Days 13-16

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days!  I wish I could say that it’s because I’ve been so busy doing tons of really awesome stuff, but unfortunately, the opposite in fact is true.  It’s been cloudy and overcast and a bit depressing here since Thursday (finally a break from all the beautiful, sunny, perfect weather) and I haven’t been willing to go out and explore as much as I normally do.  Instead, I’ve had a bad spat of computer issues that led me to several trips to the Apple store here in the city.  That’s been my main activity and I won’t bore you with the specifics, but what’s important is that it’s all fixed up now and working better than ever.  At least that’s positive.

In addition to that, I went out one afternoon after class and played basketball with some other guys here from the program.  I’m getting a little better, I think, but it’s still hard for me to figure out where to run to get open because, in that sense, it’s very, very different from soccer.  It’s fun though and good exercise too, so as long as they keep asking me to play, I’ll keep going.

Aside from that, our group went on two excursions this week as part of the program.  Our teacher tries to organize an optional activity for the group to do together at least five days out of the week.  Some of them are free, some expensive, but all are unique and focused around immersing ourselves in the culture here in Valencia.  We’re each required to go on at least two each week, and The Tower and The Aquarium were the two that I picked last week.  This week’s were not quite as exciting, but still fun and worthwhile…

On Tuesday we all went out before dinner to a place nearby that serves “Horchata,” a drink made locally here in Valencia.  It’s made from “Tiger nut,” which is a distant relative of the potato family, mixed with milk and lots of sugar to make a runny-milkshake taste and consistency.  Very, very sweet and very, very good.  We hung out in the Horchateria (horchata bar) and ate Spanish, churro-type pastries with our drinks.  A delicious pre-dinner snack.  Here’s me taking my first sip:

Then on Wednesday, we took another excursion across town—this time by bus—to the University of Valencia’s big auditorium/concert hall to watch their Chinese New Year production.  It was pretty cool and definitely interesting, but not what I was expecting.  I didn’t know about the “concert hall” part of it until we got there, so the whole time I was thinking that we were on our way to an authentic Chinese New Year parade through the streets, filled with crazy costumes and loud music and confetti and a huge mass of people dancing and celebrating.  Instead, we just sat back in our theater chairs and watched an “art medley” on stage: three or four dances, a violinist, a martial arts exhibition, a calligraphy demonstration, and an opera ballad, which was by far the best act of all.  Don’t get me wrong, it was all very interesting, but the fact that a few guys from the group had to be woken up at the end says it all….I guess not everything we do can be utterly amazing!  Here are the pics:

So that’s about all I’ve been up to lately.  I had both of those presentations this week and absolutely NAILED them both.  “Perfecto” was all my teacher said at the end.  Can’t do better than that!

Other than that, there’s not much else to report home… 

OH WAIT!  So remember that soccer game I went to last week?  Well that was the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, Spain’s national tournament, and with that win, Valencia moved on to the semifinals.  Pretty cool.  But what makes it even cooler is that on the other side of the tournament bracket, F.C. Barcelona—my favorite team in the WHOLE world—beat their archrivals Real Madrid and moved on to the semifinals, too, which means that they will be coming HERE to Valencia for the next round!  Needless to say, I went over to the stadium yesterday afternoon and scooped up my ticket right when they went on sale. 

But of course I didn’t get just any old ticket…no, no, no, no, no—I looked at the situation in the grand scheme of things and figured that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I might as well go all out and do it the right way and sit in the FRONT ROW!  YES—I will be sitting in the very front row to see arguably the best soccer team OF ALL TIME!  And in a huge, important game too!  And can you believe it only cost me 70 euros?! 

Less than a hundred bucks for a front row seat to see the best team in the world?  

Less than a hundred bucks for a front row seat to see the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, who very well may end his career with the label “Best to Ever Play” beside his name?  (see this month’s cover of TIME magazine if you don’t know who he is.)

Less than a hundred bucks to witness "The Little Genius's" magic firsthand, from just a few feet away, in a huge stadium, in a huge game, in a huge moment of soccer history?

Less than a hundred bucks for an experience that I will be telling people about for the rest of my life?

I’d say it’s a worthwhile investment.

AND I AM SO EXCITED!  No, no—excited is an understatement.  I am ECSTATIC, ELATED, OVERJOYED, AND THRILLED.  I was literally trembling on the way back from the stadium, just staring at the ticket in my hand, in utter disbelief that it wasn’t a dream and this opportunity had really just been handed to me.  I am still in a state of shock today, and I keep opening my desk drawer to look at my ticket and make sure it really says what I think it does.  Here, look for yourself:

The game is on Wednesday, and if you guys don’t have anything else to do you should watch it since you can stream it live for free on ESPN3.com.  Look for me—I’ll be right behind the Valencia bench wearing my blue Barcelona hoodie (Thanks, Grammer!).  I plan to get to the stadium at least an hour and a half early so that I can watch their full warm-up, and maybe even earlier if I can figure out when the team bus is going to get there and I could get a chance at some autographs!  Can you imagine?  The whole thing is just unreal…

So until Wednesday, I can pretty much guarantee that the game will be the only thing on my mind.  I don’t have much else going on in school or anything, so that shouldn’t be a problem either.  The anticipation is part of the fun, right?  I can’t wait!

Not sure what’s going on tonight or tomorrow.  No plans.  I think the Spanish kids had their last day of final exams yesterday, so hopefully they’ll want to go out tonight and take us with them.  We’ll figure it out at dinner.

Until next time…

Much love to all.

C

P.S.  As you can see, I gave the blog a bit of a makeover and added a few things.  I also reposted entries 1-6, so now the pictures should be there, and the text easier to read.  Let me know what you think!