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.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
"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.
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.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
"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.
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.
Monday, January 11, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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.
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.
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