I've been really bad at this blogging thing!

Anyways! Today I competed in the poules through the round of 64. I won all my bouts in my pool (6-0) so I had a bye to the 64 and didn't have to fence a DE. The top 16 didn't fence, but I came out ranked 2nd out of the other 84ish fencers. So overall now for the DE rounds I'm ranked 18th. On Saturday I fence Benko from Hungary at 9:15 am (turkey time...+7 from Eastern.)

I'll let you know my exploits in the next two days before I fence as well since I have internet.

Turkey's an interesting place, and there's a mosque tower with loudspeakers RIGHT NEXT TO MY WINDOW, so you can imagine the call to prayer is definitely quite a wake up call every few hours. (6am always as well) But when I'm not sleeping the call is actually kind of relaxing!

I haven't taken any pictures in Turkey yet, I've been so busy running around, but I will make sure to snap some shots today or tomorrow to put up on the blog. Our hotel is actually the only one NOT on the beach, which is sad. All the other hotels have nice private beaches etc on the Mediterranean. I must go visit now that I have time!!

Love,

Eileen

Some Fun Quotes

"No es facil..."

-Julio Gonzalez Tirador (Cuban coach for Panama's national team...said completely dead-pan in any iffy life situation)

"Raaaas MAN! Mi ca-sa ke-man-do"

-A random Jamaican citizen of Panama who was all over the 'tele'

"Confusio es uno de los que invento la confusion. Fue uno de los chino japoneses mas antwigwos."

-An aspiring Miss Panama in response the the question 'Who was Confucius?'

Watch it in Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdgMrYhdCzw

"Comiiida! Mi plato favorito!"

-Argentine man? Friend of my hosts... I like this one.

By the way..

I love my travel luck sometimes:

Dear Ms.Eileen Grench,  Greating from Istanbul!  We kindly inform you that for the time being we will have no  possibility to accomadate you between 04.10 05.10,due to the flooding  and destruction in Istanbul for the savety and well-being of our  guests remains a top priority.We will be re -opening the hotel by 10.10.2009.  We will re locate your reservations with the same conditions to  Radisson Blue Hotel (tel:0090 212 411 38 38)  or Polat Renaissance  Hotel (Tel:0090 212 414 18 00 )close to the airport.  Please let me know for further questions.  Thank you for  your understanding.   Best Regards 

So I haven't blogged in a while...

I've been a bit lazy. There have been may going-ons. In recent news, I woke up sick yesterday, but Nila gave me her caldo de pollo and actually it made me feel better. I started taking some antibiotics as well. Today I feel a lot better and am going to practice tonight in Leganes. This past weekend I went to the Rastro, and enjoyed La Noche en Blanco in Madrid. I also went out to a bar with some fencers. Other than that I've been practicing a lot! This week though, I'm only sticking to one practice a day, and deciding as I go which club is best that night. Lucas Saucedo and Belen are finally here which is fun.

Oh, Fuenlabrada.

This is taken from my window on Tuesday... I was waiting so I could pass and not get impaled by bull horns. There are clubs of people who drink all night, then taunt the bulls. They're the ones in white and red and such. Below I'll also post a picture of me trying to avoid the bulls as I go to fencing... Nilda took them from the dining room window unbeknown to me. If you click on it and enlarges, I'm the one wearing white sweat pants, and a black/yellow long-sleeved shirt trying to stuff the bag through the barrier and run across before the freaking toro came (see: the crowd slightly up the street waiting for the toro...)

All of a sudden it has turned from summer in Madrid to fall in Madrid. Its super chilly and I don't have a jacket good enough. I think THAT is a good enough excuse to go to the local MANGO clothing store... don't you?

I bought a book from the book vending machine a couple days ago in the metro, and now I'm absolutely hooked on a book I was actually supposed to read for a spanish class I dropped last year. Its called "The brief and Marvellous Life of Oscar Wao" or something like that in english. Its excellent, and as I'm riding an hour and a half either way to BLUME (national sports center), it comes in handy.


Love,

Eileen

Photos of Toledo

Toledo

Well, I'm uploading my pictures from toledo. Nilda woke me up at 11 today and I thought it was like 6 am I was sleeping like the dead. I'm going to bed after I make this post. We got going to toledo at about noon but went to the wrong station and took our time so we actually got to toledo around 2:30. Me and Nilda walked through the residential part very leisurely before catching the museums at the last minute. I love walking through neighborhoods rather than touristy parts. Toledo is AMAZING, you're just walking into the past there. Everything is so medieval. We went to a fun little gladiator special at a museum that was actually set up in the old toledo prison, which was fun, and stopped at a couple other open museums like the synagogue, which was AMAZING and had similar architecture to the Alhambra in Granada, and of Machado a really famous sculptor. We caught the 9 pm bus back and were at home around 11 for dinner, talked some more and drank some tea, and now its bed time! I'll put up some toledo photos when I get them all uploaded but here's one that I've already taken from Nilda's camera of me in the gladiator exhibit.

Love,

Eileen

Spain at 3 am

Dear family and friends....

We went to dinner at midnight. I think Spain is bad for a person with jetlag, it just confuses them more... hahahaha.

Here are some pictures of me nilda and ezequiel.



Us at the patron saint festival outside our door... they're still partying hard out there. The next pic is of me and ezequiel toasting you mom and dad... and various yummy things I saw. And weird things. Evidently this weekend there will be bulls runing by this apartment... life is very exciting for the locals in fuenlabrada right now. We ate octopus and chorizo for dinner and of course, there were no vegetables! I would like you to note the picture of HAM BINGO... WHO ELSE BUT SPAIN WOULD HAVE HAM BINGO?

My grammer and typing is very bad right now because its 3 am grandma. Don't kill me! :)

Love,

Eileen

First Training

Well, I was off to my first training with the national team in madrid this morning! Theres two metro changes and a bus involved, and to get there on mass transport takes me about an hour and 15 minutes! But anyways, no biggie and this morning I fenced for about an hour with the girls. It seems like they really don't actually fence a lot! hahaha. So, I'm still kind of figuring out what my schedule will be. Evidently they fence more in the afternoons on tuesday and thursday, and I will see how it goes in Jose Luis' club and then kind of make my schedule. Everyone here has been amazingly nice to me, and Jose Luis is being very helpful in offering me anything as well. The first picture is of me at the national sport institute in spain...withthe saber girls..and all the coachs and Ezequiel who are helping me.

Eileen

Made It

Well I'm in Fuenlabrada, a suburb of Madrid. Ezequiel and Nilda have been very nice to a very sleepy me...was able to give them the wine, cheese, and popcorn. More to come when more happens! Tonight I'll be going to visit the local club I'm gonig to in the afternoons, but I'm pondering the idea of just training with the national team... we'll see how I feel and hope that no one feels slighted.

Eileen

Off to Spain

Testing, testing, 123...

In Chicago, and on my way to Spain!

ADELANTE!

Eileen