This weekend, Kathryn and I had quite the traveling adventure. I'll write more about it all later, but for now, here are a few pictures of our weekend from the small town of Nerja, taken on the coast of the Mediterranean.
Brad.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
KU Basketball
My name is Brad. I am a marketing and Spanish major, currently attending Kansas State University. I am in love with the school I go to - my friends, my campus, my community - in no way do I regret any part of my decision to attend school there and get a degree from the nation's 9th best business school. Recently, I even found out that I got accepted into the Blue Key Senior Honorary.
All this being said, I am a Jayhawk basketball fan until I die. Ever since I can remember, I have been a Kansas basketball fan. From memories of reenacting KU games by dribbling on my backyard grass so much it turned to dirt, shooting in my garage when it was raining because I just had to be the next Ryan Robertson, going to my friend's house every week with my dad to watch the games on ESPN before we had cable, attending KU's first practice of every year, meeting all of the players and getting to eat pizza with them as a "Junior Jayhawk", going to games with my dad, and watching the national championship and Mario's Miracle my senior year of high school, I absolutely love Kansas Basketball.
This year seemed to be the year that KU was going to lose its reign on the Big 12. Everyone was saying that KU was going to have an "off year", and that either Baylor of Mizzou would come away with the Big 12 title, taking it away from KU for the first time in 8 years. And why wouldn't they say that? KU was returning only 1 starter, and 3 of its 4 recruits didn't even make the grades to be eligible for the season. Everything was looking poor for the Jayhawks, but you can never underestimate a Bill Self coached team.
In my opinion, Bill Self is the obvious deserver of the National Coach of the Year. Besides Tyshawn Taylor, his starters had a combined 16 career starts before this season. He made Thomas Robinson go from being a Hulk-ish mess to a potential National Player of the Year, and sealed KU's 8th straight consecutive Big 12 title in what was supposed to be an "off year" for the hawks against what was arguably the toughest Big 12 competition yet. Jim Calhoun, reigning national champion Connecticut's head coach, lost a few of their players and brought in one of the nation's best recruits (a situation that seems even better than Self's), and they ended up finishing 10th in the Big East. Bill Self is a man of character, of tenacity, and of leadership.
Since living in Spain, I've stayed up until 5 in the morning numerous times watching games from bootlegged websites, yelled louder than anyone ever should at a computer screen in Portugal when Thomas Robinson blocked the daylights out of Phil Pressey, and have had to hold back tears every time I've watched KU's intro video on YouTube. I can't wait to follow their run throughout the Big 12 and National tournaments throughout March. I'm so proud to be a Jayhawk basketball fan and will root on my hawks from any country in the world.
Check out this article recently written about Bill Self, and as always, Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
Brad.
Kathryn's Coming!
She leaves on a plane tonight and get's here in a little over 24 hours. Leggo!
Brad.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Gracia's Birthday, Córdoba, and Street Performing
3 different events, 3 different explanations:
Gracia's Birthday.
This past Tuesday, I had the day off of school for "Dia de Andalusia", or the day to celebrate the anniversary of when Seville's home state of Andalusia was officially recognized as an autonomous community of Spain. I celebrated this day not only by appreciating the incredible state that I live in (seriously, check out this video by Juan LeBron if you don't believe me), but also through celebrating the 75 year old life of my host mom, Gracia. It was such a fun celebration - we went out to a tapas bar with 30 of her closest friends and family, and eventually ended up back at the apartment with her kids and grandchildren for dessert, shown below. I also made a pretty awesome Venezuelan friend, Marco, shown in the fourth picture. What a stud.
Córdoba.
On Friday morning, I went on an excursion with API to the city of Córdoba, located about 2 hours northeast of Sevilla. We saw ancient ruins from the 10th century, and then got to tour a mosque-turned-Cathedral called the Great Mosque of Córdoba. It was great, and really beautiful, but I think that I'm realizing that I'm getting a little too "used to" Spain. Sometimes I'll tour a cathedral, see that it was built in the 16th century and think "wow, that recently?" I have to remind myself that my entire country wasn't even discovered until the end of the 15th century, and wasn't founded until the end of the 18th century. Crazy stuff. I also think that living in Sevilla and seeing arguably the most beautiful cathedral in the world every day really numbs me to all other cathedrals and historic sites that aren't as big or as grand in other cities. Anyway, here are a few of the pictures I took of Córdoba.
Street Performing.
Ever since arriving in Seville and walking the busy streets every day, I've always dreamed of street performing with my guitar - memorizing a few American songs, mustering up some courage, opening up my guitar case and trying to earn the appreciation of a few quarters or euros from people's pockets. This dream became a whole lot more realistic when my friend, Lauren, let me borrow her guitar.
I decided that I would play on Saturday afternoon. Friday night, I figured out a few different songs, including newer music - Avicii's "Levels", Coldplay's "Viva La Vida", Ben Rector's "Loving You Is Easy", Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A.", and Ben Harper's "Steal My Kisses" - and older music - The Temptations' "My Girl", Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl", Tom Petty's "Free Fallin", Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City", and Bill Wither's "Lean on Me", to name a few. I decided on my location - Avenida de la Constitución, the street in which the Cathedral is located.
It was hard to get started, but once I got a few euros in my case, my energy perked up and I get a little dance in my step. Most of the money that I received was either from girls or younger children (don't ask me why), and one American girl even came up to me and said "I love Ben Rector!" and gave me a euro. Performing on the street has got to statistically be one of the most unsuccessful things you could ever do - I bet at least 10,000 people heard me play on Saturday, and only about 100 gave me money. All in all I played for a little over two hours and made a little over 25 euros - enough for a nice date out with my girlfriend who gets here on Thursday.
Below are some pictures that one of my friends took of me playing.
That's - that's about it.
Brad.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Mount Teide
At the end of April, my friend, Brad, and I plan to fly to the island of Tenerife, off the coast of Spain, and camp at Teide National Park. Brad and I are going to hike part of Mount Teide. Teide, at 3,718 meters, is Spain's tallest mountain, and the source of the most viewed video of all-time on Vimeo. To say I'm excited to experience God's creation like this is an understatement.
"The Mountain" via vimeo.com
Brad.
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