Texas Day 8 & Trip Back to Spain

Texas Day 8

We went to WLA, in our only "regular" school day. In the morning we had time to prepare some presentations on our local area (social life, TV, food, Bilbao, and the ASB). We did these in Spanish, so that, at the same time, the American students could practice their spanish. Meanwhile, the WLA students were presenting their personal projects, which they choose and work on in their free time, and we got a glimpse of them once we were done with our work. We then presented our stuff, and got time to work on our blogs. After this we had lunch and a break.


The WLA students then had their English class, to which we were invited. We watched "Death of a Salesman".

Our host parents picked us up and took us to Anisha's house, where we had a good-bye party. The house was an impressive mansion, with two stairways leading up from the front door, a game room with a pool table, a pinball table, an arcade machine, and a fooseball table. They also had a sports gym, with many exercise machines. We had plenty of food and drinks, and we all had much fun just hanging around talking, or playing in the games room.


In the end, we had to say good bye, and go back home, to prepare our luggage for the trip back. I had a picture taken with my host family in front of their house.


Next morning we had to wake up at 3:30 am to be at the airport by 5:00. In total we spent 23 hours between planes and airports, and got back home exhausted.

Texas Ostegunean, Ostilaran, eta Asteburuan

Ostegunan, Fort Worth Zoora joan ginen. Zoo handi bat da, eta animal asko dauzka: jirafak, kanguroak, tigre zuriak, leioak, arrainak, reptilak... Gero, familiekin egon ginen.

Ostiralan, Six Flags Jolas-Parkea bisitatu genuen. Hor, mendi errusiar handienean ibil ginen eta munduko egurrezko mendi errusiar honenean ibil ginen. Aste azken honetan Unai Connorren etxean geratu da, zeren eta, Tyler Austinera joan egin behar izan du. Inigo, ordea, ez da mugitu beste etxe batera.

Larunbatean futbol partidu jokatu genuen goizean, jan eta gero gauz batzuk erostera joan ginen.

Igandean, parke batera piknikea joatea zen helburua, baina azkenean jende batzuk bere familiekin joan ziren.


Unai eta Iñigo

Texas Day 7

The original plan was to meet at the school at 11, where we'd be taken to a picnic in Dallas. We would then go to a shopping mall around the area. However, we could also go on our own with our families, and since a picnic didn't seem too interesting, and we had already been shopping many times, I decided to go with my host family.


They suggested taking me to the Stockyards, an area through which cowboys still take the cattle, and where 19th century buildings, and "cowboy customs" are still preserved. It is now mainly a touristic and historical site, but people live there. There were many saloons, and cowboy clothes shops. In one of the latter I bought a cowboy hat. We went into a candy shop, and into a saloon, where we had typical cowboy root beer. There were many biker gangs around the area, with their Harley Davidsons and leather vests. There was also a maze, but we didn't go into it. Our intention was to watch the longhorn cattle ride in at 4:00, but we didn't get a chance to do so.


The Drews had invited some friends (the Kennedy's) for dinner, so when we got back home, we were busy preparing stuff. The Kennedy's are long time friends of the Drews, and they consider each other relatives. They turned out to be very nice people, and Tim, Amber and I stayed talking to their daughter Anna (who used to go to WLA), while Sean played with their younger kids.

Texas Day 6

A slightly different morning schedule, because it was saturday. We woke up at 9:00, and went with all the ASB boys,Juan Carlos and David Jenkins, and Tim, Connor, and Stephanie from WLA to a soccer match. We were all invited to play, but me and a couple of others stayed out, because we're too bad. The match was pretty interesting and active, with a couple of very good plays by Juan Carlos and David Jenkins, and my classmates. John Asensi even played goalie for a while. They then had a second match, and some of those of us who were sitting and watching went to the other field to play our own mini-game.

We ate at Flip's Burgers, where we joined the girls, and had BBQ type food. Later, most of us went to a mall, where we spent about 3 hours, just walking around and shopping. Luis Oscar and some others wanted to go to a skate park in the mall, so we went to watch. There were many small kids that were very good for their age, either with their rollerblades, or with skateboards. We were picked up at 8:30. Back at home, Tom had cooked some grilled meat. We were quite tired, and it was late, so we went to bed.

Texas Day 5

This was the day we went to Six Flags Over Texas Amusement Park. We were all pretty excited, and some of us were a bit scared, because we hadn't ever gone on such big rollercoasters before. We got to the park at around 10:50, and were given time until 2:30 to go around and organize ourselves however we wanted. Alex, Sang Sun, Unai, Hector and I stuck together as a group.

We first went on the Conquistador Ship, a ship that swayed from one side to the other, reaching nearly vertical positions. Then, the Texas Giant, rated the best wooden rollercoaster in the United States. It was quite a big one, and an impressive second ride. It was much fun, though, and we all got rid of our fears. We even thought it was short! Next, we went to Runaway Mountain, a normal rollercoaster, except it's inside a mountain, so it's completely dark. It was cool, especially it's triple horizontal loop. We then went over to Batman, a rollercoaster in which your seat hands down below the rail, instead of going on top of it. It was very fast, and you could feel the tension in your skin from the speed. It also had four loops, and several vertical turnarounds. Just beside Batman was Flashback, which takes you up two loops and vertical turnaround, and then back through the same thing, but backwards! We were considering riding Superman, a free-fall-type rollercoaster, or Mr. Freeze, similar to Flashback but more extreme, but decided we better try The Titan first (since it's the biggest). Once we were in the queue, we started regretting going on it, because it was big, but after going through it, it was unforgettable. At certain parts it seemed as if we were going to go out of the rail and hit the posts. After that, we would have gone on Mr. Freeze and Superman, but it was 2:10, and we had to grab something to eat.


We were picked up and taken to the school. Since Tim had to go to work, his family took me for dinner at a BBQ Restaurant, where I tried several types of meat and sauces. We then went to a mall, because I wanted to see some laptops. We picked up Tim, and he and I stayed up playing PS2, talking, and listening to music.

Texas Day 4

Again, our morning schedule was the same as always. This time we went to visit the Fortworth Zoo. It is quite a big zoo, with many animals from North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. There were elephans, giraffes, many different types of birds (including penguins - in Texas!), fish, snakes, crocodiles, lizards, and other reptiles, tigers, lions, cheetah, kangaroos, monkeys, and orangutans. My personal favorites were the kangoroos and some of the monkeys.


At 2:30 they came to pick us up and took us back to Westlake Academy, just when the students come out to go home at 3:30. Two of Tim's friends, Emily and Lucy, came by to his house, and we hung around and played PS2 for a while. We then had dinner. Earlier, the weather forecast had said that there might be storms that day, and we got one just after dinner. The tornado alarms went off, so we had to stay inside. We kept track of the news on TV. The alarms weren't actually for tornadoes, since the possibility of these was further south, near Fortworth, but for the hail. We didn't get it, but to the south, there was hail the size of golfballs in some areas, and baseballs in others. Since there wasn't much we could do, we stayed talking for a while and then went to bed.

Texas Orain Arte

Astelehena lehenengo eguna izan zen heldu eta berehala jai txiki bat izan genuen WLAko ikasleak esagutzeko. Hurrengo egunean ikastolara joan ginen eta gehiago esagutu genituen ikasleak eta irakasleak. Gero baseball partidu bat ikustera joan ginen (LA Angels vs Tx Rangers). Atzo hiru museo ikusi genituen Dallasen eta gero Dallas Mavericks vs New Orleans Hornets partidua ikusi genuen.

Unai eta Inigo

Texas Day 3

We woke up as usual, went to school and had an hour to work on our blogs. We then went with all the Westlake students to the Dallas Museum of Art, where there were expositions on European, Greek and Roman, African, North American,Asian, Indonesian, 20th century, contemporary and other art periods and styles. There were also private collections donated to the museum. The museum layout was a bit confusing, and some of the collections (especially the European one) weren't so impressive, but others, like the African and Indonesian ones, were quite interesting.


After this we went to The Nasher Sculpture Center, which I found interesting. The most impressive statues were one with many people walking as a crowd, and another one with a diagonal pole pointing to the sky, with people walking over it, and others looking up at the top.


Next we went to The 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, where John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. We listened to an audio guide which told us all about the presidents's life: his family, his election campaign, his policies, his programs, the controversy he caused, the highlights of his career (Cuban Missile Crisis, Nucler Test Ban Agreement, Space Exploration), his personal life, and finally, his assasination. For this, there was a recreation of the sniping spot Lee Harvey Oswald used to shoot JFK, and also pictures of his arrest, proof used in the courts, legal documents, and home made videos filmed by people that attended the event, as well as documentaries. The exhibition went into detail about the several investigations into the assasination, the possibility of a conspiracy, the public suspicion of 1988, and how in the end it was determined that there were 4 shots: one missed, another hit JFK in the neck, went through it, came out through his palm, and hit one of the other politicians in the car, and the last one hit JFK in the head.


Last, went to a basketball at the American Airlines Stadium. The Dallas Mavericks played the New Orleans Hornets in a very intense and quite balanced game. At first, the Hornets started leading 20-13. The match went like that for a time, with the Hornets leading and the Mavs not playing very well. Suddenly, however, the crowd got very excited and the Mavs had a couple of very good plays, scoring several 3-pointers, and leading the game. From there on, the Mavs continued to lead the match, and even if the Hornets managed to make a couple of comebacks, they weren't enough to beat the Mavs, who won 111 to 98.
It was very cool having "percussion" to make noise, and how well everyone reacteds.


We were so tired after the game that we just went home and fell asleep.

American Culture vs. Spanish Culture

Similarities:

- music
- clothes
- hobbies: sports, shopping, going out with friends, videogames
- the way friends treat each other, joking around
- school subjects


Differences:

- People in the USA do more social and community activities
- Americans are more open at first contact, while we are more reserved
- the Americans' favorite sports are baseball, basketball, american football, and ice hockey, while we prefer soccer
- Food in the USA is designed to eat quickly, while in Spain we usually take more time
- Americans always use sauces, dressings, and spices for their food, which we don't use as much
- The Spanish lifestyle is somewhat more relaxed overall
- There is a great mix of ethnic groups and people from different cultures in the USA, while there is much fewer in Spain
- Housing: we live in flats, while Americans tend to live in houses in the suburbs.
- Driving age is 16 in the USA, and 18 in Spain
- Drinking age is 18 or 21 in the USA, 18 in Spain
- Laws about drikning and smoking are much more strictly applied in the USA, due to the huge number of accidents there used to be which were caused by drunk teenagers who drove.
- American culture is more "car oriented": cities are separated into different areas for shopping, living, and working, so one must constantly drive from one place to another, even though newer cities are trying to mix everything together. Because of this there are drive-in cinemas, banks, and restaurants
- Americans are more patriotic, and pledge their allegiance to the flag every morning.
- School in the USA is more cozy and inviting, and there is more socializing going on.
- School in the USA starts at 8:00 and finishes at 3:30, so they have one more hour of classes, but tend to have less homework. Their breaks are about the same length as ours.
- Family responsabilities probably fall more on the kids in the USA, and parents have greater control.
- Timetables in the USA are quite different from Spain: they wake up at around 6:00, have breakfast at 6:30, start school at 8:00, have a snack, eat at 1:00, and have dinner at around 7:00. They then go to bed at 10:00.
- In Texas there is a curfew at 11:00pm, so teenagers can't stay out later than that, while we tend to go out until much later.

Texas Day 2

I woke up at 6:00 and had breakfast at 6:30, the typical times for my family. Breakfast consisted of bacon and scrambled eggs, which could be rolled in corn "tortitas" to make "Texan Burritos". Tim's mom drove us to the school, where we got by around 7:45. The students got together outside and pledged their allegiance to the flag of the USA and of Texas. We then had a couple of cultural activities to get to know each other better, like a competition in which each one was asked questions about someone else in their group. The Westlake students prepared a skit to show us about American culture and we told them more about what they'd be seeing or should see when they come to Spain.

We had some pizza at WLA at 11:30, and then where taken to the Texas Rangers Ballpark in Arlington to watch their baseball game against the LA Angels. The Rangers started winning in the first round, and scored 1-2-1 in the first 3 innings vs 0-0-0, but the Angels recovered in the second round, so both teams were scoring 4-4. The Angels then scored 3 home runs in the last round, and the Rangers couldn't avoid losing 7-4. There were a couple of good plays by both teams, like the Angels catching many balls in the air, a Ranger catching a ball just near a wall, banging into it, and a very good series of passes by the Rangers, eliminating 3 Angels straight.

After this, Tom took me home, but we first passed by a supermarket. We had a typical American dinner, with beef, cramberry sauce, corn, salad, honeybutter, etc.

I then had to do some homework (for the blog), and a comparison between American and Spanish cultures.

NYC Day 3 and Arrival at Texas

NYC Day 3

We woke up as usual and went for a walk in Central Park, where we saw lots of people playing baseball and running. We then went to Broadway to try to buy tickets for the musical "Mamma Mia!", but they were sold out, so we had free time for shopping around Times Square while John and Marcia tried to find tickets on resale.

They finally did find them, and gave us a bit more free time and time to eat before the musical. The musical started at 2pm, it was quite a good show, funny, and with great music and singing, about a girl who is about to marry, who doesn't know who her father is, so she decides to invite the 3 possible "dad candidates", about whom she has read in her mom's diary. In the end the girl's mom marries the girl's father, and the girl decides not to marry, because she is still too young, and needs to get to know more about the world.
After the musical, we walked to the Empire State Building, and went up to the 86th floor, where one could get a view of all NYC. Later, we had time to do some more shopping and went back to the hotel, where we had dinner, a shower, and had to prepare our suitcases for the trip to Texas.

Flight and Arrival at Texas

We had to wake up at 5am to get a shuttle bus to the airport, and got the plane to Fortworth airport in Dallas, Texas. We arrived there at 10:50, much earlier than the families had expected, so they still hadn't arrived. When they came, we were introdced to our host families, who took us to Olivia Flowers' house, a huge mansion with a garden, swimming pool, cinema, pool table, etc. We had a typical Texan BBQ, and then they taught us to play American Football. We weren't very good at it, and we all played quite rough, and with "home rules". Later we went to play pool for a couple of hours, and then I went with Tim to his friends' house, where we played playstation for a while, until Tim's dad came pick us up. Tim showed me their house, and introduced me to his mom, brotherr, sister, and dog. We had dinner, played playstation for some time, and went to bed.

Trip to NYC Days 1 & 2

Friday, April 11th

We woke up at 6:40 am and had breakfast. We left at around 8:40 am (10 mins. delay) and walked to the Cervantes Institute at number 211 of 49th Street.

This institute was created between 1991 and 1993, by the fusion of former institutes of spanish culture, in order to create a database of spanish works, an exposition center, and a way of promoting culture through spanish, galician, catalan, and euskera classes. It has extended around the world (there currently are about 70). The one in NYC currently houses more than 80,000 books, films, and CDs, located in 2 floors and a cellar (70% of all materials is in the cellar). In the latter is located an auditorium used for cultural activities, such as the reading of "El Quijote" in 46 languages. The institute is used as an exposition center. When we visited it, there was an exposition on photos of brain cells and nerves, accompanied by poems written by spanish authors specifically for them. Many of the materials found in the Cervantes Institute have been contributed by famous spanish TV presenters who have moved to NYC.

After this we walked from 49th Street to 79th Street to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We ate a hot dog outside and then had a guided tour of the museum's highlights. These included, the first greek sculpture in a standing position, an African statue of a man and a woman sharing a bench, several cubist and modernist American paintings from the 20th century, French Renaissance paintings, works by Pablo Picasso, and an Andy Warhol self portrait. Just after this we went to see an original Egyptian temple moved and rebuilt stone by stone in the museum.

We then got the metro to go to SOHO (South of Houston), where we had 2 hours for shopping, and then went to have dinner at an Italian Restaurant in Little Italy.



Saturday, April 12th

We woke up at the same time as yesterday, and at 8:30 got the metro to Battery Park, to catch a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. There in the park there was a monument for the Korean War veterans.


We had to wait for about an hour due to the fog, but finally managed to visit the monuments.



The museum had a database where one could search to see if any of his ancestors had immigrated to the US through the island. This can also be consulted through the internet. In addition to this, it had several pictures of immigrants and ships, original files, immigrants' suitcases, etc.

We returned to Manhattan, and watched a street show. We went to eat at 4:00, and then crossed through Wall Street to get to Ground Zero, where they are currently rebuilding some skyscrapers. After this we went to a shopping mall for about an hour, and then went to have dinner in Chinatown. During the way back to the hotel we found several musicians playing traditional chinese instruments.