Photography

Here is a link to my artwork (click here) which contains a lot of the pictures I have taken while here in Spain. Figured I would let all of you, who follow my blog and don't have facebook, see my artwork. Hope you enjoy.

One of those weeks....

It's just been one of those weeks... The week started off heading downhill and pretty much followed that trend to the end. I ran about 6 miles this past sunday to get some exercise and do something I enjoy. Before I started my run I realized that my iPod was dead, which is pretty much the saddest feeling ever before I start a run, but I decided to run anyways. Normally I have my music goin in the background, playing some of my favorites, which is a pretty ecclectic mix of music. But this run was so much better than my normal runs and I really don't know why. Music is normally one of the best parts of my run! Anyways, I was feelin great right out of the gate, I took a little slower pace than normal because I was planning on going a little farther than I had gone in a while. I was feeling great, running right by the river and through a little park down there, its a great place to run. I continued to follow the river, running through some more concrete and finally arriving at another great stretch where I was able to run on the dirt for the majority of about 3 miles. It is so much better on your legs and knees in the dirt and it was great to find some dirt relief in Sevilla because so much of it is paved or stone. Anyways, I even got to take my shirt off for about a mile and a half which was great because around here apparently no one does that until like the middle of the summer, but o well I didn't really care, the only other people around were runners and I figured they would understand. I had a pretty good wind at my back which was nice until I turned around at the bridge. Then it was in my face and still pretty strong, but it didn't have the usual effect of making me feel incredibly slow, incredibly it didn't really seem to affect me all that much. I ran the same route back to the house to complete my six mile run, I felt great during the run and had one of the best runner's highs I have had in a long time. Which of course meant that after my shower and stretch I was rather cranky and quiet as my family can attest to after my long runs. My senora asked me why I was so quiet at lunch and I pulled the i'm tired from my run card, but its just the runner's low that follows a long run haha, but thats life haha. So sunday wasn't too bad, but Monday was a different story. Apparently my foot didn't agree with that 6 mile run and decided to talk to me about it. All day monday my foot had a nagging pain in it and I jus attributed it to being sore or something from the run and assumed it would get better on tuesday. It didn't, Tuesday was actually worse than monday. Wednesday was worse than Tuesday, I could barely walk to class and where I park my bike is a grand total of like 100 yards from my class. It was rediculous so I decided that it was time to go to the doctor because I was beginning to wonder if it was a stress fracture. So after classes I contacted the course director here and arranged for one of the assistant directors to accompany me to the doctor because although I can speak spanish pretty well I just don't really have the vocab to go to the doctor by myself, but after going I am pretty sure that I could manage and if I have to go back I think that I will find a way to manage because I hate to make Brit take time out of his day to come with me. Anyways we went to the doctor at 5 and it didnt take to long to be seen. I told the doctor about my run and that it started hurting the next day and he more or less poked it about 3 times and said lets take an X-ray lol I was like nice haha. So anyways the assistant took an X-ray and then he read it and said he pretty much thought it was acute tendinitis. He wrote me a prescription for some intense doses of ibuprofen after every meal and it seems to be helping to keep the inflamation down along with the pain. After the doctor I went to EUSA cuz I have class at 630. I got there a little after 6 and that is when I found out about Ralph. So I was quiet for the rest of the evening, just trying to keep everything together and make it through class. I felt bad, cuz I kinda ignored everyone but I just didn't really wanna talk about it and I wasn't ready to talk about it. So as much as Hannah was trying to pry what was wrong out of me I didn't really wanna spill the beans and as many of you know, that meant that I didn't say anything. I tend to wait til I am ready to tell people about something, which is a good and a bad thing. Anyways, class started and needless to say I was a bit distracted and definitely was not in class mentally. I really didn't say anything all class unless I was directly called upon. I think Coro (Our teacher) noticed because when she called on me I more or less answered with no enthusiasm or excitement and I was rather monotone. Anyways, we didn't really do much that class because she got sidetracked and then I brought up some obscure point about 15 minutes before class ended so that we wouldn't finish the work and we wouldn't have homework for monday. Anyways after class I was a little better because I really hadn't thought about Ralph much towards the end of class which helped to make me feel a little better. After everyone got what they needed done on the internet we walked back to Los Remedios. I got home and had been there for a little while when mom called. So I went to my room and we talked about what happend with Ralph and it was nice to get to talk to the family and be with everyone even if I can't physically be there. It was really hard to be here and know that they were all there together. It was like the goodbye that I had said before I left had finally hit but it was different than anything I had ever felt. I was in a foreign country, with people that relatively, I barely know. I mean other than Hannah Duna Christine and Kati I didn't know anyone before I came. And other than Kati and Hannah it was more like acquaintances. Kati was out of town with her mom in Paris so that more or less left Hannah, who eventually was the first one to find out here. It was nice to talk about it with someone here but it was just different not having people that I knew really well around. I wished that I was back at Chapel Hill just for the day, to hang out with Rachel and Chasity, cuz they can always make me feel better when I have had a bad day. Someone that I share my feelings with on a regular basis. Life is different here, I pretty much share my feelings with my journal and esteban occasionally but we really don't talk about anything too deep. I have learned how relieving having a journal is. You can be as raw and honest as you want to be and it never condemns or judges, it just is there listening and never responding. Allowing you to release what you are thinking and move on. I think that one day it will be nice to look back on and see what I was thinking and why. Anyways, the rest of the week has been pretty quiet. I didn't have class on Thursday because a professor was sick, and I don't have friday classes so the majority of the week has been spent in the house just resting the foot and playing some online poker haha. I think I may go out tonite but I'm not sure. Anyways, the foot is feeling a lot better. Mom and Corey both said that the service for Ralph went well, I think they taped it so that I can see it when I get home which was nice of them. It still seems surreal, I've been expecting the call I got on Wednesday for a while now but all the same it still doesn't seem like it has set in. I don't think it will seem real to me until I walk into the basement of Mema's house and he's not there watching something interesting on TV or just hangin out in the basement. Good times in that basement is something I will definitely miss...Thanks to everyone who has written an encouraging note on my wall or sent me an encouraging message, they have been dearly appreciated!!! I love you all and Mom Dad Corey Abbey Mema Wayne Joy and Don I wish I could have been there with you to share in the celebration of Ralph's life, but I know that yall did him justice and thank you for what each one of you means to me and for the support you have given me over the last few days and over my entire life!! Miss you all so much right now!! Hasta Luego!

The Final Goodbye, Hasta Luego Tío!

This post is dedicated to my Uncle Ralph (4 March 2009):

Uncle Ralph,

Leaving and saying goodbye back in January was hard enough. I know you felt it too! We had that nice man talk where you made me promise to remain in Spain no matter your fate. We both knew upon leaving we had said my final goodbyes. You passed on a family heirloom on to me, and this is a memory that I will cherish forever! A memory that includes you and Papa, which just makes it all the more special! Thank you for all the time you spent with me and the many memories we shared. The times we got to talk about anything and everything. We shared so many interests and it was great to have someone to talk to about guns, cars, computers, sports, or technology in general! As I sit here and reminisce over our time together, I have only one regret, that it ended so soon. I saw you grow up and mature soo much in the last few years and I am so proud of you for that!! I am so sad that your incredible progress in becoming a man of God and incredible human being had to be cut short, but I know now, that progress is complete. You are whole again and pain is the farthest thing from your mind. You have joined the saints and stepped out of this world. I can only say that I wish you back here out of selfish reasons and I wish that I could see you just one more time, so that we could laugh about something dumb I've done, or get in a heated discussion over something technical :) or so you could tell me how Papa is. I know he is so proud to be reunited with you and to see the man that you have become. I can only imagine, because I know how proud the whole family has been of you! I am gunna miss chuckling at you as dug through that fanny pack for some chapstick or for some obscure piece of paper, you were a funny bird and I loved you for it, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Mema said you were so gracious to everyone these last few months and I am so proud of you for that. I love you so much, and I want you to know that at times I felt like I had an older brother. Someone to watch out for me and to ask advice about things, I will truly miss that comroderie! If I thought saying goodbye in January was hard, it does not even compare to this goodbye. I know its not permanent, but it sure does feel permanent right now. Until now, I selfishly held onto the hope that I would get to see you again in this life, but I know that hope is gone. No more will you dwell in this world, but you have moved on, you have taken flight, and I know that must be incredible for you, because you loved everything that flew. So now fly high, like a bird released from its cage; enjoy the freedom that it brings and know that you will forever be loved and missed as a Brother, Uncle, and Friend! I will cherish all the time I have here, but I look to the day when we will be reunited! ¡Con todo el amor en mi alma y en el mundo, hasta luego hermano!

Your Little Nephew,

Zach

The French, The French Have Invaded!!!

Blas is here! O dear!
So this past friday we got a new member of my spanish family, and he has officially been ostracized!! Haha, not really, but kinda! haha He arrived while Esteban and I were in Cadiz for Carnaval! But he left early Saturday morning for Granada for the day....and then he returned saturday night! O dear! Haha he is pretty much the craziest person I have ever met! First I shall describe him: Guido haircut, Rather short, Has a man purse thing that is about the size of a camera case, a huge fake diamond stud in each ear, and he walks around the house in shorts a shirt and socks, which looks rediculous!! Now that that is over, he doesnt seem to be the brightest ever either haha and it looks like he takes supplements or roids for them muscles that he has haha, they are not huge but he looks disproportional. He has a girlfriend in France who calls THE HOUSE PHONE like twice a day. (In Spain, when you are staying in someones house, no one calls the house phone to talk to you!) He has asked Esteban and I repeatedly if we speak only spanish, or spanish and english haha what does he think we speak in AMERICA!?? haha He is never quiet!! I think that he is honestly talking 90% of the time haha Juanky avoids him like the plague!! It's one of the funniest things I have seen. He is catholic and is really racist against moors (islamic arabs/arabs). He gets on María Jose's nerves which is pretty funny also. He is quite possibly one of the weirdest/funniest people I have ever met! I'm sure there will be much more to post about him later!!

Made a friend through skype by way of Kansas and John Brown University!!

I felt like this deserved its own post:
So I was sitting at the house today just hangin out and working on my paper, when all the sudden, skype pops up and is like Chelsey Reasbeck would like to exchange contact information with you. So i'm sitting at the computer racking my brain to figure out where in the world i would know this girl from because the name did not sound familiar at all!! I was like I dont think that I have even met a Chelsey since I came to Spain. Anyways, this girl proceeds to chat with me and I am like I definitely have no idea who this girl is!! And then she asks me if I am Zac Freeman from Branson High School, and I was like no I'm from Raleigh haha, but I was like this Zac Freeman sounds familiar, aside from the fact that my name is Zach Freeman haha. For some reason this spelling stuck out to me and then it clicked. I had seen this name and spelling before because a Zac Freeman had commented on either Heather Thornton or Steven Madsen's photo of me on facebook, something about them spellin his name wrong or something like that to be funny. So I went to heather's friends and looked up this Zac Freeman character and there he was and he went to Branson High and I was like no way!! This is crazy!! Anyways I messaged her back but she had since gone offline and I was like I think I have a mutual friend in common with the guy you are looking for which is pretty crazy! She didn't get back to me until later that nite. Before she got back to me I talked to Heather and I was telling her about this girl that had chatted me on skype and as it turns out Heather knows this girl as well as the guy she was trying to skype!! I was like this is crazy! What a small world!! Like what are the chances that a random girl would chat me on skype and we would have friends in common, but no, it doesnt end there!! She proceeds to tell me that this girl is also studying abroad this semester and I was like thats pretty crazy and not only is she studying abroad, but she is studying abroad in SPAIN!!! I was like this is way too weird!! Of course I was like, where is she studyin in Spain? Heather didn't know but she said she would ask a mutual friend of theirs who would know. So about 30 minutes later I find out that this girl is not only studying in Spain, but she is studying here in SEVILLA!!!! How crazy is that!! I was like this is beyond belief!! Heather was like, you should def friend her on facebook haha! I was like I dunno, that might b a lil bit sketch! I don't think I'll do that haha. Anyways I went to class and didn't really think that much more about it, but after class I got on skype in the computer lab and the message that I sent to her earlier went through because we were both online and I explained to her that we indeed had friends in common and that we were both studying in Sevilla which rocked her world too!! It turns out that she lives in Triana which is like one barrio over from Los Remedios where I live!! It was probably one of the craziest things that has ever happened to me! Who woulda thought that I could meet someone studying in Sevilla because they were looking for someone who goes to school in Arkansas!! What a small world, so now we are friends on skype and on facebook and I think we are gunna meet in person sometime this week or something!!! Anyways I hope yall find this interesting, I definitely did!!!