Yearly Archives: 2011

Operaps

Posted on by
  • May-31-2011 12:01:01
  • May-31-2011 12:02:02
  • May-31-2011 12:03:03
  • May-31-2011 12:04:04
  • May-31-2011 12:05:05
  • May-31-2011 12:06:06
  • May-31-2011 12:07:07

Commitments

Playing drums is my forte, but I started on piano,
It would be a while till I changed my musical channel
Sartre claims other people are hell
For me, hell was piano. Not exactly, well,

Each day I had to practice for half an hour,
It was my parent’s decision, I had no power,
Sometimes I hated it. I was kicking, screaming, slamming the door,
I played the keys while my friends played N-64

But all of a sudden, in grade five,
My musical passion was brought to life,
Playin piano for hella years, like five or six
Never gave me the feeling that I got with sticks

So I struck a deal with my pop,
I could play the drums as long as I’ll never stop
Playing the piano, but after a while that fizzled
And now all I play are my paradiddles

I still sit on my set for hours at times,
I work on rhythms more intricate than rhymes,
It’s my life mission to perfect my beat,
I have a burning passion so I pack the heat

“Jagula, bro, you’re hella raw, homie”
Thanks, my dude, but I don’t think you know me
Because I’m never satisfied, I have ways to go,
I’m always practicing for a different shows

When I drum it’s actually a sacrifice,
I could be chillin’ with my friends, wouldn’t that be nice?
Friends come and go, but drumming I’ll never quit
I didn’t have a choice, I just had to commit

Friday after school and I’m on my way home..
My friends are all together but I’m all alone
I’m the type of kid who goes home after school
It’s not my fault I’ve got things to do.

In my house hold there is only one chore
I don’t clean my room or scrub the doors
But every day I sit at perfect command
producing sounds through my fingers and my hands

when I was a kid I had to practice each day
I hated playing the piano, in every single way
I cried and yelled and shouted and screamed
But at the end of the day I was practicing

Now I can say that things have changed
Piano is a friend and not a pain
I can practice at my leisure, my own discretion
And actually enjoy my music lesson!

Besides practicing I also have to teach
Little kids like I used to be, hear me preach
Five six and seven years of age
The very first years of their music sstage

They hear me preach about the gift they are getting
Frustration speaks louder with the notes they’re forgetting
But just like me they’re in it to win it
Already learning the meaning of commitment

Big A? No way! Can you believe he’s a teacher
You cant see me on the surface, so look a little deeper!
Something worth having always means you should commit
So I’ll never regret the hang outs I missed

Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends
But I learned to value what pays off in the end.
It’s just the beginning and I’ve let you in a little,
On the first inner beat of my paradiddle.

The Jam

Momma ain’t home and my dad don’t care,
So I’mma sit my ass on the drumming chair!

I wanna jam! Yeah! I wanna jam!
If you wanna know who I am,
Come on over and hear me jam!

Creatures of the Night

I’m from a family of six, and I’m the fourth son,
Which that means my parents are officially done
You see, I’m the youngest child, my mommies little dear
But regarding kids, I’m her senior year

When it comes to choices, I get to make my own,
Whether I go out with friends, or I stay Home
I decide if I wanna work, or go out skating
My mom doesn’t even know what classes im taking!

With all this freedom comes responsibility,
I trust my very own sensibility
If I have work, then I know to get it done,
But if the work load is light, then I’m out having fun

I’ve got high expectations, and lots of ambition
The moral compass helps me make my own decisions
Jagula the same way, he knows what it’s about
We run the exact same moral route

We. Are. Creatures of the night,
We’ve got two options when the stars shine bright
Either we hit the books, and get ready for learning
Or we take a hard dive into Sunday morning

I got friends from the vale, I got my homies in Paly
I’ve got shit to do, no time to dilly dally
So every single weekend I gotta make a decision,
Shall I be red cup sippin’, or work on calc physics?

Well I take my options and I can always pick
Will I kick it with big A or read some lit?
To be honest they’ve both got great appeal
My friends are fun but let’s be real

I’ve got priorities but I do the yin yang,
Study hard party harder like it ain’t no thang
Work hard play hard you know what I mean?
The shallow and the deep that’s my theme.

I just have one rule: work before play
You’ll never catch me slippin’, cuz at the end of the day
I gotta prepare for tomorrow, I don’t know what’s in store
So where’s the harm if I study some more?

But I ain’t sayin I’m perfect,
I’m a procrastinator
I drum through the day’s hours,
It always gets later and later

Until I’m surrounded by darkness,
It appears to be night,
And like a creature I study, with all my might

I’ve got priorities but I do the yin yang,
Study hard party harder like it ain’t no thang
Work hard play hard you know what I mean?
The shallow and the deep that’s my theme.

I will be honest I prefer the latter,
But if I’ve got homework then my preference doesn’t matter
When people see me out in the AM
They think that they can judge me on who I am

But how about the times when they don’t see me?
When I’m home alone and invite the SAT
Or when I go out to dinner with biology
Or my all night dates with a million APs!

I study by choice because I want to succeed
That’s why I don’t need my parents to tell me
That I should do my homework, or study some more
Intrinsic motivation comes straight from the core

So if you haven’t guessed, there’s another inner beat
A little words contrary to words from the street
I’m a social workaholic who likes to do things right
Told you how it is by the creatures of the night

Literacy Test

Rachel shoulda left with underdowns.*1
couldn’t hester Prynne sew a wedding gown? *2
The Sun Also Rises, I set the novel down*3
I got tired of belligerent drunk clowns

By the way the minister was really pale,
He was fair skinned so he wore the black veil*4
unwanted babies, read The Bean Trees
I prefer teen mom on MTV*5

I’ll tell you about the awakening
Boy that novel sure puts me to sleep
Edna if you can’t swim,
Then why the hell did you dive so deep? *6

Consider me literate , A B C
I’ll take a gut wrenching poem and extract a theme
If you need the answer I’ll tell you what it means
I’m redefining literacy

The Poisonwood Bible, and twelfth night
remind me of the summer when I lost twelve nights*7
I did learn hubris from nathan price*8
And feste was my favorite archetype! *9

Romeo Romeo wherefore art thou?
I wanna read Shakespeare but I don’t know how
What is it Juliet? Stupid you feel?
That your vial was fake, and his was real? *10

All the pretty horses had a pretty ugly plot*11
in the movie Penelope was really really hot*12
Why is it called the invisible man
If the book if far from invisible man? *13

Gatsby really got me to think
That mature old men should never wear pink
So Gatsby go ahead, take off the colors
You and daisy never even loved eachother! *14
I don’t make monsters and I have no degree
How is Dr. Frankenstein a PhD? *15
Congratulations you killed everyone
You and Hamlet could be best buds. *16

You like poetry? So here it is.

Billy Collins be mad at me
I found meaning in your intro to poetry*17
Mr. Poe, we get it, the Raven’s at your door,
I’ll read your poetry NEVER MORE! *18

Whitman, we read the song of yourself
Next time keep the song to yourself*19
The learned astronomer should have stayed in class,
Staying in the lecture would have helped him pass*20

Because I did not stop for death
Holy crap now I’m depressed! *21
Emily sweetheart where are the smiles?
You’re beautiful train gets such great miles

To the gallon, in the economic crisis
Your train could really save life’s and
The idea can really go far,
Oh wait we have cars. *22

Tiger tiger burning bright
Im not afraid so I turn off the light*23
I turn it off and what do I see?
A dream deferred exploding at me*24

I have respect for the guy in English B
My teacher doesn’t hate me, and I still got a D*25
That’s my test, it went by fast,
Good luck to ya, I hope ya passed.

*1: Reference to the Poisionwood Bible
*2: Reference to Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was punished for committing adultery, if she was married she would not have been punished. The joke is that she used her sewing ability to redeem herself.
*3: Play on words. The Sun Also Rises was arguably very boring.
*4: Making light of the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”
*5: Paralleling the story of The Bean Trees, when Taylor receives a baby by surprise, and does not feel up to being a parent. Similar to the stories of the show “Teen Mom” on MTV.
*6: Play on words of the novel name. Also, making light of the ending, where Edna drowned.
*7: These two pieces of work were assigned for summer homework. The joke is in that all I remember from the novels is missing out on precious summer nights.
*8,*9: First characters discussed for those particular lit terms.
*10: Making light of Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”
*11: Play on words because the novel was a treacherous heroes’ journey.
*12: Penelope Cruz was the actress in the movie for All The Pretty Horses.
*13: Play on the words. The Invisible Man is incredibly long.
*14: Making light of the superficiality and immaturity of the characters in The Great Gatsby.
*15: Making light of Dr. Frankenstein, who although a doctor, still made such a horrendous mistake of creating a monster
*16: Paralleling Hamlet and Frankenstein, both of who’s actions were the causes of many deaths.
*17: Billy Collins’ poem “Introduction to Poetry” is about how he wants his students to read poetry for pleasure, not pure analyzing. The irony is that I analyzed his poem… making it funny.
*18: Play on words with the raven from Edgar Poe’s poem, who continuously says, “NEVER MORE”
*19: Whitman’s “Song to Myself” is long, and confusing. The poem makes no sense to anybody else, and he should therefore, keep it to himself.
*20: Making light of the poem “The Learn’d Astronomer” where the narrator critiques the formal lecturing, and prefers discovering nature on his own.
*21: Making light of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Did Not Stop for Death”
*22: Making light of Emily Dickinson’s poem “I like to See it Lap the Miles”
*23: Making light of the poem “The Tiger” By William Blake, which talks about a monster. I claim to turn off the light because I am not afraid of this monster.
*24: Play on words from Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred”. The poem ends with the line “Or does it explode?”
*25: Reference to the poem “Theme from English B”, makes light of the fact that AP English is a difficult class. The narrator struggles in his English class due to racial prejudice. I comment on the fact that although I am on good terms with my teacher, I still “got a D”, so he should be grateful.

OPERAPS

It’s the accents, not the taps, which you see
Like what you’re looking at right now is the surface truth of me
But let’s dig deeper, let’s get down to the taps
Beyond the surface that I’m white, tall, lanky, and that I rap

I believe in balance, I believe in the paradiddle,
And I believe that life is an insolvable riddle,
And I’ve got certain things and values that are important to me,
One of which is my Jewish people’s history,

This history, to me, is real,
I was born in Israel,
The way my heart feels, something I barely get to tell,
That when I land in Tel Aviv, I truly feel that I’m home,
I’m finally among my people, but I’m still so alone
Because I haven’t really been living here,
Just in the summer,
That I was faced with a choice to serve is more than a bummer
Even here in Cali, I know I’ll never connect,
Cuz everybody’s a different foreigner, what can I expect?
But all’s chill because my life is a balance,
Israeli born, American raised, that’s my talent. Now that’s a (w)rap!

Born in my home in northern Cali, right in the heart of the silicon valley
Raised in my home in Sunnyvale, it was like a mini Israel
See my family, is from two different places
Making me a hybrid of completely different nations
The Israeli Yankee the names’ Big A
Representin’ all the way from Jeru to the bay

Can you imagine having a home, where you’ve never lived
thinkin’ about a separate life, that you may have missed
But I know that I what I want because I know who I am
I’ll tell the IM it wasn’t easy as yam
But I will take you to the place that taught me more than a little
The same place I learned to play the paradiddle!

The idea was brought up before my freshman year
The thought of being a band nerd nearly gave me tears
Before I even started high school I would be a geek
So long to my dreams of being an athlete

My momma told me to shut up and listen
In my house band was a serious tradition
I would learn to march and play with perfect precision
Then I’d be able to make my own decision

Band camp started, wished I didn’t play brass
I couldn’t march or play to save my own ass
I knew the relationship would never last
So I switched to the drumline really fast

Practicing the paradiddle, broke that baby down
Turned on the met to achieve a perfect sound
You won’t believe all the work it took
Maybe it wasn’t as easy as it looked

But when the drums performed, they seemed so cool!
That’s because we practice every day after school
Every Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 9-9!!
Holy moly ,Jagula, that’s a lot of time!

Wait a minute, what the fuck?
We could’ve got a job and made some serious bucks!
If you mix passion hard work, and life time friends
The hours all pay off in the end

I guess drummers aren’t dumb and their brains aren’t little
Disagree? You try to play the paradiddle
As far as our lives, drums play a huge roll
But they are just a small part of our lives as a whole

Mom, I guess you know what you were doing
If I didn’t do band, then I wouldn’t be a bruin
As much as it hurts, I’ll say you were right
UCLA FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

This year it all just clicked
Finally, I was playing shows without a tick
The deep truth of drumline is a bonding experience,
And the uniform is strictly for appearance.
I realized that on the surface we’re pure entertainment
It’s our role to perform, we just need to “play” it PUN
The game face is our accent,
Hours of practice are our taps,
DO YOU GET THE ANALOGY?
CUZ THIS. IS. * OPERAPS
*An allusion to the movie “300”

Spain – Farewell Salamanca

Posted on by

Things I heard before I came to Salamanca:

  • 3 months is not enough time to study abroad, yet anything after 6 months gets difficult.
  • Anyone who has heard of Salamanca—only 5 or so people–before told me it was the most amazing city they have ever been to.
  • College town
  • Beautiful plaza
  • Delicious food
  • Do not say no to anything, given that the question or invitation was rational and safe.
  • Make local friends and immerse yourself in the culture
  • You’ll miss home, but take solace in the fact that home misses you more.
  • There’s something magical about people around age 20, you’ll see that everyone you meet abroad that’s travelling will have more or less the same attitude as you.
  • Go enjoy yourself, party, meet new people, explore the world, oh and learn something too while you’re at it.
  • 99% of the book that my dad wrote me before I left.

Before I came here most of these words of wisdom, did not make any sense. I politely smiled and nodded along as people gave me their spiel above what to expect or how to behave.  However, it did not take long at all before I realized that although my experience is unique, as is everyone else’s, there are all encompassing recommendations that can apply to everyone much like the ones that have resonated with my that I expressed above. Here is what I have learned and what I advise after going on this trip. This is an addition to the quotes above, not instead of:

  • If you are even slightly considering studying abroad, do it.
  • Do what you want to do not what you think other people want you to do
  • Keep in touch with everyone from home, but do not let it interfere with events abroad. The people who matter will not raise an eyebrow if you do not talk to them for a couple of days.
  • Get off Facebook
  • Never pass on an opportunity because you are too tired or lazy, it’s a horrible excuse that you will regret
  • You always regret what you could have done but did not.
  • Travel light, its okay to wear a shirt 3-4 times before you wash it, and yes this is Osmo talking 🙂
  • Do not rush from place to place just to be able to say you’ve been there, it is MUCH more enjoyable to experience one place to the fullest.
  • Do not take taxis, you will miss out on the aesthetics.
  • Write a blog, or a journal, its easy to blur events together and forget the importance of each individual one.
  • Take pictures, but not 2394893 of them, its more powerful to just stand and take in the scenery rather than watch it through a lens.
  • Pictures will rarely do justice to the scene itself, they are a mere reminder of where you were in order to evoke the emotion you felt at the time of the picture.
  • Nothing should be difficult, just have fun.

I’m not saying goodbye yet and I’m leaving this blog open ended just in case I remember any more words of advice. I’m not saying bye mostly because I am not ready but also because I still have a month and a half of travelling to do. This is only goodbye to the academic requirement blogs but say hello to the free will blogs.

P.S. my brother just left and as much as I am excited to see England, Scotland, Italy, Paris, and Israel, I cannot help but also be excited to go home. This is not to say that I am not enjoying myself, this is just a hint of homesickness kicking in.

Spain Eighth Week – Morocco

Posted on by

For this weeks blog I want to share with you guys my trip to Morocco. Upon arrival I received an email from my dad who strongly recommended, in fact seemingly demanded for my own benefit, that I write down everything that happened in a little notebook and type it up when I get back. I took this incredible advice and every time we got back to our room in the Riad I jotted down anything memorable that I occurred. In bold is exactly what I wrote down and everything else is an elaboration of the descriptions:

 

As my dad advised, I took some notes:

Day 1

-Culture Shock, redefined term. – The culture in Morocco, or in the old city of Marrakesh I should say as that is the only place we observed, is like nothing I have ever seen before. In the main square where we spent most of our time, everybody is there trying to sell something or make money off you for any seemingly ordinary move you make. For example, if you take a picture, you will instantly be swarmed by several people telling you that you must pay them for taking a picture of them. I do not mean this in any sort of derogatory way, in fact the people that should be looked down upon are the people that actually pay when harassed for taking a picture or looking in the general direction of a snake charmer. We took it all lightly, and had several laughs, and its hard to talk about the culture without ruining the next bullet points, so hopefully you get a feel for the culture in reading the rest of the blog.

-4 durhim orange juice – In the square there were roughly 30 orange juice stands within an area of about 100 square meters. This orange juice was by far the best orange juice I have ever had. Once you choose which stand to get your beverage from—they are all identical so we just went to the one that was not abrasively yelling at us to get our business—they squeeze fresh oranges right into your glass on the spot. We always went to the same stand in order to avoid uncomfortable tension between the juice tenders, and eventually the man who owned the stand gave us free refills to show his gratitude. Its safe to say that we had at least 30 orange juices each in a matter of 3 days.

-Cheap food à cous cous, kebabs, sugar cane drinks, ORANGE JUICE, tagine, – I have to say my favorite part of Morocco was the food. We planned all our days around what and when we were going to eat. Our first meal every day was made for us at our Riad by the very kind young man or woman depending on when we woke and whose shift it was—I’ll tell you more about this a few bullet points down. As for lunch and dinner, every day we went in into the main square and found a nice local place to eat a lot of food for very cheap. If you do not go to the big franchise-esque places, and you choose somewhere that looks more like a hole in the wall, you can eat like royalty for anywhere between 4 to 7 euros. Every day for dinner the entire square changes entirely as there are 50 different food stands that come set up and make a series of portable restaurants if you will. Around 5 pm they would put up the stand in order to be ready by the 6:30 rush and around 10 pm they would take it back down. Every one of these stands is identical in how they look and what they serve, so we would always eat at the place that offered the most free food. The first night we settled for 1 free drink each, and the last night we each got free drinks with our meal, free mint tea after the meal, free bread/salad, fries, and soup. So really all we ended up paying for were the kebabs we bought.

-Successful bargaining, pretend you are Spanish rather than American, or Israeli but that goes without saying. – I very quickly found that everyone in Morocco speaks 4 or 5 languages, and they have much more respect for Spanish people than Americans. Every time I approached anyone speaking Spanish I was treated with much more respect and got way better prices on counterfeit goods. It was hilarious because out of my group I was the only one that could pass as Spanish, so Eric’s solution was to say he was from Canada, which ultimately just lead to countless blank/confused looks. But no matter where you say you’re from, the person that you are talking to “has a best friend close by.” Another extremely successful trick I learned to get store owners to leave me alone, was to team up with them and try to sell their good to Eric or Jonathan. I would intervene and say things like, “Come on Eric this is a great price you should totally buy it” at which point they left me alone and bombarded him with different prices and unnecessary objects he could buy.

-Dead snakes – In the square there are dozens of snake charmers and people that play with monkeys, if any of these people happen to make it into the corner of your picture, their friend—whose only job is to look for people taking pictures—will come harass you for money. One very creative technique to get money was to sell pictures with a dead snake. Someone would come up and tie a dead snake around your neck, and refuse to take it off until you paid him. Naturally everyone gets terrified because they think it is alive so they pay the man to get the snake the hell off them. However, as Kara was freaking out that there is a snake tied around her neck, I assured her that it looked dead as doornails, which only disgusted her more unfortunately. We learned after this never to get within 30 feet of a snake charmer.

-Dish washing machines à bucket of water. The way Moroccans “cleaned their dishes” was by dipping them very briefly into a bucket of water that we did not see get changed once. When we were at dinner we asked the man for silverware, so he nonchalantly walked to the bucket, dipped some forks in, and handed them to us with his hand on the part of the fork that you use to eat. An interesting thought would be what percent of Morocco would be FDA approved? Which leads to another interesting thought—seeing as how we all left healthy as a herd of oxen, does everything really have to be FDA approved or regulated at all?

-Riad à incredible Moroccan style bed and breakfast – We stayed at a Riad, which is essentially a self owned set of rooms that are set up around a courtyard. The only thing I can think to compare it to is La Finka Que Ama in Costa Rica but much more cozy. There was a man and a woman that took turns working there around the clock, both of whom were incredible kind—the only people in Morocco that were warm to us—and both seemed at most 25 years old. On our last night the kind young man made us our breakfast at 4:30 in the morning, which consisted of coffee, yogurt, butter, jam, crepes, olives, orange juice, and warm bread.

 

The next few days are very similar, in fact virtually identical to these, so I’ll just tell you about the unique things that happened.

 

Day 2/3:

 -Famous Moroccan Singer – When we were eating lunch on our second day, Kara was curious as to where the family behind us got fruit baskets. Once we asked, they continued to give us several fruits so we can try them before we bought any. One question lead to another and the kind man who was talking to us eventually sold his dad out—who was sitting with his back faced to us and the square—by telling us that his dad is a very famous singer in Morocco. We asked to take a picture and as soon as he stood up people from the square recognized him and flooded in making it nearly impossible to take a picture with him. We got an autograph and a picture with him, and an invitation from his son to stay at their house in the capital of Morocco next time we visit.

-Raped by Henna artist – Some lady was trying to convince me to get henna, and she grabbed my hand and made an intricate design in like 12 seconds then tried to get me to pay 20 euro for it. I sent her on her way empty handed after a bit of yelling back and forth J

-Bargain from 1 jacket for 680 to 3 for 450 – We got these Moroccan jackets that originally cost 68 euro for 1 and we ended up paying 45 euro for 3. The guy literally looked at us as if we had just burned his house down, until the next day when we walked by and he greeted us with a s#@$-eating grin.

Spain Seventh Week – Countdown

Posted on by

Countdown until I leave Salamanca

21 – Days until I leave Salamanca

20 – My age during this journey

19 – The amount of minutes it takes me to get to the Plaza Mayor from my apartment, more often than not I make this trip twice a day.

18 – I missed my brother’s 18th birthday being here. I’ll make it up to him when he comes to visit next week.

17 – The amount of hours that stores/shops are closed here during a 24 hour work day.

16 – The total amount of chipotle burritos I would have eaten had I been at home this entire time, this is an underestimation.

15 – The average amount of minutes I spend on homework daily, with the exception of midterm week.

14 – 14th of May is the optional return date home when I part from my travels with friends and head to Israel.

13 – 1 o clock in Europe, takes a few days to adapt.

12 – The amount of games I had to win at beerpong to get first place.

11 – The total number of times I’ve taken a cab since I got here, I’d rather walk.

10 – The amount of shots you get for 5 euro at Gatsby.

9 – The total amount of days that I’ve seen the sun without any clouds. 4 of them were when we were traveling to the south of Spain.

8 – the amount of visitors I will have had when the trip ends. Ima, Bushy, Tal, Dana, Kevin, Lumi, TinTin, and Freddy. In the order of when they came.

7 – The amount of weeks I’ve been away from home, longest time in years.

6 – The cost of the Chinese buffet I eat at for lunch a few times a week, which coined the saying, “When in Spain … Eat like the Chinese.”

5 – The amount of Universities I am waiting to hear back from, and I will hear from them all by the end of the trip.

4 – The number of people that live with me in a petite, cozy apartment, which is clearly not cut out for people over 6’2. It took 4-5 times of hitting my head as I walked through doors before I remembered to duck.

3 – The number of family dinners left.

2 – The amount of homes I now have.

1 – The amount of chances I have to make this experience worthwhile.

Spain Sixth Week – Dos Para Uno

Posted on by

Dos Para Uno
If this week was not the definition of an emotional roller coaster then I do not want to find out what is. It consisted of a clash between Dana leaving and Kevin and Lumi arriving,which all happened in about 47 seconds. Seriously from the time I said bye to Dana to the time I saw Kevin and Lumi was not even enough time for me to take a single deep breath. I was elated to find my best friends waiting for me at the end of what would have been a lonely trip back to meet up with the group. They greeted me with genuine joy and it literally was the moment we have been talking about since this summer, the moment when “we are all in Spain together having the time of our lives.”
It was so weird to think how far I’ve come with these guys, we went from being high school friends thinking we are on top of the world, to laying down in my room in Spain talking about what we want to do with the rest of our lives. I know it has only been roughly 2 years since we graduated high school, but we have grown so much as friends. I will never forget Kevin’s step dad’s words when he told us that our friendship is unlike any he’s ever seen before in his life and as long as we continue to push each other in the right direction we can never give up on it. As much as we’ve changed, I can always take solace in the fact that we are changing together rather than growing apart. I’ll just wrap up the cliche mushy gushy part of this blog by saying that I had the time of my life this week with Kevin and Lumi, friends for life.As for a few new things I’ve done this week, I finally got to see the garden of Salamanca and the famous river. I went to the garden one night last week and it is honestly the most peaceful/beautiful part of Salamanca. From the garden you can see the lit up cathedral both new and old as you enjoy the plethora of flowers/trees. I’ll be sure to take pictures for everyone at home to see my new favorite part of Salamanca.
Also on Thursday when we all finally finished our midterms we got to enjoy the beautiful75 degree weather. I know from California this does not sound like a special occasion, but after being here for over a month and only seeing sun for 3 or 4 days you have to soak up every minute of sun you can. I found it rather humorous how much the weather can actually affect the mood of the group. Being a group that comes from a place that is notorious for its sunny weather almost year round, the nonstop cloudy weather definitely created a seemingly permanent gloominess among us. On Friday we took advantage of the weather and spent most of the day out by the river just relaxing and talking.
A little side note, I am learning to cook, which is something I have always secretly wanted to do so everyone at home be prepared to enjoying or pretending to enjoy the meals I’ll be making
I might be going to Morocco this weekend if everything goes as planned so I look forward to telling you about the trip.

Spain Fifth Week – Road Trip

Posted on by

This last weekend I went on a road trip with Dana, Eric, Chad, and Jonathan, and I can safely say it was one of the most if not the most amazing weekend of my life. We rented a car and saw Sevilla, Malaga, Granada, and Cordoba in 5 wonderful days. Usually on this trip when I have traveled over the weekends I was able to pick out a specific part of the trip that I enjoyed the most. Whereas this weekend was all a blur of BROmantic banter. It was a combination of the carefree attitude and the urge to explore every tiny detail of each city that allowed us to live this weekend to the fullest—pardon the cliché.

Allow me to give you a quick overview of each city in the order that we went there for future travel references or dispute settlements. Sevilla is gorgeous and has a sort of magic to it, its like Eric pointed out, “this whole city looks and feels like downtown Disney.” We stayed there for 2 nights, and then decided to head to Malaga for the day—spur of the moment idea by Chad—in order to see the beach. The weather in Malaga was perfect, we were able to sit on the beach and eat our five-person seafood paella, which is notorious for being the best in Spain. After about three or four hours of sunbathing and eating we decided it was time to leave our mark on this topless beach in Malaga with a nude picture by the Mediterranean sea. Dana and Eric wanted nothing to do with this idea so they walked about 100 feet away from us and turned their backs, while Chad was kind enough to take the picture of Jonathan and me (don’t worry mom this picture is not fully nude and its going no where but my computer).

From Malaga we headed to Granada, which is where we would spend the next few days. Granada in itself was nothing out of the ordinary like Sevilla or Barcelona, yet at the same time I do not regret going. In Granada I could easily pick my two favorite parts: the Alhambra and the Shawarma restaurant that was next door to our hotel where we ate five times during our two night stay. We thought the one employee that worked there behind the counter would start thanking us for supporting half his daily income, but he actually seemed rather disgusted at the fact that we could eat there so many times in so little time. As for Cordoba we only went to see La Mezquita on the way home, which is a mosque that has a Cathedral engulfing it.

I’m sorry for the short posting but I am in a huge rush so if you are reading this make sure you are on my case about posting more about this weekend. Seriously time of my life and I love the friends I have made to death and I wish Dana could stay longer. This makes me look forward to my future travelling adventures with the boys even more, and I want to utilize this next month and a half with them as much as possible. Love you guys.

 

And my best friends are coming in like 10 hours so I’m going to be a host for 1 more week :)

Spain Forth Week – Barcelona

Posted on by

In this blog I present to you, my weekend in Barcelona with most of my wonderful family. It started with an organized school trip to El Escorial and Avila and ended with me taking a train back to Salamanca from Barcelona. On Thursday, my mom and sister came to Salamanca and were waiting impatiently for me while I finished my classes. My Spanish teacher noticed how antsy I was waiting during class and she let me out early because she said that she does not want to be the reason why I do not see my family, what a sweet heart. I ran out of class with barely enough time to thank my teacher for letting me out early, and ran to the clock in the plaza where we originally planned to meet. Finally after what seemed like years I saw two people that looked like my mom and sister walking through the Plaza Mayor yet I could not seem to register that they were actually there. After the much needed bombarding of hugs and kisses we had just enough time to get some dinner and see a bit of Salamanca.

The next day I went on the school tour to El Escorial and Avila, where my parents and sister would pick me up to go to Barcelona—yes overnight my dad also joined the banter. El Escorial from what I understood was a summer home for the king and queen, seems like a pretty good time-share. The only thing I did not like about the palace was that I did not fit through any of the doors, but I managed to make it out with no major head injuries. As for Avila, the rain stopped just in time for us to get up to the walls and see the incredible walls of Avila. They reminded me of the Great Wall of China except they were in a circle around the center of the city. We were able to walk around on the walls and take terrifying pictures standing on the edge, and that’s when all of a sudden I hear my mom screaming my name from the bottom of the wall. They somehow found me in the middle of Avila with no phone or sense of direction, but I guess my mom was right, moms do know everything. We went down from the walls when my parents got to meet my friends and finally put a personality behind the pictures they have been seeing and I was relieved but not surprised that my parents loved them all. It was weird/sad saying bye to my friends because it was my first time away from any of them in a month of being here but at the same time I was extremely excited to go to Barcelona with my family.

Finally I was off with my parents and sister on the way to see the famous Barcelona. It was so refreshing to be around my family again, and enjoy the company of people that I knew before the trip. Yet at the same time I could not stop thinking about how I missed my friends and how hard it would be to leave them after the trip. It was a melancholy thought that I pushed to the back of my head so that I can enjoy the weekend with my family. On the drive to Barcelona the weather and time zone were not on our side. Both my parents were completely jet lagged and fighting sleep with every ounce of power they had, and the rain was coming down mercilessly. After my mom fell asleep at the wheel for a moment we realized it was in our best interest to stop in Zaragoza, get some rest, and continue on to Barcelona early the next day. Zaragoza was gorgeous and it’s a shame that we did not get to enjoy it for more than 12 hours. That night, Tal—my sister who from now on has a name on this blog—and I went out for a drink and some tapas and had a lovely time. We sat down at a nice place and sat there and talked until we were kicked out when the bar closed.

The next morning we headed to Barcelona, which is completely different from any city in Spain or any city in the world that I have ever seen. When people ask if it’s the best city in Spain I tell them that its not even comparable its just on a whole new level. Its not necessarily better than any other city in Spain, it is just special in a unique way, which it is largely due to Antoni Gaudi’s architecture. I was literally enchanted by the buildings that Gaudi designed. They were all inspired by various aspects of nature and he somehow managed to make a wall made out of tile look like a wavy ocean. He was an architectural mastermind who completely deviated from the norm in building style and you have to see the inside of the Sagrada Familia to understand just how dream like his architecture is. Last but certainly not least we saw the Parque Guel, which is where Gaudi lived and designed, which is also a place I like to call pickpocket-ville. When and if you go there do not be too distracted by the incredibly aesthetics and make sure you watch your pockets.

The weekend ended way too quickly and I did not spend nearly as much time as I would have liked to with my family. We crammed as much as we could into the short time we had together yet I still feel like we only scratched the surface. It seems like they were only here for 10 minutes and they left as quickly as they came. I’m writing this blog a week after our Barcelona trip and my parents left two days ago and I’m just realizing I wont see them until June 7th. This is the longest stretch of time I have gone without seeing my parents in my whole life and I hope it will be the last. I have never been one to not appreciate his parents, yet somehow this trip managed to make me appreciate them even more for giving me this opportunity and opening my mind to a whole new world and giving me a completely new perspective on life. And for that they have my undying gratitude, love, and respect. As for seeing Tal, every time I see her it takes a second for me to fully comprehend that she’s actually there, and with being in a foreign city for such a short period of time, I feel like we were robbed of a true sibling bromance. Sure it was amazing seeing her and we made each other laugh like we always do with our awkward unique humor that most people don’t understand, but 3 days is simply not long enough for a reunion. Don’t take this the wrong way all I’m saying is that with a sibling that lives across the world, seeing them for a weekend for the first time since summer simply does not suffice. Love you Tal and I cannot wait to see you again in Israel a month and a half from now 🙂

I guess that’s all for this blog I’m actually in Granada right now with Dana and the boys, but don’t worry you will hear all about this road trip in the next blog. We went to Sevilla, Malaga, Granada, and tomorrow Cordoba so I figure I’ll write about it when it actually ends.

So my mom, dad, and sister have come and gone, my girlfriend is here right now, and next week my best friend is coming.  Just letting you know about the stuff that you can expect to hear about 🙂

Spain 2011

Posted on by

And the story is still waiting to be written…

Please click the image to view the gallery

Please click the image to view the gallery

Stopped for the night on the way from Salamanca to Barcelona so as not to drive off the road. Did not take pictures, maybe next time.

Salamanca

Please click the image to view the gallery

Please click the image to view the gallery

Please click the image to view the gallery

Spain Third Week – Weekend in Portugal

Posted on by

It looks like the main topic for this blog is going to be my trip to Portugal last weekend, but we’ll see I might be able to squeeze in the class trip to El Escorial and Avila, and maybe if we’re REALLY lucky I’ll be able to touch on the fact that I am currently with my mom, dad, and sister in Barcelona. The problem is that my mom and dad are sleeping in the hotel room—jet lag—and my sister and I are trying to rest a little bit before we go out. So we’ll see how much I can get written down in the next our or so. At any rate, here is what happened in Portugal.

It all started on Friday morning when we had to meet at the bus station at 7 am, which means we had to wake up at 6. This normally would not be too much of a problem yet Eric, Jonathan, and I had an idea– that seemed flawless at the time—to try to stay up as late as possible so that way we would be able to sleep on the bus. This plan failed miserably as we all went to sleep at 5:30 and could not fall asleep on the bus making the entire first day extremely difficult. We got to the city of Coimbra at around 10 or 11 am and we stopped to explore for a few hours. Eric, Jonathan, Sinjun, and I decided to walk around and see as much as possible in the 3 hours of free time that we were allotted. As magnificent as the city was, it was nothing special in comparison to Lisbon. But if someone were to step off a plane from the states and see Coimbra before they saw Lisbon they would be blown away. We saw pretty views, mostly of housing or the beautiful river that runs through the city, and ate at a quaint Indian/Portuguese restaurant for lunch. At 1:30 everyone that was signed up for the trip went back on the bus and went on a guided tour of Coimbra and that left my friend Chayan and I to do some more exploring of the city on our own. We walked around for about an hour and showed each other some things that we found in the previous free time we had, but they best part was when we decided to go to the grocery store and get food and have a picnic by the river. Eventually it came time for us to wrap up our relaxing picnic and get back on the bus and head to Lisbon with the rest of the group.

We got to Lisbon around 7 or 8 I believe, and Eric, Jonathan, and I were still exhausted from the previous nights debauchery. We ended up just going out to see the nightlife a little bit and grab a bite to eat but we made sure we were in bed before 1 am so that we would be rejuvenated for the guided tour of Lisbon the next day. We woke up leisurely the next morning and got on the tour bus before 10 am. The tour guide showed us several different landmarks such as; the famous cathedral, the “white house” of Portugal—which happens to be pink, the dock that Vasco De Gama left from on his expedition, a castle looking land mark that serves some sort of purpose that remains a mystery to me, a museum that had famous pictures by Monet, Manet, and several others, and my personal favorite the castle de Jorge. Before I talk about the castle de Jorge I have to tell you about these pastries that we ate. There are these pastries in Portugal that are ubiquitous yet I cannot remember their name for the life of me but they are little cups that have some warm cinnamon-y custard, and they are to die for. If you are ever in Portugal I hope that my vague description will guide you to these delicious treats.

Anyway the castle de Jorge is known for its incredible view specifically at sunset as it overlooks all of Lisbon from the top of a hill. Most of the group was too tired to go but my friends Oscar and Jonathan agreed to go with me only so that when people tell them about a beautiful sunset they saw we would be able to say “oh really? That’s cool, I saw a sunset from a castle on top of a mountain in the capital of Portugal,” and instantly make any other sunset seem inferior. When we got up to the top of the castle and saw the view/sunset, it was even more beautiful than people made it sound. I was elated that I gave up the 3 hours of napping in order to see this view because it was like nothing I have ever seen before. Definitely the most stunning view I have seen on the trip thus far and I’ll be sure to let you know if there is anything that comes close. After the sunset we went back to nap for a few hours in order to rest up for the supposedly insane Portuguese nightlife.

After a well-deserved two-hour nap it was time to gear up and go see the nightlife for ourselves. We went to this part of town called Barrio Alto, which is basically a very condensed area that is littered with bars and young inebriated people. Literally every 4 feet there is another bar and the drunk folk in the street are shoulder to shoulder trying to get from bar to bar. The only thing I can compare it to is Isla Vista in Santa Barbara on Halloween, except every weekend. Once we were done there headed to the pier to see a concert that my friend Eric was adamant about attending. It was a dubstep concert, and normally you would not find me listening to dubstep even if you paid me. However, I decided to go for the experience and the other club we wanted to go to said it costs us 240 euro a person to get in, and no that’s not a typo. I probably stayed at the concert for a total of 30 minutes before I decided I have had enough and headed back so I can get some sleep.

Overall it was an amazing trip and I am so grateful that I was able to go on it. In fact I am going back to Porto, Portugal in a few weeks, so the Portuguese have not seen the last of me.

I have a 7 hour trip back to Salamanca tomorrow from Barcelona so I’ll tell you about El Escorial, Avila, and my Family trip. I found a valid excuse for not blogging about my family weekend, and it is because I still have one more day with them and I do not want to leave it out of the blog. So stay tuned and hear about it in the next few days J

p.s. I forgot to mention that Lisbon looks a lot like San Francisco, it even has a golden gate bridge. This is not just me being a tiny bit homesick its actually known to resemble SF, you can look it up for yourself 🙂