Llegué en Sevilla!!!

So after a wonderful week in Italy, I arrived in Sevilla. My host family here rocks! They have two boys 11 and 17. The 11 year old is named Jorge, Sean and I (other student living here) hang out with him a lot. We practice Spanish; he practices English and shows us his video games as he wins them. It’s so much fun, like having a little brother who is so much younger than you that you don’t fight. Anyway, as some of you may know my host family in Barcelona was a little different, I was more of a border without the ability to do anything in the house but here I am part of the family. I’m actually sitting in the living room chatting with Jorge as I write this blog. Today he was practicing The First Noel on his recorder so I was letting him listen to the full US version on Itunes as he had never heard it before. Jorge also loves all of the music I liked in middle school and freshman year of HS. Blackstreet, Gansta’s Paradise, Snoop Dogg, etc it’s pretty entertaining like a flashback to those days. The school in Sevilla is different, the classes are a little slower (not a fan) but they have a lot more activities throughout the day to work on your Spanish. I actually am starting an extra 1.5 hour class this week for more practice along with the other activities. It’s helping my Spanish improve very quickly. Now I just need to learn the future tense and I will be doing well. This month is a film festival in Sevilla so I am watching a lot of Spanish movies. Let me just say the Spanish take movies seriously, as in all they produce are serious thought provoking movies, which I tend to leave a little sad. They don’t quite get the whole light hearted concept but still I am enjoying them.

The other thing I have discovered here is Flamenco! It is amazing, no pictures as they are too hard to capture however, I do have videos so if you want to see some dancing I’ll show you when I return. I have actually taken over 1200 pictures since I’ve arrived. Do not expect me to sit down and show you all 1200 as that is ridiculous. I will print out highlights and best pics to have to talk about but if you want to see all 1200 you can watch a slide show on my computer. I’m holding off on the touristy items in Sevilla until Ashley arrives(6 days away!) and when the family arrives (13 days away!) as I figure it will be fun to discover some of that with them. I can’t wait for my next visitors; it should be a good time. I’ll put up pictures then of Sevilla for everyone to see. Along with a few stories, as apparently my brother feels I will be the klutz on the Segway, not my mother. It’s not cool man!

My thoughts on this years football season....

#1 I MISS FOOTBALL. Reading about it online just really isn’t the same.
#2 Who would have guessed the AGs would go up to Lubbock and BTHO (to use the Ags catchphrase) Tech. Congrats AGGIES!
#3 Who would have guessed that going into Nov 14th, the Ags and Sooners would be playing for Bowl Eligibility????? And on that note I have something to say.

First, I truly feel bad for Sam Bradford, and all Longhorns should, because it just as easily could have been Colt. However, while I have not made any large comical remarks about OU’s demise this year, I will say this. All Texas and Tech fans should be cheering on the Aggie’s this weekend. Then all Longhorns and Aggies should be cheering on Tech when they play OU. There is a grand chance the State of Texas (as meaning all teams with the name Texas included with their school, sorry Baylor can’t count you) could have a trifecta win against OU. Now how awesome would that be? We fans should put aside our differences of opinions on who is best and cheer for each other for the wonderful feeling of all 3 teams beating OU. How much fun would that be?? This would also help conclude something I’ve said for years, Bob Stoops isn’t as great of a coach as everyone thinks. Plus then we wouldn’t have to deal with Sooners in Dallas for Jerry Bowl #2. :)

#4 Horns fans stay focused on each game each week. While there is a faint smell of roses in the air, we still have to go to College Station and win. The AGs could end up with a great season beating Tech and Texas in the same year. We must do as Mack says and focus only on the game at hand. So today and this week, I’m focus on beating Baylor.
#5 I’m very sad Baylor’s QB was hurt this year. I was looking forward to seeing if the Bears could become Bowl Eligible. Next year baby!
#6 It is nice reading the following passage from Andy Staples on SI.com.

Northern Exposure
So I tried to go over all the scenarios to figure out how Colorado could win Big 12 North, but the sheer schizophrenia of the teams made my head hurt. Let's just stick to the basics. If Kansas State beats Missouri next week and Nebraska wins at Kansas, it will set up a Nov. 21 clash in Lincoln for the division title.

The winner will earn the right to go to Jerry World (aka Dallas Cowboys Stadium) two weeks later and lose to Texas by five touchdowns.

#7 I heart Jordan Shipley
#8 To my sister I say, I’m very sorry about the losses and pending Texas gets the chance to play Florida or Alabama for the National Championship, I hope you will be able to cheer for us while we take them down.
#9 I still think Greg Davis is a moron
#10 It is nice to see USC finally taken off its pedal stool. Whether or not I believe that the Pac-10 is just “that tough” will be held until I see what the Pac-10 does against other conferences during the bowl games.

HOOK EM HORNS!!!

Me encanta Italia!

Okay so many of you are asking for more blogs so here they come…..I’m sorry for the delay but blogging is difficult for me. So everyone’s job is to leave comments on my blog, the Type A in me needs some feedback. When I email or leave status updates on Facebook, I have conversations, let’s be honest anyone who knows me knows I like to talk but I need responses, blogging is like talking to a wall. I need more attention than that :)

Okay so after 9 wonderful weeks in Barcelona, I packed my bags, I was ready to go; I stood outside and left on a jet plane for Italy. Just for the record, I have concluded Italy is my favorite country and Florence is my favorite city. Next time I’m jobless, since I will have conquerored Spanish, I will be moving on to spending 6 months in Italy to learn Italian. I wonder if you can study Italian in Texas, I’d love to start soon. Anyway on this trip I spent 5 days in Roma and 4 days in Florencia. I spent 10 wonderful days drinking wine, eating pasta, eating pizza and loved every minute of it. In Rome we went to the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Vatican City, and wandered around the city. I won´t go into many details on the sites as I know many have seen them. If you haven´t and want advice on what to see first let me know and I´ll bore you with my details. I will say though that during the Angels and Demons tour we ended up at St Peter´s Square in Vatican City while the Pope was conducting the Mass to cauterize the 5 new Catholic Saints. I saw the Pope on the big screen, which was pretty cool, I wasn´t expecting to actually be that sort of close to the Pope or see him conducting the service. I saw the Sistine Chapel as well which was amazing but we picked the day after the cauterizing. So it was incredibly crowded so either I didn´t get the full effect or I just find the Last Supper the most amazing piece of art work ever. The Last Supper last year left me stunned, you just could feel the chaos of the moment in the art work. However, then you go see the David, the perfect man, and that leaves you pretty happy as well. Still, I have lots more to see in Roma in the next trip……dang I´ll have to go back.

Next we headed to Florence. I love Florence; this was to be the relaxing part of the trip. We ate more food and drank more wine and went shopping! Okay, I just have to say the trip last year of 5 women left some marks in Florence. We went back to Donatello (the purse shop) and were remembered. We had a great time hanging out with Donatello. We also went back to the food market and bought more cheese, truffle honey, and spices. There is just something about bringing a little part of Italy home that is wonderful. Everyone will be happy to know we did not try to buy yet another case of wine and have that shipped back. Sadly we left the Italian vino in Italia. We also decided to do another cooking class and low and behold ended up in the same class as last year! Anyway, everyone will be proud to know my cooking skills actually improved, I was only taken off one duty this year and was the best at rolling the pasta. Valerie and I will be cooking a pasta dinner from scratch when I return. While I suck at cooking, I have decided I should specialize in Italian cooking because it is yummy. The rest I just don’t care about. Anyway, enjoy some of the pics from Italy.

La Mercé

So La Mercé is a 4 day fiesta in Barcelona that takes place each September. It consists of a bunch of street parties and at many of the main plazas have concerts of all sorts – Rock, Reggae, Flamenco, American, etc . All the concerts are free and so the city shuts down on Thursday (first full day of the parties) and then continues on through the weekend. It ends on Sunday at Plaza España which is near my house. Whichever stage has the biggest concert of the night ends their show with fireworks. Needless to say, basically you party for 4 days straight. I had Thursday off from school, it was sorta like having 4th of July in the middle of the week as I had to go school on Friday. Thursday is Barcelona Day (I’d say it’s like Labor Day). So of course since Freeman was in town on Wednesday night we headed OUT. We went to a bunch of local bars and a shot bar – fear not they were fake shots with very little alcohol (Freeman can confirm this) and then to a local bar we gathered was like Cain and Ables in Austin without music called Black Sheep but cheap drinks. Friday I headed out with friends from school to a great tapas restaurant and then to Port Olymipico.
On Sunday I went to the final festivities since it was a 2 minute walk from my house for the ending fireworks show. Now, I appreciate the Wilkirson/Tally/Baker 4th of July extravaganza however, Spain has got fireworks down a whole hecka lot better than we do. My little band nerd heart was so content watching the fireworks staged to all sorts of music, the booms were in the right place and the shapes used. Only thing missing was a little Sousa but maybe next year I’ll get to add the music choreography to our festivities…… anyway here are some pics from the weekend.

Scotland....London Baby!

Well Kristen and I just got back from the UK. Good news, we only managed to freeze for a day before finding proper clothing attire. The rain jacket I bought has turned out to be a good purchase for BCN this week as it is raining. I officially got dressed today without sweating!!! Okay…back to Scotland. We started in Edinburgh and joined a tour group for 5 days. Edinburgh was pretty cool; it is broken down into two sections – old and new. The architecture between the two is very different so it is easy to tell the difference. We shopped some in new town looking for a shoe I could actually walk in, let’s just say my limping had Kristen annoyed in about 20 minutes. But we were successful, had a hamburger and then headed back for the city tour. On Sunday we spent most of our day in old town; we walked up a hill to get to Edinburgh Castle, toured it until we were icicles and then came on down the street. We had lunch in a pub and started the many many plates of fish and chips (which comes with mushy peas – so gross even Kristen doesn’t eat em). We also had a traditional Scottish dinner and I am proud to say both Kristen and I tried Haggis (won’t describe because you may not ever try it yourself but look at the pic) and it was good. It tasted like spicy taco meat (sigh how I miss tacos). Fom there we got to here a piper, I have a video but have yet to be successful in uploading so it will wait to Dec. Here is what I have to say about pipers – I enjoy them a lot more when it is not right outside my window at the crack of dawn (family shall remember the pink house). From Edinburgh we moved on to the Highlands, basically country mountain/hills. Rather than looking for deer we looked for sheep and low and behold found tons of em. We waited for them to cross the street enough said. We ended this part of the trip in Glasglow and had a very fun night (discussed in another blog).
LONDON BABY!!
By London we were very tired of pub food so we hunted other types of food and found Chinese (yay) and steak. Now the steak not as great as a Texas steak but quite satisfying compared to the bistec in Spain J We saw Oxford, the campuses are beautiful and then did some sightseeing in London – Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and saw Chicago. All in all it was a fun trip with my sister.

Its the most wonderful time of the year....

It is the most wonderful time of the year. Yes I have decided that Labor Day weekend beats Christmas because this weekend kicks off Football season. Finally after months of nothing to read but a few articles about spring practice we hit July and let the debates begin! And now FINALLY after 8 long months, we get to see the start of a new season and what controversies it may bring. I’m not as eloquent in my writing but for once the Daily Texan hits it right on…please read:
1.1864614 http://www.dailytexanonline.com/sports/ncaa-football-boise-state-oregon-highlight-beginning-of-the-best-season-of-the-year-1.1864614

Dear Football Gods,
Ah excitement I can feel it in the air, the glorious 3 day weekend arrives with 3 days of football. Thank you! This year I have just a few simple requests from you.

May the Horns and Tigers remain healthy and strong as some have already suffered enough injuries during practice.
May the Tigers not give my sister a heart attack each week and win their games.
May the Tigers take down Florida and Tebow because I’m beginning to get as sick of that name as I am of the USC dynasty. (Which I don’t get how you have a dynasty and when you go to the Natl Championship 2 years in a row and win once but whatever and just play the Rose Bowl each year).

Plus a Natl Champ game between the Tigers and Horns Round 2 would be so fun!!
May the Sooners continue to choke in all important games.
May everyone remember that it is September 3, 2009 and OU still sucks!

May everyone eat tons of pink dip and have some for me too!!
Please allow Colt an amazing year and a Heisman Trophy.
Please allow the Aggies to have a better season than last year, let them win their first home game and beat the Bears.
Please let Leach have some big hissie fits to entertain me in Spain.
May all the Longhorns – Come Early, Be Loud, and Stay Late!
May I find a bar or bares to watch some football games this year.
May Moms enjoy every second of football watching of the weekend ;)
May I return to the states in order to see the Horns once again in Pasadena!
Hook Em!!

Okay a few notes from this week....

Well there hasn’t been much to say this past week due to the fact I have limited mobility. I did make it to Tarragona on Saturday. This is a nearby beach town that is beautiful. Not nearly as many people so the beach is more similar to what we see in the Caribbean. There’s also a great town to explore but the sites were all uphill so I will be returning to see that once my foot is better. The sea though is my new best friend; I got in the water and managed to take out half of the swelling. All of a sudden I had an ankle again! Yipee, so now 4 days later I am really doing well. I can pretty much walk on it without crutches however; I’m still using them so that I will be good to go by the time I leave for London on Friday. Check out my bruises though!! Aren’t they awesome? Ankle Debacle 2009….

This week I have done some shopping, I went on a search for Birkenstocks with no luck. I need a warmer shoe than flip flops for London and Scotland but one my ankle and brace can fit in. No such luck here, so hopefully I will find some when I get to London. Other than that, we did the beach again today in Barcelona; it has been raining the last 3 days so this is the first pretty day in a while. Friday I’m headed to London and Scotland – London baby!! I believe Kristen and I will have some fun and find a few things to do…..
Tomorrow is test day again and dinner is ready so I need to head out. Look at the pictures hope you enjoy.