I got to dive into the Spanish culture a bit more and attend a professional indoor futbol game. A few of the playeres come into get treated at my clinic, so Mariano asked me if I wanted to go see a game. I took both of the girls to the Saturday evening match and let me tell you, it was unlike any soccer game I´ve ever seen! It´s a lot more fun to watch a sporting event in which you know some of those who are playing. Indoor futbol uses a smaller field and the teams play 5 on 5. The ball itself is a little smaller, to coincide with the decreased playing field dimensions. This particular game requires a lot more explosive power and refined ball-handling technique. The rules are slightly different regarding yellow and red card regulations all while utilizing hockey´s power play rule after someone gets a red card. I can´t believe how intense this game gets! In total, there were 7 yellow and 3 red cards given throughout the match, along with a lot of yelling, cheering, and screaming from both the crowd and the playeres. The Granada team prevailed, however, winning the match 2-0 and ultimately becoming the champions of the league for the regular season! They play back in Granada in a few weeks and I´m planning on attending the game.

Things at the internship are continuing to run smoothly. I am starting to remember specific modality parameters for different patients, which in itself is a small victory since the words, ´paperwork´and ´documentation´ don´t seem to exist here. They are also giving me a little bit of free reign with patients and modalities. For example,  a soccer player came in with a grade 2 ATF sprain and his foot looked like a giant black and blue balloon. After inquiring when the initial incident took place, I discovered he was 5 days post-incident. I about lost it, but maintained my composure, knowing it´s not my place to question how his treatment plan was being executed. What I did do, however, was massage and ice him on elevation while educating him on the importance of using the classic RICE concept to get the blood and swelling out of the area. He´s slowly improving, but I´m not sure if he´s taking my RICE advice to heart! On a different, yet completely awesome note, I got to hold a 1.5 month old baby at the clinic this past week. She and her dad came in and, me loving the interaction with youngins as I do, I naturally walked over to her. After holding her for a solid 15 minutes, I came to find out she was the daughter of one of the professional outdoor Granada futbol players - COOL!

As a part of our attempt to internationalize Athletic Training, G had set us up for an interview with ´The Chronicle,´a magazine for higher education based out of Washington D.C. The two girls and I sat down and Skyped with out interviewer, Karen, to share a bit about our background stories, and experiences here thus far. In addition tot he article, they hired a free-lance photographer to get pictures of us in action working with the patients at the clinic. Let´s just say I never want to be a celebrity and deal with paparazzi! The photographer was at my clinic for the entire 4 hours I worked on Thursday and he was constantly snapping pictures of me. I mean, I like the spotlight just as much as the next person, but that was a bit excessive. Having the photographer there was also an open invitation for my co-workers to tease me all day about being ´famous.´At least I couldn´t understand all of their jokes. I took it all in stride and was a good sport about it, but I better get some good pictures out of the deal!

This past week we were hosts for yet another visitor, Jen´s mom! She arrived on Thursday and stayed for 6 days. Sandy came bearing many gifts, most of them in the form of food like Tootsie Roll treats, and ingredients to cook us dinner. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with fajitas, beans, chips, salsa, guacamole, and to top it off, cervezas! Then the night before she left we got treated to a standard American dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, beans, salad, and some ice cream cake for dessert. If it´s possible, I miss home-cooked meals more now than when in La Crosse. Both of the dinners were absolutely scrumptious. On Saturday, Jen and her mom invited me to join them in going to Parque de las Ciencias, a well known museum in Granada. It has everything from animal to anatomy exhibits and it is HUGE! Even though a lot of the information was written in Spanish, there were quite a few displays with multiple languages including English, so I´d like to say that I did a fine job in culturing and education myself that day. I plan on taking my family when they come to visit in June, so more details of this great place will come then. (Actually, I just have waaaaay too much stuff to talk about in this blog, and I don´t want you all to have to miss out on life, or work, just to read this - unless of course that´s the kind of excuse you´ve been looking for, then by all means go for it!).

A few Spanish interactions have also taken place in my life over the last couple of days. First, I had to give my very first presentation completely in Spanish! **Note: if you´re still debating being late for work, like, or anything productive, I highly recommend you stay put because this next story is pretty entertaining, mostly at the expense of myself.** Well, this particular presentation was for my Theory and History of Sport class (Teoría y Historía de Deporte for all you bilinguals) and my two other group members, along with myself, had to give a presentation based on an article about Hely Hutchinson Almond of Scotland, who bought and made a name for the Loretto boarding school there. The article itself was in English (thank God!) so at least I was able to easily understand the section they assigned me to read and analyze. The difficult part, however, was to translate what I read back into Spanish, and have it make not only chronological and grammatical sense, but to have it not sound like I was a 1st grader speaking Spanish in front of an audience for the first time in my life. I created a Power Point with slides of what I wanted to talk about and then I proceeded to write out everything I was going to say on a piece of paper that I was planning on having in front of me while I was giving my part of the presentation. When the writing preparations were all said and done, I practiced speaking my part in front of Jen and Karrie for the next few days. The day of the presentation finally came, or so I thought. That particular Thursday, the professor decided to show up to class 15 minutes late and the group ahead of us felt like it would be a great idea to essentially have us read a book on the projector, rather then summarize their article on Power Point slides. Therefore, we ran out of time and I was to present that following day on Friday. We normally have class on Tuesday instead of Friday but the professor switched the days so the students could celebrate yet another Spanish holiday, La Día de la Cruz. Can you tell I was super excited to give my presentation on a Friday, when I usually have no class?! Anyway, Karrie was going camping and Jen was with her Mom, so I was the only one going to Theory on Friday. I arrived a little early so I could get some last minute practice in. I found my group members and we were waiting in the lobby of our building, and it just seemed like a ton of people were entering and waiting around like we were, so I asked my group member, Gustavo, why there were so many people. "Oh," he said, "because this is a make up class, both of the sections are meeting today." Wait, WHAT?! You mean that instead of presenting in front of the 50ish people that I'm already freaking out about, I will be standing in front of double that amount?! To make matters worse, I saw my professor start heading toward the auditorium. You mean that I have to present in front of twice the amount of people, in a room twice the size, on stage?!?!?! The fact that I didn't wet myself right then and there was a miracle in itself. Not only that, but we were the very last group to present our article, giving me a good hour to sit in my seat and do everything possible to prevent a nervous breakdown. We all know that I've been on stage numerous times before, but at that point I would have rather sung anything, rather than have to speak in Spanish. Finally, it was our turn. I stood up, held onto the podium for dear life, and began my part. It went okay with just a few stumbles here and there. I even got to say a quote by Almond in English! Our professor must have really liked it because we got the word, "Excelente!" said to us three times in a row. He also complimented me on how I presented the English quote. Yessss!

Just a couple more things, I promise. This past Sunday morning, Karrie and I ventured to the Sunday market for the first time. It's filled with a lot of brand name clothes and shoes for cheap, along with a lot of fresh produce! We're hoping to go back and peruse a bit more in a few weeks, when we get a chance. As you all know, and I'm sure celebrated, Sunday was also Mother's Day. I had the wonderful opportunity to Skype with my mother on that day after she ran her first 5K since 1980! I am so proud of her! I also got to chat with my fabulous sister, whom she ran with, and my grandparents. What a treat! Later on in the day, I was finally able to call the Weinberger's and talk with everyone in the family. It was so awesome to hear each of their voices since I haven't talked to them since I left. All in all, it was a wonderful Sunday! I also went to coffee with a classmate of ours, Clara, who knows English. A few weeks after we first arrived, she approached us and said that if we needed help with anything for our Biomechanics class, that we should not hesitate to ask. We then became 'Facebook official' friends and continued to keep in touch. On Tuesday, we decided to meet for coffee just to hang out! It was very cool to see how easily we were able to flip back between Spanish and English, helping each other with their respective languages. She and I also seemed to just click! I will definitely be spending more time with her.

Shout out to my brother and all those who are going to be graduating in a couple weeks. Hang in there - you're almost done!

Besos,
Nana

Penalty shot at the indoor game.

If this guy wouldn't have stood up to cheer, this would have been a great shot. Rafi doing his thing!

This is what I say when I looked out my apartment window one night after my internship.

Aerial view of Granada from a tower in Parque de las Ciencias.