It was inevitable

Well I waited as long as I could, or at least I have waited until I have what seems to me a legitimate reason to speak on the subject. So. Let's talk about the girls over here in Europe. My legitimate excuse being I'd like to relate to you how hilarious it is to Eddie and I that we often struggle to communicate about more complicated subjects with our host family--politics and religion we have covered and continuously cover between ourselves but with Reme or Juan Antonio or the Spaniard in the street, woof. Talk about rough slogging. For some reasons which I'll speculate on in a second it seems conversations concerning the fairer sex are so universal, and Reme and Juan Antonio so seasoned after having American students for so long, we are all always on the same page regardless. I'm not sure if we, that is American students, come on experiences like this with an active attitude about members of the opposite sex or if it just sort of happens as a result of the other factors, novelty, excitement, impermanence, a vigorous desire to live a little more fully for this brief window of time. Whatever the reasons for it, no one can deny the heightened awareness and increase in interactions, lets call them. So more often than not, Eddie and I can hold a lengthy conversation with our host family about the girls who were at the gym, or the girls we talked to the night before, or the girls in our program. Let's be honest: Eddie and I are 19 and 20, respectively. We're smart, we work out a ton, and Eddie is hilarious by all accounts. We also clean up pretty well on occasion, and Eddie can dance. All of this means if we are so inclined it's not difficult to meet and talk to new people, girls especially. We talk about girls quite a bit, maybe too much (as if that were possible) and we talk with girls whenever possible. My spanish has improved exponentially on account of having to translate for Eddie when he gets into a tight spot. While all of this is going on we converse about it at home with Reme and Juan Antonio pokes fun at Eddie and I. Tonight he had us in stitches because we got into a pseudo-argument about what we look for in a girl. Reme tried to champion for us and asserted we had no time or interest in girls who looked pretty but aren't intelligent or interesting. Juan Antonio was having none of that nonsense. He said we were after two things: pretty bodies and prettier faces. It might sound odd but it felt incredible to have this back and forth with him because he spends most weeks off at sites around Sevilla working for an industrial-chemical company. We're very often ships passing in the dark, what with him only being home on weekends and our shenanigans keeping us out late and in bed until midday. Reme has begun to feel very much like a mother to us, for a while now in fact and we necessarily interact with her daily, and Pablo as well. But Juan Antonio has remained not distant, not unfriendly or uncommunicative or any negative trait I could think of but simply a little enigmatic. He is not always here and therefore dinner and conversation tonight were exquisite. I have drifted slightly off topic. Returning to the women. This may sound a little "woe is me" but I will sorely, sorely miss the simple act of walking through the streets of this city on any given day and smiling politely and saying hello to different girls. Not that there aren't girls to smile and say hello to in Ashland. It's just they are all the same, and once you know them all........ In most cases they (the Spaniards, and Italians, Germans, Brits, Belgians, not French, forget snooty French girls) smile back even if they are usually surprised at such forwardness. I cannot speak for major American cities like Boston or New York but I can say without fear of being corrected the sheer volume of attractive girls in Sevilla alone has the entire state of Ohio beat, hands down. Probably the whole Midwest in fact. And maybe Michigan, Minnesota, both the Dakotas and Montana probably......the point is they're a dime a dozen over here. I won't say it is something this experience hinges on, certainly not for me or for Eddie. More like a perk. Why does a perk merit an entire blog post? you ask. Well I hadn't mentioned it so far and it really is worth commenting on. As Eddie so eloquently put it "man, we've been here two months and my jaw is still regularly hanging." They are that gorgeous in many cases. Hell even the Americans over here seem more attractive than usual......maybe it is just a heightened sense of life brought on by the combination of foreign country, feeling more alive than usual, and being young, the blood flowing hot and fast in our veins.