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.