Also, this is a journal about my love for Spain. If you are extremely interested in a nation and really love it, then I suggest you write a journal like this. It really is fun to do.
SPAIN TIME :D ESPAÑA ESPAÑA ESPAÑA!
España. The lovely, beautiful country located in south western Europe.
España. The only Spanish-speaking country in Europe.
España. The home of my heart.
So, let me tell you all why I love España in the first place.
It all started in the summer of '06. I was in 6th grade & watched the FIFA World Cup for the time in my life (that I can remember). I was caught up by so many teams, Argentina, Australia and Netherlands happening to be some of my personal favorites. But no team caught me like España. I fell absolutely in love with them. My favorite player on the team at the time was Fernando Torres. In fact, he was always my favorite person on that team until this year. Now he shares that spot in my heart with Xabi Alonso.
Anyhoo, like I said, I fell in love with the team. They really got me into soccer. That year, after the world cup, I watched La Liga a few times (Barca being my favorite team) before my satellite, and connection to the soccer world, cut off. I was only... about 12 at the time. I rarely ever went online; the only time I did was for Youtube. I didn't keep up with any matches online because I honestly didn't believe I could. I was noob to the internet until 8th grade and by then I rarely ever thought of the Spain national team. I lived in the USA, American football had become my ultimate favorite sport, I knew no one who watched European soccer and my parents didn't care enough about European soccer to keep up with it online. So, I basically forgot soccer, except in those few moments I played it.
Lets skip forward to beginning of 9th grade now.
I entered high school in '09. I was a freshmen and on my first day in science class, my teacher asked me to write down a page about myself. We were to do this then give it to someone in our assigned table. Want to know one thing I wrote about?
Hispanics/Latinos.
I wrote how I loved anything Hispanic/Latino related. I loved their food, their culture, etc. I found the guys extremely good looking and the girls really pretty. I wrote how I simply was in love with Spanish and couldn't wait to take my first Spanish class ever later that year. I also wrote how I was interested in moving to Spain because it was, as I heard, the only non-third world Spanish-speaking nation in the world. And it was beautiful. Also, keep in mind, that I still remembered my love for their national soccer team, so that was another reason I was interested in moving there.
Later that year, I started my first Spanish class. And dude, it frustrated me. It was so hard but I loved it. Spanish was almost as hard as Arabic, which I had learned for 8 years and still didn't master.
On the first day of class, my teacher told us about how we would be doing a project on a Spanish-speaking country towards the end of the school year. At the end of the class, I spoke to her secretly and told her how I desperately wanted to do it on Spain.
So guess who got Spain when the time to do the projects came?
Yeah, that's right. Me.
And if I loved España before, then I was addicted to it now. When I did the project, I learned so much about the nation. Everything about it was just... so beautiful. I fell in love with the nation and promised myself that I would move there when I grew up.
Then, I entered 10th grade. And what did I discover?
I FOUND OUT THAT MY ENGLISH TEACHER LIVED IN SPAIN FOR 2 YEARS!
You could not imagine the happiness I felt from that discovery. Finally, I would meet someone who's been to España!
And basically, throughout my entire 10th grade year, my teacher told me all about España. She said it's extremely beautiful and that the people there are so ridiculously friendly and sweet. She admitted that if she didn't have to return to the USA to graduate university, she would have definitely stayed there.
What she told me made my decision to move there more solid than ever.
Towards the last two months of sophomore year, I realized the year. It was 2010. Exactly four years later from 2006.
IT WAS FIFA WORLD CUP TIME!
For someone who didn't really enjoy watching soccer much unless it was their favorite team, I was overjoyed. SUPER overjoyed man. I searched up everything about the world cup in the two months prior. I saw the final list of the group stages, saw images of South Africa preparing, etc.
And I got excited in seeing my team once more! I hadn't seen them play in four years.
You honestly couldn't imagine the joy in me. I couldn't stop talking about the world cup to my friends and family. One of my best friends lived outside of the USA for 4 years, so she loved soccer and hated American football. She was also excited for soccer. We both had what we called "world cup" fever before it even started.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I had met a guy during my 10th grade year who was also in love with the Spain national soccer team. That was his favorite team and he even let me borrow his jersey. We both were excited for the world cup because we really wanted España to win.
So throughout the world cup, I just blabbered about the España team. I missed their first match because I was at school. I was disappointed that they lost to the Swiss team, especially because they're a good team. Their Euro Cup win in '08 really proved that they are amazing. I read articles online about that match and most of them said España had played poorly. Like I said, I was disappointed.
I was sadly missing their next match as well. It was on the last day of school and my school was taking us on a trip to an amusement park in LA. In honor of España, I had made a fake vuvuzela (I love those things man) and painted it España's color. I was also going to do some face paint but I couldn't find any. My friend got world cup match updates to her phone. So when España made a goal, I would yell out "GOOOOOOOOL!" with my fake vuvuzela and everyone who was passing by me in the park would just ogle at me. I'm being legit here. That day, I did it twice because they made two goals and both times I yelled for 5 minutes straight and did dances. From then on, España won every match and ended up winning the world cup title the first time in history. To be honest though, in every match, I would think "oh, they won't win, they just won't!". Not because I didn't believe in them, but because I was just a pessimistic who believed that all her teams would have black luck hovering of them because of her.
When España won the world cup, I honestly cried. I couldn't stop crying all day. I was high off of the happiness for three weeks straight. And when I saw videos of them returning home to their fans, I cried again. I was so sad that I couldn't be there, welcoming them back home. I was so mad that I couldn't see them parade and celebrate. I was very displeased and jealous. But, in the end, my high off the happiness would overcome those feelings.
Now, it's been almost a month since they won. The world cup made soccer my 2nd favorite sport, really. España's win made me love the sport even more. I'm a crappy player but a pretty damn good goalie. I'm even trying out for the soccer team this coming school year for the goalie position.
I did exactly 4 reports/projects on España and every time I never get bored of the country but rather, my fascination grows.
I know that España is one of the 5 countries in Europe that are in the worst financial problems there right now. I know that in España 1/5 people are unemployed. I know that that is a very bad fact.
But I also know that España is a tough country. It's a national filled with bold, sincere, loving people who really can do the unexpected if they try hard enough and give it all they've got.
I also know that España is my heartland, the home of my soul. It's the place I plan to move to (I chose it over Australia, Canada& Portugal, my other choices of places to move to). It's the place I plan on living in after I graduate university.
I want to tie myself to España in every way that I can. I love sports and writing. I hope to find a career to that ties the two together [maybe journalism?] and live in España doing that career.
I'm serious about this. I'm moving to España and never leaving. That place really is my heartland.
I <3 España