Two matches

The biggest match of Spain was played today between Barcelona and Real Madrid. I was watching the match in a local bar with Spanish friends. Bar was full of people and there was also supporters of Barcelona. People seemed definetely more excited about the match than other la liga matches. People were supporting, insulting and holding their breathe everytime when something happened. In the end Barcelona won the match 1-0.

On Saturday I had Floorball match. Our team won the leader of the league 4-2 and I scored two goals and assisted one. I am having curse of three points or nothing. I have made three points in three league matches and zero points in two friendly matches and in one league matches. Next match will be next year.

Internal competition of football

List

Today we had our last match of the group phase in Internal competition of university of Alcalá in football seven. We had still change to go through to the cup phase. We had won two matches and lost two matches. Unfortunately last match was a tie 3-3 and we are out. In the last match both teams received red card in the end of first half because of pushing and almost starting a fight. Also referee had to listen a lot of whining about his decisions. You can really see the difference in the temperament when playing football.

Yesterday I was last time in my Campus Europea language course which I had everyday three hours during two months. I was able to participate only two times per week because I had floorball trainings and football matches in the same time.

Maps

Maps from Google

I decided to upload picture of the center of Joensuu and Alcalá. As you can streets in the center of Alcalá are going all the possible directions, it is like a maze compared to Joensuu. Most of the streets are one way streets in Alcalá. During the rush hour police is needed to guide the traffic in the traffic circle in the main road. Here are police of Alcalá and police of Spain but I do not know if they have different rights or why it is like that. Now I have experienced in Spain that Police will stop the houseparty and it is not only Finland where this happens like Spanish exchange students made me understand.

Floorball match in Marbella

View from the hotel

On Saturday morning I woke up at 7:15 because our team had match in Marbella and driving there by car takes 6 hours. The whole journey there was two driving lanes so it was easy to go past slower vehicles. We spent one night in hotel and returned next day. Rink in Marbella was smaller than normally and floor was damaged. Bad conditions did not bother us and we won the match 0-12. I scored once and made two assists. Next week we have home match against the leading team of the league.

Walking street

Calle mayor the walking street of Alcalá

In the center of Alcalá is walking street like in the center of Joensuu the city where I study in Finland. How these walking streets are different. In Alcalá there are a lot of restaurants and small shops like clothing, tabacco and shops of small products/gifts. Restaurants serve typical Spanish food and had tables on the street when weather was warmer. The walking street of Joensuu is heated so there is not snow even all the other streets are covered with snow. In Joensuu there are much less restaurants, shops are bigger and the biggest shopping center is on the walking street. In the middle of the walking street of Joensuu are parked a lot of bikes which you can hardly see in Alcalá. Both cities have sitting statue which are popular to pose with.

Pencil

Today in the class we had to write summary of four liberties of European Union. I wrote the summary of our group. When it was time to hand out our summaries professor did not accept the summary of our group because it was written with pencil. I was very surprised because I have always written all my exams with pencil and almost everyone write in the exams with pencil in Finland. The professor said that here you have to always write with pen exams and papers which you hand out. Here permanent mark is necessary and most of students write their notes also with pen. At least now I know that when the exams come I am not allowed to write with pencil. We received more time to finish our summary with pen and we can hand out it on next week.

Spain-Argentina

Stadium

Diego, Jose, Chencho, Me, Chris, David and Alberto

On Saturday National team of Spain played against Argentina and we went to watch this match to the stadium. The match was played at the Vicente Calderón which is the home stadium of Atletico Madrid. Our tickets cost 27 euros. Atmosphere was something what I had not experienced before. People were singing outside of the stadium few hours before the match and during the match at the stadium. People were dressed in the colors of Spain and waving flags of Spain. The Final result of the match was 2-1 for Spain and I still want to see also la liga match live.

Hairy

Proof

It is funny to see that Spanish women have more hair in their arms than I have. I have even seen here Spanish woman who had hair on her shoulders. Arms of Spanish men are even more hairy. If you compare arms of Spanish men to the arms of Spanish women, women do not have that hairy arms but I have seen exceptions.

Parking

Example

It is hard to park your car in Alcalá therefore people have to be creative with parking. Common way to park is parking next to another car then the another car is blocked and cannot leave. Normally they park like this for a moment and put emergency lights on. When the driver comes to the blocked car and does not the see owner of blocking car he starts to hoot. I think that I have woken up few times because of this. Seems like these illegally parked cars do not even receive tickets. I hope Spanish can comment can you get easily parking tickets.

Stick

My floorball stick

Finally I have here own floorball stick. With this stick I can shoot much better than the stick I had borrowed so far. Now we have two times a week two hour training. Here starting training takes much more time than in Finland. Everyone is talking first 15 minutes and after that people start to think about starting.

Today there is a big football match. It is rival match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. I will go watch that match to a bar with my Spanish friends.

Lunch time and siesta

In Spain lunch time is between two and three. Here eating at the university costs 4,7 euros so It is double price compared to the price in Finland. Therefore eating at the university is not very popular here. In Finland almost all the students eat at the university and some students just go to the university to eat. Here potatoes are always served as a French fries and In Finland potatoes are always just boiled. I can say that the food served in the student restaurant is more greasy than in Finland.

After the lunch time is siesta. During the siesta most of the places get closed. Supermarkets stay open and we have also lessons during the siesta. Places open again around five.

London

Big Ben

Buckinham Palace

Aurélie, Sophie, Marie and Me

New football stadium of Arsenal

In the Halloween weekend I went to London to visit Aurélie and to see Sophie and Marie who came from Paris to London. We walked around the city to see sightseeing. There is so many things to see that we did not have time to see everything. Therefore there is good reason to go London again. Aurélie helped me to take pictures and showed how to cross the street always with red lights. I guess we crossed the street everytime with the red lights but that is how they do in big cities. Aurélie said that the group spirit among the exchange students was much better in Joensuu than it is in London. Sophie recommended me to visit Granda and the Pyrenees. Aurélie, Sophie and Marie got a lot of attention from the English men and they got in the conversation in different places. London was great and I was really happy to meet the French girls.