It is now Friday and it's officially my last week here in Spain. At 1pm, Nery and Danny arrive in Malaga. I have some things planned for us to do, but hopefully the weather holds and we get to spend time enjoying the weather.
I actually planned a trip to Sevilla for Monday and Tuesday thinking it would be a fun place to go that is relatively close. Turns out that Feria starts on Monday in Sevilla and is basically their version of Carnival or Mardi Gras. Pretty damn lucky if you ask me. So I'm really excited about that and then also showing them around the area I've been living for three months.
Tomorrow we have our last game of the season as well. We play the Barcelona Bufals for the second time. This time it's at home and they have to deal with the 12 hour bus ride. This is the team that beat us by 5 points which eventually led to the collapse of our season. So we some unfinished business one might say.
We have a solid gameplan and are really excited about playing them, because we are expecting over 20 players. With those kind of numbers for us, comes a legitimate shot at winning... While I know there is a 99% chance that no one sees this before Saturday if ever, I do not want to reveal our gameplan. This is probably just ridiculous, but some guys on a few of the teams we play have added me on Facebook and also, you can find this blog if you google search the Marbella Sharks and probably Barcelona Bufals too. I can't afford to give away any advantages to deciphering the artistry that is going to take place on Saturday. Haha. But seriously, we're all very excited. We had two good practices this week and everyone really wants to finish up with a win.
We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Italy
After the Coslada game, AJ and I took a trip to Italy. We spent Easter weekend in Rome, then he went off to visit a friend abroad in India, while I headed north to Florence for 3 more nights.
Rome was amazing. One of my favorite classes at Harvard was about the Roman Games and we learned all about the munera, which were originally funeral games to celebrate that person's death but came to be the gladiatorial games. We also learned a lot about each of the Caesars, what they did, who built the Colosseum and how and why. (This website talks more about it: http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/arena.html) To finally go there and see that was very cool and I had a lot of fun. We had some really nice weather there too and hung out at the Trevi Fountain for a while. We saw the Vatican - St. Peter's Basilica was just incredible - as well as the Pantheon and all of the other tourist junk. We went to a restaurant that had been recommended to us and it did not disappoint. The food there really is incredible.
We stayed in some tiny hostel, but the location was awesome, very close to everything. The first night we were packed into a room with 6 bunks with about a foot in between the beds. We were there from Thursday to Sunday, and we went to some of the popular American study-abroad bars in the Campo di Fiore. Those were fun, but it's almost like being at home. Then again, when you walk by the Colosseum on your way home, it's not just like being home. We found a bar that had the NCAA Final Four, and ended up having an awesome night watching Butler upset Michigan State. Needless to say, people at the hostel were happy to see us go. Apparently coming home at 4 in the morning is not standard procedure with some of those folk.
On Sunday, I got a rental car and headed north to Florence. As it turned out, my hostel wasn't in Florence but 15 minutes South. The easiest way to get there was to take the main highway into Firenze and then take a highway south to Siena, and get off at the right exit. Unfortunately, I didn't get on the Firenze-Siena autostrade, but another road that led to Siena. I had planned on getting a GPS with the rental (they had said one would be available) but when I arrived, the only one they had was broken, so I had to use a map of the entire country to get around, not exactly what you'd call detailed. It was raining and foggy and I made it to Firenze by 10 pm. Should have been to the hostel no later than 1030pm. At 1230am, I was driving through Tuscany, and had been for a few hours and I decided I would just stay at the next villa that I found. 5 minutes on a dirt road through olive fields and I show up at this place. Turns out I couldn't afford the 350 euro/night price, but the guy there spoke English and drew me a great map with good directions to the place. He admitted the area was nearly impossible to navigate, especially with this fog and rain at night. At 1am, I get to the hostel. Alive. Unfortunately the place closes at midnight, so without a phone or key, I was stuck. So I spent the night in my baby blue Fiat Panda - great car, surprisingly spacious.
After the miserable start, Florence ended up being quite nice. I spent the next day there and was able to hang out in the Boboli Gardens, see the Duomo, and a few museums. At the Academy Gallery though, I hit a speedbump, or perhaps a wall. In order to rent the car, I had to put a deposit down. This exceeded my daily allowance so I could not use my debit card to get cash for 24 hours. Unfortunately the Academy Gallery does not accept credit cards, and there was no way to get cashback at any local places. Matt did not get to see Michelangelo's David. However I did see a copy of the statue that stands in the original location of David, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
My hostel was in a small town called Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, situated right in the middle of Tuscany, and I found a little restaurant there that was probably the best meal I have ever eaten. Some red wine, spaghetti bolognaise, lambchops with potatoes, and gelato. Unreal. Back at the hostel I made some friends and we went out to a bar nearby. This place was a tiny little town and we were the only ones at the bar except for a few high school aged locals who were out messing around on a Monday night. It was a fun experience.
The next day I drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower. That thing is pretty cool. I felt kind of lame knowing that Galileo had figured out gravity there and I was just taking pictures of people pretending to hold it up, but it was a nice day so I took a nap on the grass. After that I drove north along the coast to Cinqe Terre. The place was amazing. I'll put up pictures later but here's a good one from the internet: http://www.nomaders.com/blog/index.php/recordando-un-mes-de-mayo-de-hace-unos-anos/
It's a small region of five villages built into the mountains on the coast. They are tiny little towns that have recently become a popular tourist spot because of how cool the area is and how beautiful the landscape is. You can hike back and forth between the villages or take a train that runs back and forth. It was a nice day so I hiked and the whole time I was just loving it. I'd love to go back some day and stay right there in the villages. Unfortunately my budget doesn't exactly allow for that just yet.
On Wednesday, my last day, I drove back south towards Rome, stopping at Siena for lunch. That's a cool place but I didn't stay too long there. I wanted to first go to Ostia Antico before getting back to the airport.
Ostia is a port city on the mouth of the Tiber River that goes directly into Rome. It was very important in ancient times when all global transportation was done by boat. It wasn't a huge city, but there were something like 40,000 inhabitants. In the 7th or 8th century though, a case of Malaria spread through the town and it was eventually abandoned. Everyone just picked up and left. No one ever built over it, and the ruins have since been excavated and studied and is now a park. Like the Colosseum, I really enjoyed getting to see the ancient Roman ruins. That type of stuff really interests me and it was amazing that so much of the stuff was still intact from over 1200 years ago.
That night I flew back to Spain and have been hanging out here for the last few days. The weather has been nice, and I went to my first bullfight yesterday. That was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Very interesting, especially since there was a female matador who failed to kill the bull and was eventually boo'ed out of ring when her sword got flung up into the crowd and almost impaled the beer vendor. Haha. Time to go outside.
Rome was amazing. One of my favorite classes at Harvard was about the Roman Games and we learned all about the munera, which were originally funeral games to celebrate that person's death but came to be the gladiatorial games. We also learned a lot about each of the Caesars, what they did, who built the Colosseum and how and why. (This website talks more about it: http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/arena.html) To finally go there and see that was very cool and I had a lot of fun. We had some really nice weather there too and hung out at the Trevi Fountain for a while. We saw the Vatican - St. Peter's Basilica was just incredible - as well as the Pantheon and all of the other tourist junk. We went to a restaurant that had been recommended to us and it did not disappoint. The food there really is incredible.
We stayed in some tiny hostel, but the location was awesome, very close to everything. The first night we were packed into a room with 6 bunks with about a foot in between the beds. We were there from Thursday to Sunday, and we went to some of the popular American study-abroad bars in the Campo di Fiore. Those were fun, but it's almost like being at home. Then again, when you walk by the Colosseum on your way home, it's not just like being home. We found a bar that had the NCAA Final Four, and ended up having an awesome night watching Butler upset Michigan State. Needless to say, people at the hostel were happy to see us go. Apparently coming home at 4 in the morning is not standard procedure with some of those folk.
On Sunday, I got a rental car and headed north to Florence. As it turned out, my hostel wasn't in Florence but 15 minutes South. The easiest way to get there was to take the main highway into Firenze and then take a highway south to Siena, and get off at the right exit. Unfortunately, I didn't get on the Firenze-Siena autostrade, but another road that led to Siena. I had planned on getting a GPS with the rental (they had said one would be available) but when I arrived, the only one they had was broken, so I had to use a map of the entire country to get around, not exactly what you'd call detailed. It was raining and foggy and I made it to Firenze by 10 pm. Should have been to the hostel no later than 1030pm. At 1230am, I was driving through Tuscany, and had been for a few hours and I decided I would just stay at the next villa that I found. 5 minutes on a dirt road through olive fields and I show up at this place. Turns out I couldn't afford the 350 euro/night price, but the guy there spoke English and drew me a great map with good directions to the place. He admitted the area was nearly impossible to navigate, especially with this fog and rain at night. At 1am, I get to the hostel. Alive. Unfortunately the place closes at midnight, so without a phone or key, I was stuck. So I spent the night in my baby blue Fiat Panda - great car, surprisingly spacious.
After the miserable start, Florence ended up being quite nice. I spent the next day there and was able to hang out in the Boboli Gardens, see the Duomo, and a few museums. At the Academy Gallery though, I hit a speedbump, or perhaps a wall. In order to rent the car, I had to put a deposit down. This exceeded my daily allowance so I could not use my debit card to get cash for 24 hours. Unfortunately the Academy Gallery does not accept credit cards, and there was no way to get cashback at any local places. Matt did not get to see Michelangelo's David. However I did see a copy of the statue that stands in the original location of David, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
My hostel was in a small town called Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, situated right in the middle of Tuscany, and I found a little restaurant there that was probably the best meal I have ever eaten. Some red wine, spaghetti bolognaise, lambchops with potatoes, and gelato. Unreal. Back at the hostel I made some friends and we went out to a bar nearby. This place was a tiny little town and we were the only ones at the bar except for a few high school aged locals who were out messing around on a Monday night. It was a fun experience.
The next day I drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower. That thing is pretty cool. I felt kind of lame knowing that Galileo had figured out gravity there and I was just taking pictures of people pretending to hold it up, but it was a nice day so I took a nap on the grass. After that I drove north along the coast to Cinqe Terre. The place was amazing. I'll put up pictures later but here's a good one from the internet: http://www.nomaders.com/blog/index.php/recordando-un-mes-de-mayo-de-hace-unos-anos/
It's a small region of five villages built into the mountains on the coast. They are tiny little towns that have recently become a popular tourist spot because of how cool the area is and how beautiful the landscape is. You can hike back and forth between the villages or take a train that runs back and forth. It was a nice day so I hiked and the whole time I was just loving it. I'd love to go back some day and stay right there in the villages. Unfortunately my budget doesn't exactly allow for that just yet.
On Wednesday, my last day, I drove back south towards Rome, stopping at Siena for lunch. That's a cool place but I didn't stay too long there. I wanted to first go to Ostia Antico before getting back to the airport.
Ostia is a port city on the mouth of the Tiber River that goes directly into Rome. It was very important in ancient times when all global transportation was done by boat. It wasn't a huge city, but there were something like 40,000 inhabitants. In the 7th or 8th century though, a case of Malaria spread through the town and it was eventually abandoned. Everyone just picked up and left. No one ever built over it, and the ruins have since been excavated and studied and is now a park. Like the Colosseum, I really enjoyed getting to see the ancient Roman ruins. That type of stuff really interests me and it was amazing that so much of the stuff was still intact from over 1200 years ago.
That night I flew back to Spain and have been hanging out here for the last few days. The weather has been nice, and I went to my first bullfight yesterday. That was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Very interesting, especially since there was a female matador who failed to kill the bull and was eventually boo'ed out of ring when her sword got flung up into the crowd and almost impaled the beer vendor. Haha. Time to go outside.
Update
My time in Spain is coming to a close, but fortunately I've got 2 good weeks ahead of me. I come home on April 23rd, and I'm very excited to see all my family and friends, but I know that I will miss this place and the friends I've made here.
Anyways the last few weeks have been great here too. The weather is finally been consistent. Instead of beach days thrown into my schedule at random, it is now becoming more of an every day possibility. Haha, cannot complain with that.
We have played a football game since March 26, when we traveled up to Coslada to play the Camioneros. Coslada is right outside of Madrid and takes about 7 hours by bus. The game was Sunday at noon, so we got onto a bus here in Nueva Andalucia at 1130pm Saturday night. We made one stop about a half hour north to pick up a few more players... But something just wasn't right. Why were there only 21 people on the bus? I suppose that would have been fine if 2 weren't Mike's kids, one wasn't a player's girlfriend, 3 weren't friends coming for the bus ride to Madrid, and 1 wasn't a coach. Yeah. So that puts us at 14. One of which had never played a down of football in his life and had only been to one practice the night before. Haha, you can imagine the thoughts going through our head at this point.
At about 12:30am, someone decided to put on 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Hmm. Great idea! Haha. We had a game to play in less than 12 hours, no one has slept, and we're about to watch a horror movie. Ha. It ended by 2am or so and when someone tried to put on 'Disaster Movie' I had had enough and put a quick end to that.
So we arrive in Madrid around 8 o'clock (DST is 2 weeks after the states, and this happened to be the night we 'sprung ahead'! Lucky.) We put our stuff in the locker room and thought we were going to a team breakfast. Mike, our coach said,"Okay guys, its 815 now, be back by 10 to get ready for the game at noon." When asked about the team breakfast he replied, "Well, you have about two hours, so if you have some money I suppose you could go buy some breakfast." Haha. I got a kick out of that.
A contingent of about 8 start walking around this little outskirt town of Madrid. Unfortunately, in Spain, everything is closed on Sundays. And not actually every single place, but about 95% of places. After a decent hike, we find a coffee shops that serves coffee, juice, and churros (fried dough sticks). I really actually can't think of a better pre-game meal. We did end up finding a little sandwich shop after the churros, but it wasn't much better.
Gametime: 14 players. Now, if you know football, you know that it's not like soccer. You can't really play a football game with 14 guys. That would mean that just about every player is playing both ways and every special team. Insane. The one thing we had going for us was that they only had like 23 guys, which is also very difficult. Midway through the first quarter one of our players coming back from an ACL injury reinjured his knee and was out for the game. 13.
We actually put up quite a fight. Despite penalties and linemen going both ways, we hung in there and fought until the end. They were leading 26-14 when Zac threw fade to me in the endzone in the last few minutes for a touchdown. The final score was 26-20. We actually did have a chance at winning that game, which would have been nothing short of a miracle. We were missing our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th string receivers, so after AJ, we put in our backup middle linebacker/defensive end to play wideout. We had a fullback who had never played fullback before. Of our secondary, we had 3 players from the original 7 linebackers and defensive backs from earlier in the season. Our offensive line fought hard and opened up some big holes for me to run through and I did alright carrying the ball. My shoulder held up too, so I'm happy about that.
We ended up having a very fun bus ride home. We had dropped our second game, which put us at 3-3-1 (we ended up having to take a forfeit for the game we missed due to travel isssues) but we were having fun playing football and hanging out together.
We have one game left, this upcoming Saturday against the Barcelona Bufals at home. This would have been a showdown for a chance to make the playoffs had things not fallen apart, but now it is solely our chance at redemption for the team that beat us a few months ago. They are the best team in the league, but I know if we have a better turnout with players, we do have a solid chance to beat them. I sent an email out to the team the other night, asking players to come together for one more game as a team. I addressed the fact that yes, while the season did fall apart, it was still a lot of fun. I had a good response and I think that we may end up having at least 20 players for this one. If that is the case, then I have a good feeling about it. It would be the perfect way to finish the season - and possibly my career. Who knows if I'll play another football game after this one?
Also, my ex-roommates Nery and Danny are coming on Friday for a week, so that's going to be great. And of course I can't let them down by losing.
Anyways the last few weeks have been great here too. The weather is finally been consistent. Instead of beach days thrown into my schedule at random, it is now becoming more of an every day possibility. Haha, cannot complain with that.
We have played a football game since March 26, when we traveled up to Coslada to play the Camioneros. Coslada is right outside of Madrid and takes about 7 hours by bus. The game was Sunday at noon, so we got onto a bus here in Nueva Andalucia at 1130pm Saturday night. We made one stop about a half hour north to pick up a few more players... But something just wasn't right. Why were there only 21 people on the bus? I suppose that would have been fine if 2 weren't Mike's kids, one wasn't a player's girlfriend, 3 weren't friends coming for the bus ride to Madrid, and 1 wasn't a coach. Yeah. So that puts us at 14. One of which had never played a down of football in his life and had only been to one practice the night before. Haha, you can imagine the thoughts going through our head at this point.
At about 12:30am, someone decided to put on 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Hmm. Great idea! Haha. We had a game to play in less than 12 hours, no one has slept, and we're about to watch a horror movie. Ha. It ended by 2am or so and when someone tried to put on 'Disaster Movie' I had had enough and put a quick end to that.
So we arrive in Madrid around 8 o'clock (DST is 2 weeks after the states, and this happened to be the night we 'sprung ahead'! Lucky.) We put our stuff in the locker room and thought we were going to a team breakfast. Mike, our coach said,"Okay guys, its 815 now, be back by 10 to get ready for the game at noon." When asked about the team breakfast he replied, "Well, you have about two hours, so if you have some money I suppose you could go buy some breakfast." Haha. I got a kick out of that.
A contingent of about 8 start walking around this little outskirt town of Madrid. Unfortunately, in Spain, everything is closed on Sundays. And not actually every single place, but about 95% of places. After a decent hike, we find a coffee shops that serves coffee, juice, and churros (fried dough sticks). I really actually can't think of a better pre-game meal. We did end up finding a little sandwich shop after the churros, but it wasn't much better.
Gametime: 14 players. Now, if you know football, you know that it's not like soccer. You can't really play a football game with 14 guys. That would mean that just about every player is playing both ways and every special team. Insane. The one thing we had going for us was that they only had like 23 guys, which is also very difficult. Midway through the first quarter one of our players coming back from an ACL injury reinjured his knee and was out for the game. 13.
We actually put up quite a fight. Despite penalties and linemen going both ways, we hung in there and fought until the end. They were leading 26-14 when Zac threw fade to me in the endzone in the last few minutes for a touchdown. The final score was 26-20. We actually did have a chance at winning that game, which would have been nothing short of a miracle. We were missing our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th string receivers, so after AJ, we put in our backup middle linebacker/defensive end to play wideout. We had a fullback who had never played fullback before. Of our secondary, we had 3 players from the original 7 linebackers and defensive backs from earlier in the season. Our offensive line fought hard and opened up some big holes for me to run through and I did alright carrying the ball. My shoulder held up too, so I'm happy about that.
We ended up having a very fun bus ride home. We had dropped our second game, which put us at 3-3-1 (we ended up having to take a forfeit for the game we missed due to travel isssues) but we were having fun playing football and hanging out together.
We have one game left, this upcoming Saturday against the Barcelona Bufals at home. This would have been a showdown for a chance to make the playoffs had things not fallen apart, but now it is solely our chance at redemption for the team that beat us a few months ago. They are the best team in the league, but I know if we have a better turnout with players, we do have a solid chance to beat them. I sent an email out to the team the other night, asking players to come together for one more game as a team. I addressed the fact that yes, while the season did fall apart, it was still a lot of fun. I had a good response and I think that we may end up having at least 20 players for this one. If that is the case, then I have a good feeling about it. It would be the perfect way to finish the season - and possibly my career. Who knows if I'll play another football game after this one?
Also, my ex-roommates Nery and Danny are coming on Friday for a week, so that's going to be great. And of course I can't let them down by losing.
Monday, March 22, 2010
A tie?
Yes, the Marbella Sharks tied the Granada Lions 14-14 this past Saturday at their home pitch - Santa Maria de Las Chapas. So you must be thinking, 'Oh, they play NFL rules and no one scored in the overtime period.' Wrong. The higher-ups here in Spain at the LNFA had apparently decided that there is no need for overtime during the regular season. How fitting!
So after 48 minutes of football (I think we play only 12 minute quarters, but I couldn't tell you for certain) the game ended in a draw - what typical Spanish style!
Yes, this is the same team that we beat by 30 a month ago on their home field. So what happened? Well we had our new QB, but unfortunately we were missing about 10 other guys, and anyone who knows football knows that a group of 16 guys, no matter how good, are going to have a tough time against over 30 guys on the opposing team.
The bummer is that we had missed opportunities and didn't score from the red zone a couple times, and were very close to winning. It came down to our defense. We had many guys going both ways, and only 6 of our original 11 starters from the last time we played Granada. There were a lot of things stacked up against us, and we still almost pulled it out.
I personally had one of my best games, but what's it worth when you don't get a win? The line opened up some big holes, and our new 'draw' play worked like magic. I probably rushed for 150 yards on 15-18 carries, but couldn't find the endzone. I did have a two-point conversion that ended up keeping us alive, but we really needed one more score for a win. Defensively, too I played well, but on the whole, we had too many penalties (personal fouls and those damn offisides penalties kill us week after week) and not a single turnover. Unfortunately I busted up my shoulder a bit, but I'll be fine for next week I'm sure.
So after that, it looks like our playoff hopes are gone. We still don't know if we'll be allowed to make up the game against Sueca, and we also need Barcelona to lose or tie their next game which seems unlikely.
Our next game is this Sunday the 28th, in Madrid against the Camioneros and hopefully we'll have more than 16 players... but who knows, road games are tough.
After that, we don't play again until April 17th, so AJ and I are going to Rome for Easter weekend. It should be wild.
So after 48 minutes of football (I think we play only 12 minute quarters, but I couldn't tell you for certain) the game ended in a draw - what typical Spanish style!
Yes, this is the same team that we beat by 30 a month ago on their home field. So what happened? Well we had our new QB, but unfortunately we were missing about 10 other guys, and anyone who knows football knows that a group of 16 guys, no matter how good, are going to have a tough time against over 30 guys on the opposing team.
The bummer is that we had missed opportunities and didn't score from the red zone a couple times, and were very close to winning. It came down to our defense. We had many guys going both ways, and only 6 of our original 11 starters from the last time we played Granada. There were a lot of things stacked up against us, and we still almost pulled it out.
I personally had one of my best games, but what's it worth when you don't get a win? The line opened up some big holes, and our new 'draw' play worked like magic. I probably rushed for 150 yards on 15-18 carries, but couldn't find the endzone. I did have a two-point conversion that ended up keeping us alive, but we really needed one more score for a win. Defensively, too I played well, but on the whole, we had too many penalties (personal fouls and those damn offisides penalties kill us week after week) and not a single turnover. Unfortunately I busted up my shoulder a bit, but I'll be fine for next week I'm sure.
So after that, it looks like our playoff hopes are gone. We still don't know if we'll be allowed to make up the game against Sueca, and we also need Barcelona to lose or tie their next game which seems unlikely.
Our next game is this Sunday the 28th, in Madrid against the Camioneros and hopefully we'll have more than 16 players... but who knows, road games are tough.
After that, we don't play again until April 17th, so AJ and I are going to Rome for Easter weekend. It should be wild.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Kate's Visit
I was very excited for Kate to arrive on Sunday and even though we went out on Saturday night til pretty late, I woke up at 830 on Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep. I was planning to leave to meet her at 1030, so I spent two hours trying to kill time and ended up leaving early. The last thing I wanted was to get held up somehow and have her come out of the terminal all alone and find no one there...
Well that is exactly what happened. That morning, I checked the British Airways website and it said her flight was arriving at Terminal 2. I was at Terminal 2 about 5 minutes before she was to land, so I'm thinking everything is alright... Turns out the terminal had been switched, and about 30 minutes later I'm getting nervous and wondering what is going on. I finally ask someone and sure enough, it had been switched, so I sprint to the other terminal, and there she is all alone, trying to call my Spanish number with her credit card. Smart girl. I felt so bad, but it only went uphill from there.
We spent a night in Malaga at this cool little hotel, then headed to my house here in Nueva Andalucia for a night. She got to experience what goes on here at the house, and we went to the bars where I usually go, and it was a lot of fun. The next day we checked in to our hotel on the beach in Torremolinos. It was a nice apartment with a tiny kitchen, but it was big enough for the two of us. She's pretty small. Jajaja (that's how to say 'hahaha' in Spanish - the J makes the H sound for those of you who skipped your foreign language classes in high school). So we went on all kinds of journeys into different towns and areas and had a few picnics. One day we took a chairlift up to the top of a mountain. It was really cool, because the view is amazing, I'll throw up some pictures of that. And we had a little picnic up there. I was eating an orange and threw the peels on the ground and some crazy Spanish lady told me that I was "RUINING THE PARADISE!" I tried to explain to her that it was an orange peel and that it would fertilize the soil and help more pretty flowers grow, but she wasn't having any of that. I got over that whole situation pretty quickly. We got to go to the beach and lay out by the pool in the sun one day. The weather stayed pretty good for us, but it wasn't terribly hot, so no swimming in the Mediterranean for us.
On Thursday we drove down to Tarifa and took a ferry to Tangier, Morocco, Africa. Place was pretty cool. While they were checking my passport, two guys had already started harassing Kate and telling her they'd bring us on a tour for 40 Euro and that we could "Rock the Casbah" if we went with them. We warded them off initially, but finally ended up paying a guy 20 to bring us on a walking tour of the city. In hindsight, it was a real good move, because he showed us some really cool areas that I never would have found on my own and we avoided being harassed by all the street vendors over there. It was a really cool place to see, but I'm in no hurry to go back.
That night, we drove to Cadiz, which is on the Atlantic Coast. There we met up with one of my teammates, Axe, and stayed with him and his girlfriend at her apartment. The next day we explored the city and then drove home the long way through Ronda. It was amazing - great views and scenery. The road went right through the mountains too, so it was fun driving the winding roads, knowing that a slip-up would send us over the edge of the cliff.
Unfortunately we didn't get to stop for too long in Ronda. Ronda is the town where bullfighting was actually created and is home to the original 18th century bullring. We drove around for a minute, but couldn't quite find it, and had to be on our way back to the hotel to get ready. We had plans to go to one of my teammates house for an authentic Spanish dinner and were already running a bit behind schedule.
Luckily for us, everyone in Spain is late, and being an hour tardy is like being 20 minutes early. My teammate, Oscar, is only 25, but is married and has spent some time in Jacksonville. He had another player over and a few other friends. He made paella, a popular Spanish rice dish with lots of seafood thrown in. We had gambas, carne secreto, jamon curado, y ensalata Ruso (shrimp, secret meat, cured ham, and Russian Salad). The shrimp are a little different than what you get back in the states, mainly because they're still in full shell, heads intact. Kate really enjoyed ripping their heads off and peeling them out of the shell. And the secret meat was delicious (I have learned the secret, but cannot divulge). We told Kate that it was rabbit after she had already enjoyed a few pieces, and she was not happy with me. A few years back I had tricked her into eating 'conejo' at a Spanish restaurant in Cambridge and I had promised that if I was going to give her rabbit again, I would tell her. Anyways, the meal was delicious and it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone. It was a mix of Spanish and English conversations and a few things were lost in translation, but it was a great time.
Saturday we kind of just vegged out and enjoyed the sun. We ended up back in Puerto Banus, and hung out with a few guys on the team at a bar. We couldn't stay out too late because we had an early flight to London the next morning. We got to London Sunday evening and took the Tube (their metro or T) towards our hotel. We ended up going to the IMAX at Waterloo station and trying to get tickets for 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3D, but it was sold out until April, so we settled on an 'Avatar' in 3D at 11:30. With time to kill, we ended up finding the most amazing pizza place in the world. I had the Canberra "Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce, roast chicken breast, garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, mozzarella & marinated mushrooms topped with sour cream & sweet chilli sauce." and it was life-changing. We went to the movie after that, and it was very cool.
The next day we walked around London saw the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace and some other sights, but were a little bummed all day knowing that we were separating. She went through security around 7, and I headed back to the city to kill some time before my bus left later that night.
I was headed to Paris, on an overnight bus. I showed up at the station about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. I don't have a lot of experience on buses, and this would be perfectly fine for the ones I had taken in Spain. It wasn't until I showed up that I realized my computer print-out said to arrive no later than 1 hour before departure. I laughed it off, that is until I see the bus pulling away and after chasing it down, the driver refused to let me onboard. Back inside at the counter, I was lucky enough to get a spot on the next bus, an hour later. Haha, real smooth.
It was a crummy ride, but I made it into Paris around 7am. I had a train leaving at 11pm, so I bought a map and a little guidebook and ventured around the city. It was really cool. I walked some 8 miles I later figured out, but it was fun to see all of the cool buildings and layout of the city. It really is like nothing I had ever seen before. I'm going to have to get down to DC this summer, because I'm sure that will be interesting as well. Of course when I get to the Louvre, I find out that it's closed on Tuesdays, perfect, and then to top it off, some jerk tries to hustle me on the way out. He tells me that he's just starting his caricature business and wants to use me as a model to draw. I tell him I'm all set, recognizing the scam, but he promises I won't have to buy it, just 5 minutes to help him out. I'm alone, just hanging and it's a beautiful day outside, so why not do him a favor? After 5 minutes, he shows me this crummy picture of a guy that's supposed to look like me and I said "Nice, you can hang it to show people." This upset him quite a bit and urged that I give him "A reasonable amount of money, what you feel it's worth." and showed me that he usually charges 25 Euro for drawings. I told him I had nothing and would give him nothing, to which he responded by cursing out all Americans for being cheap assholes. I laughed and walked on.
After that little fiasco, I climbed up the Arc de Triomphe and that was cool because it's basically in the middle of a rotary of 12 intersecting streets, including the Champs de Elysee. All of I could think of was that song "Champs de Elysee" that we listened to a hundred times in Spanish class senior year. It was pretty funny. From there I headed to the Eiffel Tower. You've got another thing coming if you think I'm going to Paris and not going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
However, upon arrival, I found a line longer than most Six Flags roller coaster lines to get to the top. A few minutes later, I noticed that you could also take the stairs up for half the price and there was no line! A free workout and I didn't have to wait? I started yelling to all the people in line that they were lazy idiots and proceeded to run up the stairs as fast as I could. About halfway I stopped, exhausted and out of breath, and walked for a little bit. Apparently the stairs only go to the second level, and then you have to take the elevator from there. So I got in line, I mean, I had made it this far, and eventually rode the elevator to the top. The view was incredible. I could see where I had arrived on the bus, and then all the places that I had walked to, and then to the train station that I would need to go to later on. It was awesome.
After that, I went to the Statue of Liberty; yes, there is a second one, National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets was not completely full of it. I ended up in the college area where I found some cheap food and beer before I had to get to the station. It was Tuesday night at 11pm and I didn't arrive to the Marbella bus station until 11:45pm Wednesday night. I did have a few connections, including 3 hours in Madrid to hang out, but it was a long day.
AJ actually met me at the bus station in a cab, and we headed to an Irish bar, to celebrate St. Patty's day the right way. It had been a long trip, and it was finally over, and it was time to start getting ready for the game against Granada on Saturday.
Well that is exactly what happened. That morning, I checked the British Airways website and it said her flight was arriving at Terminal 2. I was at Terminal 2 about 5 minutes before she was to land, so I'm thinking everything is alright... Turns out the terminal had been switched, and about 30 minutes later I'm getting nervous and wondering what is going on. I finally ask someone and sure enough, it had been switched, so I sprint to the other terminal, and there she is all alone, trying to call my Spanish number with her credit card. Smart girl. I felt so bad, but it only went uphill from there.
We spent a night in Malaga at this cool little hotel, then headed to my house here in Nueva Andalucia for a night. She got to experience what goes on here at the house, and we went to the bars where I usually go, and it was a lot of fun. The next day we checked in to our hotel on the beach in Torremolinos. It was a nice apartment with a tiny kitchen, but it was big enough for the two of us. She's pretty small. Jajaja (that's how to say 'hahaha' in Spanish - the J makes the H sound for those of you who skipped your foreign language classes in high school). So we went on all kinds of journeys into different towns and areas and had a few picnics. One day we took a chairlift up to the top of a mountain. It was really cool, because the view is amazing, I'll throw up some pictures of that. And we had a little picnic up there. I was eating an orange and threw the peels on the ground and some crazy Spanish lady told me that I was "RUINING THE PARADISE!" I tried to explain to her that it was an orange peel and that it would fertilize the soil and help more pretty flowers grow, but she wasn't having any of that. I got over that whole situation pretty quickly. We got to go to the beach and lay out by the pool in the sun one day. The weather stayed pretty good for us, but it wasn't terribly hot, so no swimming in the Mediterranean for us.
On Thursday we drove down to Tarifa and took a ferry to Tangier, Morocco, Africa. Place was pretty cool. While they were checking my passport, two guys had already started harassing Kate and telling her they'd bring us on a tour for 40 Euro and that we could "Rock the Casbah" if we went with them. We warded them off initially, but finally ended up paying a guy 20 to bring us on a walking tour of the city. In hindsight, it was a real good move, because he showed us some really cool areas that I never would have found on my own and we avoided being harassed by all the street vendors over there. It was a really cool place to see, but I'm in no hurry to go back.
That night, we drove to Cadiz, which is on the Atlantic Coast. There we met up with one of my teammates, Axe, and stayed with him and his girlfriend at her apartment. The next day we explored the city and then drove home the long way through Ronda. It was amazing - great views and scenery. The road went right through the mountains too, so it was fun driving the winding roads, knowing that a slip-up would send us over the edge of the cliff.
Unfortunately we didn't get to stop for too long in Ronda. Ronda is the town where bullfighting was actually created and is home to the original 18th century bullring. We drove around for a minute, but couldn't quite find it, and had to be on our way back to the hotel to get ready. We had plans to go to one of my teammates house for an authentic Spanish dinner and were already running a bit behind schedule.
Luckily for us, everyone in Spain is late, and being an hour tardy is like being 20 minutes early. My teammate, Oscar, is only 25, but is married and has spent some time in Jacksonville. He had another player over and a few other friends. He made paella, a popular Spanish rice dish with lots of seafood thrown in. We had gambas, carne secreto, jamon curado, y ensalata Ruso (shrimp, secret meat, cured ham, and Russian Salad). The shrimp are a little different than what you get back in the states, mainly because they're still in full shell, heads intact. Kate really enjoyed ripping their heads off and peeling them out of the shell. And the secret meat was delicious (I have learned the secret, but cannot divulge). We told Kate that it was rabbit after she had already enjoyed a few pieces, and she was not happy with me. A few years back I had tricked her into eating 'conejo' at a Spanish restaurant in Cambridge and I had promised that if I was going to give her rabbit again, I would tell her. Anyways, the meal was delicious and it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone. It was a mix of Spanish and English conversations and a few things were lost in translation, but it was a great time.
Saturday we kind of just vegged out and enjoyed the sun. We ended up back in Puerto Banus, and hung out with a few guys on the team at a bar. We couldn't stay out too late because we had an early flight to London the next morning. We got to London Sunday evening and took the Tube (their metro or T) towards our hotel. We ended up going to the IMAX at Waterloo station and trying to get tickets for 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3D, but it was sold out until April, so we settled on an 'Avatar' in 3D at 11:30. With time to kill, we ended up finding the most amazing pizza place in the world. I had the Canberra "Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce, roast chicken breast, garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, mozzarella & marinated mushrooms topped with sour cream & sweet chilli sauce." and it was life-changing. We went to the movie after that, and it was very cool.
The next day we walked around London saw the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace and some other sights, but were a little bummed all day knowing that we were separating. She went through security around 7, and I headed back to the city to kill some time before my bus left later that night.
I was headed to Paris, on an overnight bus. I showed up at the station about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. I don't have a lot of experience on buses, and this would be perfectly fine for the ones I had taken in Spain. It wasn't until I showed up that I realized my computer print-out said to arrive no later than 1 hour before departure. I laughed it off, that is until I see the bus pulling away and after chasing it down, the driver refused to let me onboard. Back inside at the counter, I was lucky enough to get a spot on the next bus, an hour later. Haha, real smooth.
It was a crummy ride, but I made it into Paris around 7am. I had a train leaving at 11pm, so I bought a map and a little guidebook and ventured around the city. It was really cool. I walked some 8 miles I later figured out, but it was fun to see all of the cool buildings and layout of the city. It really is like nothing I had ever seen before. I'm going to have to get down to DC this summer, because I'm sure that will be interesting as well. Of course when I get to the Louvre, I find out that it's closed on Tuesdays, perfect, and then to top it off, some jerk tries to hustle me on the way out. He tells me that he's just starting his caricature business and wants to use me as a model to draw. I tell him I'm all set, recognizing the scam, but he promises I won't have to buy it, just 5 minutes to help him out. I'm alone, just hanging and it's a beautiful day outside, so why not do him a favor? After 5 minutes, he shows me this crummy picture of a guy that's supposed to look like me and I said "Nice, you can hang it to show people." This upset him quite a bit and urged that I give him "A reasonable amount of money, what you feel it's worth." and showed me that he usually charges 25 Euro for drawings. I told him I had nothing and would give him nothing, to which he responded by cursing out all Americans for being cheap assholes. I laughed and walked on.
After that little fiasco, I climbed up the Arc de Triomphe and that was cool because it's basically in the middle of a rotary of 12 intersecting streets, including the Champs de Elysee. All of I could think of was that song "Champs de Elysee" that we listened to a hundred times in Spanish class senior year. It was pretty funny. From there I headed to the Eiffel Tower. You've got another thing coming if you think I'm going to Paris and not going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
However, upon arrival, I found a line longer than most Six Flags roller coaster lines to get to the top. A few minutes later, I noticed that you could also take the stairs up for half the price and there was no line! A free workout and I didn't have to wait? I started yelling to all the people in line that they were lazy idiots and proceeded to run up the stairs as fast as I could. About halfway I stopped, exhausted and out of breath, and walked for a little bit. Apparently the stairs only go to the second level, and then you have to take the elevator from there. So I got in line, I mean, I had made it this far, and eventually rode the elevator to the top. The view was incredible. I could see where I had arrived on the bus, and then all the places that I had walked to, and then to the train station that I would need to go to later on. It was awesome.
After that, I went to the Statue of Liberty; yes, there is a second one, National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets was not completely full of it. I ended up in the college area where I found some cheap food and beer before I had to get to the station. It was Tuesday night at 11pm and I didn't arrive to the Marbella bus station until 11:45pm Wednesday night. I did have a few connections, including 3 hours in Madrid to hang out, but it was a long day.
AJ actually met me at the bus station in a cab, and we headed to an Irish bar, to celebrate St. Patty's day the right way. It had been a long trip, and it was finally over, and it was time to start getting ready for the game against Granada on Saturday.
Update
My mom has been killing me to write another entry on here, and I swear I've been meaning to, I've just been busy. The last 2 weeks have been quite a roller coaster for me and the Sharks.
After the loss at Barcelona, our Owner/Head Coach, Mike, decided that we needed to make some changes at the Quarterback position. It just so happened that the QB from last season, Zac, who played at Division 1 Colorado a few years back, had moved back into Marbella. Mike was trying to get him to come on as Offensive Coordinator, but soon decided he would have him play as well. This meant that our current QB, Mark, would become the backup and would be removed from the game roster (you can only have 3 Americans on the game roster at a time). Unfortunately, when Mike decided to make this change, he addressed the team via email, since he was still in Barcelona with his family.
Mark, as expected, didn't take the change too well, and since he had done a lot in recruiting many of the players (including myself and AJ) started talking about leaving and starting a new team in Malaga. This idea, while it wasn't a legitimate threat for this season, started to grow and many of the players wanted to quit the Sharks. The week was a complete mess. And to make matters worse, Mike had to return to the States on business and has been there for a weeks on available via email.
After hundreds of emails, a few team meetings, and hours of arguing in both English and Spanish - Mike addressed the team, again via e-mail, that we would be moving forward with Zac as our QB and anyone who was not interested could walk.
This was all finalized on Friday evening. We had a game in Sueca (outside Valencia) at 3:30 on Saturday. We also had no bus or vans or anything. By midnight, we book a van online in Malaga. At 4:30 am, we wake up to go meet up with the rest of the team. There are 12 guys ready to make the trip. Things do not look promising.
Turns out that a few guys were going to meet us there and that we would have enough players in order to not forfeit....
HOWEVER, after about 2 hours of the 6 hour trip to Valencia, we got stuck in a little bit of a rainstorm and Ground Force One did a little bit of hydroplaning into a guard rail. Everyone on board was fine, but the car was not moving. We ended up getting it towed up to Granada only to find out that we would be making it to Sueca for our game any time soon. We quickly called the team and the League to tell them of our unfortunate circumstances.
Instead of turning lemons in lemonade, we said screw it, and 8 of us decided to enjoy the day in Granada. We went and got some lunch and beers, and then walked to the Alhambra, which is a famous old Moorish castle. Not much to look at from the outside, and we weren't about to pay to go inside. But when you take 8 football players and stick them in the middle of a tourist attraction on a nice sunny day with a few beers, things are going to be fun. As it turned out, Granada just so happened to be playing Barcelona at 4 in Granada. And there was no way we were going to miss that.
We showed up and got to scout both teams out a little bit. It was actually very useful since our new QB, Zac, hasn't seen any of these teams and he got a chance to dissect both defenses. But it was also great for AJ and I to get to watch from the sideline. We knew we'd be playing both of these teams again, and it's hard to really see what's going on when you're playing on the field, so this gave us a little more perspective. And plus, it's always fun to watch some American football on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
We are working to get that game rescheduled. It'd be a bummer if we had to forfeit, but it is what it is, and what will be will be.
This all happened on Saturday, the 6th of March, and on the 7th, Kate was arriving at the airport at noon. So I was very excited.
Stay tuned for part 2....
After the loss at Barcelona, our Owner/Head Coach, Mike, decided that we needed to make some changes at the Quarterback position. It just so happened that the QB from last season, Zac, who played at Division 1 Colorado a few years back, had moved back into Marbella. Mike was trying to get him to come on as Offensive Coordinator, but soon decided he would have him play as well. This meant that our current QB, Mark, would become the backup and would be removed from the game roster (you can only have 3 Americans on the game roster at a time). Unfortunately, when Mike decided to make this change, he addressed the team via email, since he was still in Barcelona with his family.
Mark, as expected, didn't take the change too well, and since he had done a lot in recruiting many of the players (including myself and AJ) started talking about leaving and starting a new team in Malaga. This idea, while it wasn't a legitimate threat for this season, started to grow and many of the players wanted to quit the Sharks. The week was a complete mess. And to make matters worse, Mike had to return to the States on business and has been there for a weeks on available via email.
After hundreds of emails, a few team meetings, and hours of arguing in both English and Spanish - Mike addressed the team, again via e-mail, that we would be moving forward with Zac as our QB and anyone who was not interested could walk.
This was all finalized on Friday evening. We had a game in Sueca (outside Valencia) at 3:30 on Saturday. We also had no bus or vans or anything. By midnight, we book a van online in Malaga. At 4:30 am, we wake up to go meet up with the rest of the team. There are 12 guys ready to make the trip. Things do not look promising.
Turns out that a few guys were going to meet us there and that we would have enough players in order to not forfeit....
HOWEVER, after about 2 hours of the 6 hour trip to Valencia, we got stuck in a little bit of a rainstorm and Ground Force One did a little bit of hydroplaning into a guard rail. Everyone on board was fine, but the car was not moving. We ended up getting it towed up to Granada only to find out that we would be making it to Sueca for our game any time soon. We quickly called the team and the League to tell them of our unfortunate circumstances.
Instead of turning lemons in lemonade, we said screw it, and 8 of us decided to enjoy the day in Granada. We went and got some lunch and beers, and then walked to the Alhambra, which is a famous old Moorish castle. Not much to look at from the outside, and we weren't about to pay to go inside. But when you take 8 football players and stick them in the middle of a tourist attraction on a nice sunny day with a few beers, things are going to be fun. As it turned out, Granada just so happened to be playing Barcelona at 4 in Granada. And there was no way we were going to miss that.
We showed up and got to scout both teams out a little bit. It was actually very useful since our new QB, Zac, hasn't seen any of these teams and he got a chance to dissect both defenses. But it was also great for AJ and I to get to watch from the sideline. We knew we'd be playing both of these teams again, and it's hard to really see what's going on when you're playing on the field, so this gave us a little more perspective. And plus, it's always fun to watch some American football on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
We are working to get that game rescheduled. It'd be a bummer if we had to forfeit, but it is what it is, and what will be will be.
This all happened on Saturday, the 6th of March, and on the 7th, Kate was arriving at the airport at noon. So I was very excited.
Stay tuned for part 2....
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Not Undefeated
The Sharks fell this past Saturday at the hands of the Barcelona Bufals 13-8. It was very upsetting even though it doesn't matter all that much for our playoff hopes. We had too many turnovers and penalties and they came at the worst times - at start of drives and on defensive third down situations. My mom and Emily were in town for the game so it was a bummer to play such a crummy game while they were here. However, they enjoyed meeting the team and watching us play, so it was all good. And like I said, we will still make the playoffs if we can win the rest of our games, and most importantly the rematch against Barcelona on April 18th at home.
Home field advantage here in Spain is very important; not only was it a 10 hour drive, but many players have jobs and families and a few starters weren't at the game. Only in Spain right? Well we are glad to have played a close game on the road even though we committed so many mistakes. Since we now play the same four teams again, our confidence is high that we can win the rest of our games.
While we did lose the game, the trip to Barcelona was amazing. I left on Thursday afternoon with Deb and Em, and we flew into Girona on RyanAir. This is a lot like flying into Manchester, NH on Southwest Airlines. The flight was only 20 euros each for a one way ticket. Cheap right? No. You definitely learn a lot on your first RyanAir flight... First was typical, 30 euro to check a bag, but you can't buy an extra seat to put your bag in. Pretty standard in this day and age. So we arrive at the airport and Emily and my mom each have a bag to check and we all a carry on bag. When we go to check in the women says to me (in Spanish) this bag is 13 kilos over the 15 kilo weight limit and will cost 20 euros/kilo.... After realizing that we're looking at $400 to check the bag, we start throwing things away and thinking about solutions. One of the things in the bag were a few bottles of wine that my mother was bringing home for gifts. Well those had to go. So after an hour of reorganizing and drinking, we finally were able to check a 3rd bag instead of a carry-on for only 30 euro more and we were feeling really good about it all.
We get to Girona, still a little giddy and went to our hotel there. We had decided to book a room there rather than going all the way to Barcelona right away. For dinner we went to el casco antiguo, the old town, and found a nice Spanish restaurant. It was a fun trip and I was glad we were able to see that area, but I was excited to get to Barcelona. We took an early train to Barcelona the next morning and find that our hotel is right in the middle of the city - it was great. We got to see Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, a huge monument to Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus for all the nonners), The Cathederal, and of course endless vendors of FC Barcelona soccer jerseys. Barca is arguably the best club team in the world and after winning the Champion's League last year, they went out and spent over 250 million euro on new players... Sounds a lot like the Yankees.
After one guy chased me out of his store yelling he'd "KICK MY ASS!", we hiked back to the area around our hotel and bargained with a guy for 20 minutes before settling on Zlatan Ibrahimovic's jersey for 20 euro. He's the newest addition to the squad, a Swede signed this year for an A-Rod sized contract. I was really looking for Lionel Messi jersey, but they didn't have my size, but I'm psyched about Ibrahimovic, so it all worked out.
The best part of the story is later that night, when I met up with the team at the hotel they were staying at, I decided to wear this new jersey out for our team dinner. When I walked out of the elevator, I instantly heard the roar of a riot forming. Every Spanish curse word I'd ever heard of was being screamed at me, along with plenty that I didn't understand. Two guys grabbed me and tried to carry me back to the elevator and up to my room. At first I was very confused, but then realized wearing the Barca jersey around people from Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) was like wearing a Yankees jersey into a Red Sox Fanclub initiation. Haha, but I didn't care, it was all in good fun. One guy pulled out his lighter and tried to set the shirt on fire while I was still wearing it. After a few guys got everyone else settled down and we walked to the restaurant, I spoke with a few of the guys in Spanish about Barcelona. After an embarrassing exchange of words, I came to realize that the reason everyone hates Barcelona is that they are part of Catalunia - the northern state in Spain, that has basically been trying to secede from Spain for many years. Apparently, when Barcelona goes to the UK to play a match, and they play the Spanish national anthem, the Barcelona fans boo. So this rivalry goes beyond just sports, it's about national pride.
When I told the guys that I also bought a Christiano Renaldo, Real Madrid jersey last week, they laughed. I can't say I'd have the same reaction if some punk bought a Patriots and a Jets jersey and I knew about it.
On Sunday night, after the loss, me, AJ, and Axe - our 240 pound Finnish middle linebacker decided to stay around and go out. Of course I decide to rock the Barca jersey again, considering we were in Barcelona and it turned out that FC Barcelona's basketball team actually beat Real Madrid in the National Championship earlier that night. So instead of being attacked for wearing the shirt, everyone was coming up and giving me high fives in celebration of the big win.
At 6am I heard my alarm going off and realized I had to leave the club and get back to the hotel to say goodbye to my mom and sister, who had an early flight. Emily had decided not to join us at the bar this night, one was enough for her. Haha, she did in fact come out with me on Friday night, but I kept a keen eye on here and made sure she had nothing in her glass except deliciously refreshing Coca-Cola. The Coke is actually a lot better here than in the states, because they use actual sugarcane instead of corn syrup, but that's another story. Well, I almost missed them leaving because we had a "I take the stairs and they ride down the elevator" sort of moment, but when I found the room empty I started running full speed out of the hotel and to the subway. I yelled my mom's name just as she was about to go through the turnstile of the station. Lucky. I said goodbye to them and headed back to the bar to find my friends. I was very happy that they had come to visit. We had a lot of fun together and got to enjoy a bunch of very cool experiences.
The next day we got up and messed around killing time until Mike wanted to drive back south to Marbella. The maids finally kicked us out of the room a few hours after checkout. (Mom, don't worry, you're not getting a charge, we took care of it at the front desk - since doce (12) sounds a lot like dos (2), we pretended to be stupid Americans with poor Spanish skills.... Pretended?) So we went up to El Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's 100,000 seat stadium and then went and found a bar. We finally left Barcelona at 9pm. I took the liberty of co-piloting while AJ and Axe slept in the back. It was an 11 hour journey home, me and Mike spliting up the driving halfway, but we made it. Alive.
The last few days have been real lazy. I cannot believe it's already Friday. Finally though, the rain has stopped and I'm sitting outside shirtless catching some great bene's (beneficial rays of glorious sunshine) as I write this. You'll have to forgive any mistakes, I'm just way too lazy to proofread right now.
Home field advantage here in Spain is very important; not only was it a 10 hour drive, but many players have jobs and families and a few starters weren't at the game. Only in Spain right? Well we are glad to have played a close game on the road even though we committed so many mistakes. Since we now play the same four teams again, our confidence is high that we can win the rest of our games.
While we did lose the game, the trip to Barcelona was amazing. I left on Thursday afternoon with Deb and Em, and we flew into Girona on RyanAir. This is a lot like flying into Manchester, NH on Southwest Airlines. The flight was only 20 euros each for a one way ticket. Cheap right? No. You definitely learn a lot on your first RyanAir flight... First was typical, 30 euro to check a bag, but you can't buy an extra seat to put your bag in. Pretty standard in this day and age. So we arrive at the airport and Emily and my mom each have a bag to check and we all a carry on bag. When we go to check in the women says to me (in Spanish) this bag is 13 kilos over the 15 kilo weight limit and will cost 20 euros/kilo.... After realizing that we're looking at $400 to check the bag, we start throwing things away and thinking about solutions. One of the things in the bag were a few bottles of wine that my mother was bringing home for gifts. Well those had to go. So after an hour of reorganizing and drinking, we finally were able to check a 3rd bag instead of a carry-on for only 30 euro more and we were feeling really good about it all.
We get to Girona, still a little giddy and went to our hotel there. We had decided to book a room there rather than going all the way to Barcelona right away. For dinner we went to el casco antiguo, the old town, and found a nice Spanish restaurant. It was a fun trip and I was glad we were able to see that area, but I was excited to get to Barcelona. We took an early train to Barcelona the next morning and find that our hotel is right in the middle of the city - it was great. We got to see Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, a huge monument to Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus for all the nonners), The Cathederal, and of course endless vendors of FC Barcelona soccer jerseys. Barca is arguably the best club team in the world and after winning the Champion's League last year, they went out and spent over 250 million euro on new players... Sounds a lot like the Yankees.
After one guy chased me out of his store yelling he'd "KICK MY ASS!", we hiked back to the area around our hotel and bargained with a guy for 20 minutes before settling on Zlatan Ibrahimovic's jersey for 20 euro. He's the newest addition to the squad, a Swede signed this year for an A-Rod sized contract. I was really looking for Lionel Messi jersey, but they didn't have my size, but I'm psyched about Ibrahimovic, so it all worked out.
The best part of the story is later that night, when I met up with the team at the hotel they were staying at, I decided to wear this new jersey out for our team dinner. When I walked out of the elevator, I instantly heard the roar of a riot forming. Every Spanish curse word I'd ever heard of was being screamed at me, along with plenty that I didn't understand. Two guys grabbed me and tried to carry me back to the elevator and up to my room. At first I was very confused, but then realized wearing the Barca jersey around people from Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) was like wearing a Yankees jersey into a Red Sox Fanclub initiation. Haha, but I didn't care, it was all in good fun. One guy pulled out his lighter and tried to set the shirt on fire while I was still wearing it. After a few guys got everyone else settled down and we walked to the restaurant, I spoke with a few of the guys in Spanish about Barcelona. After an embarrassing exchange of words, I came to realize that the reason everyone hates Barcelona is that they are part of Catalunia - the northern state in Spain, that has basically been trying to secede from Spain for many years. Apparently, when Barcelona goes to the UK to play a match, and they play the Spanish national anthem, the Barcelona fans boo. So this rivalry goes beyond just sports, it's about national pride.
When I told the guys that I also bought a Christiano Renaldo, Real Madrid jersey last week, they laughed. I can't say I'd have the same reaction if some punk bought a Patriots and a Jets jersey and I knew about it.
On Sunday night, after the loss, me, AJ, and Axe - our 240 pound Finnish middle linebacker decided to stay around and go out. Of course I decide to rock the Barca jersey again, considering we were in Barcelona and it turned out that FC Barcelona's basketball team actually beat Real Madrid in the National Championship earlier that night. So instead of being attacked for wearing the shirt, everyone was coming up and giving me high fives in celebration of the big win.
At 6am I heard my alarm going off and realized I had to leave the club and get back to the hotel to say goodbye to my mom and sister, who had an early flight. Emily had decided not to join us at the bar this night, one was enough for her. Haha, she did in fact come out with me on Friday night, but I kept a keen eye on here and made sure she had nothing in her glass except deliciously refreshing Coca-Cola. The Coke is actually a lot better here than in the states, because they use actual sugarcane instead of corn syrup, but that's another story. Well, I almost missed them leaving because we had a "I take the stairs and they ride down the elevator" sort of moment, but when I found the room empty I started running full speed out of the hotel and to the subway. I yelled my mom's name just as she was about to go through the turnstile of the station. Lucky. I said goodbye to them and headed back to the bar to find my friends. I was very happy that they had come to visit. We had a lot of fun together and got to enjoy a bunch of very cool experiences.
The next day we got up and messed around killing time until Mike wanted to drive back south to Marbella. The maids finally kicked us out of the room a few hours after checkout. (Mom, don't worry, you're not getting a charge, we took care of it at the front desk - since doce (12) sounds a lot like dos (2), we pretended to be stupid Americans with poor Spanish skills.... Pretended?) So we went up to El Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's 100,000 seat stadium and then went and found a bar. We finally left Barcelona at 9pm. I took the liberty of co-piloting while AJ and Axe slept in the back. It was an 11 hour journey home, me and Mike spliting up the driving halfway, but we made it. Alive.
The last few days have been real lazy. I cannot believe it's already Friday. Finally though, the rain has stopped and I'm sitting outside shirtless catching some great bene's (beneficial rays of glorious sunshine) as I write this. You'll have to forgive any mistakes, I'm just way too lazy to proofread right now.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Undefeated
So right now the Marbella Sharks are 3-0 and sitting at the top of the National Conference in the LNFA. We've outscored our opponents 72-6 and lead the nation in points allowed and are tied for second with points scored. However, we cannot and will not get ahead of ourselves. We had a BYE week this weekend, and then next week have to drive over 10 hours to go play the Barcelona Bufals, who are 2-0 and have had two straight BYE weeks. It's shaping up to be quite a battle on the 21st of February, and I couldn't be more excited. And to add to it all, my mom and sister will be coming to visit next week and will be in town for the big game.
Our team is really coming together and practices are getting much more organized and productive. I think I finally know everyone's name on the team, and my Spanish is getting better as I continue to coach up the Spanish guys. We have a very interesting combination of players on the team. There are 3 Americans (since only 3 are allowed by Spanish League rules), a few guys from Finland, a few from the UK, then a few more guys from other countries in Latin America and Europe, and of course guys from all over Spain - including those who speak great English, a little English, and no English.
Most of my Spanish speaking has come while hanging with 'The San Pedro Cartel' Rule #1: Do not mess with The Cartel. Rule #2: Whatever The Cartel says, that's how things are gonna' go down.
No that's not true at all. The San Pedro Cartel is actually our secondary minus AJ - our 2 cornerbacks and free-safety. We started calling them The Cartel a few weeks ago and it just fit perfectly. The cartel consists of three Spanish guys that are my age who live in San Pedro, a town just south of Nueva Andalucia, and have been playing football for about 3 years. We started hanging out together and we have a lot of fun when we go out to the local clubs. Despite some of our cultural differences, we really do have a lot in common.
My Spanish skills also improved drastically this weekend after my excursion to Madrid to meet my mother and sister at the airport. I was smart enough to write down the address of our hotel up there, but apparently I didn't deem it necessary to get directions from the airport to the hotel. Well I took care of business and we made it happen. AJ had spent a semester in Madrid, so he suggested a few places to visit including El Prado museum and La Plaza Mayor. We had a lot of fun getting around and ended up finding a great little tapas bar (tapas are appetizers but it's common to order a bunch and share them as a meal). We got up early and took a bus down to Malaga, where we picked up the rental car and went over to their hotel. The car is a stick shift, and I've been doing most of the driving. I must say that I kind of look like the dude from "The Transporter", so I was seriously offended when my mother said she was "a much better driver than I am"... She's getting kind of old, I worry that her perception is starting to go.
This morning, Emily and my mom came to meet me at the house at 11 but unfortunately, last night turned into one of those late nights, and getting up before 11am was just out of the question. Combine the facts that I live in the basement and they don't have a phone and you get Emily and my mom spending a half hour enjoying the driveway outside the gate to the house. When I finally woke up and found them waiting for me outside, we left for Gibraltar - which is actually an English province and you need a passport to get in. Unfortunately, they drive on the right side of the road in Gibraltar, but I decided we should drive on the left, since it is an English province after all. That didn't last too long.
It was a really cool place and we got to see these huge caves and there were monkeys up on the mountain and they climb all over the car and then one climbed on Emily. He started digging for food/bugs in her hair (I believe he did find a little snack in there) and then peed on her shoulder. Pretty hilarious few minutes for me. We checked out a few more tourist things and then walked around the town a little before heading back to Marbella.
Tomorrow we have high hopes to meet up and go to the market and walk around El Casco Antiguo - The Old Town. I had to promise that I would be outside and ready at 11am this time. Haha. We'll see.
Our team is really coming together and practices are getting much more organized and productive. I think I finally know everyone's name on the team, and my Spanish is getting better as I continue to coach up the Spanish guys. We have a very interesting combination of players on the team. There are 3 Americans (since only 3 are allowed by Spanish League rules), a few guys from Finland, a few from the UK, then a few more guys from other countries in Latin America and Europe, and of course guys from all over Spain - including those who speak great English, a little English, and no English.
Most of my Spanish speaking has come while hanging with 'The San Pedro Cartel' Rule #1: Do not mess with The Cartel. Rule #2: Whatever The Cartel says, that's how things are gonna' go down.
No that's not true at all. The San Pedro Cartel is actually our secondary minus AJ - our 2 cornerbacks and free-safety. We started calling them The Cartel a few weeks ago and it just fit perfectly. The cartel consists of three Spanish guys that are my age who live in San Pedro, a town just south of Nueva Andalucia, and have been playing football for about 3 years. We started hanging out together and we have a lot of fun when we go out to the local clubs. Despite some of our cultural differences, we really do have a lot in common.
My Spanish skills also improved drastically this weekend after my excursion to Madrid to meet my mother and sister at the airport. I was smart enough to write down the address of our hotel up there, but apparently I didn't deem it necessary to get directions from the airport to the hotel. Well I took care of business and we made it happen. AJ had spent a semester in Madrid, so he suggested a few places to visit including El Prado museum and La Plaza Mayor. We had a lot of fun getting around and ended up finding a great little tapas bar (tapas are appetizers but it's common to order a bunch and share them as a meal). We got up early and took a bus down to Malaga, where we picked up the rental car and went over to their hotel. The car is a stick shift, and I've been doing most of the driving. I must say that I kind of look like the dude from "The Transporter", so I was seriously offended when my mother said she was "a much better driver than I am"... She's getting kind of old, I worry that her perception is starting to go.
This morning, Emily and my mom came to meet me at the house at 11 but unfortunately, last night turned into one of those late nights, and getting up before 11am was just out of the question. Combine the facts that I live in the basement and they don't have a phone and you get Emily and my mom spending a half hour enjoying the driveway outside the gate to the house. When I finally woke up and found them waiting for me outside, we left for Gibraltar - which is actually an English province and you need a passport to get in. Unfortunately, they drive on the right side of the road in Gibraltar, but I decided we should drive on the left, since it is an English province after all. That didn't last too long.
It was a really cool place and we got to see these huge caves and there were monkeys up on the mountain and they climb all over the car and then one climbed on Emily. He started digging for food/bugs in her hair (I believe he did find a little snack in there) and then peed on her shoulder. Pretty hilarious few minutes for me. We checked out a few more tourist things and then walked around the town a little before heading back to Marbella.
Tomorrow we have high hopes to meet up and go to the market and walk around El Casco Antiguo - The Old Town. I had to promise that I would be outside and ready at 11am this time. Haha. We'll see.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
SHARKS WIN 34-0!
We really took it to the Coslada Camioneros (Truckers from Madrid). We put up a ton of points and just demoralized them on defense. I think they had 5 first downs. Awesome. Gotta go celebrate with the team. I'll holla.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Living in Marbella
Well the truth is that I'm not actually living in Marbella, I actually don't really know where I'm living. I guess the house is in Nueva Andulucia, which I is supposedly near Marbella, but like most things in Spain, it is what it is and no one seems to give a damn. I do know that I am living in a very expensive home with the team president/head coach and his family. I live in the finished basement (Shark Shack) with AJ, my new teammate from Worcester. We've got a really cool set up down here with separate rooms, a few couches, a big flatscreen tv, and a bar. The best part is that this week we're getting an Xbox 360... that's the bonus from el Prez for the big win last Saturday.
Playing football has been a lot of fun and it's the reason I'm here, but to be honest, we only have 2 practices a week for two hours each and then the games on Saturdays. Living with the team president allows for some additional game planning and fine tuning of the playbook, but there is a lot of down time. Fortunately, there's always something going on over here...
The most obvious reason for constant action is probably the fact that Mike and Ann (who we live with) have 7 children. Chrystal is 2 months old, Connor is almost 2 years old, Charlotte is 3 years old, Cady is 4 years old, Chloe is 6 years old, Chase is 8 years old, and Cooper is 10. As you can imagine, living with 7 kids under the age of 11, creates some pretty hectic times, but luckily the basement is just about self-sustaining with a fridge and a bathroom and a good working lock. However, I've always really enjoyed being with kids, and its a lot of fun playing with them. Obviously it's a lot more enjoyable when you're not required to care for them 24/7 and provide for them, so I'm kind of getting the best of both worlds.
They also have 1 year old dog who is always competing for attention or jumping onto the counter to eat food. He's a schitzu, and I've had some bad experiences with schitzus in the past, so at first I thought I'd hate him. Luckily he's actually turned out to be not so bad. The best part is that there's a female English Bulldog living next door. AJ and I are trying very hard to get those two some alone time. I'll keep you updated on the success of that venture.
On top of that, there is the constant allure of the sun and beach. One step out of my dungeon and I can immediately see the potential bene's (beneficial rays: sun rays that provide a sweet tan) just flowing all over the place. My amazing parents bought me an Amazon Kindle right before taking off and I'm finding that reading books on the beach is going to be a pretty great, time consuming hobby of mine.
I'm really enjoying getting to speak Spanish all the time. I still mess up a lot but can definitely hold a conversation and get things done when I'm out and about shopping and what not. Sometimes I get a little nervous, but the wine is really cheap here so that's become a non-issue. Speaking of wine, AJ and I were dragged to a wine tasting last Friday, but it turned out to be actually quite interesting. They served us a bunch of food even though "it ruins the wine tasting experience"... I think they knew I'm truly a fat kid.
Well I really must be off to bed, although I haven't changed the time on my computer clock and it says only 8:30, I'm aware of this little time change thing and don't want to sleep through any potential bene's tomorrow. (Dillon, I'm trying, if this one isn't up to par, I think you're just going to have to pull the plug on me.)
Oh ya, I've put up a few links at the top on the side of this page; I have some pictures to look at as well as links to some of the Spanish football sites, a link to a google map of the house I'm living at, and of course, the great tale of Mr. Adventurer. We'll see ya.
Playing football has been a lot of fun and it's the reason I'm here, but to be honest, we only have 2 practices a week for two hours each and then the games on Saturdays. Living with the team president allows for some additional game planning and fine tuning of the playbook, but there is a lot of down time. Fortunately, there's always something going on over here...
The most obvious reason for constant action is probably the fact that Mike and Ann (who we live with) have 7 children. Chrystal is 2 months old, Connor is almost 2 years old, Charlotte is 3 years old, Cady is 4 years old, Chloe is 6 years old, Chase is 8 years old, and Cooper is 10. As you can imagine, living with 7 kids under the age of 11, creates some pretty hectic times, but luckily the basement is just about self-sustaining with a fridge and a bathroom and a good working lock. However, I've always really enjoyed being with kids, and its a lot of fun playing with them. Obviously it's a lot more enjoyable when you're not required to care for them 24/7 and provide for them, so I'm kind of getting the best of both worlds.
They also have 1 year old dog who is always competing for attention or jumping onto the counter to eat food. He's a schitzu, and I've had some bad experiences with schitzus in the past, so at first I thought I'd hate him. Luckily he's actually turned out to be not so bad. The best part is that there's a female English Bulldog living next door. AJ and I are trying very hard to get those two some alone time. I'll keep you updated on the success of that venture.
On top of that, there is the constant allure of the sun and beach. One step out of my dungeon and I can immediately see the potential bene's (beneficial rays: sun rays that provide a sweet tan) just flowing all over the place. My amazing parents bought me an Amazon Kindle right before taking off and I'm finding that reading books on the beach is going to be a pretty great, time consuming hobby of mine.
I'm really enjoying getting to speak Spanish all the time. I still mess up a lot but can definitely hold a conversation and get things done when I'm out and about shopping and what not. Sometimes I get a little nervous, but the wine is really cheap here so that's become a non-issue. Speaking of wine, AJ and I were dragged to a wine tasting last Friday, but it turned out to be actually quite interesting. They served us a bunch of food even though "it ruins the wine tasting experience"... I think they knew I'm truly a fat kid.
Well I really must be off to bed, although I haven't changed the time on my computer clock and it says only 8:30, I'm aware of this little time change thing and don't want to sleep through any potential bene's tomorrow. (Dillon, I'm trying, if this one isn't up to par, I think you're just going to have to pull the plug on me.)
Oh ya, I've put up a few links at the top on the side of this page; I have some pictures to look at as well as links to some of the Spanish football sites, a link to a google map of the house I'm living at, and of course, the great tale of Mr. Adventurer. We'll see ya.
Sharks Crush Lions 32-6
We had a huge win yesterday 2.5 hours north in Granada. It's a really cool town with huge snowy mountains as a backdrop. What a perfect day for football too, not too hot, not too cold, and not a cloud in the sky. We were a little nervous all week that we weren't going to have enough players at the game; you need 22 players dressed or else you forfeit. All week we had guys getting sick from a bug going around and a few guys had work/family commitments and couldn't make it. We took the field with exactly 22 guys. Lucky.
We got the ball to start the game and immediately starting pounding it down their throats on the ground. Once we got into the red zone, we ran a perfect bubble screen to my roommate AJ for a 20 yard touchdown. Our kicker is one of the sick players, so I took a halfback dive in for the 2-pt conversion to go up 8-0. We stopped them and got the ball back on our own 5 yard line. Two plays later AJ took another bubble screen 92 yards for a score and a new Sharks record for longest play in history. We missed the try, but were up 14-0 very early.
The second quarter was ugly, we had the ball close a few times and but were either stopped or turned it over. So we went into the half ahead 14-0. The Lions had a big play on the opening drive of the second half and got the ball down inside the 5. They punched it in a few plays later for a score. They also must have been missing their kicker because they went for two as well. The QB rolled out to my side and tried to thread one in behind me but I made a really cool one handed interception and started taking it the other way. Now I'm no Usain Bolt, so when I heard AJ yell my name, I turned and pitched it and he took it the rest of the 70 yards for 2 points. That was huge, because now we were up 10 points and it was a two possession game.
Our American QB Mark had a few good passes in the 3rd quarter to our #2 receiver, Jose Luis. And then our 250 pound bull of a fullback, Tokero, punched it in for another score from a yard out. We held strong defensively, had a few more interceptions, and then in the fourth quarter we were really starting to wear them down. I had a couple of big runs, but then the big moment came early in the fourth quarter. From 20 yards out, I bounced a dive left to the outside and ran for daylight. Saw the pylon and scored my first career TD in Spain as well as my first as a running back. It felt good to get the first one and really seal the game away. We were up 32-6 and there was no chance for Granada. They made a few more tries but we ended up taking a knee for the win a few series later.
We committed much fewer penalties this week, but still a little too many. This was a huge win for us cause it sent a message to the rest of the league that we can score points. There are only 5 teams in each of the 3 conferences. We play in the National Conference against Sueca (Valencia), Granada, Coslada (Madrid), and Barcelona. We play each of those teams twice and the winner of the conference goes to the playoffs. We have a big game at home against Coslada this Saturday coming up and they playing Barcelona right now actually. You can see the complete league standings at www.AEFAweb.com and there is also a write-up of the game on our website www.marbellasharks.es. This weekend is big because it's almost like our home opener, since last week was a monsoon and we had a very small turnout. We're expecting a decent crowd, we have a popular local DJ coming, and the cheerleaders are excited for their first game.
After that, we have a bye week before we play at Barcelona. Let's hope we can keep this winning streak alive.
UPDATE: Although our starting kicker was not at the game, apparently Granada didn't have goalposts, so that's why both teams went for two point conversion tries. Haha.
Also, Barcelona beat Coslada by a lot today, so we are the favorite going into this weekend, but of course, you can never take anyone lightly.
We got the ball to start the game and immediately starting pounding it down their throats on the ground. Once we got into the red zone, we ran a perfect bubble screen to my roommate AJ for a 20 yard touchdown. Our kicker is one of the sick players, so I took a halfback dive in for the 2-pt conversion to go up 8-0. We stopped them and got the ball back on our own 5 yard line. Two plays later AJ took another bubble screen 92 yards for a score and a new Sharks record for longest play in history. We missed the try, but were up 14-0 very early.
The second quarter was ugly, we had the ball close a few times and but were either stopped or turned it over. So we went into the half ahead 14-0. The Lions had a big play on the opening drive of the second half and got the ball down inside the 5. They punched it in a few plays later for a score. They also must have been missing their kicker because they went for two as well. The QB rolled out to my side and tried to thread one in behind me but I made a really cool one handed interception and started taking it the other way. Now I'm no Usain Bolt, so when I heard AJ yell my name, I turned and pitched it and he took it the rest of the 70 yards for 2 points. That was huge, because now we were up 10 points and it was a two possession game.
Our American QB Mark had a few good passes in the 3rd quarter to our #2 receiver, Jose Luis. And then our 250 pound bull of a fullback, Tokero, punched it in for another score from a yard out. We held strong defensively, had a few more interceptions, and then in the fourth quarter we were really starting to wear them down. I had a couple of big runs, but then the big moment came early in the fourth quarter. From 20 yards out, I bounced a dive left to the outside and ran for daylight. Saw the pylon and scored my first career TD in Spain as well as my first as a running back. It felt good to get the first one and really seal the game away. We were up 32-6 and there was no chance for Granada. They made a few more tries but we ended up taking a knee for the win a few series later.
We committed much fewer penalties this week, but still a little too many. This was a huge win for us cause it sent a message to the rest of the league that we can score points. There are only 5 teams in each of the 3 conferences. We play in the National Conference against Sueca (Valencia), Granada, Coslada (Madrid), and Barcelona. We play each of those teams twice and the winner of the conference goes to the playoffs. We have a big game at home against Coslada this Saturday coming up and they playing Barcelona right now actually. You can see the complete league standings at www.AEFAweb.com and there is also a write-up of the game on our website www.marbellasharks.es. This weekend is big because it's almost like our home opener, since last week was a monsoon and we had a very small turnout. We're expecting a decent crowd, we have a popular local DJ coming, and the cheerleaders are excited for their first game.
After that, we have a bye week before we play at Barcelona. Let's hope we can keep this winning streak alive.
UPDATE: Although our starting kicker was not at the game, apparently Granada didn't have goalposts, so that's why both teams went for two point conversion tries. Haha.
Also, Barcelona beat Coslada by a lot today, so we are the favorite going into this weekend, but of course, you can never take anyone lightly.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sharks Win 6-0
We opened our season on Saturday against the Sueca Ricers of Valencia, Spain at our home stadium, El Estadio Santa Maria de las Chapas. We won 6-0 in perhaps the ugliest game of football I have ever been a part of, and yes, that includes B-Team Pop Warner. It's not that the players are unskilled, they are actually very fast and many are very big, however some of them do not understand all of the rules. The referees are also trying to learn, so they don't exactly let stuff go, and this led to about 25 penalties in the first half alone. If someone is lined up in the neutral zone, they call it; there is no letting the small stuff go here. You would have heard a lot of "Let 'em play" shouts back in Dracut, but you have to keep an open mind out here.
On top of the refs, the rain was the worst Marbella has seen in many years. There were puddles about 3-4 inches deep in many parts of the field. I found that out very early into the game when I was tackled and felt like I had been thrown into a pool. Along with the rain was a pretty awesome lightning storm. The game definitely would have been canceled immediately in the states, but that's not how they roll here in Spain. I mean, who gets struck by lightning when there are goalposts all around you? I'm a fan of their logic. There was actually this really cool moment when I was setup in the backfield, waiting for the snap and knowing I was getting the ball. All of the sudden, a huge lightning bolt struck straight ahead in the distance right before the snap. I ran for about 2 yards. Must have been distracted.
The game was a lot of fun though, and despite scoring only 6 points, there were many bright spots. At one point, I drew up half back pass toss pass with AJ, my American roommate from Worcester, as we walked back to the huddle. We ran it a few plays later and I completed a pass to him for a big gain and a first down.
We've spent the last few days designing some new plays and preparing for our game this Saturday in Granada. It's a big one for everyone because they are our archrival. They are also part of the Spanish territory Andalucia, and are the closest team in proximity to us. To add to the tension, the Sharks old coach recently took a position with Granada, and that's added some fuel to the fire for many of the players and coaches here. After hearing about this team and reading about their previous game, I feel very confident going into Saturday and really want to get a win.
My body is just finally starting to recover from last weekend's game and it is now Thursday. The problem here is that many players do no know how to tackle properly, so they just dive at your legs, leading with their helmets. I haven't really been able to walk since the game and my ribs have been hurting quite a bit. But this is football, so I'll stop complaining now.
I must admit, I've really fallen into the Spanish way of life..."I'll get to it later" is truly the way to go over here. I've been trying to write this since Monday, but it just keeps slipping away from me. I'd say as of today I am finally settled in. Its about 1pm and I'm sitting on the back porch and it's about 80 degrees out here, just about perfect. I'm about to head down to the beach with my roommate AJ - things are starting to look up.
We live in the basement the Shark's president. He is an American guy who moved out here with his family a few years back. He's turned the basement into the "Shark Shack" and we've got a great setup down there with separate rooms, a big screen TV, a bar, ping pong table, and tons of space.
Okay. I'll get back to this later. We are going to the beach.
On top of the refs, the rain was the worst Marbella has seen in many years. There were puddles about 3-4 inches deep in many parts of the field. I found that out very early into the game when I was tackled and felt like I had been thrown into a pool. Along with the rain was a pretty awesome lightning storm. The game definitely would have been canceled immediately in the states, but that's not how they roll here in Spain. I mean, who gets struck by lightning when there are goalposts all around you? I'm a fan of their logic. There was actually this really cool moment when I was setup in the backfield, waiting for the snap and knowing I was getting the ball. All of the sudden, a huge lightning bolt struck straight ahead in the distance right before the snap. I ran for about 2 yards. Must have been distracted.
The game was a lot of fun though, and despite scoring only 6 points, there were many bright spots. At one point, I drew up half back pass toss pass with AJ, my American roommate from Worcester, as we walked back to the huddle. We ran it a few plays later and I completed a pass to him for a big gain and a first down.
We've spent the last few days designing some new plays and preparing for our game this Saturday in Granada. It's a big one for everyone because they are our archrival. They are also part of the Spanish territory Andalucia, and are the closest team in proximity to us. To add to the tension, the Sharks old coach recently took a position with Granada, and that's added some fuel to the fire for many of the players and coaches here. After hearing about this team and reading about their previous game, I feel very confident going into Saturday and really want to get a win.
My body is just finally starting to recover from last weekend's game and it is now Thursday. The problem here is that many players do no know how to tackle properly, so they just dive at your legs, leading with their helmets. I haven't really been able to walk since the game and my ribs have been hurting quite a bit. But this is football, so I'll stop complaining now.
I must admit, I've really fallen into the Spanish way of life..."I'll get to it later" is truly the way to go over here. I've been trying to write this since Monday, but it just keeps slipping away from me. I'd say as of today I am finally settled in. Its about 1pm and I'm sitting on the back porch and it's about 80 degrees out here, just about perfect. I'm about to head down to the beach with my roommate AJ - things are starting to look up.
We live in the basement the Shark's president. He is an American guy who moved out here with his family a few years back. He's turned the basement into the "Shark Shack" and we've got a great setup down there with separate rooms, a big screen TV, a bar, ping pong table, and tons of space.
Okay. I'll get back to this later. We are going to the beach.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Going to play in Marbella
I've kept a journal once before, and that was okay, but I've always thought 'blogging' was really lame. I mean, who wants to read about someone else's life? But the truth is, everyone does. First it was MTV's the Real World, and then Survivor, and now there are hundreds of reality television shows on every channel where people just watch what other people are doing. Most of the time, the characters are placed into unique situations, but other times they just follow them living their lives - though I still believe the producers set up fake drama. Most recently, I've been hearing all about 'The Jersey Shore'. Now, I've never been a fan of reality TV, but this show just sounds so stupid - follow a group of 'roided out, cocky punks who live on the Jersey Shore for a summer and go "clubbing" everynight. If so many people are interested in that, then maybe a few would be interested in hearing what I will be doing in Marbella, Spain, while playing American Football for the next three months. It was enough for John Grisham to write a book about it (Playing for Pizza is a fictional story of an American going to play American football in Italy) and at the very least, it'll be an easy way to update my family and friends about how my experience is going.
So, last week I accepted an offer to play football from the Marbella Sharks American football organization. I've had an interest in going to play abroad since my junior year of college upon hearing that a few older teammates of mine at Harvard were planning to play in Italy. (They actually played for the same team that Grisham based his novel on, the Parma Panthers.) And once I read that book I was sold. The whole concept is an amazing opportunity for young Americans, and it's becoming much more popular every year and much more difficult to find a team. Each country has it's own league and its own rules but most of them only allow somewhere between 2-4 players with American passports on the team. The Americans are expected to be the leaders of the team as well as player-coaches, so they are usually paid to play, while the rest of the players from that country or other European countries are unpaid. Like usual, I've made another stupid decision and accepted the one offer that did not provide a salary, but all kidding aside, I'm confident that I made the right choice.
I could have had an all-inclusive experience in Marburg, Germany or Belgrade, Serbia, with round-trip flights paid, an apartment, food stipend, cell phone, and a small salary of about 500 Euro (~$750)/month, but instead took the deal in Marbella where I only get a room and a promise that they'll help me find a job. Why the heck would I do that? Well first of all, I've been studying Spanish since 7th grade and have always enjoyed speaking the language with other people especially in front of people who don't understand it. So it will not only be fun to speak Spanish there, but I'll also be fluent when I get back. Secondly, open a new browser window or tab, and use google maps (not mapquest, it can't compare to google) and Marbella, Spain. Living on the Mediteranean Coast is a dream. Now, about a week after I accept the offer, I get a message on Europlayers.com (it's basically the facebook of American football in Europe) from a team who I had messaged twice, a month before, with no response. This team, the Badalona Dracs (Badalona, Spain is just outside of Barcelona) is the original Spanish team who started the league 20 years ago and are offering me flights, salary, food, phone, and apartment to come play for them. I've found myself with a big decision on my hands; my first two reasons for Spain - the language and the coast - are available in Barcelona, along with a spot an established team and a good chunk of money.
I decided to stay with Marbella and although it wasn't an easy choice, I think it was the right one for a number of reasons. First, you've got the Johnny Damon affect. While my stature is nowhere near his and I don't have any actual fans and I hadn't even signed a contract with Marbella yet, I still would have felt like a sellout. I hadn't planned to do this for money, I simply knew that a little money would make it easier to survive over there. I had made an agreement with a team and to back out on my word for a few thousand dollars would have been tough on me. (And luckily I've managed to save a bit of money while teaching at my alma mater, Dracut High School, for the past couple months as a permanent substitute for a teacher on maternity leave. However, if anyone out there is interested in sponsoring me, don't hesitate to contact me.) Second, the Sharks are a young team with a bright future. I've already been appointed defensive co-captain, along with another Massachusetts native, AJ Scola, who played football at Amherst College and signed on with the Sharks about the same time as I did. After talking with him and our QB from NY, I'm confident we'll win some games. Third, the president of the team, who happens to be a fellow Ivy Leaguer, has been very honest with me throughout the process and very proactive in helping me find a job over there, as well as stressing the fact that it's a really close, family organization. And finally, in Marbella I will be playing tailback. Everyone who plays football wants the ball, so a chance to get it almost every other play was the tipping point for me. I couldn't be more excited to get over there.
My flight is late next Thursday night Jan. 21st out of Logan, and I don't arrive in Malaga, Spain until the afternoon on the 22nd. We open our season against the Sueca Ricers at home on Saturday, January 23. That gives me about 18 hours of preseason camp, compared to the usual 3 - 4 weeks that most players have. Fortunately, the rest of the team has been practicing together for a couple weeks, and I've been training hard here on my own and have been helping to develop the playbook with the other coaches via email. It's not ideal, but that's how football in Spain goes.
So check back whenever, and I'll be sure to keep this updated during my trip.
So, last week I accepted an offer to play football from the Marbella Sharks American football organization. I've had an interest in going to play abroad since my junior year of college upon hearing that a few older teammates of mine at Harvard were planning to play in Italy. (They actually played for the same team that Grisham based his novel on, the Parma Panthers.) And once I read that book I was sold. The whole concept is an amazing opportunity for young Americans, and it's becoming much more popular every year and much more difficult to find a team. Each country has it's own league and its own rules but most of them only allow somewhere between 2-4 players with American passports on the team. The Americans are expected to be the leaders of the team as well as player-coaches, so they are usually paid to play, while the rest of the players from that country or other European countries are unpaid. Like usual, I've made another stupid decision and accepted the one offer that did not provide a salary, but all kidding aside, I'm confident that I made the right choice.
I could have had an all-inclusive experience in Marburg, Germany or Belgrade, Serbia, with round-trip flights paid, an apartment, food stipend, cell phone, and a small salary of about 500 Euro (~$750)/month, but instead took the deal in Marbella where I only get a room and a promise that they'll help me find a job. Why the heck would I do that? Well first of all, I've been studying Spanish since 7th grade and have always enjoyed speaking the language with other people especially in front of people who don't understand it. So it will not only be fun to speak Spanish there, but I'll also be fluent when I get back. Secondly, open a new browser window or tab, and use google maps (not mapquest, it can't compare to google) and Marbella, Spain. Living on the Mediteranean Coast is a dream. Now, about a week after I accept the offer, I get a message on Europlayers.com (it's basically the facebook of American football in Europe) from a team who I had messaged twice, a month before, with no response. This team, the Badalona Dracs (Badalona, Spain is just outside of Barcelona) is the original Spanish team who started the league 20 years ago and are offering me flights, salary, food, phone, and apartment to come play for them. I've found myself with a big decision on my hands; my first two reasons for Spain - the language and the coast - are available in Barcelona, along with a spot an established team and a good chunk of money.
I decided to stay with Marbella and although it wasn't an easy choice, I think it was the right one for a number of reasons. First, you've got the Johnny Damon affect. While my stature is nowhere near his and I don't have any actual fans and I hadn't even signed a contract with Marbella yet, I still would have felt like a sellout. I hadn't planned to do this for money, I simply knew that a little money would make it easier to survive over there. I had made an agreement with a team and to back out on my word for a few thousand dollars would have been tough on me. (And luckily I've managed to save a bit of money while teaching at my alma mater, Dracut High School, for the past couple months as a permanent substitute for a teacher on maternity leave. However, if anyone out there is interested in sponsoring me, don't hesitate to contact me.) Second, the Sharks are a young team with a bright future. I've already been appointed defensive co-captain, along with another Massachusetts native, AJ Scola, who played football at Amherst College and signed on with the Sharks about the same time as I did. After talking with him and our QB from NY, I'm confident we'll win some games. Third, the president of the team, who happens to be a fellow Ivy Leaguer, has been very honest with me throughout the process and very proactive in helping me find a job over there, as well as stressing the fact that it's a really close, family organization. And finally, in Marbella I will be playing tailback. Everyone who plays football wants the ball, so a chance to get it almost every other play was the tipping point for me. I couldn't be more excited to get over there.
My flight is late next Thursday night Jan. 21st out of Logan, and I don't arrive in Malaga, Spain until the afternoon on the 22nd. We open our season against the Sueca Ricers at home on Saturday, January 23. That gives me about 18 hours of preseason camp, compared to the usual 3 - 4 weeks that most players have. Fortunately, the rest of the team has been practicing together for a couple weeks, and I've been training hard here on my own and have been helping to develop the playbook with the other coaches via email. It's not ideal, but that's how football in Spain goes.
So check back whenever, and I'll be sure to keep this updated during my trip.
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