Monday, January 30, 2012

Reporting live!... from Portland, OR

Hey guys!
I hope you all enjoyed your winter break. I know I did. It was quite the culture shock coming back into the United States. I had a lay over in Dallas, Texas before finally making my way home. The moment I stepped into the airport Christmas was everywhere, along with cowboy hats and ENGLISH! I didn't think that coming home things that were familiar to me would really have an affect on me. They sure did. Being home is comforting but my desire to travel more has only been heightened. I think that coming home to normalcy made me realize how incredibly amazing my experience abroad was. 



Me and my classmates with my favorite professor Deborah at our end of the term celebration.

Luckily I had a buddy to get me through the flight from Madrid. 

Since I've been back time has gone by SO quickly. Getting back to school and real life has been hard but I am so grateful for the life I had in Alicante. I'm also grateful I got to share it with all of you! We covered a lot of information over the past four months. Looking back through our posts and comments I realize how engaged and curious you all were and I want to thank you guys for that. Now, maybe take a look back for yourselves and reflect on the posts and comments. What was your favorite post? What particularly interested you about Spain? Did my experience abroad influence any desire to travel? 

I hope you all have enjoyed our correspondence as much as I have. Good luck with the rest of the school year!

you can always email me anytime at jordan.horner.7@gmail.com 
I'd love to continue chatting with anyone!

Hasta luego chic@s 

Friday, December 2, 2011

Hasta Pronto

Hola chic@s!

Its so crazy that I've been in Spain for nearly four months already! Boy time flys. I bet you are all getting excited for Christmas break! I know I am. It was so great to be able to Skype with all of you this week. It was nice putting some names to faces. I really appreciated all of your comments! I'm really looking forward to meeting you all in person and celebrating our journey together! I want to thank all of you for your input and interest in my experience here in Alicante. I hope that you all have learned something new and that you've enjoyed hearing about my travels. I certainly enjoyed sharing them with all of you. I really lucked out with such smart and intrigued students. I loved the enthusiasm that you have shared with me. Each of you have added something special to my experience. Your questions and comments have really helped me reflect on my experience in Alicante. You guys are the best! I'm looking forward to our final celebration!
Lets start brainstorming of some fun activities we can do! Until then... Enjoy the Holliday season! Please fell free to email me with any further questions, comments, ideas,  or just if you feel like chatting! Keep in touch!  My email is: jordan.horner.7@gmail.com

See you next month!!

Monday, November 28, 2011

GOOOOOOL!

Hola chic@s!

After over 3 months of living in Spain I finally got to participate in one of the most treasured cultural events ...un partido fútbol. I'm not a huge soccer fan but I knew that a soccer game in Spain is much more than just a sporting event. Let me assure you.... it definitely was.

Sunday morning I woke up like any other day and sat down to breakfast with my madre. I told her I was going to the Hérucles vs. Elche game and her reaction was quite surprising. Apparently this game is the most anticipated rival game in our province. There is an enormous animosity between Elche and Alicante...you might be able to compare it to UofO and OSU, but professional soccer of course. Once she knew I was going that afternoon she ran into the kitchen to get me seconds because she said that I would need a lot of energy... oh dear. After getting suited up in my blue and black I set off to meet some friends on the corner by the train station...bad idea. As I rounded the corner I saw the street lined with police officers on horses and realized I was trapped. Somehow I had stumbled my way between the "line of defense" and the overwhelming crowd of elche fans pouring out of the train station. I stood my ground and was bombarded by the wave of hundreds of chanting fanatics waving banners and scarves. Once the crowd settled I saw my friends on the other side, far from harms way, laughing at me because they knew I had gotten caught up in the tussle.

As we approached the stadium I noticed that every single cafe or bar was overflowing with soccer fans drinking beer and singing prideful songs, many of them littered with foul language. We took our seats inside the stadium and waited for the show to begin. I never thought soccer to be a particularly exciting sport but let me tell you, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! Maybe it was the enthusiasm of the crowd, or the sunflower seeds, or the shouts and hollers that contributed to my excitement but one thing was for sure, I was a fan. With every call by the referee there was an instant uproar from one side or the other. My personal favorite was a little boy, maybe 6 or 7, sitting a few rows in front of me that would scream at the top of his lungs "IDIOTA!!" everytime the ref made a call in the other teams favor. While his mother didn't seem to appreciate this, I found it quite funny.

One of my favorite parts of the game was the people I was surrounded by. I was sitting in front of a few guys that were clearly die hard Hércules fans. Whenever I didn't quite understand why such horrid swear words were flying out of their mouths they would quickly explain what had happened in the game. I picked up quite a few phrases and cheers from my fellow fanatics, most of them not appropriate enough to share. By the end of the second half the score was Elche:2 Hercules:1 and you could cut the energy with a knife. When the clock stopped and Elche had won, the fans went wild. Elche fans poured over the fences onto the field and the players ripped their jerseys off in triumph. On our side, a few heads were bowed, chants errupted, and the masses started to flow out of the stadium. One of the most interesting things I found was that as we left I didn't see a single person from Elche leave the stadium. My Spanish friend explained to me as we were walking through the aisle of police on horseback that the Elche fans were not allowed out of the stadium until every single person sitting on the Hércules side had left the area. In the past they had tons of riots and violence between the two rival cities and this became very apparent to me as we walked behind the stands to find Elche fans yelling profanities, spitting and throwing trash over the top onto the defeated Alicantinos.

Soccer is a way of life here. I have never felt so much passion come from such a diverse group of people. The fans joined hands in the stands to cheer and sing and amongst the crowd you could find fathers, sons, sisters, grandmas, friends, students, babies, mothers, and everyone in between. As a part of their culture, soccer brings people in Alicante together and gives them something greater than themselves to believe in and root for. I had a blast being a part of it and definitely have changed my perspective of what it means to be a sports fan.

Nose bleed seats were definitely the way to go


moments before a GOOOLLL for Hércules

Half time and hopeful

I imagine that some of you are sports fanatics as well. Who is your favorite team? Have you gone to alot of sporting events? What is your favorite aspect of being a sports fan?

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Cómo se dice.. "gobble gobble"

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This is has been the strangest turkey day I have ever had. It doesn't even feel like November here. I had to go to school (you lucky ducks) and I even had to give an oral presentation. I seem to be complaining a lot for it to be a holiday of thanks... oops. It has made me realize that I do have a lot to be thankful for here. As the end of my stay quickly approaches I realize that I am really going to miss it here. I am so lucky to have met all of the wonderful people I have. Its so strange to think that I will have lived here for over 4 months and then I just go back to the real world. This is has been a crazy experience and I am very thankful that I have been able to share it with you guys!

So PLEASE tell me about your Thanksgiving?! I would love to hear about what you guys are thankful for and what you did on your turkey weekend. I must admitt that the one thing I will NOT miss is black friday. I think I'm going to do some christmas shopping tomorrow... in peace.. and quiet withOUT the crazy lines and aggressive shoppers :)

Gobble Gobble, gang!

Hasta luego

Monday, November 21, 2011

A day in the life


This past week I went to dinner at my friend Laura's house. I got to sit down with her host family and get to know them and their daily life. Lucas (upper left) is 13. I was able to ask him a few questions about his life as an adolescent in Alicante. He is studying English in school and asked me if we could do the interview in English! It was a great opportunity for him to practice his English and share some insight into the life of a Spanish teenager.

Here are some fun facts that I learned about Lucas:

  • Lucas lives with his grandmother (Pepa), his little brother (Alberto), his mom (Maria), and my friend Laura
  • His favorite food is "American Hamburger"
  • His favorite sport is futbol and his favorite team is Barcelona
  • He goes to El Colegio de San Vicente where he takes classes in Math, Sciences, English, and Humanities
  • His favorite show is the Simpsons (which is on TV almost all the time here)
  • He likes to go skating at the skate park with his friends on the weekend
  • His favorite way to pass time is to play on his Nintendo Wii (He kicked my butt at bowling!)
  • Lucas' most prized possession is his blackberry because he can talk to all of his friends and family whenever he wants and he can access his tuenty account (thats like the Spanish facebook but they also use facebook too)
  • He likes going to visit his Dad in Valencia because there is a lot more to do and the skate park there is even bigger than the one here.
  • Lucas has a girlfriend named Atiana who is 14 and lives in the same apartment building
  • He likes going with her to the mall or to the movies
  • When he grows up he wants to study computers and design video games
  • If he could go anywhere in the world he would go to Thailand and ride elephants
  • His favorite music artist is Pitbull but his favorite song is "We found love" by Rhianna (we must have listened to it 3 times that night)
  • In 20 years he sees himself living by the beach with his wife and kids but he says that he'll be rich enough to move his entire family into his giant house
  • He normally goes to bed at 12:30 am.....depending on whats on TV
  • His favorite part of living in Alicante is the beach 
  • His favorite book is the 3rd Harry Potter
  • His favorite movie is the Matrix
  • He wants to become fluent in English (he practically is!) and he really likes practicing with the exchange students that live with him and his family year round. 

I was surprised to realize that Lucas is a lot like the kids I know in Portland his age. What do you guys think? What aspects of Lucas' life can you relate to? Does anything about him seem curious to you? Where you surprised by any of his answers? This weekend I'm going over to his house for dinner (really for a rematch on the Wii... I must redeem myslelf). Let me know if you guys have any questions you would like me to ask him! 

On a side note... there was a flash flood this morning here! I walked to the bus, without my raincoat or umbrella, and there was no sign of rain. Ten minutes into my bus ride thunder and lightening began followed by a crazy down pour! The second leg of our trip to school took twice as long because a bunch of the cars got stuck in the road because the water was above their tires!!! I literally walked through giant puddles of water up to my shins. Lightening hit my school building and broke off a huge piece of the roof! The power was coming and going and the ceiling was leaking! It never rains in Alicante... but when it rains, it POURS! 

Have a great week guys! 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Pero...es tu novio!?

Qué tal chic@s?!

I loved reading your responses to my previous post. Pretty funny stuff huh? I think I gave some of you the impression that Spaniards are antisocial. This is DEFINITELY not the case. People are constantly littering the streets sitting outside cafes, walking the boardwalk, shopping, or just hanging out in parks. While the sexes remain fairly segregated, everyone is out and about.

The other night I was skyping with my bestfriend Mark. My sister came in my room to borrow some clothes and decided to say hi. He jokingly referred to himself as my "novio", using one of the very few spanish words he knows. She giggled and went on her way. Later she started asking me about my "novio" and I explained to her that he was my bestfriend and definitely not my boyfriend. She didn't understand. She insisted that I had feelings for him, why else would I be skyping with some boy? After explaining again that we had always been just friends she started asking questions about our relationship. She still had it set in her mind that one day we were going to get married. Finally I had to break it to her, Mark is gay. While this opened up a whole other set of questions, I think she understood that it is possible for the two sexes to share meaningful, loving, platonic relationships.

Lili, you bring up a very good point. Living in Portland we see the LGBTQ population represented publically. That is not the case here. I have met a lot of people here but I haven't met any homosexuals. The only reference to homosexuality I've seen has had a very negative connotation. Sometimes, when definding their masculinity, boys will call eachother deragatory names meaning homosexual. Even on TV you can see jokes being made about homosexuality. It is interesting to me because Spain, especially with the upcoming election, is very involved and vocal in various social movements that bring "power to the voiceless." However, none of these movements pertains to homosexuality. This is a huge difference between Portland and Alicante.

I'm off to Valencia this weekend! I'm excited to travel a bit because its been a while since I've been out of Alicante. I'll be visiting some great museums and even an aquarium! I'll be interested to see how different it is from the Oregon coast aquarium. Vamos a ver!

Hasta Luego!