Mi Ultima Semana

Me, Laura, and Eddy at the Basketball game with our team scarfs oh and Kobi Karl played on the team (George Karl's son)
Some cool cars




Laura and Marta's back yard where we played cards
Paco's Dinning room where we had dinner each night

Living Room
Kitchen
Bathroom
Bedroom
Bedroom
Marta, Me, Laura, & Oxyana
Me & Laura
Paco and I's favorite car
The Jam we ate
Me, Laura, Marta, Victor, and the Parents (in our private dinning room)
The Plaza in Poble Sec right by Paco's Place


On Friday I woke up to Marta’s call to help correct some English material she was putting on her companies website. I also tried calling DJ but he was not there so I sent him an email which he has not responded to. I also was waiting for PwC but of course it did not come. I also applied for the Red Bull Student Brand Manager Position for Georgetown since it is open next year. I did some sit ups and worked out a little in the living room and then went for a run. I was not feeling well and thought I could run it out of me. I think I did the trick. Later that day I was picked up by Laura and Marta to go and get some chocolate and croissants. Marta was offered a paying job at her work and she was really excited. We planned out a fun weekend. Then I came back and Paco and I had dinner, a good convo, and we went out to hit the town together around 1 am. This time Paco was not driving meaning he was ready to have a good time!! We went to the Example area and went to a place I think called Zelus. It was fun but Paco knew no one there and the same went for me. We had a few whiskey cokes and headed to El Dorado. Here I hung out, talked to some people I knew and when it closed we headed towards Martins by where Louis’s parents’ hotel was, right where Passeig de Gracia narrows. This was a lot of fun. We walked in to a guy dressed exactly like Michael Jackson in his prime dancing to thriller and doing an amazing job. Paco knew a lot of people here and took me on a tour. The top floor was a passive place with an intense vibe. The middle floor was more like a bar with pool tables and such. And the first floor was the main dance floor and it was packed. It was fun to dance and see Paco dance as well. Juanjo joined us later in the night and when the night ended we took a long walk all the way back to Poble Sec to Juanjo’s house and Paco’s house. I learned a lot from Paco as we had an in depth and mature talk. He really has one of the best outlooks on life. I am not sure if that is just who he is or if that is a result of some tough things he has went through. Nevertheless, he is quite a strong and remarkable man and I never thought when I came to Spain I would have the chance to meet someone like him yet alone have him be in my host family.

The next day I woke up and made my way out of bed so I could have lunch with Laura, Marta, Victor, and L&M’s parents. When I met Laura’s parents I was not intimidated about the language barrier until Laura’s Dad spoke. I could not understand a thing at first. After about 30 mins I adjusted a little to his accent so we could actually have a conversation. As for their Mom, she does not speak English at all except this one time I did not understand what someone was asking particularly this word fabrica which means factory. I was mistaking it for something to do with a fabric material. Anyway her mom yelled out in English factory and everyone was surprised. We gave her an applause. During Lunch we had this weird waiter who would try and take away everything before we could finish it. He even said he hates when he sits at tables for 3 hours just to get food so he was trying to help but was way over doing it and became unnecessarily nervous. The meal was amazing though. It was great seafood at a place called El Rebujito de Moran. Our meal was like seafood tapas sort of deal that Laura’s Dad ordered for us.
panceta de cerdo – real sliced pork
ensaladilla de gambas – like a potato salad but with shrimp and no real potatoes
tortitas de camarones – a small and thin fried omelet that was more like a chip of small shrimp
percebes – barnacle (very hard to retrieve since these things live like on cliffs where the waves crash into them… people have died trying to get this and they are very expensive, but good. They kind of look like small dinosaur claws that you have to break to get the good stuff)
caracoles – no translation so not sure (it could be like this shrimp and rice sorta stew like paella but not)
"tiburon" adobado – fried small shark
rabo de toro – the tail of a bull (like the ones I saw killed in bull fighting)

After this delicious meal we went to see Laura’s Parent’s house where Laura lives. I got the tour of the house which looks like a town house but much bigger once you explore. Laura lives in a place that everyone calls a small palace because there is so much room for her and she has the penthouse of the place. Including her own living room and amazing view of mountains including Montserrat. They also have a cinema room in the basement which is amazing. After the tour I went out side and played a similar card game to gin rummy as I was puffing on a Cuban cigar and sipping some fine whiskey. I lost the first round of the game but won the rest before the families favorite basketball team was playing and the game ceased. We saw DKV (on their Jersey) but from the club CJB which is slightly outside of Barcelona play the Madrid team. Their team got smacked. We also saw Nadal beat Djokovich in Madrid for the Semi-finals. Then we planned the night. We picked up Vin Jeffery in Barcelona and brought him back to the house for Pizza. We watched Madrid lose which gave Barca a mathematical victory to be the champions of the Spanish league. They could win the three major titles in one season if they win on May 27th for the European Cup Final vs. Man U. We were going to go down and join the festivities in Plaza Cataluña but it looked too crazy and we decided to go to El Dorado. We hung out there for a while, and then headed to Get Back (the first place I went out with Laura). This place was fun, Vin looked wasted, and it got really crowded. We left around 6:30. The sun was coming up when I was in the cab home. The next day I just chilled. I went with Paco to the Car show in Plaza Espana. It was okay. It had different cars and different brands the one in the US. There was no GM too which I found interesting. Anyway after all of the we headed back and I don’t remember doing much besides dinner and watching a movie with Paul Walker and Jessica Alba in Spanish.

On Monday, I went to go shopping for my last min. things. I did not do much else except walk around and enjoy the day and eat a lot of lentils and tomato sauce. That night, Laura invited me to a DKV game but this time played right outside of Barcelona. The stadium they play in is where the Dream Team of the ’92 Olympics played all their games. We watched a great game and this time our team won. It is really different watching a basketball game in Europe than in the USA. One, everyone goes there to actually watch the game, not just eat, drink and have fun. Also everyone is vocal, when a bad call happened like 80% of the stadium was on its feet yelling, swearing, and giving bad gestures to the ref. Which he actually deserved half the time since he was a horrible ref. The stadium sat about 10,000 people but was much louder than most USA stadiums because of the enthusiasm from old ladies to the young kids. Although the talent was really good on the court, it was no where near the NBA talent. Afterwards we drove Laura’s friend Eddy home who was really nice. He lived far outside the city and we went on a beautiful night mountain drive. We also drove past the world’s second largest Coca-Cola factory in the world behind Atlanta’s of course. Then, I was dropped off and went to bed.

Tuesday was my last day. I woke up with a mission to buy my Catalonian flag. I passed by a store on my way to the beach and they tried to sell me a flag with the wrong colors. The vender told me it was this years model and they change it every year. That was the biggest bull shit I have even been given when trying to buy something. So I said no and I went to another store on Las Ramblas to buy the correct colored flag. Then I headed to the Barcelonetta beach. I put sunscreen on and tanned for a little. No one around me spoke Spanish, it was weird but I guess that seems right that why would the people who live there be on the beach on a Monday afternoon. It was just packed with tourists. I got up and left and bought some lentils for my lunch. I made lunch and then found out PwC is pretty much over with. Then I talked to Mom via G-chat and then was picked up by Laura to hang out. We went and got some coffee, met up with Oxyana and then, picked up Marta from her work. We all went and got some more coffee except me. I had my last patas bravas. They kept trying to teach me new words in Catalan and would laugh at my pronunciation. When the time came, it was hard saying goodbye, but it had to be done. I will miss them all especially Laura. Even though she is younger than me, she is mature beyond her years and has a very kind and open heart. When I got home I realized my stomach has been feeling weird so I take a peek and my belly button and the space between my pecks are bright red. Looks like I missed a few spots while lotioning up. Oh while I was with Laura, Marta, and Oxyana, I got a call from Juanjo to say good bye which was really nice of him. I took a shower before dinner and had my last dinner with Paco. He gave me a gift which was awesome. It was a cultural and cuisine book of Barcelona. Hard to explain but it is awesome. We had a great dinner and then it was off to packing. It sucked, but it got done. Then I chilled and wrote Paco a good bye letter and then wrote my blog. I waited until around 4 am so Paco could drive me to the airport. I feel asleep on my way to Rome, had some breakfast in the Airport, and got on my plane to Chicago. I slept most of the way in my exit row seat and watched the movie Shopaholic, haha I know. Then I was in Chicago had a Cesar salad and got on my flight to Atlanta. Mom was waiting for me and it was great to see her. We drove to Atlanta as I called my sisters with a Sunset sky. The apartment is awesome, and this 22 hour trip now concludes my time in Barcelona and my time Study Abroad experience. It was one to never forget and I hope the lessons I learned will always stay with me. Much love to all who read this! Adios mi vida espana!

Beer Tour: Munchen (Munich)

Inside of BMW Welt (world)



The stadium where the famous black fist was first displayed

The swimming stadium where Mark Spitz won his 7 gold metals and where Joel swims
BMW Welt (World)



The palace we visited
Marienplantz at night

Joel and I in the back of a Beer Hall where we ate
The road where Hitler tried to start his social movement.
A couple in the world's largest city park
The Beer Garden in the world's largest city park. I guess they have bands in the structe in the middle.
River Surfing


Huge Beer Hall HB.


Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf takes place in the Black woods which is in the North of Germany. Fun Fact Joel's fmaily is from the North of Germany and his relative in the Mayor of the town they are from.
Traditional outfits worn during festivals (they have 100 days of festival in Germany each year!!)
The student housing joel lived in
Marienplatz.. this one and the two below




I Arrived late on Sunday. The trip to Joel’s place took about an hour train (S-bahn) to the Marienplatz a main stop on the metro. Then I took the U-bahn to Joel’s place at Harderer Stern which was kind of shady at night. However, I found out Munich is the safest place in the world so turns out there were no problems. Joel asked his friends where is the area not to go to or especially at night, and all the locals said we do not have an area like that… they are all safe. Also Munich has very strict police. One cannot cross the street unless the green man or walk symbol is lit. If you cross before its around a 60 euro ticket. They are also very strict on bike laws which I can appreciate given the bikers in Chicago. Munich is an extremely clean, green, wide city. It has the largest park in the world that is located in a city. Joel and I went to the Beer Garden there. It was beautiful and it felt like we were miles from any major city. Joel is a very interesting guy. He was born in Alaska and moved to a small town in Pennsylvania. He made his own lawn care company at the age of 14. He also took a year off of high school and studied in Argentina for six months as sort of a study abroad. Yet he still graduated in time for High School. He is also a very intense tri-athlete. He said he is always in shape to run a marathon. He also did a Mountain Marathon which is a 32 mile race up and down a mountain (sometimes through rivers and un-manicured paths). He is quite intense but you would never guess it by meeting or hanging out with him. He also was born in Alaska.

On Monday, I went out on the town to see the city center and had some white sausage and then headed back to Joel’s place for my interview. Then I headed back into the city while Joel was still in class and walked around and went to the Hofbraehaus Beer Hall. I met Joel there and we went to the Beer Garden in the world’s largest city park. On our walk we saw river surfers, caught up with each other and walked along this cool rapid flowing river which was very close to overflowing. In the park it felt like I was miles away from a city. I guess when it is nice out there is a legal nudist section in the park (fun fact). Then we headed back walked around and got some food at another famous beer garden. We both had the sausage platter and some beer. Joel is really good at German. Then we met his French friend in the back of the beer garden and his cousins that were visiting. We spoke English. The night ended soon there after and Joel and I went back and hit the hay.

The next day we woke up and went to the Nymphenburg Palace and also saw this room where they painted the 30 most beautiful women of that era ranging from a shoemaker’s daughter to a princess. The physical beauty represented the moral purity of oneself (sounds like Donald Trump defending his Miss California). Then Joel had to go to class I went to the Deutsches Museum which is the world’s largest Technological Museum. I expected more to be in English, but since it was so big it was a nice way for me to narrow things down. I learned about water and bridges mainly. Sounds boring but it was quite intriguing at the time. I also struggled with this laser mirror thing. The point was to capture the most energy from this laser by positioning these mirrors to reflect the laser and at the end reflect on to a sensor. I think it is impossible to maximize the energy output the way the mirrors were positioned. Oh I forgot before the museum, I had lunch. It at first was hard to find and I thought it was siesta time in Munchen. I ate at Que-Kabap (these Turkish kebabs are the new fast food). It was kind of gross though.

Then I went to BMW Welt (world) where Joel and I met up after his class. This was really cool. It was a very cool building architecturally with cool cars, especially the employees parking deck. Then Joel and I went to check out the Olympic park where he swims. The place where he swims is where Mark Spitz won his 7 golden medals. Joel says its pretty inspiring. It is also really small compared to the Cube where Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals. This was the second Olympic park I have visited after the Olympics occurred (I am not including Atlanta but soon I will). Then we hurried back to get to a grocery store before 8pm (they all close at 8). We had to get off a few stops early and hope there was one. We were lucky. Joel also got a 40 euro ticket for not having a metro pass. Ironic part is he bought one with me. So even though he was being honest he had to accept his fate. We bought food for that night and some things for our hike in the Alps the next day. We also got some white beer. We went back and I sent my thank you email for the interview. Then I cooked the potato pasta with tomato sauce and Joel cooked the chicken and made us salad. We ate and had some beers and then proceeded to watch 3 hours of the Office. We went to bed and finally I was on an air mattress!! Oh right before that, we have been so busy that each day we forgot to ask his roommate for the air mattress and I have been sleeping on the floor with towels as cushion and some sheets as my blankets. The pillow was fine.

We awoke the next day and rushed to get ready to catch the 9:30 am train to the Alps to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I forgot my camera which sucked. On the train we met some random Americans that reminded me of two crazy aunts traveling Europe from San Diego but looked like from North Dakota. They showed us their book they made of beautiful European train rides. The whole time Joel and I were annoyed and thinking how are these two going to go hiking. They even wanted to take a taxi to the base of the hill which seems absurd since it’s a beautiful 15 min walk through the town. When we got off we found out our trail was closed. Joel wanted to take me on a hike called Hell’s Gorge haha. In the end, we had to do the family friendly hike. We bought some bread for our sandwiches and walked to the river to eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches. We then started our walk to the base of the hike path. We passed the Olympic long jump park (now my third Olympic park I have been too). Then we finally reached the hiking path and concluded that we saw the taxi of the two ladies. Then we paid two Euros to go on this scenic and cool trail through tunnels and fenced edges on this insane looking gorge. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was short though since part of the trail was closed due to construction. Then we left and took the higher and more advanced trail and went all through the alps. We even ventured on some cool bridges overlooking the gorge, and passed some grassy hills. We stopped and had some of our lunch at the river and walked on back. We had a beer before getting on the train. I passed out as Joel did work for his presentation on Thursday. We went back showered up and we went out to dinner around his university. It was a great Thai food place and I met a ton of people. A Chilean, some Italians, a Japanese girl, some French, and a guy who plays the cello in some German orchestra but studied in Bloomington Indiana at IU. There were so many languages being thrown around it was crazy!! Then Joel went back to his place to study for his presentation, and I went out with a few of his friends. I had a beer and then I was super tired and headed home. We watched some Daily Show before bed. I woke up packed and had a true German Breakfast a beer on my walk to the metro haha (different from Joel’s protein shakes which I had every morning). It was great. I arrived at the Airport and got on the flight. On the plane I met a nice couple from Dusseldorf (where I was going) in our exit row. Then I took the Dusseldorf plane to Barcelona and we were hovering around in the air due to lack of visibility and rain. We hit ground and I was happy to be back in Barcelona. I got home made a pizza, talked to Paco and Laura, and Mom and Dad, and hit the hay after writing my blog.

Beer Tour: Brussels

This is a Chandelier which is in the main Opera theater of Brussels. In this theater there was a play like in the 1600s or something like that where the plot was about a revelotion. In addition to the play, there was already talk about possibly starting a revolution. After this play there was so much energy an enthusiam about the idea of a revolution that they ran out after the play and actually started a revolution. Fun fact but 1600s could be really off.

This is the main building in Grand Place. After the architect made it he went to the top and through himself off commiting sucicide becuase he thought no one would like it. Turns out it was a hit.













The famouns small peeing statue
The famous good luck statue
The Roy L'Espagne is the far right
The buildings on the right are the old guilds of the industries. Currently only one is still usd adn its the brewery guild. It is the most elaborately decorated one.



The night before I went to Brussels I was up really late so I could post the long awaited updates on my blog. I had to get up really early the next morning for my flight. I arrived in Brussels and took a bus to get to the metro which I then took to the Van Gogh Youth Hostel in Chab. Brussels is a large city but is really made up of just different towns/neighborhoods and one also needs papers for each different neighborhood to do small things even like renting a movie. It seems strange but I guess it works. Another strange but intuitive thing in Brussels is that they have what they call Nite Shops. The name pretty much tells it all. Its open only and night and you can get whatever one would want at night aka junk food and booze. Finally, Brussels or Belgium has three National languages Dutch, French, and German. So this can make things very confusing. My Hostel was located near the metro stop Botanique. It is near this park and green house which is right outside the city center (5-10 min walk). I lived near my friend Nicky and my friend MP’s boyfriends place where she was at all the time since she lived an hour outside the city.

That day I put my stuff in the hostel and hit the town. I walked to a place to get free internet so I could make sure everything was going alright via email. I got in touch with my friends and we said to meet in a nearby plaza. Three hours later we met up. During that time I ate a doner, shopped around (found a scarf that looks like the one on the Ewan McGregor cologne bottle), and checked out the local streets getting a mental map of the city. I also coordinated via the free internet place to get more money on my phone via Laura, because turns out no one can add money on their phone if out of the country. After my friends and I met up we walked around and they showed me the sights like the Grand Place (like a huge plaza or square), this random statue that everyone touches its arm for good luck because it fell off and miraculously “grew” back, and I saw the Manneken Pis (the face of Brussels) which is a small boy pissing. At the time we saw him dressed in an orange pimp colored suit. I guess they dress him up from time to time and there is even a museum dedicated to his costumes. On that same corner I had my first Brussels beer (in Belgium) which was great. There Nicky, MP and I caught up and discussed the night’s plan. Our other friend Maureen or “Big Mo” as we call her (no worries it is not mean she is actually really small and skinny) was not there because she tutors a Moroccan family in English and I guess they love her so much that she sometimes stays the night. After the beer I walked Nicky back to her place and she was surprised and embarrassed that I could get around the city better than she could. That night we went to eat some dinner at an Indian Restaurant where Nicky ordered the best dish called something like Chicken Marsala. We ate with Nicky’s boyfriend Dan and his friends who were studying abroad in France. After the great meal we went to the most famous and most touristy bar in town called Delirium Café. This had some 2000 beers on draft and is a world record. I had some beers and one time Nicky and I wanted to get adventurous. So we asked for the huge book with all the names of the beers. We looked at it and were overwhelmed so to help make the decision easier I said I would flip to a random page and pick a beer from that page for her and vice versa. Even that was overwhelming so we changed it from I pick a beer that starts with J for Nicky, and Nicky picks a beer that starts with N for me. We ended up getting bottles that had dust on them they were so old haha. They were also years passed the expiration date. We drank them and they were okay, but it was fun nonetheless. Then the group headed across the street to a 3 in one bar. Each area was different. One was Absinthe, one was beer, and one was hard liquor. We had some Absynth and MP’s boyfriend loved emphasizing words and was acting very American trying to get everyone drunk as can be. I did not get that drunk and took a taxi back with the crowd to the hostel.

The next morning, I woke up to social hour in the morning when I could have been sleeping. We had to be out by 10 am in the hostel for cleaning. I walked all around and went to the activities of European Day. European Day is just a day where the public can enter the EU buildings and there are a bunch of festivities as well such as concerts. In case you did not know Brussels is the Capital of the EU. I went to EU Parliament and Royal Palace by myself. At the EU parliament I sat in on a debate mainly discussing how to deal with China and their position with Tibet’s sovereignty. I wanted to listen to it in Spanish but there was not a translator in the Spanish box. It must have been siesta time haha. I picked up a lot of free stuff that was in English. Not everything was in English which was a shame, especially the things on the environment. I also had a fake picture taken with the President of the EU (the Czech Republican President as well) just for fun. I then went to the building which housed the economic departments of the EU and something else, but I forget. Here I got some info on opinions on different topics and they also had like a culture thing set up to promote tourism and inform people about different areas of the EU. Then I met up with the crowd in some park with a big arch called the Cinquantenaire. We went to the top of the arch. I ate my first waffle. Then we hit up the first ever small business/entrepreneurship tent. This was cool and I got some good material. I would LOVE it if they had this in the States. Then we went to the European Commission. This covered more the rights of EU citizens and such and also the language barriers in the EU. This was specifically cool for MP and Big Mo since they are dual citizens and it all applied to them. It was crowed though and I lost everyone and ended up watching these multi-lingual kids perform. Finally, I saw someone I knew and met Dan’s friends to get some famous fries. Afterwards, I walked home even though my knee started hurting. We all met up that night, got some dinner and beer at a local grocery store, and headed to the park right outside the royal palace for a concert. We hung out and talked a lot. Luckily I was a guy and did not have to pay to pee there. Brussels is big on making you pay for bathrooms. At the end of the concert there were these crazy fireworks accompanied by even crazier music. Afterwards, my friends’ friends took us to their house outside the city center. We played beer pong (first time since back home and I hit my first cup). Hung out and were driven back home (no worries by a sober driver).

The Next morning I woke up to the sun, which was an awesome surprise since it was supposed to rain all day. I checked out and walked to the justice building and then through this cool neighborhood to see some markets. I also tried finding this kilometer long table of food (my friends told me about it). The lady at the front desk of my hostel had no idea what I was talking about and directed me basically to the ghetto where there were some cool markets. I explored more and realized I was off my map so I made sure to get back to a metro and I went back to the city center to meet up with my friends after some delicious chocolate, lunch, and beer. Here I found the kilometer long table. Turns out its just a table where you can bring food to sit and eat at, it was not actually a kilometer long table of food. My friends can be a little dumb even though they are quite smart and basically are all fluent in French. That day, we watched some concert that had these groups perform like 2-4 songs and then get off. We then proceeded to get some beer in the oldest bar in the Grand Place Roy D’Espagne. We met some expat from Nike from Amsterdam. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and I headed back to get the subway and then the train to catch my flight.

Also in Brussels, the people there drive everywhere and have roundabout which the people yield to the people entering the roundabout which complete nullifies the advantage of a roundabout.