In honor of the NFL Draft yesterday and a Georgia Boy being picked number 1, I bought a football and will be introducing the Spaniards here to our great sport. I also ate KFC yesterday. There is even popcorn chicken in Spain.

On Thursday, after all of my classes, I went to the gym to watch some of my students play handball. The boys played first, but I only had one student that was playing. They started off playing well but ended up losing. For the girls team, all but two were my students. I got to be an “assistant coach” for them even though I know absolutely nothing about handball. I helped them in their warm ups and sat on the bench too. They lost as well. After the games, I went to dinner with some of my teachers. They got me a basketball and all they teachers I play with are going to sign it. They also got me the jersey of the Spanish National soccer team.

Friday, two of my classes got to spend the day at the beach and I went with them to help with the activities. We went to the beach at 8:30 to set up everything for the day. One of the teachers and myself went and got in the sea at 10 in the morning. The water was freezing and I started losing feeling in my legs before I got out. The first thing we did was take a boat ride out into the sea. The water is super clear and you can see the bottom which is covered in grass. Once we got out there, we then kayaked back to the beach which was cool too but tiring. Next they had a map and had to go around the beach and find cards that we had hidden. After that, we just chilled on the beach until it was time for them to leave. A few of them stayed and brought me an ice cream cake to eat on the beach. My roommates then came too and we chilled at the beach for a couple more hours throwing the frisbee and going into the water once it got too hot. In the end, I was at the beach from about 8:30 or 8 :45 in the morning until 5:45 in the afternoon. My roommates had a tshirt made with our picture on it for me and Laura made a cake too. We then went to this really good Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Needless to say, I had another incredible birthday spent with all my Spaniards. All day long students were telling me happy birthday and attempting to sing the happy birthday song in English. I am truly blessed to be around such great people here and I will thoroughly miss them.

On Thursday, after all of my classes, I went to the gym to watch some of my students play handball. The boys played first, but I only had one student that was playing. They started off playing well but ended up losing. For the girls team, all but two were my students. I got to be an “assistant coach” for them even though I know absolutely nothing about handball. I helped them in their warm ups and sat on the bench too. They lost as well. After the games, I went to dinner with some of my teachers. They got me a basketball and all they teachers I play with are going to sign it. They also got me the jersey of the Spanish National soccer team.

Friday, two of my classes got to spend the day at the beach and I went with them to help with the activities. We went to the beach at 8:30 to set up everything for the day. One of the teachers and myself went and got in the sea at 10 in the morning. The water was freezing and I started losing feeling in my legs before I got out. The first thing we did was take a boat ride out into the sea. The water is super clear and you can see the bottom which is covered in grass. Once we got out there, we then kayaked back to the beach which was cool too but tiring. Next they had a map and had to go around the beach and find cards that we had hidden. After that, we just chilled on the beach until it was time for them to leave. A few of them stayed and brought me an ice cream cake to eat on the beach. My roommates then came too and we chilled at the beach for a couple more hours throwing the frisbee and going into the water once it got too hot. In the end, I was at the beach from about 8:30 or 8 :45 in the morning until 5:45 in the afternoon. My roommates had a tshirt made with our picture on it for me and Laura made a cake too. We then went to this really good Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Needless to say, I had another incredible birthday spent with all my Spaniards. All day long students were telling me happy birthday and attempting to sing the happy birthday song in English. I am truly blessed to be around such great people here and I will thoroughly miss them.

Only in Spain can you see a woman dressed in all pink and heels riding a 4-wheeler on the street.

More grey hairs in my head. I dont like the way this is going.

We just booked our trip to Barcelona! So next weekend is my birthday, weekend after I go to Valencia, next weekend Scotland and the weekend after that is Barcelona. Im going to be busy...and probably broke, but happy.

Oh yeah, we still havent been paid for March. They went on Easter vacation April 3rd and didnt do our payment before they left. They go back to work tomorrow, April 15th, but they have "a lot of work to do" and we arent on the top of the priority list so they might not get to it tomorrow. Life in Spain...

I had one of my students come up and tell me that Miley Cyrus was from my state and asked if I have ever talked to her. I told her that she isnt from Tennessee, I dont know if that is true or not, but that she was in Knoxville. These kids are forever going to know Tennessee and Knoxville after me being here. A lot of the kids are under the impression that I am a regular teacher and will be returning next year but some are asking and figuring out that I wont be here. The student that I have private class with asked me if I was staying and when I told him no he said "You know a lot of people are going to miss you here." Im gonna miss these crazy little Spaniards too.

I realized I never put up pics from Carnaval, so I just did. Go check them out and be amazed

Happy late birthday to my big bro Priest and Imo. My day began at 7:30 yesterday when I got up to catch my 8:30 bus back to Murcia. I slept the entire first 6 hours until we got to the rest stop to eat. I then slept again until we reached Valencia. After seeing my old stomping grounds, I then read the rest of the trip. So after 12 hours of traveling we pulled into the bus station in Murcia and the last bus for Aguilas, that is supposed to leave at 8:30, hadn't left yet so I got to take it back. So I finally got here at 10 and then had to go find 2 of my friends from TN Tech that are Valencia this semester. They are taking a road trip through the south and wanted to spend the night here.

So my trip to the North was overall, spectacular. My friend Katie was an excellent host and we went and saw more places than I thought we would. I enjoyed it a great deal and met some really nice people up there. All the pics are up so go check them out and I also put up pics and videos from the Good Friday Processions that took place today from 8am until noon. have a good day DUECES

 

Today we went back to San Sebastiian to take more pics during the day and go up a mountain. After all that we went to another little city and walked around for awhile. Now I have to get up bright and early and enjoy this 12 hour bus ride again

 

Today was a pretty calm day in comparison to what all we have done the previous days. We went to town that had a really long and difficullt name, which you can see in the pic. Apple Cider is really, really big up here in the north so we went to a Cider Musuem. It turned out to be really cool. We had a really nice lady take us around the property and show us how everything works in the process to get cider, beginning with the apple seeds for the apple trees. We even gathered some apples like how they do it and mashed them up. The tour ended with us tasting a couple types of cider and other apple products. One being the best apple juice I have ever tasted in my life. Mom would be proud since she is always trying to get me to drink apple juice. There wouldnt be any problem if all apple juice tasted like this. After that we headed back to San Sebastian to walk around again. ok im sleepy, hasta mañana.

So today we went to town called Zumaia that is about an hour and a half train ride away. It's a really small, neat town but the main thing there is Flysch Cliffs. These cliffs along with the views along the trail we walked around the city are probably my favorite thing that I have seen in Spain or anywhere else. The cliffs are incredible and were formed by erosion. We then took about a 90 minute walk along the cliffs and the coastline which then went inland. It was pretty crazy to see all the different landforms there. In southern Spain there isn't much, if any, greenery. The amount of green that I have seen here is insane compared to the desert that is the rest of Spain. It went from the cliffs and the coastline to giant rolling greenhills followed by a forest-like area and then back to the hills. pics are up. enjoy and adios

Today was another good day as well. We went to Burger King to eat then took the train to another town in France called Biarritz. The city was really cool. We spent around 3 hours there walking around and seeing everything. Over the past couple of days we have walked around 8 miles. Last night we into San Sebastian, a pretty big city that is about 30 to 45 mins away. We are going to go back maybe tomorrow during the day to see some more stuff. I put pics up on webshots of my first two days here so far. adios and GO HEELS tomorrow in the championship.

So the 12 1/2 hour bus ride really was not that bad at all. I slept for the first half managed to stay awake for the rest. We stopped in Pamplona, where the running of the bulls takes place, and it seemed like a really cool city. The trip from Pamplona to Irun, the city where I am at, was really green and mountainous. It really reminded me of Tennessee and North Carolina. Today we walked around the city for awhile and then we went to France in the evening with a couple friends. It was only about a 20 minute ride and it was really nice. We went to a really nice beach and got to see the Atlantic Ocean from the other side again, like when I was in Portugal. It was really nice and I will put up pics soon. We are going to go back to France tomorrow. adios

I made it to the north just fine. I will write more soon when I have some more time. I think we are going to France this evening.