First off I would like to say congrats to the Gophers for what looked to be a successful weekend at the Grand Prix. I saw a lot of impressive swims and know that they will only be even faster in a couple more weeks at the Ohio State Invite. Not to be forgotten also was the unbelievable performance by the Minnetonka girls team at Varsity Sections. A truly fantastic meet by those girls. I am really proud and happy for all of them, especially the ones that I was fortunate enough to help throughout the last year. Jen, Katie, Maddie, Jenny, Sarah, Paige, Kelsey, and my little Isabel. Keep it going as you get ready for State!
The last couple of weekends have been much less overwhelming and busy but believe me, I have found other things to occupy my time. The first of these that I wanted to quick write about was the excitement of November 4. For me, it was a bit of a strange day. I was not subject to the constant barrage of political ads throughout the couple of months, which was quite nice, although I did try and read as much as possible about the election in the weeks leading up to it. The economic struggles, the attacking of the candidates at one another, and of course the political humor by such shows as SNL and The Daily Show, gave me my fill of the political tension that was present back home. Each election is of course an important one, especially when we are electing a new president, but in my lifetime and possibly as far back as FDR, there has not been such an important one, mainly because we have not been presented with such hard times since then. I really have no desire to start a political forum here, but I think most people would agree in varied degrees to this statement.
Election Day was a bit strange. Throughout the day I was incredibly nervous. My plan was to stay up all night to watch the results come in. In order to accomplish this and still be functioning on Wednesday at work, I decided I needed to sleep as much as possible during the day on Tuesday. So with that in mind, I went to class in the morning (thank goodness Tuesdays are generally easy days for me) and then slept all afternoon until I had to return to work for some private tutoring in the evening. Then I went back to bed and slept from about 11:00 until 2:30 AM (8:30 PM EST). Luckily I was able to receive a couple of different live streaming videos from CNN, MSNBC, etc that I was able to watch and keep tabs on everything as polls continued to close across the country. Finally, as California closed at 5:00 AM, we all received the word that Barack Obama would be the next President of the United States. After the last year and then some of campaigning, hoping, and dreaming, it was made a reality. Who knows? Maybe I can actually return home to the US, instead of finding a new life here in Spain!
Another item that I wanted to quick share is that after three months of almost zero swimming (I did swim about 800-1000 meters in both the Munich and Barcelona Olympic pools) I actually did a workout. There is a 25 meter pool in a nearby town called Canena. It is quite pricey to go and swim there, but I have met some friends who go every once in awhile and now will probably try to go as well. The first experience was great, although quite painful. I did 3500 meters and it almost killed me. But it felt great to actually be doing that again. I do not plan on doing any training at all this year and have been enjoying the months without subjecting my body to the demands that it is used to, but after being away for a couple of months, I would possibly like to resume swimming in the future. At least as a form of exercise. There exists none better in my opinion.
Finally, my roommate Ellen went to Malaga recently and brought back a gift for me. I now have a map of Europe in Spanish on my wall which I am using to mark my travels throughout the year. So far I have already been to three different countries and many cool cities. I hope that in another seven months or so, I will have a map full of little feet. (those are the stickers that I am using to mark these adventures) I think it will be a great keepsake after this adventure has come to a close.
Anyways, next weekend we are planning on taking a trip to Cordoba to see the Mesquita and maybe experience and Arab bath. Should be lots of fun. We had some of these friends and others over to our place this weekend and had some great times. Eric and I made fajitas for about ten people on Saturday night and we even had pancakes!
More from Cordoba next week.
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