just to clear some things up

I didn´t really want to advertise this to the world

but apparently that´s been done for me already

sooo i might as well clear up confusion as much as I can....

So i´ll copy and paste the letter I sent the organization onto this blog and hopefully people will get an idea of what happenned that delightful saturday night.

"As I´m sure you´ve heard, I was assaulted Saturday Evening/Sunday Morning without provocation of any sort. The attack occured around 1:30 in the morning when I made the mistake of simply LOOKING at a gypsy while I was smiling. He rolled down his window and asked "que coño miras" to which I responded "pues nada" as I was more confused than anything as to why he should be so upset as I was merely walking by the car he was in. Apparently however, even that innocently confused response was enough to provoke the innebriated Gyspy further and he got out of the car he was in at which point I began to walk faster towards my friends who were just a couple of meters in front of me while the Gypsy demanded of me, "PERO QUE COÑO MIRAS CABRON!". To this again I responded "pues nada!"

Perhaps my exclamation, although absolutely warranted, may have been unwise. But I cannot stress enough that I´ve never encountered Gypsies before in my life, and I was never warned about them when coming over here, neither by CIEE nor by Interhispania which just seems illogical as every Spaniard here understands to be weary of the Gypsies. I thought their concern to stem more from racism and social misunderstanding than anything so I didn´t take them as seriously as I should have, but I must say that it would have been very much appreciated had the organization told me SOMETHING of this threat to my safety.

In any case, after I responded to the Gypsy the second time he came running at me, at which point I knew he was going to hit me and I braced myself for the innevitable blow I was to receive. He hit me and I backpeddled into a crowd of several dozen bystanders who DID NOTHING to aid me though the attack was clearly unprovoked. This ambivalence to my distress continued even after 3 other gypsies joined in. Though I quickly knocked my first assailent to the ground and out of the fight, I was soon grabbed from behind and not allowed to defend myself with anything more than my legs as the other three Gypsies continued punching me wherever they could.

As I couldn´t raise my hands at all in defence, not to mention the fact that I was still in a state of shock due to the speed and ilogical nature of the attack, I just lowerd my head to defend my face and kept spinning to keep them off balance, kicking one whenever and wherever I could. Thanks to God I had two good friends there who were not only good enough to help me, but strong enough as well, and once the Gypsies saw that it wasn´t 4 on 1 but 4 on 3 they lost their nerve like the cowards they are and ran. Before they did so however they called more gypsies to come back and really beat us.

Walking away from the fight I kept falling over as I was very dizzy from the innumerable blows I´d sustained to my head and at one point fell down right in the middle of a crowd of girls much to their concern and dismay. This state of disorientation and difficulty walking upright continued for the next 20minutes.

Due to my present condition me and one of my friends decided it was time to retire for the night and found refuge behind one of the local schools/churches only to be chased down by another group of Gypsies who almost ran over my friend and scared the living hell out of me. I dropped to the deck and hid in a field of tall grass while they commisserated behind the school talking nonchallantly as though they had not just nearly run my friend over (they would have had he not jumped the fence onto school property and continued onwards utnil he reached the Rio Duero) and my heart was beating so loudly I was almost afraid it was audible to the Gypsies despite their obvious drunken stupidity.

After laying low for at least 20minutes, the Gypsies left and I was able to come out fearing that I may find my friend run over in the field on which the Gypsies were racing their car. Fortunately that was not the case and we met up only to wait out the gypsies a good while longer and then leave the school grounds. By chance me and my friend lost eachother and as I´d turned off my phone and forgotten my pin code we weren´t able to find eachother again, so he went to the police to report what had happenned while I went home to fix my phone as half the world was looking for me at that point, and then to head to the hospital as I was still rather dizzy.

As I arrived home the father and son of the household (Sebas and David) were getting ready to come look for me, and the mother was quite concerned. Thankfully they called all those that were still looking for me and told them I was safe and then proceeded to take me to the hospital

I was very fortunate to not have any fractured bones nor any apparent permanent injuries and was released from the hospital about an hour after entering....

So the night ended with me taking painkillers and trying my best to find a comfortable way to sleep as there weren´t many places on my head that didn´t hurt from something or another. Not to mention most of the rest of my body was sore from the stressful evening.

I didn´t arrive home until 5AM and the attack had occured at approximately 1:30, the majority of the time inbetween spent running from those ridiculous people.

This I tell you as I´m pretty sure you need to know

I´m also obligated to report this incident to my embassy, my parents of course, and at my mother´s insistence I must ask that a contingency plan be drawn up to have me moved to a different city in the event that this rather unsafe and nervewracking situation doesn´t solve itself in the relatively near future.

Thank you for your time and consideration

Respectfully Yours,
Andrew Everett Herrera

PS. It must also be absolutely clear beyond ANY doubt that I did NOTHING to provoke this attack (neither that night nor further in the past) and I was not AT ALL innebriated during this incident."


I hope this serves to clear some things up...and it must be known that I´m not afraid of the Gypsies and if they come after me again I won´t be caught off guard like I was the first time. I´m physically able to defend myself and am no coward, and in the event they find me again, I won´t be the one who regrets it.

So there, I think all that needs to be said has been said, but regardless if anyone has questions I´m always happy to answer. (though i don´t think anyone´s ever had questions before...)