Graduacíon!....y más cosas

On the 1st of May, we celebrated "Las Fiestas de Mayo" (or Maios en Galician). It is celebrated in all of Spain, but every autonomous community has it's own traditions. In Galicia, every neighborhood decorates this thing with flowers and then little kids sing songs. The best group wins a prize. 

In May, we also had our last orientacion in Vigo, this time with all the AFS students from Galicia, Castilla y Leon, and Asturias who are going abroad next year to USA, France, Serbia, New Zealand and Austria. We stayed in a hotel which was pretty nice. This one was different because instead of talking about our problems, we discussed and evaluated our experience this year and shared what we want to learn, do, and experience before we leave. At the end, it was kind of sad because this was our last orientacion but at least we'll see each other on the last day in Madrid.

We always end up doing really weird stuff...but there´s a meaning behind it

Next up, I had my graduacion. For me I'm not really "graduating" because I still have to repeat a year of high school. Prom is not a Spanish tradition, but over the past couple of years, they started to do events. There aren't any prom dates but we do have partners, which we go up and receive our certificate together.

Basically, the school principal, town mayor, a former student, and two graduating students do a speech. Then, we receive our certificates. After, a band plays a song and some of us go on stage and dance. After, everyone goes outside and takes pictures with their family and grandparents. The cool thing is, we were in the newspaper!

After the ceremony, we went to a restaurante in Pontevedra with the profesores.

Clase de Geografia

Clase de Música 

 To end the night, we had a fiesta in the Crystal Bar. You have to pay 5 Euros to enter with no drink, or pay 15 Euros for All you can drink. Don't worry, I dont drink. (It's too mainstream). Unfortunately, I had to go home early because I was sick that day. It was bad luck because I was normal the whole week and had a headache on an important day.

I also went back to the graduacion in my old school in Ponteareas

A week after, I went to see the "Concentracion de Moteros" (Motorcycle concentration) in Bueu.  Basically, a bunch of people drive around the city and show off their motorcycles. There is also a team of professionals that do tricks and stunts.

At night, the motorists who participate eat dinner and watch stripteases.

FEB Campeonato de España Junior Masculino

During May 4-10, I had the chance to watch the FEB (Federacíon Española de Baloncesto) Campeonato de España Junior Masculino, or in other words FEB (Spanish Basketball Federation) Junior Under 18 Men's Championship. This is the third consecutive year that the tournament is held in Marin, the town where I live. Teams which play in this tournament come from every part of Spain as for as the Islas Canarias to Melilla, a Spanish city beside Africa.

Sorteos en mi instituto (Group draws in my highschool)

Some of the best teams that play in my opinion are FC Barcelona (2013 sub campeon), Joventut Badalona (2013 campeon), Real Madrid, Unicaja, and CAI Zaragoza. The thing is, the clubs mentioned above play in the Liga ACB and are some of the largest in Spain so they have money to find really good players. Many of these under 18 players will probably play for the professional team in the future. Some players are from other countries, for example the point guard in FC Barcelona plays in the Sweden National team, the MVP of the tournament is from Congo, and the MVP finals is from Senegal. 

Picken Claret vs. Real Madrid

FC Barcelona vs. Cajasol

The team my town and I cheered for was Marin Peixe Galego, an underdog team. The professional team plays in the Liga Adecco Plata, the third highest basketball league in Spain. However, they lost against Fundacion 5+11 but eventually won 7th place.

Campeón: Real Madrid
Runner up: Unicaja Malaga

3rd: Fundacion 5+11 (Pais Vasco)
4th: Cajasol (Sevilla)
5th: FC Barcelona
6th: Catalana Occident Manresa A
7th: Marin Peixe Galego
8th: Picken Claret A (Valencia)



Click on the video link below! Skip to 6:50 to see an amazing dunk

MARIN PEIXE GALEGO JUNIOR 2014 from RAFA SABUGUEIRO on Vimeo.



Best passer: Carlos Hidalgo (Cajasol)
Best Rebounder: Cedric Belemene (Marín Peixegalego)
Best Scorer: Tadas Sedekerskis (Fundación 5+11)
Best player of the finals: Wally Niang (Real Madrid) 
Best player of the tournament: Cedric Belemene (Marín Peixegalego)

The first guy on the left definitely played like a beast! In his final game, he had 26 points, 29 rebounds, and 7 assists. The guy to his right had 25 points and 17 rebounds in the semifinal.

During the day, we missed some classes to see the games (don't worry, nobody went to class), but the best games were at night because the whole stadium was filled with fans and noise. Some of the fans were just insanely annoying. Cough cough Real Madrid and Barcelona fans. At the Real Madrid games, whenever the opposing team touched the ball, the fans would make noises with a vuvuzuela. This other time at a Barça game, when the female referee made a bad call, this angry fan told her to get back in the kitchen!

una publicación de CLUB BALONCESTO PEIXEFRESCO MARÍN.

After the game, I took a picture with Hugo Mallo, the capitan of Celta de Vigo (Favorite soccer team)

No doubt about it, my favorite games were when Peixegalego played, but my other favorite was FC Barcelona vs. Canarias Basketball Academy. There was the chinese guy that played, and and during the warmup it looked like he sucked at basketball. I was definitely wrong because he got the first point and dunk of the game. Turns out, he was one of the best players in Oak Hill California and is going to play for UC Riverside. 

Chris Tang

http://vimeo.com/94961596 Real Madrid vs. Unicaja

http://vimeo.com/94484428 FC Barcelona vs. Joventut

http://vimeo.com/94268514 Day 3 Tournament highlights

El Camino De Santiago

Last week, I came back from one of the most rewarding and toughest experience in Spain, El Camino de Santiago (O Camiño De Santiago). It is a holy piligrimage from pretty much any country in Europe to the city of Santiago de Compostela. It is a UNESCO Patrimonio de La Humanidad. You can do it by horse, bike, or by foot. The most popular route is from the border of France, but we did the Camino Portugués starting from Tui, a city right next to Portugal. We walked 116 km in four days or around 30 km per day.

Día 1 en Tui(12 de Abril)

So the whole week before the Camino, I was really sick and had a fever. I wasn't actually supposed to walk the first two days because I didn't have any strength. 

All the AFSers except for the ones who lived in Galicia had to take a train or plane to Vigo and I was happy it only took my host parents and I 40 minutes to go to Tui. Since we arrived earlier than everyone else, This girl from Montana and I decided to walk to Valença do Minho in Portugal which took us like half an hour. The problem was that I was already struggling to walk 30 minutes.

When we came back, we met up with AFSers that we haven't seen since September which made me pretty excited and happy. There were also some volunteers from Madrid, Extremadura, and Andalucia who walked with us. We were supposed to eat dinner at like 9:00, but we ended up finishing at like 12.

Celebrating someone's birthday!

Día 2 Porriño a Redondela(13 de Abril)

We woke up at 8:30 to have breakfast and had to walk to Porriño before 2:00. (Around 14 km) If we arrived late we wouldn't get to eat lunch. We walked through forests, houses, and highways. It wasn't too bad because we got breaks in between. A car came with us in case any of us got injured or didn't have enough energy to walk. Since it was so hot (we were lucky because it usually rains everyday in Galicia), some guys went swimming in the river.

Out of the whole Camino, the part after lunch was the worst. It was terrible because we walked on the highway with no scenery and after that it was a bunch of hills. Every one of us was super sore after the first day. 

How the Camino Works

The Camino is structured and you simply have to follow the yellow arrows and seashells that are spray painted or attatched to the walls. It sounds easy but when you are talking with a bunch of people, sometimes you can forget where you are going! 

http://peregrinossantiago.es/esp/

On the last day I realised that these told us how many Kilometers were left until Santiago! (People pile a bunch of rocks on it for some reason...)At the beginning of the walk, they gave us Passports (Credenciales) which we have to get two stamps each day in order to qualify for the Certificate(Compostelana). You can get stamps from pretty much any hostel, cafe, or shop.

Día 3 Pontevedra a Barro(14 de Abril)

The second day of walking is supposedly the toughest. My legs were sore during the morning but surprisingly didn't hurt in the afternoon. I was hungry the whole time because in Spain, they eat very little for breakfast.

A couple of people and I were the last to arrive, but it was fine because we still had lots of time to eat. After lunch was basically walking, talking, pictures, and more walking. While we were walking through the city of Pontevedra, we saw the Google Street View Car. Everyone who saw us probably thought we were crazy because somebody whipped out a huge American Flag in front of the car and starting screaming.

That night, we stayed in a hostel in Barro. The first 16 people who arrived got bunk beds and the rest slept on mattreses in a seperate room. Almost everyone was complaining because they only had 10 seconds of hot water to shower but I was lucky because I got a little more time. This was probably the dirtiest hostel we stayed in, but it doesn't matter because we still had fun and got to chat with the people who worked and stayed there.



Día 4 Padrón(15 de Abril)

We got lots of rest because we started woke up at around 9:30 and started walking at 10:00. The walking that day wasn't too bad because we only had 11 km. Just like everyday we would walk and talk until we arrived to our destination. At lunch they served a lot of food. I had to eat up because if I didn't, I wouldn't get any food until dinner.

From left to right: Turkey, Germany, Extremadura(Spain), Chicago, Quebec(Canada), Finland, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, California, Turkey, Thailand, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Me, Chicago

After lunch, I decided to walk a little bit faster because I didn't want to end up last. Well that plan didn't work too well because I ended up arriving at the hostel 2 hours later than other people. At first I was in the front, but I gradually ended up last because I stopped with a group of people and took a one hour water break. We then went up a church tower and rung the bells and one of them even carved their name on it. After, we took a second 1 hour break because we were really hungry and my host mom who drove the car with all the snacks didn't stop for us.

My best friend and I

After dinner, we went to a Catedral where there was a huge spot light and made shadows. We went to bed quite early I expected us to stay up all night since it was the last night, but nobody did because we were all exhausted.

We attempted to spell AFS

Día 5 Santiago de Compostela (16 de Abril)

The last day was a happy and sad day at the same time. Happy because we finished the Camino de Santiago and accomplished something special. But sad because we had to say goodbye to everyone after making friends and getting to know them. To start the day, we walked a couple of kilometers to eat breakfast. After breakfast we walked more and more. It was honestly very hard because it was scorching hot. There were other peregrinos who walked a lot faster than us. Either they are very good at walking or I am just out of shape. And again, I arrived last with some other people.

Breakfast

For lunch we had churrasco and salad

After lunch, we took our time because we were alreadly close to Santiago. It was more relaxed because we didn't really have to get there on time at a certain hour. 

Antes de Salir!

Our final day of walking

So close but yet so far...

Excuse my sexiness

We took our final break, around 10 minutes before arriving. When we went inside the city of Santiago near the catedral, we started sprinting and screaming trying to avoid hitting anyone. People looked at us like if we were crazy. It was awesome because we still had energy to run after walking 116 km!

Hemos llegado a Santiago De Compostela!!!

After taking tons of pictures and buying souvenirs, we went to a mass inside the Catedral. It was packed so most of us sat on the stairs. Four of the AFSers read a speech in front of everyobody about what we did in the Camino. So because it was Semana Santa, they had a special celebration in the Catedral called a "Botafumeiro". It is a huge enclosed jar full of incense that is tied on a rope that hangs from the top of the Catedral and swings back and forth. Traditionally, they did this because in the old days when the Peregrinos arrived, they would smell terrible after not showering for a long time.

Like everyone says, they kind of look like the Ku Klux Klan

Ejercicio del Via Crucis