An Upset for the century!

Well it happened! The greatest sports upset since the 1980 USA Olympic Ice hockey team upset the “unbeatable” Soviet Union occurred today. After backing into a semi final match against España (that is Spain for all you non Spanish speakers) thanks to a unlike 3-0 victory over Egypt and a 3-0 drubbing Brazil gave to Italy the US team took the pitch against Spain. To put this in context, Spain hasn’t lost a game since 2006. In this tournament Spain has not yielded a goal to their opposition! In the minds of many US soccer fans keeping the game in reason would have been a moral victory and scoring a goal could have been counted as a victory! Against all these odds, the US came out on top 2-0 over the Spanish juggernaut. Simply a thrilling victory for US soccer fans everywhere. What the highlights here

In a really sad news conference, Republican Governor Mark Sanford announced today he had been having an affair for over a year with a woman in Argentina. Gov. Sanford was thought by many as a possible presidential candidate in 2012 and was currently serving as the head of the Republican Governors Association. This story was rather bizarre as Governor Sanford had seemed to disappear for a week leading up to this news conference. It’s reported that he was in Argentina while his staff reported he took a weeklong vacation to go hiking. When will republicans learn they are completely bankrupting their moral arguments with their political leaders failing to walk the walk?

On Tuesday night Eric led his baseball team with 3 hits, 4RBI’s and solid defense in the field! Its tough to keep track of all that is going on with the brothers as they are constantly on the go. But I always enjoy hearing about what they are up to listening to their ridiculous stories! Finally – I will be traveling north this weekend to visit my Family as John, Nellie and the baby will be visiting as well. This will be the first time in a long time that most of our family will be together in one place. Needless to say, John and I will be fighting it out on the Crystal Mountain links for golf champion on the family! Regardless of what happens in the match (lets be real, John doesn’t have a chance at beating me) it will be great to see the family. Who knows we may even make it out on the lake to catch some bass!

Everyone is doing it, why not me!

Well, it seems that everyone is staying in touch with the world now through either a blog and or twitter. So, being that I am the last one to truly get on this band wagon, I announce to the world that the blog and twitter band wagon is full. Yes, for all you who want to know what yours truly is doing at 8:23am, you can now find out via my blog, twitter, or facebook. You have so many ways to stalk me, feel connected with me, without ever having to talk with me! For those of you who have trouble with sarcasm, you just got hit with a big iron pan of sarcasm right over your old dome. But on a serious note, for those who really care, you will be able to see what I am up to, read about things important to me, and maybe, just maybe on a good day learn something from the old' blog of Mattyso.

First things first - As you know, or may not know. I was studying in Spain for nearly four months. What a great time. Now that I'm back here in the USA, I'm once again working for the greatest hockey tape company on earth, Howies Hockey Tape. www.howieshockeytape.com
We have recently launch a new product, the first of its kind, the "Hockey Lace Belt". You can see said product at www.hockeylacebelt.com and find them in hockey pro shops accross that country this fall. Well, you will find them if I do my job and sell them properly that is!

Until next time my friends - shoot low stick said everytime

Mattyso

Moving...

Well, after the first couple months the school thought it best for my roomates and I to move houses. There were a couple of issues, but nonetheless we have moved into a new house with a new Senora! We are closer to the river, and across the street from a fresh fruit and meat market. The new place is much bigger, which is also nice. Our new Senora (Isabel) is simply an amazing cook. We have had the best food of my life for the last three days! Although, they have also been the biggest portion sizes too! I told her I can't eat this month or else I'm going to go home fat (gordo in Espanol). She said, just tell everone it was my fault and not yours!

Today also marked the end of our thrid class (Spanish 201). I had tests and presentations all week. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully the grades will turn out fine. We have class tomorrow then we are off for week 1 of Spring break!

Tomorrow we leave for Portugal and our trek through Northern Spain. There are 5 of us going and we are renting a car. We are planning on spending tomorrow night in Lagos and then traveling to Lisbon Saturday or Sunday. I won't have a computer so when I get home I'll be sure and write about our adventures!

Stolen

So we are off to Barcelona for the weekend. We fly out tonight at 9:50 from Sevilla and I fly back at 6am on Sunday morning. Short but sweet (I hope). Not exactly sure what we are going to see or do, but I´m sure it will be fine. A lot of walking and seeing fountains and plazas.

This past weekend my back pack was stolen at Plaza de Espana with my ipod, camera, computer charger and all of my home work / notes all in side. It was 5 feet away from me with 2 other people and some guy took off with it. Ben and I couldn´t find him unfortuantly. Lucky for him, not lucky for us. So, needless to say, pictures may be at a minimum on the blog.

Tests are next week. Hopefully I´ll pass. We will find out soon. Right now its: yo no hablo espanol, lo siento.

The weather is getting nicer. Its been sunny and warmer all week. Might have even hit 60 today.

Spain beat England last night in Soccer. There is this english pub by our appartment which we watched the game at. We might have been the only Spain fans in there. I almost got into a fight with this drunk english guy, but he was so drunk he wasn´t sure where to throw a punch. Nothing like futbol in Europe.

Cordoba and Granada

Were back from our weekend trips to Cordoba and Granada. It was quite the adventure and had a great time. 8 of us went (Ben, Shire (my roommates), Sean, Dallas, Jenny, Rachel and I), on the Fri-Sun adventure to Granada, and the trip to Cordoba was through the school and everyone came. We visited ruins outside of Cordoba from the 10th Century. Spain went through different periods of being controlled by Muslims and then by Protestants (Catholics). Most of the architecture is Muslim, and then "changed" to a more protestant style as time went on. Granada was the last hold out of Muslim territory in all of Spain. The weather was cold and rainy but we made the most of it. The bus ride was beautiful with the mountains in the foreground, and we passed through miles and miles of olive groves.
This week I have a test tomorrow (Wednesday) and I'm staying in Sevilla for the weekend. Next weekend we leave on Thursday for Barcelonia and will be there until Sunday.

Pictures of Spain

Here are a few pictures of the city, as well as our apartment and my room. We are going to Cordoba, and Granada this weekend. Right now were in the process of planing our trips for the semester. It looks like we will be going to Paris, Italy (Rome, Pisa, ect) Portugal, and on several other trips throughout Spain. There are 8 students from Calvin here and we have become good friends and most of us are going to travel together along with Dallas and Sean, the other two guys on the semester.

This picture is the of the river that runs through the city. I live on the North Side and the School is on the south Side, so we cross it every day. The second picture is the view from the balcony of our apartment. We have one of the best locations as it is only about a 10 minuet walk to school and most everyone has to pass our apartment on the way to anywhere. So, it's a convenient meeting location!

We went bowling last night for "guys night". The school paid, which was nice. There are only 5 guys so it was a small group. Afterwords we had Tapas for dinner, and a sandwich. (Tapas are kind of like appetizers - meat, cheese, bread and fish are the most common kinds) It was a lot of fun!

Class are challenging and frustrating. I have no clue what is going on for the most part, so I hope that it gets better/easier for me to understand.

Holla!

We made it safe and sound to Sevilla after a long day of travel Tuesday/Wednesday. I have two roommates (Ben and Sheril). Both are really nice and Sheril speaks Spanish very well so he's a big help. Our Senora is Margarita - she is an older Widow lady. She has a lot of charisma and she is a lot of fun. She loves to make fun of me because I have no idea what is going on a lot of the time!

We registered for classes today, and they begin on Monday. I'm excited to start just so I can hopefully beging to understand a little of what is going on. Right now I am completely lost. We ate dinner and explored the city last night. Nothing happens till around 1am here. Sleep is not importantant to the Spanish.

I'm running out of computer battery and don't have my plug with me. I will take some pictures of the appartment I'm staying at as well as my roomates and Margarita.

Adios!