Samhain!

Holy crap, I'm going to the Samhain festival organized by CMA. I'm so excited!

A year and a half ago, I went to a Beltaine festival put on by a small group and I had such a wonderful time. This time, however, will be with hundreds and hundreds of people. I'm so excited. I'll be going with my friend Brett who convinced me to go with him (and kind of helped me a little bit with the fees).

Who else is going? Let me know so I can plan to find you. Maybe even camp out near you. :)

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Wow, so I'm finally back in Houston. I really wanted to update sooner, but when I returned to El Vendrell from Lisbon, we didn't have internet at home so I was kind of disconnected for the last month.

Well, so what happened the last month of my trip? Not a whole lot. I ended up going to the hospital twice because I had some extremely high fever. It turns out that I had an upper respiratory infection. I also travelled around a bit with Rubèn. He took me to the Pyrenees into the Vall d'Aran where they speak a really neat language called Aranese which is somewhere in the dialect continuum between Catalan and Occitan. We also went on a few other small trips to other places and saw lots of pretty things.

Oh! Just before I left, two Wednesdays ago we went to Sitges (basically the gayest city in all of Europe) which is only about 20 minutes from where I lived. We wanted to go out to the bars and party. Well, we were walking around and came upon a club that was having a foam party. I'd never been to one, so I was really excited. We went in, checked in our clothes (most people were wearing only undies) and danced in foam up to our waists. It was so fun! Hehehe. Just lots of really hot, foamed up, attractive men in wet underwear dancing.

In the last week, when we started paying more attention to one another, we really reconnected. It's too complicated. I'm happy to far from him now, even though I feel like I left my heart there with him. I love him and I just can't let that go. There is even another WONDERFUL guy named Fábio who loves me and simply adores me and the sex we have is exponentially better than the sex I had with Rubèn... but I just can't open my heart to him. It's such bad timing. I need more time to heal.

Well, I don't really feel like writing much right now. I'll say more later. I just really wanted to update. And just for fun, the grand total of weight that I've lost since January is 54 pounds. Here is a photo of me as a fatty and some photos from this week so you can see the difference. :)

Fat Charles:

Chubby, New Charles:

Heartbreak and Portugal

Well, I know you guys have been waiting for it. Here it is. Any questions? Ask, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

I'm here!

I am here! Oh my god, I am finally here.

I have been waiting for almost a year. It seemed like it would never come... and then I met Rubèn and the wait became more intense. But finally, on Friday, I arrived here in Catalonia.

At the moment, I'm sitting in the study of my home this summer. I'm in a town called El Vendrell in the region called Tarragona. I'm very close to Barcelona... 25 minutes by car, an hour by train... something like that. I haven't learned to use the public transportation yet. I've been so busy just settling in, trying to get over jet lag and just spending time with Rubèn. We have so much kissing to catch up on.

I don't know where to start!

Well, my flight was frustrating. My original itinerary was Houston-Miami-Barcelona. Well, my 10:30 flight to Miami was cancelled so they rerouted me Houston-Frankfurt-Barcelona. But I had to wait until 3:30 to flight to Frankfurt... it was so annoying having to wake up so early for nothing and then wait there all day so anxious and kind of freaking out. Oh well, it wasn't that bad. On the flight, I was sitting next to some Portuguese guy who had several glasses of wine with me on the flight and we both got kind of drunk and stupid. It's good times laughing with strangers and drinking. Anyway, when I arrived in Frankfurt, I was freaking out about my flight because my ticket had a certain gate written on it, but the gate had changed and I didn't know and everyone was speaking German and... well, finally I figured it out, just five minutes before departure!

I finally arrived in Barcelona at about 12:15pm, Catalonia time or 5:15am in Houston. I was exhausted... however, I was greeted at the airport by Rubèn and Prema. Prema is one of my favorite people on Earth. He is so special. We met while I was living in Brazil. He's a native of Belo Horizonte who, by coincidence, is now living in Barcelona. Life is perfect sometimes. Anyhow, I am so happy to see him.

And Rubèn... oh, Rubèn... we saw eachother and I think we didn't know what to do. I couldn't stop smiling or say anything, I was so nervous... until he greeted me with his usual "Hola, bonic" (Hello handsome). He put his arms around me and I melted. He gave me a little kiss on the neck while he hugged me. In that moment, he conquered me. I'm so in love with him.

I feel like it's not the first time we're meeting. It seems like we've already been dating for a while. Well, I mean, in a way, we have been (virtually, at least). We've been "together" for about five months and really it feels that way... except now we can make out all we want. He's such a beautiful person. He's so patient with me and treats me like a prince. He makes me laugh, he's smart, goofy, sweet... everything. Not to mention that he's handsome, tanned, has very blue eyes, and has a body like pornstar. No, really. He does. His body looks like art. It's even more beautiful in person than in photos. And he, this perfect man, thinks I'm perfect. It's amazing.

Anyway, so we spent that day (Friday) in Barcelona. We walked all over. It's such a beautiful city. It was so fun spending the day with Prema and Rubèn. We laughed so much. It was kind of strange, though, since Rubèn speaks to me exclusively in Catalan, I speak to Prema almost totally in Portuguese and sometimes English, while Prema and Rubèn speak to eachother in Spanish. We managed to communicate and still have a lot of laughs, though.

Saturday, I slept all day. Rubèn didn't wake me up early to help me adjust to my new time zone like I had asked. He said he couldn't because I look like such a little angel when I sleep. Too much mush. Hehehe. I got up around noon, we drove around to see some things around here. The beaches here in El Vendrell, then the beaches in Tarragona (the city), which were marvelous. Tarragona is also such a pretty city. I loved it. We had orxata which is similar to the horchata that we have back home, but I think it's not made with rice like the Mexicans back home make it. In any case, it was delicious. More sightseeing and such... then it was late and we went back home. Rubèn made us a truita espanyola (Spanish omelette) and we had a nice quiet dinner together. Oh, by the way, they have lots of Morrocan fast food places that make super good Arab food... mmm. I love me some Arab cuisine. Just thought I'd share that.

Sunday, Rubèn let me sleep until noon again. Then we got up to go and have lunch with his two best friends. Ramón and Joan. They are a cute gay couple in their forties who have been together for 18 years. They were really sweet and fun. Ramón is a great cook. He made us all this delicous seafood. We drank lots of cava (it's like champagne, but made in Catalonia) and shots of some sort of delicious liquor made with herbs. It was super smooth, well I think so. They couldn't believe that I thought it was smooth. I guess us Americans are just hardcore like that. After lunch, they went to get the desert. When they came back, they had a cake with sparklers on top for me with the words Benvingut a Catalunya, Charles! (Welcome to Catalonia, Charles!) Geez. They are so sweet. After that, we walked for a few hours along the coast of a beautiful city called Salou. It was a nice day.

Today, well, today Rubèn has to work and I still haven't learned how to use the public transportation here... so I'm taking advantage of the chance to update my blogs and let you guys know that I'm doing okay. Things are wonderful so far.

By the way, send me e-mails. I love e-mails. Or comments on my blogs. I promise to respond to everyone. ;)

Until next time.

Fins aviat!

Someday I'll Fly Away!

So I fly away in about 13.5 hours. I am so incredibly excited! I should totally be finishing up my packing, but I wanted to step away from my luggage for a moment.

I really doubt I'll sleep tonight.

If you are interested in seeing exactly where I am going to stay, click here and you can see a map of Spain with a little blue marker over the town where I'll be staying. You can zoom in and everything. Take a look. :)

Wrapping up!

So I wanted to start making entries more often, at least once a week. But these last few weeks before my trip I've been really a bit busy with so much stuff. I have finals this week and preparation and such... my friends are wanting to spend time with me and go out and do stuff and getting in their last minute Charles-time.

I can't believe I leave in fifteen days. Holy crap! (Yesterday, I said holy crap in public and some lady responded that crap isn't holy; only the Lord is holy. Of course I had to respond that her assumption was incorrect considering that crap may or may not sometimes be full of holes. Homophones, bitches. Then she tried to recruit me into some cult.)

Anyway... AH! So what are we doing this weekend?

Technorati tags: vacation, holiness, cults

Video Blog!

So, I decided to make a video blog! Tell me what you guys think!

Decidi de fazer um blog video! Digam-me o que vocês acham! Espero que gostem! :)

Technorati tags: vlog, português

Norma!

So, as some of you may remember, for my birthday Rubèn bought me tickets for us to go see the opera Norma together in July. While searching around, I found a video of the famous aria from Norma. The aria is called Casta Diva and in the video it is sung by Montserrat Caballé, the best Norma ever, and perhaps the best soprano ever. Oh, and she's Catalan too, by the way! Montserrat is a typical Catalan name for girls. It's pronounced moon-suh-RAT. The letter E in that word being pronounced as a schwa, (like the U in the English word "up" or "under". And roll the R... like a lot. ;)

Anyway, enjoy the video. When I listen to it, she really takes my breath away. I hope that the soprano who sings it when I see it can compare. I'm sure I'll cry like a baby when I see it live.

My Daemon!

I'm standard!

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Different Same

Houston International Festival 2007

So the Houston International Festival started. It's going on this past weekend and next weekend. For those of you who didn't go, you missed out on some awesome concerts.

I work on the Hospitality team which, as you may know, offers hospitality to the artists and musicians flying in from everywhere. We pick them up from the airports, we transport them to the hotels, festival, wherever. It's a pretty cool gig. Anyhow, this weekend I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite singers and the members of her band: Angélique Kidjo. I've been a fan for about two years. Her music is awesome. I spent some time with her and she is such a cool person. Her personality is very fun and energetic. She seemed to me so powerful and childish at the same time. Really interesting.

After their performance last night, the band members wanted to go to have dinner, so we took them all to Mai's for some yummy Vietnamese food. I finally had the chance to get to know them a little better. I sat next to Rubens who is a really cute Brazilian guy from São Paulo... the guitarist for the group. He was super nice and fun. He even gave me his card and contact information so that we could stay in contact. His brother is an opera singer in Barcelona and he's going to try to introduce us while I'm there this summer. Yay for networking!

Anyway, there should be some good shows and concerts next weekend. If anyone is going, you should contact me!

Oh, and just for fun, here's a cute photo of my niece Kaiya playing with my second cousin Jayden.

Technorati tags: Houston International Festival, Angélique Kidjo

Update on Rubèn

So only six or so more weeks until we get to be together! We're so excited. It's amazing... even though we talk every day, often we get on our webcams, microphones and headphones to talk, and during the occasional silences we just stare at eachother and giggle. Just like the first time. We're like little school girls.

Being the total lovesick puppy I am, I totally miss him during the day. To help solution the problem a little, I put him as the background on my phone. I just can't help myself!

Technorati tags: online dating, internet love, boyfriend, foreigners, El Vendrell, Catalunya

Catalans in Houston

Several months ago, when I first began to study Catalan, I decided to make a group on Google Groups for Catalan speakers and Catalan enthusiasts to find eachother. Well, months passed without a single response until finally, a girl named Sara here in Houston contacted me! Well, she doesn't speak Catalan, but she understands a good bit and she's been to Catalonia several times and has lots of Catalan friends (none of which live in Houston still). In any case, it was a start! And so she suggested that we meet and have our first official meeting for the "Catalan in Houston" group. The very same week that she joined the online group, I had met a super cute and adorable Catalan guy named Albert at a French meetup group that I attend on Wednesdays called the French Connection. So I invited him too! And now we're three!

So tonight, we had our first meeting at The Gingerman in the Rice Village. It's a little pub type place. Sara put out her Catalan flag on the table and we had some fun discussion and conversation. Albert showed up and brought his friend, an Argentine, who also is interested in Catalonian culture but doesn't speak the language yet. But that's okay. The four of us seemed to have a good time. I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

So I'm the founder of a new little minority culture group in Houston. It's pretty neat. God, I'm such a nerd, but I love it.

 

Technorati tags: catalan, catalonia, language, meetups, català, catalunya, llengua, trobades

Hair Removal!

So, some of you who know me REALLY well know that I have some assymetrical body hair on my right shoulder that I think is super ugly. Well, I have finally started taking the steps to permanently remove it. I went to a hair removal place a week ago on Thursday and got my folicles zapped. I'm so excited. After a few more treatments, I won't have to shave anymore!

It's always been a source of insecurity for me, so I'm so happy to finally start getting it removed. My second session is in a few weeks, and hopefully I'll get another one in before I go to Catalonia... then when I come back, I'll resume treatments -- unless it's not too expensive to continue in Spain, in which case I may get some treatments there... but you can't be in the sun between treatments, so I'm thinking that it might be a big no since I'll be living a five or ten minute walk from the beach all summer.

So anyway, super exciting for me. I may be a teddy bear, but I don't have to be totally fuzzy wuzzy!

Dieting

So I've been on a diet recently. Well, Charles is always on a diet, right? Even more controversial is that Charles is on the Atkin's diet. Holy crap! Isn't that the diet that raises your cholesterol and gives you a heart attack? Isn't that the one that's so unhealthy and everyone thinks is a bad idea?

God, I'm so tired of having to defend myself. The Atkin's diet is completely healthy. All you do is cut out processed sugars and processed carbs. Can anyone really explain to me how that is unhealthy? I mean, people's health has steadily gotten worse since the discovery of sugar and since people started eating all this carb-rich processed junk like chips and such. It seems like a good thing to me to be eating only meat (mostly lean), vegetables, cheeses, some fats (like butter and mayonnaise), a fruit here and there, some berries. Really, what is so bad about that?

To top it off, this is the first time in my life I feel like I'm in control of my weight. I've lost a good twenty pounds since I've begun and it's still falling off. I feel more energetic, I don't feel hungry all the time anymore, I feel more confident about myself. How could someone have the nerve to tell me that I'm being foolish and that this is bad for me?

I know that they are just concerned about my health, but they shouldn't make ignorant assumptions that what I'm doing is unhealthy. I feel better than I have in a long time. I think my body is capable of surviving several months or so without pasta and cake.

Mean people

There is nothing wrong with me.
I am not stupid for what I believe.
Just because people don't agree with how I achieve my happiness, it doesn't mean that I'm wrong.
I don't have to cry because I feel alone.

Driving.

So I saw this while driving around north of Houston. I couldn't resist and I had to take a photo so that I could share it with you guys.

Happy Birthday in love!

Well, yesterday was my birthday. I'm 23 now. Sheesh. I'm like almost 25. I'm almost dead in gay terms.

Anyway, I had a nice birthday. My mommy bought me two pretty shirts and she made me a delicious caramel cake. Thanks to everyone who remember and who sent me e-mails or posted happy birthday in their journals for me. :)

I have to say, though, one person really surprised me.

Remember when I mentioned that I think I have an internet boyfriend? His name is Rubèn, by the way. He's a handsome, charming, Catalan guy who lives in a little city called El Vendrell between Barcelona and Tarragona (25 minutes to get to either one from where he lives). He owns and runs a business consulting firm, he's an economics professor in the evenings (because he loves to teach), he sings tenor in a choir in Tarragona, is the treasurer of big GLBT organization in Catalonia that does lots of outreach stuff, is 33 years old, has a perfect body (seriously, it's perfect), isn't religious, is funny, smart, sweet, a little bit serious, a little bit irresponsible, passionate, and is crazy about me. He's seems perfect to me by what my idea of the ideal man is.

Well, we continue getting to know one another and we talk via voice-chat or telephone every day and still, it seems that we can't get enough of one another. And even when we reveal more and more of ourselves to one another, we actually seem to become more and more fond of eachother instead of scaring one another away like it usually happens. He tells me already that he loves me and he believes that the search is over... that this is it. I think I'm buying it. I think I feel the same way.

Although we have never been with one another physically in person, we've bonded on a really deep level. We have each seen lots of photos of one another and he knows what I look like... he knows I'm chubby and teddy-bear like and he loves me just the way I am. I know he's... well, actually he's perfect physically, so my physical attraction to him isn't an issue. And it seems to me that he likes guys like me, so I'm not worried about things suddenly changing when we meet. He has started calling me his xicot (boyfriend) and his parella (it literally means pair, but in this context it means something more like the person you share your life with or "partner"). I guess I should do the same. I mean, I feel like I have a boyfriend -- just part of me feels like I shouldn't feel like he's my boyfriend since we've never met face-to-face... but seriously, it feels so real all the same.

Anyway, on my birthday, he woke me up when he sent me the following text-message on my phone:

Feliç aniversàri! Espero que tinguis un dia fantàstic. Mil petons per al noi que em té el cor robat. T'estimo.

Translation: Happy birthday! I hope that you have a fantastic day. A thousand kisses for the boy who has stolen my heart. I love you.

"How sweet. I love him!" I thought... and I got up to check my e-mail like I do compulsively every morning. There I found the following e-mail:

M'hagués agradat molt ser avui amb tu i poder-te'l donar personalment, però com això no és possible et faig arribar un arxiu adjunt per a que almenys puguis veure el meu petit regal d'aniversari per a tu. He pogut trobar una llotja on crec que la visió serà bona. Desitjo que t'agradi.

Si vols més informació pots trobar-la a la pàgina del Liceu,
http://www.liceubarcelona.com

Tingues un molt feliç dia d'aniversari.

T'estimo,

Rubèn

And for those of you who can't quite understand Catalan yet, it means more or less:

I would have really liked to be with you today and be able to give it to you personally, but since that's impossible, I sent you an attached file so that you can at least see my little birthday gift for you. I was able to find seating where I think the view will be good. I hope you like it.

If you want more information, you can find it at the conservatory's webpage.
http://www.liceubarcelona.com

Have a very happy birthday.

I love you,

Rubèn

Holy crap?? What is he talking about? I clicked to open the attachment. It was a scanned image of tickets. My goodness, that crazy fool bought me tickets for us to go see the opera "Norma" by Bellini together at the Gran Teatre de Barcelona in July. And the tickets cost him almost 200 euros! Which is like... $250, I think. He's not a rich man and doesn't have money to just throw around... especially not for someone he doesn't know. He just wants to make me happy. God damn. I think he really does love me.

He's so perfect for me. I believe that we're in love. I can't wait until I get to Catalonia in May.

Virtual boyfriend!

Holy crap. I think I have an Internet boyfriend.

I think I like him a whole lot more than I should for a guy whom I've never met.

I hate when this happens.