We took a tour of one of the Cathedral in Oporto. There was a lot of interesting things in this cathedral. I hope this isn´t too boring, but for anyone who likes history the tour guide had a lot of information that I videod.

We got to tour a winery in Oporto, Portugal. The smells and tastes of the wine were amazing. I talked to a few of the students before the tour and then got a bit of the tour on video. We got to taste a white wine and a red wine and both were amazing, but very rich in flavor. A lot people, including myself, ended up buying wine to bring back for family and friends (especially since some of these wines can only be bought in Oporot). The wine made here is called port because of it´s very rich flavors. Each wine is meant to be eaten with certain types of foods. The red wines (and there are a few different types) are meant usually for fruit or pastries as they are very sweet. The white wines are mostly for cheeses and some pastries.

On a side note: although I do not have any videos I did get to learn how to surf in Oporto, Portugal and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Although the waves can really beat you up when you fall, the feeling of riding on top of the waves is absolutely amazing. I recommend learning how to surf if you ever get to chance, it is definitely worth it.

I was looking at the earlier post and I do not know why, but the video is not posted. Sorry about that, one of the really amazing videos I downloaded on youtube isn´t working because there is some rule about a max of 10 minutes on videos uploaded and mine is 11 minutes. I will try and edit that and re-upload it. Here is small video of it anyway.

Great story in Spain. Our bus broke down on the 10 hour ride from Santiago to Ciudad Real. As we were waiting on the side of the road we were told that the bus couldn´t sit on the side of the road and we were not allowed off the bus. The bus was starting to get extremely hot. A couple of police officers showed up and told us to stay on the bus, trying to keep us out of danger.  Another bus from a nearby town ended up picking us up and then taking us to the bus that was trying to meet us from Ciudad Real to take us back. It gave us a view on how Spain’s transportation system works and their rules on broken down vehicles.

So while in Santiago, our tour guide showed a gorgeous bookstore. There were even some books in English that a few of us bought. There were all kinds of books and a few expensive paintings, plus some great smelling soaps.

On the last night in Barcelona we got to see the light show in Barcelona. It was absolutely gorgeous. There is a building in the back that looks like a capital building with lights shining out of it and waterfall fountain coming down from it. This big fountain with the light show is at the very bottom. Every light show is different, with different water choreography and music. I will post the other fountain videos as soon as they upload. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. All the girls decided that if a man wanted a definite yes to a proposal that this would be a great place to propose.

Alright, so this video is a bit random, but very entertaining. At one of the beaches in Barcelona there were some (I think Nigerian) men wrestling people for fun (although there was still a hat going around for tips). A few of the boys decided to join in and try to see if they could beat them. This video is of Jordan giving it a try. He didn´t win this one, but he won another later on. They even had some of the women wrestle, but I heard that one girl broke her ankle (yikes!). Overall, Barcelona was a great place, but that there was soooo much to see it was ridiculous. We got to see the Picasso museum, but camera were not allowed.

The famous architect Gaudi designed this Cathedral and it is very eccentric with lots of detail. It is still under construction and other archictects have taken over and tried to keep Gaudi´s original idea for the cathedral as they continue the construction. Inside the building you can see the construction workers in the background. I lost my voice and asked my friend Ariana to be a mini tour guide.

Here is another glimpse of life while we are at school. Every Wednesday we have intramurals. So far we have had Soccer and Basketball tournaments. The rest of the soccer tournament last time will be played tomorrow. My time hasn´t won a game, but it has been fun anway. Dr. Olivera is on my team and he is pretty good. My friend Ariana is a bit shy, but I interviewed her, Ryan, and Jorge on their expereinces so far with intramurals. For the most part everyone is pretty competitive. We have a lot of very athletic engineers in the program, but it makes it that much more fun to play.

This is a glimpse of lunch at the University in Ciudad Real. We have lunch around 1:30 and have 3 longtables  reserved for all of us. Right when we sit down we quickly fill out the sheets with boxes to check what options we want for the 2 courses. We tend to what to get our food as soon as possible. We always have bread and a big bottle of water to pour into our glasses plus any soda you want to grab when you are walking in. For dessert we get fruit or ice cream and both are pretty awesome. For the most part, lunch lasts for about an hour and it is good time to wind down from the classes we had all morning.