A baby pig and my new friends, the gypsies

Before I get down to business I have a couple things to say:

First and foremost I would like to say thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog. Since I posted the second blog I have had an astounding 134 visitors which is about 130 more than I anticipated and 342 page views. I wasn’t smart enough to install a counter on my site when I wrote my first blog, but nonetheless thank you everyone.

Second, incase this is your first time reading the blog, scroll down to the bottom to start at the beginning.

Lastly, don’t forget to click on the links that are highlighted in blue as you read. I promise it will make things a whole lot better.

My good friend and the biggest whiner in the world, Dwiggy (Dustin Dwiggins) that I know of asked me to install bullet points to summarize the topics of each blog.

· O -Obsession with time

· I -I went to Segovia and bought a baby big

· I -I went to Granada and fell in love with some gypsies

Thanks to technology I have been able to keep in touch with a lot of people since I have been over here. Whether it is through email, talking on the phone, instant messaging or the google video chat it has been great talking to you guys. What has fascinated me most has been that no matter who I am talking to, they don’t ask me what I did that day, who I’ve met, or what I’ve seen. Instead the most frequent question is: What time is it over there? I have absolutely no idea why people are so fascinated with time zones, but here is a link to a website with all the different time zones for everywhere in the world. I hope you guys enjoy that.

Last Thursday was a national holiday here in Spain, so instead of having class we went to this crazy huge royal palace and then to Segovia. Segovia means we have lots of baby pigs in Spanish. Not really. I don’t know what it means, but they are famous for their cochanillo which in fact means baby pig in spanish. Really. So we had heard all about this and to be honest I was quite excited because baby pigs are so cute and cuddly. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was a huge fan of the movie Babe when it came out and would watch it occasionally when I had free movie channels earlier this year.

So anyway, as soon as we got there my friend Ivy (who coincidentally goes to Harvard) and myself couldn’t wait to get off the bus to see the little baby pigs. We were walking around everywhere looking for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Thank goodness Ivy is a tourist and has a book on Spain and we were able to find out a place to buy baby pigs. After walking up a really steep hill that reminded me of Mount Everest to get to the place I had a great realization. I had about five euro in my pocket which wouldn’t cover the cost of the baby pig. So despite Ivy complaining about the heat and the Everest like hill we were climbing we continued past the place that sells pigs to look for an ATM. That went on for about ten minutes until we finally just asked someone. It was conveniently located on the bottom of the hill. After getting some Euro and re-climbing Everest we arrived again at the place that has baby pigs. There was a sign on the door that had the price: 35 euro. We both debated, but agreed that a baby pig would be worth 35 euro. After going in and telling someone who worked there what we wanted they finally brought it to us.

My very own little baby pig was so cute, so calm, and so still. I was a little bit nervous because it was my first, but I ate it anyway. It was only a portion of the piglet, but the good portion. At one end was the ear and the other a leg, but I enjoyed every single bite. Word got around quite quickly around the group of Americans we were with that we ate baby pigs and we graciously accepted our new celebrity status for the rest of the day.

I know that was an incredibly long and boring Hughes-Peter story so I will try to keep this next one short and sweet. On Friday we went to Granada, which for me has been my favorite city thus far since I have been in Spain. Reasons why:

1. I was able to explore on my own through tiny little streets without hearing people speak English

2. The bars have free tapas (a nice sized appetizer dish) for every time you order a drink

3. Gypsies, gypsies everywhere

Granada is so full of history and beauty and I was able to see some amazing things and places like the room where Christopher Columbus met with Queen Isabella and a Flamenco show. It was also great to never have to buy food; in fact the whole time I was there I only bought cerveza and ate great little sandwiches FO FREE. Lastly, I became obsessed with gypsies. They are so friendly and hand out little branches of rosemary and read your palms and then 89 of them swarm you and demand you give them 20 euro. Like I said, great people.

This weekend I am going to Santander, which is on the northern coast so I am excited about going to the beach.

Here is the link to my photo album, but you need to be my facebook friend. If you aren’t on facebook, make one in like 2 seconds so you can see my pictures.

Couples making out in the metro: 6 (mind you that I was gone the entire weekend)

Yours truly and my favorite,

Tony Kroschewsky