La Despedida (Farewell)

  Well, it has been a long time coming, but as I sit here and write this final blog entry, my time here has finally reached its conclusion with less than 24 hours left here in Spain.  The last three weeks or so I have been aware that this moment was coming, and now it has finally arrived. I tried to prepare myself for this but it is still hard. When I was 16 years old and in high school I had a vision: I would go to Spain, live, work, study, something, but I would live in Spain.  Well I can now say that I have done it. As hard as it is for me to say goodbye, it is just as gratifying, knowing that I have accomplished a dream of mine. Although I can leave with the satisfaction of living out this great experience, I still have more to accomplish. When I reflect on the past 9 or so months, I see the person that I have become, and how this experience has shaped my life, and I feel great about it.  More than anything, my time here has taught me to keep fighting, to keep working hard for what I want and believe. It is now time to take the next step, a new goal awaits.  Let's do this.

Venice

  Italy...Venice...pizza...ahh. Before I begin, I would like to say that Venice is right up at the top of my list of favorite places. I knew that there weren't cars, I knew there were streets of water, and I expected awesome Italian pizza. Well, I found all of that and more in our trip to Venice. After arriving, we didn't walk more than 30 feet before we came across the Gran Canal, which is the main "street". Even though we had seen pictures before, it was still an incredible sight to see, and we had to stop and just soak it in. At that point, I was already sold on the place, and declared it to be one of my favorites. Things just got better. We quickly found a pizza place, and both of us anxious to try real Italian pizza ordered one pizza for each of us, leaving no peice of crust nor string of cheese behind. Yes, the pizza is that good. Just to help you get a better idea of just how good the pizza was, we ate it for literally, every meal. Now, I know you might be thinking, "you went to Italy and only had pizza, no pasta, nothing else!?" That is fair to question, but, when pizza is the best food, as well as the best priced food, you eat pizza. I haver made an adjustment to the old saying, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" and changed it to, "when in Italy, eat pizza as the tourists do". But enough about the pizza, let's talk about what else makes Venice awesome.
  I would say one thing that makes this place so cool, is that it is truly a unique place to visit. There is no other place like it, and that alone makes it worth the visit. Aside from that, because Venice is small, and easy to navigate around, we showed up with no plan, well, something like that. Our plan was to have no plan. This worked perfectly, we explored the city, took advantage of the "free" public transportation, and just relaxed. It sounds simple, and it was, that is why the trip was so perfect. One of the highlights of the trip was sitting on a dock, eating awesome Italian ice-cream, and watching the sun set, while gondolas and other boats passed by. Its the simple things in life that should make you happy, and this trip did that for us.

Amsterdam

  Prostitutes and marijuana, that describes everything you need to know. No, sorry let me clarify my previous statement, I did not solicit a prostitute nor did I smoke anything, but it was however all over the place.  I knew that Amsterdam is known for this, but it just was a bit overwhelming at times, despite being prepared for it.  Now don't worry,  for somebody who doesn't smoke, and isn't interested in prostitutes, there are other things to see in the city.
  We were a group of five, consisting of two Germans, one Australian, and one Sri Lankan(I think that's how you say it) and myself. This well balanced group just made everything more fun. We all got along very well, and despite the fact that it was cloudy and raining most of the time, we still managed to have a fun trip. Now, the first thing we all wanted to do was visit the Red Quarter, which is where you can find weed and prostitutes. It really was mind boggling, to see it all in person. I still can't believe the way that women just stand there in windows waiting to be bought. Even more disturbing, is that you can find one of these whore houses right next to a restaurant, which I don't know about you, but it grossed me out.
 Besides from all the crazy stuff, the city does have more to offer. The general structure of the city, with its small canals and antique architecture spread throughout make for good sight seeing. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to spend in the city so we weren't able to see a whole lot, but really half a day was enough for all of us I think. So I leave anybody reading this with one final note, if you like to smoke weed, or have a desire to legally solicit the services of a prostitute, then I suggest visiting Amsterdam. For everybody else, I would still recommend visiting, but make it a short trip. Oh and one last thing, don't take pictures or videos of the prostitutes, unless you want to have problems with their pimp.

Paris

  Paris, it's worth a visit.  To be honest, I was much more impressed with the city than I thought I would be. Now, I know that it may sound a tad bit pessimistic to admit that I wasn't expecting the best out of a trip to Paris, but I had my reasons. Stereotypes are alive and well in this world, and sometimes you cannot avoid them. I openly admit that I fell victim to those stereotypes about the Parisians, and or French people in general. It's not that I didn't(don't) like the French, it's just that...
  With that said, as I mentioned the trip turned out to be great! From the start, things didn't go so smooth. My first encounter with a Frenchy, was a women at the information desk in the airport. She was all business, and no smiles. She made it clear without saying it, that she did not enjoy working there, and that she didn't want to help me. After that, I discovered that the airport was over an hour away from the actual city center. This however, was not a major problem, as there were buses continuously running in and out. After finally arriving in the city, things got much better.
  We had our list of things to do, and we began to chip away. This was surprisingly convenient. The subway system in Paris is second to none. There are different routes that will get you to any spot in the city, relatively quickly. On top of that, there are trains coming every two or three minutes, so there are no long waits. This allowed us to do a lot, in a short amount of time. We visited for the most part, all of the major tourist attractions in the city in just the first day. This now brings me to our time at the famous Eiffel Tower. We agreed that going up to the top was not necessary, mainly due to the enormous line of people waiting. Instead we chilled in the park, took some pictures, videos, and had just a good time. I can't move on without letting you know what else happened at the Eiffel Tower. A bird decided to take a shit, while I was sitting underneath. Yes, laugh all you want, but this was not funny for poor Scotty, who somehow ended up with the bird droppings on both arms...
  A side note to make, Paris is expensive. Yes, you most likely already assumed that, but you probably didn't know just how expensive. A perfect example would be when I went to get two bottles of water. For some reason, because the bottles were glass, I wasn't allowed to take them out with me, but he offered to pour them into plastic cups for me. After doing so, he calmly said, "9 euro, please." Naturally, I was shocked. At that point, he had already opened the bottles, and I was forced to pay, roughly the equivalent of 11 dollars just for two cups of water. Insane.
   Overall, the trip was really fun. We had a great time, despite the fact that we only had a day and a half. Our time in Paris was just awesome. There were lots of funny things, cool sites to see, and the worlds greatest croissants ever!! Can you say mouthgasm!? So I can say that I now have a different perspective about the French people. With that said, they will always be cigarette smoking, beret wearing, croissant eating, Frenchies.

The trip that wasn't

  I woke up early Friday morning, ready to begin an adventure. I was really pumped for this particular trip. The plan was fly to Reus, and then catch the train to Salou. There, I would find not only the beach, but a place to stay. You see, the husband of a friend's sister happens to live and work in Spain. I've never met the guy, but we talked on the phone, and he was cool with letting me crash at his place. Things were all set, and although I was a little bit skeptical of the whole situation, I was thinking that it would just be an adventure.  Well, back to Friday morning, it's 8:00AM, just ten minutes until boarding starts. Suddenly, the gate changed, and all one-hundred plus passengers begin to panic. As we all gathered around the screen to see what was happening with the flight, simultaneously all of our mouths dropped. The flight was rescheduled until 8:30PM!!!
  At this point, I was having trouble believing everything. There was a mixture of chaos, commotion, and confusing ringing through the airport. All of us began heading towards the RyanAir office in an attempt to figure out what was going on. Some were able to get flights to near by Barcelona, others like myself, no. So there I was, left with a big decision. I could wait around for 12 hours and catch the flight that night, or just get my money back and stay in Sevilla. There was no way that I was gonna wait around for twelve hours; I stayed in Sevilla for the weekend.
  Although my plans "got twist turned upside down" (Will Smith), staying in Sevilla turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With my newly found free time, I was able to explore the city even more, in a way that I hadn't done before. I just walked around all day, finding cool new things, and taking some pictures and videos. Added bonus, was just sitting down and relaxing, soaking in that warm Spanish sun.
  What I took away from this experience was that sometimes, when things aren't going well, they happen for a reason.  Those experiences can often lead you to something even better...

Life

What more can I say, life is good these days. I am a week removed from my first trip to Germany, which was awesome, and I am now on the verge of beginning a rigid travel schedule which includes Salou, Paris, Amsterdam, Germany, Italy, Granada, Alicante, Madrid, Germany, and more! Not to mention, my Philadelphia 76ers are playing quite well as of late. It is a good feeling, being able to say that when I wake up in the morning, I have a smile on my face. The next few weeks, months, whatever it may be, are something that I am really looking forward too. Constantly, I am thinking about what lies ahead, and it just feels good. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not getting too far ahead of myself, I see the present. The thing is, I really am liking that as well! When I step back and look at the big picture, I can honestly say that I love life. I've got a long journey ahead of me, and I can't wait to get going with it. Stay tuned!

Tarifa, Morocco!, Gibraltar

   Just recently I returned back from an interesting trip which included a couple nights in Tarifa, Spain, and followed by my first(maybe last) trip to Africa as well as a short stop in Gibraltar.  When I say that it was an interesting trip, that is just the tip of the iceberg. All in all, it was exciting, funny, and full of surprises!

   I will begin with my time in Tarifa. This was a small, chill beach town right on the Mediterranean. Down the main strip, you will find an infinite number of surf shops, with little cafés and shops between. The best part about this place would have to be the beach. Although surprisingly we had some great food there which was an added bonus. OK back to the beach. There we found that clear blue water of the Mediterranean, and some enormous waves! GNARLY BRAH! Of course we saw loads of surfers, so that was cool to watch. At one point a girl rode by on a horse! Yes, a horse on the beach! It felt like something out of a movie. All in all, that time hanging on the beach, was just perfect.

   As I mentioned, this trip also included stops in Morocco, and Gibraltar. Let me put my experience in Morocco into one word for you: Insane! Oh, and let me add this, Morocco is the shadiest country that I've ever been to. Yes, my time in Morocco was crazy. Now when I say crazy, it's both good, bad, and well, crazy. As I expected, things were different, but I had no idea just how different they would be. We took a paid tour for the first part of our stay, and it was alright, however, I wasn't happy about some things. For example, it was very obvious from early on that the tour and several local shops had a contract together, so basically the tour set us up trying to buy things. When we came out of the stores, we were mobbed by street people trying to sell us things, and they would follow you down the street all over.
The poverty level there is nothing I have ever seen before. With that said, almost every native that we came across spoke at least 3 or 4 languages fluently. This was incredible to me, yet sad at the same time, because all of that ability was going unused.
   So now a quick story of a shady event that took place. I stopped to buy a newspaper as a souvenir(Newspapers from other countries make cool souvenirs). Anyway, the guy who helped us then began to follow us, but in a non creepy way. In fact, now that I think about it, he was very sneak, he almost popped up out of nowhere. He basically offered to be our personal tour guide without really saying, but we knew that was what he wanted. Well, we knew it was shady, but we thought what the heck, lets do it. We only walk about 50 yards before police siren goes off. The "tour guide" freaked out. He ran to the cop car, trying to explain himself. I knew at that moment what was up, and the cops confirmed that thought. He was known as a shady local who tries to scam tourists. How dumb I felt at that moment I cannot describe. At the same time, I just felt lucky that the police actually did that for us. With all that said, I think I won't ever be back in Africa, well, at least not in Morocco, but I'm glad I went.
   Last but not least, Gibraltar. This was a short but fun experience. Of course the main reason to go there is to see the monkeys, and that we did. If you don't know already, English is the language spoken in Gibraltar, and it was cool for me going to another country where they speak the same language. The entire country basically consists of this big mountain, I mean that is what it is known for. So we spent most of our time there, chillin with the monkeys, and just enjoying it all.
   So that pretty much sums of the weekend. Like I said, lots of good, exciting things, all of which I won't forget. You begin to see it more with each time you travel, that it is truly an awesome thing. Sometimes things get a little crazy, or they don't work out the way you planned, but it's all part of the adventure, and that's what makes traveling so much fun.

Cultura en la Calle (Culture in the street)

   I'm a little bit late on this, but I had to write about an experience that I had two weeks ago. To catch you up on everything, while I was traveling in Málaga last November, I met a group of students from Hungary and Bulgaria at the hostel that we were staying in.  They were a cool group, and we exchanged contact info with the intention of staying in contact. This is something that I would say I do a lot, because I like meeting new people. With that said, most of the time these new contacts fade away over time. Yet this time it was different. We stayed in contact and some of that group was traveling to my city to see the sites, and we met up!
   The group was a little different than the first time we met. In all, this new group of friends consisted of an Italian, a Swiss, my three friends from Bulgaria whom I originally had met, and one more from I think Sweden, but he spoke French.  With that said, they all speak Spanish fluently, and they are all just awesome people, so we had no problem hanging out. One night we went out to get some tapas. This was a great time, just relaxed, sitting in a little restaurant eating delicious Spanish tapas with such a fun and diverse group.  It was so cool to be sitting there with these new friends, all from different countries, yet one common language, Spanish, binding us together. A little bit later the group became even more diverse when a Spanish friend of one of them came to join us, and we headed out to this underground Flamenco spot.

   So there we were, on a Wednesday around midnight, at this place that you probably can't even find with Google Maps, passing the time, a cold beer in hand, and some pure Spanish Flamenco, straight from the streets. At that time, I was standing there, just soaking it all in. I think for a second there, I wasn't thinking, I wasn't hearing the music, I was just feeling the moment. Standing in the dim light, watching such a raw, yet talented duo perform flamenco, with a diverse and fun group of new friends there to enjoy it with me, that is what I believe to be the perfect example of what it should be like to study abroad.
  Basically, I want to say with this post is that you can never meet too many people. You can't be afraid to try new things, to stay out a little bit longer, because you never know what can happen. I am so glad that I have met these new friends. Although we may live far away, and we may never see each other again, I will forever cherish such moments. Hopefully we can all stay in contact, hopefully we will remain friends, but either way, I know that we all had a great time that night, no matter where the road takes us.

I'm back!

Wow, it really has been a while. It wasn't my intention to go two months without updating, but life has been crazy. For those who are interested, I did of things since I last wrote on here. The month of December was a fun one. I went on a trip to Portugal, and it was so random, with so many funny things, that I can't even begin to describe them.  In all, Portugal was cool, I thought it was very different from Spain but I liked it and will probably make it back at least one more time.

Other than that I was back home for the holidays. I spent a good month there before coming back to España.  For me that was a perfect vacation. I got to see so many friends, and I think I accomplished more in that one month than I did in any other month. It would have been nice to see everybody a little bit longer, and I didn't get to see everybody or do everything that  I wanted to accomplish, but it was still a nice stay at home. I was ready to come back, and I couldn't be happier to be here again. It's gonna be another adventure and I only expect it to get better. I'll try to keep this updated more. Stay tuned!