You don't see one of these roll by the station everyday. I think I may be delayed...
Ahora, estoy en Madrid. Llegué ayer. I missed significant amounts of volcanic ash and decided to start my Dublin layover fresh with Irish Cider and a scone. Some hours later, a brief reunion with my brother, who I haven’t seen in person for nearly a year, and we’re off to check out Fiesta de San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid. I am dead and so is my camera, no pictures.
Its Saturday, and that means nightlife. My brother, a friend of his, and I decide to screw tradition and have 1) Chinese for dinner and 2) mojitos at a Mexican themed bar.
Coral and Aaron after a few mojitos
At this point it was Sunday, but still not early enough to hit the discoteca (remember, I arrived Saturday). Spain is a late city. Typically dinner happens around 8pm. At 2am, the discotecas get started and the metro stops running. When the clubs close at the break of dawn, it’s common for hard core partygoers to go out for breakfast and relax until the trains start up again.
Instead of fighting our way down the bustling sidewalks of Gran Vía, we found the way paved in blue velvet.
All buildings standing the way of Gran Vía were removed one hundred years ago to make way for the traffic relieving (uprising preventing) street. It’s the largest thoroughfare in Madrid, and on its 100 birthday, the Madreleños decided to throw a big party and cover it in blue velvet. Well, mostly. The birthday was actually a few months back and the fiesta got pushed back as to align with the Fiesta de San Isirdio.
We hit up Ohm (a dance club) for the night, we got in free before 2am (yes 2am, Spain is a late place =P). Danced with a friendly guy. He tried to show me how to move my hips properly so we he could do the little walk and twirls of the salsa. I fail. Whatever, we had fun.
Some drunks make a nice bed of blue velvet from the celebration and trash.
Beat, we returned home to Aaron’s host family. Bad news, mother had an “aborted take-off” (appropriate for a midwife?) and got stuck in Atlanta for another 24 hours. The show would have to go on without her.
Colin
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Computercolin
Note to self: proofread! :P
The Life Story of John Daniels: A Retrospective
Kaitlyn Gardner and Julia Bennett
As untamable as the hair on his head, and as full of rage as a lion who has been deprived of food for days, John Daniels lives the life of a complete different man outside of West High setting.
Or hero, John Daniels (editor in chief of West High's prestigious Red & Black newspaper) was found on the doorstep of the journalism room wrapped in an MIT fleece blanket at the age of three days. With a TI-89 calculator in one hand, and a note reading "kosher only" in the other, John Daniels immediately was taken in by the warm loving care of the Red & Black.
As a young child we always knew that John was special. He grew up amongst computers, shaded from the natural light of the sun. This lead to his first words, "Source code," and "Fortran." When one walked into the back trenches of the journalism room all that was visible was the faint glow of John's glasses, reflecting the computer glow.
As he grew older, John began to find for himself. He began to design clothes made out of old newspaper articles with clever phrases on them such as "There are 10 types of people in the word, those that understand binary and those that do not." Our Personal favorite was, "I'd rather be programming."
In his sophomore year of high school we could barely pull John away from his standardized test. There was nothing as cute as when he got his first 800 n the math section of the SAT, which was the first time anyone every saw him smile. On this fateful day, John stepped out from behind the journalism walls to celebrate his success.
Not knowing where to go, he innocently stumbled upon Studio 600, where he was graced by the presence of a nice, modest young lass. He was ordering a ginger ale (hold the ale) when she caught glimpse of his sensitive character. From that day fourth John and his mystery girl were inseparable. She showed him what it meant to live life, and that it was okay for a man to enjoy veggie burgers. Unfortunately, this brief affair ended when John became too involved in the West High stage crew.
It was at this social activity that John's lifelong friendship with Mr. Colin Zwiebel began. Mr. Collin recalls their first encounter with fondness: "I met John through stage crew. We were both spotlight operator on The Pajama Game." Their friendship continued to grow as they repeatedly ran into each other in math competitions.
John has been loved and raised by the journalism crew, and we have welded his mechanical mind to benefit the Red & Black crew. Andrea Flores and Andrew Roberts put John through an intense boot camp where he learned to manage the rowdy younger staff members.
Now John is a Herculean figure, a man among men, who leads our humble school newspaper to new heights. If you see him in the hall, you can address him by the following terms: "JD, JOHN DANIELS!!! D-Unit, Jack, and Your Highness."
Seriously, we love you John Daniels, and this story is completely true, with slight embellishments.
CAPTION
Top: John gets himself comfortable for a long stretch of working on the Red & Black. Bottom-left: John's consistently tousled hair is clearly a sign of his ability as editor-in-chief. Bottom-right: Michael Prestgard-Duke demonstrates his unswerving loyalty to John and the Red & Black as an organization.
