Oct 27th - Nov 2nd

Well as usual you turn around and another week has snuck on by. This past week was action packed. School was good for the most part...a bit boring but I guess that is expected at times. Have a test or two coming up this week so studying and preparing is in the future! Can’t really think of anything at school that stood out last week to tell you all about.

On Wednesday night I went with my friend Alberto to a Salsa dancing class, it was really cool there were a bunch of people and the teacher was pretty intense and pushed the class. The class has been going for a few weeks so I am a bit behind but I felt ok out there and should be able to catch up soon! I’ll have to train hard!

On Thursday night I went out with a couple of my friends Javier and Ismael to go out dancing again, had to make sure not to stay out to late because I was leaving in the morning to spend the weekend in Alicante. Well that plan did not work out to well, but the good news is I woke up on time and did not miss my flight! I even had time to stop and pick up some flowers for my Aunt!

In Alicante I was visiting Tía Nana (My mom’s first cousin), Tío Mana (husband), Bernardo and Carolina (kids 16 and 14 respectively). It was one of the best weekends I have had since arriving in Europe. The last time I had seen them was about hmmmm, 13 years ago, so it was almost like meeting them for the first time again. Tío Mana picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at home because he and Tía Nana both had things to finish up at the office Friday afternoon. Bernardo and I shot some hoops for a while (he is an awesome basketball player) and he beat up on me during a few little games. He and Carolina had to finish some homework so I went for an aimless jog around the neighborhood. Later that evening Bernardo had basketball practice so we all dropped him off at the high school and the rest of us went to the beach with Duna, their dog to go for a walk. We played around in the sand for a while and then went to have a tapa before going back to pick up Bernardo. After a light dinner we all chatted and had a relaxing evening before calling it a night and heading to bed relatively early. By the end of the evening I felt as if I had known them all of my life and felt like I was at home almost.

The next day we had a lazy morning, before going to Alicante to tour the old part of the city. It is much smaller than Madrid and quite different. I guess I was not too impressed with the whole downtown area, but it is also under construction and there were parts that were nice but lots of new construction that didn’t really fit in. The nicest part was that the Mediterranean is right there. We had a nice lunch of tapas at a Basque restaurant before taking Bernardo to his Basketball game. It was really cool to watch him play basketball, but much different than back home I must admit. The high school team played on an outdoor court that was not maintained in the best shape, and the kids were slipping and sliding all over the place. It opened my eyes to the sports infrastructure that we have for our students in the states. Gerardo’s team dominated the game and I think he dropped around 20 - 25 points! After the game we were invited to a friends place to have a drink and check out this piece of land that they had just made into a horse back riding complex. Pierre and Iris were the couple that had us to their new facility and we enjoyed a beer over some nice conversation. We finished the day with a nice dinner of seared Tuna steaks at home and chatted away for hours.

Sunday was absolutely awesome. We woke up Sunday morning, had a quick breakfast, and headed down to the harbor because Pierre and Iris invited us to go out on their sailboat for the day. I never knew how awesome that sailing was until this year, this being my second time on a big sailboat! Pierre is an extremely advanced sailor, last year he did a Trans - Atlantic race in his boat SOLO! He had some great stories about how he was able to make it to the finish safely but not without some serious difficulties. Well anyways there were 9 of us on the boat total: Pierre, Iris, Stephen (their son), Alisette (their daughter), I forget their nephews name, Tío Mana, Tía Nana, Carolina, and I. We used the motor to go to the island because the wind was at our heads and we did not have time to fight the head winds to get their, have time for lunch, and return. Upon arrival we anchored about a hundred yards off shore and took a dingy to the island. I on the other hand decided to go for a swim because the water was not too cold, and it was crystal clear. After jumping in and swimming for a while Tía Nana decided to join me and we swam to shore. We had lunch at a nice little restaurant up on a bluff. We all enjoyed a great lunch of Paella, salad and fresh bread. After lunch we took a short walk around the small little island (800x 50 meters more or less) and then went back to the boat. On the way home we raised the main sail and a spinnaker and let the wind take us back. It was a picture perfect sunset over the Mediterranean and couldn’t have finished the weekend any better. After coming into port just after dark Tía Nana took me straight to the airport and it was back to Madrid.

Well, another week gone by, Again I hope everyone is well at home and I hope that you were all able to get through this post, as in it wasn´t too long! Unitl Next time, and hopefully I will put some pictures up soon.

Best Always,

Phil