Oh Maria, where art thou?

One upon a time a girl called Maria Jose, from a small town in the Valencia district, called Cullera. She was dreaming to be an oceanographer, and with some tricks, she finally convinced her parents to let her go and she moved in another very small town, Bangor, in North Wales. Dear Maria, since you say that you love my blog but then you never have time to connect to skype, I am officially asking you to make up some time for me, and have a skype date. This is dedicated to you.

I met Maria Jose on the very first class I attended during my undergraduate, September 2000. She was sitting right next to me in the very front. At that point, I was thinking that attending to university in English was totally a bad idea. I still did not realize that Welsh was not a dead language at all in Bangor, and I could not distinguish between Welsh and English, it was mixed in my head as a unique very difficult incomprehensible language. At the end of the lecture, I asked her with my broken English if I could copy her notes, as I did not understand anything. She replied with an even more broke English that she did not understand anything as well, and we both turned back looking for somebody else we could copy from.

We have been together since that day, until I decided to move to the south Pacific and she decided to return to Spain, 2 years ago. We never even spoke English to each other, spanglish as always been our language (even when we though we WERE speaking English).

1999-2000
(eve new year in Alcala’ de la Selva, Pyrenees, with Maria and Akiko, and my cheese…)

That first year together in Bangor was amazing: Bangor city of happiness, wasn’t that so? It did not matter that it rained every single day, that cloud that did not move east to west, but just spinned all the time on top of our heads. It did not matter it was dam windy and cold. That first year, the world revolved around me, Maria Jose, Akiko, Tyson, Roberto (you are due for a marriage! Where are you hiding???!!!), Juanito, Victor, Niel (brrr!!), Sebastian, Bruno and some others… (in my room, on the bed from left to right: Tyson, myself, Maria, Akiko. In front on right Victor, on the floor there is Roberto)

We were living in campus, in different building (I slept in Maria’s place for a while, until Tyson took my place…), but we nearly always had dinners together, all of us plus “the leg” (that was a pig leg –jammon- Maria’s father present during our Christmas vacation in Spain… Akiko, Sebastian, Bruno and I drove to Cullera from Bangor, and it was much easier to pass custom with a pig leg when you cross the channel by boat, rather than by plane…).

(Climbing Snowdonia. from left to right: Mike, Roberto, Tyson, Akiko, Maria, myself)

Somehow I convinced Maria (and her parents) to move to Oregon the next year. Then we had to convince our department, that at that time did not have any exchange program existing with Oregon State University. But Tyson was moving back there to continue his studies, Niel was moving back to Vancouver and Roberto was going to Missouri, so it seemed like the right place to go next. Our daily e-mails and weekly visits to many faculty members (from both Bangor and OSU) worked, and got authorization to leave for the far west!

2000-2001
(Eve New Year in Vancouver, polar bear swim, with Maria, Tyson, Niel, Roberto)

We soon realized we should have done our homework better before going west. Our first American experience was to live in Tyson’s fraternity until we found a nice cold house close by (also close to Damon - you can find the link to his blog on your right side).

Our first day of class resembled a lot our first day of class in Wales. We could not understand a word of American English. Plus it was frustrating because everybody there had Tyson’s accent, and we would think he was always around us. Even when we received phone calls for advertisement (another new experience) we though it was Tyson. I asked for rubbers around for many months (and I never got one!) until Tyson told me I should ask for erasers, rubbers were something else in the States.

But the most shocking thing happened when, one night, we were denied access to the pub. You need to be 21 years old to go out? What no-sense is this? We have been partying out all night since we are 15!!! I was 20, Maria was 19. Luckily the latino community in Corvallis (at OSU), was develop enough to grant us lots of fun, and crazy nights in Portland dancing salsa until we could no walk anymore. I also learned Spanish there. My life was 90% Spanish (any time), 9% English (at school), 1% Italian (on the phone). I learned by symbiosis. One day as we were going to a party, walking across campus with a huge pan filled with sangria (we were holding one handle each, bit serving spoon coming out from it), a guard stopped us and asked us what we were carrying: “sangria” we said, very naturally. “Uh, ok… go”. I guess that guy did not believe us, as we were walking, under age, with about 6 liters of alcoholic open beverage. We even did not have any clue that it was illegal.

For $1000, I bought a car, the Gonzalo-mobile, totally red (even the seat belts). I bough it the 20^th of December. The 21^st, Tyson, Maria, Roberto, myself and another girl, left to go to see the Grand Canyon. The 21^st night, maybe soon after midnight, we were pushing the car in the dark somewhere around Madera, I think, the geographical center of California, a place where the advertisements on the billboards were all in Spanish. We spent 2-3 days there for the water pump was fixed, sleeping and sharing the floor of a ranch with very fancy competition chickens. But we did it. (at the Grand Canyon! left to right: Tyson, myself, Maria, Roberto)

We got to the Grand Canyon after a visit in Las Vegas (none ask for ID there, amazing!), Maria cried of emotion just by seeing the sign, and we survived the coldest night ever in one of the edge of the canyon. And then back, to San Francisco (trying to avoid steep roads that the Gonzalo-mobile could not face), Yosemite, Los Angeles for Disney World and up, up again, Niel was waiting for us in Vancouver for eve new Year. I always had a weakness for that guy, but sleeping in Canada in winter with the window open, dear Niel, that is too much! And what a great idea going swimming for the polar bear swim!

Hitchy feet for me, need to have the best education ever for Maria, we even got accepted to a intensive Marine Biology class in Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, on the coast. It was the place that hosted Keiko, the star of “Free Willy”. For me being there was like walking on the moon (even if Keiko was already realized to the wild at that time).

(Maria and I working on a scientific vessel close to Newport, Oregon) (Maria, Tyson and myself, same summer, in Cullera)

2001-2002
(Eve New Year in the Italian Alps with Maria, Tyson, Akiko and I)

Oh well, now that we were 21 we left the States and moved back to Bangor, to finish our undergraduated. But Akiko was there waiting for us to be back! How much we missed her! That last year of school was definitely busier, but still very exciting, full of adventures! (a birthday without Maria??? can't be! on the extreme of the pic, Akiko and Baldomero!)

We founded, together with Alfonso and Baldomero, the university Latino Club and we organized killer parties that really made history!

(Baldomero, myself, Alfonso and Maria!)

(one of our latino parties: Maria, Akiko, Tyson and myself)

I was very busy, divided between school, a new love, work as the salsa teacher and the training of a horse…

And we did it. We graduated, we learned English (or a variation of it), how to dance salsa, we ride horses in Yellowstone wearing cowboys hats, we ran in front of bulls in Spain, we got stopped by the police in the States (all those lights on top of the car! Like in the movies!), we hiked in Italy, sky all day and night long in Canada… Maria! Next it is still on a bike in China!

(Maria and I in Montana...)
(and on our graduation day)

2002-2003
"Maria, let’s not go straight back to school after this, let’s take a sabbatical year all for ourselves and move to a new country, let’s have an adventure!"
I convinced her and Tyson... "ok, let’s go to South Korea, sounds great! I need to spend a bit longer in Italy and I will be right there… sorry Maria, I am not coming, I am still needed here… ok, see you back in Corvallis for the Master."

2003-2006
Maria, I need to shorten this up! We are back in Oregon! (Maria, Ally and I behind an american pizza -they call it "pepperoni pizza". In italian would be translated as "bell pepper pizza...)

"Maria, I have nightmares again, thanks for sleeping with me. Maria, I do not want to clean the restroom again! Maria, joder! You were so right, the color we choose to paint our house are really bright! Wow, what a tropical looking house we have now! Maria, let’s go back to Portland to dance until we can’t move no more as we used to do (Fernando is still there! Yeahhh!)! Ehi! We are not underage anymore! Wow, he got married, wow, he is a dad now! Maria, I am moving with Biniam, I really need to fatten him up! Yes, a minor in GIS is a great idea! Maria, meet Paul. Yes, that PISCO class in Newport, I will try to make it in too. What do you mean you want to go back to Europe? Maria, ok, I will wait to get married. Maria, what? Tyson finally asked? You are engaged??? Maria, I am moving to the South Pacific with Paul."

(Still, Maria can make the best birthday party ever! Paty on the right side of the picture)

2006-2008
Maria Jose moved back to Spain with a scholarship to pursue her PhD. Tyson went with her and they got married. I moved to the American Samoa with my loved one, but I am single now. In 10 days I am flying to Corvallis for the weekend on my way back to Italy. Maria is flying to Vancouver a day after I leave for Italy to attend to a training (she is also going to meet with Niel). Now that we live on the opposite side of the Earth, how can we be so close and not seeing each other? Can we make it somehow so what we can meet? Maria, get on skype so we can talk!!! Te quiero mucho!!! Mi hermanita!!! Tysona! dile a Maria de llamarme!!! Te quiero mucho a ti tambien!

After all this time i spent thinking about you... give a call ok? ciao bella!