Just got back from a six country (5 not counting Vatican City) 15 day trip. I'm very tired do to lack of sleep and the wear and tear of traveling. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to have done something like that. Seeing and experiencing the cultures and sites of: Rome, the Swiss Alps, Stuttgart, Berlin, and Paris has just been incredible. I'm blown away by God's provision and protection. My mind has been opened to the world, however, right now it is a mess of flowing thoughts and dreams.
Nine months in Spain has changed the foreign to the norm and has left me wondering what I will return to when I arrive in the U.S. I know I have changed. I believe I am bolder, more capable, more grateful for what I have, and this time away has only increased my desire to see the rest of the world. Coming back to the States as many of my friends finish high school and begin to head off to college, myself included, has left me wondering how my world will change. As many people have told me, people will begin to drift away I will begin to see which young life friends remain. I know this sounds cynical but this is most likely the truth. The roads of life intersect, cross, and then diverge and I guess I'll see who has the same destination.
This afternoon I tried to get my mind around the reality of my return. Nine hours before my flight I still can't fully comprehend it all. I've been anticipating my arrival at the PDX airport ever since I've arrived and seeing my family in person for the first time in nine months, but after that first reunion I can't see what will come.
The goodbyes to my friends in Spain have gone as well as can be expected. I'm horrible at saying goodbye and am sure I'm not the only one who can say that. Here's a composition I wrote two months ago as I began to anticipate my move from my host mom's house.
Hello Goodbye – Ariel Wai (April 28, 2009)
Arrival at the airport.
A breaking of a heart.
A whole new world,
Laughing from the start.
Long walks of desperation,
Calling out through it all.
Tear on first Sunday.
Dawn breaking through the dark.
Led through tile jungles,
By a Colombian guide.
Movies on a Saturday,
Joy building inside.
Dull pains keep coming,
Crushed out by a high,
Of skating on ice.
Holy Spirit by my side.
Time to leave the old new.
Awake late at night.
Just said hello,
Now it’s time to say goodbye.
The first step off the plane at the Portland international airport tomorrow is the period in the last sentence of my Spanish adventure. The second step is capital letter of the first sentence in the next adventure. The future is wide open. I am excited. I cannot see what will come but all I want to do is remember the past; anticipate the future; and live, breathe, and thrive in the present.
I'm coming home.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Ireland
I'm back in Madrid after a four-night trip to Ireland. Before boarding the plane I was hoping for dreary, cold, foggy, drizzly weather (for most Oregonians that sounds crazy, but remember that it's been hot and dry in Madrid for the past month or so). When I got there it was sunny, however, I didn't mind because it had the clean air feeling...not the 6 million person city, nasal drying, weather in Madrid (it's actually not that bad :).
I arrived on a Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the day as well as Sunday walking the city from top to bottom and back again seeing all the popluar tourist sites. That first Saturday I felt kind of weird, not sick, not uncomfortable, but something was out of place. After a couple hours I realized what it was - it was that everybody was speaking English and all the signs were in my native language! It took me a while to adjust; if I happened to bump into somebody I would say "perdoname" or "lo siento" instead of "excuse me" or "sorry".
Monday I went to Bray - a little town on the Irish Sea. From there I hiked along the coast to Greystone where I went swimming; the water was quite cold! Tuesday I went to a National Park and monastery called Glendalough (oddly pronounced: 'glen-duh-lok'). I hiked past two lakes and loads of tourists/vacationers, past an old mine, and then scrambled up a staircase of small pools and falling water. Near the top I was startled by a few deer standing close by watching me. They weren't scared so I took the opportunity to take some shots (with a camera, I didn't have a gun with me). I was able to get within 25 feet or so of them. Later I swam in one of the pools and it was surprisingly warm.
Here are some pics:
Maritime Festival
St. Patrick's Cathedral
I arrived on a Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the day as well as Sunday walking the city from top to bottom and back again seeing all the popluar tourist sites. That first Saturday I felt kind of weird, not sick, not uncomfortable, but something was out of place. After a couple hours I realized what it was - it was that everybody was speaking English and all the signs were in my native language! It took me a while to adjust; if I happened to bump into somebody I would say "perdoname" or "lo siento" instead of "excuse me" or "sorry".
Monday I went to Bray - a little town on the Irish Sea. From there I hiked along the coast to Greystone where I went swimming; the water was quite cold! Tuesday I went to a National Park and monastery called Glendalough (oddly pronounced: 'glen-duh-lok'). I hiked past two lakes and loads of tourists/vacationers, past an old mine, and then scrambled up a staircase of small pools and falling water. Near the top I was startled by a few deer standing close by watching me. They weren't scared so I took the opportunity to take some shots (with a camera, I didn't have a gun with me). I was able to get within 25 feet or so of them. Later I swam in one of the pools and it was surprisingly warm.
Here are some pics:
Maritime Festival
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sports Passion or Idol Worship
I just got back from a two day trip to Barcelona. First of all the city is amazing, probably the nicest city I've visited so far in Spain. I was able to go all over it thanks to "bicing", a system of transportation composed of various bicycle stations located all over the city. To use the bikes one must slide a card over a scanner, the scanner checks the card and then unlocks a bike, you can then use the bike for two hours and when time is up you can lock it up again in any of numerous stations throughout the city. I visited Gaudi's "Sagrada Familia", a massive cathedral that has taken over 100 years in constructing and still isn't finished. It is, in Gaudi's words, a true "work of the centuries", with very different construction techniques used, contrasting elaborate facades, but all in line with Gaudi's original drawings. I was also able to go to the Mediterranean beaches.
However, I think the most interesting experience I had was the chance to go to Catalunya Plaza and La Rambla to celebrate with Futbol Club Barcelona fans after the team vanquished Manchester United in the Champions Leaque final. The 2-0 defeat was a landmark victory not only because it crowned Barcelona as the European football champions for the 3rd time, nor even because it was their second crown in four years, but because they won the three biggest European/Spanish titles: the King's Cup, The League, and finally the Champions League, a feat never before accomplished.
As you can imagine, the festivities were...well, lets just say crazy. In a matter of minutes it seemed like the entire city flooded the streets. I arrived about 20 minutes after the game finished and thousands were already there. Fans stretched out literally as far as the eye could see (even from the shoulders of a friend), for kilometers and kilometers; I later read that over 100,000 people had filled the streets. People were singing, chanting, climbing trees, lamp posts, magazine stands, traffic lights, anything and everything. Fireworks were being lit off in the middle of it all. Someone would light one off and people would scramble for safety, the firework would explode and shower sparks into the crowd, then people would return to their spot to continue. Fountain fireworks were being lit and waved around in the air, also showering fans with hot sparks. The celebrations loomed on the edge of rioting until 30 minutes after I returned to a friend's house, when around 1:30am, the fans turned into vandals.
I read in the newspapers that around 100 people began throwing cans and bottles towards police and the press. This resulted in bruises/contusions as well as the police trying to disperse the crowd. At 2:00 am I had to walk to the bus station to go to the airport. This shouldn't have been a problem, however, I took a wrong turn and began walking towards the celebration grounds. After a couple blocks I noticed something out of the ordinary - maybe over a thousand fans running in my direction. I stopped and positioned myself close to a building. I asked one of the people passing me what was happening, from the quick words and motions that he made I figured out that the celebrations had gotten out of control and the police were shooting rubber bullets. I could hear something like little explosions or gunfire which could have been two things (1) the fireworks of fans, or(2) gunfire. I decided it was a little bit of both because (1) the thousand fleeing people, and (2) the sirens. I did an about face and started quickly walking in the direction I had just come from. Two big police vans passed me as people ducked behind cars, crouched down, and covered their heads - fortunately these police weren't shooting. I asked a passerby for directions to the bus station, she said that I could go with her because she lives close by, but she told me how to get their "just in case" (I'm assuming she meant in case the police came and tried to detain her friend who was a occupied smashing the screen of an ATM machine with a rock). I decided I probably wasn't with the best company so I said thanks and quickly headed off towards the station. On the way I passed hooligans tipping over massive garbage bins, draining their systems of the alcohol, overturning potted plants and smashing the pots. Throughout all of this I realized I was being watched over from a light from above, well two, (1) God who was protecting, guiding, and keeping me sane, and (2) a police helicopter with a search beam. After 40 minutes of excitement I arrived at the bus station.
Now, relating to the title of this blog: how could all this happen? I mean, what could draw together 100,000 people? What does it mean when your average Joe climbs 25 feet up a small monument, rips off his Barcelona jersey, and waves it to the masses, as people look on, cheer, and begin to climb as well? Why does passion for a sports team culminate in the firing of rubber bullets? Why did the night end with 134 arrests and 159 fans and 89 policemen in need of medical attention? This may sound like I'm bashing on sports aficionados, and I really don't want to. I enjoy it when my football team wins, but when does love for a team turn into idol worship?
However, I think the most interesting experience I had was the chance to go to Catalunya Plaza and La Rambla to celebrate with Futbol Club Barcelona fans after the team vanquished Manchester United in the Champions Leaque final. The 2-0 defeat was a landmark victory not only because it crowned Barcelona as the European football champions for the 3rd time, nor even because it was their second crown in four years, but because they won the three biggest European/Spanish titles: the King's Cup, The League, and finally the Champions League, a feat never before accomplished.
As you can imagine, the festivities were...well, lets just say crazy. In a matter of minutes it seemed like the entire city flooded the streets. I arrived about 20 minutes after the game finished and thousands were already there. Fans stretched out literally as far as the eye could see (even from the shoulders of a friend), for kilometers and kilometers; I later read that over 100,000 people had filled the streets. People were singing, chanting, climbing trees, lamp posts, magazine stands, traffic lights, anything and everything. Fireworks were being lit off in the middle of it all. Someone would light one off and people would scramble for safety, the firework would explode and shower sparks into the crowd, then people would return to their spot to continue. Fountain fireworks were being lit and waved around in the air, also showering fans with hot sparks. The celebrations loomed on the edge of rioting until 30 minutes after I returned to a friend's house, when around 1:30am, the fans turned into vandals.
I read in the newspapers that around 100 people began throwing cans and bottles towards police and the press. This resulted in bruises/contusions as well as the police trying to disperse the crowd. At 2:00 am I had to walk to the bus station to go to the airport. This shouldn't have been a problem, however, I took a wrong turn and began walking towards the celebration grounds. After a couple blocks I noticed something out of the ordinary - maybe over a thousand fans running in my direction. I stopped and positioned myself close to a building. I asked one of the people passing me what was happening, from the quick words and motions that he made I figured out that the celebrations had gotten out of control and the police were shooting rubber bullets. I could hear something like little explosions or gunfire which could have been two things (1) the fireworks of fans, or(2) gunfire. I decided it was a little bit of both because (1) the thousand fleeing people, and (2) the sirens. I did an about face and started quickly walking in the direction I had just come from. Two big police vans passed me as people ducked behind cars, crouched down, and covered their heads - fortunately these police weren't shooting. I asked a passerby for directions to the bus station, she said that I could go with her because she lives close by, but she told me how to get their "just in case" (I'm assuming she meant in case the police came and tried to detain her friend who was a occupied smashing the screen of an ATM machine with a rock). I decided I probably wasn't with the best company so I said thanks and quickly headed off towards the station. On the way I passed hooligans tipping over massive garbage bins, draining their systems of the alcohol, overturning potted plants and smashing the pots. Throughout all of this I realized I was being watched over from a light from above, well two, (1) God who was protecting, guiding, and keeping me sane, and (2) a police helicopter with a search beam. After 40 minutes of excitement I arrived at the bus station.
Now, relating to the title of this blog: how could all this happen? I mean, what could draw together 100,000 people? What does it mean when your average Joe climbs 25 feet up a small monument, rips off his Barcelona jersey, and waves it to the masses, as people look on, cheer, and begin to climb as well? Why does passion for a sports team culminate in the firing of rubber bullets? Why did the night end with 134 arrests and 159 fans and 89 policemen in need of medical attention? This may sound like I'm bashing on sports aficionados, and I really don't want to. I enjoy it when my football team wins, but when does love for a team turn into idol worship?
Friday, May 22, 2009
The Next Chapter in My Life
I attended my last class in Spain May 8th. May 11th I moved out of my house in the small little neigborhood of La Navata and into Madrid city center - the heart of Spain. I'm staying in the room of a good friend from church who is in Puerto Rico right now. There are two other guys here right now, Esteban and Arnold. Things are going great. I went to Valencia, a city on the Mediterranean, last week and this Monday I head off to Barcelona. The 30th of May I head up to Dublin, Ireland to go leprauchan hunting.
I think the best thing so far about living in Madrid is the freedom. Freedom to move around the city with such ease and not have to wait forever for buses or trains to come. Freedom to stay out late and not have to call my exchange agency for permission to spend the night at a friends place. Freedom to eat what I want...which also means I have to cook, which isn't to bad, except when I don't feel like cooking. Freedom to wake up at 11:20am, leave for church at 11:29am, and arrive on time a 11:30am; this is so much nicer than traveling around an hour and a half to get to church and back every Sunday. Freedom to wear what I want...I could wear what I wanted before but in the smaller towns surrounding Madrid you stand out a lot more if you're different. Freedom to travel around Europe. Freedom to live, hope, love...:p
Here are some pics of Valencia's art and science center and of my church that meets in a night club on Sunday mornings.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
New Address
Hey everybody, I'm moving out of my house in the outskirts of Madrid because I'm finishing up my exchange program this Sunday (I won't be returning though until the 26th of June). I'll be moving in with some friends from my church. My new address is:
C/ Joaquin Maria Lopez, 20
Madrid (Madrid) 28015
Spain
I'll have to look which floor I'll be in, so if you send mail to this address, right now it'll just go to the building and not get put in my mailbox, I'll update this when I found out the exact floor. This is just a heads up to not send mail to my old address.
C/ Joaquin Maria Lopez, 20
Madrid (Madrid) 28015
Spain
I'll have to look which floor I'll be in, so if you send mail to this address, right now it'll just go to the building and not get put in my mailbox, I'll update this when I found out the exact floor. This is just a heads up to not send mail to my old address.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Way Too Close.
What this guy is doing is what all the performers would try and do - get as close to the bull without getting gored. After this happened he hopped out of the ring, then hopped back in to wave to the crowd. Even though he got closer to the bull than any other performer he still only revcieved third place, to the shouts of dissaproval from the fans. He later walked out of the ring when the first place trophy was being delieverd. Good performer - sore loser. (Try watching this in slow-motion if possible).
Wow! And I thought a backflip off the diving board was scary! I can't believe he only got 5th place!?!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
What April Brings
The lodge where we stayed at for one of our school's mountain club excursions. Our room had 19 beds!
Toledo Graffiti
One of the high speed trains that can take you to Toledo. It's called the AVE - the bird and can get up to 186 mph, but I don't think ours did :(
Toledo: Fortified city of swords and Don Quixote.
We had a hippy party at the high school retreat because they talked about the Jesus Movement a bit.
This is the small little town where the retreat was held.
Near the main plaza of Madrid there are a couple sidestreets with lots of street performers.
All across Spain there are Easter processions like this. There were probably a few thousand people watching this one! The procession was stopped when I got there which actually wasn't too bad because I coudn't see anything for around an hour and a half. When they started again I climbed up some scaffolding with some other people...kind of like Zacchaeus. It's too bad that Easter in Spain is only about tradition and not about how Jesus defeated death and Satan on the cross and how we can find peace with God and be saved.
Me, Victor, and Chris at the top of "La Maliciosa". I took my snow pants off cause I was hot :)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Volleyball Update
So as most of you know I've been practicing with a club volleyball team for the past 4 or 5 months. The first few weeks of practice were humiliating. It doesn't help that the team I'm on won the Madrid Regional Championship last year. However, I stuck with it, mostly because it was too late to sign up for another sport, but I'm glad I stayed on. After around 1 1/2 - 2 months I started feeling like I could practice without messing up the other players and now I'm starting to feel like a little threat.
This year we went back to the championship tournament - only the top four teams get to play in it. After the second game of the tournament I was hoisted onto the shoulders of my teammates and thrown up in the air four times as my team cheered for "Ingles" ("English" which is what they call me). Yeah, I know, you can start applauding now...
Actually my team lost that game and I haven't played one minute this entire season. First of all I signed up too late to play and so I can't officially play in the games and secondly I'm not quite up to the standard. They played well but just couldn't keep up with the giants on the other team. I was really proud of the guys though; never got down on each other, didn't fight with the referees, restrained each other from fighting, and even after they lost they still cheered for playing well and for having a good time - they were jumping around center court and acting like they'd just won the championship....then they saw me standing with the other fans. They ran over and had me hop over the fence that separates the court from the fans and let me fly for the first time ever :) Haha, so yeah, I wasn't lying, but no need to applaud.
I'm sure going to miss those guys. We're going to still keep practicing but only for the occasional friendly match/tournament. And that's all for now...
This year we went back to the championship tournament - only the top four teams get to play in it. After the second game of the tournament I was hoisted onto the shoulders of my teammates and thrown up in the air four times as my team cheered for "Ingles" ("English" which is what they call me). Yeah, I know, you can start applauding now...
Actually my team lost that game and I haven't played one minute this entire season. First of all I signed up too late to play and so I can't officially play in the games and secondly I'm not quite up to the standard. They played well but just couldn't keep up with the giants on the other team. I was really proud of the guys though; never got down on each other, didn't fight with the referees, restrained each other from fighting, and even after they lost they still cheered for playing well and for having a good time - they were jumping around center court and acting like they'd just won the championship....then they saw me standing with the other fans. They ran over and had me hop over the fence that separates the court from the fans and let me fly for the first time ever :) Haha, so yeah, I wasn't lying, but no need to applaud.
I'm sure going to miss those guys. We're going to still keep practicing but only for the occasional friendly match/tournament. And that's all for now...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Torijas
I thought I'd share a Spanish recipe I learned today. It's really simple (and kinda weird...but tasty). They're called "torijas" and are eaten around the time of La Semana Santa (the Holy Week). La Semana Santa is a week with religious festivals...but for most people it's like the American Spring Break. Anyways, I made them with my host mom today and they're pretty good, so here's the recipe:
Torijas
French bread (not the really soft type but stuff a little firmer and denser, it's actually good if it's a bit old and dry. See the picture. I also saw a store selling bread for torijas which look like thick pieces of normal bread)
Eggs
Milk
Sugar
Cinnamon
Oil (lots, we used olive oil for a healthy alternative :)
1) Heat up a pan of oil (quite a bit because you'll deep fry the bread in it)
2) Cut the bread into circular slices
4) Crack some eggs into a bowl and mix them up
3) Fill a bowl with milk and soak the bread in it until it's completely...well, soaked through
4) Take the soaked through slice of bread and put it into the eggs, make sure it gets coated
5) Carefully put the slice of bread into the oil, leave it in there until it's a nice golden color, flip it over once (~1 min)
6) Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and roll the deep-fried bread in it
Now you have torijas! We put the torijas in a big bowl and covered it to let them get nice and wet. If you do this don't be surprised if they end up looking like soggy bread coated in sugar and cinnamon. My host mom mixed a little bit of the leftover milk with some leftover cinnamon sugar and some lemon juice into a small bowl and poured it over the torijas (only about 1/4 cup for 12 torijas). It's pretty simple, I didn't put in quantities because I think you can figure them out (and I don't know them).
Torijas
French bread (not the really soft type but stuff a little firmer and denser, it's actually good if it's a bit old and dry. See the picture. I also saw a store selling bread for torijas which look like thick pieces of normal bread)
Eggs
Milk
Sugar
Cinnamon
Oil (lots, we used olive oil for a healthy alternative :)
1) Heat up a pan of oil (quite a bit because you'll deep fry the bread in it)
2) Cut the bread into circular slices
4) Crack some eggs into a bowl and mix them up
3) Fill a bowl with milk and soak the bread in it until it's completely...well, soaked through
4) Take the soaked through slice of bread and put it into the eggs, make sure it gets coated
5) Carefully put the slice of bread into the oil, leave it in there until it's a nice golden color, flip it over once (~1 min)
6) Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and roll the deep-fried bread in it
Now you have torijas! We put the torijas in a big bowl and covered it to let them get nice and wet. If you do this don't be surprised if they end up looking like soggy bread coated in sugar and cinnamon. My host mom mixed a little bit of the leftover milk with some leftover cinnamon sugar and some lemon juice into a small bowl and poured it over the torijas (only about 1/4 cup for 12 torijas). It's pretty simple, I didn't put in quantities because I think you can figure them out (and I don't know them).
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Defeating Winter
Chris and Me
The "Lodge"
Well, I'm hestitant to say it, but...I think Spring in Spain may be on it's way. I really lucked out and happened to come to Spain on the coldest, wettest, and rainiest year they've had in a long time. The Madrid-Barajas international airport had to be shut down for the first time ever and a while back I saw on TV that a major highway closed and people had to find a place to stay for the night, I think they were delayed 40 hours.
For a while this is what I would wear to school:
- Running tights or long johns under my jeans
- A t-shirt under a fleece jacket under a sweatshirt under a coat
Sometimes I wouldn't take my coat off all day because my classroom is always cold. I think it's the coldest one in the school (it also didn't help that someone left a window partway open over a weekend a while back).
The cold hasn't been all bad...with cold there's snow (well most years theres just cold)! This past Saturday a friend from Texas, Chris, and I went up to the snow to get out of the big city atmosphere for a while. We went into an abondoned "lodge" and looked around. (I use quotation marks because it's a lodge made out of stone and cement). After that we rolled down a hill and then climbed up a mountain, the snow up to our waists in some places. Things were actually a little scary because tree limbs were falling. We saw a fairly big limb fall and there were some massive ones that had fallen recently, if you look at the picture of the lodge you can see one of the branches that fell just in front of it.
But, even with all the fun of snow, sniffly noses, and wearing four layers of clothes to school I'm glad the sun is finally here. We'll see if it stays this way, the last time I thought Spring was on its way...well...it wasn't.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Fresh Baked Sword Fish
Christmas Eve I had a very fancy dinner with my host mom, one of her daughters, and her daughters husband. They cooked all day, we ate, we watched a movie, and they all fell asleep 15 minutes into the movie. Christmas morning I went to an American couples house in a neighboring town and then in the afternoon I went to an American/British household in another town. It was kind of nice to speak English, but it actually seemed a little strange! The 6th of January is called Dia de Los Reyes Magos (Day of the Three Wise Men). It's actually bigger than Christmas. All the kids are taught that the Kings will come in the night and deliever presents, just like Santa Claus. The morning of the 6th I ate Roscon with my host mom. Roscon is the typical pastry shaped like a very large donut. It's cut in half and in between the top and botton halves there is whipped cream and in the whipped cream there is a little figurine. If you get the little figurine you'll have luck for the whole year (I got the figurine, and elephant with it's trunk pointing up which means extra luck!). "Sword Fish", "Fresh Baked", these are a couple of the crazier logos I've seen here in Spain. I don't think most Americans realize how big of an impact we have on the rest of the world, and I'm not just talking about politics. I've hardly seen any article of clothing with writing in Spanish (except for maybe camp T-shirts or stuff like that...but even those have English). Almost all of the clothes here have writing in English even if it's a saying as crazy as, "I love winter, wrap a blanket around you, sit in front of the fire, drink hot chocolate, cold days are great." (This I saw in a rather popular, trendy store). Sometimes when I walk down the street I feel like I'm in America because lots of the advertisements and store names are in English!
Some of you may be wondering how my Spanish is doing. I can say almost whatever I want to say, and I can understand the majority of what I hear. It really depends on who I'm talking with. I can spend an entire day with friends and only have to ask them how to say something or what something means a few times. However, in my history class I hardly understand a thing. On Monday I finished a 200 page book (in Spanish) that I recieved as a gift the Monday before; I understood the whole thing (minus a few words here and there)!
Hope you all had a great Christmas season and feliz ano nuevo!
Friday, December 19, 2008
PASSWORD
Hola Everybody!
After three months of living in Spain the Spanish TV networks finally realized I was here and asked me to be on one of their TV shows. Actually out of the blue our language teacher announced that, if we wanted to, our class could be on a game show called PASSWORD.
The game show is played as follows:
There are two celebrities. Each celebrity is paired with a student from one of the schools around Madrid. The celebrity says a clue and the student guesses what the verb/noun/adjective is that the celebrity is reading off of a TV screen; if the student guesses what is on the screen then a new word appears on the screen, the student who guesses the most number of words can win up to 25,000 Euros for their school. There are three clues per word and 30 seconds per round.
There are more rules and different rounds with some slight twists but that is basically how the game is played. Our class got 2nd place because the celebrity couldn't guess a word which was, in my and the the rest of the students opinions, pretty easy. We did end up winning 2,500 Euros, but the 25,000 would have been nice :)
We arrived at the studio at ~7:50 PM and had to wait in a small trailer with 30 students until 10:30 PM. The game show was interesting, but the celebrities seemed so fake (I did get a Santa hat that says PASSWORD). The celebrities were a comedian from a TV program called Siete Vidas (Seven Lives) who was pretty funny as well as a TV anchorman. I think the host of the show is also an anchorwoman. Our teacher told us we'd get home around 10:00 PM but when we got to the studio we found out we'd probably get home after midnight. Oh well, I skipped the first two classes the next morning so that was ok.
After three months of living in Spain the Spanish TV networks finally realized I was here and asked me to be on one of their TV shows. Actually out of the blue our language teacher announced that, if we wanted to, our class could be on a game show called PASSWORD.
The game show is played as follows:
There are two celebrities. Each celebrity is paired with a student from one of the schools around Madrid. The celebrity says a clue and the student guesses what the verb/noun/adjective is that the celebrity is reading off of a TV screen; if the student guesses what is on the screen then a new word appears on the screen, the student who guesses the most number of words can win up to 25,000 Euros for their school. There are three clues per word and 30 seconds per round.
There are more rules and different rounds with some slight twists but that is basically how the game is played. Our class got 2nd place because the celebrity couldn't guess a word which was, in my and the the rest of the students opinions, pretty easy. We did end up winning 2,500 Euros, but the 25,000 would have been nice :)
We arrived at the studio at ~7:50 PM and had to wait in a small trailer with 30 students until 10:30 PM. The game show was interesting, but the celebrities seemed so fake (I did get a Santa hat that says PASSWORD). The celebrities were a comedian from a TV program called Siete Vidas (Seven Lives) who was pretty funny as well as a TV anchorman. I think the host of the show is also an anchorwoman. Our teacher told us we'd get home around 10:00 PM but when we got to the studio we found out we'd probably get home after midnight. Oh well, I skipped the first two classes the next morning so that was ok.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thanksgiving
I had Thanksgiving at the home of the pastor of my church. The pastor has been a missionary here for ~25 years and they always invite all the Americans to have Thanksgiving. It was quite different than my normal Thanksgiving. Actually not too different; just that everything was very fancy. Wine, candles, etc. The company was great as well. There was a girl who lived in Sisters last year so we had a good time talking about Central Oregon. Here are some random fun facts I learned from the group:
- Some homeless people have wi-fi under a bridge in Madrid and are quite tidy. No it's not pronounced "wy-fy", in Spanish it's "wee-fee".
- The pastor's son, Ryan, said that one time he ran away from the ticket taker on the train just to see what he would do. The ticket taker finally caught up to him a few train cars down and Ryan showed him his ticket. The guy asked/yelled, "Why did you run?" and Ryan replied, "Why did you run?"
- One time our worship leader, Kenny, was (literally) running late to catch a train and didn't have time to buy a ticket. He asked a security guard who was boarding at the same time if he could pay on the train; the man said yes. When the train's doors closed the security guard fined him for not having a ticket. After a few moments of confusion Kenny started egging the man on and finally the security guard called him a bad name. After that Kenny took down his name and information. The train company dropped the fine after Kenny wrote to them saying he felt: insulted, ashamed to ride on their trains and was going to sue.
- Last year there was a strike by the parking enforcement because sometimes people would beat them up when they got a ticket. The parking enforcement wanted a security guard accompanying them. Everybody supported the strike. It was the best two weeks of parking in Madrid.
- Some homeless people have wi-fi under a bridge in Madrid and are quite tidy. No it's not pronounced "wy-fy", in Spanish it's "wee-fee".
- The pastor's son, Ryan, said that one time he ran away from the ticket taker on the train just to see what he would do. The ticket taker finally caught up to him a few train cars down and Ryan showed him his ticket. The guy asked/yelled, "Why did you run?" and Ryan replied, "Why did you run?"
- One time our worship leader, Kenny, was (literally) running late to catch a train and didn't have time to buy a ticket. He asked a security guard who was boarding at the same time if he could pay on the train; the man said yes. When the train's doors closed the security guard fined him for not having a ticket. After a few moments of confusion Kenny started egging the man on and finally the security guard called him a bad name. After that Kenny took down his name and information. The train company dropped the fine after Kenny wrote to them saying he felt: insulted, ashamed to ride on their trains and was going to sue.
- Last year there was a strike by the parking enforcement because sometimes people would beat them up when they got a ticket. The parking enforcement wanted a security guard accompanying them. Everybody supported the strike. It was the best two weeks of parking in Madrid.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Segovia: Land of History and Funny Train Stories
A couple weekends ago some friends invited me to go to to Segovia, a city in a neighboring region. My friend Raquel and I were supposed to meet in Villalba, board the train together, and then meet up with our friend, Fernando, in another train station on the way to Segovia. However, I missed the early train and had to get on the train heading to Segovia. This wouldn't be so bad, but Segovia is about an hour away, the train only comes every hour, and my friend wasn't answering her phone...oh yeah, I also didn't have a ticket because in my little train station you can only buy tickets for the Madrid region. Fortunately we all met up fine. However, I still didn't have a ticket, I was planning to buy it in Segovia it would be morally ok or maybe pay for a different ticket that costs less because the train system fined me a different time even though I had a ticket (long story).
Fernando assured me everything would be okay; I asked what would happen if somebody came around checking tickets and he told me everything would be fine, there probably wouldn't be anybody checking tickets and even if there was it would be okay. You can probably guess what happened...yes! there did happen to be a ticket-checker lady (I have know idea what you call them) on the train. When we saw her Fernando got a little worried look in his eyes. We devised a plan where I would act like the innocent American tourist and try to communicate in very broken Spanish while my friends would explain to me in broken English what was going. In the end we were able to avoid the 15 Euro fine and were allowed to pay for the ticket on the train.
Segovia is known for it's cathedral, castle, but most importantly for it's massive aqueduct. The aqueduct was built by the Romans without using any type of cement. Everything is still intact, stretching more than 2700 ft and standing almost 100ft high. The cathedral was massive, ceilings 70 ft high...also kind of creepy. I can imagine people singing goulish hymns and a priest condemning everybody.
The temperature probably dropped below freezing and the slight wind didn't help very much. We spent a fair amount of time next to the radiators in the visitors center.
Fernando assured me everything would be okay; I asked what would happen if somebody came around checking tickets and he told me everything would be fine, there probably wouldn't be anybody checking tickets and even if there was it would be okay. You can probably guess what happened...yes! there did happen to be a ticket-checker lady (I have know idea what you call them) on the train. When we saw her Fernando got a little worried look in his eyes. We devised a plan where I would act like the innocent American tourist and try to communicate in very broken Spanish while my friends would explain to me in broken English what was going. In the end we were able to avoid the 15 Euro fine and were allowed to pay for the ticket on the train.
Segovia is known for it's cathedral, castle, but most importantly for it's massive aqueduct. The aqueduct was built by the Romans without using any type of cement. Everything is still intact, stretching more than 2700 ft and standing almost 100ft high. The cathedral was massive, ceilings 70 ft high...also kind of creepy. I can imagine people singing goulish hymns and a priest condemning everybody.
The temperature probably dropped below freezing and the slight wind didn't help very much. We spent a fair amount of time next to the radiators in the visitors center.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
What I've Done the Past Couple Weeks:
- Climbed the highest mountain in La Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Range). It actually wasn't that high (~2,400 meters) and was just an easy hike up, but it was pretty cool. I'd rate this mountain about a 0 out of 10 for solitude. There were about 40 people at the summit, not counting the people still hiking up.
- Didn't go/have many classes this past week due to a teacher not showing up, setting my alarm clock wrong, not needing to take a test, and sleeping in because I stayed up late watching the elections.
- Got invited to go to Madrid to drink and party on Halloween. I ended up teaching some friends how to make pumpkin pie and caramel apples.
- Didn't embarrass myself too much during a volleyball practice
- Ate Kebap (Turkish food) and watched a movie with some friends from church.
Interesting Things I've Noticed:
- The Spanish people are very proud of their country. Someone mentioned that the greatest bullfighter in the world is from a neighboring town. I can't think of another country where people have bullfights except maybe Mexico.
- A jar of about two cups of peanut butter costs ~$6 and Nutella is about half the price!
- Lots of people use trekking poles to hike. It's kinda funny because it seems like it'd be more of a hindrance than actually helpful for the trails I've seen people using the poles on.
- Students here care a ton about school. However, I don't think they care too much about learning, only passing the exams at the end of the year.
- Spain has the craziest billboards. One said, "They Eat Meat", and had a picture of two very fit looking people. The vegetarians are abused here.
- Music from America is way, way more popular than music from Spain.
- A friend asked me the other day what are the white things that people roast over the fire in the American movies (s'mores), nobody here knows what they are! She thought maybe it was meat.
- They don't eat peanut butter!!!
Be sure to check out my pics. The link is at the bottom of the page. (I've got a few albums so you can choose which one to look at on the left side of the page)
- Climbed the highest mountain in La Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Range). It actually wasn't that high (~2,400 meters) and was just an easy hike up, but it was pretty cool. I'd rate this mountain about a 0 out of 10 for solitude. There were about 40 people at the summit, not counting the people still hiking up.
- Didn't go/have many classes this past week due to a teacher not showing up, setting my alarm clock wrong, not needing to take a test, and sleeping in because I stayed up late watching the elections.
- Got invited to go to Madrid to drink and party on Halloween. I ended up teaching some friends how to make pumpkin pie and caramel apples.
- Didn't embarrass myself too much during a volleyball practice
- Ate Kebap (Turkish food) and watched a movie with some friends from church.
Interesting Things I've Noticed:
- The Spanish people are very proud of their country. Someone mentioned that the greatest bullfighter in the world is from a neighboring town. I can't think of another country where people have bullfights except maybe Mexico.
- A jar of about two cups of peanut butter costs ~$6 and Nutella is about half the price!
- Lots of people use trekking poles to hike. It's kinda funny because it seems like it'd be more of a hindrance than actually helpful for the trails I've seen people using the poles on.
- Students here care a ton about school. However, I don't think they care too much about learning, only passing the exams at the end of the year.
- Spain has the craziest billboards. One said, "They Eat Meat", and had a picture of two very fit looking people. The vegetarians are abused here.
- Music from America is way, way more popular than music from Spain.
- A friend asked me the other day what are the white things that people roast over the fire in the American movies (s'mores), nobody here knows what they are! She thought maybe it was meat.
- They don't eat peanut butter!!!
Be sure to check out my pics. The link is at the bottom of the page. (I've got a few albums so you can choose which one to look at on the left side of the page)
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Settling In
Where to start? The past couple weeks have gone really well. I went on a trip with the mountain club from school, joined a volleyball team, and completely bombed a chemistry test (actually I think the highest score was 3.25 and I know about 5 other students out of 30 students got a 0 like me). Actually, something kinda strange has been happening, I've been seeing people that look like people I know back home...so please say hi next time I see you!
Last weekend I went on an overnight trip to a place called La Pedriza (Pile of Rocks) with the mountain club. Friday night we stayed in a refuge built in 1916. The next morning we hiked about 10 miles up and around this mountain. The mountains are made out of giant masses of rocks. It was a little wet and the rocks were kinda slippery. One of the leaders was worried because I only had tennis shoes but I was one of the two people (out of ~25) who didn't slip and fall. My biology teacher went on the trip and I got to know him better. He's really funny and nice and is know giving me rides to school two times a week.
And yes, it's true, Ariel Wai has come out of his five year retirement and has re-entered the world of competitive volleyball. Actually I'm the worst player on the team, but it's fun and the guys are nice. The coach is letting me go to her other teams practices so I can catch up to the other players.
Today I went to the famous Prado museum. It has some of the most famous paintings in the world: "Las Meninas" by Velasquez, and works by Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, and others. Some of the paintings are incredible! There were a few by one artist that looked like photographs! I was surprised at the size of the paintings; some of them were as big as 10x30ft! However a few of the paintings were actually really really creepy. There was one of a fancy Medieval dinner with a head being served on a platter, ughhhh!
On the way to the museum we passed a group of people preparing to film a portion of a really famous Spanish soap opera. From what I could understand it's like a Spanish version of Ugly Betty, but I actually don't really know too much about Ugly Betty.
Anyway, overall everything is going well. I miss you all, but I'm making friends and feeling more at home here.
If you want to see some of the pictures I've taken you can click on the link at the bottom of the page
Last weekend I went on an overnight trip to a place called La Pedriza (Pile of Rocks) with the mountain club. Friday night we stayed in a refuge built in 1916. The next morning we hiked about 10 miles up and around this mountain. The mountains are made out of giant masses of rocks. It was a little wet and the rocks were kinda slippery. One of the leaders was worried because I only had tennis shoes but I was one of the two people (out of ~25) who didn't slip and fall. My biology teacher went on the trip and I got to know him better. He's really funny and nice and is know giving me rides to school two times a week.
And yes, it's true, Ariel Wai has come out of his five year retirement and has re-entered the world of competitive volleyball. Actually I'm the worst player on the team, but it's fun and the guys are nice. The coach is letting me go to her other teams practices so I can catch up to the other players.
Today I went to the famous Prado museum. It has some of the most famous paintings in the world: "Las Meninas" by Velasquez, and works by Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, and others. Some of the paintings are incredible! There were a few by one artist that looked like photographs! I was surprised at the size of the paintings; some of them were as big as 10x30ft! However a few of the paintings were actually really really creepy. There was one of a fancy Medieval dinner with a head being served on a platter, ughhhh!
On the way to the museum we passed a group of people preparing to film a portion of a really famous Spanish soap opera. From what I could understand it's like a Spanish version of Ugly Betty, but I actually don't really know too much about Ugly Betty.
Anyway, overall everything is going well. I miss you all, but I'm making friends and feeling more at home here.
If you want to see some of the pictures I've taken you can click on the link at the bottom of the page
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Week 3
This past weekend I was able to go with a church, Amistad Cristiana, on a retreat to Guadarrama, a region about an hour NW of Madrid. I guess Guadarrama is supposed to be beautiful but I wouldn't know because we spent the whole time inside the retreat center (the walls are really high). We spent most of the time listening to this pastor from Holland, singing, eating, playing futbol, and staying up late. The events didn't end until past 12 every night (morning) and I didn't go to bed until 2'ish. I met a lot of people and forgot a lot of names. I spent most of the time with about 10 other teenagers who are really nice and who enjoyed laughing at one of guys I was trying to teach how to breakdance.
This past week has gone by so fast. School is getting better. I'm understanding more of what the teachers are saying and people are starting to ask me hang out with them on the weekends. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to go on a trip with the "mountain club" from school. I also bought some pool passes so I'll be able to work off all of the olive oil.
Wednesday I hung out with another exchange student from Holland in a nearby town. We drank Coca Cola and ate tapas (little snacks: olives, little sandwiches, pieces of meat, etc.) outside of this little bar/restaurant. A drunk lady came by and started asking us for money so she could get food. We had no idea what to do, we offered her a little sandwich thing we had, but she wanted a real meal. Fortunately the owner of the restaurant came out and told her to leave or he'd call the cops.
We then walked around the town and did a little shopping. The Holland exchange student wanted to get a scarf so (in choppy Spanish) she asked a lady in one of the shops if they sold scarves; the lady didn't know.....she didn't work there! I thought it was hilarious, the lady did to and said "foreigners", I was like, "yep, those foreigners" and then she asked me if I was one to.....I guess my Spanish still needs practice : )
This past week has gone by so fast. School is getting better. I'm understanding more of what the teachers are saying and people are starting to ask me hang out with them on the weekends. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to go on a trip with the "mountain club" from school. I also bought some pool passes so I'll be able to work off all of the olive oil.
Wednesday I hung out with another exchange student from Holland in a nearby town. We drank Coca Cola and ate tapas (little snacks: olives, little sandwiches, pieces of meat, etc.) outside of this little bar/restaurant. A drunk lady came by and started asking us for money so she could get food. We had no idea what to do, we offered her a little sandwich thing we had, but she wanted a real meal. Fortunately the owner of the restaurant came out and told her to leave or he'd call the cops.
We then walked around the town and did a little shopping. The Holland exchange student wanted to get a scarf so (in choppy Spanish) she asked a lady in one of the shops if they sold scarves; the lady didn't know.....she didn't work there! I thought it was hilarious, the lady did to and said "foreigners", I was like, "yep, those foreigners" and then she asked me if I was one to.....I guess my Spanish still needs practice : )
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Daily Life
A typical school day starts with me waking up at 6:50am to my Spanish talking alarm clock, groaning, and then forcing myself out of bed. After a shower and breakfast I'm off to school. I take the train about 2km to Villalba where I walk another 1.5 km or so to school. The classes start at 8:30 and end at 2:00 except for Wednesdays when we end at 2:50; we also have a 30 minute break at 11:00. My class schedule changes day to day. I have history, language, biology, chemistry, psychology, philosophy, English (yes!!!), and math. All of these with the exception of one (can you guess?) are pretty difficult. All of my male teachers are quite hard to understand; my biology teacher yells (along with my language teacher), and my philosophy and history teachers are just plain hard to understand. Also, I found out that the bathrooms on the right are for the guys and the ones on the left are for the girls, but nobody seems to care, guys and girls smoke in both. One weird thing is that all of the bathrooms at school and at the train station don't have toilet seats or toilet paper?!?
After school I go home and eat a massive lunch, take a nap, study, go on a walk, excercise, watch Spanish TV, look up Spanish words, explore, eat some more, read, etc. Then it's another fairly similar day.
I'm starting to go to this church called Amistad Cristiana which is the only church in Madrid that meets in a nightclub (but in the morning). There is also a youth (17-25 year olds) group night on Tuesdays. As far as making friends, things are going as well as can be expected. I'm planning on joining a hiking/camping/mountain climbing club at school, getting a pass to the local pool so I can swim with a neighbor who is my age, and maybe taking a break dancing class in Madrid.
The food here is different. There's some good and some bad. We eat a lot of olive oil, bread, and vinegar. They put olive oil in everything, even the salads, and I don't mean a little sprinkling of oil, they actually pour it on. However, I like almost all of the stuff I've been eating.
One little note to those who know exchange students maybe from school, church, neighbors, etc: Be nice to them! If you don't....
After school I go home and eat a massive lunch, take a nap, study, go on a walk, excercise, watch Spanish TV, look up Spanish words, explore, eat some more, read, etc. Then it's another fairly similar day.
I'm starting to go to this church called Amistad Cristiana which is the only church in Madrid that meets in a nightclub (but in the morning). There is also a youth (17-25 year olds) group night on Tuesdays. As far as making friends, things are going as well as can be expected. I'm planning on joining a hiking/camping/mountain climbing club at school, getting a pass to the local pool so I can swim with a neighbor who is my age, and maybe taking a break dancing class in Madrid.
The food here is different. There's some good and some bad. We eat a lot of olive oil, bread, and vinegar. They put olive oil in everything, even the salads, and I don't mean a little sprinkling of oil, they actually pour it on. However, I like almost all of the stuff I've been eating.
One little note to those who know exchange students maybe from school, church, neighbors, etc: Be nice to them! If you don't....
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