Buenos Dias!

So my study abroad in Buenos Aires is over and since I was a little less on top of the updating ball you get the whole experience in one sitting. As a teaser, during the past 4 weeks I was smuggled into Brazil, had my car towed, skied in the Andes and saw one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

Since I last wrote you I flew back to the states for a day, did laundry, changed the clothes in my bag, said hi to friends and family and flew to South America to start my second study abroad program of the summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I flew from Tampa to Miami, Miami to Lima, Peru and Lima to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I had set up a sublease on Craigslist and was supposed to meet the girl at the apartment to get the llave (key). Shocker she never shows up and never responds to my emails or phone calls. Lessoned learned, never give a deposit to anyone in a foreign country on faith. I opened a dispute up with PayPal and did get the $50 back so it ended up not being that bad. A pretty cheap lesson seeing that I ended up finding a much better place. Luckily my professor had the phone number of an apartment guy who put me up for two nights for free before finding me my own apartment for half the price I would have paid had I set up the apartment before coming and right next to all the other students in the program. Sebastian is the guys name and I can’t say enough nice things about this guy, we went out one night and he told me how he just wants to sell everything and travel the world. He does motocross, plays paintball around the world and skydives, guy is a blast. He told me that he felt that since one Argentinean wronged me that he had to counter that. So I had my own apartment in Recoletta (think upper east side NYC) for the price of sharing one and a view from the 8^th floor overlooking a park, not too bad.

The weather was cold and rainy when I first got there. It was winter down there and was a big shift from the weather I had experienced all summer in Spain and Florida. It ranges from about 30-60 degrees here depending on the day. I really like it on the sunny days but hate the gloomy days, pretty obvious comment but the truth nonetheless.

Now Buenos Aires is supposedly the Paris/NYC of South America and I can see why. The city is huge, has a lot of historical monuments, skyscrapers and tons of people. They mimic a lot of the important buildings after buildings in Paris, DC and other big cities. I really like the city, it is beautiful and the people are great. For anyone that speaks Spanish they use a “sh” sound for any “y” or “ll” and they call themselves Porteno’s. These people are great but are known to be cocky and think they are better than others. They are very European looking with lighter skin and dark hair. This is because they are a combination of Spanish, Italian, Irish and Portuguese.

Now over the four weeks I took four classes a week, a different subject each time and traveled every weekend. The group of students was pretty diverse, lots of second career but still younger guys, lots of couples and most of the girls were traditional law students (went straight to law school from undergrad). Fortunately a lot of the people in the group spoke Spanish very well, lots of South Floridians. My best friend on the trip was a fellow classmate that lived in Cordoba, Argentina until she was 12 until she moved to Miami, FL where she has been ever since. There is one reason and one reason only why my Spanish has greatly improved since Spain and that is thanks to mi maestra Natalia.

For the most part what we would do during the week is walk around and find good places to eat in Buenos Aires. The food is amazing and stupid cheap. I had arguably the best steak of my life at a restaurant called Juanna M for $10. Oh and that included sharing a bottle of wine and all you can eat salad buffet. It was a trendy restaurant that resembled a place you could spend a ton of money at in NYC, I ate there 3 times and had the same thing each time, bife de lomo (filet mignon). The food is by far the best thing about this entire trip in my opinion: the empanadas, the tartas (think of a pie with ham, cheese, egg and tomato), the parilla (Argentine BBQ), the great wine and the amazingly good and amazingly cheap steaks. Every meal was an event and an experience. It was a carnivore’s heaven.

Now most of the interesting trips and events happened on the weekends. Here’s the rundown:

Weekend 1: Uruguay

Most everyone in the class was just going take a quick day trip to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay but after consulting with a couple of friends, Jordan Maglich and Dallan Bunce, they quickly informed me that wouldn’t be worth it and instead we should go to Montevideo and Punta del Este. So taking their advice, James, Whitney, Natalia and I took an hour boat ride across to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay and rented a car there. James and I took turns driving our tin can of a Hyundai and had quite the adventure. On the way to Montevideo we stopped at the beach and saw one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever experienced, we stopped at a little farm that gave us free cheese and jam tastings as well as housed the Guinness Book of World records collections for pencils. The owner was a really cool guy.

We finally got to Montevideo and was amazed to find that not only was their food just as good or better than Argentina’s but it was arguably cheaper. We were delightfully happy. Now where our story takes a turn for the worse is when we decided that night to park our car on the street. 1) This is a bad idea to park a car on the street b/c it will likely get robbed and 2) we did not seem to question the fact that just b/c other cars were parked on the street doesn’t mean we can park there. So safe to say when we woke up the next day our car was towed. Thank god we had Natalia there b/c James, Whitney and I speak very little Spanish and it was not a quick process finding out where our car was. Long story short we walk the streets of Montevideo trying to find our car, finding the old tow place and other bad directions until we finally get our car out for just over 2,000 Uruguayan pesos (approx. $100 US). We park the car in a garage and spend the rest of the day sightseeing around Montevideo. Montevideo is a beautiful city with some cool architecture and monuments. It is also right on the water which is where we saw another one of the best sunsets I have experienced, might just be a Uruguay thing. We also found a plaza very similar to Plaza de San Miguel in Madrid which has bunch of walk up to the counter restaurants all next to each other. The parilla that we had there was amazing. Oh and the portions in Uruguay and Argentina are unbelievably big, finishing a meal is actual work.

The next day we drive to Punta del Este which is a beach town that is frequented by celebrities from around the world. Now since it was winter and the wind was blowing close to 15 mph it was not the most popular time to be there. The city was more like a ghost town, still a great time. They have a monument called “the hand” which is a giant hand that emerges out of the sand at one of the beaches.

We finish off the trip by driving back Sunday and walking around Colonia del Sacramento before the boat took us back. Colonia is a old little town with a lot of history. One of the cooler things we did was sneak into an abandoned Bull fighting arena. The arena was built 8 months before Uruguay passed a law banning bullfighting so since then it has just sat there.

Uruguay was an amazing weekend and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Weekend 2: Mendoza and skiing in Las Lenas

Flights in Argentina are not cheap. An hour and a half flight to Mendoza (western province/city in Argentina) from Buenos Aires runs around $350. The train system in Argentina is pretty much non-existent. So what most people do is bus it everywhere. Now for anyone that has tried to bus across the country it is not the fastest process and typically is not the most comfortable process. Well a bus ride from Buenos Aires to Mendoza costs just under $150 for a really good seat around $120 for a standard bus seat. Being the cost conscious traveler that I am and seeing that every dollar I spend has an interest rate attached I decided on busing it. I determined that since the bus ride was around 14 hours that the better seat was worth the extra $20-30. A lot of people made this trip and most everyone took the bus. We had a total of 10 people and 7 people bused it. I would like to say that those bus rides were amazing considering. We had relatively good dinners, free wine and whiskey, cookies, chocolates, movies, etc. The seats reclined nearly all the way flat and were like sitting in a lazy boy. At least two people said they got their best night’s sleep since being in Argentina on our bus, might have been the wine and whiskey but nonetheless they did. It was a huge surprise how great these bus rides were (I took the bus the next weekend as well).

Now Mendoza is known for its wine. So that Friday we got in around 9 am checked into our hostel and headed out to the vineyards. We got out there around 12 and rode bikes all around the town looking for vineyards. This process was not as smooth as originally planned but we eventually found a tour at a vineyard called Lagarde. Our tour guide was from London and was just working at a vineyard for 6 months in order to get out of London and also learn Spanish. Tough life, drink wine and hang out in Argentina for 6 months. My money is on that she never leaves, she didn’t disagree with me.

We have a great time there and head over to another vineyard only to find that they are done giving tours for the day. But they apologize and tell us that we can taste the wine for free though, that was the real point of our stop anyways so we were quite pleased. The guy who seems to be a low level worker there, takes us to these four large stainless steel vats of wine and hands us all glasses. One by one we get wine from a tube attached to these huge vats of wine. We test 4 different wines and finish off the great time by buying a 5 litre bottle of wine for 27 Argentinean pesos ($7 US). Now this behemoth bottle of wine nicknamed “my baby” ends up being my responsibility with a tragic ending. Over the next few days I carried “my baby” in the basket on my bike, carried it through the streets of Mendoza, packed it on the bus, secured it in the hostel, etc. All is going great until we get back to Buenos Aires, I literally take my keys out in order to open the door to my apartment building Monday morning after all this time, I grab the side plastic on the bottle, the plastic breaks and the “my baby” comes crashing down. 5 litres of wine lying on the sidewalk with glass everywhere. The doorman comes out and offers to get straws to drink it up and says what a waste of wine, not even mad at the fact that glass and wine are all over his front door and walkway. I couldn’t believe it, all that time and effort and I drop the ball at the goal line. Now I know how Jerome Bettis felt against the Colts 4-5 years back, heart breaking.

The night of the wine tasting we catch a 6 hour bus to Las Lenas. We left at 2:30 am and got in around 9 am. Snow is everywhere and the day of skiing is upon us. I had been dreaming of this since determining that I wanted to come down to Argentina. I had not skied since college and was pumped. The mountain is around 9,000 ft., it was sunny and very windy. Most the blacks were shut down due to the wind. We got out on the slopes around 10:30 am after renting everything and I helped teach Natalia how to ski, it was her first time. She was doing really well so I jetted off to some blacks and reds (btw blue and black). On this mountain you had to sign a release form to do the blacks, so I was a little nervous when they made me do that. Turned out just fine though. The powder was great, the slopes were challenging and I didn’t hurt myself, all in all a great day. I took a couple of falls, on one run on the black one I turned back up the hill to hard and tumbled twice backwards but somehow stood up and kept skiing after the second tumble without stopping, was pretty cool. I also took a closed red run that had a bunch of powder but also a bunch of rocks. I typically have not dealt with many rocks in my history of skiing so I thought I could just ski fast over a little one without issue, that was not the case. I front flip tumbled three or four times but this time my skis went flying. One went all the way down that section of the hill. So I sat on my other ski and sledded my way down to my other ski. Actually was a ton of fun b/c the powder was so deep it didn’t hurt and the sledding made me feel like a 8 year old. What a great time, loved every minute of it.

The final day in Mendoza we walked around and saw the city until our bus was ready. We took the overnight got back to BA around 7:30 am, slept for an hour and headed to class. Fun trip.

Weekend 3: Iguazu Falls (one of the 7 natural wonders)

Once again I bused it to Iguazu, Argentina. This took close to 17 hours, still great trip, slept most of the way. This time nearly everyone else in the program flew though but Natalia, her mom, sister and my friend Adrianne who is working in BA took the bus with me. We get into Iguazu around 9 am, check into our hostels and head straight to the park. Since Natalia, Carla (Natalia’s sister) and Adrianna (Natalia’s mom) are all Argentinean Adrianna and I got into the park for 1/5 of the price by keeping our mouths shut while Natalia’s mom bought the tickets.

Iguazu falls is shared by the border of Brazil and Argentina so there are two parks. The first two days we walked around the park, took a boat ride where we got soaked in the falls and went swimming in one of the smaller waterfalls. Iguazu falls is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. It felt as though I was seeing one of the most beautiful views nearly every time I turned a corner. I was in awe for an entire weekend.

Now it is free for Argentineans to go to Brazil but American citizens must have a visa to get across which costs around $140 and is much more expensive day of. The entire trip we had been talking about seeing if we could go to Brazil someway without having to pay. A couple of our friends went over in a bus that Saturday without issue, I guess they do not stop the buses at the Brazilian side of the border. So we took a car over though b/c we wanted to see the falls and were in a time crunch. All is good to go on the Argentinean side but when we get to the Brazilian side of the border the driver of the car tells me to just stay in the car as they all go inside and go through border control. The car is heavily tinted and not a soul approaches the car while they are gone, I try and keep my head down and focus on happy thoughts in order to take my mind off the fact that I am being smuggled into a foreign country. Everyone eventually comes back and we successfully smuggle me into Brazil, we are shocked and amazed at the ease.

Now the Brazilian side of the falls has a better view of all the waterfalls b/c it is more removed. All of the waterfalls for the most part are on the Argentinean side. The views were amazing (see picture attached), we run through the park seeing all we can. My camera dies on the ride in the car back to Argentina, timing was perfect, one charge for the 400 or so pictures I took that weekend. We do the same move getting me back into Argentina with no issue, still can’t believe that is how I got into Brazil. “Hey you just sit in the car while we go check in”, are you kidding me?

The bus ride back is a little late so Natalia and I go straight from the bus station to class around 35 minutes late, great weekend.

The last week in Buenos Aires was probably the best week. We went out Wednesday night b/c Natalia was leaving to go to Las Lenas with her mom, sister and Adrianne Thursday afternoon. We went to a show called “Fuerza Bruta” which plays in Miami, Chicago and NYC as well as all over the world. This was one of the coolest shows I have ever been to, a definite must see for anyone that can. It costs around $75 in the US but cost us 55 pesos or approx. $13. It is an artistic/musical/cirque de soleil/dance show that is more like a party than a show. Everyone stands in the room as the actors move through the crowd, dance on the walls, slip and slide over your head in a see through pool while the DJ blasts music. We also did a pub crawl our last night with nearly everyone from our class.

Culturally the last week I saw Congresso (congress) which mimics our capital building and angel and chariot statue in Paris. I also walked around old Palermo where they have tons of parks. Buenos Aires is huge and Tuesday I walked from 1:30 pm to 8 pm without stopping. We also saw the “Abuelas” which are a group of grandmothers that march in front of the Presidents house “Casa Rosada” b/c in the military coup during the 1970’s a lot of dissidents were killed and their children taken from them and given to families. So these grandmothers march and list out all the missing children. I also ate Juanna M again, love that place.

What an amazing trip and four weeks, I truly loved Buenos Aires and can’t wait to visit again. I am excited to see my friends and family and get back into a routine. Someone once told me that vacationing and routine go hand in hand. Without one or the other life is just out of balance. I truly feel I have a greater understanding of this concept after this summer. The two balance each other out and provide greater satisfaction on both ends. I am so excited about the summer I had but very excited to get back into my routine.

This is going to be a crazy year for me. I will finish up my JD/MBA, apply to schools in Singapore, take the MPRE and Florida Bar, hopefully clerk for a law firm or in-house counsel, continue consulting work in Honduras and around Tampa/Sarasota, continuing volunteering with GAL, Junior Achievement, SigEp, as a big brother, as treasurer of Stetsons Public Service Fellowship and of course find time to visit Rob Gidel in Gainesville for some UF football games, prepare to leave for a year (excited to purge myself of most of my belongings), amongst other things.

Life is good, I loved this entire summer, thank you all for sharing it with me. Hope to see you soon!

End of Classes in Granada and a trip to Portugal

It’s coming up on two weeks since I have sent an update out and a lot has happened. Here is a little teaser, we found the “City of God” in Portugal (not a good thing), I woke up feeling like a knife had been shoved into my chest after partying in Ibiza and we got pulled over on a scooter and had it impounded. Two weeks of excitement…….here we go.

Last time I left you we were contemplating going to Alicante for the weekend and I was about to head to the Arabic baths. Well we did go to the Arabic baths but audibled out of Alicante and headed to Portugal instead. Little bit of foreshadowing, Portugal great, Lisbon awful.

So the baths were amazing. We paid 21 euro (student rate) for an hour and a half of warm, hot and cold pools located in the side of a hill followed by a 20 minute massage. The insides were lined with Moorish tiles and were about 6 ½ feet tall. The lighting was dark and I was waiting for a Russian mob fight to break out at some point, just seemed right. It didn’t happen but that didn’t take away from how great these baths were. The massage was amazing, oils and all. The best part might have been the mint tea breaks in between pools. For any of you that have never had great mint tea, you are missing out.

We end up going to see Flamenco up where the gypsy’s live. The gypsy’s continuously harass everyone by trying to give you either a lighter or rosemary. If you end up taking either they nag and mess with you until you pay them. They really hate it when you just give it back to them, real annoying. Well it was nice to see that they were not out and about for this late night dance endeavor. This was the first time I had seen flamenco in person and it was intense. The singers sound like they put their whole life into each note and the dancers look like someone off stage has a gun pointed at them. The emotion and intensity they express is something not to miss, very impressive. Now that being said, I am cool never seeing flamenco again or at least not ever paying to see it again. Cool as it was, not worth the blank euro I paid to see it again. Marking that cultural check box once is all that is needed, definitely worth that one time though.

The next day a couple of the local Spanish students took us to the beach. It was about an hour away and it was a beautiful day for it, real hot. So five of us packed into her “daddy’s” car and headed out. The sand out there was nice but very rocky in certain places. The water was absolutely freezing, other than those two things it was a great time. We stayed out there most of the day and came back that night. Great trip.

We ended up deciding to go to Portugal that night after the beach and the only way that made sense was to drive. So Nash, Deuce (roommates) and I rented a ford fusion and departed on quite the journey. We decided to stay two nights in Cascais which is a small beach town about an hour outside of Lisbon. This was the best decision we made. The drive took about 7 hours and I took on the role of Morgan Freeman and drove those two little Miss Daisy’s the whole trip (movie driving theme to continue). I enjoyed driving for the most part but as you will read later, I have no idea how I did not crash that little euro machine. Nash was actually a great ride along partner but Deuce slept most the time. Rule #1 of road trips is you don’t sleep while the driver is driving. I actually volunteered to drive but one didn’t know how to drive stick and the other wouldn’t drive in a city. Seeing that both of those things are necessary for this trip, there really wasn’t much choice of who drove.

Cascais was beautiful we got free bikes from the tourist center and rode all around the town and up the coast. What a beautiful ride. Huge rocks followed by beautiful beaches. It was the drive that all the postcards were taken on. We came back and caught the Portugal v. Brazil game which was intense. It ended in a tie which was probably a good thing because we legitimately saw just as many Brazil fans as Portugal fans. A riot might have occurred had a tie not happened.

We end the night by going to the Casino in Estoril that inspired Ian Fleming to write the James Bond novel “Casino Royale” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(novel). The creator of James Bond was stationed in Portugal and he followed a double agent there. In commemoration of this Nash and I both dropped over 50 euro at the roulette tables. Seriously what are the odds of black hitting 8 times in a row? Unfortunately we didn’t have the US government there to buy us back in like the movie, reality sucks. Still a great night though.

The next day we drive to Sintra which is a little city built around three castles. One of the castles legitimately looked like the Magic Kingdom castle in Disneyworld (see pic attached). The best part by far was the driving though. All the castles are up huge hills with the windiest roads leading up to them. I switched from Morgan Freeman and worked on my best Jason Stratham as I worked my way up the hills over and over again. I felt like a 10 year old playing a racing game in the arcade, probably not the mentality I should have when driving up dangerous roads but it was a blast.

We then head to Lisbon, this is where the story turns to the dark side. At this point we all were tired and needed siestas. As we drive into Lisbon it becomes clear that we have a small idea where our hotel is and have no idea the actual address. Frustration builds. Next the city is about as a$$ backwards and confusing when it comes to its one ways and chutes and ladders-esque curvy streets. Frustration builds more. Europe refuses to display street signs and Lisbon was the epitome of this so we could not navigate ourselves via streets signs either. Frustration grows more. We hire a cab to drive us to the hotel he fails. Frustration increases more. We ask the police to help us, they tell us they only speak Portuguese and then they tell us in English where the hotel is. We still can’t find it. More frustration. We find the “City of God” and dead end in the middle of it. For all of you who have never seen the “City of God” it is a movie based on the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is not a place you want to visit. We are eyed down by every prostitute, thug and drug dealer in the place and we quickly turn around. Now this whole time I have switched from into Jason Bourne style driving. I turned down and reversed out of more tiny one ways and almost hit more people and cars due to the confusion and tiny, horrible, overcrowded, hectic, crazy streets of Lisbon. I don’t want to pat myself on my back but I have no idea how we didn’t hit anyone or anything. This is all while driving stick in an extremely steep hilly city, I think my brother and dad would have been proud, my high school driving days weren’t the most impressive and they let me know it. I truly feel like more of a man due to this driving experience.

So we still have not found our place and I am about to slam the car into the next wall we see out of pure frustration. So we decide to stop and ask a hotel if they know where the hotel is and if not if we can stay there and just eat the reservation. They point out that it is right down the road and we easily find it. Unbelievable, we had driven by it about 5 times. I am pumped until they tell me I have to park in their tiny parking garage. I stunt car’d that entrance by jumping the curb while simultaneously swinging the car 90 degrees to the left mid jump and then straightening it out upon hitting the ground with the tires with a tiny sidewalk in between the street and entrance. Getting out the next day was fun one too. The walls were covered in carpet with markings left from all the cars hitting it. We make out without a mark, get lost heading out of the city and finally make it on our way home. 7 hours later we drop that abused piece of machinery off and call it a trip.

Other reasons to hate Lisbon:

1) They bring you bread, cheese, olives, pate and sometimes meats at the beginning of a meal without being asked and then charge you for everything you eat.

2) They speak Portuguese.

3) They are not nice people in Lisbon.

4) City was built by re-tards.

Portugal great, Lisbon awful.

The next week is our last in Granada. We rented scooters one day and drove all around the city. I personally had only driven scooters a couple of times and it was a blast. The only problem was the fact that we rented them for a full day so my roommate Nash and I decided to ride them to class the next day. He decides not to wear his helmet though. This is a bad idea. In his defense the guy we rented the scooters from told us we did not need them or euro driver’s licenses. Turns out we need both. He gets pulled over and ticketed 100 euro for not having his helmet on. Since he has no helmet or drivers license they impound his scooter and it costs another 60 euro to get that out. I hid down the street and he covered for me when they asked where I was…..thanks buddy. Still a fun time, expensive experience though.

The last night nearly our entire program goes out on the town. We start with cana’s and tapas, move to Mojito’s and Salsa and finish at the Discoteque Granada. Half the class was missing the next day and after class I head out to Madrid to meet up with my buddy Perin so we can catch our flight to Ibiza that night.

The program was great, my roommates were awesome and I really liked everyone in my class. We had some amazing local students that made it a truly Spanish experience and I am forever in their debt for taking us out and hanging out with us. The classes were even interesting. Granada is officially my favorite city in Spain.

After four weeks in Spain I have come to the realization that I truly love Spain. The only thing I would get rid of is all the cigarette smoking, I about flipped out at one point because of it. Other than that I could definitely live here. I have to take my final today and will fill you all in on Ibiza and Morocco next week. Sorry about the Ibiza tease you are just going to have to wait a bit to hear about the knife in my chest. Don’t want to write an entire novel for this update. Hope all is well with everyone, miss you all.

Bullfight, Rock of Gibraltar and Nazi's

Got some good stuff to share so here we go.

There was a free film festival being held all over the city of Granada during the week. There were around 8 locations where they were showing movies. Most documentaries but some were fiction. The locations were one of the coolest parts. Movies were being held in outdoor plaza’s, in front of church’s, inside 15^th century courtyards, it made the experience.

We made it around to seeing two movies: one documentary and one fiction. The first one was a documentary based on the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation. The footage was taken by Nazi cameramen to be used as a propaganda video but had never been shown. It was an unbelievable movie that really opens your eyes to the horror of those times. They actually found out who one of the cameramen was and had him discuss what they were doing there. The footage was being taken of affluent Jewish people as well as dying and poor Jewish in order to show how the Jewish race was well off but did not care about their poor. They found people from the film as well and had them give testimony to the filming. They talked about how they would organize people to have large dinners and afterwards film the affluent walk right past dead bodies or dying people in the streets. When people died (typically of starvation) the family members would bring them out and set them on the street. Every day people walked down the street they would walk around dead bodies. The next day they would ship the actors to camps. One of the women in the film cried while watching the movie. She talked about how happy she was that she could cry because during those times there was so much horror around that if she couldn’t function if she showed any emotion. She said she was a human now. Definitely more intense than the second movie experience.

The second movie was called “Running Turtle”. We watched it in front of a huge church in the middle of the city as we sat at a table and ate tapas. It was a really good South Korean film about a bad @ss fugitive and a cop that is tracking him. Both films were in subtitles.

Over the past week we have gotten to watch both of Spain’s World Cup games so far here in Granada. The first one a 1-0 loss to Switzerland was pretty shocking. We watched that with some local Spanish students at a bar, safe to say the streets were quiet that night. The next game was much better though. We went to a huge tent in the middle of a plaza that had been assembled and filled with flat screens and a huge TV in front. It was jam packed full of Spaniards that went absolutely insane during both of Spain’s two goals during their 2-0 win against Honduras. Match wasn’t even close.

On Friday we went to Gibraltar. We visited the Rock of Gibraltar as well as a local court. The rock of Gibraltar is amazing. To be honest I had no idea what it was until that day other than a huge rock in Gibraltar, complicated understanding I know. Well this thing is amazing. It essentially is Great Britain’s version of the Panama Canal. The area is owned and operated by Great Britain. This is not cool with the Spanish and from what our tour guide told us a military conflict is bound to happen very soon. Now the reason the British don’t want to give it up is just like the Panama Canal gives access from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean the strait of Gibraltar is the only access point from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. So in Gibraltar they use pounds and speak with British accents, was like being in a weird British fantasy land. Now the Rock is covered in diabetic monkeys. Yes the monkeys are diabetic. They refuse to eat vegetation and instead only steal ice cream and candy from the tourists. That being said they are really passive and friendly with humans as long as the humans didn’t have food. A monkey actually climbed on me and over my head in order to get to his buddy sitting on the rail. The Brit’s also built tunnels in the Rock and created their own little world in it with water reservoirs, a hospital, movie theater and much more. They could live there for 2 years without any outside help. Pretty sweet side trip that I had no idea we were taking, love that.

After Gibraltar we headed to Seville. After a couple of bus trips we got to Seville and found our hostal. Turns out we booked it for Saturday and Sunday night instead of Friday night and they were booked. So we spent most of the night finding another place to stay. For the record I did not book the hostal. We did see most of the city that night though.

The next day we get up and enjoy a true breakfast of champions: churro’s and chocolate. They gave us fried amazingness with a cup of warmed up chocolate sauce. We downed the churro’s and dumped the rest of the chocolate sauce in our café con leche’s, best food decision in years. We then head over their main Cathedral which is the largest in Spain and third largest in Europe behind St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s. This Cathedral is actually the burial location of Christopher Columbus, I thanked him for finding America.

We also went to the Alcazar which is very similar to the Alhambra but with better gardens in my opinion. They have huge peacocks running lose in their as well, turns out they chase you if you get too close, haha my friend found that out the hard way. The rest of the day was spent seeing other sites, eating and walking around. I highly recommend seeing Seville.

That night we get up the bright idea to do a pub crawl without eating dinner. No puking or sickness occurred but let’s just say it took us about an hour to figure out that the last club they brought us to was a gay bar. After that it was apparent that we all should go home. Next day was painful to say the least. I immediately missed the tapas/cana’s action that Granada offers where I never actually get a hangover. After some much needed breakfast we head over the Museo de Bellas Artes and culture ourselves. This museum specifically holds art from the south of Spain. The interesting thing I noticed was not that they had a boat load of paintings of Jesus (I expected that from a Catholic country) but more that the killers of Jesus (the Romans) in the paintings looked and dressed like Moors (aka Muslim’s that occupied the South of Spain before the Spanish Catholics conquered them). Talk about some propaganda. Pretty sure Romans didn’t wear turbans and have curved swords.

Sunday night a classmate and I stayed behind in order to see a Bullfight. I had never seen a bullfight but it was definitely on my list of things to do before kicking the bucket. This was the last bullfight until the fall so I couldn’t pass it up. We bought tickets out of the sun for 34 euro not bad. Sitting in the sun is much cheaper but luckily a friend told us that it is 1) ridiculously hot and 2) the bullfighters fight in the shade so you don’t get to see the fight as closely, well worth the extra money.

Now going into this bullfight I wouldn’t say I was a fan of bullfights but I definitely thought they were very cool. I have to say after seeing six bulls’ slain bullfights are not nearly as much fun as I thought they would be. It was a crazy experience. In my opinion bullfights are the modern version of Gladiators fighting, entertainment through blood and death, pretty intense. I am not going to say that they should be banned in Spain or Latin America but I am definitely not going to try and bring the tradition to the states. Two of the guys were hit by the bull and one didn’t return after getting hit in the leg so that was pretty crazy as well.

Instead of breaking the bullfights down I just uploaded videos showing each different part of the fight (beware it’s not pretty):

Opening Oley’s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg4-qoqyodY

Picadore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkMpbIQHJ00

Bandarilla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tml8pnUAm-0

Kill Cycle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZryVaRQFWo

Matador gets bucked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBpj8lKJGu4

We ended up catching a 11 pm bus and got back around 4 am. Started environmental law this week and are trying to determine how to save the world, fun exercise. Tonight we are going to the Arabic baths and getting massages and tomorrow we are going a la playa (to the beach) after class, tough life right?

Planning on heading to Alicante. There is a festival in Spain that some of you may have heard about. It is celebrated in Valencia the 19th of March: LAS FALLAS. Well, the same kind of festival is celebrated in a Spanish classmates city, Alicante (Next to south Valencia, in the Mediterranean Coast, South-East Spain). The difference is that they celebrate it in Summer and call it LAS HOGUERAS DE SAN JUAN. Google it, looks like a blast. They build wooden structures and burn them down in the middle of the streets and party on the beach. Should be fun.

Madrid, World Cup and Quiche

So I just spent the weekend in Madrid with Blake Bockhold and Max Winchester. These are the same two guys that came down to Granada with me last weekend. I never gave you the back story on them though, definitely worth sharing:

The two of them have been living in Madrid for close to a year now teaching English. They have a three bedroom flat that they share with a local Spanish girl who is never there. Place is right in the heart of Madrid and pretty sweet spot. I have to say they have been living the dream. Lucky for me they are nice enough to let me crash on their couch, appreciate it. It sounds counterintuitive but the recession has been great to them. In any other time they both would have pulled great jobs out of college and been working the grind in the states but since the recession hit they decided to go live and teach in Madrid. So they signed up for the month long teaching course with no guarantee of employment and headed over to Spain. The first month they spoke no Spanish, had no air conditioning, no job and did not know a soul in Spain. After a year they both are conversational, have made money, traveled all over, made tons of friends in Spain and lived in a foreign country. In the grand scheme of life this experience will be so much better than having had a long term job straight out of college. Not that is a bad thing, heck that’s what I and the majority of my friends did. Looking at this from the outside now though, what an experience. When they are both 80 years old odds are they are going to reminisce more about that one year in Spain then about that finance deal, that trial or that one patient.

Now I believe that all experiences need to be balanced, work, play, solitude, social interaction, travel, time at home, etc. and without work play is nowhere near as fun. But as I do this traveling I see a world that many people don’t ever get the chance to see or experience. I see myself growing through experiences that can only occur in an uncomfortable setting such as Spain. Not being able to ask for what you want or have a small conversation with a Spaniard is extremely frustrating but invigorating at the same time. It reestablishes the fact that I really don’t know cr@p. That the world is a big place and the more I think I know and the more I think I have a grasp the farther from the truth I get. Now I know not being able to speak Spanish well is not a prerequisite for intelligence or knowledge but it does make me realize that there is so much more out there that I have not seen or learned about. It makes me admire Blake and Max for having the gusto/b@lls/guts to take on such a scary experience. I think that is what life is about, challenging ourselves by continuously putting ourselves in uncomfortable growth filled situations: speaking in front of a board room, tutoring an at risk youth, having children, getting married, attempting to speak a language you are sure to butcher, asking you boss for the raise you deserve, etc. These are all opportunities for each one of us to face our fears head on, accept them and grow stronger because of them.

Talking to Blake and Max about their year in Spain it makes me even more excited about my year abroad after I graduate. It does bring up a lot of the fears I have regarding it though. I have never lived outside of the country for more than a month and even then I had the comforts of a study abroad program which makes the experience much less intimidating. I have never spoken a word of Mandarin before. I am not a big Chinese cuisine fan. I will be half way across the world from everything that I know and love. It makes me ask myself, are all the dangers, fears, uncomfortable situations going to make me regret going to Southeast Asia? I don’t believe so but these are the thoughts they provoke. I think in any situation that is new and foreign (actually and/or figuratively) whether it be moving to NYC for an internship at an Investment Bank (Mose, J Brown, etc.), diving head first into a relationship, or joining a gym for the first time all of these things bring up fears and concerns. The people I admire the most are those that see those fears and decide to deal with them instead of avoiding them. Those that understand that fear is a part of life and the more you accept that fact the easier it gets to handle.

I couldn’t help reflect what I have seen and learned from both of these guys. They are both going to be extremely successful in life and I am very happy I have gotten to share this experience with them. I am extremely excited and happy to be going to Southeast Asia after hanging out with these guys.

Ok, now that is out of the way, here is a rundown of what happened over this past weekend:

Wednesday: School then basketball game against some South American’s, we lose the first game because we are half playing and half checking them for knives, second game we destroy them. Had to get big and dominate like the original Dream Team, America Rules! (theme of the weekend, more in a bit) That night I find out that someone stole my identity and withdrew $803 from my account out of an ATM in North Hollywood, CA. I am getting a new card and fully reimbursed, thanks Suntrust! Hate you SoCal, someone just got that much closer to calf implants, have fun too bad now you can’t put on your bedazzled Ed Hardy skinny jeans anymore. Enjoy that irony buddy. After figuring that whole debacle out we end up going to a club that used to be a theatre, pretty sweet actually. We saw a male Spanish Go-Go dancer get violated by a larger than life woman, my eyes still burn from seeing that. He seemed to like it though, other than that great times.

Thursday: Heavily caffeinated class session, last of the week. Grab a bus to Madrid and get into Madrid around 9 pm. Reunited with the aforementioned Blake and Max and the glorious weekend begins. I have to say I already played tourist last year in Madrid so this time around I was looking to just have a good weekend with friends that live in the city.

To start off Blake and Max cook from scratch every night. So in their tradition every night we would head to the grocery store and grab the nightly necessities. The first night we had homemade Sangria, nachos with turkey meat and homemade salsa. The second night we had Caesar salad with shrimp and tapas with French toasted eggplant with caramelized onions and salmon on top. The third night was the day of the world cup match between the US and England so we ended up going to their friends place and BBQ’ing. We made black and bleu burgers with sweet potato fries. We had some leftover meat so Blake and I were downing burger on top of tomato, lettuce and bleu cheese. I called this our game day tapas but Max told me that they weren’t tapas. I think he was pissed b/c he missed out on my sweet creation, Black and Bleu tapas !

Thursday night we didn’t end up doing much other than eating and hanging out. We did reminisce about our families, haha always a fun talk. Great sangria, great food, great night. Love you Family. J

Friday: Slept in (going to be a theme for the weekend as well), Blake makes a quiche best one I have ever had at least until he made a better one Sunday, we go to the gym. The gym is nice but for some odd reason Spanish gym goers do not like to wear deodorant. There was a corridor of the gym that smelled like a soiled diaper, dipped in a vat of 4 day old sweat. Sorry for the description but it was palpable, safe to say I chose to do free weights on the far side of the gym. We eat dinner, its great and head downstairs to Blake and Max’s American friends place. They are celebrating something and there is a British guy named Pedro there that is hilarious. We end up going out to a club called Joy. It is three stories and pretty cool. It cost 11 euro to get in but you get a free drink with admittance and drinks are 12 euro. Blake and I both got our one drink, whiskey on the rocks and make it last. That drink literally lasted 3 hours lol. We leave the club around 4 pm and head back to the flat, their buddy Aaron comes back with us. Aaron is a Fulbright scholar that writes poetry and teaches English. Oh Aaron also played linebacker at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, real cool guy. We all end up smoking hookah until around 7 am and talk about life until we realize that it is light out. Fun night.

Saturday: Sleep in even later, it is game day though. The World Cup has started and the US is playing England at 8:30 pm in Spain. We get the food for the BBQ and head over to their friends place. Blake has a 1996 USA Grant Hill jersey on I am jealous because I have no red or blue. That ends up not being an issue. The group we meet up with is dressed ridiculously and has red, white and blue paint (see pic). We are blasting the theme music to Team America, Charlie Daniels, and anything remotely American while singing our national anthem throughout the day. Blake continuously kept yelling out “Freedom”, we were set to have a great time abusing whatever Brit’s we saw. I personally had 1776 and USA tattooed on my forearms and red, white and blue face paint. Game time is upon us so we take our overly obnoxious group of ‘Mericans and head to an Irish bar. Turns out foreign countries don’t have English or American bars but they do have a ton of Irish bars. So we head to one and get a room in the back because ownership was sure not going to let us out amongst the normal’s. We do make it a point to sing the national anthem amazingly loud, loud enough that people were coming from other rooms to catch a gander at the awesomeness that is our Star Spangled Banner rendition (see clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWZhzw5yGqQ ). For anyone that didn’t watch the game, we ended up with a draw, 1-1. We played a good match and considering were a little lucky with our goal I was more than satisfied with our performance. I will concede Mr. Ryan Moseley, England might be better but we have a better goalie, God Bless Tim Howard!

After the game we head back to the flat, eat some cereal, watch “The League”, great show for those who haven’t seen it and call it a night.

Sunday: Sleep in (shocker), Blake makes a quiche and I pack up. Oh I hadn’t mentioned the weather was horrible all weekend long until Sunday. Sunday was beautiful, we walked all around Madrid, had some café con leche while people watching, ate Tapas and played a bit of tourist. I said goodbye to the fellas around 4:30 pm and headed back to Granada. Unfortunately the woman next to me partially filled up my seat and hers and smelled like cat food. Looking on the bright side I did get most my reading done for class this week, something about the smell of cat food keeps me awake. ME-OW!!!

Safe to say it was a great weekend and I can’t thank Blake and Max enough for making it happen.

P.S. I am writing this right now because I can’t sleep thanks to sleeping in so much this weekend. Looks like a 2 pm siesta is in my cards for tomorrow.