HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Benidorm was quality and pics will come soon. Back in Murcia for New Years Eve!

Watch this if you have a sec. It´s my roommates commercial he made for Chevy and if he wins the contest, it will be played during the Superbowl. Gracias

http://chevroletroute66.mx.msn.com/#/video/1350969827001/13384.EGAN2VIQNQAUL2BS

Yesterday I went to a small beachtown with two teachers from my school: Pedro and David. David has an exhibition of Belenes, nativity scenes, there at the church and we went to see it. Belenes are so much more common in Spain than in the U.S. It amazes me how much the people here are kind of obsessed with Belenes. They are literally everywhere you turn. I think that it is good though, just so different from what I am used to. I will post pics later because right now I am about to go to another beach town, Benidorm, for the next couple of days. Adios!

So I still have not recieved my residency card. When I turned in my papers, I was told that if I did not recieve a letter in two weeks saying that they needed something else, everything was fine and I would recieve my card in about  month. That was eleven weeks ago. So I figured I would go by the office and see what the deal was now that I had some free time. After talking with three different people with three different answers, I figured out that I did not have my card because they needed another paper from me. One very important fact is that I did not know this because they did not tell me. And they weren't going to tell me. When I asked the lady if this would be the last thing I needed to turn in she said, "I don't know." Oh Spain...

Just saw on Facebook that another friend from college passed away on Dec. 23. We had some Spanish classes together and he would always check in and make sure everything was going well in Spain for me. R.I.P. Asa. Prayers for you and your family. You inspired me more than anything else during college to be a better speaker of the Spanish language.

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

I got this from a friend. I don´t know where he found it though. Enjoy!!


Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa, 
Not a creature was stirring -- Caramba! Que pasa? 
Los ninos were tucked away in their camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pijamas,
While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado
In hopes that old Santa would feel ...obligado
To bring all children, both buenos and malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.
Outside in the yard there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?
Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero
Came dashing along like a crazy bombero.
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados
Were eight little burros approaching volados.
I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
"Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Berto, Ay Chato, ay Chopo, Macuco, y Nieto!"
Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho
He flew to the top of our very own techo.
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
He struggled to squeeze down our old chiminea,
Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala,
With soot smeared all over his red suit de gala,
He filled all the stockings with lovely regalos --
For none of the ninos had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
And I heard him exclaim, and this is verdad,
Merry Christmas to all,
and Feliz Navidad!

Christmas break is here! No more classes until Jan 9th.

University of Georgia head football coach Mark Richt broke NCAA rules by paying his coaches out of his own pocket. He just gained more respect from me. Go Dawgs and Go Richt! Here is the article:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/35476/the-audacity-of-mark-richt

Sad to hear about the passing of a friend that I went to elementary school with. It is amazing the number of people that I know under 30 that have passed away over the past three years. Rest in Peace Aubrey. Thoughts and prayers for your family, especially your little girl.

Sepia (cuttlefish), prawns and salad for lunch. The Medieterrenean diet.

I'm having issues uploading my pics to Facebook but I put a couple pics up on Flickr. You can see them on the right side of the blog under the borrowlenses.com ad. These will have to do until I post the rest on Facebook.

Just spent an hour talking to the librarian about movies and the NBA. Now it is time for class with these crazy little 5 yr olds.

Day three was a chill day. Walked around a bit and went to a mall that is close to the house where I am staying at. Night plans included walking around and going to see a comedian who turned out to be pretty good. Last night was also the big game between Madrid and Barcelona. Barcelona won and we got to see everyone celebrating. There is this one fountain where everybody celebrates each Barca victory and we just happenend to be there right after the game ended. Pics and videos will be posted tomorrow, maybe. Now it is time to head to the airport. Back to work, my short vacation is over.

Day two was another success. Got to see and go in the infamous Sagrada Familia as well as visit a little beach town that is about 30 mins outside of the city. I took a bunch of pics so I will try to get them up asap.

I had good first day in Barcelona. Pretty much spent the entire day just walking around. It was a holiday so there were a ton of people out.

I am heading up to Barcelona tonight! Pics and stories to come next week.

Yesterday, one of the teachers from my school gave me a ticket to go watch Murcia's basketball team play. I've been wanting to go see a game so that made me happy. And I got to go for free so even better. They ended up losing but it was good to see some basketball finally. It also made me miss playing and now I want to go play. I enjoyed the game and I will definitely be going to see at least a couple more games. Overall, it was a bad weekend for my sports teams. North Carolina (NCAAB), Georgia (NCAAF), Detroit and Cincinnati (NFL) all lost.

Another quality video from my roommate Cal. The kid has talent.

\\http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOzKdZI24dk&feature=g-user

Here is the link to my old pics from my first two adventures in Spain.

http://community.webshots.com/user/jamal424

Today my Georgia Bulldogs will play for the SEC championship. So, like every other Saturday, I will be proudly wearing my red and black.  Two months have passed now and everything is going quite well. My school is full of nice people and the students aren’t too bad either. Earlier this week, the lady in charge of the program I worked with the other years here sent me an email asking if I wanted to work some extra hours at another school. I obviously said yes and I will begin working in January. I’m quite happy because this means more money!

This year I am also enrolled in a Spanish class. We meet twice a week for 3 ½ hours. It is quite intensive considering what all we have covered in just two weeks of class so far. There are only five of us so that makes it even better. Over the past few years I have wanted to actually study Spanish again because four years has already passed since I graduated from college.

Next week is our first break in December and Wednesday night I am flying to Barcelona to see some friends and I will fly back on Sunday. I haven’t taken any pics in a while so I’m excited for my first trip with my camera.

Hope all is well with everyone!! 

Finally posted some new pics on Flickr so go have a look!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamal424/

My roommate Cal from last year won a video contest for Pepsi and last week he got to go to London for three days for the awards show. Here is the link for the video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxvsx6fOPqc&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Happy birthday to my mother, Mrs. Mary D. Martin!!!!!!!!

 

I’m watching a documentary called 9/11: 10 Years Later on CBS that is incredible. Two French filmmaker brothers happened to be following one of the NYFD companies around when the events took place on September 11th. The captains allowed them to accompany them to what became Ground Zero and they were there from the beginning, one brother actually caught video of the first plane hitting the tower, until both towers had fallen. If you have a chance, I strongly recommend watching this documentary. It provided a perspective that I thought I would never see, what was actually going on inside. I will definitely purchase it if it becomes available.

I heard a statistic today that 97% of Americans can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when the planes hit the towers. I had just started my junior year of high school and was walking to my Spanish class with friends when we heard the news that a plane hit the towers. I figured that it had been a small single-engine plane or something like that, nothing big. 45-50 minutes later when class was over, we realized the severity of what had happened and what was going on. Once I arrived to my Human Biology class Mrs. J. brought in a TV and we were able to see what was going on. We all were pretty much sitting there speechless. I immediately began to think about my dad who was in New Jersey for business. We then left the class and the entire school met in the auditorium where we were updated on the situation and told to go home. I came home and sat on the coach, glued to the TV for the next seven or eight hours. My dad was okay, just stuck in New Jersey. He and his co-workers got one of very few rental cars that were available and made the long drive back to Tennessee.

I had the chance to travel to New York for the first time in 2006. There were many places and things that I wanted to see but Ground Zero was not necessarily on that list. While walking to a meet a friend at his hotel, we accidently ran across Ground Zero. We wondered what this massive fence covered by tarps was, and when we looked in, we realized what it was. A chill shot through my body and I stood speechless with my mouth wide open. Once in my friend’s hotel, he showed us the view from his room. It was looking down on Ground Zero. Also, while we were up there, they found the remains of three victims. Five years later and they were still finding remains.

Today, 10 years later, I enjoyed church and lunch with my parents and later spending some time with friends at a park. Thoughts and prayers to all those who lost someone or were involved in the search and rescue after the attacks and all military personnel and their families .

I had another great and successful rental from borrowlenses.com this past week. This time I rented the Canon 70-200mm f4L telephoto lens. I have my own 70-210mm lens but I wanted to rent a professional lens and this was going to be my last opportunity before I return to Spain. I shot my friends softball game first before I headed to Florida for the weekend for my niece's soccer tournament, which turned out to be a little bit difficult with all the rain. Here are a few of the photos from the long Labor Day weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost Sea. The largest underground lake in the United States and 2nd largesst in the world.

 

I'm glad to finally have my car back. It was in the shop for almost 2 months after getting demolished by the hail storm in April. I also didn't have it for the 8 previous months because I was in Spain. Now I get to enjoy it for about 2 months before I am car-less again.

Not too much going on this summer besides working a little bit and spending time friends and family. Needless to say, I have some free time on my hands. So tonight I got my basketball, camera, tripod and remote control for my camera and headed outside. I sat up the tripod in several different positions and starting taking pics while shooting around. I put my camera on a two second delay and had the remote in my pocket so it wouldn't show up in the pics. So after 30 mins I had about 60 pics and here are a few of my favorites.

 

 

 

Here's a video of one of my classes saying goodbye. This was my second year with this group. They weren't usually excited for class, unless we were doing karaoke, but they are a good group of kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PlFH181pVM

Another site with my pictures. pretty much all the places I traveled to over the past year. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamal424/

 

Norris Lake. This was taken at 2:30 am with only the light from the moon.

Had a great weekend with the 50mm lens. I definitely enjoyed it but did not fall in love with it. I will buy it at some point but it is nothing that I necessarily need right away. I am sad to send it back to borrowlenses.com tomorrow however I will use their services again soon.

I'm renting a lens for my camera so I'm exciting about getting to play around with it this weekend. I've heard nothing but good things about the lens so hopefully I will be able to make some good things happen! If it goes well, I'm pretty sure I am going to buy this lens and probably do away with my kit lens.

 

the sunsphere

 

interesting flowers at the World's Fair Park

 

el pato

 

Concord Park

 

Concord Park

Time for an update and a break from the photos. Last week I received an email saying that I was accepted to participate for another year in Spain as a cultural language assistant. This means that yes, I will be heading back to Spain again. I will not be in Aguilas this time, but in the capital city of Murcia. I'm looking forward to my fourth trip to España!

 

working hard with the medicine ball

 

Exhaustion

 

 

tennis ball workout

 

The trainer

 

Dre's workout session