Moneydick

la version Fran?ßaise

And here begins the story of how I was mugged on the streets of Barcelona.
It was around November 15th, 2005.
I had just spent a very pleasant week in the sunny cultural capital of Spain. El Sol shone on the stone buildings and the man urine from the night before stank–but it was but a common vestige of the past night’s madness. I had gotten used to the smell.
I had just enjoyed a relaxing picnic of olives, avocado, fresh baguette, and brie in tropical park of Mont Juic. Strolling down a street a couple blocks from the Mediterranean in my lazy afternoon food-coma-stagger, passing a group of deaf kids signing furiously while playing soccer, listening as the whizzing scooter daredevils raced by, doing all these things at once–I felt like I was home.
I was shuffling along with my new found Canadian friend Sally, enjoying the sights all relaxed-like. After our descent from the cliffs of the park overlooking all of Barcelona, we were making a beeline for The Aquarium near the center of town. On the walk we were deciding whether a post-lunch siesta or a walk through a Spanish aquarium would be better.
I had been having a good time here, but this particular afternoon was quickly rocketing past even the sunniest beach-filled days at my beach back home in California. We soon passed a local church, with flocks of 15-18 year old high school kids milling about and smoking. I was walking on the left side of street down the sidewalk and Sally was on my left. We soon passed the kids and I found myself stopped by a young man on the street.
He was between the ages of 17 and 25, and was of Spanish descent, with a 5 inch scar down the left side of his face. He looked homeless, and I slowed down to see what he was now energetically talking to me about. He stepped up to me–a reasonable distance for such a city–and with a quick flurry of eyebrow raises, quickly asked me:
“Hello! Where are you from?”
I replied “Los Angeles.” and he looked as though he had heard something about Los Angeles the way people look when they want to quickly find common ground. He then even more excitedly asked me:
“Do you play futbol?”
(more…)

I’ve always tried to make this site different. When the site was still young and I would occasionally put up funny videos, I cringed to think that this website might someday turn into a ‘Funniest Home Videos’ on the net. There’s far too many of those.
I’d like there to be some serious resources on this website–information people can refer to and share with people. I’d like to somehow contribute with this website, so from here on out I’m going to try to balance advice and insight with entertainment.
Too often I’ve merely written: ‘Been here…this was fun…here’s some pictures…food was good.’ That only goes so far.
Because travel is what I’ve been doing for the past 4 months, it seems strange to me that I’ve failed to write more distinctly about the mechanics, philosophy, and spirit of travel.
I’m going to think on this a bit and see what I come up with, though off the top of my head I can think of a few topics I know I need to cover:

• American Students Abroad
• European Conceptions of American Politics
• Tourism and the Industry
• European Study Abroad Programs
• European Political Self-Awareness
• Drug Laws
• Energy Use
• Homelessness and Vagrancy
• Exploring a Fresh City
• Why the Australians are so Nuts
• Guidebooks: Lonely Planet or Rick Steves? Wikitravel.com?
• Hitchhiking, Couch Surfing, and Trust

… well the list goes on. Maybe it was a little easier to come up with a list than I thought.
Because there are so many topics, I would really love to have some suggestions on something to write more specifically about. Specific questions would also work.

It’s surprising that more people don’t write comments. Almost 10k different people have read this site since I left the states. If you’ve got the vitamins just write in the box below or drop me an email @