A continuación

I wanted to title this post "Broken sensors, long flights, angry New Yorkers, dehydration, and Englishmen who do not understand the concept of personal space," but I figured that would have been a little too long. Anyway, I have decided to write a couple posts while I am back on this side of the ocean just to keep myself from losing all English skills while I am here.

The flight over was pretty good. CR to Chicago was probably close to the smoothest flight I have ever been on and I slept the whole time. The rest was good when I got to Chicago because it was FULL of pissy east coast people who needed to fly home after Christmas but couldn´t because of the snow. It didn´t get much better when I got on the plane though because I sat next to a British guy who, too put it politely, took up more than his fair share of the space. I ignored it at first and just went to sleep as we left the gate, only to be woke up an hour and a half late at the gate again. Apparently there had been a problem with temperature sensor in the parking break. So I had to sit with British guy for WAY too long. But he offered me a pen to fill out a immigration form so I forgive him.

But the worst part was that (just like every other time I was on a plane) I got very dehydrated. And I mean very dehydrated. Very, very dehydrated. I almost got sick and haven´t been feeling that great today but getting better. Either way I am tired as hell.

Well I have more to write but I don´t think I am going to get it out tonight. I took a 5 hour nap earlier and am still exhausted. G´night world.

This is just the beginning.

Although I have learned a new language in the last year, I am still unable to find the words in either language to describe how I feel right now. But I will try none the less.

The last 24 hours have been an insane emotional roller-coaster. For starters last night there was a party with all my friends. Great time. The downside being that I did not get to sleep until 6 in the morning. Which would not have been that much of a problem except for the fact that I had to sleep on the couch because basically everything I owe was spread out of my bed. SO, I got woken up at 10 when Sofía got tired of being kept out of the dining room. So four hours of sleep.

There today was a day full of good-byes. I honestly do not know if it is a Spanish thing (and I do not think it is) but I have never been told "I love you and will miss you." by so many people. Some of the people I have met here and become friends with have become some of the best friends I have or could ask for. I had heard it said that leaving is often much harder than coming because when you come, you know you are not leaving everything for good. But when you go back, you do not have a clue when you are going to see these people again. It is hard.

I would like to ask a favor of all of you. I need you all to remember that, while I am still Lucas, I am not the same person I was before I left. I have changed. I am not saying that I need any special care or that I have gone all emo on you all. But for example today I saw someone on Facebook asking another exchange student to translate his status. It took me several seconds to figure out that the status was written in Spanish. To me they often look the same now.

Anyway, I have some last minute packing that I have to do so I should go. (Only 4 hours and 6 minutes until the plane takes off)

See you all soon.

Graduated... twice. Does that mean I am twice as smart?

Yesterday was my graduation and wow was it Spanish. Normally the whole everything-being-different-in-Spain thing does not really bother me anymore, but during the whole thing I could not help but think "This would never, ever happen in the US."

It started off with the actually graduation ceremony which was at 19:00. (I will be writing with a 24 hour clock to simplify things.) The ceremony was the most recognizable part of the whole thing, everyone crossed the stage, the mayor talked too long, the other speakers talked to long, people sang "We are the world." Basically the same old same old. But after the ceremony, we all went to the school for the graduation party, and that is when things got Spanish.

For one, there was an open bar... in the school. I never thought I would see an open bar in a school and it was rather disconcerting. There were also uniformed waiters circulating through through the crowd with platters of different foods. The cost of this affair was 10€ for 3 people. A school not trying to make a profit off of something was also highly surprising.

After the in school party, the parents and teachers went home and us students went out for the night. We had a discoteca that we had rested out for the night and partied the night away until 5:00 or so. Then we screwed around in the street until the metro opened up and we could take that to get to the bus that took us back to the school for churros and chocolate.

We got to the school at about 7:00, but had to wait until 8:00 to get into the school. As Ray (the other exchange student who is in my class) observed, the whole discoteca experience is really nothing more than the final test. A holy pilgrimage to Madrid and back to prove that yes you really are able to be a Spanish adult. Kind of like hazing in fraternities, but a lot more fun.

All of the non-graduates had class at 8:30 and so, as they began to trickle in, we formed a tunnel at the entrance and chanted "A clase! A clase!" (To class! To class!) as they walk through it. Once they had all gone through the tunnel, we got our churros and went home. I got home at 9:30, went straight to bed, and did not get up until about 5:00. All in all it was a great evening/night/morning, quite possibly the best I have had so far, and I will never forget it.

Sadly, all this lack of sleep/not taking my medicine because I was out for the night has led me to get a sinus infection. AKA, my life is now miserable.

So big things have happened since my last post. They were so big that I did not have time to write (lie. I am just lazy). Let us start the most recent news and work our way back.

Last Saturday I went to Valencia with my football team for our second playoff game. We lost, but I could hardly be more proud of the team and especially of myself. We lost 34-0, but we were playing a team that had more than twice the number of players, and the majority of them were bigger than all of us. So sure they scored 5 touchdowns on us and made two safeties (our defense did a LOT better than our offense at first, so we would both go 4 and out with them slowly gaining ground on us until they got safeties), BUT I personally managed to block every single extra point attempt. Even though accidentally used my testicles to block the first one. That hurt. The first half I played wing on offense and did terrible. But the second half I got moved to QB and had a hell of a time. We ran a lot of option plays and QB keeps and it was rare for me to run for less than 5 yards. One time it took 6 of them to take me down. (I am rather proud of that.) I do not think I have ever played that hard in my life and my body still hurts as proof of it.

So our season is now over and we have been eliminated. We finished 4-2 and I had more fun playing this year than I ever have had playing football. I will probably never set foot on a football field as a player again but I am ok with that because I cannot think of a better season to got out on.

I have also been done with school so almost too weeks now... kind of. I finished class of the 12th, but I still go to two classes a day of 1º de bachellerato (11th grade) just so that I have something to do while everyone else in my class is studying for selectividad (the spanish college entrance exam). I also have my graduation tomorrow so that will be... an experience. To say the least. The sad thing is that I actually ended up passing far more classes than the rest of my class. I do not know exactly how I did it, but when I counted it up at the end, I had passed almost all of my classes. Which was a very nice surprise!

There was more... but it appears the big things that have been happening are so big that I can not even keep them all in my head! And so I am going to bed. Buenas noches mundo pequeño.

Alumnos de Bach 2C (1 of 3)

So this post is for Tania Benito, who was curious as to my opinions of the people in my class, of which she is one. So here ya go Tania. Now read it then get back to studying!

Marcos de la Mata: Marcos is one of two people in my class who is also on my football team and one of the best players we have. He is a cool guy, but LOVES being contrary. Alex (another guy on my team) are always arguing like an old married couple, so we call them Mommy and Poppy. Marcos is not fond of being considered a woman.

Estefania Airoldi: Stefi is the first person to get to class ever morning after me and she is odd down to her genetics. She is half Spanish, half Italian and was born in Germany. She refers to me as "f-ing Lucas" but writes it like "faquin Lucas." She always says that she is only going to speak to me in English which lasts about five minutes, and this happens every couple weeks. I could write a lot more

Tania Benito Alfaro: Despite the fact the fact that Tania and Stefi sit together, they do not share the same time table. She usually shows up about 10 minutes late. Sadly, we have only hung out like twice. And she still owes me 10€ from the second time! (sorry just remembered that.)

Maria del Pino Borges: Her name is Maria del Pino but everyone just calls her Pino because her sister's names are all Maria (Maria de las Nieves, Maria del Rosario, etc). Pino means Pine... as in the tree. So I just call her "tree" sometimes to tick her off. She was my second Spanish friend and probably helped me more than anyone else in those first few months here.

Paula Cerezo: Paula is what I guess you would call our class rep. Which means she yells at us when we have not been going what we should have been doing... except she is not very good at yelling at people because she is too smiley. Basically, she is too nice to be mean.

Cristina Ihavenoideawhatherlastnameis: Cris is nice, but I honestly have not talked to her much, which is kind of sad because she sits right in front of me...

Beatriz Sanchez Puerta: Bibi is the skinniest person I have ever met in my life. My thigh is thicker than her waist. She kind of quiet at times and a seems a bit shy. But she is really friendly and probably speaks English better than anyone (except for Sara and Jorge who are both special cases).

Jorge de Solis: Jorge is Jorge. My first day I sat down in an open seat which happened to be next to him. Turns out he had spent a couple years on a US military base (His dad is a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army. I think he is special forces.) and can speak English almost perfectly. The problems that kid gets into are truly remarkable.

Viktor Montaña: Viktor has had to repeat a number of times for various reasons, most of which are related to certain illegal substances. I think he will be turning 21 pretty soon. But all in all he is an OK guy, even though I would not exactly want to go hang out with him.

Raymond Fuqua: Ray the other rotary exchange student in my school, and as such, we spend a fair amount of time together. He is from Hawaii for which I hate him. But all in all he is a cool guy. So I guess I forgive him his Hawaiian-ness.

So that is the first column. There are 2 more, but I will write about them later.

Yawn.

So yesterday was our first playoff game, and I can honestly say that it was the most boring game of my life.

We ended up winning 13-12 with all the points scored in the first half. For defense, in the whole game, the opposing team ran three plays to the side I was playing. On offense I played wide receiver and we had one pass play... which was to the other side... and intercepted... Basically I took up space the whole game. Fun stuff.

In other news, psychology is silly. We are doing a project on help in emergencies and decided to make a little experiment of our own. So I went to a classroom where I did not know anyone under the excuse that I am an exchange student who was there to listen. Then I pretended to have an epileptic attack complete with slipping myself a pill so that I was foaming at the mouth . I am happy to say that my ability to pretend to convulse erratically has not decreased at all in the last 8 months, and they were totally convinced that I was having a genuine epileptic attack. On the scientific note, I was helped immediately and one girl even knew exactly what to do. Oh and yes, this whole thing was my idea.

Losing can be good sometimes.

So as some of you already know, we lost our game. What you all probably do not know is the details, and that is why I am here.

They won by a lot. I got a concussion in the 4th quarter after throwing three interceptions. Alex (the other QB) threw five. Add 2 fumbles on top of that and you get the final score: 50-6. We do not need to talk about this anymore.


But in the end, it worked out nicely. For one thing the second place medal looks a lot cooler than the first place one. Second, losing made people realize that we are not invincible and there are teams that are a lot better than us which is an incredible motivator. And last of all losing put us in a better bracket for the playoffs. Bwhahahaha.

On a totally unrelated note, I finally got accepted to the U of I. Also got an apartment now and will be living at in the 500 block of South van Buren. Coolio.

Strange Days In Spain (And Portugal)

Well well well... I suppose it is about time I got off my butt (or rather sit on it) and write about my trip. And as a special bonus because I took so long to write, I will be including a bunch of other things including but not limited to:
A Football Game!
A Ski Trip!
THE ZOO!

So our trip began on the 8th and finished on the 17th. To our collective surprise, we only had one chaperon: David. Before I say anymore I should say that David was/is the man. He let us do more or less what we wanted and we collectively responded by more or less behaving ourselves. That trip could have been terrible if he had decided to be a turd. But he was not, so it was good.

Our first stop was Granada. To be honest, I did not life Granada that much. Basically all we saw there was El Alhambra and the hotel. El Alhambra was very cool, but so huge that by the end we kind of just wanted to finish and go take a nap.

After Granada we went to Sevilla, but on the way we stopped in Córdoba to see La Mexquita. La Mexquita is a greek temple that was converted into a Christian church, then into a mosque, and later converted into a cathedral. So it is a huge jumble of every type of architecture that has existed in the last 2000 years. Probably my favorite thing that we saw just because the contrast between the different styles was so huge was so huge. Especially when we got to Cathedral part. When we got to Sevilla it was already late so it was not until the next day that we started our touring and my personal high point of the trip occurred: I successfully recognized the palace from the planet Naboo in Star Wars. No one believed me when I said it was there, then the guide was like "Hey! You kids know George Lucas?" I would not shut up about that moment for the rest of the trip. All in all Sevilla was my favorite city even though I am totally unable to say exactly WHY it is.

After Sevilla it was off to Portugal. We spent the night just south of Lisbon right on the coast in a 4-star hotel. It was sweet. That night of chilling on a peer on the Portuguese coast talking with great people was by far one of the best in my life. The next day we crossed the River Tajo to Lisbon and spent 2 and a half days there making day trips to the surrounding area. It was nice, but I definitely preferred Spain. Portugal was basically like Spain, only less interesting and Portuguese speaking...

When we got back to Spain we went to Merida, Salamanca, and Cáceres. By this time everything is kind of jumbled up in my mind due to a severe lack of sleep. However, I can say that it was a very good time, and I was extremely happy to be back in Spain where I could talk to the waiters.

A couple days after I got back we had our third game which was also our first away game. ...5 people did not show up... Many of which were starters... So we had people playing positions that had never played that position before and even some that had flat out never played before. Best part? We still won. My personal low point was the interception that I threw. Luckily the very next play I intercepted the ball and ran in back 70-ish yards for a touchdown to give us the lead which we held for the rest of the game. Other than that it was not quite as fun as the other games though. Boo that. Final Score: 18-10

The Monday after the game I went skiing with Guillermo and some of his friends. The second time down I fell bad and screwed up my knee pretty hardcore. It hurt. Bad. Walking was... interesting.

So after I back from the Rotary trip, I only had 4 days of school-3 actually considering I skipped one to go skiing-until vacations for Semana Santa which just ended this Tuesday. During Semana Santa I:

Went to the zoo.

Ate the best beef I have ever eaten.

Went to the house of the abuelos way out in the country which involved driving on an extremely long, curvy, and bumpy road when I was already sick

And much more.

Our next football game is on Sunday and if we win this one we will have won la liga madrileña. So it will a hard game. Maybe I will let you all know about it less than three weeks later. haha.

Good night world.

Later

So this isnt so much an update as a notification.

1) No game this Sunday. Apparently the other team had problems with their field. Boo them.

2) I am going to Portugal. And as such, I will not have a computer until I get back on the 17th.

Hasta entonces.

2-0, 32-0, 1. Such Beautiful Numbers!

So we had our second game on Sunday and I am proud to announce that we won 32-0, makes our record 2-0, and I ran for a touchdown. Felt good.

That score when you break it down equals out to 5 touchdowns and a safety. We dominated them. The only bad part was that it was raining buckets so we could not pass. Had we been able to pass we would have destroyed them because the other team always blitzes all but 1 linebacker and only have 3 DBs. (Sorry if you do not understand that.)

On defense we had all had an amazing game. I personally had a great game playing Free Safety with a recovered fumble and the two best hits of the game, although the second hit screwed up my shoulder and I was not able to lift it above my head until today. I was not the only one with an amazing defensive game either since there were two defensive touchdowns and a safety.

But the very, very best part was the last play of the game. Sebas (our offensive coach) called a passing play and gave me 500 other little instructions as to what I should do to. Then when I turned to run the play into the huddle, he muttered "Or just ran the damn thing if you want to." So almost immediately after I took the snap, I had to bootleg to the left because of the blitzing linebackers and suddenly realized that there was no one in front of me. At all. So, remembering the last words of Sebas, I proceed to prance 60 yards down the field for a touchdown that ended the game. That felt good.

And after the game I once again led the whole team in the Washington Fight Song (with minor adjustments). The field echoed with shouts of "Demons, Demons! Fight for victory!" like had never been heard before. So all in all it was just a great game.

Before I go I should tell you all that something is screwy with the time/date thing on all my blogs. It always says that I posted them two days before I actually did. So I think I have fixed it bit I do not know if it will come back. FYI. Toodles.

I should really stop being such a turd and write more...

Well life has been busy as of late with several interesting developments and, luckily for you all, this is the place where I write about said interesting developments... Just not all of them because that would take all day!

First and foremost, I shall address the subject of the chorus. For those of you who I have not told already, The Fayette County Select Chorus (basically Atlanta, GA) visited my school and stayed in Madrid for the weekend. Since I too am American, my vice-principle asked me if I would mind going places with them along with some other students from my school to help with translation/basic directions/etc. We stayed Madrid on Friday, took a trip to Segovia on Saturday, and tour El Escorial on Sunday. All in all it was a grand time with only one problem. Saturday night I was on the bus with Ryan (another exchange student), and I had to tell him that we needed to speak in Spanish. Not because I felt a great need to practice, but because I literally could not even think in English anymore after thinking in it all day. This thought scares me because I have NO idea what I am going to do when I get back to the US!

On a related topic, because of the fact that I was the only one on the above trip who is fluent in both English and Spanish, I had to translate for Spaniards sometimes with the end result being that I met a lot of really cool people who go to my school who I had never met before. In fact, several of them I had never even SEEN before... This may seem odd at first, but you have to remember that here in Spain the students stay in the same classroom the whole day and the teachers move from room to room. So I spend the whole day with the same people and do not meet new people to often. But I met two or three people on the trip who keep introducing me to other new people that I never knew existed. It makes for an interesting day!

So tomorrow is my next football game and my coach informed me that I will be starting once again as quarterback even though the starting quarterback (although I guess I cannot call him that anymore, anyway his name is Alex) is perfectly fine. Needless to say, when he told me this it was greeted my a large amount of swearing on my part and and great deal of smug happiness on the part of Alex. (He prefers being receiver too.) This should be a hard game too because apparently the team we will be playing likes to blitz 3 of their 4 linebackers every down. Boo being QB.

Today, in geography I was able to successfully argue that true love does not actually exist. (Technically I was arguing that only God can truly love us because only can is capable of truly knowing our complete being) Calm down, it had nothing to do with geography class itself. I must say though I was rather impressed with myself because I was able to catch my opponent in several verbal traps. Hurray for being able to argue about irrelevant topics again! Welcome back being a smart-ass! I have missed you dearly!

Well there you all have 4 interesting developments. That should be enough for at least a bit.
Hasta luego.

Run Forrest! RUN!

I have two stories for you all tonight.

The first story I have to tell about needing to run fast is the story about when I got (sort of) mugged. It was about 5 in the morning and I was coming home from Madrid on the night bus. (N903 if you must know.) Now the night bus stops about 5 minutes from my house, and I have to walk from there. I have two routes to go home: The long way, which follows the more populated roads but takes 5 minutes longer; and the quick way, which is shorter but no one else is ever there. Anyway, I got off the bus and decided to take the quick way because I was tired. Three other guys got off the bus too, and-as soon as the bus left-they start pushing me around a tad and asking me if I had anything of value. However, I like my things. So pushed one outta the way, took off, and did not look back. Interesting experience. The thing that is most interesting is that they got off the bus BEFORE me, which means that they live around here... I have decided to take the long way from now on...

Now story number two about needing to run fast has a much happier ending. It is, of course, the story of my first Spanish football game. We played Los Osos (The Bears) and going into the game they were the all around, overwhelming favorites. The optimistic predictions had us losing by just a few points. They had more people, more size, and more speed. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that we won 13-6. What you cannot see from that score is that not only did we win, we (in the words of their own web site) dominated them. We led the whole game, and the team as a whole had (at least) 10-15 sacks. It was a great game and when it was all over and we had won, I led the whole team in the WHS Fight Song. (With some minor adjustments because-although our mascot is the Black Demons-our colors are red and black and we do not live in Washington.)

As for my individual performance, I did better than expected. We ran the ball a lot which is kind of what saved me. We actually only ended up running 3 pass plays, although far more than that were called. Every time one was called, there would be a penalty or something and the play would get changed. But I was 1 for 3 (one of which was NOT my fault because it hit the guy in the chest), but that one was run for 30 yds and turned into a TD. My only really big mistake was when I open up to the wrong direction on a reverse, but considering that I started learning this stuff five days ago I feel like I should be pardoned.

Well those are my stories of running, and now that I have no more and my legs hurt quite badly, I am going to hobble off into the sunset. G´night.

"Lucas Asbury: Quarterback" Something I though I would never see. Or what to!

So my football team has problem. Our starting quarterback has hurt his meniscus and might not be able to play in our first game on Sunday. Soooo the only other person on the team who has any really idea of how to throw is me, thus I am the back-up. That should tell you something about just how bad they are! My only hope is that he can play and does not get hurt halfway through the game because if that happens I am SCREWED! (actually we all are!)

I had the geography test from hell the other day over the different sectors of industry and agroculture in Spain. I was able to fumble my way through most of it, but totally failed the definitions part. (I have some doubts that "trashumancia" was actually even in the book...)

Physical therapy for my finger will finally be over over on Thursday which will finally put an end to this whole finger business. And if you ask me, it is about time because this "injury" happen the 18th of November. Which means that when this all over, it will have been 2 months and 10 days. Ugh.

Well I believe I might be getting sick so I am going to bed early tonight. Buenas noches.

"Enjoy The Little Things"

So the first few days back in school just flat out sucked. Getting up early, sitting for long periods of time, listening to lectures on things that-to be honest-I have absolutely no interest in. For example, I just cannot bring myself to be interested in psychology since I had a hard enough time paying attention when it was in English! Ugh.

Speaking of school, I had to give my presentation in philosophy the other day. I can honestly say that was the most nervous I have ever been in my life. My whole body was shaking. It is best if we did not speak of it although I was able to successfully defend my ideas through the whole class debate so it was not a total disaster.

So apparently it has been decided by my host parents that I have to pass all my classes this trimester. Now that may appear fairly easy, but you have to realize that there is a difference in the difficulty between American and Spanish schools. Thus, passing all your classes in Spain is about like getting better than a B in all your classes in America. With the whole foreign language complication thrown in there, it just flat out sucks.

As you may remember I was feeling a little down because my English was getting worse and my Spanish was not improving much either. The upside is that I now able to understand basic Italian and French as a result of the fact that they are very similar to Spanish. I find this awesome.

(Warning: Contains awkward metaphors)
Another grand achievement is the realization about my feelings about Spanish. Before coming here, Spanish was like the hot girl in class. It was a lot of new, exciting, and just all around awesome. However, a couple weeks after arriving my feelings about it had shifted so that it was like the clingy ex. I wanted nothing more than to escape it back into the (relative) sanity and familiarity of English. But now it is like a best friend. Sure it pisses me off at times, but we know each other so it is all good. If these metaphors made no sense, I apologize.

I had a lot more to write, but I lack motivation to actually do it. So that is all. Good Night World.

Ok Ok! I will update!

Well today is the last day off school (boo).

Actually we were supposed to have school today, but there was something like 3 inches of snow and Spaniards had a collective panic attack. Although to be fair-considering none of them know how to drive in the snow-I was freaked out too! But the panic is not the real reason that this snow fall is worth mentioning. The real reason is that this is the 2nd snow day since 2002 and the other one was earlier this school year! It is following me! AGH!!!

...Sorry about that...

So I kind of hate life right now. My philosophy professor has decided that because I do not take all of the test (there are some parts which are just too hard), she should assign me extra work. Thus, I have to read this book over the break (San Miguel Bueno, Mártir) that is about a man who is a literal saint, but has the deep dark secret that he does no actually believe in God, Satan, nor any type of an afterlife. He sole reason for keeping up the façade is that is gives the people hope. Anyway, I have to write a summary of the book as well as my opinion on the questions is raises... then present both to the class to open a class debate. While this is normally something I would not really mind because I like presentations, doing one in Spanish scares the piss out of me! Literally! Every time I think about it I have to pee!

On a totally unrelated note: learning languages is evil. While I was writing this post alone I had to sit for several minutes to remember "assign," "evil," and "break." But my Spanish is not that great either, at least by native standards. So I have basically traded one language for two half languages and am only half fluent in both. Yarg. MY VOCABULARY! And to top it all off, my arm keeps twitching!

OH! I went to a cool parade! There were explosions, flying people, and candy. T´was quite grand! I would treat you all to a grand explanation, but my description would be lacking and I would not do the parade justice. But I WILL tell you that it was for Reyes who came at the end of the parade much like Santa Claus would. The other interesting thing was the "American" section of the parade. It was a river boat, on top of which danced a woman who appeared to be a conservative Muslim stripper (I know that makes no sense. Her costume did not either), a steam engine, and a procession of "Native Americans" which we just Spaniards with big fake noses and a lot of feathers. To be honest, it was a little disturbing.

Alas, my battery dies as I type. Thus, I must cease with my ramblings. Hasta luego. Os echo de menos.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As you may have guessed by the title of this post, this is the promised post about Christmas. I suppose I should start as the beginning with with Noche Buena.

Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) is when the main celebration is. The abuelos came over at about 4 or 5-which is basically right after lunch-and started making food. Dunner was at about 10-which is early for a Christmas dinner. I wish I could list off all the things that we ate, but to honest I can not remember it all because there was so much! I know these was cordero (roast lamb), rojos (they are like giant shrimp that are fantastic), bread of course, and much more. Needless to say it was all amazing. The only downside was the family dinner is a formal occasion here, therefore I had to dress up which I am not terribly fond of. Oh well.

After the dinner was the gift giving. Christmas presents are kind of different from in the US because the giving is broken in two. The gifts from "Santa" are given on the 5th of January and are from "Los Reyes Magos" or as we call them "The Three Kings." The other presents are given Noche Buena. Anywho, after dinner and presents we played some poker (I lost 10 cents) and then Miguel, Guillermo, and I went to hang with some friends. Very good night that I will never forget, especially the food.

Noche Vieja (New Years Eve) was basically two days in one. It started out normally enough except for one fact: by three in the afternoon the kitchen was full of cooking smells. Finally it was time to dress up and eat! We had some more rojos, filet mignon, and a bunch of other things that I can not remember.

After dinner played another game of poker (I won some... dont remember how much but I in all of the games we have played I am 1.50€ ahead) but our game was interrupted by midnight. Now in Spain there is no ball that drops (thank god! I have always thought that was the stupidest thing ever.) instead they have a clock tower. And as the bell rings they eat grapes; twelve grapes for twelve chimes of the bell. I do not know if you have ever eaten twelve grapes in twelve seconds, but it is rather comical! Guillermo gagged, almost threw up, and had to spit out all his grapes! Good times.

After the grape eating, we-brothers and I-went over to the house of a friend to party. We stayed there until 11... AM. On the way home we stopped to get churros-which were fantastic-and then crashed when we got home and slept until 5. It was a good time.

Anyway, that was my holiday season. It was definitely unforgettable but now I have to go read some don Quijote before practice. Adios mundo.