My dream come true

2012-02-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I know I said I would try to do this as often as possible but...I've been busy haha.

So last night was easily one of the best nights of my life. But a little background first. When I was 6 years old, my dad brought me a Real Madrid jersey from Spain, with Davor Suker on the back. Ever since then I have been a die hard "Madridista" aka Madrid fan. Ever since then, I have dreamed of seeing them play in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. And last night that dream came true. Here's my host dad, Jose Ramon, and I.

The game itself was fantastic. Real Madrid played Levante, a team from Valencia that has actually done surprisingly well this season. Even though I don't like to think about it, they beat us in September and are currently in 4th place and will qualify for the Champions League which is amazing for a team that was just promoted form the 2nd Division 2 years ago. Although Real Madrid got off to a horrible start, as always, they came back and ended up winning 4-2. To make the night even better, my favorite player, Cristiano Ronaldo, scored a hat trick. The team could have played a little better but I couldn't have asked for anything better on my first time. And to top it all off, I got to see my cousin (Javi Venta) play for the first time! However, he plays for Levante and I had to secretly cheer for him haha. Here's some more pictures from the game.

Oh I forgot to mention! It was an even more memorable occasion because one of Real Madrid's most accomplished players ever, Roberto Carlos, was honored and got to do an honorary kick off (top right).

Not only was the game absolutely amazing but the experience was completely different from any sporting event I have ever been to in the US. First of all, my host family has season tickets and they are amazing seats. Even though they're in the 3rd tier, we were right at midfield and it really is the perfect height to be able to see the whole game. Also, there are gigantic heaters on the roof of the stadium that point down at the seats. It was absolutely freezing, so those really helped me keep the feeling in my hands and feet.

The other thing that I loved was just the culture around going to a game and actually watching it. This is definitely a generalization but I think that in the US, most people go to sports games for the experience, not necessarily to watch the game. For example, going to a baseball game is all about the extra stuff and extra events or contests going on, not the game.

Its exactly the opposite in Spain. The first thing I noticed is that there are no huge screens showing the game, replays or doing contests in between gameplay. There are two relatively small screens at each end of the stadium that show the score and the time; thats it. And its weird how used to the US culture I was. Benzema scored a goal that was called back for offsides and as soon as the linesman's flag went up, I looked up to the screen for the replay.

Listening to the fans around me was also really great. Hearing their opinions of players, refs, coaches, the other team, etc was awesome. One of the more popular opinions is that one of Real Madrid left backs/left mids, Fábio Coentrão, is horrible and should never play again. Higuain is also fairly unpopular, unless he does something good (like assist one of Ronaldo's goals). And thats the really unique thing about Real Madrid culture is that because of their history, the fans expect nothing but the best. So when a player or the team isn't playing well, the crowd lets them know. But if the fans think someone is playing well, they chant and sing his name (for example, Ronaldo's name was sung several times).

It's not the best picture but the middle section shown above is where the "Ultras Sur" sit. The Ultras are a radical group of fans that spend the whole game signing and chanting different things. Last night they sang Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho's name, and started chants like "Matalo, matalo, Pepe matalo", "Ballesteros, hijo de puta" and my absolute favorite was when they started to sing Barcelona's official song until they changed the end to "Barca! Barca! Mierda!". Most of what they do during the game is good but a lot of fans don't support the Ultra's because they're just too extreme.

The last very interesting thing about going to the game was the food situation. My host mom made sandwiches for the three of us to take. At first I was a little confused because of course in the US, the only thing you can take into a stadium or area is a bottle of water. Here, everyone is carrying a grocery bag packed with sandwiches and sodas. So instead of spending I don't know how much on a meal at halftime, we ate our food and talked about the first half and what should happen in the second.

The one thing I didn't really like about going was that we drove. Apparently they do it every week and its not a bad drive (about 30 minutes) but parking is such a nightmare. And my host dad actually got a 200 euro ticket! Madrid has a perfectly capable public transportation system (that I will talk about in my next post) so I still don't understand why we drove. But it was all part of an amazing experience that I will never forget.

La llegada!

2012-02-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Bienvenidos a Madrid! And for all of you who don't know how to use Google Translate, welcome to Madrid! ;)

I meant to write this post as soon as I got here but I have been so...busy...with...stuff...haha. Yeah, I guess I just got sidetracked and didn't want to be at my computer writing. But here we go! I'll try to update this as often as I go somewhere or do something important. Or whenever else I feel like :)

So first off. My luggage. Those of you who know me know that I am the WORST packer ever. I bring way too many clothes everywhere I go. And essentially moving to Spain for 6 months was no different. I spent 3 or 4 days packing to make sure the bag I was going to check was under the required weight (which may vary but for British Airways was 23kg/51lbs). That may seem like a lot but to me, it was not at all. I wanted to bring a carry-on bag with shoes and whatever didn't fit in the big bag but that didn't work out. I ended up paying the $60 to check them both (which I think is ridiculous for an international flight but thats just me) and it was very worth it. Below is all my stuff. Together, they weighed about 70lbs. Crazy.

After dealing with the luggage fiasco, my trip here actually went really well. My first piece of advice is try and fly on Saturday evenings. When my family and I got to Dulles, it was really empty and it made me a little nervous but I just realized that not many people fly on Saturday night. Which was awesome for me because I had a whole row of seats to myself!! I normally don't sleep on planes but since I had so much room, I slept almost the entire way.

Unfortunately when I got to London the idiots at Iberia told me that my flight was going to be delayed at least an hour, if not more. So, I took the time to type up a list of things I wanted to mention. So here it goes:
1. Do not text and walk! Its a bad idea in the US but when you're at an airport in England and you have to weave through tourists on the ride side of the path and Brits on the left, it makes it 10x more dangerous as I found out.
2. All over Europe, soda is served almost entirely in bottles. This unfortunately means no free refills, which I am not used to at all. So when you order a soda (or pretty much any drink besides tap water) do not just chug it and expect your waiter to bring you another.
3. On the topic of waiters in Europe, but especially in Spain, you have to be extra assertive (insert funny Spongebob reference here lol). They might get your order once you sit down but don't expect a check-up every few minutes to see how the food is. If you ever want to see them again, its your responsibility to get their attention.
4. During my extended stay in London, I thought I would have some breakfast seeing as how British Airways was under the impression that a roll with some butter is a sufficient breakfast for a toddler let along a 20-year old man. I thought it was pretty awesome that the restaurant I went to actually served "American pancakes". I decided to get the French toast instead but I was sitting next to an American family and they all ordered pancakes. Baby steps haha. Also, another reason being in England is so great is that they don't normally judge you for ordering a pint at 11am! Here's a picture of my delicious French toast.

6. In case you didn't know, Heathrow is actually not an airport but a luxury shopping mall. For those of you from NOVA, its very similar to Tysons II. I've been to Heathrow a couple times before but I guess I never noticed all the shops it has! I mean honestly, the shops and the airlines probably make around the same amount of money because each terminal pretty much has its own mall. Crazy stuff lol. Here's a picture of the Burberry store but there was also Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and many more.

Well thats all for now! Thanks for reading! :) Again, this was super late so my upcoming posts will be about my town (Villaviciosa de Odon), my day trip to Madrid today and then our school trip to Toledo tomorrow! Speaking of which, I have to catch the bus for that in like 8 hours so hasta luego!

Siesta y luego fiesta!

My dream come true

La llegada!