Mexico :)

Have been here in Mexico for about a week now. Took me about 31 hours to get here, but it was definately worth it. Had a few days to just enjoy some time with my parents, and my sister arrived here yesterday. Today, my aunt, uncle and two cousins arrived from San Fransisco. When I first landed in New York from my flight from Madrid it was so odd hearing English! I kept starting to speak in Spanish to people, and then would have to check myself. Upon arrival to Mexico, I have found that the Spanish here is different than in Spain. I think they speak a little clearer and slower here. There are some different phrases as well. On my cab drive from Hualtuco to Puerto Escondido I talked with my driver about the differences between languages. We also came across a road block, where there was a peaceful protest going on. I guess here in Mexico it is pretty common to have road blocks where there are problems between government and employees. We had to walk about 15 minutes across a bridge, where I caught another taxi. Luckily I had only brought carry ons, although I did have long pants on so I was pretty hot! Since I have been here we have been to some great restaurants on the beach overlooking the water, gone kyaking, snorkeling, and of course layed at the pool :) On Christmas Eve my parents and I were busy getting things ready for a parade in Chila. Chila is a small town about 15 minutes outside Puerto Escondido. For the last few years my father has worked with one of his friends(from Chila) to organize a Santa Clause parade. Many people, including myself, imagine a parade with many cars, or floats, and people watching as it drives by. Here it is Santa in the back of a pick up truck and as we drive around the town every starts to follow. Every once and a while the driver will stop so Santa can throw out candy and at the end of the drive, everyone gets a chance to sit on his lap for pictures that my dad takes. When my dad has time, he will develop all of the pictures to hang up in the town pharmacy, where people can take their own picture. Also, a few women worked all day to make 720 Tomales for the town to eat after the parade. I got to see some of the process, which made me not want to eat one, but I still did. They cut of the chickens feet, and then cut off the nails, and then the feet actually go in the Tamale. It seemed to me that the town and especially the kids really enjoyed it. It was a great experience.

Adios Spain!

Just wanted to write a quick entry before I head leave Spain! Right now I am in the Madrid airport waiting for my flight to New York which doesn't leave for another 4 hours. I saw a VIP room with comforatble couches upstairs so I decided to try to go in. No one said anything to me at the door, so I proceeded to make myself comforatbale :) I have a 5 hour lay over in New York and I am gonig to be able to grab dinner with my teammate from college which I am excited about! I am sure that it is going to be extremely odd for me to hear English surrounding me, and even be able to read the menus! We won our last game before the break by about 18 points in Santander. We are 10-0 going into the holidays! We play the 2nd and 3rd place teams in our league our first two games back from Christmas. I had a game on Saturday with my kids and we lost in overtime! We were up by 3 with three seconds left, and one of the little girls hit a half court shot to send it into a 5 mintue overtime period where we ended up losing. Saturday after our game, our whole team got together for a big meal and then we went out in the city for a while. I tried some new dish at the restaurant which was the equivilant of pigs blood cooked with different spices. Pretty disgusting, but I tried it!

Happy Holidays :)

I have not written in a while! I have been busy dealing with my knee, coaching my kids team, and finishing up my 1st Spanish class. So far I am still not playing. Still going to physical therapy every day though, which has been helping a lot. We won our game last weekend by about 60 points, and I also won my game with my kids. This past Sunday I went to Gijon with some of my teammates to have a late lunch and walk around for a bit. It was so nice out that we ate outside! The city is looking beautiful for Christmas time. I haven't had my camera on me at night time lately, but recently they put up Christmas lights throughout the whole city. All the trees are lit with blue lights, and on the big streets there are angels, stars, and music notes hanging over the road. It is beautiful! I still can't get over how much work is put into keeping the city looking attractive and clean, they must spend a fortune! They also set up a Christmas market on Uria, which has a lot of nice handmade things. I went to the post office today to mail some Christmas cards, and man was it hectic! You had to take a number and wait, I had to wait for 30 numbers, but it actually went pretty fast. I can't believe that we are already more than half way through December! Time is flying. I am looking forward to the New Year, and being completely healthy! I have a game this afternoon with my kids team, and then we have a game tomorrow against the University of Cantabria which is in Santander. Tomorrow is our last game before the break, and tonight is our last practice! I leave Monday morning for Mexico :)

Spanish Air Strike!

This past weekend was a big holiday weekend for all of Spain. Thousands and thousands of people had made travel plans, including myself! Upon arrival to Madrid on Saturday morning, I soon learned that all flights were going to be canceled for the day through-out all of Spain. This was caused due to air traffic controllers walking out of their job sometime on Friday afternoon. Shortly thereafter the government announced that Spain was in a state of alarm meaning that if the air traffic controllers did not go back to work, they would face criminal charges and jail time. Luckily, one of of my teammates parents live right close to the airport so they took me in for the night and brought me back to the airport the next day! There was one group of 30 people all going to Las Vegas for a wedding and they all missed it! A bunch of people that were shown on the news were people going to see their sick family members, so there were a lot of angry people for various reasons. Here is an article that was in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-12-03-spain-airport-closures_N.htm. After spending some time in Germany, I returned to practice for Wednesday. A new gym recently opened up about 15 minutes from Oviedo in a town called Mieres. We have been practicing here and this is going to be our new home gym once it gets gas/hot water. It is brand new! There is no heating system, which is supposedly typical in Spain. A few of the gyms we have practiced/played in are freezing! There is a workout area as well with ellipticals and bikes which I am happy about because that's about all I can do right now! Only about 12 more days until I head to Mexico where I will be doing pool workouts in the sun!

8-0, and Madrid gets KILLED!

Well, our team pulled off the win in Vallolidad where we won 61-34 against CD Valladolid Zaratan. In my opinion this was the nicest gym we have played in yet, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. It had a wood floor, which here is rare. Almost all the courts we have played on have been on a rubber surface because the gyms are used for both handball and basketball. Handball is a big sport here in Spain, I had never really seen it played until I got here. They use a sticky sap like gel on their hands, which is why they play on a rubber court instead of wood. We had yesterday off and today off as well. Yesterday was a huge day for Spain because it was the first meeting of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. My whole team got together to watch it and bet 1 Euro on what we thought the score was going to be. I guessed 3-1 Madrid. Well, Madrid lost 5-0!!!!! Going into the game they were ranked ahead of Barcelona so it was really just a disgrace! They game was played in Barcelona, and every single bar and restaurant that had a TV was packed to see this game! My German teammate made the comment that all of Europe was watching this game. Only four of my teammates were going for Madrid, and the rest for Barcelona. Two of the arguable best soccer players play on each of these teams. Cristiano Ronaldo, and Leo Messi. Ronaldo is from Portugal and Messi is from Argentina. I talked with my little girls from my team before the game, and they are all in love with Ronaldo. One was giggling how she had a picture of Ronaldo with his shirt off! Hahaha! Just like my sister, who thinks he is gorgeous. Here are a couple pictures of them and if you don't know which is which, then guess lol. 

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Good Morning from Oviedo!

Napolitano de Chocolate

I just had some coffee and a napolitano de chocolate, which is my favorite pastry here. It is probably one of the most unhealthy though too =/ Basically it is a croissant filled with chocolate, and when they are fresh and warm they are delicious! Meredith, my roommate from college who lived in Salamanca, Spain for three months on exchange, also loved these. By the time she told me to try one, I had already been hooked! Unfortunately I have not been able to find a coffee shop that serves like lattes with flavors or anything. They only have regular coffee, coffee with milk, or I think there are cappuccinos too. Clearly, there was no Thanksgiving here, but a few of my teammates had heard of it and wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I didn't even eat pavo(turkey) on this past Thursday, but I was able to Skype with my family before they feasted! If I had a kitchen in my place, I would have cooked, but I don't :(On another note I had two games with my kids since I last blogged. One on Friday night and one yesterday morning. On Friday night we lost by 43 points. Not good! We were able to bounce back and win on Saturday morning so our overall record is 2-2 and we are ranked  third in our league of twelve teams.

The Friday night game was played outside and I am pretty sure it was about 32 degrees because I could see my breathe! I felt so bad for my kids, but then again they were probably warmer than me because they were running around! It was a pretty dramatic game on Friday, with the parents screaming at the ref, and even coming down onto the court. I was pretty angry with the ref as well ,but then I just started to feel bad. It was his fist basketball game he had ever reffed, and that was clear. Actually, I think that was the first basketball game he had ever seen. On top of the that the person running the score book was a 10 year old boy so he was making fouls for the wrong person, and giving points the wrong team. All the mom's were standing behind our bench and comforting the girls who were freezing and angry about the game, while all the dad's were angry and yelling. The mom's just kept telling me I was doing a great job and to just worry about coaching, meanwhile a few would come tap me on the shoulder and show me what the real score was, because they were keeping track on their own pad of paper haha! So far, no problem parents yet, in fact, they are all very nice. Yesterday we had a big team meal at Tina's apartment. Saturday's and Tuesdays we never have practice, even if we have a game the next day. One type of typical food here is tortillas. Before

Tortilla de patata

Spain, I had always thought of tortilla's like the flour ones that you use to eat tacos, or buritos. Here tortillas are eggs and potates all cooked together to make a big queesh like pie. I am sure that you can put other ingredients in the tortilla like ham or veggies, but just eggs and potatoes I believe is the most common. Today we will leave at 1:30 to head to Vallolidad where we have a game at 6pm. I am still not practice or playing yet, continuing to let my knee heal. If we win today we will be 8-0! Tomorrow is a HUGE game in Spain where Real Madrid will take on FC Barcelona in one of the biggest soccer games of the year! I will be going for Real Madrid :) It had started to get very cold here, and I can now see snow on the mountains that are behind the city. Looks like it's time for me to be on a beach, in 22 days! :)

Some Pics of the City

I realized yesterday that I have not taken too many pictures of the city so I walked to class and snapped some photos along the way. This is on my way to class, and is an area is where a lot of the shopping is, and as you can see there is a big statue of a culo in the middle :) If you click on any of these pictures it will allow you to see them bigger.

This is a statue called "La Gorda" which means the fat lady basically. A lot of times this is used a meeting place with people. For example we will meet at La Gorda at 10 tonight! It is close to the Cathedral and the center of town.

This picture is taken also on my walk to class, as you can see there are a lot of little mopeds or motorcycles or whatever you want to call them. Also the city plants trees and plants like these along every single road! They maintain them well so it always looks pretty. I have seen the city workers hand painting the gold on the flower pots like the one on the right side of the picture, and there are hundreds of those around the city!

 Walking to class takes me about 20 minutes, along the way I pass this Theater. I am not sure what goes on here, but I would like to find out!

This right at the beginning of Uria, which is the street with all the shopping. The weather has been pretty overcast here, and I guess it is suppose to snow in the next couple of days!