One weekend whisked away to Nantes, France.The next weekend engulfed by some Barcelona
love.Another weekend a visit from a
great friend.Then maybe a little trip
to San Sebastian.Oh!And don’t forget to fit a little studying in
the middle of all that.
Basically, everything has been unbelievable here.Joanne and I went to France last weekend to
visit our friends Scotty and Nico.We
went to Nantes, so a fairly small town with a river running through it similar
to Porto, Portugal, but the entire time we were there Joanne said it reminded
her of Seattle.So, maybe it is
Seattle-esque?It was definitely cold
enough to be Seattle.I did not go
prepared for such cold weather at all.I
didn’t even bring anything but sandals.Oops!
While we were there our friend Nico had a Gala, which I
guess I would describe as a glorified prom with 10 different themed rooms with
different types of music and food and French people everywhere and fun and
happiness.But I think the best part was
getting to dress up and spend some time with a few of Scotty’s friends from his
time in Nantes.Great people!
Our weekend in France was a blast with little sleep and lots
of love!And Joanne and I get the honor
of hosting Scotty in Barcelona this Thursday!Woot!Maybe we’ll finally get to
do some tourist stuff around the city that we haven’t got to do yet
either.
Other than France, what else has been going on?School?Nah!Well actually a little.We had midterms last week, which went
well.I only had 2, so that was nice,
but I’m definitely going to make up for those tests in final semester
papers.I think I have to write about 30
pages 1.5 spaced by the end of my time here.Yikes!
But other than that, everything has been great.I keep meeting new people every day and going
on random adventures getting lost in the Barcelona jungle.AND!Yesterday
I played lacrosse for the first time with my friend Aaron’s team here!So neat!I had no idea what I was getting myself into when he invited me, but I worked
out with his team and improved 1000% from the beginning of the practice til the
end.For my first time picking up a
lacrosse stick, I’d say I did pretty well.They even invited me to play with them in their tournament next weekend
against Madrid, Sevilla, and Andalucía!It
was a blast!And I’m so glad I decided
to go for it and try something new!Who
knows…maybe lacrosse is in my future haha.
Everything is finally settling down and routines are kicking
in.Boy does time fly by here!I’ve been here for about a month and a half
now, and it seems like I just arrived on the streets with my mom yesterday, but
I guess a lot has happened since then.At SCU and IES they tried to prepare us for the emotional rollercoaster
of the study abroad experience.They
even gave us charts on how our emotions would progress.Here’s an example of the main one:
I shrugged my shoulders and never thought this thing could
ever be true, but man, was I wrong.The
different stages are occurring like clockwork.If I were to say that everything here has been a fairytale and wonderful
I would be lying, so I’m not going to say that.There have been ups and downs through the adjustment of moving across
the world.A lot of deciphering who I am
and determining my place here.But
through all that, so many amazing things have come out of this experience so
far.And there’s only an upward slope to
go.
I said before that I would tell you about my classes, but I
guess I never did that, so here it goes.I’m taking 4 classes: Spanish 202 (Intermediate), Mediterranean Oceanography,
Sport and Society in Spain, and The Business of Sports in Europe.All of them have actually been super
interesting and I really enjoy going to class.The way IES sets up their classes is excellent; all the courses are
Spain/Barcelona oriented and consist of “field studies” around the city.For example, for Oceanography we went to the
Aquarium on the second day of class:
For Spanish we go on Scavenger hunts around the city and go
out interviewing people on the street in Spanish:
For my Sport and Society class we had Castellers (human towers. It's a Catalan tradition) come into our class and we built towers of people INSIDE
the classroom!Seriously, these people are
amazing! They build towers of people 9 stories high all standing on each others' shoulders then a child (5-7 years old) climbs to the very top to finish off the tower. Incredible. You have to look them up on
youtube or something!
And for my Business of Sports class yesterday we went to the
1992 Olympic Basketball Stadium to meet with players and marketing people from
Club Joventut Badalona, a professional basketball team right outside of
Barcelona.http://www.penya.com/noticia.php?id=12028&lang=es.
We talked with the American players on
the team and then with the marking director for the team.And guess what a small world we live
in?!One of the players we talked to,
Pooh Jeter, went to my rival high school and his sister is Carmelita Jeter, the
fastest woman in the world, and used to be our high school track coach.So all the way across the world I meet this
professional basketball player from my hometown and I know his sister.So neat.Here’s a picture in the press box at the Olympic Stadium:
Those are some of the neat field studies I’ve been on so far
and there are many more to come for all the classes.The teachers are great and the content is
enriching!I just hope to get the units
to all transfer correctly once I get back…
I'm a little short for words about this weekend, but everyone says that pictures say 1,000 words, so check out my Facebook album from this weekend in Porto, Portugal:
