La Selección Nueva

I find myself sitting at my computer tonight, watching the Spain-Bosnia game, which is absolutely meaningless, as Spain have already won the group with 9 wins out of 9 games, and Bosnia have already wrapped up second place, meaning they'll have a two-leg playoff with one of the other second-place finishers from Europe. So in reality, I'm more focused on the results coming in from right next door in Portugal where I find myself rooting for Malta, for the sole reason that I'd prefer not to see Cristiano Ronaldo at the world cup.

But despite the fact that I'm following the events in neighboring Portugal with greater intensity than I am the events of my adopted national team - Spain - the events of Portugal aren't unrelated to my Spanish predilections by any stretch of the imagination. Real Madrid, the new club for the new Ronaldo (and a new Ronaldo for the same club), have said that they stand to lose 90 million euros in marketing value if Portugal, and therefore Ronaldo, fail to make the world cup. It's not that I put any credibility in the financial estimates of the Real Madrid accountants - but even if they're off by 200%, that's still losing enough money that it would make me exceptionally happy.

In any case, Simao has just scored for Portugal to put them 2-0 up, so it's seeming quite unlikely that the Portuguese could blow that lead at home against European minnows Malta, and that'll do the job of putting them, and Ronaldo, the world cup. So while I'm ruing Madrid's good financial fortune, I got to think about why it was so important to them to have Ronaldo in the world cup. And as I was watching La Selección (the affectionate name the Spanish have for their national team) pass the ball around and just dominate the crap out of a pretty good Bosnian side, I realized that today's Selección has very little Real Madrid influence. (Since I began writing that last sentence, Bosnia have scored two goals in stoppage time to pull within three and the game has ended 5-2.)

But not only is la Selección not Real Madrid influenced, it's not even stereotypically Spanish influenced. When one takes the traditionally stereotype of Spain, the images are of Andalucia first, and second Madrid and the surrounding rural area. Cataluña, the Basque Country, and Galicia, are the nationalistic (used here in terms of desiring to be autonomous, rather than in reference to the nation state as a whole) regions which generate the most backlash from the rest of Spain.

But with Barcelona, the Catalan capital and generally leftist capital Spain, being the best club, not just in Spain, but in the world, it only makes sense that la Selección is comprised of a number of Barcelona talents. What aids Barcelona in this is that they have arguably the best youth academy in the world. Even the non-Spanish players coming out of the Barca youth academy are incredible. Lionel Messi and Jeffrén Suárez, for example. But Spanish, and Catalan players in particular, dominate the Barca youth academy products. The short elite list comprises, Xavi, Busquets, Fabregas, Puyol, and Piqué. Busquets is the exception in that if everyone is fit, he doesn't start for Spain. But with Puyol and Piqué anchoring the Spanish defense, and Xavi and Fabregas in the midfield, that's four core players of Catalan birth and Catalan training.

But let's look at the rest of the world's best midfield. The players: Andrés Iniesta, David Silva, Alberto Riera, Marcos Senna, Xabi Alonso, Juan Mata, and Santi Cazorla.

Iniesta, despite being from Castilla la Mancha (a large sparsely populated region outside of Madrid), is a Barca youth academy product and his combination play with Xavi prompted Wayne Rooney to dub him the best player in the world.

Silva is from the Canary Islands - not exactly what one thinks about when thinking of Spain - and plays with Valencia. It's not that this is un-Spanish; it's just not the quintessential Spain.

Riera is from the other set of islands - the Baleares - Mallorca to be more precise, and played in Barcelona with the other team - Espanyol - before moving to Liverpool.

Senna is a nationalized Brazilian.

Although Alonso now plays for Real Madrid, he went to the Real Sociedad youth academy (an all Basque affair), and is Basque by birth. That means he would be more Spanish in the eyes of Spaniards if he were Portuguese.

It's difficult to discount Mata's Spanishness. He was born in Castilla y León, although north enough to not be from anywhere near Madrid, and plays with Valencia.

Likewise, Cazorla was born in Asturias and plays with Villarreal.

So the heart and soul of the Spanish side, the part of the team which gets all the credit for the success, is quintessentially un-Madrid. The starting lineup at the European Championships last year was most commonly Senna, Xavi, Iniesta, and Silva. And the most likely introductions were Fabregas and Alonso.

The forward line, while not being as non-Spanish as the midfield, also has its elements of being non-Spanish. Villa, like Cazorla is Asturian. He plays with Valencia, however. Torres has more or less become the poster-boy of the national team. He's the most widely known player internationally, he scored the goal to win the European Championships, and, well, he's rather handsome. He's from a suburb of Madrid but grew up with the Atlético youth academy and is pretty anti-Real himself. Guiza is of gypsy descent, something not uncommon for European footballers but infrequently talked about. Finally, striking debutant as of today Negredo, is pretty Madrileño. He was born in Madrid and played some football for a Madrid-affiliated club in a lower division early in his career. Now he plays for Sevilla, the team from the Andalucian capital. Now THAT'S Spanish.

The defense also has its "Spanish" influence in Andalucian native Sergio Ramos and Salamancan born Alváro Arbeloa, both of whom play for Real Madrid now. But as I said before, the back line is anchored by the Catalan duo Piqué and Puyol. First string left-back Joan Capdevila was also born in Cataluña, as is evident by his first name, the most common name among Catalan men. Of course there are also Marchena (Andaluz) and Albiol (Valenciano), the latter of whom plays for Madrid now. But of course, there is Andoni Iraola as well, Basque born, the Bilbao-playing right back.

Yet of course, Iker Casillas, the (until today when Negredo made his debut) only remaining Madrid youth academy product, born in Madrid, played his entire career for Madrid is still the captain. At only 28 years of age, he's still in the early part of his career as a goalie, a position where players typically peak in their early 30s. This will permit Negredo or some other Madrileño, Madrid youth academy product to develop into the next Raul of Spanish football so that there is always that quintessentially Spanish player to lead the team.

Disclaimer: I do not believe that the real Spain is limited to Madrid, Andalucia and the surrounding countryside. What I am referring to when I discuss this typical image of Spain is both the stereotypical image from abroad, and the image the majority of Spaniards in these regions have of Spain itself.

2 extensions from my last two posts

1) History of America day two of legitimate class

Well, honestly, calling it a legitimate class might be a bit of a stretch. We watched a movie for an hour. But that´s not why I´m bringing it up. Oh no. The subject of the movie was what made it noteworthy: Atlantis.

I may not have been able to understand much of the spoken content of the movie because the acoustics were horrible and I would have been struggling to understand it in English, but I could read place names, and, unsurprisingly, they were all concentrated around Greece. Greece? Oh right, because of Greece´s long history with the western hemisphere... clearly not.

The only justification I can come up with is that there was a theory "in the air" in Europe in the 16th/17th centuries that suggested that the peoples of the ancient lost civilization of Atlantis were those who populated the Americas. That theory, though lacks practically any modern day support, as can be seen through the most superficial of Google searches. In which case, I have to conclude, that we´re talking about Atlantis for no reason whatsoever.

The second item on my list is a little grammatical equivocation made unfortunately by the New York Times. In today´s article about Hertha Müller winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, the following sentenced appeared as the introduction: "Herta Müller, the Romanian-born German novelist and essayist who has written widely about the oppression of dictatorship in her native country and the unmoored life of the political exile, on Thursday won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature."

The problem, I hope, is self-evident: imprecise prepositional selection. Normally, when we talk about the oppression of something, we talk about the oppression of a group of people who are on the receiving end of the oppression. In this case, however, the author has done the reverse, I presume. Dictatorship is not something we usually think about as being oppressed, although I suppose by authoritarians, perhaps dictatorship has been going through a period of severe oppression in the United States.

Anyway, given that this phrase, "the oppression of dictatorship" caught my eye, I thought I might share it with all of you. Some pictures already posted on facebook; the rest will come soon.

Wishing I Understood Less Spanish...

For those of you eagerly awaiting a lengthy 5,000 word epic tale of the exhibiting of heroism, the rescuing of damsels in distress, and the escaping by a whisker of the death's clutches that was our trip to Granada and Córdoba, you're just going to have to wait a bit longer. That dramatic tale will come, and now that I've hyped it up so much, it will be nothing but disappointment. Today, however, I want to talk about the first real class at The Universidad de Málaga (UMA).

In comparison to heroic tales, it may seem boring, but I assure you, my three readers, that it was anything but. In fact, it was actually somewhat interesting. Well, on a small scale, I didn't find the subject matter that interesting today, but on a big scale it was very interesting because it indicates the way the course is going to be taught.

As many of you know, the course I am taking at UMA is Historia de América en la Edad Moderna or History of America in the Modern Era. The study proceeds from the pre-Colombian civilizations up to, but not including the Bolivarian revolutions in the early 19th century. Any interesting time, to be certain, and one with which I'm not particularly familiar.

Well, naturally, to enter directly into the highly advanced ancient civilization would be to forget an explanation of how they came to be. Therefore, we began the first content-based course with theories about how the western hemisphere came to be populated. Were we discussing modern day theories based on archaeological and anthropological evidence? No. Rather, we were discussing 15th and 16th century theories about how there came to be people in the western hemisphere - everything from "they originated here" to "they're descended from Vikings."

Well, these theories might be interesting, but it seems to confuse to the focus of the course, no? The theme of the course is the western hemisphere. There could be some purpose to explaining the different theories that obtained in Europe at this time about the populating of the western hemisphere - for example, how this influenced different explorers' interactions with the indigenous peoples. However, not only was this not mentioned, but come the last 15 minutes of the class, we said goodbye to all these theories, and talked about the currently accepted entry via Bering Strait theory.

So then what purpose did the introduction of these now debunked theories serve for the course as whole? It served the purpose of removing the indigenous people as the focus by replacing them with the European elite. The course focuses on the regions with which Spain had contact. The book that is to provide complementary reading for the course is titled something like América Española y América Portuguesa. Great, then why did we spend 15 minutes talking about Leif Ericson, Erik the Red, and Thorvald, and their journeys conquering Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, and their entry into Quebec? I mean, Thorvald's kind of a cool name, but the dude's influence on the western hemisphere has to be said to be minimal.

On top of all of this, there was the constant problem of lexicon. I mean, in the United States, any semi-respectable historian has stopped talking about the "discovery" of the western hemisphere. Not here. Here, Cristóbal Colón descubrió el Nuevo Mundo en 1492. And the rhetoric surrounding what is commonly referred to as the Colombian exchange by enlightened American historians is even worse. For example, in the PowerPoint presentation our professor used throughout the class, the phrases "razas avanzadas" and "culturas civilizadas" (advanced races and civilized cultures) appeared with frequency to refer to Europeans. The obvious problem is that when these phrases are used as characterizations, it implies the opposite of the people against whom the Europeans are being defined.

Perhaps among center-right to rightist historians in the United States (of which there aren't a whole lot), this type of phrasing is acceptable. From my leftist cultural relativist perspective this is akin to making a normative judgment about the worth of the lives of people based on their ethnicity alone. It implies the thinking Europeans better, Amerindians worse. Hence the reason why I wish I had understood less of the Spanish - then I wouldn't have been so frustrated with what I already deem to be a racist teaching of American (total) history. Perhaps it will improve, perhaps not. Vamos a ver.

Language Tidbits

So this first tidbit should interest a lot of my readers because it pertains to ENVIRONMENTLLY FRIENDLY stuff. There´s a clean energy company here called "AlmaSol." Okay, what´s the big deal. A clean energy company. Well, I only realized the interesting homophonal qualities of this word when my mind, to understand it, translated only half. "Sol" is a word I´m quite familiar with (sun, for those of you with minimal Spanish). But "alma" is a word I´ve probably looked up a dozen or more times in the dictionary and it means "soul.¨ So when I translated the first half (all I needed to) of the company "AlmaSol," I was left with "SoulSol," which, of course, is a pair of homonyms. An interesting tidbit only available to the partially bilingual.

That was interesting, this next tidbit is a little more politically charged. In English, there´s no adjective or noun to refer to someone from the United States. We use the term American as both a noun and adjective to serve this purpose. ¨The American went to the store, and he bought some American brands." Well, that´s all well and good unless you´re American and not from the United States. For example, if you´re Brazilian, Mexican, Honduran, Panamanian, Colombian, or any other number of nationalities in the Western Hemisphere.

Of course, Spanish, being the language for the majority of the aforementioned disenfranchised people, does have a term for an American or something American: estadounidense. Literal translation: stateunitedian. Slightly more manageable translation: United Statesian. Translation of leftist academics who feel the English must have such a word: Usamerican. Now, I can see one of these academics, who I have branded leftist, at Dickinson reading this, and thinking that I´m poking fun at them... I am. I think the chances of Usamerican entering public discource range from supremely unlikely to downright impossible. That being said, I´m in agreement with them in principle. English does need a term that isn´t so ethnocentric. While I´m making fun of leftist academics (again, I basically agree with them) let me translate the last sentence into sociologese: "The use of the term American oppresses all those people who are American without being what the use of that term implies, ergo it´s racist and should be struck from the English language."

Okay, so that´s enough making fun of leftist academics. Indeed (for Peter), they have a far better grasp on reality than their conservative counterparts. But before I get myself going on another long-winded rant about rightist thinking is internally inconsistent, maybe I should point out another language tidbit or two.

I have been happily pleased with my astute prediction that there would be a significant number of long words which I would know precisely because they´re long words and so therefore come from Latin. Of the abundance of times one of our professors has asked as "¿Sabéis lo que es (said word)?" it seems there have been only a very small number of occassions when I have not known the word. And the majority of those times, it´s because I don´t know the word in English. For example, our History of Art teacher was surprised that we knew who the Visigodos were. Well, it doesn´t take a language expert to figure out that the Visigodos are the Visigoths. Similarly the Fenicios are the Phoenicians and Romulos y Remus y la Loba are Romulus, Remus, and the Shewolf.

Similarly, my host mom tends to assume I know all but the lengthiest of words, when in fact, many of the shorter words she uses I am absolutely clueless about. (I have just ended a sentence with a preposition, which is in fact, grammatically correct. I refer all of you who doubt this to consult some grammar experts online. You will undoubtedly find one or two who insist that ending a sentence with a preposition is grammatically incorrect, but the majority seem to be in agreement that it is, in fact, permissable. The false presumption that the ending of a sentence with a preposition is not permitted comes from a desire to "Latinize" the language. English, however, is not derived from Latin, and so therefore is not bound the constraints of Latin languages. While I´m going in this direction, I´ll also note that the splitting of an infinitive in English is also permitted. Think of Neil Armstrong´s famous quote "to boldly go where no man has gone before." For those of you getting angry that such a long section is in parentheses, suck it up and read the name of my blog.) The result of my host mom assuming that I know all of these smaller words is that when we talk about quite simple things I´m more or less clueless (okay, that´s totally an exaggeration), but if we talk about more complicated things, like, say, politics, so many of the words are cognates that I manage much better.

Righteo, well, that should about do it with the digressions for today. Hope you enjoyed them. More to come Monday after my visit to Córdoba and Granada.

My Baptism

I was raised in a secular household, and so therefore grew up without a religion (tear...). But I think that regardless of whether one identifies his religion as Christian, Hindi, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, or, in my case, doesn't identify religion, there has to be something to fill that spiritual void - to explain what can't be explained by the natural, and to feel something, dare I say, transcendental. For the Romanticists of the early 19th century, this connection was with the natural world. I suspect that I have a number of friends who feel this way - that the natural world, the world free of human soiling, holds something supernatural (ironically), something transcendental. And at times, I would agree to feeling this pull from nature. But I discovered last night that my true religion is football.

A friend of mine from high school came down from Madrid, where he is studying this weekend, to take in some sun and see the Costa del Sol. On Friday night, we went to the Málaga C. F. team store to buy tickets for yesterday's match. The tickets were in the following price categories: expensive, more expensive, really expensive, and Holy S*** expensive. We decided to get the more expensive ones - a wise choice, in retrospect. Naturally, game-day (Saturday) it rained all afternoon - the first time it has rained for more than about 20 minutes since I got here three weeks ago. I decided to go into town a little early to meet him and a few other people and go out for churros pre-match.

By the time we got out of the churro place (around 6), the rain had almost stopped and the 30 minute walk to the stadium, while not being pleasant due to the wetness and drizzle, was passed quickly due to my anticipatory adrenaline. Once we reached about two blocks away from the stadium, things started getting pretty busy. Lots of people, lots of drinking, and lots of Málaga jerseys. We walked around the outside of the stadium looking for the gate through which we were supposed to enter. Unlike at most stadia in the US where one can walk all around the stadium, here, the sections were cordoned off and it was simply not possible to go anywhere beyond the two or three sections where one's ticket permitted entry.

The people would swell in bulges around the gates while they waited for them to be open, so we decided to watch that madness from across the street, neither of us having the desire to be quite so intimate with so many Malagueñans. I get all the intimacy with Malagueñans I need from the bus. Our gate was actually one of the last to open (about 7:15 - 45 minutes before kickoff). We walked up about 10 steps to get out into the stadium, turned to the right, and sat down. Those were our seats. There was a divide in the lower level, with about 6 rows being lower down close to the field, then a walkway, and then the rest of the lower level rows. We were sitting in the first row of the slightly higher section of the lower tier - quite close to the field.

The first players to come out of the tunnel were the Barca goalkeepers, and they were met with a chorus of whistling and boos from the only half full stadium. The atmosphere was already deafening and it was still more than half an hour before the game was to start. The crowd cheered loudly for the Málaga players when they came out, but it was nothing compared to the roar of disapproval for the visiting players when they arrived. I've read about opposing grounds being intimidating for footballers, but I never understood what that meant until now. And once the game started it got even worse.

Málaga started the game a bit faster than Barcelona and almost surprised them within the first minute. I wide shot was as close as they came to scoring in the entire match. It wasn't that Barca dominated, although they did create far more chances and have more possession. Málaga, however, defended admirably throughout the match, and it took all of Messi's creativity, and Ibrahimavic's brawn to produce the first goal in the near the end of the first half. A little dinked ball over the top from just outside the box, that Ibrahimavic, after holding off the defender would have had to have tried to miss. The celebration was directly in front of us on the field, and I managed to get some a good photo or two. The only other thing of note in the first half was that Xavi gave the ball away once - in the 13th minute. I turned to my friend and correctly speculated that that would be the only instance in the match.

After about ten minutes in the second half, Piqué, who had just come on for Chygrinsky, the new signing from some Eastern European club, got a touch on a Xavi free kick to put it in. That effectively ended the game. The major talking point in the second half was when Málaga substitute Alberto Luque made a pretty bad challenge on Dani Alvés and got sent off for it. I don't know if it warranted a red card. Alves's acting merited an oscar, and when he popped up off the stretcher and jumped back on the field, I nearly covered my ears to the roar of disapproval from the crowd. And La Rosaleda is supposed to be one of the more hospitable places to play - at least compared with the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan (Sevilla), El Sarindero (Santander), and San Mamés (Bilbao). I wouldn't have wanted to be Dani Alvés, I'll put it that way.

Coincidentally, Barca put four past Santander in El Sardinero midweek. With Champion's League fixtures coming up this week, Iniesta was left totally on the bench. That was my only regret. Other than that, I felt that my baptism into the world of European club football was all that I could have asked for.

Who´s the Bigger Ass-Hole, vol. 4 (and a few other things)

Sorry to those of you who signed on looking for some news about Spain. You´re just going to have to wait until after I have a little fun debating rather than my traditional column of two people, one person´s two ass-hole actions. The man is question, is, of course, a footballer: Emmanuel Adebayor.

The Togolese international striker seemed to have had more than one rush of blood to the head a week and a half ago when he enountered his former team, Arsenal. It was a real blockbuster of a game, as was the Manchester Derby this past weekend, but Emmanuel Adebayor was less blockbuster than facebuster, after his stamp on former teammate´s, Robin van Persie´s face left rather a lot of blood and the pretty boy van Persie anything but pretty.

While any partially observant collection of referees would have sent Adebayor straight home, this collection seemed to have inherited what I´ll simply refer to as a "Rick Bloom" level of observancy. The stamp wasn´t even ruled a foul, and play was allowed to continue.

Arsenal fans, already enraged by the fact that Adebayor got away (for then) with such a malicious act, were further enraged when the referee´s error cost them dearly, as Adebayor scored what turned out to be the winner. As if slaughtering van Persie´s face weren´t enough debauchery for one day, Adebayor sprinted the full length of the pitch to celebrate his goal immediately in front of the visiting Arsenal fans.

So, I leave it to you, my four readers... who´s the bigger ass-hole - Adebayor (stamp) or Adebayor (celebration)?

Now for the ridiculous people who actually are interested in my day to day life (I´ve still yet to figure out why...), let me throw you a bone or two...

I chewed gum today. It was orbit. It tasted like mint. I enjoyed it. Yummmm. Satisfied? I can´t understand why not, but here´s something else.

Yesterday, several of us had a meeting with Valentín someone-or-other who is the director of the Málaga branch of El Movimiento en contra de la Intolerancia. It´s a non-profit group that tries to prevent discrimination of all types. This is on option to do a little volunteer work this fall before those of us remaining for the year have a full-fledged internship in the spring.

Valentín was quite nice (despite being a Madrileño). That´s a joke, in case I have any Madrilño readers, which I highly doubt. And starting next week, I´ll be volunteering two hours a week there on Tuesday mornings. I´m not entirely sure what exactly the work will be yet. Probably at first it will be some translating type stuff. This organization works closely with other similar organizations in other countries and has a newsletter that goes out in English as well as Spanish (if I understood everything correctly, which is highly doubtful). So I might be working with that. I think later on, we´ll actually get to go with people from this group to schools to give presentations about tolerance and non-discrimination. Sounds cool.

Classes at the Universidad start next week in the mornings as well, so that means I´ll have something in the mornings every day. A busier schedule isn´t exactly ideal, but I´m excited for everything I´ll be doing, so it should be a cool week!

2 Cathedrals, 2 Palaces, 2 Aston Martins, 2 Barca games, 1 Fortress, and THE Plaza de Toros

So it's been a bit longer than I had hoped since my last post, and unfortunately that means you're going to have to suffer through a super-long one. It's been quite the busy schedule in the past five days, as you might have guessed from the title.

On Wednesday last week, I went downstairs (literally) to watch the Barcelona-Inter game at the bar on the first floor of the apartment building immediately behind mine. I wouldn't say that the atmosphere was great, but there was something very nice about just being able to go watch the game with other people who were actually interested in it... easily. And the bartender was great, perhaps more into the game than anyone else.

Thursday morning, we had to get up early (before 9) to take a tour of the Cathedral of Málaga and the Alcazaba (the Muslim fortress). The inside of the Cathedral was quite awesome, as many of you may have already seen from the photos I posted to facebook. The stained glass was lit up perfectly for our visit, which, I must admit, was a bit surprising given that it was raining slightly when I got off the bus in El Centro.

From there, we proceeded to the Alcazaba, but what I found to be super-interesting was the fact that it was built on the site of a Roman Amphitheatre. We stopped briefly at the amphitheatre before entering the Alcazaba. Once we had entered the Alcazaba, it was quite literally a case of up, up, and well, more up. The zig-zagging path up to the top, as I explained briefly in one of my photos, was used as an elaborate defense mechanism. I'm not sure because I wasn't quite paying full attention, but I don't believe it was ever successfully attacked. I believe when the Moors left the Alcazaba, that it was done peacefully. It certainly seemed to be in quite good condition.

Inside the Alcazaba, at the top of the winding path, was the palace of the governor. Our tour guide made it quite clear that this governor was totally unimportant, and that if we wanted to see the palace of an important governor, we'd have to go to the Alhambra... that comes next month. The palace was nice, but what I really found interesting were the little mini-irrigation canals dug into the paths to water various gardens throughout the palace and Alcazaba. The Moors certainly knew how use water to good effect, and of course, their elaborate defense mechanism was also quite a fascinating work of engineering.

Take a deep breath... that wasn't even nearly half.

Friday's are still days off for me, but I went with a bunch of other people to play basketball and then beach football. Basketball, right? Who knew I could play basketball? Well, I can't, actually, but nobody else is really that great either. I mean, there's nobody who's just head and shoulders better than everybody else. The beach football was a little disappointing. The court was just kind of Rocky and that made it rather uncomfortable to play. It also meant anytime anyone fell, he got cut. It was great to play though.

Saturday we had to wake up really early (6:30 for me) to get the group bus at 8 in El Centro to go to Ronda. When I told my host mom I was going to Ronda for the day, I could just see her getting excited for me to experience Ronda for the first time. Maybe if I had gone on a different day, or maybe if I had toured the city in a different direction, or maybe if I had had a different guide, I wouldn't have found it so unbelievably enchanting. But if it hadn't been for Manolo, the travel companion for us Dickinson students on all our trips, it certainly wouldn't have been so.

Manolo is a big guy, at least 6 feet tall and 230+ pounds (I still haven't made the conversion entirely to the metric system). He has a huge face (big nose, big mouth, and massive ears). He has long grayish white hair that's always slicked back over his head. He dresses like what you would expect from a man who knows his personality will win over more people than his looks (not that he's unattractive, rather that he has a great personality). And all of this at at least 60-70 years old.

So the 27 of us students, plus Manolo and Profesor Borges, got off in Ronda at one end of the old town. We met our guide for Ronda, a trilingual Ronda native, Jesús. Jesús explained everything to us in Spanish that was quite easy to understand, but frequently would interject an English word or two, usually with a rather thick British-German-Spanish accent - never heard that one before. When I asked him where he had learned his English, he replied that he had gone to college for tourism in Grenada, but was now married to an anglophonic German wife. And whenever we would finish at any one location, he'd say, "follow Jesus" in a straight British accent. I got quite a kick out of that.

We began entering through a stone arch into the old town. There was a trough outside with a spigot of water flowing out of the stone wall into it. At one point, while Jesús was explaining something, I noticed Manolo go over and just drink out of the spigot. I was standing right next to Profesor Borges, and another student had noticed the same thing, and so asked Profesor Borges if the water was drinkable. Profesor Borges, who seemed as taken aback as both of us, replied something along the lines of "apparently, so." I rather got the impression he wouldn't be caught dead doing that. But I also would have expected nothing less from Manolo.

From here, we walked up (more walking up) to the Cathedral of Toledo. This was quite fascinating (you know, I rarely find my second cathedral in a week fascinating) because there were two parts in two distinctly different styles. The front part of the cathedral was constructed in a Gothic style, with pointed arches and the like. There was the big wooden choir chamber in the middle which prevent the viewing of the other side and thus the mixing of the two styles, and the other other side was constructed in the style of the Renacimiento (Renaissance... a word that at least to me, makes a whole lot more sense in Spanish). Photos to come.

The plaza outside the cathedral was also lovely, with orange trees and Arabic architecture. From here, we did a vuelta of the old Ronda, stopping at the Palacio Mondragón. Manolo, as was the case at the cathedral, knew the people working there. Manolo is apparently also great friends with Jesús. The palace was a lovely excercise in the little patios and staircases. I took quite a number of photos here, which will be posted once I have the will to sort through the 250+ from yesterday. We also stopped at the Puente Nuevo (new bridge) from which we could see the Puente Viejo (old bridge). There was also a Puente Musulman (Muslim bridge), which we didn't see. These were great feats of engineering over massive gorges.

Finally, we finished our vuelta of Ronda at the Plaza de Toros, the largest and most famous plaza in the world. Here, Jesús consented to come on the tour, but insisted that Manolo give it because he has such a wealth of knowledge of bullfighting. What was nice was that not everyone wound up coming on the tour of the Plaza de Toros. We were allowed to do whatever we wanted to at this point, after seeing the inside of the plaza, but of course, I was never going to miss out on getting a tour of the most famous plaza de toros in the world.

After walking around the entirety of the interior of the ring, several of us climbed up to the top to snap some better photos, and then Manolo gave us a tour of the museum, pointing out portraits, clothing, gear, etc. of famous matadors. When we reached a painting of Juan Belmonte, Manolo stopped. "In my opinion, Belmonte is the best matador in the history of bullfighting... He revolutionized the art of bullfighting. Before, the matador would move to catch the attention of the bull. Belmonte would stand in the same place and make the bull come to him... He was gored over 90 times, including one in which the bull's horn went into his mouth and ripped out his cheek... I knew him personally. He was a friend of my father." As Manolo was telling us the story of Juan Belmonte, I could not help but get chills. It reminded me of Carlos Ruiz Zafrón telling the story of some character in "The Shadow of the Wind" because it just fit together so perfectly in a way that only Spanish stories can. I've now decided that I must go to a bullfight with Manolo.

The rest of the day was rather anticlimactic (how could it have been anything else), but still fun nonetheless. Seven us (Tito, Brynn, Ursala, Gina, Luís, Leslie and I - all of whom, except for Gina, will be here for the year), went out to a nice cheap café where we got a fine lunch. We then walked down through a lovely park to the puente viejo where we could take better pictures of the puente nuevo and the gorge. After this, there was just enough time to hurry back to meet up with the rest of the group to catch the bus.

The bus took us on a lovely scenic drive south to the coast (out of our way) to return via a more beautiful route. This is not to suggest that the drive TO Ronda wasn't scenic. I was snapping pictures from the bus then, too, but the drive south to the coast from Ronda was incredible. It was entirely mountainous, and reminded me slightly of driving along the roads in the Pyrenees until we rounded one corner and voila, there was the Mediterranean. For some reason, we were scheduled to stop in Porto Vanús, a luxury resort town on the coast. It's known for being the best sporting port in the world (or so says Manolo). Basically, there was more English than Spanish spoken there, and the majority of the people made me look like I was poor as dirt. There were 2 Aston Martins, a Bentley, a Ferrari, and just dozens of souped up Mercedes. The shopping was designer brand after designer brand. Some kids bought ice cream cones for 3 euro, a remarkably reasonable price comparatively.

Finally, after a scenic drive along the coast back to Málaga, I got in in time to go back to the same bar downstairs and watch the Barcelona game against Atletico de Madrid last night. It was 3-0 inside 30 minutes, and the game was more or less a joke. Messi looked his usual fantastic self, but Xavi was the key man again. Iniesta came off the bench to inspire the fifth goal in stoppage time. It ended 5-2 but Atletico was never within 1 after the 16th.

I think that about takes care of it, 2 cathedrals, 2 palaces, 2 aston martins, 2 Barca games, 1 fortress, and THE Plaza de Toros. Pictures to come...

Rain?

On Sunday, it rained. Well, to call it rain might be a bit of an overstatement. Honestly, calling it rain would be like cutting up a lindt truffle into ten parts, eating one, and calling it dessert. It drizzled. And even calling it drizzle feels like an overstatement. Seriously, there was just enough water coming out of the sky to make the ground a little wet and the air smell like rain.

Anyway, at the time, my host mom was watching Spanish soap operas with her sister and cousin (this went on for 3+ hours on Sunday - I'll wait and see if it's a weekly get-together next week - keeping my fingers crossed that it is not). I didn't even notice it was raining, but one of my friends here sent me a skype message that said that it was. We all thought this was a big deal because in Carlisle it never goes an entire week without raining, which it had since we got here.

At that precise moment, my host mother walked into the room and asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. It seemed a lovely idea, so I went to help with the preparation (she never lets me do any preparation by myself if she's around). I mentioned to her that it was raining. She replied curtly that it was not. I said that I hadn't seen it but that one of my friends had told me it was. Finally, she had the bright idea of actually looking out the window to see whether or not it was raining (William James would have been so proud).

The ensuing scene was something that I honestly could not exaggerate. My host mom shouted from the kitchen into the living room to her sister and cousin that it was raining, and they (both between 50 and 70) bolted out of their positions in an armchair and on the sofa and raced to the window. Seeing two women in their later middle ages run around a tiny apartment to get a glimpse of rain was really something I cannot imagine forgetting.

Finally catching on that this must be an exceptionally unusual event, I asked my host mom something along the lines of, "so the rain's not very common?" This question sent them (my host mom, her sister, and cousin) into a heated debate about whether or not it rained in May. Whether or not it had rained in June, July, or August was, I guess, so obvious, that nobody in her right mind could have thought that it had. The consensus was that it certainly hadn't rained since May, but that it might have rained in May.

Coincidentally, it rained again yesterday... This time, one of the Spanish professors at the Cursos para Extranjeros center warned us that we might not want to go outside because it was storming. The rain was marginally more significant than the day before.

Classes and more

Hola otra vez de Málaga!

We've had the first two days of "classes" at the center for foreign students in Málaga. Classes is in quotation marks because, as with any class, the first session is always more of an introduction than something to actually be interested in.

In the first language class, we simply took an exam to determine which one of two groups we would be placed into. They told us that the groups were not based on skill level, but it appears that they are, since all of the native Spanish-speakers are in the more advanced group. I was fortunate enough to also be placed in this group, and so it appears I will be one of the weaker students in both the language class and the culture class, for this divide is used for both. Well, weaker in the sense that I will understand less of what is going on.

Interestingly, the Spanish language teacher, who conducted the briefest of interviews as part of the exam, told me that she thinks I have a Puertoriqueñan (from Puerto Rico) accent. This is something that my host mom told me as well. I still haven't figured out how I could have a Puertoriqueñan accent, but apparently I do. One of the guys on the trip has parents who are from Puerto Rico, and when I told him, all he said jokingly was "no me digas": Don't tell me this. Nonetheless, I don't think my Spanish would get me very far on the streets of little Puerto Rico in the Bronx.

We still have yet to begin the class on the history of Spanish and Hispano-Arab art. The Professor is apparently on vacation until this upcoming week. This is a class I'm looking forward to very much, and so it will be exciting to begin it.

One of the other more interesting things this week was a meeting with Manolo, our tour guide when we take trips. He talked to us for about half an hour about some of the trips. Then, some of us who are here for the year had some questions for Profesor Borges, but Manolo was just hanging around, so he told us about an optional trip to Morocco that would take place in December. It sounds AWESOME. We either take the fair to Ceuta or fly to Marakesh, then rent a tour bus, which takes us as far into the desert as possible, at which point we travel by camel to an oasis, spend the night, there, and then go back by camel in the morning. We also would get some time in one of the cities, either Marakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, or another one. Can't wait for that!

I've also been trying to figure out if I can get to a Liverpool game in Liverpool sometime. I got really excited today when I saw I could fly round trip direct to Liverpool over a weekend for 80 DOLLARS, but then when I tried to get tickets for that game in November, the cheapest I could find were 240 POUNDS. Something about these prices doesn't make sense to me.

Tomorrow I'll finally get to the Teatinos Campus, that's the main campus for the University of Málaga. Hasta pronto...

Anecdotes... y nada más

I've been putting off writing this blog post. It's not because I don't want to write it, nor is it because I don't have anything to say. Rather, I can find no central theme without being trite and cliche. I could regale you with a chronology of everything I have done so far, but few beyond my mother and grandmother would be interested in that. And yet, I would prefer to avoid being sucked into making some trivial comparison about differences in the style of life between Americans and Spaniards. It seems then, that the best option is to create a post of semi-interesting anecdotes of my time so far in Spain.

Television: First of all, it's on ALL the time... okay, I'm not used to that, but maybe that's because my family's weird in that we have only one television and it's in the basement. It's a lot easier for me to understand the commercials (anuncios here in Spain) than it is the actual television. And the first one that made an impression on me was a Chevrolet commercial featuring members of La Selección (The Spanish national football team). How a bankrupt American company is managing to hire Fernando Torres and Xavi Hernández to make anuncios in Spain, I'll never know.

I saw this anuncio en El Cinco (Channel 5), which is more or less a station of entirely American television shows and movies dubbed over in Spanish. The first thing I saw was "Hombres en Negro" (Men in Black). Other things have more interesting translations. For example, a show that I got fascinated in just before leaving was NCIS. Here it's just called NAVY. One of my colleagues here said she watched CSI with her host mom.

La Playa: That's the beach for those of you lacking Spanish vocabulary. Talk about nice. It takes me longer to walk down the five flights of stairs than it takes me to walk from the apartment building to the Mediterranean. Both are close to a minute, although I'm pretty sure that if I were in a hurry I could make it to the water in under a minute. Useful in case I eat something extra spicy or am on fire.

The beach right across from my apartment is a little rocky. It's really quite a hassle to walk another minute away from the center of the city to get to a sandy beach... When I first went to the rocky beach, I thought that it must have been high tide, because the water was coming all the way to the rocks. As it turns out however, the entrance to the Mediterranean via the straight of Gibraltar is too small to allow for much tidal fluctuation in the Mediterranean. Who knew? The only tidal fluctuations, more or less are from east to west within the Mediterranean, making them barely noticeable.

Food: My host mother confessed to being something of a health nut. She's very keen on the Mediterranean diet, and told me she doesn't cook with any butter or vegetable oil. It's all olive oil. Additionally, dessert is almost always fruit. Last night, I had what would be called junk food for the first time. A tiny prepackaged portion of chocolate mousse. For the most part, however, the food has been filling enough that I haven't felt the need for dessert.

Much of the time my host mom makes one thing for me and something else for her. Today at lunch, for instance she made me a pasta with ham and cheese. She, however, had the traditional dish calamares en su tinta. That's squid in its ink. Needless to say, I wasn't distraught over not being served that business. I'll have plenty of time to try it. And of course, the television and is always on at mealtimes. Last night, my mother served me dinner in the living room and was watching the tele in a different room. When she didn't hear the television in the living room, she came in, turned it on, told me I could watch whatever I wanted to, and left. I thought this a little odd at first, but the same occurrence happened when her son came in a bit later, so I didn't take it personally.

Weather: Today is the first day it hasn't cracked 30 - that's 86 for those of you using Fahrenheit. It's typically quite hot on the fifth floor here, and my room doesn't face the sea, so I have to hope that the wind blows all the way through the apartment. Today the breeze is a bit stronger as well, so despite the fact that it's still 28, it's ten times more comfortable. Of course, I still haven't seen a cloud. How's the weather in Pennsylvania these days - haha!

Today is the day of the Virgin Victoria - the patron saint of Málaga or some business like that. I know that it's a holiday only in Málaga today. We're headed out to some procession in a bit where they carry the Virgin Victoria through the streets. Should be interesting. Tomorrow and Thursday we have classes in the afternoon. And after two days of classes I'm sure I'll be absolutely exhausted, so it's a good thing those of us not taking the Spain and the EU elective have Fridays off (until classes start at the Universidad de Málaga).

I'd love to hear any particular questions you have; please direct them to blooma@dickinson.edu or my facebook account. Hasta luego...

Arrival in Málaga

Remarkably, my travel today from Geneva to Málaga was completely uneventful. The Iberia representative who checked me was completely taken aback when he saw how much luggage I was taking from Geneva to Málaga until I explained that I would be studying there, at which point he became very friendly and insisted that I would absolutely love it.

The Madrid airport is enormous - absolutely enormous. They had almost 100 gates for Iberia flights within the Schengen countries alone. I couldn't piece together how the airport worked, though. The H, J, and K gates were all connected in the format of one long rectangular terminal. Yet, the majority of the gates didn't have a plane at them. So I thought that maybe it just wasn't being fully used yet. But then, when I consulted the departures board, for flights even one and half hours away, there would not be a gate listed. Rather, it would simply say HJK. As the time of departure got closer, the gate would be posted specifically. It seemed odd that if the gates weren't all in use, they wouldn't be able to know that gate from which any individual flight would depart.

Anyway, upon arriving in Málaga, I ran into my colleagues from Dickinson as they were disembarking from a consecutive gate. My luggage then arrived at the wrong terminal (hey, at least it's here). Then Profesor Borges met us and put us in Taxis in pairs. On the way to the neighborhood of El Palo, where many of us are staying, we witnessed the Málaga air show, which featured all types of acrobatic flying manouevres by different types of fighter jets.

My taxi-mate Brynn's address proved difficult for the taxista to locate, and we wound up driving around in circles for some time until he finally relented to calling Brynn's host mother to get directions. About one minute after dropping her off, the taxista found my building no problem - a big apartment building on the road closest to the beach. It's right on the corner.

After I buzzed up, Señora Almansa came down to meet me and assist me with the elevator (which looked like it might have seen better days - I make take the stairs in the future). After she gave me the tour of the apartment, which features a magnificent sea-view, I unpacked for about twenty minutes. Then she set out a wonderful lunch of the typical Spanish tortilla - an omlette with potato, some bread, and chicken. Everything was delicious, especially the tortilla.

Orientation starts tomorrow afternoon.

bread, meat, cheese, and ferrari's

Today, we went to the morning market just across the border in France. Normally, I would not count myself as having visited Germany since I didn't leave the airport, but in this case, my point of entry on the Schengen Visa is Frankfurt, and there's a big stamp in there that says so, so I'm debating about whether or not I can count my number of European countries at three. If so tomorrow's four in four days. Not that it really matters... but it does.

They say that the troika of the American diet is a cheeseburger, french fries, and a milkshake. One can see how with a troika of bread, meat, and cheese (all fresh) Europeans are a far healthier people. After the market, we came back and ate said European troika. I thought of how odd it must seem to Europeans that the things called Farmer's Markets in the United States are seen as something of a renaissance of a phenomenon. This is a practice that has been going on in Europe for ages. And my reaction to the bread, meat, cheese is the same as it was to the coffee the day before. It's just so fresh and delicious and unavailable in the US. Now I'm really excited for some jamon Serrano once I get to Spain.

This afternoon, the Genevoise whom I'm staying with had tickets to the circus, so they dropped me in downtown, and I walked around for about three-and-a-half hours - good preparation for the life I'll be living in Màlaga most likely. I took some great photos of the lake, hiked up the hill to the old town. My journey took me past one of the two highlights of the day - three Ferrari's - and deposited me at the other - the Espace Rousseau.

Rousseau was born in Geneva in the early 18th Century, and lived virtually his entire life as an outcast wherever he went. Hume accepted him in Scotland after his exile from both France and Geneva, but Rousseau was convinced Hume was plotting against him and returned promptly to rural France. An enigmatic philosopher, he is someone whose works I hope to become more acquainted with than I am at present.

I exited the old town via a park which includes the Reformation Wall, something I remember visiting on my first visit to Geneva more than four years ago. My favorite attraction in the park, however, remains the 8 sq meter chess boards with .5 meter tall pieces. Every board was in use, almost exclusively by elderly gentlemen smoking pipes or cigars. After all of this, I met up with my family again, and we sat out at a café famous for its ice cream. I tried a dark chocolate sorbet which was delicious.

Our walk back to the car where they had parked several blocks away took us past what I found to be an odd phenomenon for Europe - a weight watchers. After I muttered hesitatingly about it, my aunt informed me that European employers frequently pay for their employees to attend because, naturally, it cuts down on other health costs. You mean a fit and healthy people are less likely to get other types of illnesses??? What a crazy idea (I still haven't found the exclamation mark on the French language keyboard).

Hasta manana de Espana...

The European Dream

For centuries, Europeans (and other people around the world in search of a better life) have talked of the American Dream. Well, now us Americans can talk of the European Dream, among whose benefits include guaranteed healthcare, a massive social safety net, and most importantly, good coffee. I am not a particularly superficial guy, but I must admit that my first action always upon disembarking from a voyage to Europe is to get a good cup of coffee. I mean, you can hide the fact that the coffee isn´t very good in the US by going to good local coffee shops regularly - which I do, but once you have that good European coffee going through your system, it makes even the best American coffee shop look like... well, I'll keep my first post on this relaunching of my blog G rated.

Usually when I travel I have some good story about meeting someone interesting or having my luggage lost (or almost lost) or being delayed for hours in a dreadful spot. Although I did meet a mildly interesting American-Italian, the highlight of my travels came about 30 minutes after leaving Pittsburgh (which made for a very long rest of the journey) when I saw Dickinson from the air. It was a perfectly clear day, and I was able to follow I 76 all the way from Pittsburgh. About halfway to Philadelphia, I looked down and saw a mid-sized town, then some warehouses to the west, then the track, and then, the thing that made me absolutely certain was the Kline. The guy next to me at the point muttered some question wondering where we were, and I was able to tell him with 100% certainty that we were over Carlisle, PA. The perfect way to say au revoir to the life I could have been living this year. I'll miss those of you at Dickinson (and abroad) a lot this year, but I can't help but be excited for the adventures to come, so what better way to say goodbye than from the very beginning of said adventures.

After arriving yesterday, I simply did everything in my power just to stay awake. My 7 year old cousin of course obliged in helping keep me awake with a full range of energy draining activities, most of which involved me running around trying to catch her. So I managed to stay awake until about 9:30. I then slept for 14 hours straight.... Today is a pretty miserable day in Geneva with much rain in fits and spurts, so it didn't seem to be a great day for walking around. My aunt was very gracious, however, in inviting me to lunch with several of her colleagues from the ILO. It was a delightful lunch at an authentic Galician (from northeastern Spain) restaurant to wet my tongue for Spanish cuisine.

The hope is that tomorrow the weather is better and that I may be able to stretch the legs a bit and get to know my new camera - either around Geneva or some other place nearby. If I can figure out how to post photos, you will see the good ones when I have them. For now, take care wherever you are, and expect another post upon my arrival in Spain.

Which came first - the bunny or the egg?

As many of you have noticed, the blog has been down for a while, and will continue to be updated infrequently until the summer when I plan to be writing daily again. That being said, I couldn't help but offer a little commentary about the stranger Easter traditions.

It all began this year, when I received an odd box from E. B. at my Grandmother's address. There is nobody at that address who has those initials, so I was a little puzzled, wondering 1) if perhaps one of my grandmother's stuffed animals had sent me something or 2) if she was simply going senile and forgot that her name isn't Ethel. Well, inside, there was a lot of chocolate, so I figured out that E. B. stood for Easter Bunny (regular Sherlock Holmes I am).

What's also interesting about this whole episode is the fact that my grandmother is Jewish. Both of her sons married Christian women, and for the first time this year, we all celebrated Christmas together. Maybe she figured Easter is like a part of Christmas or something - I'm not really sure (just giving you a hard time, Grandma). (Yes, that's right, my grandmother reads my blog. I know you're jealous now!)

But what I really want to talk about is this tradition of Easter eggs. I can't figure this one out. So we've got Santa Claus for Christmas and the Easter Bunny for Easter. Okay, one of those is a seriously better creation (sorry little kids); I'll leave you to decide which one. But why do we have Easter eggs then? Everything at Easter revolves around eggs. We die eggs. We hide eggs. We eat chocolate in the shape of eggs. It's an eggs-ellent holiday.

So the question is, ironically, "which came first - the bunny or the egg?" If the bunny came first, then why on earth do we do all this stuff with eggs at Easter? And if the eggs came first, then why don't we have an Easter Sparrow or an Easter Tortoise or some other Easter animal that actually lays eggs? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that something just doesn't line up here.

There's something else here, which just doesn't line up either. At Christmas, we give gifts, and it seems that this is based, at least to some extent, on the Three Wise Men (should they be capitalized?) bringing gifts to the Baby Jesus. But what do eggs or a really mythical bunny have to do with the resurrection of Christ? I am admittedly ignorant of religion, and there may be a very good explanation. If there is, I'd love to know, but from an outsider's perspective, you can see how all of these traditions seem a bit strange.

Regardless, enjoy your Easter eggs, even if you don't celebrate the holiday.

World Cup Qualifying - Second Half

Read the other post from tonight first. This is for the second half.

Some halftime thoughts:

Jozy Altidore was great for about 30 minutes. His involvement was less productive in the latter stages of the first half, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him withdrawn sometime in the second half as long as the US are still in the lead. A lot of people have been speculating about whether or not Jozy can play as the center forward. From the first half, it seems to me that he's not physical enough to play that role. He's such a handful as a second striker, though. My goodness.

Donavan has been on the ball so much this game. El Salvador did a good job keeping him out of the game, but he's been up and down the left flank for the US today.

T & T haven't gotten numbers forward - at all. When they go forward, it's with John, Jones, Edwards, with maybe one more.

45:00: Second half kicks off. One sub for T & T. Shaka Hislop, the famous goalie from the '06 world cup's cousin has come in. I missed who went out.

45:52: Audacious shot from one of the T & T players. High, wide, and not very handsome.

47:10: Dempsey loses the ball on a forward run, but in all honesty, there was nobody moving in front of him, so he can be forgiven for his act of selfishness.

48:15: Us throw high up the field. Ching pushed over ten yards outside the box. The big men get forward, Donavan's over it, and...

49:10: Bocanegra gets to it, and he should have done better. Should be two nil, or five, counting the good chances from the first half.

49:55: Ching could have released Donavan up the line, but he plays the ball out of bounds. Should have been better, but now he wins another foul in the attacking half.

50: 38: Donavan's free kick is cleared by Ince to the halfway line, and T & T have a bit of break.

50:58: Won back by Bradley, but T & T have it back.

51:44: Some bad touches from T & T lead Ince to play it out for a throw.

52:37: The US are passing it around comfortably, and OH MY WORD, Altidore gets hacked to the ground. Yellow card - finally - for A. Edwards.

54:16: The US had four men going forward - two in the center with space, but Dempsey is too slow with pass, and T & T recover.

55:00: Birchall is withdrawn and looks far from pleased about it. The eyes are rolled back up in the head. Well, he better suck it up.

55:50: Beasley's speed is necessary to keep Edwards from a good through ball. Then Dempsey has an opportunity at the other end, but he fouls, and T & T have the ball back.

57:08: Apparently Altidore plays defense too. And it leads to the best US attack of the half. Ince bobbles the ball, but nobody's around, and the counter is on! Edwards beats Beasley, showing off his lightning fast speed. But John's touch is bad and goes straight to Hward.

58:28: Altidore called for a foul - very harsh. He would have been through up the right wing too. Disappointing from the ref.

60:15: Good attack from T & T. Jones gets a shot off from 14 yards and dead center, but puts it over. That was the best chance for T & T. Will they get another?

61:00: Dempsey shoots from 30 yards. Useless.

61:30: What? Onyewu won the ball, but a foul has been called in the D. It's very close, almost too close, but dangerous nevertheless.

62:30: And... the first shot is into the wall, and the second one is not great, and Howard collects. Once senses that game may have shifted just a bit towards T & T at the moment. Another strange foul drawn by T & T, but this in their own half.

63:30: And now another. This is just ridiculous. From the ensuing free kick, though, the US finally wins a foul in their own box. About time, and ironic cheers can be heard by the crowd.

64:41: Altidore wins a challenge in the attacking half, but it goes out for a throw. Now Dempsey wins the ball, and the US have a throw.

65:53: Good ball forward by Bocanegra, and perhaps if Ching hadn't gotten a head on it, it would have dropped for Donavan.

66:35: Hejduk wins the ball in the back again, but the ball forward goes straight to Ince.

67:27: Good posession from the US. Donavan is on the ball a lot, and all the touches are in the T & T half.

68:43: Still T & T can't posess the ball in US half. Now they do, finally, but the ball winds up in Howard's gloves.

69:33: Beasley goes flying after an awkward tackle from Hislop, but no foul - he did win the ball before cleaning out Beasley, and the Us have posession with a throw.

70:20: ALTIDORE!!! Great run from Donavan past Hislop (gets what he deserves), and the cut back for Altidore still leaves one man to beat, and boy did he beat him. Dempsey had done well to win the ball. Reminiscent of Fernando Torres to get past the center back and the finish is all quality. Altidore's the man.

72:16: The US still have the ball - I'm not quite sure when the last time was the didn't really have the ball.

72: 30: They've now announced that T & T made their last substitution during the break after the goal.

73:55: Ching fouled in the attacking half. It's probably too far out to be significant, though. A good ball into the box is likely. Ince comes for it, and now Edwards is in space.

74:30: Jones loses the ball in the corner, though, and Howard's got the ball.

75:35: It looked like the T & T player was one on one with howard, but Hejduk came out of nowhere to win the ball with a fantastic sliding challenge.

76:15: Now Dempsey is fouled eight yards outside the box. This could be a shooting opportunity, but I suspect another ball into the box.

77:00: Onyewu is called for a foul as the ball winds up in the back of the net. It really doesn't look like a foul, and it erases what would have been one of the most awkward goals I've ever seen.

78:18: Ching offsides.

78:50: Awkward for ince. He had come far out to take the offsides free kick, and a deep ball bounced awkwardly about thirty-five yards from goal. In the end he plays it with his knee, and it's still T & T ball.

79:32: Hejduk clears a good ball for a corner, from which T & T head the ball about 12 yards wide. It looks like Jose Torres will be coming on for the US.

80:25: And it will be Ching coming out as Torres goes on. Altidore is now the sole forward, and one assumes Donavan will push up to play as the second striker.

81:38: Bad ball from Dempsey, and T & T have the ball in the US half.

81:55: How many times have I said this? Good tackle from Hejduk to disposess Edwards.

82:36: Kljestan looks to be coming on, as Hejduk wins yet another ball. Why isn't this man playing in Europe???

83:12: Jones makes a good run, but the ball is just too heavy, and Howard wins the ball.

83:46: Dempsey is the player withdrawn as Kljestan comes on.

84:22: Good move from Torres, but Ince clears. Now Altidore is through in the box, but it's too wide, and his cross is over Bradley. Torres puts the ball back in, but it but Donavan's shot is inches wide.

85:42: Bradley with a shot from the top of the box, but Ince saves. The rebound should have been followed up by Donavan, but he was being lazy.

86:32: Donavan releases Torres, but the defender puts it out for a corner. Cleared for a throw.

87:49: The game's chilled a little bit. The players are walking around.

88:36: Goal! Bradley is through on goal, and instead of taking a shot, which was definitely called for, he cross badly for Donavan, who again, instead of shooting, lays it back to Altidore. The finish is not all that great, but it squeezes under Ince. And the man's got his hat trick.

90:00: Torres makes a good sliding challenge at midfield, and that's the game. Good play from the US; bad play from T & T. But it was really necessary for the US to come out and play well tonight, regardless of the result, and that's just what they did. Altidore with three goals. The kid's 19 (that's younger than I am). Donavan with three assists.

10 minutes later, and Frankie Hejduk is still running around the field.

US World Cup Qualifying - First Half

I'm trying a new approach this evening. I've taken my computer to the common room, and am watching the US - T & T world cup qualifier. I'll be offering the equivalent of liver commentary.

2:46: Ching levelled with an elbow to the back of the head by a T & T center back, who was lucky to escape a booking I think.

3:30: Good cross from Bocanegra. Cleared out for a throw in.

3:59: Awkward catch for Ince, the T & T goalie, over Altidore.

4:45: Bad cross from Donavan

5:30: Howard almost gifts T & T a goal as his attempted clearance goes straight into Stern John (the ex-Columbus man)

7:40: A good chance for the US. T & T carved open up the middle. Ching's cross was bad, though, with Altidore open in the middle.

8:35: Beasley shuts down Arsenal-man Carlos Edwards.

9:15: Altidore has looked good for the US so far. Good movement off the ball, and good posession when he gets the ball.

10:30: Good fast break from T & T. Corner. The header from the corner is blocked by a T & T player. Lucky for the US after some bad marking.

12:12: GOAL! Fantastic play by the US. A long ball up the field is well controlled by Ching and he plays Donavan with a great header. The cross from Donavon is right to Altidore, and it's an easy goal after a good run to beat the defender into the box. Excellent!

13:47: Soft foul called on Dempsey at midfield. His action has been limited, and he needs to get into the game more.

1436: Beautiful from Altidore. Great first touch before a backheal to Hejduk, and it results in a corner.

15:55: Good passing from the US again, but Hejduk's cross is cleared out for a throw.

16:38: Dempsey tries the spectacular after a deflected cross from Hejduk, but the overhead kick is poor and goes well over the bar.

17:44: T & T are all over the place at the back. They have given the ball away three times now in their own third.

20:15: Referee ignores two potential fouls against the US, and awards posession to T & T on the throw.

21:02: Hejduk is crazy. He wins a header after lying on the ground when the ball was played. He's also about 6 inches shorter than the T & T player.

22:25: Donavon wins the ball in midfield and plays an OKAY ball to Altidore. I better ball might have but Altidore through on goal though, and out wide, Altidore can't make anything of it. Posession to T & T.

24:16: Great combo from Edwards and John sends Edwards through down the wing. Beasley was caught out, and the US were lucky that Jones was lazy and hadn't made a good run into the box.

24:50: Finally a foul goes in the US's favor. If the US dove more, they'd get more fouls. Too bad we're mostly descended from northern Europeans.

26:10: good ball from Bradley, but it amounts to nothing. Another good ball, and Altidore gets wiped out in the box, but after he had played the ball out of bounds. Pretty bad foul from the goalie, but it's not called. The goalie then gets in the face screaming at one of his defenders. Not exactly the type of good unity you'd like to see in your team.

28:44: T & T just play the ball out of play after great pressure from Altidore.

29:06: Another questionable offsides called on the US. The reply makes it look like he is just off, but very close. Good work from the US. Boy is the a contrast to Saturday night!

30:47: T & T finally get a ball into the box, but it's well over Kenwayne Jones, who was double-marked anyway.

31:13: Bad ball from Donavan as he had both Altidore and Ching in front of him and open.

32:12: John gets a half-chance, an awkward volley while he's falling over, after Birchall's ball into the box. He would have been lucky to score in all honesty, and in the end, the effort was never even very close.

32:54: Dempsey with some good footwork down the wing, but it goes out of bounds.

34:24: Game's gone a bit dead. The US are just passing it around in the back, and T & T are doing nothing with the clearances.

35:20: Once again T & T give it away in their own half, but Bradley, Mastroeni, and Donavon can't do anything, and the ball winds up back with Bocanegra.

36:20: Bad foul on Altidore not called, and it's a shame, because that was in a good position, too.

37:09: OH NO! Donavan should have scored. The T & T defense lets the ball bounce, and Donavan was there, but he's short, and it bounced over his head.

37:55: What he hell! Donanvan is absolutely cleaned out by Thomas, and I can't believe there's not a card. That challenge would have made Gattuso proud.

39:01: Hejduk wins another header he shouldn't have and the US have posession once again. I can't wait to see the posession statistics when I check gamecast at halftime.

40:29: What in the world just happened. Great ball from Beasley to Ching, and after a deflection, Altidore somehow manages to put the ball over from 2 yards.

41:27: The US should have scored again. This time, after playing a great ball down the line to Beasley, Donavan gets the ball back and his ball into the box back to Beasley is perfect, but the header is straight at Ince.

42:40: Gotta love Fankie. Sprinting back 20 yards to make a fantastic sliding tackle. Goes out for a throw, which is headed out for another.

44:26: More good combo play from the US midfield, but Donavan's ball to Altidore is a little to heavy and T & T get it out for a throw.

45:00: Bradley's shot is deflected by Beasley, who is laying on the ground, and it goes out for a goal kick. One minute of added time.

45:00: Halftime.

Morality and Economics

I hadn't planned on writing a post tonight, but perhaps now I can get out of writing one tomorrow (although I may anyway). I was trying to think of a good way to introduce an interesting argument, a very compelling one in my current opinion. So wasn't there a famous Bill Nye segment called "consider the following?" Well do it. Consider the following:

The lack of recognition of common humanity is the base of all problems in society. I hope I don't have to explain this, but just in case, I'll take a common example. A 50 year old woman develops breast cancer. She doesn't have health insurance because her 55 year old husband just retired. She's refused treatment on the cancer because she can't pay for it. (This is not an uncommon occurrence.) If we had a recognition of the common humanity of everyone, we would not claim rights to health care for ourselves while denying them to others. Similarly, we wouldn't have genocides, and the number of wars would be greatly reduced. But this begs the question, "why do we not consider our common humanity in these situations?"

I believe that the cause of this obliviousness is capitalism. Suppose we were to undertake an economic analysis of the potential value-added to society of the average person born in a wealthy suburb versus someone born in rural Pennsylvania. The potential economic value-added to society of the person born in suburbia is much higher. Why? She has access to, most importantly, better education. (These are generalizations, obviously. Not all people from suburbia produce more value-added to society than rural Pennsylvanians, but generally speaking this is true.) Consider the differences, then, between the average American and the average African. They are extraordinarily greater. This is a very strong argument (although I disagree with it) for non-intervention in Sudan.

So how do we grapple with economics? It's quite difficult really, and involves a moral philosophy argument. The above argument for why we are inherently unequal, is an economic one (obviously). The moral philosopher, however, asks the question, "are we not all morally equal?" In other words, before, we measured people based on their economic input into society, but now we are measuring people based on their ability to choose right from wrong. Now, before someone jumps on me for ignoring moral relativism, let me brush that argument aside. The morally relativistic viewpoint is somewhat irrelevant here. It doesn't matter in what moral system people are acting, their equality is based solely on the concept that they have equal ability to judge right from wrong. My suggestion then, as I mentioned before, is that we judge people based on their morality instead of their economic output. Hence, one African, one uneducated American, and one highly educated American could have any relative moral worth.

Am I suggesting a weird moral calculus by which we have some governing body that determines how much health care each person is entitled to based on her moral decisions? No, absolutely not. I am suggesting that to truly break with the current system by which we measure human worth, we need to break with the current ideology surrounding capitalism. This is not necessarily a rejection of capitalism, however. In the United States, we view capitalism as individually based. The ideological conception most Americans have of capitalism involves the base assumption that when I pursue what is in my best interest, the entire society benefits. I would suggest a more Rousseau-esque version of capitalism (perhaps a more Eastern philosophy) whereby we pursue our capitalist actions not in what is in our own best interests, but rather in society's best interests (see Rousseau's discussion of the General Will). When our decision making becomes humanitarian-centered rather than individual-centered, we provide both an incentive for people to act in society's best interest and a moral rationale for why they should. In this sense, morality and economics are aligned - a person's commitment to society could be measured by her economic output. Moral righteousness and economic output become the same thing.

A couple things necessarily involved and assumed to be the case. National boundaries cease to exist. We must live in a world community free of political borders. All people must have access to the same basic education/health care (anything used to calculated the Human Development Index). Most importantly, we must all recognize our common humanity. None of this could ever happen (perhaps obviously) without this recognition.

Disclaimer: I am grappling with big ideas. I do not profess to fully understand any of them. In this sense, then, I make it fully transparent that the beliefs expressed here do not represent the beliefs of mine from several years ago, nor will they, I presume, represent my beliefs some years from now. I have used "I believe" to present an argument - one which I currently find compelling. This is by far a better stimulant to discussion than a distant, "they argue." I hope that my readers will challenge the position I have adopted here so that we may all come to a fuller understanding.

MLS First Kick

It began yesterday. No, not March Madness you silly Americans, MLS, a professional sport. The first game pitted the expansion franchise Seattle Sounders against MLS Cup runners up NY Red Bulls. I don't generally expect a lot out of the quality of the American game, but I figured I should support MLS, so I watched.

The game was actually pretty good, minus a few bad touches here and there, and a few passes gone astray. I was pleasantly surprised at how much the game resembled the European game. Rojas continually dropped deep into midfield to collect the ball for NY, filling a Xavi-like role. He was supposedly playing off of Juan Pablo Angel as a second forward, but that just didn't happen. I think that's probably part of the reason for NY's struggles. Seattle played a more direct game, firing long balls up to the towering Nate Jacqua, who looked surprisingly good at controlling the ball.

One man stole the show, however, and that man was rookie Freddy Montero. Montero played with great vision, constantly hassled the NY defense, and showed sublime skill in finishing. He had a hand in all three Seattle goals, scoring the first and the third and setting up the second with a beautiful reverse ball. The 21 year-old's got talent - it's undeniable. The goals were well deserved by Montero. The third was unassisted, and he put himself in perfect position to score the first. I wonder if he'll hit the twenty mark this season. I wouldn't be surprised.

On top of the quality of the match, the atmosphere was great as well. Well, great might be a bit of stretch because the fans still don't understand that much (contrary to what Eric Wynalda thinks, but I've never agreed with him, so who cares). The were cheering raucously when Keller made a great save late in the second half. Typically, European fans would be booing their defense for allowing a goalscoring opportunity (I think). Regardless, there were 32,000 fans in attendance - a fantastic number for MLS, and Drew Carey (the minority owner) has managed to sell 20,000 season tickets. That's fantastic. If the atmosphere is as great for every game as it was for the first one, Seattle will undoubtedly become the best footballing franchise in the United States.

I'm now excited for the season to get into full swing. I plan on actually following MLS this year, so expect a fair bit of it in my blog. Consider it my way of supporting the world's game in this country - making my voluntary readership read about it. I'll be starting my Sunday Morning Football post again this weekend hopefully, so check back for some more football news then.