SPORTS
I thought San Agustín was almost number one in sports…, until I knew Milford H.S.
It had so wonderful sports pitches that it isn’t strange almost every student practised a sport. It had even a swimming pool. Before going to USA I could read in its website that it had an old tradition in sports and I really could verify it.
My american sister, Amanda, played volley-ball, a much more popular sport than here. She stayed at school for trainning after classes almost every day, as many other students. For that reason I couldn’t be so much time with her and I used to talk with her mother much more often.
At school they also were very fond of soccer -similar to european football-.
But the most popular sports in USA are -american- football, baseball and basketball. All spanish students we went together to Boston to a Celtics’ basketball match. I didn’t feel very encouraged but, at the end, I must recognize, it was an amazing show. My father envied me a lot; he still remembers Larry Bird (he must be now a lovely old man…).
TV
I have bad news (at least for me): my “duendes de hombro” have resigned from working in my blog. They say it’s a very hard job. I should have educated them better…
Well, I’ll have to go on with my story myself.
About TV, I have to say that I haven´t watch TV much time, although there were lots of channels to choose. But we do have now in Spain such a lot of them and usually I also prefer to do other things. In USA I had almost always better things to do, as going out with friends, travels, playing PC games or -what I enjoyed more- talking to my family or friends; and, of course, WRITTING FOR THE BLOG…
Sometimes I watched, with my american mother, “Desperated Housewives”; I knew it in Spain but I couldn’t watch it because it began very late in the night; in USA these serials ended at 22 h, when in Spain they are beginning at that hour.
I also watched a few times some some cartoons and I knew there also were “The Simpson”, “Family Guy” or “Futurama”, that I usually watch in Spain.
It was very curious for me when a day the president Bush appeared on TV telling a message to the country; you could see him in almost every channel!
Before going to USA my parents told me watching TV was a very good exercise for learning english but, as I told before, there were too much interesting things to do.
Halloween
-The history and the legend: Halloween has a celtic origin. Celtics made a party where they made big bonfires, sacrified animals and drunk all the night.
The story comes from the very ancient Ireland. Leyend tells that Jack O-Lantern was a very “dark” man with dark heart and bad intentions. He was so bad that he even dealt with the devil. When dead arrived to him he had a terrible problem: heaven doors were closed to him but he neither was accepted in hell because devil has agreeded not to accept his soul. Devil gave him an ignited piece of coal to light his return path to Earth, that he put inside an empty turnip. Since then, his spirit wanders looking a place to rest in peace.
When irish emigrants arrived to the USA and saw the great amount of orange pumpkins changed the turnip by the pumpkim. People believed that in Halloween (coming from All Hallows’s Eve) night ghosts and spirits would appear to take them to hell, so they wore fancy dresses to frighten them; besides they left them food and presents in their doors to keep them satisfied.
The “trick or treat” tradition was so implanted that in america is performed till nowadays.
As I could see there, Halloween is really a very important feast for american people. They had decoraded their houses several days before. At the Hight School, the week before halloween was special: people could go fancy dressed to classes! Each day there was a different subject for dressing. I am not very sure about how it was, but I think on monday it was the hats day; on tuesday, hippies’; wednesday, pirates’; thursday, I didn’t understand very well; and we couldn’t see more because we had to come back to Spain. It was a pity, how I would enjoy with fancy dresses! It would be a great idea to do like this at our spanish school.
I only got fancy dressed one day -when I realised-, on wednesday, I dressed like a pirate to go to the H.S.
I’d have enjoyed a lot if we’d stayed there for halloween night, to see for myself what I have always seen on TV films. But, at least, we had a halloween party before we went back. I dressed like a “dark angel” and let my friend Bea another dress of vampire woman. I love fancy dresses!
In the party there was a lot of food and there was a contest about cutting pumpkins to make them faces. Mine was inspired, but nobody understood my art…
This is my happy pumpkin
