Comin' Back Strong

Truth is...I had to do this blog on F1 racing for my Business of Sports class and I think after I immersed myself into that posting 3 or 4 times a day I lost the blogging spirit.   But here I am!  Back and ready for action. And I promise to do a better job keeping everyone updated during my last week here.  

(If you want, you can check out the neat blog I created with my group members for my semester project! http://f1racingintodawnhiscock.blogspot.com/) 

A lot has happened in the past 3 weeks I guess; but really, nothing too exciting.  I mean just a few life revelations, nbd.    Let me go back into the depth of my brain to try and tell you everything that has happened…

Well, Joanne and I were awarded the opportunity of seeing Scotty Bemis in person when he came to Barcelona!  If you don’t know Scotty Bemis…he’s kinda a big deal at Santa Clara.  One of the all time greats for sure.  Haha. It was a different experience being the tour guide for the weekend than it is to be the tourist.  We went to some of the great tourist sites here in Barcelona and hopefully showed Scotty some of the culture in Barcelona.

Joanne and Scotty eating Caracoles (snails) with my host mom Imma

What else has happened?  I finally feel at home in this city!  I’m not as worried for my belongings fear every time I walk down the streets.  IES did a great job at scaring us all at the beginning, but I don’t always feel the need to clutch onto my purse with all the energy in my being.  I’ve realized that as long as you’re not being stupid everything will be fine and if something does happen…that person must need the money more than I do.  I guess that’s easy for me to say now cause I haven’t been pick pocketed yet.  My school is about a 25 minute walk from my house (I’m not sure if I have said this before), so I usually walk there every morning.  And that time I spend walking to school alone every day is actually a blessing.  I just take life in and remember how amazing it is that I’m LIVING IN SPAIN and that I have the opportunity to travel around Europe.

The Sagrada Familia

Talking about school, school has gotten a little crazy this past week.  The semester system is way different than quarters, or at least it is over here.  Every class has a final paper, final presentation, and final exam.  Yikes!  And the worst part is that most of the research papers are group papers, so it adds a little stress trying to organize with everyone.  But it’s all good.  I haven’t been stressing out yet, but the tension is high at school for sure!  It also helps that I really enjoy my classes here!  Such a blessing!  I just turned in a 10 page research paper on Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtles and their migration patterns from the nesting beaches in the eastern Mediterranean to the foraging ground in the western Mediterranean.  Haha!  Well, as dry as it seems, it was actually pretty interesting and I enjoyed writing it.

The two papers I have left are for my sports classes, so I get to write about sports in Europe!  Who else can say half their year was spent earning university credit for learning about football in Europe?  Pretty neat!  But the best part is that I LOVE the research project I’ve been working on for my sport and society class where we all have to go out collecting primary research in the city by talking with locals, etc.  It started out being on the tennis culture in Spain, but has recently turned into sports in Catalonian schools and their difference to sports American schools.  It’s fascinating!

Joanne has an internship here at a local high school teaching English and I thought it would be great for my research on tennis to teach a class to her students on sports in America with the intent of gaining some information on tennis from all the students.  Little did I know that this would lead in so many directions.  Joanne and I have given out ‘Sports in America’ presentation to about 6 classes with 15 high school students each class.  And every time I learn something new from them.  I’ve become attached!  Haha.  I love seeing the kids and listening to them speak English and learning about Catalonian culture and watching them interestingly engaged on the idea of sports with schools.  The whole experience has been awesome!!  And what I have found out about sports in schools here is awesome as well, but I don’t want to bore you.  Bottom line: sports in school here are pretty much nonexistent and the idea of club or sports teams meeting after school is a foreign concept to them.  It’s a shame!  I wish they had the opportunities we have in the United States!

There is soo much more to say about the kiddies, San Sebastian, the church I’ve been going to, Barcelona in general, but I guess I should save those for another post cause this is getting long you’re better than most people if you’ve actually stuck with this and read til the end!  Thank you!  Haha. 

I’m off to London in an hour to see my best friend!  And I still have to figure out how to get some pounds, so wish me luck!  Love you all!