Curiosity

Well as most of you know, as avid followers of my blog, I am home in the United States. No, I haven't slacked on blogging, I wanted to see if there was any interest in me continuing my blog. Yes, I am asking you (the bum sitting on your couch reading my blog) my friends if you still desire insight into my life. I hear my life is pretty fun...

A couple ideas on where to continue it.

1. A great friend, Andrew Deneen and I have started a philanthropy group called TRI for Africa, to raise money for Teachers for Africa in Namibia, a country (no Africa isn't a freaking country) we visited many years ago and have stuck with it. Our goal this summer/ early fall is to complete 5 Triathlons, including 1 olympic Tri, all while raising some funds to support Teachers for Africa. We do have a facebook group you need to join to show your support

2. I am a swim coach and private lesson instructor. There are always good stories on the job. My first day back (my 6th year as a coach. I need a new job) a girl almost barfed on me.

3. Random travels. I hear my brother is getting married soon and we are taking a trip somewhere before hand as some kind of last hurrah before the ball and chain gets attached or something like that. I plan on going to a few different states this summer.

What do yall think? Have you looked at this blog recently?

Fallas 2010

I realized I hadn't posted anything about Fallas. It's a bit difficult to explain and you truly have to experience it to know exactly what I'm talking about but I will attempt to regail you with what type of experience I had. To start of Fallas has a bunch of different parts to it, and each little part make up Fallas. The first part are Falleras. Each neighborhood or 'bario' has these. They are girls that wear very decorative (and from what we're told exremely expensive) dresses and are shown off in parades. There are hundreds of Falleras and they elect two, an older Fallera and a younger Fallera to be crowned basically the ultimate Fallera. We were told it is extremely political and deals a lot with how much money you have (are you surprised?). Second there are parades every day. Everywhere. Each neighborhood has their own band and gets all of their people together and march the streets. It gets really difficult to even walk out of the dorm sometimes because of parades walking by. Third, there are Fallas, enormous paper miche (I'm not sure if I spelled that right but it sounds like Muh-Shay (like my brother). They are supposed to represent things that they do not like and want to try to rid from their lives. They're in each neighborhood plaza and I can't reiterate how large they are. Fourth, there are fireworks. And by fireworks I don't mean the sissy ones we have in the states (you think I'm kidding). The ones you can buy on the streets I can just see every mom in the states drafting letters to Obama telling him to ban them because they're so loud. If you're a tourist and the Spaniards see you, they'll throw them at your feet. You wake up in the morning and it literally sounds like a war-zone. It's awesome. Moreover (great transition word) they have fireworks every night. We were told they are second in the world for fireworks. When I saw them I almost cried because I knew we had to pick up the pace in the states. I'm a huge fan of the 4th of July. We beat those nazi's back in dubya dubya two and gained our independence. We need to celebrate with bigger fireworks. I'm serious though I was blown away (pun intended) when I say they were amazing firework shows. Lastly at the end of the week they burn the Fallas. We saw 4 burn down because they burn them all around the same time but it's like a house burning. We've got pictures from it where we are standing in front of it and it looks like we're smiling that a building behind us is set ablaze. Feel comforted all mothers reading this, they engineer each Fallas to fall straight down and they have firefighters at each fallas spraying water on it to make sure it doesn't get completely out of control. At your next town hall meeting, suggest we have a festival like this and see how hard they laugh. You want people to dress up and walk around in seemingly unorganized parades in unbelievably expensive dresses, build huge structures made out of paper with the ability to catch on fire and place them near where people live, throw fireworks EVERYWHERE, shut down the city for a week, purchase hundreds of thousands of flowers to build a huge structure of the Virgin Mary, jack prices of food and drinks up (that one's always possible though), have 45 minute long firework shows every night for a week, and then burn down the structures that took a year to build? HAHA you've gotta be outa your freaking mind. Safety first America remember?

Pictures: Me in front of the burning Fallas, Burning Fallas, Plaza de Virgin, and two examples of Fallas pre burn. Enjoy.

Padres en Espana!

Newsflash: Besides having a significant blog fan base decline due to overseas departure, I will be heading out to Madrid (I have to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Cripes man) to meet my parents and Spence! It's pretty sad when three people leave the states, the people actually reading this blog decline about a third. Regardless I will be keeping updates as to our adventures (I'm sure by now you know I'll make sure its an adventure).

Hope all is well with everyone in the states, and to my homies in Orleans, France.

It's a short post...deal with it. (In the nicest way possible though.)

Belgium. I've heard their waffles aren't too shabby.

Tuesday morning we woke up and had a cab waiting for us at the front of the hotel. They knew Sean Frendt was there, we're royalty. Except it was a Mercedes car that fit 4. we had 5. Luckily enough I got the front seat, being the biggest on the trip. Our journey back to the airport (I tried not to look at the meter) was nice and quick and we got on a plane to fly out to Brussels! Why Brussels you ask? We got cheap flights from Ryanair (Check list of good things they do from Ireland day 1, first one is price) and why not get cultured? We flew from Dublin to Brussels and quickly learned we were in the absolute middle of nowhere. Customs in Belgium was also really interesting. I was the first one to go through and the agent spoke little broken English. "How long you been here for?" in a French accent is his first question. My first thought "I'm at the airport dingbat I literally just got here." I respond by correcting his sentence and telling him I am staying 24 hours. Confusion strikes the agent and I tell him once again I am staying for a day to tour the city and leave. "Why you stay here," he asks. "I heard your waffles are good". I've confused the guy and he wants to check my return ticket. I oblige and he then wants to see if I have a credit card or not. I pull a card out and hold on to it firmly unsure if the cops there are dirty or not. I guess he was genuinely concerned that I was financially stable. After I made it awkwardly through customs (look out Americans, big bad Belgium doesn't want us cowboys) we found out we were seriously in the middle of nowhere. We had to take an hour bus ride from the airport to Brussels. This entire time we had no idea what to expect, we had no idea where we were staying, or what there was to do in the city. I was somewhat uneasy on the busride because it looked pretty much like the only thing they did was farm. But alas we got dropped off in Brussels, and took the metro (FYI they don't check tickets there, you don't have to buy them as we learned) to our stop. The confirmation email we received said "meet us the dutch tavern at 1:30 across the street from where you'll be staying". That's always a reassuring email, we didn't know if a wink and a nod would do but after we got to the city and got the keys from the _____ insert title here, we headed up to our apartment. I don't know how to put this in the best words, but I'll try my best. It was incredible. Seriously. We paid like 15 euro a piece and had an apartment that looked over the entire city with a huge deck, 6 beds and a kitchen. Yes, a full kitchen. We knew there was only one thing to do. Home cooked dinner. Before that though we headed out and did the touristy things, saw the one famous thing they had to offer a small statue of a boy thats holding his, with water coming out. It's a fountain. Kinda ghetto, i'm not gonna lie haha. We went and searched around all the truly beautiful buildings and made our second pit stop, a wafflery (a place that makes waffles dummy). It was cheap, and amazing. I loved it. We continued to walk around the entire city, taking in all the sight, and stopped in a local place to have a Stella and Hoegarden, two local beers. It's pretty fun to say you've been to the country the beer was brewed in. We then proceeded to the grocery store to all bring stuff to the table, literally. We purchased pasta, salad, bread (French, naturally), wine and guacamole (made fresh by Ryan). We spent probably 2 hours preparing an amazing dinner, the exact way we wanted it. It was pretty monumental. We ate our dinner and stayed up talking and having a few drinks. I have to say it was a top 5 dinner I've had on this trip. Every French dinner I had with Mere and Justin is a list topper but this Belgian dinner was amazing. It helped we could see the entire city of Brussels from the table...

Pics: The view from my room, the family dinner, the view from the deck, the Gran Plaza and the toddler peeing. I don't really get it either...

Day Three, Cork!

We woke up super early (I wasn't kidding when I said every day was early to rise) and headed out to Heuston to catch a train out to Cork. Luckily for us our Eurorail passes got us on the train for free (otherwise it was like a 40 euro trip) and we took a nice train ride 3 hours southwest of Dublin to the city of Cork. What was our mission? Eloquence. After we took the train ride to Cork, we hopped off, and grabbed a bus out to Blarney Castle. I have to throw in a comment that it was the most miserable bus ride I've ever had. It was a relatively cool (not cold, but cool) day outside and the driver had the heat on as absolutely high as it would go. The fumes from the bus, mixed with the heat caused a nice grouchy Sean. But alas we had made it to Blarney, away from the tourism...or so we thought. As long as I've been living in Europe, I've learned a bit why people don't like Americans. The ones we saw in Blarney came off a bit, well dumb and loud. To put a cherry on top, the ones we saw were nice and over weight and were completely out of breath climbing a few stairs. I love America, but damn haha. After touring around the Blarney Castle we made it to the top where the main tourist attraction was, the Blarney Stone. I read on one of the signs that in the 'States they made an exact replica of the Blarney Castle. The US offered 1,000,000 dollars to let us borrow the Blarney Stone and they declined. They aren't sellouts. Gotta visit the Blarney for the real deal yall. Some of my Blarney predecessors happen to be the great English Winston Churchill. You have to lay down, and basically get flipped upside down while leaning almost out of the castle to kiss the blarney stone. It is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence. I don't know what that means but I'm pretty excited. Afterwards we walked around the Blarney Castle for a while and headed into the city of Cork. I quickly realized that I was starving. Not hungry, starving. We didn't have our breakfast of Irish champions and we had skipped lunch. I wanted one thing, McDonalds. I don't know why but I wanted it bad. As soon as I saw the golden arches I literally ran towards it. I stepped up to the plate and promptly ordered 5 (yes 5) double cheeseburgers. Let me recap for you. Each one was 2 euro. I spent 10 euro total. Lets convert to dollars. I spent approximately 15 American on double cheeseburgers because I was so hungry. It took me maybe 20 minutes to eat 5 cheeseburgers and I was on my merry way to tour Cork once again. We toured the city for a while longer (nothing too crazy there) and got on the train home where we slept, shot the breeze and laughed some. Once we got back to Heuston station we decided we wanted to go hang out with the locals away from the touristy area our last night in Dublin. We went to a local place and was promptly befriended by a very large Irishman bus driver named paddy. As soon as he heard that we were from the states his eyes lit up and he promptly told us how much he loved America. New York, Florida and California is where everyone thinks we're from and Paddy (the Irishman) had two favorite cities: Orlando and New York. He said "I'm still saving up all me pennies so I can get back to Orlando and New York." That place is Brilliant. Brilliant. He couldn't quit saying Brilliant but he was a genuine kind hearted person. We only stopped in for one Guiness before the last train to Park West but Paddy who we could tell wasn't financially endowed wanted to order all of us another beer. We had to leave soon and we had to decline but were genuinely blown away by the Irish. He did poke fun of us a bit for us "You came to Ireland, and you're turning down beer? You must be crazy" but we were all really truly grateful for their hospitality. We headed out of the pub and back to Park West for a bittersweet goodbye. We had to wake up the next morning at 5, so it was pretty much goodbye.

Pics. Naturally.

Ireland Day 2

So after our good night of rest we woke up early (surprised?) and headed out for Dublin again. We hopped on the train from Park West to Heuston station (Dublin) and got our traditional scones, coffee and yogurt. Afterwards we headed out to the St. Andrews cathedral and walked around the park. I noticed one serious thing that Valencia doesn't have, grass. Because it's a big city, there is concrete everywhere, no yards. They have soccer fields but they're made of turf. St. Andrews had a huge place where we camped out and talked for around an hour or so. It felt nice to sit on cool grass during a sunny day in Dublin. We had two missions for the day, Trinity College (gonna get our education on) and Acapulco. After we hung out a St. Andrews cathedral (I don't know much about it besides they have well manicured lawns) we headed out to Trinity College. The campus was beautiful. It was set up so well, a small and intimate. Trinity College besides being scenic, had a tourist attraction; the Book of Kells. It was another self guided tour that we got to learn all about the Book of Kells. About.com says "The book of Kells is a stunningly beautiful manuscript containing the four Gospels. It is Irelands most precious medieval artifact, and is generally considered the finest surviving illuminated manuscript to have been produced in midieval Europe." It was cool to see but at the end of the day, it's just a really nice decorated book. The library on the other hand at the end of the tour was beautiful. Photo's were prohibited (No I didn't take any) so you'll just have to use your imagination. After Trinity College we headed out to Acapulco, the mexican restaurant in town we heard was amazing. As most people think, Spanish food equals Mexican. They don't have burritos, chimichangas, tacos or gorditas (it's a Taco Bell item). Spanish food is unspiced for the most part and honestly somewhat bland. Acapulco for the lunch menu was extremely reasonably priced and I was able to get my spicy food fix for the semester finally. Afterwards we headed out around the town looking at the rest of the touristy sights. We stopped at a chocolate shop to get a bit of dessert (I had a chocolate mousse cheese cake) that was amazing. It was cheap too, so another score for a broke college kid. There were only a few sights left to see, including the Spire. It's in the middle of the street, it's a few hundred feet tall and the nickname is "the erection in the section". Think of a needle, like 300 feet in the sky. They put it in for the millennium and it cost 5 million euro. Honestly I think the Irish might have been drinking that day the idea got passed. "Frank, what was the best idea you could come up with for this millennium?" "Ermmm, well I figured we could just supersize a needle." "Brilliant, Frank, Briliant! And what will we call it?" "The erection in the section" "I couldn't have said it better myself, you deserve to be promoted." After the spire we were pretty worn out and wanted to head back to the hotel for a nap and then head back to go to a local pub and get to know the locals. We all were exhausted and instead of catching the last train home we ordered pizza and had a few pints with the locals around the hotel.

Day two Pics. These were borrowed from Ryan Miller. I forgot my camera. So I boosted some.

Ireland. Day 1.

We woke up real early (there's a theme on this trip of us waking up around 8 every morning) and hopped on the commuter train from Park West (where we were) to Dublin. It was only a 10 minute or so train but we weren't able to walk. We stopped in the train station every morning for scones, coffee and yogurt, the breakfast of champions. Our first stop on the tour was the Guiness factory. I'll have to admit I was not a huge Guiness fan before I came on this trip. The Guiness factory was pretty amazing actually. It's a self guided (I wasn't a huge fan of that) tour, but it was really informative, gave the history of the brewery and all that jazz. It had a few interactive stations, you could try the grains and such before it actually got brewed. There were two stops that actually had people in them, the first being the tasting room. Everyone gets a small glass of fresh brewed Guiness, and there is a guide that instructs you on how to properly drink it and discover all of its flavors. After the tour of learning about hops, yeast, mineral water, barley and all that jazz you end up at whats called the gravity bar. It's a 360* bar 6 or 7 stories up on the building, and you're able to see the entire city of Dublin from it. It was a wonderful view, you could see mountains, the river running through the city, the works. They give you a pint (you've already paid for it, they aren't that generous) and you get to enjoy it while overlooking the city. As I said before I wasn't a huge fan before, but that Guiness was amazing. It was poured correctly, was fresh and ice cold. I loved it. I guess your tastes change. We stayed there for a while taking pictures and enjoying our truly monumental beer and then we all headed out to our next adventure. We headed out to the Jamison factory for our second tourist attraction. The Jamison factory was much smaller and was actually a guided tour. I'll have to admit, I liked it a lot. It was cool to see the entire process of how something goes from a grain to a liquid. The tour guide was pretty funny as well. At the end of the tour they give you some Jamison (much like Guiness) to enjoy. I had a Jamison and gingerale with a lime in the bottom. It was actually really good! Afterwards we headed out to meet up with Grace and Eliza at a place called Temple Bar. It's not a single bar as I soon figured out but more of a district. It's very touristy, there are markets everywhere a few live music venues and of course pubs. Grace and Eliza had some friends in town that they were going to a concert with later in the evening and we went and sat with them, while watching the Ireland, Wales rugby match. Naturally Ireland destroyed them and was a cause for celebration among the city. Seriously, every pub you walked by was crammed and screamed much like Athens on gameday. Reminded me of the good Fall days in Athens. We sat in the bar for a while, and the guys headed out. The trains don't run past 10:30 to Park West, so we had to retire a bit early. We headed back and watched movies (in english!). We watched K19: Widowmaker, She's the man, and Troy. What's She's the Man, Sean? It's an Amanda Bynes flick where she wants to join the mens soccer team but can't because she's a girl so she disguises herself as a man. Sounds like a stupid chick flick Sean. It might be...but when you have 3 comedians watching the movie and making jokes after every line, it easily becomes one of the funniest movie situations I've ever been in. We made so many jokes that stuck with us for the rest of the trip. It was a bit of an early night, but a fun day.

Pics! Gravity Bar Pic, Best Guiness I've ever Had, and Jamison Tour

We woke up real early (there's a theme on this trip of us waking up around 8 every morning) and hopped on the commuter train from Park West (where we were) to Dublin. It was only a 10 minute or so train but we weren't able to walk. We stopped in the train station every morning for scones, coffee and yogurt, the breakfast of champions. Our first stop on the tour was the Guiness factory. I'll have to admit I was not a huge Guiness fan before I came on this trip. The Guiness factory was pretty amazing actually. It's a self guided (I wasn't a huge fan of that) tour, but it was really informative, gave the history of the brewery and all that jazz. It had a few interactive stations, you could try the grains and such before it actually got brewed. There were two stops that actually had people in them, the first being the tasting room. Everyone gets a small glass of fresh brewed Guiness, and there is a guide that instructs you on how to properly drink it and discover all of its flavors. After the tour of learning about hops, yeast, mineral water, barley and all that jazz you end up at whats called the gravity bar. It's a 360* bar 6 or 7 stories up on the building, and you're able to see the entire city of Dublin from it. It was a wonderful view, you could see mountains, the river running through the city, the works. They give you a pint (you've already paid for it, they aren't that generous) and you get to enjoy it while overlooking the city. As I said before I wasn't a huge fan before, but that Guiness was amazing. It was poured correctly, was fresh and ice cold. I loved it. I guess your tastes change. We stayed there for a while taking pictures and enjoying our truly monumental beer and then we all headed out to our next adventure. We headed out to the Jamison factory for our second tourist attraction. The Jamison factory was much smaller and was actually a guided tour. I'll have to admit, I liked it a lot. It was cool to see the entire process of how something goes from a grain to a liquid. The tour guide was pretty funny as well. At the end of the tour they give you some Jamison (much like Guiness) to enjoy. I had a Jamison and gingerale with a lime in the bottom. It was actually really good! Afterwards we headed out to meet up with Grace and Eliza at a place called Temple Bar. It's not a single bar as I soon figured out but more of a district. It's very touristy, there are markets everywhere a few live music venues and of course pubs. Grace and Eliza had some friends in town that they were going to a concert with later in the evening and we went and sat with them, while watching the Ireland, Wales rugby match. Naturally Ireland destroyed them and was a cause for celebration among the city. Seriously, every pub you walked by was crammed and screamed much like Athens on gameday. Reminded me of the good Fall days in Athens. We sat in the bar for a while, and the guys headed out. The trains don't run past 10:30 to Park West, so we had to retire a bit early. We headed back and watched movies (in english!). We watched K19: Widowmaker, She's the man, and Troy. What's She's the Man, Sean? It's an Amanda Bynes flick where she wants to join the mens soccer team but can't because she's a girl so she disguises herself as a man. Sounds like a stupid chick flick Sean. It might be...but when you have 3 comedians watching the movie and making jokes after every line, it easily becomes one of the funniest movie situations I've ever been in. We made so many jokes that stuck with us for the rest of the trip. It was a bit of an early night, but a fun day.

Pics!