Stamford Bridge Stadium (Chelsea F.C.)

 

The London Eye attempting to hide

 

Big Ben

 

London sreets

 

St. Stephen's Tower a.k.a. Big Ben

 

The Young Thinker

 

The London Eye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bike Freestylers

 

cousins

 

summer scrimmage

 

Nick and the bridesmaids

 

dock at Carl Cowan Park

 

My uncle's 58 Fairlane

 

My grandmother's flowers

Not doing the 365 Grateful project yet. I am going to post some pics first and then get to that later.

I have been back in the US for a week now and have decided to start a project I just read about. It is called 365 Grateful and pretty much it is just taking a picture of something that you are grateful for and writing a short little comment for it. I love photography, just bought a new camera, already have a blog and have a million things to be grateful for so this seems like it would be something fun to do. Here is the website where I found it at. Thanks Alysia for sending me to this site!

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/365-grateful-a-photography-project-that-could-change-your-life

And here is the official site for the the project

http://365grateful.com

And the journey home begins...

Tuesday night after returning from taking Ana to the airport, a couple teachers called me up and suggested we go have a beer. So Cal, myself and the two teachers went to the plaza. Once we got there, they then suggested we got eat dinner. I again agreed. The place we were gonna go to was closed and they said, "well how about we go to Bar Las Aguilas? which is another restuarant." I agreed and once we got to the door I saw around 30 to 35 teachers from school all standin up and applauding my entrance. They planned a surprise dinner for me and I was not prepared at all. We had just gotten back and I needed to shower. I was in a tshirt and my bball shorts while everybody else was dressed up. So of course they made me sit at the head of the table and we had dinner. When they brought out dessert, the teachers pulled out a laptop and a projector to show the slide show that they made for me. They then all started chanting that I talk so when I finally stood up they passed me a gift. I opened it and it was a picture that they took at school with all of my students. I said thank you and began to talk when they handed me another gift. This time it was Spain's national basketball team uniform personalized with my name. They couldn't find it in any store so they had to get it from the actual store for the team and have it sent here. Next they gave me a watch, which I think they spent a lot of money on and an apron with the recipe for tortillas de patatas and my name on it. After that, I finally had talked for a quick second then walked around and thanked each one of them for everything. Yesterday Cal and I went to have lunch with Angel and Maria. After lunch, Angel went to pick up the boys so I got to play with them for a little bit. They gave me a tshirt with a picture of the boys playing and saying "Andon!" We then went and played basketball for 2 hrs with some students and other teachers. Tonight my school is putting on a music concert so we are gonna go to that. We head out tomorrow night to Madrid. We are taking a bus that goes directly to the Airport so we should get there around 6am on Saturday.

I went to cancel our internet this morning so this might be my last post until I get home because the internet is going to be cut off tomorrow morning. Adios mi gente!

 

Today Ana leaves, so we are losing the A of the ABC Gang (Ana, Brandon, Cal). One of my teachers is going to take her to the airport that's right outside of the capital city this evening and we are going to go too. She is flying from Murcia to London tonight and then 14 hrs to LA tomorrow.

It's soooo hot here but every time I check the weather, it's 5-10 degrees warmer in Knoxville. Can't wait to get back to that heat and humidity!

Just bought my camera and a new lens!

So my classes are officially over now. One of my classes yesterday had a little surprise party for me yesterday so that was pretty cool. My last class all made signs and cards for me and bought me Aguilas soccer jersey. I will post pics once I load them to my computer. It's crazy that this is almost over, just one more week here.

 

Cal got me! I'm usually the one getting pics of everybody asleep. It was just a matter of time.

I thought my trips were over but we decided to head to Granada for the weekend. Cal and I went with another teacher. He is from Granada so he has a house there and we stayed with him. All we did was eat and walk around all weekend. I seemed to like Granada more this time around. It has such a good environment and quite distinct from Aguilas. We had incredible, cheap food all weekend so I want to recommend Cafe Reina Monica and Terraza Albayzin to anybody that visits Granada and is in the Albayzin area. Both restaurants were amazing and the owner and workers extremely nice. Go get a kebab from The Kebab King also if you are in Plaza Nueva. Hands down the best kebabs I've eaten and I've an extensive amount of experience in that area. Some other teachers I work with were also in Granada so we hung out with them this weekend as well. Only 3 weeks left...

 

I was trying to take a pic Thursday night and someone ran into me. My camera fell and now it looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and obviously doesn't work. I have no choice but to get my camera now. It really feels weird to be without a camera. Cal is letting more use his old camera for now though.

I think the total number of deaths is up to 10 now form the earthquake. Everybody that I know that is from there, lives there or has family there is okay. However, there are many people who suffered damage. Some only very little damage while others houses or apartments are completely destroyed. I know it wasn't a massive natural disaster but it still did a lot of damage and lives were lost. Keep the town of Lorca in your thoughts and prayers.

I also happened to look at a map today and realized how close I was to Tunisia and Libya when I went to Sicily, Italy. That was kinda crazy as well.

Here is the latest article on the quakes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42993156/ns/world_news-europe

They are saying that the first terremoto, earthquake, was a 5.1 and the second one was a 4.5 and as of now, there are at least 7 deaths in Lorca.

Just experienced my first earthquake, actually two earthquakes. They happened in Lorca, the next town over. It was a 4.3 and a church bell fell off a church there. The people are acting like its the end of the world because they have never experienced an earthquake before. I was half asleep when the first one happened and I thought, "man, the wind is blowing really hard. It just shook my entire room." Then Cal and I went to the plaza to have a coffee and the second one happened. We didn't know what was going on because it was both of ours first earthquake. It was pretty cool, but I can't imagine being in a big one. We were just sitting there and then all of a sudden our chairs and the table started moving. I then realized that it wasn't the wind that shook my room earlier.

 

Happy Mothers Day! I love you moms!!!

All my London pics are posted so go look at them!

On Wednesday we all went to different classes for the first hour to see how they had class. After that, we headed to the Mayor's office to see him and then headed to Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle was really cool and the Queen just happened to be there. We then headed back and packed our bags. That night we had a farewell dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Once again, all the kids were sad and crying. It was then time to go to bed because we had to get up at 5 am to take the bus to the airport.

It was a good trip but I was ready to get back to Spain. We finally got back around 5 pm which allowed me a couple hours to unpack and rest before I went to tennis. My next big trip will obviously be my return to Tennessee. Nothing but maybe a short trip or two and relaxing until then.

 

Here is the awesome family that I am staying with. Paula is a gym teacher at the school we are doing the exchange with. Alban is a French teacher at another school in the area and Eloise is the 3 1/2 year old daughter that provides non-stop entertainment. ALban is from France and came to England as a lector like what I am doing, but he never went back to France. Paula is a basketball player and Alban loves cars so we all have shared interests. The live in a nice neighborhood and have a wonderful home. I have my own room and bathroom. They have fed me well and treated me even better. Eloise is super funny. Whenever she doesn't remember my name she calls me "The Man." She is also insanely smart. Albans pretty much only speaks to her in French and she will respond in French or English. Its amazing how kids can absorb so much at such a young age. I can't think of anything else right now and I'm tired so I'm going to bed. One more full day in London before we head back down south to Spain and before you know I will be back in the U.S. Time has flown by.

Today we went to Cambridge. Its a really pretty area and a pretty chill little town. We walked around the town and then took a tour of one of the colleges. After that we had lunch and then had a little free time to wander around the town and go shopping if you wanted. We then headed back. Once we got back, I went and had Fish and Chips with Paula and Eloise, the mom and daughter I'm staying with, for the first time. It was decent, but nothing spectacular. Alban, the dad, had to leave for France this evening because his grandmother passed away. I haven't really talked about the family I'm staying with so my next post will be about them.

Monday I headed back into London for the day with the family I am staying with. We walked around for awhile just looking at all the stores and having a chill day. We eventually ended up going to Madame Tussauds. If you don't know what that is, its the famous wax museum that has actual-size wax figures of celebrities, athletes, musicians, world famous leaders etc. It was kinda expensive but I thought it was well worth it. I think I was most impressed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer Lopez. I had no idea that Arnold was as tall as he his and as for J.Lo, well I think its known what she is famous for. After that, we went to Buckingham Palace to see what the Queen was up to. We didn't see her. After the Palace the family headed home and I went to meet up with Sam, my Australian roommate from when I was in Valencia. He is working in London as an engineer for the 2012 Olympics. His project is the swimming pool and they literally just finished it. They began filling it up on Monday and it will take almost 3 weeks to completely fill it up. We had dinner at his apartment and then I had to head back because I had almost an hour train ride back to the house and I had to get up early for Tuesday.

Today was the trip to see the Chelsea Stadium and the Fullham Stadium with the boys. The trip went surprisingly well and everyone seemed to have a great time. Chelsea had an okay stadium but the staff there were really nice. After Chelsea, we headed down the street to see Fulham's stadium. We didn't take a tour though, we just walked around it. It's a smaller, lesser know team but they do pretty well still. Recently the team was in the news because the owner of the team was a close friend of Michael Jackson ans he recently erected a statue of MJ outside the the stadium. Here is a statement he made about the statue and the fans of the team: "If some stupid fans don't understand and appreciate such a gift this guy gave to the world they can go to hell.I don't want them to be fans.If they don't understand and don't believe in things I believe in they can go to Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else."

I posted pics and yes I have pics of MJ.