strange happenings...

the past few days have been filled with two very interesting and unusual encounters. both of them happened while i was wandering around sevilla by myself, and both are definitely worth sharing in my blog.

happening #1
yesterday, i was making my way very leisurely through downtown sevilla towards my bus stop. while walking, i stopped in a few little stores and looked at a few souvenirs. while i was in one store, i saw something weird out of the corner of my eye: a star wars storm trooper. i was like 'huh. was that a storm trooper i just saw?' lo and behold, when i left the store, an entire slew of star wars characters--three storm troopers, two imperial guards, one young anakin skywalker, one old anakin skywalker, several luke skywalkers, and one princess leia (no chewbacca or hans solo, which was unfortunate, as they really round out the cast) were present. i was totally stymied, as this is not normal behavior anywhere! they were definitely walking around hanging out fliers for this GIANT star wars convention next week. i think chelsea and i are going to go. anyways, this was strange happening #1: running into the entire cast of star wars while walking down a beautiful spanish street. i have pictures, will post them.

happening #2
while i was on the bus today heading for class, something really funny happened. we were at a bus stop and the bus driver was picking up people. however, there were two cars parked directly in front of the stop, so he had to pull forward a little bit. the three people at the stop headed over to the bus (about 20 ft away), but one of them was a little old man with a cane, and he couldn´t walk very fast. the other two people (a man and a woman), boarded the bus and the bus driver closed the door and sped off--leaving the little old man behind! when the bus driver closed the door, the little old man (complete with a red, mr. rogers cardigan and sans any teeth) started banging on it with his outstretched cane, but i guess the bus driver didn´t notice. i guess the bus driver also didn´t notice that the woman who got on the bus said twice 'hay un abuelo! espera!' which means 'there´s a grandpa! wait!'. anyways, i witnessed the whole thing and felt really bad for the little old man who got left by the bus. at the next bus stop, our driver opened the doors to let people in. at this stop, there was a taxi parked directly in front of the bus stop and who should step out but the little old man! he stepped out of the taxi and hobbled over to the bus door. he planted one foot in the doorway (leaving the other on the ground) and started ripping into the bus driver! he was like 'didn´t you see me! i was waiting for the bus! you left me behind you hijo de puta (son of a b----)!' he started waving his cane around and shouting obscenities at the bus driver. well, the bus driver began to shout back, saying he didn´t see the little old man and there was a lot of traffic and it wasn´t his fault, etc. well, then the woman who got on the bus at the stop where the little old man was left behind started yelling 'i told you there was a grandpa! you didn´t listen! why are you bus drivers all such horrible people?' (i´m totally toning down all of their language, because they were using some pretty strong words...) then, the man who got on the same time as the woman started yelling, too, telling the bus driver that he was a bad person and an embarrassment to his mother (ouch!). so the bus driver got so angry that he left his little enclosure at the driver´s seat and started marching up and down the aisle yelling at these three people! the shouting match seriously lasted for 10 minutes--i couldn´t believe it! i was seriously trying not to make eye contact with anyone, because there was a whole lot of bad feelings in that bus. finally, after 10 minutes and a few rude gestures, the little old man disembarked and hopped back in his cab. wow. never did i expect for THAT to happen on my daily bus route! it took me a lot of self-control not to crack up.

so moral of the story: strange things happen to me while i´m hanging out by myself in spain. hope you enjoyed the illustrative anecdotes :)