Home Sweet Home

Hello World!!! ….It has been about a month since my last post. As always, this month has been filled with some amazing stories and adventures….(not including “the first few days”). For this reason, I will be breaking up this post into two parts. First, I’ll discuss my trip home and the first few days in America.

The Trip Home

Wow!!! The things I do (or have to do) to save money. I’ll just start by saying that it took me 29 hours in total to get from my home in Madrid to my home in Illinois. I’m pretty sure you could fly around the world in that amount of time. After all, my flight to China last May only took 14 hours. So what happened? Well first, I had to catch a low budget flight (again, trying to save money) from Madrid to Dublin, Ireland. In Dublin, there is an airline that will let you fly to Chicago for as low as $200 (maybe cheaper). Unfortunately, the flight only leaves early in the morning, or later in the evening. I couldn’t get to Dublin until midnight. Therefore, I was forced to deal with an 11 hour layover at the airport! Shortly after arriving in Dublin, my first mission was to get my bags and find somewhere to crash. I made my way to the eating area where I saw about a hundred people sprawled out on the couches and chairs in a deep slumber. All the good spots were taken! After walking around the eating area for about an hour looking for a place to sleep, I decided to settle down right behind one of the coffee stands. (Was I really sleeping behind a coffee stand LOL!!!). The floor was quite hard…but hey, I was exhausted. I took a few t-shirts out of my bag to make a pillow. Then, I arranged my bags so that no one could take them without me waking up. In less than 10 minutes out was out like a light in the middle of the airport aisle. It looked like a bum village LOL…. I woke up about 5 hours later with pain in my hip from sleeping on the hard tile floor only to realize I had another 5 hours left in the airport. To make a long story short, I wasted the rest of my time watching movies until my next flight…

The flight from Dublin to Chicago wasn’t bad at all, except for one small thing. We got about an hour into the flight when the pilot announced that there was trouble with the AC….So we needed to go back to Dublin. My immediate reaction was to be upset. “Why can’t I just be home!!!!” I thought. However, after thinking a bit more about the problem, I decided that I’d rather have all problems be fixed rather than taking a nose dive into the Atlantic! I realized that the pilot could have just been down playing the true problem so that he doesn’t incite panic in the passengers. We ended up being stuck on the plane for 2 hours while they fixed the… “AC”… problem. Seven hours later I had landed in Chicago! I was looking forward to the clear skies and the warmth of the sun….But as I exited the plane it was gloomy…and cold, in June? Hahaha…Oh well, I was still happy to be home.


First Few Days

So what were my first few days like at home?... Ok so by now I know you are expecting some wild and crazy story that usually comes along with my blog entries. Unfortunately, this time you may be slightly disappointed LOL. To be completely honest, over the first few days at home I did absolutely NOTHING LOL. While in Spain, I had made all of these plans about what I’d do when I returned home…and I did not complete a single one. The perfect picture that could describe my first few days at home would be of some lazy guy lying on the couch watching TV in his boxers…with a bag of chips and a remote LOL. At first I felt bad about my laziness. However, it only took about 24 hours (or 24 seconds) to rationalize why I couldn’t compel myself to do anything productive. Here goes….Within a span of 4 months I had:

• Successfully battled the flu (twice) with no medicine
• Nearly went hungry trying to pinch pennies
• Skipped lunch for 2 weeks straight (ate ham sandwiches for the rest)
• Had to think about everything I said before I said it (second language)
• Worked 2 jobs
• 6 day going away party (which all lasted til about 6am)
• Taught English to children (which sometimes turned into a battle)
• Experienced a 29 hour trip to return to America
• No need to continue right LOL

After rationalizing my laziness in this way, I didn’t feel so bad about the bag of Doritos and the remote control being glued to my hands LOL. It was time for some good ‘ol reeeelaxation! (Plus, I think something was telling me to rest my mind before I battled through an intense 2 weeks at the Yale Pre-MBA Leadership Program, but that’s another story).

The greatest part about coming home was that I could return to my comfort zone. As much as I talk about getting “outside of the box”, your time away makes the return that much better. After 2 days of being a serious couch potato, I decided to go pick up a pizza that my little brother ordered for the family dinner (so American LOL). This was my first exposure to the American environment in 4 months. As I got out of the car to get the pizza, I was shocked to hear everyone around me speaking English. Weird right! I had become so used to hearing Spanish, and then only hearing English when it was translated in my head. But now…information was going directly to my brain without taking a pit-stop at the translation station LOL. Moments later, I caught myself listening to someone’s conversation as we waited for our food. Now this is something that I had become accustomed to doing in Spain because I was trying to see if I could understand what they were saying. But now, I had no excuse. I had to snap out of my trance quickly before people thought I was eavesdropping on their conversation! LOL Sorry….it was just weird to hear something that felt so natural.

Another exciting experience I had was when I went to the T-Mobile store to get my phone turned on. As you know, the United States has a huge population of Spanish speakers. For 22 years of my life, I was never able to understand a bit of what they were saying. This had become a normal thing to me. The Spanish speakers would converse, and I would ignore the conversation because I had no clue what was being said. As I walked into the T-Mobile store to reactivate my phone, I noticed that there were other people being served. At this point it didn’t occur to me who was being served. It wasn’t until I heard the familiar sound of Español did my ears perk up. Clear as day I heard, “I would like to see the Blackberry… No the black one” At that point my eyes lit up, I could hear exactly what they were saying. After 22 years of being in the dark, I clearly understood the conversation. Now obviously this is something I could do while I was in Spain, but it was an entirely different feeling when applied to my home environment. Ok Ok Ok….I know all of this sounds a little corny…BUT HEY it’s my story!!! LOL

As you can see, much of my first few days at home were very anti-climatic. They don’t have the glitz and glamour that surrounded my crazy adventures in Spain LOL….Sometimes it feels good to get back to a more normal, less drama-filled (good and bad) lifestyle…… Of course, for me “normal” doesn’t seem to last very long. In a post to come soon, you’ll see how my Yale Pre-MBA experience completely flipped me on my head LOL.

P.S. Below I've posted some photos of the school I taught at, the classrrom, a few of the kids, and one final picture of me camped out in the airports





Once again, thank you for tuning in to the BLOG. See you again soon….very soon!!!

InternationalDarius
Email: internationaldarius@yahoo.com

5 Hours Til Lift Off

As I sit hear writing this post, I literally have 5 hours until my plane takes off. I knew I had to get at least one more post in before leaving so please forgive the errors. I’ll update this post once I get home.. With that being said, I’m in a rush against the clock so let’s get started!!!

InternationalDarius’ Revenge

As I told you before World, revenge will be mine…And I’m talking about these crazy kids that I’ve been teaching LOL. Just as a reminder, here is the current score:

Kids – 2 InternationalDarius – 0

So what happened? Well…after finding out that I was in my last week of teaching in the school, the other teachers decided that I should play games all week with the kids. Now normally we may play “Heads Up, Seven Up” or maybe even basketball. I usually never participate though. However, on the final day of teaching, the kids insisted that we play Futbol/Soccer and that I play as well. I must admit that I was a little intimidated to play against these 8 and 9 year olds. I have never played Futbol in my life and these kids were pretty good….But hey whatever, I figured I’d give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?... The kids (moreso the guys) decided to play Chicos vs. Chicas – and they put me on the girls team LOL. In the first few minutes of playing the boys scored two goals on us. What’s even worse is that I had a 9 year old completely fake me out as I tried to steal the ball. He literally left me frozen in my position as I watched him score. The celebration that followed was even more insulting LOL. He had the nerve to run around me with his hands in the air screaming “Tomaaaa!!!”… At that point I’d had about all I could take. After 15 years of playing sports, the competitive spirit in me just took over. Play time was OVER!!!...The next time the ball was inbounded I took a couple very awkward dribbles and kicked the ball pretty far ahead of me so I could use my speed to my advantage. After blazing past about 5 boys like a bolt of lightning, I raced toward the goal… It was just Me and the Keeper face to face in what would be pivotal part of our battle! I gave the ball one swift kick as hard as I could and it shot clean over the top of the goal LOL (almost over 2 story high fence)!!! Oh Boy!...I turned around to walk back to my position as we all looked at each other in disbelief LOL. After that slightly embarrassing moment, the next play provided a splitting image of the previous play. However, this time I made an adjustment on my shot. I was a bit more under control as I delivered a rocket directly to the back of the goal. “Tommaaaaaaaaa!!!”, I yelled as I circled around the guys with my arms raised in the air. The girls and I had a good celebration together as well. After that goal, it was GAME OVER. I was in my zone. The guys went on two score to more points, but that only fed into my determination to lead us to victory. The following play I stole the ball out of the air and dribbled the length of the field with the guys chasing me. I found myself resorting to American Football tactics as I tried to maintain possession of the ball while the guys tried to steal it. A stiff arm sent one kid to the floor (hahahaha that’s so bad!) and a little bit of hip knocked another off balance. I raced toward the goal to score once again… While soccer may not be as high impact as American Football, I have learned that the game can get quite a bit aggressive at times. A couple plays later I was chasing down a ball and collided with one of the kids. Of course I didn’t fall, but he definitely hit the pavement. I was sure to be a good sport and make sure he was ok….after I scored LOL….(And this is what I mean by revenge. (Now I understand why my grade school teachers liked to play dodgeball so much toward the end of the year LOL!!!). Toward the end of the game the girls and I found ourselves celebrating quite a few goals. We even had some of the guys asking to switch to our team! The final score was 7-5, Girls Team win. I had 7 hahaha! The guys were quite upset.

InternationalDarius – 7 Students – 7

*Ok Ok Ok…So yea it does sound a little… ummmmmm what’s the word?...pitiful…to be boasting about beating up on little kids LOL. For the record, I know I’m not the next Renaldo. But hey, we had fun. Despite me being a little out of control, no one was hurt or injured during the games. We all had a good laugh everytime I found myself playing American Football LOL. Overall, I must say that I truly enjoyed my experience with the students. I joke about going to battle with them, but in all reality we have all benefitted from the entire experience.

InternationalDarius – Overnight Celebrity?

HAHAHAH not quite, but it sounded good….As usual, my stay in Spain never fails to provide some sort of wacky story that I can pass on to you all. I’ll tell this story from beginning to end so that you can have a complete understanding of it… One day on the job at Kapital, I met a lady, Lana, who has also had the opportunity to travel the world. Naturally, I wanted to know a little more about her experiences. After speaking for awhile we decided to meet up again sometime the next week. Well, 2 days later I get a text from her (in Spanish) asking if I’d like to go to some expensive cologne store (or atleast that’s what I thought it said). I’m not much of a cologne or perfume connoisseur but hey I had nothing else to do. I through on some clothes and headed to meet her….Okay, so when I finally get to our meeting point, I see her decked out in jewelry, high heels, and a fancy dress. I didn’t think much of it until she hands me an invitation, which is when I became skeptical of this trip to a “cologne store”….Something isn’t quite right. There is no way this cologne store is that nice for me to need an invitation LOL. Just then Lana explains to me that she works for Cosmopolitan and that we will be attending an award ceremony thrown by them. “Juuuuuuust great!!!” here I am going to an award ceremony in Jeans, a button-up, and some Air-Force 1’s. Yea reaaaaalllll classy!!!... But hey, it couldn’t be that bad right?!?...As we walk up to the door, I saw people coming out of the most expensive luxury cars. They were also dressed in gowns and 3 piece suits. Again, I’m wearing JEANS…A BUTTON-UP….and AIR FORCE 1’s. Upon walking up to the door, I just new they were going to tell me that I couldn’t come in…Luckily, I still the didn’t. I imagine that they thought “Wow, this 6’4’’ black guy must really be big-time if he came here wearing that!!!” LOL…Anyway, after getting in I was told that many of the most popular celebrities from Spain were at the ceremony. Here I was literally standing next to Demi Moore, Halle Berry, Jessica Alba, Matt Damon, Samuel Jackson, Tom Hanks, etc… Well not actually these people, but I had to use these names so you can better understand the type of people there….and because I have no clue of their names. This is how it was described to me LOL. The award ceremony was really nice as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera since I though I was going to a cologne store.

What’s Next?

Surely all of the learning and excitement doesn’t come to an end now does it?... As you know, I left the US as a busy bee, and I will be returning the same way. When I return I have many things to accomplish.

Yale Pre-MBA Leadership Program

Upon touching down in the Chicago, I will have 8 days until I board a plane once again. I will be attending the Yale Pre-MBA Leadership Program on June 14^th. I am extremely excited about this great opportunity. This program was designed to assist students in building leadership, networking, analytical, and various other skills important to those in pursuit of an MBA. I feel like this program is a great fit for me. The Yale Pre-MBA Leadership Program has a dual focus. Not only do they want to develop our business skills, but they also seek to enhance participant’s ability to have a positive impact on the community. What more could you ask for? In my opinion, there is more to success than prosperity within your given career. It is also important to assist others in realizing their hopes and dreams. For me, assisting someone in overcome the inevitable obstacles that come with success is one of the most fulfilling acts of kindness.

GMAT

Just when you think being a nerd comes to an end, it creeps right back up on you. I have committed myself to taking the GMAT. It’s a test required to be admitted into business school. I have planned to study 4 hours/day in effort to achieve my desired score. My goal is to earn a 700+ GMAT test score. Scores range from 200 to 800. A 700 would put me in the 90^th percentile, which mean I would have scored better than 90% of test-takers. Four hours/day sounds quite easy compared to the 10+ hours/day I was putting in before coming to Spain. However, the GMAT is an entirely different test than the CPA exam. The CPA is a Pass-Fail exam. Therefore, you just hope to beat the benchmark level. With the GMAT I will be aiming to score as high as possible (at least top 10%) I recently had a huge reality check when I attempted a practice GMAT exam last week. I scored a 480, which puts me in the 31^st percentile LOL. Although I took the test without studying, it is obvious that I have a lot of work ahead of me. It’s time to put that work-ethic to the test once again!

The fact that I will be returning to the life of a nerd once again is hilarious to me. I felt like this is one of those Steve Urkel/Stephon Urquelle moments (please tell me you know what I’m talking about LOL). At home I had my nose buried in the books all day. There was no time for parties, valueless television, random outings, and other types of fun normal people have. I might as well have been wearing glasses with tape in the middle, suspenders, and a pocket protector LOL. After coming to Spain I transformed into the “cool” InternationalDarius (well at least I think so). I was at a party over half of my days. I met new people everyday. Everyday I’d find myself in very interesting situations that I get to put on my semi-cool BLOG. I even had a 6 day going away party!!!…and now it’s time for cool InternationalDarius to go back to the nerdy InternationalDarius, Stefan Urquelle back to Steve Urkel LOL… Ok Ok I’m done being so dramatic.

Maintaining Level of Spanish

After all of this work with my Spanish, I’d be an idiot to let it go. Over the next 3 months I will need to maintain my level of Spanish (assuming time permits). I have about 5 books that I can study from. Therefore, the grammar should not be a problem. I also have movies and TV shows that I can watch in Spanish that will help me better my comprehension. Now all I need is a buddy to volunteer to speak Spanish with me!...........And ummmm what is this talk about maintaining? Hmmmmmm….I wonder if there’s something more to this story?

Stay Tuned for the next post. I will document the feeling I have after returning home. My initial feeling, change in perspective, new developments, etc… I am very excited to see how Spain has provided a change in my life. As of right now I feel fine….But then again, I’m still in Spain. Alright I have to go now….I have about an hour left to pack so that I can catch my flight LOL!!!