michaelberryjoyy-blog

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Serbia

When your plane can be felt rocking from side to side while parked at the gate because the wind is so strong, maybe it's not a good idea to take off.

This is what I would tell Wizz Air, and really every airline out there if they cared to listen. But they would just shrug me off as just another crazy person who actually sends comments to customer services emails.

I refrain.

To summarize a story I can easily stretch into 10 minutes, my flight to Serbia sucked. I swear we did a full 360 on takeoff due to those strong swedish winds. We then had an hour of straight turbulence where I am pretty sure I saw a piece of the wing fall right off, followed by the always fun land in the middle of a rain storm. It really was the big 3. If it weren't for the flight attendants selling in flight merchandise for the entire 2 hours of the flight I would have shed literal tears. The one shining point of the journey, and a testament to being nice to airport people, is that I had misread the website and I could not bring 2 carry-ons onto the plane, even though I had paid extra for a larger bag. The nice man behind the counter had clearly experienced many people lose their shit at this news, but since I was in a daze of my impending doom aboard this metal missile of fear, I didn't care about losing another 60 Euro, and just took out my wallet and said, oh well, I can't leave the bag in Sweden! He looked at me, smiled, and said, 'I'm going to check it for free.'

Gotta love the swedes.

Once off the plane, I walked to the security line, at which point I realized I never once checked the visa situation for Serbia. Did I need a visa? Is there an online form? Is it visa free? Do I buy one at the airport? I had no idea. There were three lines: Serbian Nationals, EU passports and those not requiring a visa, and All Other Passports. Since it was midnight (thats right, flights arrive at midnight in the balkans) I took my luck that America fell under the EU passport situation and was pleased to be stamped right into the country without so much as a 'Hello.' Gotta love these rugged good looks.

After collecting my bag, and fulfilling yet another Bucket List Item (Having my bag be the first bag on the luggage belt!) I was met by gabby, who had wisely withdrawn some Serbian Dinar, and mapped out our bus to the center. Rain and freezing temperatures made for an enjoyable mile-long walk to our hostel, which could have been reached by taxi in 5 minutes, but the starving-English-teacher in us told us twas better to save that 2 euro. We both almost fell on our butts at least 12 times, leading me to declare first one to eat-it gets a free beer. Neither of us 'ate-it', although Gabby accused me of purposefully trying to fall multiple times. She is a distrustful one.  

Once in the hostel we retired for the night, although I have not fully recovered from my jetlag and have been awake until at least 4am everyday of this trip. Hence why I am writing this at 1:41 am. 

We spent all day Saturday sight-seeing. Well we actually spent 4 of the daylight hours eating, but that is to be expected in any new country. Coffee, sandwiches, potatoes, pork tenderloins, beer; this countrys got it all. Plus fortresses, churches, classic and soviet architecture and plenty of picturesque little Serbian streets.

All in all it was a good day, we ended it with a movie - Midnight Train to Lisbon - which we both loved, about the resistance in Portugal during the dictatorship. After Gabby fell asleep I turned on 'Christopher and his kind' which is a really interesting movie about a young gay English man in the inter-war years in Berlin (and obviously the rise of the Nazis) and his experiences there. Based off a book I may just have to read.

I'm off to watch old 30-rock episodes now. 

Good Night!

[michaelberryjoyy-blog]

Argentina

Today in my 10th grade History class we were talking about the 'War on Terror.'

After I asked the class to name the two countries that America attacked under Bush's 'War on Terror' there was silence in the room. I started calling on students, one by one, and no one could give me either of the countries that were invaded. Finally I told the class to raise their hands if they had NO idea. Everyone except 3 raised their hands. 

I asked one boy who kept his hand down to name one country that was attacked on 'War on Terror.'

He replied, 'Iraq.'

I then asked the boy sitting next to him for the other country, he looks at me and says, 'I think it was Argentina.'

In the 21st decade. I have a student who thinks America, with the help of NATO, invaded Argentina. 

This is the same class that was unable to name me a single country in the middle east. 

#FutureOfSpain

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Fregar

As Fernando's mother walked through our apartment I could tell by the disgusted look on her face that she was less than impressed with the state in which we kept our apartment.

For 3 guys ranging in age from 19-26, we keep the place relatively tidy; having a weekly chore chart that we follow semi-faithfully. However, his parents had come on a Saturday morning, and no one had completed their chores for those weeks.

As the oldest in the household, and thus feeling that as the senior adult I was somehow more responsible for the cleanliness, I attempted to appease her by defending the frequency in which we clean.

After 2 years in Spain I like to think that my Spanish is quite good, so I started right off in an expertly crafted defense. Explaining that the house was dirty now, but weekly we clean the entire place and usually it is much better than what she was seeing. As we entered the kitchen, the worst of the rooms due to frequency of use, the look of horror grew and she seemed to retreat into herself so as not to touch anything that could give her Ebola. I quickly defended the kitchen by stating that Chris had JUST cleaned the kitchen, but because we had all made dinner and breakfast that morning, it was a little worse than usual. As she continued to cast her vision around the various messes, I noticed that the floor was littered with small food particles and dust, more due to the fact that it is white tile and doesn't maintain the appearance of cleanliness for more than 5 hours. I quickly defended the floor by saying, quite honestly, 'we mop the floor every week and Chris just mopped 3 days ago.'

'You mopped THREE DAYS AGO!?' She said shocked, then added, 'you don't mop every day!?' 

I laughed, thinking maybe she was joking, and said, 'No! We're busy guys! Fernando and Chris have to study and go to class, I have to teach, we can't mop everyday!' As we walked out of the kitchen she turns to her husband and states, 'they only mop once a week. Not every day.'

Sensing that she was less-than impressed with us as individuals, and as a group she was revolted, I let the conversation drop and they soon left to have lunch. Not in our house.

When I returned from errands later that night I saw that she had cleaned the entire apartment, and Fernando informed me that she gave strict instructions to keep the house tidy.

The next morning, after eating my breakfast, I began to wash my dishes. And as some bilingual people may know, you sometimes like to think in your second language just to practice. As I was washing my dishes, I thought to myself, 'estoy fregando.'

I stopped.

I realized that the verb that they use in Castilla y Leon for 'To Wash Dishes' is Fregar. However, I learned that word in Mallorca as the verb for 'To Mop.' 

When I was defending our weekly scrubbing of our floors to Fernando's mother I was really informing her that we only wash the dishes once a week. And I said this with the expectation that she be impressed with our diligence and cleanliness... 

Her reaction, and her plummeting opinion of me, suddenly made sense.

[michaelberryjoyy-blog]

How i spent my day today, hiking, getting sunburnt, and thinking about the meaning of life... you know ,the usual.

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This is my lent blog. If any of you want to keep up with my desire to 'write everyday for 40 days' feel free to read about my days. Spoiler alert: They are not too exciting.

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Generous and big hearted

I know I have written about this quote many times before but I swear it is always in the back of my mind. In the show Friday Night Lights, Tyra writes a college essay that is read aloud. I remember laying on my bed the first time I heard it and it completely encapsulated so many of my dreams for my life:

I want to learn about the world. I want to surprise myself. I want to be important. I want to be the best person I can be. I want to define myself instead of having others define me. I want to win and have people be happy for me. I want to lose and get over it. I want to not be afraid of the unknown. I want to grow up and be generous and big hearted, the way people have been with me. I want an interesting and surprising life.

I take these words with me everywhere I go and they have helped me develop into the person I am today, but one part is always replaying my head: 

I want to grow up and be generous and big hearted, the way people have been with me.

I have met such amazing people in my life that have showed me what it is to be truly selfless. From my Mom who raised me to always think of others and help whenever possible to the PE teacher at my school Xavi who gave me the extra keys to his house so I can sleep in Palma, no questions asked, whenever needed; I have been blessed with the most incredible people in my life. People that I want to continue to learn from, because I hope one day people think of me the way I think of these people.

None of us could ever get by in this life without the help of others, and I especially have been helped along, every step of the way, by kind, generous and HUGE hearted people. Thank you to all of you who are these people in my life - I hope I, in some way, return the favor.

Love,

Michael

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So I have this habit of translating English phrases/sayings into Spanish and using them on a daily basis, even though they make no sense, that causes Spaniards to look at me in confusion quite often until I explain why I just said, "Eso es mi mermelada."

This justifies me telling you all the following story:

One of my good friends here in Mallorca loves learning sayings in English, so whenever I think of one, I tell him, and then after a few days I ask him about it to see if he remembers. So far he has learned things like, 'Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink.' and 'Just because there is a goalie doesn't mean you can't score.' You know, the important ones. So the other day during class I yelled at one of the students who told me her foot hurt, "PAIN IS JUST WEAKNESS LEAVING YOUR BODY!" Than thought, hey! Xavi would love to know that! So I taught it to him after class. This week I remembered and asked him if he remembered the saying I taught him about pain. He said, "Oh no! Wait, I think I remember it!"

Then proceeded to say this:

"Pain is just the sound of your body crying."

........

I died.

Mike

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I think I must have cured cancer or something in a past life to have lucked into this view every morning and my life in general. #Nofilter #Mallorca #PortDAlcudia #ShamelessSelfTimedPhoto

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That awkward moment when you can see your apartment from your plane. And then that awkward moment when the flight attendant yells at you for taking picture during landing. But you ignore her because the first one was blurry. #Mallorca #PortDAlcudia #Winter?!

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Selfies in front of the Cathedral of Leon with my favorite gentleman of #Leon. #OsEchoDeMenos #NoQuieroSalir #OsQuiero

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So this definitely happened tonight.... #chatroulette con @fernandonieto5

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Finally reunited with my favorite Spaniard in Leon.

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I'm a connoisseur of the finer things in life. #moma #NewYorkCity #StarryNight #ImAChild #VanGogh

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España is not the same without you @leo_as_santos. Come back to Europe already, Brazil's too dangerous for your pretty face. #portugal

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New Years Resolutions

1. Not lose steam on my French studies

Last year one of my resolutions was to begin studying French, so I enrolled in the first year level at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in Inca, Mallorca and began studying French. Every day as I sit in class, learning French in Spanish, I question this decision and have to force myself to conjugate verbs and relearn object/personal/direct/indirect pronouns. Resolution 1 is to not give up and burn the EOI down.

2. Write letters.

Unfortunately this was another one of my resolutions last year, and it never happened. I want to start writing letters to people in my life and telling them the reasons I love them and what they mean to me. Every time I read that someone famous died I see all of the nice things people say about them and I know that very rarely had the deceased heard those words from anyone. I want my friends to know what I think about them before I don't have the chance.

3. Write about my travels again.

My cousin, Nora, asked me the other day why I don't update my blog anymore then said she used to love reading about my travels. I just got lazy and started watching TV instead. I want to remember these experiences and these times in my life and I need to start writing about them again. Resolution 3 is just to keep writing so I remember. I don't think I will ever become the next big blogger, but one day when I am old and falling apart I want to be able to show people how much fun I had in my 20's.

4. Be more honest.

I tell a lot of half-truths. I want to stop that and be a little more honest with people. I don't think hiding things from people is a very good personality trait and I want to be known as an honest person.

5. Meet some kindred-spirits.

This one isn't necessarily in my control but I hope the next year beings me in contact with people with the same mindset as I have. People who love to travel, talk, laugh and live. I need more positive people in my life that make me enjoy every second I'm alive and I hope to find some more this year.

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Great new years spent with this girl. San Francisco now joins the list of great cities we have killed it in.

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Me and @erino88's #pitbull mix #puppy. Love him. He's my little simba. #dogsofinstagram #pitbullsofinstagram