Spain - Torremolinos

I spent most of my last week in Spain in Torremolinos for my exchange students basketball tournament. I had spent a good amount of time trying to avoid this trip throughout the week, and I had ultimately failed. Nearly all my fears were realized at this camp, but that's not to say it was bad. I found a number of pleasent surprises throughout the trip that made it worth my while. The first was that it was not a basketball camp, but a sports championship, and it was not the sausagefest I had expected. I was given the freedom to roam a good amount of the hotel, and I spent time at the hotel bar, where there were many english-speaking tourists. During the games, which were in the morning, I slept a lot. Sleeping, I must say, is more enjoyable than I had expected.

Although the first two days had been rather boring, I began to start enjoying myself after the third day, when I started being recognized for a number of reasons. Singing and dancing greatly contributed to this "fame." Since the rooms were close together, it was possible for teams to talk to eachother from the balconies. I did a lot of singing on the balcony, and the teams from the other balconies would watch, and sometime ask me to sing songs. I think that was more popular among the girls :). Each night, there were dance parties that all the teams would go to, so they could socialize. On the third night, I decided to entertain. I pretended to know how to dance, and they seemed to believe that I could. I gave very theatrical lip-syncs to the songs they played, and actually managed to get large circles to watch me. I enjoyed the attention a great deal. People also knew me as the America/Chinese guy who sleeps during the games (I had a uniform so I looked like I was actually a player). After this, I had a certain fame throughout the teams. They all knew my name, all gave me enthusiastic greetings, and all wanted to take my picture. On one of the nights I bout a fedora, and the next day, all the guys had fedoras. Whether or not this was a pop-star fame or a mocking fame I don't know, but I sure felt like I was the man.

On the last day, I had to give a lot of goodbye's, by this time I really wanted to get back to Malaga, I really missed it there. There ceremony for awards was really intense. They had dramatic well-time music, a team of dancers, and a complete light-show. Before we left, someone tried to take my hat, and I had to spend fifteen minutes trying to convince them that I truly need it. In the end, I had to sing her a song. I felt pretty slick. ;)