So a couple weeks ago I saw a mouse running around down the hall while I was in my room watching Bad Boys II. I told Cal and we decided not to tell Ana. We went and got some traps but didn't catch it. I didn't see it anymore so I forgot about it. So on Tuesday when we went to go eat with Angel and play with the twins, he asked me if I had caught the mouse. I quickly said no and changed the topic before Ana could absorb what he said. It would just happen that the next night I was standing in my doorway talking to Ana in the hallway and the mouse ran out between my legs and headed into her room. Now she knew about the mouse. And of course shes deathly afraid of them, but ready to go to war to catch it. So we got more traps, in total I think we had 10 or 12 but only 8 set up. So 2 nights without catching anything and last night, well this morning at 6:30, she came and woke got me up because the mouse was trapped in one of our traps. So I got up, bagged it up and took it to the trash. Since I was up, I decided to check the score on the Colts-Jets and I saw the Colts lost by 1. BOOOOO!!

So for the new year smoking is banned inside restaurants and bars in Spain. I'm happy now because I can go out in public and return to the apartment without my clothes being saturated with smoke. I am surprised this passed in Spain though.

I just uploaded some pics from my all my little Christmas trips.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamal424/Navidad#

My first meal of the new year was Burger King. I haven't had that in awhile.

My first meal of the new year was Burger King. I haven't had that in awhile.

Happy New Year everybody!

So our most recent trip was a road trip to Madrid to drop my roommate’s mom off at the airport. After only one day of rest from the last trip, we headed out a little before 4 a.m. to Madrid. We made it there around 8:30 and stopped at a random little restaurant to have breakfast. The guy who owned the place turned out to be from Orlando. He moved here, married a Russian woman, had a baby and vowed to not return back to the U.S. He talked with us the entire time we were in there and was telling us how we should stay here and not go back either. He was even telling us places that we could possibly work. He was really cool and I want to go back to his restaurant next time I’m in Madrid. After that we headed to the airport. We then had to make the decision to return straight home or take advantage of having a car and go somewhere else. So our next stop was Segovia, a town about an hour northwest of Madrid. Turned out to be an excellent decision because I had never been there before and it was an amazing town. We drove around and found the area of town that it was known for. It had a lot of small touristy stores along with your normal shopping. There was also an amazing cathedral that we went into and an aqueduct that the Romans built. The castle there is Walt Disney used as an outline for Snow White’s castle and for another story too, I don’t remember which one. After that, we ate and hit the road again. I would also like to add that it was really warm in Segovia, even warmer than Aguilas. Once on the road we decided to stop in Toledo, another town that is on the outskirts of Madrid. I went to Toledo the first time I was in Spain and loved it so I was looking forward to seeing it again. We arrived, parked and walked around for just a little bit. The sun had gone down by now and it was cold and windy so it wasn’t the best conditions for walking around. We really didn’t do anything there but we did get to see a nice view of the castle and cathedral on our way out. So about 3 or 3 ½ hrs later we make it to Murcia and somehow end up on a different route to Aguilas than normal. We guess that it would work out anyway and continue. So we didn’t get gas in Murcia because we had to return the car in the morning and it is supposed to be empty. Little did we know we would hit a stretch of I don’t know how many miles without not only a gas station, but any signs of life period. So we finally come to a toll and the lady tells us how to get to Aguilas. Turns out I should have asked where was the nearest gas station was. Maybe 3 or 4 minutes after going through the toll the car stops. It says we have gas but the car isn’t doing anything. We were officially stuck on the middle of nowhere. I figured we were pretty close to Aguilas so I called a friend to see if they had the number for a tow truck that we could call and take us to a gas station. Turns out we weren’t anywhere near Aguilas and I called the roadside assistance. There were absolutely no signs around and the one sign that was there, when I told the lady what it said she told me that that mile marker and highway didn’t exist. I thought that was funny. So after several calls with the roadside assistance lady and the towing company, we finally figured out that we were in Mazarron, a town about 40 km from Aguilas. In the end the roadside assistance lady was really nice and so was the tow truck driver. He came, loaded up the car and took us to a gas station that was literally 1 ½ miles away. We almost made it. After about another 45 mins to an hour of driving we finally made it back to Aguilas. I think I’m done with road trips for awhile. In the end, we put almost 4,000 km (over 2,000 miles) on the car in 4 days. These trips were exhausting but fun. I got to revisit places that I went to the first time I was in Spain and places that I went to two years ago when I was here. I was ready to relax tonight but I just got a call from one of the teachers and we are going to eat in 30 mins and I have to shower too. Oh well, adios and happy New Year a day and a few hours early!

 

Lamborgini Gallardo in Granada. I ended up driving behind it later

So while eating lunch on Christmas we decided to head to Granada for dinner. Once we arrived in Granada we walked around and found a nice restaurant to eat at. During dinner we discussed the fact that Seville is only a 3 hr drive away and the possibility of heading there next. So we finished our dinner in Granada and began walking back to the car to continue our journey. We arrived in Seville around 1 a.m. and found a hostel to stay in for the night. We woke up the next morning and discussed traveling to Lisbon, Portugal since it wasn’t that far away at all. Seville is about an hour away from the Spain/Portugal border and 5 hrs away from Lisbon. We finished our breakfast and began the next leg of our journey. Right before reaching the border, we stopped for gas and I decided to put some air into one of the tires. Little did I know, the hose had a massive hole in it and in the little time I spent attempting to add air to the tire, it went flat. I went and told the attendant that the air wasn’t working. He tried adding air himself. Same result. We began inspecting the device and the hose and that’s when he found the hole, which was badly duct taped. Fortunately, they had another one and we were back on the road. We took a very scenic route by accident that took us through the mountains and a lot of small towns. We were grateful for this because we got to see the countryside and enjoy the ride and view even though it took almost 2 hrs longer. So we finally arrive in Lisbon around 7 p.m. We had an excellent dinner; Portugal has never let me down for any meal. We then went next door to this famous bakery spot that has these great little pastries. There we enjoyed the sweets and decided that we were going to go ahead and drive back that night. So by 9:30 p.m. we were back on the road heading home. We started out making really good time and then all of sudden it seemed to slow down exponentially. After a long 12 ½ hrs we made it back to Aguilas. So, that was my Christmas this year. Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I really don’t have any pictures because we really didn’t see anything. We just drove and ate. The few pics that I do have are of cars and motorcycles and I will definitely put the pic of the Lambo that we saw up.

Just spent 11 euros on contact solution, that is $14. Very expensive

 

Me and the boys from a few weeks ago

 

Angel

 

Victor

Thanks mom and dad for the Christmas card and post cards.

finally got PAID today!

 

Here is the link for the pics again

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamal424

Right now one Euro = $1.33. And while we were in Morocco, 10 dirham = 1 euro. Pics are up too.

So our journey began on Friday with a two-hr bus ride to a different city to catch our flight to Madrid. My roundtrip flight to Alicante to Madrid only cost 25 Euros after taxes and all the fees. Roundtrip to Morocco only cost 80 Euros. It should have only cost me 40 Euros but the price went up right when I was buying my ticket. Once in Madrid, we began to walk around and look for a place to eat dinner. We found this Caribbean restaurant where I had a good Cuban meal. After that, we walked around for a few hours and then called it a night and went to our hostel.
There also happened be a massive strike by the Spanish air traffic controllers that turned into a huge fiasco. They went on strike when there was a 5-day weekend, costing Spain millions of dollars, well Euros, because they had to cancel so many flights. I don’t know if it made the news in the US but it was a big deal. Hundreds of thousands of people were stuck at the airport. Once seeing all this on the news, we were extremely happy that we made it in.
We walked around all day Saturday and I actually remembered quite a bit from when I went to Madrid in 2006. That evening, we met up with some of our Spanish friends that came to Madrid also. We did some more walking around and then headed in to get ready for our trip to Africa. We had to keep watching the news to see the status on the airport and the flights. In the end, the military had to come in and take over until they apparently made the controllers come back.
The flight from Madrid to Tangier was only one hour. In the span of about 5 minutes we went from flying over the Spanish coast right onto the landing strip on Tangier’s coast. We go through customs and get our money changed before starting our adventure. The taxi driver could only read Sanskrit, so I had quite a task of attempting to explain the address and where we were going. We made it after all and the apartment we rented was incredible. It was without a doubt the most interesting place I have ever stayed. The living room looked like it was from a palace. We all had our own massive couches that we referred to as our thrones. Once we got settled in, we headed out to find a taxi to take us down to the port area. Once we got down there, it began to rain so we decided to find a restaurant to eat at and wait out the rain. We then had a massive meal that was quality and cost 1/3 of we would have to pay in Spain. During the meal, I received a text from one of the teachers at my school who was supposed to fly to Morocco on Saturday and he told me that his flight got canceled and he was heading back to Aguilas from Madrid. After eating, we began asking questions to our waiter about places to see and things to do but he really didn’t understand us so he got these two older guys who have a store across the street from the restaurant to talk with us. They spoke Arabic, French, Spanish, English and I think German also. They then hooked us up with a taxi driver who spoke Spanish. This was the biggest blessing of all for the trip. This man, Mohammed, was literally the nicest person ever. He drove us all around the city for almost an hour and half showing and telling us everything for only 20 Euros. We were even going to ride camels but it started raining kind of hard then so we passed on that. He also took us to the area where all the kings and princes of all the Middle Eastern countries have their vacation palaces. We couldn’t take any pics of them though. We then went to this famous cave that is called Hercules’ Cave and then he took us back into the city to have dinner. After that we went back to the apartment and chilled for the night.
So Monday morning Mohammed came and picked us up and drove us to a beach town that was about 30 mins down the Atlantic coast. This place was called Asilah and we spent a couple hours walking around and exploring. Mohammed then took us back to Tangier and we walked around for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday morning Mohammed picked us up one last time to take us to the airport. We thanked him for making our trip incredible and he thanked us and told us to come back and visit him and the country. We changed our money back and got ready for our flight back to Madrid. When we went through customs 2 of the guys asked me if I spoke Arabic since my name was Jamal.
Once back in Madrid, we walked around some more before eventually getting caught in a heavy downpour. The only bad weather of the trip, besides our turbulent flight back to Madrid from Tangier. Headed back to the hostel and the trip was pretty much over. Spent a bunch of hrs at the two airports and had over 4 hours of time to waste in Murcia while waiting for the bus to Aguilas.
We were extremely blessed to have such a great trip when they were so many opportunities for things to not go in our favor. Madrid was cold and crowded but we had a great time there and I even like it now. I wasn’t too fond of it in the past. Morocco was incredible. The food was great and so cheap while the people were extremely nice. I couldn’t have had a better trip.

My trip:
Friday: fly from Alicante to Madrid
Saturday: Madrid
Sunday: fly from Madrid to Tanger, Morocco (i'm going to be on the continent of Africa, how cool is that?!?!)
Monday: Morocco
Tuesday: fly from Tanger to Madrid
Wednesday: back to Aguilas

I just saw that it is snowing in Tennessee while today is the first day that the sun has been out in a week and its decently warm.

I put up some new pics on the google site. Madrid and Morocco this weekend/next week even though we still haven't been paid...

Just had a class of only karaoke in my last class. Not trying to imply anything but the boys didn't win any until I sang with them and then they won every song after that. I might try to put a video up.

It's been raining 5 out of the past 6 days. BOOOOOO!!!!!

 

The Thanksgiving dinner we prepared for some of our Spanish friends. Spaghetti, two completely hand made pizzas and home made chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Everything went decently. We only burned a few cookies that we forgot about while working on the other things. I also might have accidently thrown a pan of cookies across the kitchen.

Day #3 in a row of rain. Here is a link to one of the teachers photos. He has a couple pics of me from the mountains.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12666552@N06/

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Disfrutalo! (Enjoy it!)

 

Here is a pic of my own tennis racket that I got on Thursday. When I showed up to class the teacher had it for me. 120 euro tennis racket but I will only have to pay 50 euro for it. And even though my shirt says that I have game, I don't. But I will...

here is the new link to my pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamal424

Tennis class was horrible. I took a stop forward after the first class and about 3 steps backwards after the second class. Oh well. It's raining today. Only the second time that is has rained since I've been here. I can't complain about that.

The pics are up but for whatever reason it only loaded maybe 1/4 of the pics. I am having too many problems with webshots so I will try to find another place to post my pics. Hopefully by the end of the week I will get all of the pics up.

So my second tennis class went a whole lot better than the first. I didn’t hit any balls out of the court and into the woods like I did the last time. I think I am finally getting a feel for what I am supposed to be doing. I have another class tonight so we shall see if I am actually learning something.
Friday was the beginning of the camping trip I was talking about. Five teachers from my school, two that used to work at my school when I was here two years ago, Cal and myself were the participants in this adventure. We went to some mountains that are in the next region over, Andalusia, and called Sierra de Segura. In all, the trip took about three hours with the majority of it being us driving through small villages on the way up through the mountains on two-way streets big enough for one car. Upon arrival we quickly noted that we weren’t in Aguilas at the beach anymore. We picked our rooms, settled and ate dinner. Around 1 in the morning, we decided to take our first excursion. We ventured out in the woods that were right on the other side of a stream that ran beside our house. Needless to say, we got lost on our way back. We spent probably about 20 minutes just roaming around trying to find our way back. It was pretty funny because we could see the lights from our house but couldn’t get back to it. I took a couple videos of the night adventure but I am not going to post them because everything said is in Spanish and you can only see something every now and then because we only had 2 lights. Once we made it back, we just chilled out and eventually went to bed.
Saturday was our big day. We got up and had a big breakfast in preparation for our hike. We headed out around 11 or 12 in the cars to a spot that was closer to the particular area we were going to be hiking. We parked the cars on the side of the road and began the hike. The hike up took about 2 ½ hours to reach the top of the mountain. The views along the way were incredible. If I have enough time I will put up my pictures today or tomorrow. They said the area we went to has the most greenery in the entire south of Spain. Once at the top we chilled and had lunch. The vultures noticed our presence and kept flying around and checking us out. When it was time to head back down, three guys who were familiar with the area decided to take a different route back that would take four hours. The rest of us returned the same way that we came. Once we made it back down someone finally had coverage on their cell phone and got a call from the other guys saying that they got lost and were heading to a different town that they found. One of the teachers headed to go pick them up and about 90 minutes later everybody was back at the house. At the end of the day the three guys who went on the other route walked/hiked around 30 kilometers and the rest of us did 20 kilometers, which is around 12 miles I think.
Sunday was our chill day. We got up, ate breakfast, packed, cleaned and then drove to the next village to see this museum that was an old house typical of what the people in that area lived in in the past. After that we headed out. We stopped at a restaurant to eat and watch the last Formula1 race of the season. I think that if Fernando Alonso, a famous Spanish driver, won or came in 2nd place he would win be number one for the entire season. He lost. After that it was back on the road to continue down the mountain and back on the highway to Aguilas.
Everybody had a great time and enjoyed the time out in nature. It was also good to see some old friends who aren’t at the school anymore. I think everybody was ready to get back to the warmth of Aguilas. In the pictures you will see that the weather was incredible. Very hard to believe it was the middle of November and we were walking up a mountain in t-shirts and sweating. Good times

I just booked my flight to Morocco for the first weekend in December!! I'm going to the Motherland.

We also may be getting internet today so I might start calling everybody soon.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the mountains with a group of teachers from school and Cal. It should be pretty interesting and cold.

As of three hours ago, I am a legal immigrant in Spain for the next 365 days.

 

Yep, this is where I live

Finally got the Granada pics loaded and they took forever. There aren't any descriptions because I have 24 mins left on my battery so they will come later.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/578945299fWYiHg

So the first tennis lesson didn't go so well, at least in my mind. Even though it was the first time I had really picked up a tennis racket, I feel that I should be halfway decent. I am far from it. I felt like Barry Bonds out there because I hit a decent amount of my balls completely out of the court and they will never be seen again. This whole concept of learning to play a new sport is going to take some getting used to. I have to make myself remember that I don't know what I'm doing and that I haven't been playing for years. It was my first day and I was as hard on myself as I am when I play basketball. I did have fun though and I will get better.

Here are a couple things that I have been meaning the bring up and I haven't. First off, the Daylight Savings over here happened this past weekend so now I am only 5 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone. Secondly, I have been talking with some teachers about taking tennis lessons. My classes begin tonight, so by the time I return home I will be coming back as the black Rafa Nadal.

So here is the rundown on our trip to Granada this past weekend. Once we began to search for a hostel to stay in, we quickly found out that apparently everybody travels to Granada when there is a long weekend. There weren’t any hostels that we could book. So Thursday night we started looking into hotels. We found one and booked it and within 2 minutes they were calling us back to say there was an error and that they didn’t actually have the room. At the exact same moment I was talking to one of my friends at dinner that lives there and she told us that we could just stay at her place even though she was going to be in Aguilas for the weekend.
So we head out at 6:45 am on our way. As soon as we get to the bus station in Lorca, the next town over where we are catching the bus, 3 cops approach us and ask for our passports. In the 14 previous months that I have spent in Spain, I have never had a cop ask for my passport or any type of identification. So of course we don’t have our passports with us so they took our drivers licenses and called them in. Everything was fine of course and they left. Two hours later we are in Granada and exploring the new city.
On Friday we pretty much just walked around for a little bit. That night we went and chilled at one of Cal’s friend’s apartment. Cal has a bunch of friends that are over here right now. Everywhere we go we always seem to run into someone that is from the Boston/Philly/Jersey area or from LA, never anyone from Tennessee. Haha, oh well. Pretty much everyone at the apartment was from Boston and three people were from LA. We ate dinner and chilled there for awhile then headed to the apartment to go to bed.
Saturday we got up and began walking around again. We ended up walking to the Alhambra and proceeded to see if it was sold out. We were hopeful that there would be tickets left since it was cloudy and raining. We finally make it up there and the tickets are sold out BUT there just happened to be these four girls from Italy who had bought tickets but had to leave right then because their bus was leaving and they weren’t going to have time to go in. So we bought the tickets and spent the next almost four hours there. The Alhambra was quite impressive. I do feel that I enjoyed the Alcazar in Sevilla more though. I don’t know if it because I was visited it first or because when I went there it was sunny or what. I just liked it better, contrary to the rest of the world. After that we headed out for an early dinner which consisted of tapas. In Granada, whenever you buy a beer, glass of wine or whatever they give you a small portion of a food of your choice. We went to a couple tapas bars and then headed back to the apartment. We had a Halloween party to go to so we found a store and bought some random things to wear for the night. We met up with everyone from the previous night at the party and then left later on to meet up with one of Ana’s friends that also happened to be in Granada. We went to another tapas bar and then chilled with them the rest of the night.
Sunday we started out walking around again. We went to eat lunch in this restaurant that had mainly all Middle Eastern food. I had lamb with rice covered in curry. I don’t like curry but I ate it anyway because I was starving. After that we headed back to the apartment to pack up our stuff and head back to Aguilas, where it is warm and always sunny.
Overall the trip was really good. Got to see some amazing things and meet some cool new people. I enjoyed the city and the Alhambra but did not fall in love with them like everyone else. I love watching movies so I have to draw a comparison to this trip with a movie. A movie comes out and everybody loves it and hypes it up and by the time you go see it you have pretty high expectations. Most movies might be decent, but don’t live up to the hype. This was the case with Granada for me. I should get some pretty interesting reactions this week at school from everybody when they ask what I thought of Granada and I say it was alright. Deuces

So I was talking to this guy last night and he asked me my name. I said Brandon and he said, "ah, like Punky Brewster!" I'm pretty sure my mouth just dropped wide open. I was so excited that someone would know that, especially here in Spain. Good times, that made my night.

Spur of the moment trip to Granada with the roomies. Hopefully I'll take some pics

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMS!!!

 

My name written on a car. Maybe there is another Brandon roaming the streets of Aguilas.

 
The roomies: Cal (far left)and Ana (middle). They guy in the red is one of my teacher's friends

The twins can't say Brandon so they call me "An-Don." Every time Angel has them in the Plaza he points at our apartment and asks them who lives there and they say An-Don!

Ana, the other roommate, got here on Sunday so we are all finally here.

 

I was thinking last night about how lame it is that we don't have internet. Then I remembered that 33 miners had been trapped underground for 2 months. I then realized that I can deal with not having internet. Much props to all involved in the rescue of the Chilean miners!

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

Finally all settled in the apartment with one roommate, Cal. He is from New Jersey. It will be 2 or 3 more weeks before Ana, the other roommate, gets here.

Finally made it here to Aguilas Thursday night around 8:45. It only took 9 hours flying, 7 hours on a bus and 7 hours of waiting for planes and buses. Angel and his family picked me up and I have been staying with them since. The twins are getting big and used to having me around but I found an apartment today so I will be leaving their place. Angel and I went to the beach this morning for a second and the water was a whole colder than I expected but I got in anyway. I went to the school yesterday just to say hi to everyone and ended up staying there for 4 hours. I talked to the teachers, students and of course played basketball with the kids. I'll put up some pics shortly.

Just bought my ticket. September 29th I'm leaving on a jet plane...

I said I would probably only go back if I got placed in the same city and at the same school.I recieved an email today asking if I wanted to return back to Aguilas and to I.E.S. Europa, my school that I worked at. I said yes. So, esta hecho (it's done). Just have to get my acceptance letter so I can then get my visa and finally buy my plane ticket. Let the process and journey begin... again.

So a couple months ago I went ahead and applied to teach again. They accepted me a few days ago and I finally just said yes to them. Looks like im heading back after all...

Im getting the itch again already... working on a plan to get back to Spain

What has happened since I left: 8 ½ month summary

our economic crisis has affected the entire world
gas went down in price
mom turned 50
the world celebrated the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president
Phil Fulmer was fired/resigned
we finally got paid
I got my first Spanish haircut
OJ went to prison
George Bush had shoes thrown at him
Dolphins (won their division) and Falcons made the playoffs
a new year
Hudson River Miracle
Bush out/Obama in
I missed a good Superbowl
Unemployment broke 8%
Unemployment broke 8.5%
plethora of mass shootings/killings throughout the US
Nikki went to Afghanistan
Dad went to Mexico during the Swine Flu epidemic
Jay Leno left The Tonight Show
Nikki came home from Afghanistan

So the past two weeks have been insanely busy and I haven't been able to update the blog. Now that I am flying over the Atlantic, and watching Madagascar 2, I have a little bit of time. I was thinking that my last two weeks would be rather relaxing and probably boring. I was way off. Outside of the two weeks in May when I was traveling all over, this was the busiest time that I had since I came to Spain. June 1st was the beginning of the of the dinners and goodbyes. We had a dinner in the main city with all of our friends and was the last time that we were all together. After that, the dinners and goodbyes still didn't stop until right before I left for Madrid.

I went to one of the nice beaches on Thursday with some of my teachers and it turned out that my last day on the beach was probably the most fun I had on this trip. We got there around 2 o'clock and didn't leave until 10 that night. We spent the entire day just playing just about every beach activity we could think of and just acting like kids. Keep in mind that I, at 24, am the youngest., everyone else is between 28 and 38. They also buried me in the sand and made it look like I was a mermaid, i'll put up pics. They only bad thing about the day is that the beach is out in the middle of nowhere and there is only one restaurant and we ate there and it was really expensive. By the way, Madagascar 2 is pretty good.

This trip was truly an experience that I will never forget and wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I really did meet some incredible people that I am sure we will keep in contact in the future. I also seeing myself going back to visit as soon as I came. All the kids were so heartbroken when they found out that I wouldn't be back next year. I also plan on staying in contact with as many of the kids that I can. Right now I am looking forward to landing in Philly and going to Chick-fil-a. I've been waiting 8 ½ months for my number 1 plain with Dr. Pepper.

 

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.

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.

more pics


old cars

 

So Julien told me all the cars were at the port so I got my camera and went to take pictures. This was my favorite car. I will put up more pics and videos later

About 30 cars from the 30's, 40's and 50's just drove by while I was out on the balcony. I got sa couple pics and took a video. I also saw a Hayabusa yesterday.



oldies

 

i miss my fish

Here's an article dad found about what i'm, and apparently everybody else my age, is doing.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/03/20/teaching.abroad/index.html

I have a 5 day weekend this week and nothing to do. I was going to go to Valencia for Las Fallas but I had to pay more for my trip to Scotland, so I have to save what little I have left since we still really don't know when we are going to get paid. The beginning of April I am going to the Pais Vasco in the north to visit a friend. We have 10 or 11 days off so I am going to spend a week up there seeing some of northern Spain.

Got another email from my teacher in Cookeville and she said that the student who was in the wreck is now walking without his cane. That was the good news. The bad news was that one of the older students who comes to class with his wife got pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and is now in the process of being deported back to Honduras. He and his wife have been here for over 10 years and have 4 kids. They took up a collection to help her with the bills this month.

I just realized I missed Girl Scout cookies

This past week was the week-long trip to the English camp with my youngest students. We met at 7:30 in the morning to start our 5 hour trip to a small town that is right past Valencia. Once I finally got ready to take a nap on the bus the kids wouldn't let me, or anyone else that wanted to sleep, sleep in peace. So five hours later, without a nap, we arrived to the camp which was out in the middle of nowhere. The counselors took the kids to their rooms and then showed us to our rooms and our job was done for the week. We literally had absolutely nothing to do the entire week. The rest of the day we spent talking with the other teachers, who were just complaining about everything, and playing with the kids during their activity periods.
On Tuesday, Victor (one of the teachers I work with) and I decided to go to Valencia, which was only a 40 minute ride away. Little did we know it was going to be torrential rains and windy all day long. We walked around for about 4 or 5 hours in which we had lunch went to a couple book stores, a museum and saw some of the things that are to see in the old city in Valencia. While waiting in the doorway of the main cathedral for the rain to slack up, I met a couple of girls from Texas that are in Valencia studying. They didn't know my friend that is studying in VLC right now, but they were cool anyway. We eventually had enough of walking around completely soaked and returned to camp where the weather was the exact same.
I don't remember Wednesday. Thursday, Victor and I went into the actual town of where the camp was and it was pretty cool. It had a castle, just like almost every Spanish town. It also had a Roman Theater which we went to. It's pretty cool to see something that is 2,000 years old. Once we came back I played basketball with the kids. The kids kept asking me to dunk and I usually that I can't but these goals were a little lower than 10 feet, so I said that I would try. Turns out I that I could dunk on these goals so I spent the rest of the evening attempting to dunk for all the kids who would hear about and then come and want to see it. Also, my students were the youngest and the smallest but they won the basketball tournament.
Today, Friday, was the last day. They had class and then a graduation ceremony were they received their diplomas and medals for all the contest and tournament winners. After that, 5 hour bus ride back to good ol' Aguilas.
Besides some of the other teachers complaining about everything all week and not having internet for a week it was a good trip. Some of the teachers were really cool and the kids were really good. The first day I met these two girls who had never left their town before and were happy as can be to meet an American. They were so excited and had so many questions about everything. But most importantly, they wanted to talk in English, which never happens. By the end of the week, all the students from the other schools were saying “hi Brandon” when they saw me around, just like at our school when all the kids I don't have class with and don't know come up and start talking to me. It was fun but I'm glad to be back in Aguilas. I'll be back in Valencia in two weeks anyway for Las Fallas.

Yesterday I went on another field trip with some of my students. We went to a city called Cartagena which is about an hour away. It was a cool trip but we left at 8:30 in the morning and didnt get back until 6:30. 10 hours with 40 13-year olds was a little much though. We saw an actual Roman theatre that was left over from the Romans and a couple other things. I´ll put pictures up soon.

So yesterday morning I noticed thhat I have a grey hair in my head and that a box of contacts costs more than twice as much as they do in the States.

Today is the beginning of the fiesta of Carnaval, which is something like mardi gras I think. For the next 10 days there will be all kinds of events taking place and contests for costumes and food.

Last night I went to see the new Friday the 13th. It was decent, even in Spanish. I was however the only person in the theatre and probably the only person in the entire building. This was fine though becuase I was able to yell at the screen and everything and not worry about other people.

 
here is a pic of my computer I bought a couple months ago

We finally got paid for Janauary yesterday! Today, I went recruiting for new students for the upcoming school year with the two of the head guys at my school. I felt pretty good about the fact that they asked me to go along with them. The first elementary school we went to nobody knew me so we actually had a decent presentation and everybody listened to us. At the second school, a couple of the kids knew me and that just made all the other kids want to ask more and more questions about me instead about our school. When the director introduced me, all trhe kids began clapping and cheering. Keep in mind that I actually only knew one out of these forty kids and the other kid knew me because my roomate tutors him. We had to keep getting the kids back on track with their questions but it was an unique experience.

I received an email last week from the teacher I helped in Cookeville and she said that Francisco, the student that was in the wreck, was back in class. He has to use a cane to walk but he is better and in good spirits.

Today during my free period, while I was trying to watch all the commercials from the Superbowl, I helped 3 teachers with their English homework. A lot of the teachers are taking classes to learn other languages and a few approached me today to help them. It was pretty funny to see the teachers thinking hard and trying to figure out how to say things. Apparently the teacher isn´t that nice or helpful so I told them that they could come ask me questions anytime.