This is the last post I post in terms of posting from Tenerife. Next stop, Barcelona with pops Freddy. Then, to Alicante. Next onto my dear lovely home state.

It has been a pleasure posting here in Spain,

Para todos de Tenerife, les tengo que decir que mi vida español de este año ha superado todo lo que había esperado. Gracias a ustedes, (especialmente mi familia Melian, Poli y Sonia), ya puedo hablar mas o menos Español, podré cumplir mi ilusión de intentar ser un ciclista profesional el año que viene, y siempre tendré otra vida esperandome aquí en Tenerife. Gracias por su amistad, su cariño, y sobre todo por lo mejor regalo de mi vida.

Con corozón y alma,

Watson

mullet

Did you know that in Spain right now a really high-style hairjob is the mullet with the front portion spiked? It is.

good for me

The last post hit the hundreth post since the inception of watson thoughts back in January!

On an unrelated note, last night I saw the french movie 'Janis and John' (dubbed in Spanish). From the look of the poster, I was sure we were in for some cheesy romantic comedy, but in the end, the movie was excellent. The plot follows two imposters of John Lennon and Janis Joplin in their attempt to fool an obssesive record store owner into paying them 15,000 francs. The sting, however, becomes a marvelous escape into fantasy for the fake Janis, changing her and her husband forever. If you can see it at the Lagoon, it would be worth it.

Today I'm going to see (what torture to not be riding it!) a race along a beautiful course, from the old town of La Ortava up to the Peak of Teide and back down. Climbing climbing climbing is all- perfect for me- and I can't ride it! I am sick of this knee injury...

6 days remain here on Tenerife.

Hate Mail

This is but a fragment of the loads of hate mail I recieve everyday through the channels of Watson Thoughts (Luckily dwarfed by the quantity of letters of praise I recieve for my brilliant philosophical studies of the daily quotient). Read with caution- it is both disturbing and threatening.

SmokeyAni: you are a stupid boy
SmokeyAni: stupid scott and dan's stupid movie
SmokeyAni: i'm not impressed
SmokeyAni: waste of film if you ask me
SmokeyAni: so
SmokeyAni: i am left to wonder why they warrant so much space on stupid watson thoughts

Smokeyani clearly has in some way been offended by the content of Watson Thoughts, and as a result feels the need to lash out- perhaps in a perverted sort of cry for help- begging for attention.(I mean, just look at her alias! Smokey left a long time ago...and Ani???!! Hello?!!, you are not Ani!) You see, its only natural that Smokeyani feels jealous in light of such creative genius like Scott and Dan. But seeing as Watson Thoughts is a caring, altruistic entity, we will use this post as a therapy sesh for Miss Smokester- lets give her some attention.

Ahh yes, Smokeyani....where to begin? I first met Smokes in Spanish class with Mr. Carreño back in the golden era of my highschool days. Deeply impressed by her talents as a vocalist and musician, I of course was anxious to meet the person behind the gentle, humble stage presence and angelic voice. Little did I know what a sassy, snappy, Ani-obsessed (among other more local obsessions) freak I was about to stumble into. Spanish class soon was converted into a ruthless battlefield of the wits, as insults were exchanged at each passing moment. I singularly blame Smokeyani for my poor preparation with the Spanish language, and the subsequent difficulties I experienced in the early stages of my time in Spain; I unfortunately must confess I learned more about Ani Difranco, Yoga, and dried strawberries than I did irregular verbs. And this has been but a sliver of the smokeyani legacy I have had to bear.

Smokeyani lists here interests as:'writing/reading/dramatic torrid history, puddle jumping (diving if you wish to ani me up), rugby [and] a nine dollar canadian skateboard on the off season', among other things which yours truly found too vulgar or alarming to include in this list. It should be noted that Smokeyani has a hamster named 'Pancake'. Are you starting to get the idea here?

Here is what others say of Smokeyani:

'Duuuuuuuuude Emily is so cool. And I can't tackle her in rugby, she's too quick, damnit, quicksilver, she flashes through as the light glints of her many silver earrings. Well. The truth is I was very intimidated by this weird girl for a while...'

'The one and only sunshine'

'...few words would do justice to the fabulousness of such a crazycat.'

'...you know youre hot stuff when the mention of your name brings a raised brow... truly a one of a kind.'

'...loves to dance in our room to anything from Mel Far to ghetto superstar...'

Currently, Smokey is attending college where she enjoys falling in love with her english professors. She pursues her dream daily of becoming a fiction writer, like her literary hero, Virginia Woolf. She has a 'deliciously slender face'. (for now...)

Dan and Scott filming the new project in rural Minnesota... Go to the site for daily updates and information on how to help out the project.

To Tuckton

Dan Bretl and Scott Melamed are putting together an impressive project- and have been for nearly a year now. A feature length film; scripted, directed, and filmed by the two of them. Go to the web site to have a look... I must say, I am rather jealous.

orangy-reddish alert

For security reasons*, and the saftey of yours truly, this marvelous vacation spot in cyber space, formerly known as S** S**** Thoughts, has changed names. I hope you find delight in the new more secure nomenclature: Watson Thoughts. You may now refer to me electronically as Watson, Samwise [Gamgee], or bikedrumtao. Thankyou for your continued viewing!



*It may be duly noted that this orangy-reddish alert** is the result of what we may as well consider a near death experience. This morning, while riding trusty bus number 911 to my bi-weekly message sesh in Santa Cruz, I at one point happened to glance over at a lady sitting across the aisle, facing me two seats down. We may take the liberty of describing her physical essence as a hybrid between your basic trailer park NASCAR fan and the attitude chica from the 'baaaaaaaaarrio', if you know what I mean.

Anyways, I soon drifted back into a spaceball line of thought before noticing several moments later the dull weight of a small arm weighing down her right hand. If it was fake, I certainly wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Her chubby little index finger had itself snuggled right through the cage of the silver weapon, wrapped lightly around the trigger. Her eyes focused dully from under the brim of her bright yellow baseball hat throught the window out onto potential street victims. All I could think about was what it would feel like to catch the force of a bullet in the chest. Funny that a slim, light, metal projectile should be referred to as a SLUG. I'm thinking that name can only reflect the sensation delt upon impact, like a thick reverberating bass force in the lungs. Sit near a crazy NRA-type in a bus long enough and you start to hear Tyler's whisper in your ear, 'Raymond, you are going to DIE'.

At one point our gun-weilding chubster sort of casually raised the revolver up above her head with a shrug of the shoulders and a crack of her neck and pointed the short stubby barrel out the window. I heard the tick of the metal on the plastic scratched window pane. With a bit of a squint she found her victim and pulled the trigger! 'Click'. Either it was a damn real looking cap gun or it wasn't loaded. Whatever the case may have been, it is clear that this occurance merits the name change of this very website, because you know, the conspiracy connections and everything. Better safe than sorry is what I always say. Hello people?!!!



**Speaking of security alerts, do people still have 'GOD BLESS AMERICA' stickers pasted to the back of their cars and trucks? The problem with that is not what is says but what it doesn't say. You can't ignore the missing 240 odd countries that arn't included in the list. Is there not another message behind the phrase, suggestive of our moral rightousness as a nation, suggestive of some sort of speacial alliance with god? I think so. And I think those stickers are stupid.

late may/early june updates

From the outlook, it seemed as if my last couple of weeks here were going to be rather boring and uneventful without being able to ride at all. But to keep from going mental without a daily two-wheel fix you've got to take serious measures, so I've found some junk to fill up the hours. Of course, that junk hasn't turned out to be all bad...let me tellya bout it, cause its been a barrel of laughs you know (oh snap)

To begin with, I finally finished all of my classes and exams on the 19th of May. It was totally polished. Minus spanish language, which was so boring and useless I refused to even bother with doing the exams; I pulled out a big 1 out of 10 for the final grade. To achieve a higher grade would have been to sell my soul to the devil; the whole year Profesora Begoña taught us the same old same old. And the verb 'teach' is all too generous...the process would be more accurately described as the work of a human copy machine. Text Book to chalk board to notebook. Yes, thankyou for wasting another hour of my life. Imagine what you could do with 100 extra hours over the course of a year! What a shame. Plus, what she was teaching was a big mess of classification of language, which holds absolutely no interest for me; a kid is going to learn to write better 10 times faster by reading good writing, not by learning how to categorize pronouns. Let me tell you, it was one fiery Aristotilian hell of a class.

But enough about that. Graduation wasn't as big and fancy as it is at Blake. Plus, there were only about 30 kids in my class. So we had a little ceremony and then went out to dinner with all of the teachers. In typical spanish fashion everyone managed to polish off the desert course by 1 in the morning, and then we all went to a big ol disco. Let me tell you, it was a good time seeing all the profesores a bit on the tipsy side. Then the day after I had another late night at a party that my pal Dani Raya from school held. Then came the highlight action of the past couple of weeks when I set off on a little solo adventure into the Anaga hills in the north unpopulated part of the island. I'll write a bit about that in another post. Then, most recently, I spent the night down in the south with my Ruskie freind, Ilya. We went to the beach all day, saw the movie 'El Día de Mañana', and cruised the discos until the wee hours of the morning.

Other than all that stuff, I've basically filled the in between space with beach time. (Summer weather has finally arrived here in the Canaries- quite overdue).

I'm left with 10 days here in Tenerife, frantically trying to appreciate all that I can before I leave. The hardest part will be leaving with the knowledge that I won't be back for at least two full years...

At the dinner afterwords...

Eli, Ilya (the Ruskie), Tamara, and Me

HELLO!!!!

Graduating...for a second time