Oh how I'm thankful for...

Being away from family around the holidays can be a little tough, but as I was walking home from an evening writing a paper at a coffee shop with a few friends tonight, I realized how much there is to be thankful for in life.  And although we can't be physically present with our families and loved ones while we are here studying, we can still feel the same amount of thankfulness and emotions that come with this time of the year. So here is a list (that barely scratches the surface) of some of the things I am thankful for...

Oh how I’m thankful for friends.

            For friends that encourage you when you have writers block.

            For friends that take the time to listen.

            For friends that stop by to lend a little hug.

            For friends that send a little message every now and again that brighten your day.

            For friends that keep you company all night when they could be sleeping.

For friends that remind you what matters most.

            For friends that inspire you through their actions.

Oh how I’m thankful for love.

            For love that changes people’s hearts.

            For love that lives like children.

            For love that inspires others. 

            For love that gives us a heartbeat.

            For love that exists unconditionally.

            For love that is true love.

Oh how I’m thankful for family.

            For family that loves unconditionally through the bad days and good days.

            For family that takes your side no matter the circumstance.

            For family that supports your every move.

            For family that is never changing.

            For family that enhances life.

Oh how I’m thankful for time.

            For time that is fleeting.

            For time that we have to spend on others.

            For time that is available to love.

            For time that shows we are blessed.

Oh how I’m thankful for coffee.

            For coffee that gets us through a long night of paper writing.

            For coffee that provides that extra boost of energy.

Oh how I’m thankful for study abroad.

            For study abroad that allows me to see the world.

            For study abroad that gives a new perspective of life.

            For study abroad that changes a person’s values.

Oh how I’m thankful for food.

            For food that my host mom prepares every night.

            For food that could feed so many people.

            For food that gives us life.

Oh how I’m thankful for the internet.

            For the internet that allows us to connect across the world.

            For the internet that provides information at the click of a button.

            For the internet that shares knowledge.

But most of all…Oh how I’m thankful for the CROSS.

For the cross that we have the ability to be thankful for all of these things in the first place.

            For the cross that lifts us up when we are down.

            For the cross that reminds of who we are in His eyes.

            For the cross that stands as the reason we are alive.

            For the cross that leads our motives.

            For the cross that inspires action.

            For the cross that gives us purpose.

so much to do...so little time

So, I will tell you guys all about the teaching I've been doing in Spanish high schools over here someday soon, but there is just so much I have to get done.  This is probably me procrastinating already as it is.  Here’s a quick list of all the school work I have to do in the next 2 weeks:

•          1 oral presentation
•           1 oral presentation in Spanish
•           Present 1 video project
•           Start and finish another video project
•           Write 2 TEN page research papers…start to finish
•           1 Spanish quiz
•           4 final exams

And then take into account I’m going to Morocco for 4 days and Sevilla and Granada for 4 days.  Yikes!  Can anyone say no sleep?

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!

“To Risk” by William Arthur Ward

“To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. 

To reach out to another is to risk involvement,

To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,

To live is to risk dying,

To hope is to risk despair,

To try is to risk failure. 

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. 

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,

But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.”

My Current Life in a Nutshell

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. 

Ta ta for now!  

Routine

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…

PORTO, PORTUGAL

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:

THE ALBUM

Basically it was everything I could have ever dreamed of.  I couldn't have had a better weekend!