kind of blog. Nor is it a topical blog. This personal blog serves two purposes: recording my experiences in Spain and keeping in touch with my friends and family in Missouri. However, I don't know how my internet access situation will be throughout the year or how much time I will have so I don't often I will be posting.

Time to go pack and make sure I'll have everything I'll need for the next year.