Seema and Kat

Hey,

The other day I wrote to Seema and Kat and got replies today so Im going to post some of their letters here first Seems:

I graduated from UT at the end of May. Graduation weekend was wonderful- I had family come in from all over. It was really sad to say goodbye to my best pals, but I guess that's life. I have now moved from Austin back to Dallas where I'll attend medical school. I got into my top choice school here in Dallas, so I'm pretty happy about that. It's a four year program, and in my fourth year I'll apply for residency (specialization) programs. I'll probably
try to leave Texas for that, just to have a new experience.

I just got back from Las Vegas last night. I went to Las Vegas to meet up with old friends and my family that lives there (I used to live in Vegas), and then we all drove to Phoenix, Arizona for our cousin's wedding anniversary party.
That part of the country is beautiful. I had fun playing with all my baby cousins :)

Next week, I'm leaving to go to South America for a post graduation backpacking trip with three of my friends from college. We're going to spend a month there, and travel to Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. I'm very excited about the whole thing - it should be an adventure!

Besos,
Seema

And then Kat:

....I haven't read the Bar Tomas blog in a long time too. I hope you and the rest of the barcelona crew are doing well.

Well, what's going on with me... This summer I've been interning at the state capitol with a representative. She's the chair of the Border and International Affairs committee, and I've been doing research on Texas/Mexico border issues for the next legislative session. It's pretty interesting, and I'm definitely learning a lot. I don't know about a career in politics or anything, but it's nice to know that we could pass legislation that would address some of the problems there. I'm also taking a couple summer classes, and taking it pretty
easy-- hanging out with friends and my family. My sister just graduated, one of my cousins got married, and another cousin graduated-- so lots of family stuff.

Regular classes will start back up again in August and then it will be full speed ahead until graduation (I forgot how busy things are here compared to Barcelona). I can't believe it's my last year. I'll be graduating in May.
After that I'm not sure what my next step is going to be. Hopefully I'll get some job offers maybe grad school... who knows :) I have a lot of mixed feelings I guess. It's scary and exciting, but I'm ready for a change.

(then she replies to something I wrote)

No, I haven't been watching handball, but since you're such a sports fan, you should know that the Longhorns (My university's baseball team) are in the finals of the college world series! It's pretty exciting!!! So the "world series" is a bit of a misnomer... since its basically colleges in the US.
Nevertheless, it's BIG TIME!

Well, that's all I have for now. I hope to hear from you soon :)

Katherine

He's no Pele

A,

Despite your love of Rooonaldo, I think ol' Sven might've gotten carried away. Scolari summed it up best, "One is white, the other is black. Rooney is an excellent player but Pele is unique.

"There will never be another Pele, not in 1,000 years, even in a computer game." I love the part about not even in a computer game. Apparently that was a necessary addition, because I was definitely thinking to myself "Well, what about in a computer game?"

A, hope you enjoy the last few nights in Barcelona. Say hello to all the old haunts. Don't forget to enjoy every sight and sound...the horns honking constantly, the motos whining uphill, the announcements on the Metro. Give em your best "Adeu." Hope you've got something to cheer about tomorrow night. Those Iberians all need a dose of reality.

Cheers,
Tim

US Victory over Grenada

Well, I suppose we have to beat England's former colonies before we can beat the big dogs themselves (though last I checked, US was ranked 9th, ahead of England and Italia). But the reason I mention this match is twofold. First, to warn Adam that we're coming for him, just like the Continental soldiers came for the redcoats. Second, one of the announcers yesterday made a terrible comment during the game. But a little background is necessary. Back in the 80s, the US invaded Grenada for some unknown reason (unknown to me, that is). The invasion was brief (Grenadiens number only 90,000) and I believe quite bloody. Probably an effort to put down some coup d'etat or other. But anyway, fast forward to 2004. The commentators during yesterday's match said "Grenada needs a 4-0 victory to win on aggregate, and they have about as much chance of that as they did in the invasion back in the 80s." I thought this was in poor taste, and I just wanted to comment on it. It reminded me of something George W. would say over coffee with his Yale mates. Kerry, 2004.

Tóg go bog é,
Tadhg Ffrench (cupla focail gaeilge just to keep you guessing)

Life Goes On (Obla Di, Obla Da)

Graduations, returns to England, so bittersweet it seems. For a while there I was beginning to think Adam might forever remain a fixture of Barcelona. I suppose he will in my mind, at least until I see him in his natural habitat. But for now, it is the kings of Barcelona that I will remember, the princes of Scobie's, the lords of Danzatoria. Svana, congrats on the graduation, even though I could not begin to pronounce nor comprehend your new title. I barely mastered "car" in Icelandic. And no worries about the length of the blog...since the response has been piss-poor, feel free to type all you want. That will give us sufficient browsing material for the weekly hiatus between blogs. What the hell is everyone else doing with their lives that they don't have time to blog? Vegard I can understand, but where's everyone else? Perhaps people need a reminder, Ulli. Caroline did say she was interested given proper coaxing (aka information concerning signing on). The others could even blog in Spanish or Italian if they want...I'm sure we could figure out some of it. Steffen and Valerie have no excuse with their English skills, nor does Magnus, who is at times more American than the Americans and more English than the English. Funny sidenote...I told Conor that Magnus was Swedish and he was like "What!!??" Conor thought the entire time that Magnus was American. Apparently he's got a good accent (or Conor's just deaf and unobservant--or observative, as Manolo would say, right A?). I'm in the process of paying a fine for a speeding ticket, as well as registering for the Drivers' Safety course that is required to keep the violation off my record. Gas prices have tamed down a bit, though I suppose I shouldn't complain considering the fact that we get nearly 4 liters for $1.80 and consider that high. I do think I'll buy one of Honda's new hybrids when I get around to buying a car. But for now my old one will have to do. I suppose I should study a bit now...I've got 2 exams on Thursday. Summer classes suck, I tell you. La culpa es mia for registering, I suppose. Anyway, stay Euro all.

Ciao,
Tim

England-France

Adam,

Lol... reminded me of a game at Camp Nou few years ago.

Liverpool took care of England:D

What England lacks is a good right back, any left winger at all and decent strikers, Owen is ok and though Rooney was great yesterday the rest is rather average. If Eiður were English he'd be in the starting line up every time.

At least better than my country that has something like 4 decent players.

Úlli

Damn

Ok,

Yes it did hurt!!! 6 fucking 1 and the thing was that England wasn't really that good we were just terrible. If England thinks that they have shown what is about to come they are wrong we just sucked 12-0 wouldn't had been unfair. 3 of the goals were deflections (gol de los churros) and unlucky really but England also had really good changes they blew and scored one more goal that was ruled offside though it wasn't.

What went wrong then? Quite a few things as you can imagine but some more extreme than others.

We did in last year loose the leaders of team so we have got a quite silent defense which isn't good in team work these players are Guðni Bergson, Eyjólfur Sverrisson and Rúnar Kristinsson the last one is a midfielder but we are also lacking leaders there. Now the only leader we have is Eiður.

We didn't have enough midfielders since players playing in Norway weren't allowed to play and Brynjar did get a red card against Japan for a two footed tackle. For that reason Eiður was moved to the midfield where he doesn't work.

There are a lot of explanations but simply we played badly.

The bright points:
Indriði (the left wing back) just salted Gary Neville.
Eiður did get some things going but all and all sucked.
Herman (the Herminator) sucked but every header against Campell he had in the game he one remember the goal A.
Kristján (the first substitute) wasnt that great but just ate Joe Cole and he is the fastest MoFo around could probably out run Henry!!!

Will back to crying there will be sometime until we will do anything and we have to start looking for leaders. We had one generation with 5 but now no one.

Well I going downtown to hunt, later.
U

The Yank school system....and the rest of the country, too

Well, Adam, our school system really is not all that complex. Most students start off in kindergarten (some German word we stole...why, I don't know). Then you have 12 years of school before heading off to Uni (assuming you pass each grade in 1 year...some people need more than that--they ride the short bus to school). Grades K (kindergarten) through 5 are generally called primary, elementary, or grade school, depending on where you're at in the country. Then grades 6-8 are called middle school or junior high, unless your junior high happens to be grades 7-9 and your grade school happens to be grades K-6. Or, if you go to parochial (Catholic) school, you usually go to the same school for grades K-8, which in Chicago we call grammar school. I don't know what they call it elsewhere. Then it's off to high school, which nowadays is usually grades 9-12, often called freshman (9), sophomore (10), junior (11), and senior (12). Many high schools used to be only grades 10-12, and some specialty schools still are, like the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Then, after high school, it's off too Uni, which we usually call college. College years are usually referred to as freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior just like high school. This is the undergraduate curriculum. Then, if you so choose, there is graduate school. This would be like the 5th year at ESADE, but it is generally longer than 1 year, and you can earn a Master's degree, or a doctorate if you study longer. So you see, it's really quite simple. The system pretty much runs like this everywhere in the country, though they might have different names for some of the schools. Got it? Well, back to work with me. Please post any and all questions concerning the above system :)

Tim