As I was walking past the giant Cathedral after a pleasant paella dinner in Cadiz, I watched a little girl, no more than 5 years old, bend down to pick up a full bottle of lemon-flavored fruit juice, as almost any kid would do. If you remember SqueezIts, that's what it looked like - a clear plastic bottle of fruit juice that you could squeeze to get more juice out. As suddenly as she stopped to pick it up, however, her Spanish father snatched her by the hand, cursed at her in Spanish, and kicked the bottle away, which seemed slightly more flexible after the kick than it did at first.
Astonished by her father's abrupt and angry reaction, I examined the bottle more closely to see what the big deal was. It was then that I realized it wasn't a "El SqueezÍto" but a condom, filled with urine. I couldn't contain myself and started laughing out loud, albeit to the glare of her father, who probably assumed I left it there, waiting for that moment...
There's something about Europe that I'm sure many of you who've been are aware of, but I was not: nudity is apparently commonplace and accepted. I was walking past a woman's boutique when I noticed a "Invisible" push-up bra advertisement. Apparently, the manufacturer deemed it necessary to demonstrate just how invisible the bra was - and sure enough, it was invisible: I didn't see any bra at all, only a woman's exposed bust. Stunned, I continued on, only to find out that even ads that, unlike the bra ad, didn't have to show nudity to demonstrate their product (like a body lotion ad - the US agencies typically highlight legs rather than chests) had the model showing off her bare breasts. And it went on and on; I saw a topless girl at the beach, the tabloids have full frontals and aren't even in the sealed plastic wrappers that keep 14-year old eyes out. Naturally, I would assume that this exposure to nudity would make the adolescent males more mature and polite towards women, but remembering some of my friends' stories of Italian boys, I guess that's not the case...
Someone needs to tell me that I'm not a tourist - I'm actually living here. Because I'm tipping like one, and it's killing my wallet. Everytime someone does something nice for me, I have to tip somewhere between 30 and 50%. I tipped 3.12 on a 3.87 taxi ride today because the driver was speaking slowly and using words I could understand to tell me his love for the fútbol team here, and since I like the fútbol team as well, I gave him the nearly 50% tip. I gave my taxi driver that helped me find a hostal the change from a €10 bill. The taxi cost €4-something. It goes on and on, but in general, I'm just being appreciative when everyone's nice to me for butchering their language. I guess I should learn that they're just more patient and polite here...
Now it's time to get ready for my fantasy football (American style) draft - which starts in an hour and a half (3AM my time) because my jealous friends have tried to stop me from winning for the third time by scheduling it for a time when they knew I would be in a brand new city in Europe that most likely didn't have internet. After learning that I would get internet starting Sunday, they rescheduled the draft from the weekend following to tonight. But I have prevailed. I found a place that had internet and was open 24 hours (a luxury hotel), paid my €12 for the 24 hr access and €7 for the cab, and even found a current-converter in a store where a Chinese woman who spoke neither Spanish nor English somehow told me that they definitely did not have any current-converters for UK to Spanish current.
Tomorrow - when I wake up - I'll go to the beach (sorry Chicago - Cadiz has got you beat with the whole beach in the middle of the city thing) and maybe even a run...
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