Magic Carpet Ride

He wasn’t yet a grandfather, but nonetheless Scott was the oldest student in all of his classes at San Diego State University. In grade school, he had had no interest in the obligatory hour of Spanish lessons on Friday afternoons, so it was a little out of character for him to have chosen to pursue a major in that same subject area. I guess he enjoyed tackling the challenge of becoming proficient in a foreign language after all. Scott does still remember the warmhearted Mexican lady Mrs. Ortega, known simply as “Tega” by the family. She helped Mom around the house and prepared that spicy, foamy hot chocolate on crispy winter mornings. Perhaps that childhood experience also subconsciously helped to guide Scott onto this current path.

Scott was supporting himself, and risking his life to some extent, by driving an armored truck while attending classes part-time. Then when it became difficult to afford the rent in the immediate vicinity, Scott found a reasonable apartment to lease just across the international border in nearby Tijuana. Besides saving a substantial sum of money, he figured by immersing himself in Mexican culture on a day to day basis could only help him succeed even furthermore in his studies.

In order to arrive timely to work and to class, Scott made sure he was up and about by four o’clock in the morning. Then it was a torturous forty-five minutes waiting in line in his Dodge Caravan to cross back over into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Next stop was the donut shop for coffee and a pastry, which he consumed in the parking lot of the Chula Vista 24 Hour Fitness club. He worked out briefly, showered, and then reported to either work or school, depending on the semester schedule.

Most every college level class required at least one student oral presentation. This often unnerved Scott, who was more comfortable communicating on a one-to-one basis. The two exceptions to this occurred when conversational Spanish class professors Muñoz and Sánchez called for collaborative group performances. Practicing the skits with fellow students off campus took the edge off the exercise and that was just plain fun! With partner student Jaire, Scott played the part of infamous Mexican comic Mario Moreno (1911-1993) more commonly known as “Cantinflas”. Part of the Cantinflas “getup” was his famous upper lip, which sported a tiny mustache at each end and his almost falling-off sagging pants.

In the other class, Scott worked with a guy named Patrick and two gals. In this instance, the theme surrounded a too popular athlete who used a commercial “girl repellant” dust to keep his many admirers at bay. The girls played the part of “porristas” (cheerleaders). Unpretentious Scott, who had quite the wild imagination, provided the basic idea for each of the two Spanish comedy sketches.

On the first week of one particular fall semester, a beautiful Puerto Rican girl showed up on the second meeting of an evening conversational Spanish class to ask permission to enroll. Much to the delight of the male students, Tamara was accommodated and assigned a space in Scott’s three person study group. Tamara dressed herself in sexy knee-high leather boots and acted surprisingly reserved, as if she had no idea of how much attention she naturally drew from the guys. This attitude tended to make her even more attractive still. Miguel, a Guatemalan friend who had previously taken the same class, had given Scott his old textbook to sell. Tamara agreed to purchase the used book from Scott.

At this time Scott, always the gentleman, had already been contentedly married for fifteen years. His spouse, Mary Ellen, was residing with his father while he was away at school. Well, realizing full well that the younger, single college girls who surrounded him were off limits, he saw no harm in half-jokingly asking Tamara if he could usher her back to her car after class. He truly was surprised and somewhat alarmed when she accepted his apparent chivalrous proposal and graciously invited him to accompany her. Having parked on a dark side street adjacent to campus, Tamara became disoriented and the two of them became momentarily lost. Scott, who was already nervous walking around with the most beautiful girl in class, began to unwillingly sweat while he tried to think himself out of the situation. He was relieved to find that Tamara remembered having parked across from the student day care center. This gave Scott the bearings he needed to show her the way and the eventful evening ended as Tamara finally unlocked the door to her vehicle (which actually may have belonged to a man she was seeing).

A week later after class, Tamara surprised Scott for a second time. She was so pleased on having saved so much cash on the used textbook purchase that she insisted on buying Scott dinner at the local Jack-in-the-Box restaurant across the street. Scott, again still a little nervous hanging out with such a pretty creature, could not justify rejecting her heartfelt offer. He ordered a burger, while she ate a salad.

To finish the tale, after class during the third week, Scott tried to “escape” his escort duties by walking directly toward his own vehicle, but Tamara stopped him in his tracks and insisted they march together to her car first. And so it continued for the remainder of the semester. During the brief walks, Tamara at times shared personal anecdotes about her love life and she actually shed a few tears on one occasion.

Last class day at their final farewell, the two exchanged a brief, friendly embrace. Not mentioned previously, in addition to her poise and charm, Tamara already had completed a four year university course of study. However, the college graduate felt somewhat mortified coming from a Boricua bloodline and not having the ability to communicate in the Spanish language. Thus, her impetus to return to the classroom can be understood by anyone.

During another Spanish course, Scott found himself sitting with one other man student among 28 female co-eds barely entering into the prime stages of their lives (many still teens). But by the second week of class, Scott was left all alone with the girls when his only male cohort evidently dropped out of the class. This is about the time Scott began to regret not having completed his college degree earlier, when he could have taken full advantage of all of the college social activities for singles. After having witnessed so many women present in his language courses, Scott reasonably concluded that females inherently had superior communication skills over men and also had the ambition to develop those same talents.

After completing the majority of class prerequisites, Scott still needed to explore Spanish in a foreign country in order to fulfill all mandatory SDSU graduation guidelines. He decided to join a group of like-minded students on the university sponsored study abroad program taking place at Nebrija University in Madrid during the month of July 2009. There he would share accommodations in a private home along with another male student from New York’s Hunter College. After taking a placement examination on the first day of classes, Scott’s high score was satisfactory enough to place him in the most advanced level Spanish course being offered that session.

On weekends, Nebrija staff chaperoned exciting field trips to nearby historical attractions like the ancient cities of Toledo, Segovia, and Avalon. The artifact that impressed Scott the most was the Pablo Picasso masterpiece “Guernica” that was shown during a school-sponsored visit to the Museum Reina Sofia. Again this summer, Scott found himself to be a decade or two older than his other classmates. That did not prevent him from noticing a special student (also married) who stood out over and above the rest of the girls. Monica was a bright, attractive girl who surprised Scott when she blushed bright red the first time he complemented her intellect.

The Saturday morning excursion to El Escorial, a World Heritage Site built in the sixteenth century, was something not to be missed. All of the seats on the tour bus were taken, except for the seat alongside Scott. I suppose the younger generation saw him more as a parent than a schoolfellow. Without someone to talk with on the journey to their destination town of San Lorenzo, Scott reluctantly resigned himself to playing the part of an “outcast”. However, something else was in the cards for him that lucky day.

On previous field trips, understand that another male student had been kind of “smothering” the aforementioned student Monica with attention, but in a most respectful manner. Of course, this prevented Scott from having any opportunity to befriend the girl himself. Scott believed this detachment was probably for the best, at least it would keep him out of “trouble”. But then again, Scott still maintained the illusion of spending some quality time in Monica’s good company.

Today, Scott was unaware that neither Monica nor her buddy-buddy amigo had boarded the bus. Well, just as the bus driver fired up the diesel motor to leave, Scott interpreted the drama that followed as a kind of miracle. Another student on the bus recognized Monica across the street with a lost look on her face. After someone called out for her in a shout, Monica became aware that she was waiting on the wrong corner and ran over to join the group. When she boarded the bus Monica found the only seat still open and available was right alongside Scott!

Was it a dream come true? Well, Scott was more than pleased to find that his patience and respect for the girl was perhaps, at long last, being rewarded. Spending time in conversational Spanish with Monica brightened his day to no end. An hour later, everyone disembarked and followed the tour guide through the famous palace and monastery. After the tour, the crowd broke for lunch. At the beginning of this unscripted time period, so as not to be considered a pest, Scott made a slight detour away from Monica. However, Monica called him back and apparently wanted them to continue chatting while they consumed their sandwiches. Scott, now trying earnestly to hide his pent up excitement, complied with her friendly request.

Monica actually ended up sharing some fairly personal anecdotes with Scott, one of which described a separation followed by a reconciliation with her current spouse. On the return trip, fatigue fell upon the two student friends and they spoke less and less. At the end of the day, Scott was so satisfied with time spent with Monica that he checked her off his “wish list”.

Coincidently in high school, Scott had the same good luck on the bus taking his class to the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk during the school sponsored “senior ditch day”. Scott was a recent transfer student and had sat down alone on the bus. Of course, when the most popular girl (the school newspaper editor) sat down alongside him, he was dumbfounded. You see, Margie’s boyfriend was just a junior and not eligible to join the graduating class on the excursion to the amusement park. For bashful Scott, the conversation that followed was exhilarating!

Scott used the efficient Madrid Metro system to commute back and forth from classes. One afternoon he walked down the wrong tunnel, passing by a group of three suspicious-looking male juveniles sitting on some stairs. He ignored them, spun around, and returned to the correct underground station where he waited with a small crowd of other riders. As a distraction when the door to the subway car opened, one of the hoodlums dropped some loose change directly in front of Scott’s feet. When Scott began to step forward onto the Metro, as if his shoes had been glued to the floor, he was shocked to find that he could not move even an inch. The reason being, a second hoodlum from behind had wrapped his arms around Scott’s legs and held him tight! A third hoodlum reached into Scott’s right front pants pocket and pulled out Scott’s passport. The passport slipped out from the delinquent’s hand and dropped to the ground. Fortunately, Scott had placed his billfold in the opposite left front pocket. Scott broke himself free and the three pickpockets ran away. Now on his hands and knees, he scrambled around on the floor to recover his passport. That was a close call and an appalling story that Scott recounted the following day.

When the Nebrija University course of study came to an end, Scott stayed behind for another couple of weeks to join a tour bus exploring the Andalusian region of southern Spain known as the “Costa del Sol”. While staying at a base hotel in Torremolinos, among others, the destinations included: Málaga, Mijas, Nerja, and Ronda. Highlighting the tour were exciting side trips to the palace of Seville's Royal Alcázar and Great Britain’s territorial colony known as Gibraltar. A pair of older Spaniard women named Inmaculada (Inma) and Maria from the city that sponsors the famous annual “running of the bulls” (Pamplona) noticed Scott was solo and took him under their wing by inviting him to join them at their table during mealtimes.

On Scott’s one free day away from the scheduled trip activities, he took a ferry boat across the Mediterranean Sea to Tangiers on the continent of Africa. There he joined a guided tour group of about a dozen other visitors who enjoyed a traditional lunch of Moroccan cuisine while being entertained by local musicians. The final stop was a rug emporium. Others in the group looked around the store, but left empty-handed.

However, Scott was not about to depart without having purchased a “magic carpet” of some persuasion. He was drawn to a hand-knotted wool rug about the size of a yoga mat. Much later he was to find the theme of its beautiful pattern was the “tree of life”. None of the merchandise on display in the store was priced. Members of the sales staff insisted that the customers had the responsibility to open the negotiations by making the first offer. Scott had no clue as to the market value of his selection. For all he knew, it could have been worth twenty dollars or two thousand dollars! After fretting over the value, he decided to offer two hundred dollars. The price was deemed acceptable and the transaction processed without a hitch via credit card. This would be the only item that Scott would bring back home with him from his overseas trip.

On the way back to the ferry terminal for the return to the Spanish mainland, the tour made a roadside stop where camel rides were being offered for a price. That attraction did not interest Scott, especially when he recalled the time Dad’s horse bucked him off twice in one day, fracturing both his left radius and right clavicle!

Before returning to the United States from Madrid, Scott’s magic carpet began to take over. His itinerary was changed to include a layover in Great Britain. This was for the purpose of walking among the megalithic monument of Stonehenge. For Scott, this scene was akin to stepping foot on the moon and entailed completing another high priority wish on his bucket list. On the way to Stonehenge, the bus made two-hour stopovers at both Windsor Castle and the town of Bath. Upon leaving London’s Heathrow Airport for home (thanks to his magic carpet again?) Scott’s British Airways seat assignment was upgraded without charge!

But the Moroccan magic carpet was not content to stay with Scott in California. On a visit with his spouse to Juneau, Alaska, the rug was left behind at the home of a pair of newlyweds, namely Scott’s step-daughter Karla and her husband Tyson. Since then, two beautiful boys have arrived on the scene. It seems the tree of life, carried proudly by the magic carpet, is living up to its name by overseeing the expansion of the population of Scott’s extended family. And since retiring, Scott has resided in a sleepy Mexican beach town where his Spanish skills come in handy on a daily basis. It’s wonderful when persons, places, and things work together for the benefit of everyone.