Nicole and I cheering on "La Roja" in one of their early world cup games.

How lucky was I to have lived in Spain the one year they make it all the way to the finals and win the world cup? I suppose some would consider it unlucky, with all the swarms of loud fans, honking car horns, and traffic caused by the games, however as a foreigner from Canada, where nothing exciting like the world cup ever happens, I was thrilled to be a part of the action!

Even though I had never sat down and watched a soccer game from start to end (shocking, no?), I found myself watching every single Spanish world cup game and even dressed up and supported "la roja" like a true Spaniard. Alicante was a truly exciting place to watch the game, where everyone rushed to the bars an hour before the game started to secure seats in front of the many new HD big-screen TVs bought just in time for the games, and sat outside cheering, drinking beer, and having a good time.

For the final game, I wound up in Toledo. After a disappointing first period watching the game in an almost-empty bar, my family and I rushed to the "plaza de toros" (the bull-fighting ring) where the action was at. The plaza was completely filled with people, all sporting the colours of Spain. It was as if everyone in that arena was linked emotionally; we all cheered, boo-ed, shouted, and screamed at the same time as Spain fought their way to become world champions for the first time in the history of the world cup.

Here are some pictures and videos to give you a taste of what it means to be Spanish and support the national football team!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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(Obvious) Lessons (re-)learned:

• Always back-up your files!! It's as easy as making a tar.gz archive of your wordpress directory and a simple backup of your MySQL database.
• Remember to disable all your plug-ins first (this may have caused my crash).
• Put your site into maintenance mode before updating.

I could not get anything to work properly, so I just ended up installing a fresh copy of wordpress and am now transferring all my files to the new installation.

Oh well, you live you learn..

The reason I updated WordPress was so that I can start attacking my back-log of unwritten posts! Here's my checklist:

• Trip to Florence, Pisa, Siena (May 28-30)
• The Curious Incident of the Angry Algerian with Two Knives in the Night-Time (June 3)
• Trip to Malta (June 11-12)
• Trip to Rome  (June 18-20)
• Las Hogueras de San Juan de Alicante (June 21-24)

What else is new?

• A big welcome to the new Canadian interns, Lucy Yin and Kasper Woiceshyn who have started working at CYPE Ingenieros in Alicante, Spain and are sharing the flat with us.
• I bid farewell to by far the nicest and most fun room mates I've had the pleasure of sharing a flat with: Conni & Sebastian! (You can check out their awesome blog here).
• The amazing atmosphere we've had in Alicante these past few days due to the feast of St. John and the World Cup (Spain is still in the running!!)
• My dear mother and brother are visiting a week from today. We'll be two road-trips: Alicante-Granada/Motril/Trevelez-Toledo-Cuenca-Valencia AND Valencia-Barcelona-Madrid.
• My Grandmother and cousin are visiting at the end of the month for a weekend.
• I head to Malta for 10 days from August 7-17, followed by a visit to Finland from August 18-22 and Gothenburg City, Sweden from August 28-29.

Stay tuned for the promised posts! Now that I'm on half-day summer schedule I have time to catch up

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The attached flow chart describes how you can become a full, legal employed citizen in Alicante within just 7 business days! The information is current as of June 2, 2010.

Download the guide now!

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It is not often that you have an opportunity to start afresh in a new place with people who know nothing about who you are and what you've done in the past. If you had to start your life anew today, how would you live it? What would you change?

To start off, I always thought I wasn't any good at learning languages. I took enriched French in high school, but mostly because I wanted to finish grade 12 French a year earlier and study something else in my final year of school. However, I never really enjoyed taking French or really considered it of any value to me. Four years later, I found myself fresh off the plane in Spain speaking with my future landlord in the only language we had in common: French. A few days later, two Erasmus students from France moved in to my flat and suddenly I had an even greater interest in speaking French. Next Saturday, I'm travelling to Paris, and I am grateful for sticking to learning a language I had no interest in, because it is now of great value to me.

Even more importantly to me know is my education in Spanish. I never had any motivation whatsoever to learn a new language, let alone Spanish. However, after one week of living and working in Spain, I was yearning to learn more grammar and vocabulary so that I could communicate with others and express myself. While I still have people I can speak with in English, I feel like a young child, frustrated with not being able to communicate effectively and soaking everything up like a sponge. After 11 hours of work, including a 1-2 hour Spanish lesson, I can actually feel the language centres in my brain throbbing. However, the satisfaction of being able to talk to my co-workers in Spanish after just six weeks is incredibly rewarding. Thankfully, most of them have the patience to allow me to string together my sentences and correct me when I'm wrong.

I've noticed another big change in my new friendships here in Spain. For many years, I'll admit, I was afraid of forming close relationships with people. Perhaps it is in fact true that people from Toronto are cold (no offense to anyone back at home, you're all great people ), but after forming such good friendships with people in Spain in such a short period of time, I feel like I've been missing out a lot in this area of my life. Some of the people I've meet here, I've known for only a few short weeks, but it feels as if I've known them for years. In Canada, you're someone's best friend after ten years, but in Spain, you're someone's best friend after ten minutes.

Tonight is fiesta night! Which means I'll get to practice my Spanish (which is always easier after everyone has had a few drinks) and my dancing (which I've actually heard good things about for once).

¡Hasta luego! Watch for my pictures from Paris later this month!

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The Firenze Cathedral under a full moon.

Just got back from an awesome trip to Italy! It was my first trip within Europe since moving to Spain and I will remember it forever. Italy is a beautiful country! The architecture, the food, the wine, the people, and the language combined make for an incredibly romantic and magical atmosphere that I have never encountered before.

I travelled with three other friends from work at CYPE, and we had a blast. We flew into Bolonia, rented a car and drove to Florence (Firenze) and Pisa. Here are the trip's highlights:

1. Parking! It took us at least half an hour to find parking and it involved manoeuvring into impossibly tight spaces and bumping into both cars in the front and back. One parking job required the re-location of a dumpster.
2. Driving! Italian Drivers drive wherever there is space on the road without much regard for traffic rules or street markings. Mopeds are often seen tailgating ambulances and whizzing past gridlock by driving in the centre of the road.
3. "Tonight's Going to be a Good Night" by the Black-Eyed Peas. We heard it at least 2 or 3 times a day.
4. Ordering 1 L of red house wine with dinner every night.
5. Finishing an entire bottle of Limone liquor on our first night.
6. Waiting for 2 hours to see a 20-metre... uh 6-metre tall statue of David.
7. Getting lost in the walled city of Lucca.
8. Always being the last ones to eat in restaurants at night, and always finding restaurants closed for lunch at 4pm.

You can also check out a multitude of pictures in my gallery.

Raphael overlooking the city of Florence at sunset.

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I'll let the pictures do the talking, but here are the highlights:

• Brand new formulation of USANA's Essential Supplements. Vitamin D is now boosted to the highest possible amount (2000 IU - twice daily for the health pack, about 1000% of the DRV) to reflect new research indicating the importance of Vitamin D in the prevention of cancer.
• USANA's HealthPak and MyHealthPak now contain more Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in Red Wine, once again, to reflect cutting edge research about it's preventative properties against coronary heart disease.
• USANA's HealthPak and MyHealthPak now look better than ever with their redesigned packaging.
• USANA released a brand new supplement called Pure Rest, which contains the purest melatonin in the world, sourced directly from Switzerland. Melatonin supplementation helps people who suffer from insomnia, sleep apnea, and other sleep-depriving conditions to get a better night's rest.
• Wondering what your specific nutritional needs are? Take USANA's brand new Health Assesment and Advisor and receive expert advice on which of USANA's products are of most benefit to your health.

And by far, the absolute best part of the whole event was a surprise visit from Larry King! One of the most respected American icons, who has interviewed some of the most important figures in history, appeared on stage to interview Tim Sales (a successful network marketer, and spokesperson for the industry) about the merits of the network marketing industry. Many people are misinformed about the industry because it is often likened to Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Schemes which have financially ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of people like the recent scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, which collapsed this summer.To see the official press conference with Larry King before his interview, check out this video. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the actual footage yet, but when I do, I'll post the link here.

Check out the pictures from this event below:

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If one of the best violin players in the world was dressed incognito in a busy metro station during rush hour, playing an instrument worth millions of dollars, would you notice? Joshua Bell did just that in April of 2007 in Washington D.C., and not surprisingly, was noticed by perhaps only one or two of the people on their way to work out of over a thousand people who passed by in the hour he played.

Just watching the video of him play sent shivers running down my spine, but had I been on my way to work or school I can't be certain that I would have stuck around for very long. Check out the article published in the Washington Post the next day, it's an excellent read.

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In a few hours I'll be off to Vancouver, and then onwards to Squamish, for a 5-day intensive training camp entitled "The Enlightened Warrior Traing Camp" organized by Peak Potentials Training. Through an incredible five day journey, I will discover who I really am and learn how to succeed in spite of any obstacle. This camp is truly a "roughing it" experience. I'll sleep in a tent in the beautiful Squamish valley with glacier-capped mountains all around me. The camp is extremely physically and mentally intense as it runs from 7am-11pm every single day.

Stay tuned for stories and pictures upon my return!

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