Fun things to do as a Scorpion

I mentioned in an earlier post how there are a lot of fun things to do as a Scorpion.

Recently I was called out on it, and initially I drew a blank.

But then I thought to myself...I had a hell of a lot of fun as a Scorpion. I should be able to talk about a lot of things.

"But, Eagleheart, it's BROWNSVILLE!"

Yeah, I know.

However, being how I believe Brownsville IS the college and the college IS Brownsville, I have an entire city from where I can draw ideas about 'fun things to do as a Scorpion.'

Being a commuter school offers us a series of advantages and disadvantages when compared to our elder and uglier sister in Edinburg. (Yeah, I said it.) There's still a lot of fun things to do as a Scorpion. Sure, we may not be perfect, but we're a damned sight better than other universities.

I am adding the 'downside' to things in order to keep some objectivity.

1. Residential/Student Life

Cons: Our full-time resident population is pretty low, so we don't get to have the OMGAWESOMEPARTIES that may be prevalent at other universities. (Compare UH - commuter school, with Texas A&M College Station). Age/gender disparity is also an issue, as the average UTB/TSC student is a woman in her mid-twenties.

I remember that throughout my three and a half years at the University, I was always the youngest, or among the youngest in my class, no matter if I was 18, 19, 20, 21, or 22.

Pros: Given that our dorms used to be a flippin' hotel, they're bigger.

That's one bit.

The rest:

We may not have the vibrant residential life seen in other schools, owing to the smaller numbers of residents, BUT we make up for it by turning other houses in town into party places. I think it is written somewhere that "When two or more Scorpions are gathered in my midst, there is a party."

2. Brownsville

Cons: It's Brownsville. It's hot, there's no [insert hipster thrift store / forever 21 / barnes and noble / games workshop / random store in Austin or Houston ], if you can't speak a lick of Spanish you can't get anywhere, and people value football as they value religion.

Pros: Because of our university and our unique position in the border, we have a large city. We're the crown jewel of the Rio Grande Valley. And Scorpions are a big part of it.

See, without our university, we wouldn't have people needing to destress locally.

Let's face it...there's majors in campus that give you a good reason to need an outlet for pent-up frustrations.

Unlike Austin, people born here have a fair shot at being Scorpions.

Unlike Houston, everything's accessible.

If I have a tough week at school, I'd like to be able to have places to release pent-up frustrations The bar scene in Brownsville is great, if you'll excuse the occasional fight. There's karaoke night at Bennigans, live music for decent prices at The Bar, hike along the bike paths, play pick-up games at Morningside, Lincoln, or Brownsville Sports Park, go out to eat at any of our fine dining establishments (being so close to the border lets us have REAL tacos), for more intellectual pursuits we've got an ass-load of museums, a playhouse, a strong [albeit hidden] support for the arts, 2 battlefields, and for those so-inclined, endless opportunities to hone chess skills.

The city is quite literally your playground, Scorpions.

Any other city in the valley, you'd be like...uh, so what do we do now?

Brownsville and McAllen are the only cities in the RGV where the "What's there to do?" lists aren't topped by "1. - go to South Padre"

3. Athletics

Cons: Football dominates Valley and Brownsville life.

Pros: Association football [soccer] is a rising force. I mean it. If you get a chance to catch the Scorpions play at the REK Center field, do so. If it's a weekend game you'll see slightly-mitigated passion, but it'll be reminiscent of watching a game at any big-name stadium in the north.

Minus the urine-filled ziplocks thrown at the referee.

I was particularly entertained by Porter High School's Barra, a group of Porter HS graduates studying at UTB/TSC who turned out for several games with drums and combined with the existing REK-Center cheering squad.

In my articles, I began to label them the Scorpion Ultras, and they were always there at the games, with orange and blue-painted faces and apparel, for both men's and women's soccer teams. These are people that just make you WANT to be a Scorpion.

Then there's of course, the Premier Development League's Rio Grande Valley Bravos, with four Scorpions on their roster, now. Hell, it's not MLS but I'd rather watch a bunch of lower-division kids play amateur football than watch "Real" Salt Lake and New York Red Bull play grabass with each other.

Then there's the futbol rapido leagues played off in 511 by the airport. If you get a chance and don't mind the mosquitoes, those games (a number of Scorpions play in that league) are quite fun to watch, too.

But back to the university.

We've got a kickass volleyball team and our baseball team is no longer the mediocre team it was a few years ago.

Sure, you're thinking that since we don't play in the NCAA Division I, we're kinda shitty.

Well, no. We play in the NAIA, which is, competitively, between NCAA Division II and III.

And in our conference, we're dominant.

I'd much rather reign in hell than serve in heaven, if you catch my drift.

I'll give you that in 2009 we caught beatings from U. New Mexico and UT-Pan Am's baseball teams. But when it came time for soccer and volleyball, we slaughtered NCAA division I and II rivals in soccer and volleyball. My favorites were the women's soccer team routing Texas Southern University (3-1 at the REK Field and 5-1 on the road) and the volleyball team consuming UTPA at their own fieldhouse.

And the men's soccer team, well...I've seen them deal 12-0 beatings on other RRAC teams.

Pretty hilarious.

4. Conclusion.

Life is as fun as you make it. "There's nothing to do" is a shit excuse.

If you're stuck here and waiting to CAP out to UT or a bigger school, keep your foot on the ground and enjoy it here while your time is out. It sucks sometimes, yeah, but everything's got its ups and downs. There are no perfect universities.

If you were off at a fancier school and came back for X reason, welcome back and we hope you'll enjoy your stay. I would suggest remember your old school fondly (or not so fondly if you got out because they screwed you over), but don't take it out on UTB/TSC. Our colleges are different, and every experience is different than the rest. So we're sorry you're not going to get to do a ring dunk, but hey, with time, you can build your own tradition.

Being a Scorpion is fun, and if it isn't to you, you have to MAKE it fun.

People will give you shit for it, definitely, as there are some of you out there who've been given flak by people who went to other "big-name" schools. Tell them to fuck off. A diploma from a prestigious university might get open doors for you, but it won't hold 'em open. You will do that by yourself.

I'm going to paraphrase the Boondock Saints now.

Once you hold those doors open, you shouldn't ask yourself how far can you go.

Ask yourself if you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed.

Doesn't get any funner than that.

Sting 'em hard!

-Eagleheart

SNEAK PEEK:

In the upcoming issue of the Rio Grande Leviathan, I will analyze the UTB/TSC Board of Trustees race.

Will I back the administration candidates/incumbents, or will I take sides with the populist challengers?

Nostalgia

Lately, my mind's been bothersome since there has been [at least, up until yesterday] nothing to do.

So my mind travels.

Travels back and forward through time and dimensions that don't really exist, different planes and states of mind, traveling at an unbelievable speed in order to reach these dimensions within the span of a breath.

In this past-future sight, I go to places and I see them as they were or how they could be. It's strange...just a blink of an eye and then the real world disappears and I'm in a different time. A blink and I'm back.

It's always me in these travels. I take on several forms, but it's always me.

I've traveled the Kanto and Johto regions, flown dragons in Britain, fought alongside and against Napoleon and Salahuddin.

I've sprouted wings off my back and flown over the entire city of Brownsville. I've met imagined death countless times only to be reborn every single time.

And it's always me.

No matter how unreal the situation is, it's always me. I look the same, talk the same, act the same, the only difference is the wings.

It's just strange. I don't know what keeps my imagination so excited.

Anyway, SGA elections are coming up soon, and once I get wind of the candidates, I'll be posting up my own commentary about it :p

Bougainvillea

So I'm back in town.

[looks around at nonexistent audience]

I know you missed me.

A little bit about my return. I unfortunately left Madrid as heartbroken as I left Granada. In my short time I was there, I danced from dusk till down, learned Sevillanas, and was treated to great BBQ by one of my beautiful hosts.

The plane back, however...

I developed a fever mid-flight, a condition which was exacerbated by the fact that I had to put up with the screaming cries of two children for ten hours. Horrible experience compounded by the inedible food. I mean...what's the deal there? It's plastic. What made it worse was seeing the Israeli guy sitting next to me devouring his plate with gusto. Is food in Tel-Aviv that bad that you actually enjoy airline food? In any case, I get back to Dallas, spend a feverish night, come back, stumble across two rejection letters, find that shit is just as I left it, etc.

But I'm better now.

Enjoying myself more, enjoying the outside world more. But, I have to come back to blogging, particularly since there's a particularly delicious topic this week: Bougainvillea.

To the lot of you that aren't familiar with Bougainvillea, it's essentially a prom-type of event that the University of Texas at Brownsville has put on since the year of the nopal. It's a pretty neat event overall.

Last year, I had the opportunity to participating in the event as a candidate, alongside my best friend. These are the observations I drew from my time as a candidate:

1. People take that shit seriously-

Thousands of people vote for their Bougainvillea candidates. Only a few hundred vote for Student Government positions. Though, given the sorry state of affairs in the SGA...and given the sorry candidates that have been running the show for the past few semesters, I can't say I blame them.

2. Campaigns are dirty.

In three and a half years of being around Bougainvillea, it was amazing to see how dirty campaigning got. Two years before I ran there was a big stink going on because one of the candidates was telling people not to vote for X candidate because she was "gorda y fea". Then a year later there was the matter of mutual reporting about rule-breaking going on between candidates. Then during my own campaign, several of our signs were torn from their hinges or simply stolen. Of course during the campaigns there's always administrative involvement of sorts, in some cases covert, and in some cases blatant.

3. People really take that shit seriously

A lot of the candidates, I feel, and I might be wrong, but a lot of them see this as being a chance to be the "royalty" in proms they may not have had a chance of being in high school. I remember walking down in procession and chuckling with my partner at how short our "introductions" were. Then the other candidates went by and we realized that their own introductions were about 2-3 pages long, detailing lifetime and community "achievements" family and friends and of course the exhortation to prayer and a healthy diet and oh my god this is such a special moment in my life.

Which, of course, only made me laugh a little inside, given how our campaign was run on no such premises. We were there to show school spirit, but took the entire thing as seriously as one would take an extra credit assignment.

I mean, it's an honor and it's all in good fun, but come on, people!

4. People take not voting seriously

"I didn't do this shit in high school! I'm too cool to vote!"

Like the people on #3, some people have the same high school mentality, and same chips on the shoulder as they did about people campaigning.

When I ran, I tried my hardest to make these people understand that despite some candidates running for Prom II, there were some of us doing it for the school spirit and to have fun.

But NO.

Either these people see some of the candidates as the spitting image of that jock who jostled them around in high school (which is kind of funny in my perspective, since I was as far removed from a jock in HS as intelligence is to Tea Party members) OR the thought of people having fun was offensive to these people.

To those of you that do this, I have one request for you: Have fun being a Scorpion, even if you think it's strange or stupid.

Case in point:

In Valencia, Spain, there's a week-long event mid-March called Las Fallas, in which the city's neighborhoods all compete with each other to create huge and elaborate floats that are incredibly time-consuming to make. The winner is selected on Friday and then is promptly lit in a huge bonfire and then everyone else sets of fireworks.

Strange....but it's tradition.

And tradition, as a college student, is important.

The way I've always seen things about college in general is that you have to get involved with the campus. If you're a Longhorn you have to party in 6th Street. If you're an Aggie, you have to party in Northgate and BTHO things. If you're a Scorpion, you grin and bear with Bougainvillea (amongside a wide variety of other things that I'll talk about in a later post). Tradition brings people together and allows for a more positive and enriching college experience.

It costs you almost nothing to attend the school, other than the stupid textbooks that are unreasonably expensive, so what's wrong with having a little fun here and there?

I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. That'd spoil the fun.

If I could vote, I'd support my friends Michael Peña and Cleiri Quezada, who are representing The Collegian, the only student voice on campus.

But, feel free to choose whoever :)

Cheers!

Social Commentary from Madrid, I

Hello, again.

So, within maybe 20 minutes of landing in Madrid, my cabbie (who was as dark skinned as I am) confused me for an Ecuatorian. I naturally didn't say anything other than give him a dirty look because I was TIRED.

Apparently half Ecuador is here (understandable) so...whatever.

But, yeah, I'm [back] in Madrid. Last time I was here was Christmas before last, also on the tail end of a European tour. Nothing's changed since...well, even if something did change I'm not exactly going to notice.

Unlike Granada, Madrid's not half-covered in works (Thanks, Plan Engaño!), and it's huge,

Note that I am not by any means dissing Granada's public works program. When it's all done it's going to make the city more beautiful than it already is.

Which is going to suck for the tourism industry because people are NOT going to want to leave.

Back to Madrid.

Let's talk about the subway.

The subway is such a novel contraption I wish it could be placed everywhere in the Rio Grande Valley. Except we can't really build one, what with us being on sea-level and all that.

(And there's a number of people who would break the rails just by virtue of their mass)

But if anything, we should make more use of our public transportation system. Cut our dependency on our cars.

And don't get me wrong, I love driving, but hell, if I could have a reliable way to get to say, South Texas ProBAR without having to drive or pay an expensive bus ticket, I'd really appreciate it.

We should bring back the trains, too. It'd be a great source of employment.

So, how about some social commentary?

I think I already talked enough about healthcare and education.

So how about POLITICS?

Well, in brief:

-HISTORICAL SEGMENT-

Earlier in the 20th century, there was this war in Spain. The Spanish Civil War.

Horrible affair. The right-leaning nationalists (fascists) versus a conglomeration of anarchists, socialists, democrats, communists and international volunteers.

The "fascists" won because of their unity and because Franco was a BAMF in his own right. I use the term in quotations because Franco wasn't anything but...Franco. He saw opportunities and took them, the ultimate pragmatist. That led him to make buddies with Hitler early on just to be able to use German technology against the Republicans. Combined with the fact that the Republicans had pretty much been like "LET'S KILL ALL THE CAPTAINS OF OUR SHIPS IMPERIALIST PIGS!" without the foresight of having Republican backups to said captains, Franco had the technological edge.

Later on, when Hitler was doing his stuff, he was like "So...Franco....yeah...you know those planes and stuff we sent you to help you win? Yeahhhh, it'd be cool if you joined me, cuz, you kinda owe me."

Franco was like, "Sorry, no hablo Aleman" and that was the end of it. Yeah, there was a Spanish Blue Division who fought for the Germans in the war, but it was an entirely volunteer regiment formed SOLELY to fight the Russkies.

-END HISTORICAL SEGMENT-

So what ends up happening is that Franco rules the country as a dictator for awhile, and then when things settle down and several dozen thousand Spaniards are put to death or exiled, he restores the constitutional monarchy in his deathbed. The government is socialist-leaning but with conservative values. So there's a period of conservative leaders from the Partido Popular and then BOOM, the mudjahaddeen bomb the Atocha train station in Madrid as retailiation for Aznar's support for the Bush Invasion...right before the general election.

Oddly enough, the people flipped out and elected Zapatero, the candidate for the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) and then there was a pull out.

So there's a lefty-leaning government, the opposition party is a right-leaning lefty party, and there is a new center-standing lefty party that's gaining prominence called "Union Progreso y Democracia" who's like Whoa, you guys both suck, but here's my legitimate gripe with you.

Why do I bring up politics?

Because I don't like the way the PSOE is running things. And I think there's room for more debates about fixing shit in regards to crime and punishment. Murderers getting away with...well, murder, is not right. Life imprisonment is NOT inhumane.

Speaking of inhumane, there's certain inhumane subsidies that have prejudiced the people of Spain in this foreigner's opinion.

There's lots of stores called "de chinos" which, as you imagine, are Chinese-owned stores. Problem with these stores is that unlike Spanish stores which tend to close on Sundays and some close from 2-5 for the siesta, these are family joints that run all week.

Which, y'know, is the capitalist thing to do, right?

BUT.

They get subsidies to do so. A Chinese-owned business pays no taxes for five years. Which is weird. I'm all for immigration, I'm all for a lot of things, but I am not for the philosophical jeopardizing of a nation's autonomy. What happens is right before five years are up, the owner transfers the lease to a family member and 5 more years of no taxes!

If you know me, I'm a big fan of immigration. However, those benefits should also be given to domestic industries as well, if you're going to start giving those handouts.

Closing thoughts on Andalucía

Well...I'm leaving.
Yeah, heading off to Madrid, but I've become enamored with this place. The people, the culture, everything.

There's two things I need to highlight in this third installment of my commentary: Women and food.

Actually, it could be one. Instead of tacos de ojo it's been a month of tapas de ojo.

Talking to my Spanish roommate from back home before coming over here, we had a discussion about where the most beautiful women in Spain were. Having spent a few days in Barcelona the year prior, I suggested the Catalunyan women were very beautiful. He said that that was a very dumb thing to say and then swore to high heavens that Andalucían women were the most beautiful in Spain and quite probably the world. I laughed in his face. It was a naive thought. I mean, I'm from northern Mexico and have traveled all around Texas. Surely there couldn't be women as beautiful as that.

And I was wrong.

Andalucian women are absolutely gorgeous. That's all there is to be said on the matter and it unfortunately brings in this connundrum.
Who is hotter?
Mexican women from the north
Andalucian women
or Texan women?

You vote.

As for the food ... well...it's all been so delicious. I cannot say for certain what's been my favorite meal. Maybe it's the boquerones, a type of anchovy cured in lime and olive oil, or "pechuguitas Ithaka" chicken dumplings cured in lime or...yeah.
Interesting thing about Granada and the Andalucian coast, is that it has a lot of coastal things that wouldn't be amiss in Mexico. Mangos, oranges, limes, etc. No grapefruit, though.
And Granada has the only aguacate crop in possibly the entire European union.

What else?
Well. Nothing.

I have two anecdotes. Not my own, of course, but common lore here:

The first is that of a blind beggar who was out...well, begging for money, in the city of Granada.
A noblewoman walks by and she brushes him off. A passing knight sees this and tells her,
"Dele limosna, señora, que no hay mas pena que ser ciego en Granada"

The second anecdote deals with Boabdil, the city's last moorish ruler. Legend has it that when he left the city after turning over the keys to Fernando and Isabel, he turned back and looked at the city. He wept and his mother turned to him and said, "Why do you weep like a woman for that which you could not defend as a man?"

I understand why Boabdil wept.
I understand why being blind is a misery here.
And now I leave...who knows when I'll be back.

I'll stop by Madrid for a few days before heading back home. Maybe I'll post from the capital.

Cheers!

Social Commentary from Andalucía, II

In which Eagleheart muses and then takes on socialized healthcare, socialized education and the European Union...

Haven't written in awhile.
My apologies.
Been enjoying my time here. Visited the Alhambra last weekend...three hours after coming back from a night out. I still had fun, though. Seeing the city from above (got to experience the same sight several days later from the opposite side of the Alhambra, in the neighborhood of the Albaycin. Photos available on my facebook, since I can't be assed to put them up in photobucket. Not right now, anyway. Stupid connection issues.

Speaking of connection issues but not really, Lady Gaga is going to Houston this summer. And I SO SO BADLY WANT TO GO.
Anyways, where was I? Oh, yeah. Albaycin. Or Albaicin. Spelling is really up to the user. Something I haven't said about Granada before, is that it's an old city.

NO SHIT EAGLEHEART ITS EUROPE ITS THE OLD WORLD LOL

Well, yeah, BUT. There's some pre-Roman stuff here. Not a lot, but it's here. To the history buff, meaning me, this place is wonderful. I’ve also visited the Capilla Real, where Fernando of Aragon and Isabel of Castilla (and Juana la Loca and Felipe I de Castilla and the infant Miguel de Paz) are buried.
It’s interesting, to consider the what ifs.What if the rulers of Granada had not decided to fight against each other when the Reconquista came?
What if Columbus had been turned away from the Catholic Monarchs, too?
Some would say that if it wasn’t for the fall of Granada 1/2/1492, millions upon millions of native Aztecs, Tlaxcaltecas and Huastrcas would have survived and the Mayan codices would not have been burnt and we’d all traveling the Empyrean in Mayan spaceships.
Or we’d be speaking English.
It happened.
Mexican race came out of it, so I can’t complain too much. ,)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: THE BULK OF THIS NOTE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE PASSING OF THE 2010 HEALTHCARE BILL.

Every one in Spain is entitled to healthcare. Even tourists. If I fell sick, I could get treatment.

Yeah, there’s private care available, too, but it’s just as good and it’s by the same doctors. America, how hard could this be to understand?I understand restrictions for certain things like plastic surgery.

I mean if you’re Juan and want to be Juana, you shouldn’t chop off your Johnson on the government’s dime. Ditto boob jobs and facelifts. Anything that is purely cosmetic (and not a result of severe burns) should not be covered on a comprehensive healthcare package. Anything else, why not?I mean, it’s not like we’re not wasting money on other fruitless ventures like working to pad the former Vice President’s stock portfolio or stupid research grants.

Just do it, America. Doctors here make some pretty mean cash. There is no starving doctor.

But hey, I understand, some American doctors just HAVE to have that yacht and that Spyder. Not saying all of them are like that, but, still.

Lines won’t be too long. If you run into the ER with a gunshot wound that could be mortal you’ll be treated right then and there. And if you need a transplant, yeah, there’s lines and yeah, you could get a quicker deal with a privatized agency BUT it's not as obscene as it's painted to you by your local tea-party mouthbreather (the hypocrisy of these jerks will be discussed in later events) AND it evens the playing field. It means that if Paris Hilton and I get medical treatment, mine will be just as good as hers.

“Why do you hate America, Eagleheart?”

I don’t. Rich people are no better than poor people and viceversa. And there’s none of this multiple hundred dollar price tag just for a doctor to tell you “Oh. You have a cold.” If that doesn’t convince you, here’s an excerpt from the United Nations declaration on human rights:

“Article 25.(1)

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

The U.S. signed this.Then again, we know how good they the U.S. is at adhering to promises ;)

Moving on!

Socialized education

I’m still undecided how I feel about it. I think it’s great that education is free and that even for college will be relatively (as in…there’s ways to get it for free if you fill out the right forms) inexpensive.

But what happens when you have two-three decades of this? Everyone’s got their master’s, everyone’s got their bachelor’s. The only thing that sets you apart from the herd is your score on the placement exam…which is neat.

I could argue for it screwing over people who aren’t good standardized test-takers but that’s just a cop out when you get down to it.If you do well on that exam, you could do fun things like go into medicine.If you don’t, well, you could major in the humanities or something like that and hope you find a job somewhere.

In the United States, it’s not like everyone has a bachelor’s degree or something beyond that, so the more terminal a degree is, the more employable you are (in certain professions) Would I like to see universal education? Yes, most definitely. Everyone deserves a fair shake.

But I would rather fix the broken and bipolar education system first and then I can get a little bit more comfortable. Health care first.

In any case, there are many parallels between this system and the American system. If you don't like public schools, you can pay for private schools. Merit-based scholarships are numerous here, too. However, race-based scholarships are rare. So are the"Oh, my grandfather's great grandfather once shook hands with an Indian" type of scholarships.

However, education in the private and public sectors is great and the only key difference is that going throug private school means your kid probably doesn't get to hang around as many immigrant children. But it's still pretty good. Most European countries learn all about the world, learn proper history, and possibly pick up another language or two. The ERASMUS grant discussed in the previous commentary also gives them a distinct advantage.

Back in the States, there is an unfortunate disparity between the public schol and private school systems. I do not believe the school makes the student. I believe a smart student is just as likely to succeed in either environment. However, with the horrible deficiencies propagated by lying textbooks and teachers who have to teach to a flawed TAKS or state test, I'd say there's more risk in public school there than here.

What’s next? Oh, the European Union.

So I’m in class, right, and we’re going over some laws about the European Union. So then the professor starts talking about the organization of the EU and then he kind of casually, matter-of-factly, talks about how the following is entirely possible:

· Any member of the EU can go to another country in the EU and have passive and active suffrage in municipal elections. Active suffrage meaning they can vote for a candidate, and passive suffrage meaning they can be voted for.

· If I don’t like the way a criminal or civil court treats me in Spain, I can appeal it to the higher courts of the European Union.

What the fuck? I mean, I think it’s great to have free travel between national boundaries.

But…to threaten your national autonomy like that?

Oh, sure, let me rob a bank in Barcelona but then when I get arrested I’ll complain that I was unfairly treated and with a good lawyer I stand a sure-shot of appealing a ruling against me.

Just think about the possible ramifications of that. It would make a mockery out of existing extradition rules.

In the United States, it would probably lead to good things like the destruction of the border wall in the southwest and the legalization of marijuana throughout the northern frontier.

But Mexico and the United States, while being historically linked (no Mexican session = no United States. No Santa Ana = frontier ends in Louisiana) are two very different countries in about everything else.

Europe was like that, with several nation-states duking it out and each kicking ass in its own terms. Now it’s moving slowly towards being a single republic again. Crazy. And don't get me wrong, I love the Euro, and I understand it brought back several economies from ruin. This is good.

What is not good is that combining the other factors, you begin to seriously undermine your own nation's autonomy. Now just wait until the Turks (who still haven't recognized the massacres in WWI) get brought in.

That's all for now, folks. Time to enjoy my last few days in Andalucía.

The Tapas Phenom and nightlife in Granada

This particular entry will deal more with the idea behind tapas rather than the food. The food bit I'll comment on later.
Anyway, what are tapas?
Tapas, are simply put, the Spanish equivalent to tacos.
Meaning that in its most basic, simplistic definition, a tapa is a piece of bread that you put stuff on it.
However, they take on a whole different social situation here.
On two fronts.
On the first, it's such a small meal that you could eat five-six times a day and it'd be the equivalent of a three-meal day back home, key difference being that food over here tends to be healthier and people walk more, etc.
The other front is that you tapear is synonymous with bar-hopping here. An idea like that would not fly at all in the United States for two reasons, the drinking issue (where a majority of people absolutely positively completely need to drink) and because the portions are small.
So, what happens on any given night in Granada?
You leave your house, your piso as it is called over here, at about ten or so. You meet up with your friends somewhere, then head to a place that sells tapas, which is about 95% of the food establishments here. You order a beer and the beer comes with a tapa, sometimes it's cook's choice, sometimes you pick your own.
Then, you go to another tapa place.
Then, you go to another tapa place.
Then, you go to another tapa place.
Then you could hit up a bar or club.
Then you go home. At six or seven in the morning.

I got to experience that last night with my two awesome roommates here. We left home at about ten p.m., more or less. I of course, was dressed...respectable. Better than I've looked in some, most, or maybe all cases.
We hit up three tapa bars, stopping for a caña (a beer) at Ithaca, La Quintana, and La Pajuana. At Ithaca we had the most delicious lime-cured lightly breaded chicken tapas, at La Quintana we had...I don't know what it was, but it was not as good as the previous place. It had some pretty interesting microbrews that were in a red bottle and had CHICKS ON SPEED on it.
Then at La Pajuana, we had a hamburger-tapa that was DELICIOUS. I mean, nothing like Ernie's, of course, but if I ever see a Southmost-style burger in this corner of the world, I would probably die.
Following that, we hit up a cocktail bar, then two nightclubs, stopping and staying from 4 a.m. onwards at one particular one called El Principe. It had guys on stilts walking around and dancing, and a violinist that was...trippy.
Then we got home at seven, and three hours later I was awake, getting ready to go to the Alhambra.

Some interesting things about last night:
1. Dark shirts are not common in nightclubs at all. Spaniard men go about in bright colors. I am not joking.
2. Whiskey and water is an old man's drink here.
3. Toronjas do not exist in Spain, which kinda made me look dumb to one of the cocktail bar's bartenders because I asked for a paloma.