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.
Monday, March 22, 2010
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....
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