19!

It's been more than a month since my last update. Sorry! Didn't mean to. AND sorry to dissapoint you but this is going to be a short one.

Turned 19! 21st September. Very recently, I have found out that the 21st September is Peace Day. Never knew that. It started from 1981 and I haven't heard "Peace Day" before. Well now I have so I shall be peaceful on my birthdays :D

Right, that's about it for now. Oh by the way, Im in Tokyo, Japan. I will update what happened before Tokyo later.

Bye!

Last moment in Valencia

Well, this is the last blog from Valencia. I've been here for about 2 months and half. I'm off to the airport to London at 5 am.

Ive learnt so much here, not just the language but loads of other things.

I've taken loads of pictures but the internet connection I have now is weak + gets cut off often, so i will upload the pictures in near future.

Oh dear, it's 15 minutes before the taxi arrives. I have to finish packing! XD

Bye!

Hasta ahora

Hola! Qué pasa mis amigos?

Well, I've changed my class from a group lesson to one on one so I only have to go to school an hour a day. (Yus!) Therefore, I have more time in the week to do stuff!

Bah, where do I start.

How about, I post photos that you might be interested in and comment on those like a story. That's a good idea. (I'm getting lazier everyday)
Click here for "one day in Valencia".
Click here for "a weekend trip to Zaragoza, Spain".

Before I study

Wow! I couldn't go to sleep without telling this awesome stuff. Shortly after the last post, I've bought a fan from this cheap looking electronic shop for 10 Euro (about NZ $17) and my goodness! For me, the moment I turned on the fan, a pieace of goodness dropped from heaven. Sensational moment!

Anyway, tonight Jose invited me to go to this Bingo place. I've never been bingoing or even heard of bingo place. I always thought it was just a game, non-money involved game.
One round of game is 1.50euro, you get a ticket with numbers. There's this big bingo cage? thing in the middle of the place (it's quite huge) and there are TVs built into your tables. I think I would have enjoyed more if I went with someone I know very well, who can speak Spanish. I did understand some but it's so hard trying to listen to natives. They speak so fast... But they are nice ppl.

After the bingo, we went to a carnival. I haven't any fotos from the place but I will go there again and get the photos. Anyway, we were playing this game, where you throw 3 darts to the wall, which has loads of circles put up. If you get three darts in different circles, you win anything from the place. It sounds easy but there are significant gaps between the circles and rims of the circles are thick too. Jose's friends tried but couldn't get it. Yes, you probably have guessed what happened next. I won! I was so happy cuz i dont usually win at these things. And guess what I took, a megaphone! Mwahaha. I dont know when to use it but who cares, I've got a megaphone!

Right, must go to bed. Harry Potter 7 tomorrow! Ah!

STUDY

Hate to say but Im not going to write for a little while because literately I do not have the time to do everything at the moment. I've changed my course at my school to private lesson course so I can have more time during week days. I hope that will make a little bit of a difference. Plus, 7th book of Harry Potter is coming out tomorrow so I'm not going to leave my house until I finish readying it :)

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whoever you are/became, hope all is well for you.

Much love,

Photos from the port

Catch Up Post #2

5-2, Alinghi wins the America's Cup. Team NZ seemed to be winning at the start but what a come back from Alinghi. If you haven't seen any of the races, you must see the seventh race. It was the closest race I've ever seen. Click here to watch the final race.

They had this thing put up right after they won the 7th race.

One of the signs put up in Wool Shed (Where Kiwis watched the race).

It was a shame that Team NZ lost, but at least there's an excuse to go to Europe for next America's Cup. There is a possibility that America's Cup will be held in Valencia, Spain again in 2009. If it is not going to be in Valencia, it will be somewhere in Europe later than 2009.

Anyway, I have eaten some paella in Spain but our Riki thinks he can do better. So one night he cooked paella for us!

Riki's paella! With chicken, rabbit and snail. That was the first time eating snail, and it tasted like chicken.Our awesome friend+chef, Riki! Thanks alot.

A Catch Up Post #1

Other pictures from San Juan are here and here.

28th June, Clara's farewell party. Thanks so much for your help Clara!! I greatly apreciated. The pictures from then are here.

29th June, I went out with Jose and his friends to a restaurant called "Foster's home for Hollywood" (I'm not 100% sure if i remembered the name correctly) and it was so typically unhealthy but so good! It's like Denny's in NZ! But the drinks you order after your first order are free! Wohoo, hurray for American culture!
After that we went to one of the cheapest bars in the central city and drank. I ordered Bourbon and Cola but they gave me Scotch + Cola instead. Arg! I thought the Bourbon whiskey was ... expired! But later Jose's friend Julio found out that it wasn't Bourbon whiskey in my drink so he told the bar-tender the situation and the bartender gave me a free drink without a fuss! Nice guy. Red Vodka + Red Bull (Vodka rojo con toro rojo). It was really good! I liked it because it was actually nice to drink and didn't have much taste of alcohol.

Well by the time we've got out of the bar it was like ... 1:30 a.m. I've talked to a number of Jose's friends till then, they all speak standard English but yes I did try out my undeveloped Spanish. We took a cab to go to this club near the beach (Playa de la Malvarrosa) called Luna Rossa. It was the best club I've ever been to so far! Well what made it better was because the group of people I went with were blinking awesome! There were some groovy Spanish tunes in the house, I must get the names of the songs from one of Spanish ppl...
Anyway, at the end of the day (well not really but) I got home at around 7:00. And I thought it would have been smart to stay up for the excursion with school at 10 so I did.

On the 30th of June, I went south from Valencia with my language school. There, I saw "a house" for once. I haven't spoted a house around where I live. There are all apartments, and they are designed in very similar ways so it's not that exciting to go to other person's home.
Anyway, we went to place called Calpe. It is located in the "nose" of Valencia so I heard. It's the bit of land where it sticks out a bit(south east).
We climbed this rock called Peñon de Ifach. It really was a huge rock next to a beach. It's not a mountain, it's a rock mountain. The path was narrow and there were v.slippery so you need to be aware of where you are stepping on to. I was stupid enough to wear Vans instead of sneekers so I've hurt myself so many times but there were no seriously injury.
Ive never sweated so much in my life. The weather on this day was fine = super hot, So i sweated like one of the teachers who've taught me TOK. By the time I got to the top, my grey shirt was soaked! (yes good to know)

It was a such a nice view from the top, the sea was crystall clear and seeing the sea so clear made me really happy. O, there were a large population of seagulls living in?on? the mountain. It was v.scary walking past them. They are enormous! Seriously. If we walked passed them during breeding season, I reckon we were attakced by them.
After climbing the rock mountain we went to the beach. There Riki (my American/Jap friend) and I ate Valenciano Paella, a typical Valencian food. Riki has an experience as a chef and he commented that it wasn't a good paella but i thought it was pretty dam good, but that's just me.

Rest of the photos from Calpe are here

Some of you may know that on the 30th June, I've moved into a new flat. I have home-stayed for more than six years in New Zealand but I was never "independent". But now I have to cook, clean, iron, kill cockroaches, shop, kill more cockroaches ...etc but the good thing is the bills are fixed price so I have one less thing to worry about.
When I first arrived to the flat (second floor), it was a mess! Not that there were rubbish on the ground but when I swept the floor there were alot of dust and dirt. I bet there hasn't been a person living here for a decade. So I went to one of the Chinese shops (my friends and I call them "the Chinese Shops" because they sell nearly everything and they are so blinking cheap!! and they are nearly always owned by Chinese people. The only down side would be that the products they sell aren't the bestest of quality but that doesn't matter, I'm just thankful that those shops exist!) and bought cleaning products for the flat and just cleaned the place.
I'm learning how to "buy". I always try to buy a bulk whenever I can and calculate the cheapest food to buy...etc

Cockroaches! There are so many of them in Spain! I dont really mind too much about small non-Spanish cockroaches because they are much smaller. However, I really do mind seeing gigantic black cockroaches running in my apartment. No matter how clean your place is, if you live close above the ground there's a greater chance that cockroaches visit your room. I live on the second floor so I've terminated them both.

Ive done more things but it'd too much for you to read so I stop here.

Have a good day!

Spanish Life 3

Spain is hot, I mean really hot. When the weather is hot you sweat. When you sweat you dyhydrate. When you dyhydrade, you take water to hydrate. And yes I have become the very thing I swore not to become, a waterholic.



Two days ago was a hell on Earth! Well I thought. I couldn't breath properly because the air was so warm. It was 42 degress! It's gonna get hotter from what I know...arg! I need water, more water!

According to my Spanish friend, double parking is legal for 5mins if you are in the car. And it seems that everyone in Spain is doing a great job ... NOT! The cars are definately parked for more than 5 mins. But the police don't seem to care too much, just because it's been done everywhere I think.

Everyone who double parks have to leave their hand brakes down (unwritten rule that everyone seems to follow). However, those people have a greater chance of getting their car scrached.

23rd June - San Juan

Today I got in touch with Jose, a guy from Valencia who did an exchange programme with Ian (kiwi friend of mine). He invited me to go to the party at the beach which is called San Juan. Which is a party where pretty much everyone go and it's held at the beach.

When I went there, the beach was PACKED! Literately. And there were lots of music, bonfires and ah! Gigantic party ever! Jose introduced me to some of his school friends, who just happened to be ... Spanish! (Finally I made some Spanish friends! Yus :D Big applause to Ian here) We've talked alot and drank and it was one of the best times i had in Valencia! People were so ridiculously friendly ay, they just came up to me and said "Hola, soy ...." and almost everyone did that. It wouldnt of happened in NZ I dont think.

Find me

At San Juan, I met up with my language school buddies too which was so cool. One of the English girls (Clara) told me tradition of San Juan.
First of all, no one really knows what it is about. You make bonfire everywhere and keep the fire going. You go into the water. Make wishes as you jump over waves and they'll come true for sure! Then after that, you jump over bonfire (little one of course) and make wishes then too. It was so much fun jumping around everywhere!

Me jumping over the bonfire.

We decided to go home at around 6 in the moring. On the way back, we got stopped by this group of baddy Spanish thugs with disgusting mullets (yes i had to add that). They said something like "do you have something nice?" or "is that gold you are wearing?". We got out of the situation thanks to Jose's cousin Fernando.
We tried to get taxi home but there were all occupied. So we thought we could take the train but it was packed, it was making v.unhealthy noise cuz of large number of people and it was going really really slow. So in the end we walked home.

Just wanna say big thanks to Jose for being real nice and introducing people, and Ian for giving Jose's contact info! Cheers!

23rd June - America's Cup

For those of you who doesn't know much about America's Cup, I can tell you some basic structure.

First of all, the whole thing is called America's Cup and it's a global sailing competition.

The 32nd America's Cup format was designed to feature three distinct phases of racing: Louis Vuitton Acts, the Louis Vuitton Cup, and the 32nd America's Cup.

The Louis Vuitton Acts are a series of races around Europe. There were twelve teams racing this year instead of eleven. Before 32nd America's Cup, The Defenders did not race in Louis Vuitton Acts because they will be "The Defender", but this time they are in the races. I don't exactly why but it's something about revealing their boats to the challengers.

The Louis Vuitton Cup is awarded to the winner of The Louis Vuitton Acts that held before the America's Cup Match.

The 32nd America's Cup is the set of match races between the winner of the challengers and the current holder of America's Cup. So right now, "The Challenger" is Team New Zealand who won the Louis Vuitton Cup and "The Defender" is Alighi (Switzerland) who won America's Cup in 31st America's Cup.

I hope that kind of gave you some ideas on America's Cup.

Now, as you may know that today was the first race of America's Cup.(First 5 to win) Lea rang me from Switzerland and reminded to watch the race (I was in bed resting because I think I had a bad cold or a fever this week) so I woke up and turned on the TV. Nooo! Team NZ is losing!? I'm sure they'll pull it off in the end!
...
In the end, Team NZ did lose... ahh, but that was only one race! Go hard tomorrow Kiwis! I mean the kiwis who are in Team New Zealand of course, not in Alinghi.

Spanish life 2

This is an odd topic but oh well.
Ive found out today that majority of Spanish men have no respect for women. (im a man so I didnt know, and realise how serious this was) Ive been told by female friends that old men check the girls out as they walk by (old people tend to sit on benches on streets during day time), young guys saying v.offensive things to them...etc. Females seem to be inferior than males in this country. Is that because majority of Spanish are Catholics? From what I know about Catholic, men have more power than women. or is it simply because males here are v.lusty? or is it a cultural thing? I'm yet to find out the reason...
By the way this is completely off topic, I havent seen any automatic cars in Spain yet, except on TVs.


500 Euro dog, I was tempting to get him/her before I looked at the price.

12th June - Valencia, Spain

Today I went to L'Oceanographic with my homestay buddy, Graeme from England.

We walked for a good half hour to the place. We could have taken a bus but we wanted to walk in hot humid weather so that's that. The heat will consume you when you go out during 2-5 ish cuz its just ridiculously hot+humid.

Anyway, L'orceanographic was v.good! I haven't been to an aquarium in a while so that was pretty cool.
To see the photos click here and go to Spain 2.

Spainish life

I'm gonna write down some things that I've found interesting about Spain.

-This country has siesta, all shops close except for few big ones between 2-5 in the afternoon. I first thought Spanish people were being lazy but it really is hot to go outside during the period so it's understandable why they have siesta. I usually fall a sleep at this time of the day, not too good because when else am I suppose to study?

-They have lunch at 2p.m. and dinner at 9 p.m. I thought it was ridiculously late that they have dinner so late! Therefore, if you think about it kids go to bed at around 10 or 11 which I thought was v.late compared to NZ.

-Dog owners leave their dogs' disposals as where they lie. If you go to any park near residence ares in Spain, its v.smelly cuz there are dog poos everywhere! Seriously, you have to hold your breath + be careful not to step onto one of them while walking through those parks. Quite alot of people in Spain owns dogs, especially the little ones.

-Some shops are open till 2 in the morning! Gotta love siesta! Thats y some of the shops close late because they open later (compared to NZ)
Some crazy shops open from 5 in the morning! Crazy ay, those shops are really good for when you been out all night and want to fill your bellies :D

-Spain is overpopulated, they double park EVERYWHERE! During the day when you hear a honk which seems to never end, know that someone wants to get out of their parking spot but someone else has double parked so he/she cant get out. ITS REALLY ANNOYING especially when you are trying to sleep during siesta.

-Spainish drivers are crazy, they change lanes every 20 seconds or so and whenever that happens you hear honks. So you can imagine how loud it is on a big street!

-Most streets are one-way so it's v.easy to walk across the road because you only need to look at one direction.


Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm sure I will find more crazy things about Spain!

9th June - Valencia, Spain

Today Lea and I were able to visit Robert Salthouse from Team NZ at their base!
He showed us around the base of the team, it was really kewl seeing two boats up close and seeing.... well pretty much everything : )
It takes way too long to rezise all pictures so I'm just gonna upload them onto my Flickr account.
Click here and then click "Spain 1" to see the photos.

In the afternoon Maria, Johanne and I went to see a soccer match, Valencia C.F VS Laventa U.D. The fans were going mad! And I loved the atmospher! I learned some offensive Spanish words during the match cuz the fans were shouting those words out during the match, good to know yeah? You don't learn those words at school.
The game started off well BUT after 7 minutes or so, the keeper from Valencia C.F pulled down a player from Laventa U.D to deny a goal, and he obviously got a red card. After that, two more players from Valencia C.F got sent off! So the match was 8vs11 players which was ridiculous. Although funnily enough, they played well with 8 players. The finaly score was 4-2 to Laventa U.D.
Click here and then click "Spain 2" to see the photos.

5th June - Valencia, Spain

At the language school, there is a notice board where you can put your name on to participate in loads of different activities/events. I wrote my name down for a flamenco performance for tonight.

At around 10 a group of people from school and I went to Radio City bar in central city of Valencia and saw flamenco!



I was expecting a lady to do a flamenco, so i was quite surprised but it was blinking good! It was so passionate and i was so amazed by the coodination of hands + feet, using his costume as a part of the dance, the music...etc It was so wicked! I will definately see one of shows again! but maybe with a female dance this time :)

4th June - Valencia, Spain

First day at my laguage school! Doesn't feel great to be back at a school. Brings back memories :p

It took about 15mins on foot from my place to the school. I got to school at around 9 to do my test. I told the lady at school (in English) that I've never learned Spanish before, then she straight away took the test paper off me saying "Vale" which means okay and she said something else but I didn't understand. So much for cramming last night for this test!! I think I'm in the lowest class which is called "primario", i think

I met three girls who were going to be in my class, we immediately became friends and decided to go to a beach for sunbathing. Two of them were from Ireland and one of them was from Norway. They are one of the most friendly people I've met, seriously! I've never sunbathed before so that was ... exciting. I'm a bit more tanned than before now.

The beach was very nice and the weather favoured us. It was sunny therefore it was hot, but it was windy as well so it never got too hot. Even if we've got too hot, we could always go into the water which is quite cold! We saw the port from this beach where Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup are being held. I'm definately going there sometime this week!!

Our class started from 4 o'clock. We were taught in Spanish but if we didn't understand a thing, our teacher explains us in English. Phew! Lucky I went to NZ to learn English! Otherwise I would have been doomed!

The class went alright I guess, but there's so much to learn!
I went home and understood a little what my homestay family has said, I can see a progress already! Yay. Gotta keep studying....

3rd June - Madrid to Valencia

Overall, Madrid wasn't really fun so I'm gonna skip to Valencia!!

At aound 6, I arrived at Valencia airport bymyself (my sister flew back to Germany from Madrid) and went to my Spanish homestay family's house.

My goodness, I understood near nothing that my homestay mother said. She spoke little English so she said "big trouble huh?" to me. Yip, I'm going to have to work my buttom off to master Spanish! Tomorrow I have a test at the language school to see my Spanish level. I didnt want to get a zero mark so I crammed hard until 1 in the morning!

1st June - Madrid, Spain

For breakfast, we went to Chocolateria, San Gines, which is famous for its chocolate and churro. They were quite good but I prefer the churros in Disneyland, which are more crunchier.



When we went around the city, I was uncomfortable by just walking around to places. Crime rate seems to be higher than Barcelona here in Madrid, the capital of Spain. I kept saying to myself "it's okay, I dont look like a tourist. I dress in western style..."
We went to this place called Plaza Mayor which is just an open-space area where restaurants are. There I was waiting for my sister (because I wanted to look around places alone) at the area. I saw a group of Japanese tourists (I heard them speak Jap) walking through the plaza. A couple stayed behind to take a picture, then suddenly their guide said "please get away from the guy next to you, he looks very suspicious" pointing her finger at me. EXCUSE ME? I'M A JAP TOURIST TOO THANKS VERY MUCH! I didnt actually say that but i was quite offended. But then again I was right about I don't look like a tourist, which gave me a little comfort.

At this plaza, I saw loads of people busking/street-performing. I bet quite a lot of people live off doing that. Some of them were impressive, like this guy playing "Symphony No.100" by rubbing rims of glasses with water. It was ridiculously amazing so I gave him 2 Euro.

31st May - Barcelona - Madrid

We left Barcelona to go to Madrid in the morning. Thanks to our uncle who's been extremely kind to us, although I've never talked to him before in my life.

At noon ish, we've arrived to this hostel in Madrid. I've never stayed at a hostel so seeing how small it was a bit of a shock. There, I've learned the word hostel. "an establishment which provides cheap food and lodging for a specific group of people". I always had the idea that hostel was a similar place to a motel, in fact they were very different.

We went to see a castle but we weren't allowed to take photos so I can only give you the exterenal structure.

30th May - Barcelona, Spain

Okay, I'm just going to upload some pictures because I'm way too slow writing a blog.


-Columbus' tower
-Colombus' tower + I
-Port
-Bridge
-Mini Black Pearl
-Near the port
-Market

29th May - Barcelona, Spain

Okay this is getting silly, I'm not fast enough to keep up the blog so I'm going to shorten everything from this day till now.

Went to Casa Battlo and Park Guell.

Casa Battlo is the masterpiece of Gaudi. (It's a large house) He originally built it as someone else's house but eventually he lived there (I think I'm right. I'm tired here so I can't remember everything). They say that, out of all his work this is his lifework.

<<= Mushroom shaped fireplace. Park Guell was a park which Guell and Gaudi made. Nice park.

O, this is not Spanish at all but at the park I saw this guy playing this instrument called "hang" which comes from Switzerland. I've never seen anything like it before but it was brilliant. I nearly bought his CD but didn't have the money. Click here for some movies and some interesting info about "hang".