HP Madrid really?

I did a self check and found that my ram is corrupted. It is a blessing in disguise. While I did not have my laptop for 2 days, I was able to half of my ben carson book. I just managed to do so much without the laptop. I guess this is a sign that I should cut back on my laptop and really start exploring Madrid. However, there are a lot of things that I need my laptop for, like buying air tickets and etc.

Feeling extremely excited I went to HP headquarters in Madrid in Las Rosas. Las Rosas is in the out skirt of Madrid, which means my metro pass is useless and I ended wasting 6 Euros to go to the HP Headquarters and not getting anything done because the receptionist told me that they do not have a technical service team. You gotta be kidding me. This is crazy. No technical team for such a huge corporation. I have been without a laptop for 3 days now and the receptionist is really testing my patience. Their service is worst than in the US. I cant believe it. I feel like strangling the receptionist at HP. She tells me that she understands english but after talking to her for 5 minutes, I realize that her english is on par with my Spanish. She told me that if I needed technical support, I either had to call or go to their website. How on earth am I able to access their website again when my laptop crashed? I had to use my friend´s laptop to look for their address and on their website they say that for technical support I can always go to their head office. Now the receptionist is telling me something different. At first she gave me a number for technical support, but I told her that mine is a business laptop not an end user one. I expect better service because I paid a premium for the service. She then reluctantly gave me another number for business companies. When I tried calling, it was in Spanish and I had to tell her politely that I do not understand Spanish, how on earth would I be able to communciate. Where is her brains? And she insist that she knows English. Yeah, right. May be HP Madrid should have an intensive course for customer service and how to speak and understand english. But more importantly, they have to fix that website. Do not mislead your customers. Especially customers with a very very short fuse due to the lousy durability of your products.

This is by far the worst ever. Why to go HP... I really hope lenovo or samsung wins the next SUA (Lap)top model.

Hillary Clinton in Class

Today in class, there were 5 new students from a university from Michigan. They seem nice, but definitely different from Californians because the guys from my Spanish classes are from SDSU which is about an hour away from my place. Anyways, in class today Paula was teaching us “caer”, me, te, le, nos, os, les +cae , caen, cayo, or cayaron + bien or mal. It is basically your impression about a person. As she was going through the photos, none my new friends knows whom the Premier of China or the former president of Palestine. However, when it came to Hillary Clinton, of course, they knew who she is but to my surprise, they could not say what her current position is with the Obama administration. She is the US Secretary of State.

What surprise me the most is that none of my 5 new friends like her. I was surprise and I asked for a reason but none of them said anything. However, I said “me cae bien Hillary Clinton. (I like Hillary Clinton)” I went on further by explaining that the reason why I like her is because she was one of the few together with Obama that came up with the US national health care plan. Out of the blues, this 19 year old kid pfft (An expression of dismissal of another's comment) at my comment. How disrespectful and rude. Anyways, I continued my argument stating that at least now, the US have a health care plan. When a country like the US can spend billions in warfare, and you compare the US health care plan to the EU countries or even to Malaysia, the US health care plan is a joke.

These people do not realize that they are in a disadvantage, pfft at my comments but not really knowing that the health care plan would help millions who are unable to pay for their medical bills, and you give these ignorant people the power to vote for their own government. No wonder it is so easy for cunning politicians to take advantage of ignorant people like this 19 year old.

I feel that sometimes, just because I am not a blonde-haired person or Caucasian, I am being discriminated with passive aggressiveness. If a Caucasian were to say the same thing, I am sure that 19 year old would think thrice to pfft that person’s statements. His behavior is absolutely absurd and rude. I do hope that they would deny him medical insurance when he needs it the most in order for him to realize how the health care plan would help millions of Americans who are unable to pay for their medical bills.

It is raining again in Madrid

It is raining again in Madrid. This weather is driving me nuts. One week the weather is warm and cheerful. Always welcoming me with beautiful sunrays and warm feeling that makes the centre of Madrid so much friendlier. The next thing I know, it is showering me with cold rain, covering the warmth of my sunshine with dark moody clouds. What is going Madrid? The weather is extremely temperamental and it kills the fun of trying to figure you out. That makes my mood temperamental too.The weather in Madrid right is similar love. Sometimes it is warm and nice, and while you are enjoying the warmth of love, it turns cold.

On the bright side of this cold and wet evening, I am done with my terms. Cant wait to put on my wet raining partying boots to party with Eddie who is planning a trip to Madrid. It has been about 10 days since visiting Granada and I definitely miss the energy in Granada. It is very different from the vibe that I get from madrilènes.

For photo geeks like myself:

I will definitely be working on some photos tonight from my trip Granada trip. After taking a couple thousand of photos, I realized that my lens needs an upgrade. No, not my fifty nifty. I am talking about my 18-200mm. I find that the autofocus is rather slow. I am not saying that I cant get those shots that I want, but sometimes the IQ of the lens is slightly bad that causes it to back focus. I read reviews that the 70-200mm focus is way faster compared to the 18-200mm, better contrast, and best of all, it is a much brighter lens. Time to save again for either a new lens or a new alto. Choices are made when money is an issue. Hahahaha.

I will definitely try my best to get the Granada photos up and may be some updates about other places that I have visited but I was not able to write.

Hypocrites

Some people are just hypocrites and I am just getting really sick and irritated with having to deal with these people around. Why can you just leave me alone? You have your hobbies and I have mine. Currently, the only thing that I can do in Spain is to take photos of people and their emotions. I like taking photos of people as it gives a sense of hope that there are normal people out there that are happy and really appreciate being alive.

When I was in Granada, some of the students in the ISA program were extremely rude to me. They are just so childish and sometimes I wonder should I just tell them to back off or should I roll round and laugh on my belly like a puppy because of their childishness. I have been extremely patient with all these names calling like for example like stalker, creeper and so on and so forth. Just because you have limited knowledge about photography does not give you the right to mock or harass somebody in that manner.

In fact, the funny thing is that while taking some photos of the cherry blossoms in Granada, one of the ISA students came up to me and asked to see my photos. After showing that person the photos that I have taken, the student told me this. “I hate you Jordann for having such a nice camera”. Well, I worked for my camera equipments. I worked long and hard hours in various jobs in order to purchase these equipments. While many of my peers are having a great time, I work. What is there to hate me? If you want a camera like mine, work hard and save hard. It is that simple.

In another incident, this person really got on my nerves and I strongly feel that this person should be a shame of himself or herself. I am not going to name names here but somebody had the cheek and wanted to view my photos on my laptop. After viewing 6 of my photos, the person just walked away and said that it was too much of creeper photos. What bad attitude and it was definitely an insult to me since that person was the one who wanted to view my photos and I was showing off or forcing that person to view my photos. However, I was surprise to see on the person’s facebook “creeper photos” according to that person. Why is this person so rude to me about what I do when he or she is doing the same thing? Why is this person being such a hypocrite? Is it because I have tons of lenses and camera equipments where it is totally out of your budget and you could only afford your point and shoot, therefore that gives you the right to call me names? Grow up and I do not appreciate your lack of personality even though you try to mask it as a joke. I know what a good joke or bad joke is, but your “joke” is just a rude comment.

People have always asked me what I do with my photos. I would usually tell them that I just capture the moments because I like photography trying very hard to keep photography as personal as possible. I do not like blowing my own horn. Wait let me rephrase that sentence. I love blowing my own horn, which is a Selmer Serie III tenor saxophone but seriously, the photos that I have taken is private property. These photos are not posted on facebook to tell everybody where I have visited or what a good time I have to make my friends jealous or envy how fortunate I am to be studying abroad. My photos have been published in a magazine in Malaysia. I am no wanna be photographer. I am an actual photographer where my works have been published. For the people from my ISA program who thinks that it is a joke to call me names just because I take photographs of strangers, think again before you try to come up with a rude comment.

I do apologize for the sudden burst of emotions that disrupts the flow of this blog. On the bright side, I took a ton of photos of beautiful people in Granada. I cannot wait to share them with you soon and I would definitely blog about my thoughts while I am in Granada.

In memory of Austin Bice

My deepest condolences to Austin Bice’s family. I personally do not know Austin but some of my friends in my Spanish class personally knew the deceased. A few days back I saw one my roommate liking a facebook page that was about Austin Bice. Austin is a senior is San Deigo State University. He was in Madrid since January of 2011 to participate in a semester long Spanish program with University of Carlos III. 11 days ago, he went missing and was last seen outside the club of Sala La Riviera. Austin and a few friends pre-gamed before heading out to the club. However, upon arriving at the club, he decided to walk back to his host family home because he was not feeling well. However, nobody saw him until 11 days later when the Madrid authorities found his body at the riverbank of Manzanares River not far away from the club he was last seen. Initial investigation shows no signs of foul play and that he could have just fallen into the river. It is such a tragic event but I prayer and hope that the students of SDSU and the Bice family would have the courage to be strong in these trying times.

I was emotionally affected upon hearing the news and this made me wonder about the significance of one existence in this world and how fragile life is. One would never know when death is around the corner. However, should we let the fear of death paralyze the richness of life? Would you let the fear of death stopping one to experience and take risks in life in order to get the most out of it? Since if there is life, death is bound to happen. I guess life is too short not to experience life itself.

Once again, my deepest condolences and prayers to Austin Bice’s family.

For more news about this tragic event:

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/missing-us-student-found-864572.html
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/08/body-of-us-student-missing-in-spain-found-in-river/
http://www.examiner.com/news-analysis-in-national/austin-bice-search-intensifies-madrid

Salamanca 2/2

the adventure continues...

We visited the Cathedral of Salamanca. This is the only cathedral that allowed us to take photos. Definitely a beautiful cathedral but I must say that the cathedral at the monastery in El Escorial is way more beautiful compared to the Cathedral in Salamanca. For more pics of the cathedral of Salamanca you can visit www.flickr.com/jordanncheng and look for the album entitled Salamanca.

This is a photo of a group of friends who were extremely happy when I took their photo. They were obviously slightly drunk but they were very friendly and inviting, unlike some of the other people that I have encountered while taking pictures of the various activities in Salamanca.

This time round, I was fortunate to be able to visit the oldest university in Spain, the University of Salamanca. I was told that initially, the University of Salamanca was the second oldest university in Spain being younger by a couple of years of another university. However, when the other university ceased operation, the University of Salamanca became the oldest university in Spain and it is currently the 4^th oldest university in Europe.

This is a church inside the university itself.

This is the library of the University of Salamanca. It looks kind of old and exotic.

A confused face? Well, I am sure the Spaniards would be confuse as well. The signage in front of the university's library is Antigua Liberia, which means old bookstore. The word for library in Spanish is biblioteca. It is a mistake that should not happen especially in such a famous university in Spain. In order to get to find the underlying cause of this misprint, I asked my tour guide. I was told that the original word for library is liberia, but then in the 18th century, Spain decided to replace the liberia with biblioteca. I guess University of Salamanca did not want to change liberia to biblioteca in order to preserve a part of the Spanish history.

Another thing about Salamanca is that being a university city, the drinks and nightlife is amazing. There are ridiculous offer such as 3 Euros for 5 shots, or 1 Euro for absinth and 1.70 Euro for absinth with hash. It was only the second time that I partied hard with my roommate Ryan. As you have expected all of us drank a good amount of alcohol. I must say that the clubs/bars in Salamanca are much better compared to the ones in Madrid. They play better music and the atmosphere is slightly better.

A shot with my roommate Ryan and Grace. ( I can afford to keep taking shots is because it only cost 3 euros for 5 shots. Now this is cheap!)

I have noticed that clubs in Spain in general, girls would usually dance with themselves and boys would dance with themselves. There is no grinding of whatsoever. It is boring and hardly interesting because when you dance with the opposite sex in a club, it is expected that there is “other activity” lined up after clubbing. Due to these sort of understanding, girls usually would refuse an invitation to dance if they are not in other late night activity after clubbing. What a huge turn off. When I am in a club, I would like to dance with different people just to be able to sweat it out on the dance floor and not expect more like other night activity in bed. America, I miss you even more NOW!!!!!!!!

The night scene. It is a fiesta in Salamanca.

This photo was taken around 2.30am in the morning. The party just started!!!

One thing good about the clubs in Salamanca is that there is no cover charge. It makes it much easier to club hop if the music is not to your liking.

Other than the nightlife, the night view of Salamanca is spectacular as well..