Angel

 

Victor

I went and spent a couple hours with my little Spanish nephews yesterday. They are a month old not and steady growing. I'll put up some pics eventually. I had my first, last class with one of my classes today. They were sad. Two more last classes tomorrow and two more on Thursday. Tomorrow Barcelona plays for the European Championship against Manchester United. I am quite proud to say that I visited the stadiums of the best team in the English League and Spanish League in the same week and two weeks before they played each other for the European Title. Venga Barça!

If anyone wants any specific gift from Spain, tell me. Happy Birthday Dre

So the trip to Barcelona turned out to be pretty good. The 8 hour train ride up there wasn't that bad and actually passed by rather quickly. It was supposed to be raining on Thursday and Friday but once we got there the sun was out and it was warm. So we dropped off our bags and headed out to explore. About two hours into our exploring it began to storm badly and we were stuck out in the rain before it slacked up and we returned to the hostel for the night. We only got to see Las Ramblas, which is a famous, long stretch of vendors and street performers between shops and restaurants.

Friday morning when we left the hostel the sun was out and shining once again and we decided to go Camp Nou, the soccer stadium of F.C. Barcelona, my favorite team and the champions of the Spanish League. Overall it was ok. The tour of Manchester United's stadium was better and a whole lot cheaper. After that we headed to another famous Barcelona site, Park Guell, which was designed by a famous artist named Antoni Gaudi. There are no words to describe the park, you have to look at the pictures see for yourself. It was definitely one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. After a couple hours in the park, we headed to the Sagrada Familia, also designed by Gaudi. We then headed down to walk around the port before heading back to hostel.

Saturday morning we headed to Montjuic, an area of Barcelona that is home to another soccer team, park and some other things. We then headed to the Pueblo Español which is an attraction that has has houses and shops built like those in all the different areas of Spain. We then found another park to spend some time in before heading to a mall and then back to the hostel.

Sunday consisted of us checking out of the hostel and taking another trip to the port and stopping by to see the beach before heading to the train station for the 8 hour journey back down to the south. Barcelona is an incredible city that I loved for its uniqueness from any other place that I have been. I also loved that there was so many different people from all over the world in this one city. At any given time you could hear three different language been spoken around you. The only thing that I didn't like about Barcelona was the food. The food we had wasn't even mediocre. It seems like everywhere else you could just pick a restaurant at random and be thoroughly pleased with the food and the price. This did not happen in Barça. The only meal that we had that luck with was our dinner our first night. Incredible city, good time, good people, good weather, I couldn't be more pleased.

I am supposed to go to Granada this weekend but I am quite tired from the past week and half of traveling, and for that reason I might not go. I also haven't talked to my friend that I am supposed to stay with. I still have a little bit of time to make it down there. 4 weeks til I'm back in Knoxville. I bought my ticket for my flight back last night. ADIOS

pics will be up soon, theres a lot

I forgot to say that I got news that a friend from college had passed away on Tuesday. He was in my good friend Zachs fraternity. He had just moved home to Virginia the day before and then had a heart attack. R.I.P. Big Ryan

 

This past Friday three other teachers and myself took nineteen students on a trip to Scotland and England. It was pretty interesting from t he beginning because it was the first time flying for about a third of the students. After the almost three hour flight, we immediately began exploring the city of Edinburgh. We walked around the city for a few hours seeing everything with the Scottish girl who had my job last year. On Sunday we headed out in our bus tour to a different area of Scotland a couple hours away to take a boat ride on Loch Ness and see other famous areas in the part of Scotland. This tour took nearly 12 hours and once we returned we walked around the city to see a couple things that we didnt get to the previous day.

Monday we woke up and had breakfast before taking a 3 hour train down to Manchester, England. I sat beside a cool guy from Canada on the train that had been living in Scotland for the past 8 years. He even helped us find where we were supposed to go once we got off the train. Once in Manchester, we went directly to our hotel which was right in front of the soccer stadium for Manchester United. We then went to the stadium to take a tour that turned out to be really cool. We practically got to see and do everything but go on the actual grass on the field. We then went to see High School Musical live and the teachers found out how far behind Spain is because it was nothing but little 6 year old girls in the audience mixed in with our grip of nineteen 15 year old kids. Tuesday we had a really good breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the mall for about a hour before it was time to head to the airport and head back.

It was a really good trip and I am very glad that I went. The most impressionable thing about the trip is that we were in the U.K. for four days straight without it raining. Anybody that knows anything about the U.K. will understand that this is something that never happens. The trip consisted of traveling by plane, bus, train, walking and even a boat ride. And of course the kids complained about each one of them and also got sick in almost each of them. I am completely exhausted but I went to my classes today and tomorrow I head to Barcelona for four days. Pictures probably wont get posted until sometime next week. adios

 

We bought two goldfish today

Scotland tomorrow!

Today I spent almost a minute listening to almost every student in the class attempt to say "judge." It was really funny and nobody ever said it correctly. A couple of the teachers I work with are married and had twins last monday, April 27th. Here are pics of my Spanish nephews, Angel and Victor.

Valencia was incredible! I could easily live there happily. On Friday once I got there and went and chilled with my two friends from Tech who are studying in Valencia now. We sat around and talked for awhile before heading out to walk around the city. After a couple hours of enjoying the sights of VLC, one of my good friends from Germany called and met up with us with his friend. We all went to dinner then my two friends from Tech went home and I went out with the Germans. Needless to say a lot of people were looking at us because both of my German friends are about 6'7" and I am 5'6". While we were out we met up with another friend from London who was in Valencia with us who just happen to be in the city too. Saturday we spepnt almost the entire day on the beach, which is a million times better than the beach here in Aguilas. Sunday I said good bye to my Tech friends and then went into the city to meet the Germans before I left. We walked around for a little bit and then it was time for me to leave. Another great trip to city that started it all.

Now I get to rest for a couple days and then then off to Scotland and England with my crazy kids.