Happy New Year y Feliz Ano Nuevo

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then i could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.

So this is the New Year
- Death Cab For Cutie, The New Year


Happy New Year to everyone! One week until I leave for Spain. At this time next week, I will just have arrived in Seville at my hotel with the rest of the study abroad students. I don't feel nervous at all about going, in fact I feel quite calm.


I'm more excited than anything else at this moment in time. I believe it's the prospect of going over to a country that I have never been before, speaking a language that I don't really use except at random times, and experiencing and living in a European culture for five whole months. The first leg of my journey takes me from DFW to London and the second leg takes me from London to Madrid and to Sevilla via train. The blog officially starts when I post in England during my layover hopefully.


I would leave you with New Year resolutions, but I don't keep them very well. So I will leave you all with my well wishes for 2009 and good luck for the upcoming semester at Texas Tech and everyone else's colleges.

Be safe and be kind to all.

Until next time...

Viva Espana!: 1 Month To Go

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."
- Mark Twain

"Why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?"
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Part 2, Ch. 6



I have one month to go before I leave for Sevilla, Espana or Seville, Spain to those unfamiliar with its Spanish name. You're probably wondering why I haven't posted about Spain yet and posted filler about football and other miscellaneous musings?

Starting NOW I am writing about Spain, the trip before, the journey during, and the experience afterward. So it's one month to go and I am in the midst of finals week, waiting to get my passport back and get things tied up before I leave. A month from now I will be on a plane, Dallas to Seville, Spain. As of right now I don't know who I'm living with or who my roommate is, but I will update that when I receive that information. I will update later.

Estoy muy cansado.

There's No Place Like Home...

Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.

Sam: I still feel at home in my house.

Andrew Largeman: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.


The above dialogue from 2004's Garden State definitely echoes a lot of my thoughts and people my age's thoughts. This is definitely a transitionary period, a changing of the guard. My best friend from childhood and I were back in Dallas for Thanksgiving and the day before decided to visit the grave of a mutual friend of ours and one of my best childhood friends who passed away this summer at age 20. While we were waiting on someone to find the gravesite, we thought about what home means to us now.

Home in every sense of the word means a place of your own, a safe haven. However you definite it, has it own significance to every person and it's own meaning. Home will always be the house i grew up in Mesquite, Texas. No matter how the neighborhood changes, it's still the place I was raised. However, Dallas as home and where I spent the majority of my days feels completely different. Every since the passing of my friend, Dallas has certain memories both good and bad I will always remember and I will never be able to let go. Every street in Far East Dallas, Lakewood, and places in between has memories associated with it. I just dont feel right here anymore though. I know i'm not supposed too- I'm 21 years old. It comes with being an adult. My friend said he felt at ease being out on Lake Travis away from the busy, noise of cars and the traffic at Austin. I feel at ease being in my adopted home on the South Plains of Lubbock,Texas. My friend and I both said things have changed because friends disappear, home just doesn't have the same kick as it once did.

It's such a dichotomous relationship, the duality of it all. Our need to be among people and relationships, yet at the same time we crave solitude, serenity, and silence. The feeling of achieving this was almost two years ago. I drove with a friend out to New Mexico one night to just get away for a few hours. I stood on the border of New Mexico and Texas on Highway 114 at dusk. You can't here anything. Silence is incredible sometimes.

I love Dallas and I love Lubbock. Just Dallas isn't for me right now. I'll come back eventually because my family is here, just I'd rather enjoy a different pace of life out in West Texas.

Trail of Tears,Grapes of Wrath

Okie use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you're scum. Don't mean nothing itself, it's the way they say it.
-John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects... - PBS. org




Nov 22 is a day that will live in infamy. Not just for the 45th anniversary of JFK's assassination, but the virtual assassination of Tech's bid to win the Big XII conference championship out right and the chance for a National Championship bid at the Orange Bowl. Tech came riding in on the coat-tails of success and floundered. The University of Oklahoma just played better and did everything better and exposed weaknesses not seen in Tech since the early part of the season. OU turned Tech's offense and defense in too Swiss cheese. Many factors were attributed to Tech's poor performance on a national stage. Leaving the game it was hard and angry, the next morning was even harder driving back 6 and a half hours back to Lubbock. I'm glad Baylor is last on the schedule.

- Homefield advantage in Norman, record is 60-2 with Bob Stoops coaching.
-The Bye Week
- Lack of tackling
-Questionable calling by Mike Leach
- A bad night in general.

I still support my team. GO RED RAIDERS! WRECK 'EM!

Raiders of the BCS Polls

A week later and the day after my 21st birthday. The "Pokes" of Oklahoma State University traveled to Lubbock to take on the ranked Red Raiders. OSU was #9 in the nation and were expected to give the Red and Black a gamble. Armed with a lethal quarter back and a wide receiver who according to Lee Corso, "is better than Michael Crabtree."

The game started off tense with a fumble by Tech quarterback, Graham Harrell and OSU easily scored seven points. However, the rest of the game proved to be all Tech. Tech easily took charge of the game and won 56-21 with a commanding lead of the Big XII and a bid for the conference title. Tech's offense and defense could do no wrong and OSU was held to one of their worst performances all year.

West Texas Cookout Part Two

I've never seen a mood so tense as the one I saw in Lubbock on Nov. 1. When the Longhorns came to town they were ranked #2. When they left, they left heartbroken, dejected and aghast at the end. 39-33 was the final score, won on a one second left, Michael Crabtree touchdown.

Shaking off a Longhorn defender, Crabtree darted into the end zone. The fans literally went crazy, rushing the field not once, not twice, but THREE times. Yes, it was that suspenseful and the emotions had to come out. Fans poured the field in a frenzy like a school of Piranhas. I rushed the field last year against #3 ranked Oklahoma, but this by far was the most intense thing I have ever witness in terms of a victory. Not too bad for a little team from West Texas on ESPN College Gameday Night.

A West Texas Cookout

Intensity is what's for dinner on the South Plans as the #6 Red Raiders take on #1 Texas this weekend in Lubbock.

Texas Tech is set to play the BIGGEST game of the season this Saturday night at 7 p.m. This is the highest Tech has been ranked since 1976, when Tech was 8-0 and eventually lost to #9 University of Houston. I saw Tech play Texas here at home in 2006, my freshman year of college. That game was big. It was the largest Jones AT&T game had ever seen in terms of capacity. That was two years ago and this is 2008. The stakes are a little higher with Heisman Trophy candidacy for Graham Harrell on the line and even a shot at the Big XII Championship come December.

Texas is a good team. There's no question there. Colt McCoy has been really solid the past few games and Texas seems to get stronger every week. However, Tech is Texas' only true test of their abilities. Tech's team in my opinion, has more weapons than Texas. Tech has a great running game comprised of two running backs and multiple threats at wide receiver with Crabtree, Eric Morris, Kyle Leong, and others. Even the defense looks unstoppable. But that doesn't mean Tech can just walk in there. It's gonna be a battle regardless.

I'm just ready to have some steak and eat it too. Wreck 'Em Tech!

*Please note I am blogging about the football season and other things until I leave for study abroad where this will serve as my travel log.