The weekend, and the week ahead

Overall, the weekend was fantastic. I woke up extremely tired at 4 45 Friday to board the bus. I didnt get much sleep because my friends attempted to bring me to a discoteca (night club) with them and not go to bed. They successfully stayed out and came back to the Fundacion at 4 45, giving them enough time to pack for the bus. Needless to say the ride to Cordoba, a city in Andulacia (southern most state of Spain), had plenty of red eyed kids. They started a small dance party in the back of the bus at about 5 15 to the song No Speak Americano, only to pass out shortly after. I managed to fall asleep after an hour, only to be woken up 15 minutes later for breakfast. They played a few awful and extremely inappropriate Spanish movies on the Tvs that also kept me up.
When we got to Cordoba, we immediately were met by a tour guide and started walking. We saw some minor buildings that I honestly dont know why we bothered seeing, but then we went to the Mesquita which is the Cathedral of the city. It was an awesome place. It was very large and alot like the Cathedral in Toledo, however it has Muslim influences as well and so the art and architecture is quite unique. After the tour, we stopped at a street vendor, and I bought a Leo Messi Argentina jersey for 15 euros, quite the steel. It is now the 4th soccer shirt I have acquired sense reaching Spain. Of course, Argentina lost 4 0 to Germany the next day and my Argentina friend, Javy, annouced to a group of friends that he wanted to kill himself and went to cry in his room. He survived however and had a fun evening later.
After the Mesquita, we got a really nice lunch at a hotel, then got on the bus for the 3 hour ride to Granada. Again they played a movie. The opening scene was a guy cutting his own wrists, so I decided my I pod at full volume and watching the country side out the window was my best option. Once we reached Granada, we were free for the night. We caught the end of the Netherlands upsetting Brazil in our hotel and later talked to a Greek couple. We had free time the rest of the day, so we went out for a nice dinner. Then we went back to our room and got ready to really go out. We found a club called Granada Diez with free admission on Fridays so we planned to go there. We held a euchre tournament which me and my partner Kelsey won (thanks Emily for teaching me :) hopefully you read this) while getting prepared to go. We left shortly after midnight. The club was pretty sweet. It was like a converted theater and well put together. They had a large bar over looking multiple levels of seating and a dance floor. The DJ was solid and they had sweet lighting. I got back around 4 am and had a ton of fun.
I woke up at 9 the next morning to visit the Alahambra, which is the famous palace in Granada. Granada is about 350 thousand people located in a mountain valley. From the roof of our hotel, which had a pool, you could see the snow capped mountains. Since our building was the tallest in Granada, we spent nearly 2 hours enjoying the view. Anyway, the Alhambra is so big it took 3 and a half hours to tour. The gardens were really cool and the buildings were all sweet, but our tour guide was a huge bitch. She treated us like small children who didnt know any Spanish and was overall completely rude. Our program directly even got in an arguement with her near the end of the trip. None the less, I enjoyed the tour. Later we found lunch in the plaza and took a quick nap before the Spain game. We went to a large tent in the Plaza Mayor of the town with about 300 people in their. It wasnt nearly as crazy as the Real Madrid stadium, but it was pretty close. We left at halftime to go to a bar because it was over 100 degrees in the tent, no joke. After the Spanish goalie saved a penalty kick, Xavi, a Spanish forward, made a penalty kick 2 minutes later. However Spain ran into the area too early and he had to kick again. This time, the keeper saved it and a defender cleared the ball after a large scuffle. The score remained 0 0. The game appeared to be going to OT when one of the forwards hit a post, however the ball bounced to the Spanish hero, David Villa, and he buried the shot for the win. After the game, the streets were out of control and traffic went no where. We went to a sandwhich place that gave us cheap drinks and we went back to celebrate the game, and the fourth of july in our hotel. We decided at about 2 to go back to the club, this time with more people, and way more girls, and stayed out passed 5. I woke up at 9 the next day, not feeling like a champ, however I managed to sleep some on the bus and felt fine by lunch time. I watched one set of the wimbledon final at a rest stop, Nadal won, and watched Terminator 3 in Spanish the rest of the way home. The trip was sweet. Tonight several people have their birthday, iḿ sure to be out later. Friday morning, I head to Seville. Hasta luego!

Granada tomorrow

Tomorrow, 5 30, as in 5 hours from now, going to Granada with 60 people. Iḿ super excited. I also booked Sevilla trip the next weekend, Portugal the following, and Moracco before heading back to the states. My trip excited just multiplied times ten. Hopefully some more of my friends will book for Portugal too. Iḿ trying to meet more Minnesota people so I can have friends when Iḿ home from Coe. We will see how it goes.

Second week of school

So now school is actually starting to be, well, school. I have a paper due later today and have to read this difficult story. In addition, I have a presentation in my conversation class on Wednesday. It has been a little hard for me to focus on school while Iḿ here. I really didnt have much of a break from the school year. Hopefully the month off after this between school will be enough to refresh me. Anyway, Spain plays tonight at 8 30 and I will be going back to the Plaza del Torros to watch the game. My conversation class technically goes till nine, but last night we went till 9 15! Since its 15 minutes away and we still have to eat, Iḿ a little worried how much of th egame I will get to see. Anyway it should be fun.We leave for Granada at 5 am Friday so that will be unpleasant. On the flip side, I moved to a single yesterday and slept fantastically. Overall, Spain still going great, just need to start working on the whole school thing

Madrid and Salamanca

Friday morning, I woke up extremely tired because my room mates had a late night and kept me awake. The entire foundation had a day trip to Madrid and I planned to stay the night with Travis and take a train to Salamanca the next day to tour. I was very tired all the way to Madrid but when we went in the royal palace, I woke up. It was very big on top of a hill in the center of Madrid although not as impressive as I imagined. Overall, it was fun though. Then all 100 of us when to a Jamon restaurante and then we decided to walk around. We checked into our hostel and then walked to Indepence Park to take pictures. It was a long distance away and we took lots of pictures. Then we went in the Prado, a famous art museum in Madrid. We saw lots of Greco, Goya, and Valasquez paintings that I saw in high school Spanish. We then proceeded to walk for an hour to the Real Madrid stadium to see Spain play Chile. The place was packed and everyone there was belligerant. I´ve never seen anything like it in my life! Needless to say it was quite the experience. We finally got to get close to the screen around half time when the police let us in to the center. Spain got up 2 0 at half and I think finished 3 1. It poured as we left and we got stuck in the rain. We decided to eat at burgers at an American restaurante with 2 girls to wait it out. We slept in our hostal, then went to Salamanca. Salamanca was a lot like Toledo, just not as popular. The plaza mayor was amazing we tons of shops and people. There were many large churches and the University was very cool as well. We watched the U.S. loss to Ghana in overtime with a group of U.S. students behind us talking loudly about their personal lives.......it was probably the least favorite part of the trip. Then we slept in one large bed in a small room at the hostal and came back in the morning. I spent most of the day just laying around and watching soccer. Germany won 4 1, amid controvery, and Argentina destroyed Mexico 3 1. Next week, Granada.

USA....USA............USA.........

For the Spain game, I ended up running from class to "Plaza del Toros" which is the city bull fighting stadium to watch. Spain won 2 0 although I missed all the scoring. Still exciting though. At least a thousand fans were there, most of whom were wearing red or "La Roja!" in support of their beloved Spain. Then Tuesday night, we played soccer again. I was a captain and picked an excellent team, going 4 and 1 throughout the night before we were kicked out of the gym. Then today, I again had class during the first half of the US game, but showed up shortly into the second half only because me and my friends James stopped to investigate handball prices. 24 Euros, maybe too high. Anyway the US was dominating but failed to score. They needed to win since England had won 1 0. Finally, in the 92nd minute, Landon Donovan kicked in a rebound, and O Brien's, the Irish bar, exploded into America chants and songs. Minutes later, we are through to the second round. We booked a hostal for 36 euros in Salamanca Saturday so my weekend is all planned, just one more class tonight, one more day tomorrow, and then enjoying my 3 day weekend.

The Weekend and First Day of Class

So today marks the first full week of classes, and I managed to start everything off by going to the wrong class. I sat with someone at breakfast who had lunch at the same time and just decided to walk to class with them. I sat down in the room and didnt talk to anyone. The professor was ten minutes late and didnt even mention the title of the class for another ten. Suddenly, 20 minutes into class she mentioned "Linguistics". My class is Phonetics. I decided to stay in class and just pretend that I was there until the end. Since classes are twice a day, I went early to our later one to explain to the Professor. When I told her, she just burst out laughing and didnt seem to care at all. Plus, class got done in a half hour so I went to the gym to play basketball. We have a decent size gym that we played an intense game of soccer on this weekend. I scored many goals but was very sore. Then I went out Saturday and had a great time at this place that was just giving out free food and drinks. I have class till 9 later, but the U.S. plays at 8 30 so I will miss the first half. Hopefully I can finish quick and go to O Brienś to watch the second half.

Toledo

So I have arrived and have been in Toledo Spain for several days now. This town is absolutely amazing. Its extremely old and all the streets are cobble stone and all the buildings are made out of stone. Its surrounded by a wall and has a fortress or alcazar at the top of it. I live in a building that used to be a convent, which is a little weird, however the rooms are very nice and overall the building is nice as well. I have 2 room mates who are from Ohio State and a neighboring room that is clustered to ours. One of them is from Ohio State and the other two are from Notre Dame. Overall most of the kids are from the U of M, Ohio State, or Notre Dame with many people from random places. Since we dont have classes on Fridays, people plan very ambitious trips. This weekend most people didnt plan any, however after this weekend, some people are going as far as Italy or France as well as places all over Spain. I have planned a weekend in Granda and a day trip to Segovia, but so far Iḿ lacking other options. We have a tenative tripped planned to Seville but no concrete plans. Next weekend we go to Madrid on Friday as a group so I might take a train to Salamanca and stay the night with whoever would come with me. Needless to say, Im very busy and dropping money left and right. Im going to play soccer. Bye!

Flying Away

Just spent my last night in my bed, packed all my things up, and am about to go to the airport to fly out. First we fly to Philidelphia and then to Madrid and take a bus to Toledo. I'm super excited and anxious. This should be one hell of an adventure.

World Cup Fever

So today was the first U.S. game in the 2010 World Cup against England. I used to play a lot of soccer and so I enjoy watching games. My dad and I decided to try to go to a Brittish pub in downtown Minneapolis to watch the game. We arrived about an hour and a half early in order to get good seats and the line was out the door. We decided to go to another pub nearby to watch the game. The game turned out to be insane. There were probably about 500 people in this place all screaming and yelling at the game. It completely blew my mind. I had a great time and the U.S. managed to tie 1 to 1. Spain's first game in the World Cup is the day after I arrive and I can only imagine how crazy it will be there.

New Leaf

So, its been awhile since I've last blog but I feel that in the coming weeks I will have much to think about and so I have decided to start it back up. Today is Friday and on Monday afternoon I fly to Spain for a significant portion of my summer. The program is through the University of Minnesota and I will live in an international dorm in Toledo Spain, just south of Madrid. The town is super historic with walls and a castle and is pretty small, only about 50 thousand in the area. I don't know a single person going and I haven't spoken a word of Spanish in a month so we will see how this goes. I've started to become super excited as other students have started emailing and we have started getting lots of information about the program. I expect it to be an experience of a lifetime and I intend to take lots of pictures. Stay tuned....