April and most of March... in summary (the post whose pictures shouldn't exist)

Dear all,
Hmmmm... it has been a long time and so much has happened. I will have to be brief, in order to save your sanity... and time! haha
First thing is first. During March and April I traveled a lot, much of it in cities and I came to realize a very important observation: I believe that the next evolutionary step for the city pigeon is... well.... a rock. In no way, shape or form can I see these creatures improving themselves in terms of intelligence. My hypothesis is that due to the inordinate amount of times that pigeons in cities run into windows, knock each other over in their humorous yet bizarre lovemaking, and the general lack of intelligence needed to peck up bread thrown from tourists will result in this evolutionary 'progress'. Look for this stunning piece of academic evidence in "Evolution Today" (Additionally i am happy to sign autographs for people). ;-)

Okay, as for life in Andorra, which is where I currently reside, although not so much in the last 2 months. Life has continued to proceed well. Teaching continues to go, which is perhaps the best possible. My students and I have overall progressed to a stage where we have an understanding whether or not they like English or not. To say that I am the most effective teacher would be false, but to say that I had no control at all would be equally false. To say that I will be happy to finish this year would be also true. The rest of my life here though is great, our Encamp choir had a great minitour to Catalunya where we sang at a school in Manresa outside of Barcelona and also at a choir convention with over 5000 students! It really was a great moment and very fun to see the kids outside of class. Overall, we couldn't have been prouder of our 30 odd students and their representation of Andorra as they were polite, they tried their best with singing and they seemed to genuinely be interested in those they met. Particularly when there were any boys deemed "macos" or cute.... haha, being in choir with them is of particular joy to me. Two weeks after our "big" tour, we went across the border to Seu d'Urgell to do a concert with their school too. This was great because one day they came up here and the next we went down there. Again, our kids made us proud. When the other choir was here at our school some of our audience members were fairly embarrassing but the choir itself, impeccable! In the midst of one of those tours my friend Jenny came from Madrid and we had a great weekend exploring Barcelona from the luxury of the apartment of one of my co-teachers in Andorra. Thanks again Jenny for coming up, so many great laughs and it was cool to have you meet some of my students and co-teachers.
In other news in my Andorra life, my football team, Lusitanos are 2nd division champions of Andorra. I can now proudly say I was part of a european division-winning football team... even if I never actually played in a game... hehe. I continue to enjoy practice and starting this next week will begin running with Dany who is my closest friend on the team. What a wonderful privilege to be able to exercise, run around and play football with some very talented, and for sure exuberant people!!!!
Of the months of March and April I was actually only IN andorra for one weekend because of all these trips, and choir. For the one weekend I was here our choir had a concert at the mall as part of a fundraiser for a NGO working towards "ending world hunger". Then, I also got to go skiing which was fun as always although the snow was pretty crap so by 12 or so it was almost impossible to ski and certainly jumping was difficult. I had a very bad fall at the very end which resulted in skis, poles and me all in different directions. I twisted and bruised my knee fairly badly but after about 2 weeks I was able to once again run with fair ease. I also lost 1 pair of sunglasses*** (note, another pair of sunglasses will be mentioned later...) Because of the craziness of the weeks I have been here I did not go to Catala class or language sopars because of the busyness. BUT, I did get a chance to go to church which is fairly rare, and that week the pastor was from Malaga but was American. As always, church is a refreshing, albeit very different from church where I grew up or Green Street in Winston! haha, but that's probably good cause it's in a different place!
Final bad thing that did happen in the last month was teh collapse of my WFU issued Lenovo which died a painful death from 2 sources, both software and hardware. I was beyond repair but luckily a kind coteacher lent me her super old one to help me with my classes and then my gracious roommate helped me a) pick out a new computer, and b) he let me ship it to his address in NY where he was going for Easter so he could then bring it back for me. Angels and luck come in all ways, shapes and forms and this was luck although it started as seemingly an awful event! It's body has since been donated to the science class at my school for dissection and hopefully some sort of education purpose.

1st trip to talk about a bit. I went to Berlin for the Fulbright Europe conference which was a blast. Got to explore Berlin a bit, meet a few really excellent, cool people and hang out with a Wakie. Plus, got to stay with a dear friend of my sister-in-law which was extremely generous since they had a baby in April so she was very much pregnant! It was a great 4 days there, and then I was able to take the train down to Ulm, Germany where I was able to spend 3 very lovely days with my dear old friend Sara. She and her boyfriend were so unbelievably generous to share their lives with me for those three days and particularly generous since Sara and I did a ton of catching up which can't be too fun for him! Ulm is a very pleasant small city which I recommend visiting sometime. I went to school with Sara where I was able to enjoy a class with some of the darlingest little kids. They were really cute, they were so excited to have an english-speaking american in their midst that they were on really good behavior. I also attracted visitors from the next-door school during break time. Needless to say that the the fact that Sara and I know each other from Congo was probably going to be a bit too much for them to handle with ease... haha. It was a great time and Sara is a wonderful teacher so to see her in action and then realize how many things I have to learn to make my classes be even CLOSE to that smooth is humbling. So much energy, diversity of learning skills offered, so much stimuli, funny examples, really cool for realz.

The second trip that I went on could take pages and pages to describe but, I will spare you. In short, I went to Morocco and then to Southern spain. Further detail will entail now so you can skip if you just want the shortest of summaries. I went to visit a friend in Agadir, in southern Morocco which was interesting as it was completely rebuilt after an earthquake 60 or so years ago and it was built with the express purpose of being a tourist town. I spent two lovely days there resting, exploring a bit and catching up with friends. Then I went by bus to Ourzazate where I sat next to a very friendly, nice guy called Isham who was from the area nad therefore gave me a guided tour along the way pointing out caves he explored as a kid, valleys with high numbers of snakes, what this village or that village was famous for etc. It was really kind, and I enjoyed our 9 or so hour journey together. I spent that night in an oasis out of town which I got to by moped and got out of with a hitched ride. ***** (you can begin counting means of transportation for fun if you want now...). THe oasis was beautiful. Thanks to angels in the form of Michel and Cristine, two french tourist who have me a ride and with whom I enjoyed great conversation and a warm beer! haha, I am able to have any photos of this journey at all. This is because, beign Mark, I left my camera in their car but luckily we had exchanged contact information so that I was able to get it back in an hour or so... Wow, the only reason they even found it was that I had forgotten to totally close the window so they stopped to close it and found it... what incredible luck, eh? My life is grace-filled for so many reasons, but this being a clear materialistic example of such grace! Merci encore vous deux car si non pour vous, je n'aurai pas des photos d' un voyage magnifique! Vous etes toujours bienvenue chez moi. Et pour que vous saviez, j'ai nomme l'album de photos sur f-book avec le nom que vous m'avez donne! merci mille fois!
I then joined up with a tour group in town which was heading to the Valley of dades and then the desert. This turned out to be a fantastic, life-filled group which I felt SOOOO lucky to be part of, especially since I was a bit nervous about joining a random tour group. It turned out that we were all young(ish), lively, and interested in each other's lives so we got along well and were able to learn a lot. In particular, three of the girls ended up being Catalan so they live nearby and 1 will come up and visit me this first weekend of May and hopefully I will get to hang out with them later in May!!! What luck, eh? It was so neat to be able to meet some young Catalans who are interested in the world outside of them. Definitely something that is hard about living in Andorra, since there aren't many people around my age. We saw the valley of roses, a fantastic, steep, impressive gorge with one night spent near a rock formation called Monkey's fingers before culminating in the expectedly cool experience of one night in the desert. Most of this was done with a minibus by the end by camel... Camels, a good thing to try once, but I have no desire to do a trip with them again!.... EVER. ugh, my butt, and overall body hurt after 1 1/2 hours so I can't imagine longer.
At the desert I parted ways and headed to Meknes by another kind of bus (cheaper and without air) where college friend Monica was unbelievably generous and allowed me to crash with her three nights and showed me her town of Meknes and then I explored Fez mostly by myself with a visit to an old friend there too. WHat an honor to get to spend so much time with friends in places they live and know (and speak arabic). Arabic is now on my radar of languages to learn... it will surely be the greatest of challenges that I have faced linguistically but certainly cool. Again, I can't underline how much I appreciate Monica's hospitality. From her place I headed off to Tangier/Tanger by train. Trains are very comfortable and nice in Morroco. I spent the day in Tangier walking around, exploring, seeing a beautiful sunset and getting a shave! It is a decent town, but in my opinion cities of MOrocco are not the charming part of the country, despite all the talk about the Souks (markets). Also, I spent one night in a super cheap but equally super shady hotel which left me feeling like bedbugs all over and teh ice cold shower they offered did not help me feel like I got rid of them. No worries though, no actual signs of bedbugs.... gracias a Dios!
The next day I jumped across the Mediterranean (in a boat) to the charming,  lovely town of Tarifa which is a super place to chill out, and posssibly own a beach house if you have the funds... look into it and if someone ever does, tell me so I can visit cause I doubt it will ever happen in MY life! haha. THis is where adventures began. I spent one day in Tarifa just exploring, enjoying the beach and relaxing at a 12 euro hostel, awesome. I began walking.... about 5 kms before I got a hitchiked ride to the nearest intersection of the town of Vejer where I then had another 2 km walk up a steep mountain to the hilltop, which was worth the walk. I spent an hour there enjoying the first white-washed town of the "Pueblos blancos" before then walking about an hour and change. I figure I do about 7 kms in a good hour but I"m only guessing. Got a ride for about 30 km where he dropped me off at a 2nd pueblo blanco called Medina Sardinia. a half hour more walk got me to the actual town where I had a lovely menu lunch where I consumed as much agua griffa (tap water) as possible! Another hour walk before I got a ride that took me to Arcos de la Frontera. Lucky too cause there were no trees, no shade, no restaurants, nada and it was very hot in Andalusia. Apparently that day was the hottest day of the year so far... haha. Got to Arcos de la Frontera which was my favorite city of the south of Spain. Loved the views and the lovely guesthouse I stayed at there. Then began my longest straight walk. I ended up having to walk about 14 kms to the next town cause no one would pick me up and I needed to catch a bus in the next town. ugh.... definitely left my legs hurting, my back and backpack sweaty and my taste for hitchhiking significantly embittered.
I spent that night in ROnda which is perhaps the most touristed of the pueblos blancos and famous for its Bullring where modern bull-fighting started as well as its gorge-spanning bridge connecting the old town with the new town but it was not my favorite. Arcos was. From Ronda, I headed to Granada which quickly became one of my favorite towns I have visited, ever. Although I was only able to spend a day there, the proximity of skiing 1 or so hours away, the beach equi-distant, and the blend of hippies, modern business and the antiquity of the Alhambra was great. I came into serious luck here as I had no reservation for the alhambra (apparently booked for about 3 weeks now) but I went to the ticket office anyway and someone canceled right when I got there so I was able to visit the Alhambra in the end. It is a very impressive palace. I would definitely opt to be an Arab/Moorish prince to european princes trapped in shady castles and such organized bush gardens. The gardens at the Alhambra still maintained some wildness and were full of water.
The final part of my trip was spent in Madrid, which I went to by train and stayed with Kesley and Dan, two fulbrighters who stayed with us in January. Again, what luxury to be able to spend time with friends everywhere. and of course, all these lovely people saved me a ton of people which is what enabled me to do all this. In Madrid, I enjoyed a myriad of cafes, senegalese food! :-) hmmmmmm, and a whole day of Madrid Open tennis where I saw Nadal, Federer, Murray, and got the signatures of Sharapova (I think that's the beginning of a promising relationship.... ;-) hehe) and Wozniacki and got to see a good number of the top 20 women play in their respective matches. Sunday saw me return back to Barcelona by airplane and then the final three hour, familiar bus ride to Andorra. Oh, I got to see the Athletic Bibao football team at the BCN airport which was pretty cool. I was just waiting for my bus right where their bus was waiting for them so they all walked right by me... haha, but I didn't get any autographs this time.

What awesomeness, right? I feel like a rockstar after such a luxurious trip, and despite a great deal of money spent along the way, every cent was worth it and the amount I saw makes that sum seem incredibly small. I tried new things, met cool, new people, saw amazing places, tasted new food (some good and some bad) and overall loved living the entire way. Isn't that all you can really ask for, especially when you enjoy the materialistic luxuries of my life? Traveling alone isn't all that it's cracked up to be, although making decisions was easy... as was finidng places to stay. I would just show up in a town and start asking and visiting hotels/hostels till I found something in my price range that was decent. haha. but, I prefer traveling with others. It is my last real holiday in europe before heading back to the USA where I am very excited to join the WFU admissions team in Winston-Salem, NC at my alma mater as we try to bring the best and brightest who will thrive at Wake. I will have a luxurious 5 days between jobs as I drive from the midwest to NC with a car which my cousin is kindly organizing the purchase of.

Much love for now, pictures will follow later as they are on an external hard drive. Much love and thanks as always for reading and keeping in touch.
Peace and Love from the Principality for one of the last times....
Mark Titus Hoover

Maria Sharapova

Encamp Choir

Tarifa

Tarifa, Spain

Granada

Fint Oasis, Ourzazate

Sahara Desert at sunset

Tangier, Morocco

March

Dear all folks whom I love plus any of the randos who seem to check out my blog from places I don't know....

Okay, well I'm in Andorra for the day before going off on my next adventure so I wanted to write a quick update. First, February ended up being a fantastic month, chilling in Andorra, skiing every weekend plus an occasional Wednesday and Friday. One weekend I got to go to Barcelona and meet up with my dear friends Tom and Liz Ryder from Congo days who were passing through on a cruise (I think the exact same one as my cousins did earlier!) This was the first time I did not end up going to Parc Guell! but I got to do the double decker tourist bus with them which was really fun. You really get to see a lot of a city through those buses. It was really nice to be able to catch up with them since my last visit to them was in the summer of 2009 so my life looked TOTALLY different. It was fun to hear about their plans, where all they have traveled, I could definitely handle being like them when I grow up.

Here in the homeland of Andorra, the biggest highlight of my month was ski week with my school. To get a really cheap ski pass is a fantastic perk of my job, to get PAID to ski is an entirely amazing, and spoiling opportunity. Everyday I weould go to work at 8 am, Tamara-my ski teacher partner-and I would gather our students, make sure everyone had their equipment and hand out their passes for the day. Then, at 9 am, we headed out to the slopes usually getting there around 9:45 and then everyone eats their breakfast. I was never able to discover why everyone eats breakfast WHEN they get to the slopes instead of on their way, but Andorrans/Spanish are religious about their mid-morning esmorzar and it must be taken in their sweet time. As an African/American, this mid-morning meal was not something I was about so I was usually gunning to get started on those beautiful, white, fluffy slopes! :-) We then skied with the kids for two hours, I was assigned blue ski so Tamara and I led them on blues for the morning just to give them practice before the afternoon when they went with an instructor. Luckily, I can ski on blues without any worry but having 8 or so students gunning behind you can be a bit nerve-racking at times. One of the instructors got nailed by one of her students and ended up having to get stitches... eeek. The concern in the back of my mind was always... I better not get injured cause I'm NOT part of the State insurance system and don't have extra (don't tell my mom.... ;-) love you mom) Luckily all went well, then in the afternoon while the students skied with instructors I just went skiing for fun, super, super fun. :-) I tagged along with professors most days almost inevitably being one of the weaker skiers but they were always super cool and pushed me and gave me pointers. On Friday, I passed my set goal of 50 hours of skiing this year! :-) This was a goal cause 50 is a good number, and it brings the cost of Euro/hour to 4 euros an hour! :-) which is about the price of a coffee and croissant. :-) :-) Very pleased, but most importantly I have had a ton of fun. The last two days I did nothing lower than a red with them and jumped on Friday! Talk about a super scary feeling... but super cool too. I continue to fall, I have never been skiing without falling, but it's an AMAZING feeling you get in your heart when you are zooming down a slope, dodging/jumping the little pesky bump things they put in. And at 3, we gather up the kids and take them back to school and then, all but one day, I got to go home at 4 pm. :-) A country where the national pasttime is skiing... priceless.

Okay, so skiing in Andorra, HIGHLIGHT of February. But, the end of February was also pretty cool because we got Carnaval holiday. This is a holiday which is just not a big deal in the US but is MASSIVE in France/Andorra/Spain so tons of people were on holiday, including us. For holiday I got to go to Paris, France. I know what you're thinking of, I thought about Paris, Texas but at the last minute went with friends and the Eiffel tower instead of... whatever the hell is in Paris, Texas! I seemingly have a plethora of friends living in Paris and didn't even get to see one of them, sorry Jimena! But I got to stay with my old boss from the Embassy in Senegal who is now stationed in Paris. He treated me so well that I felt like I was staying in a luxurious 5 star hotel centered 10 minutes from the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower! He made me so comfortable, just like in Dakar, provided me with a wealth of maps and books about Paris-most of which I did not use but it was nice to have them. I took the train from Hospitalet (nearest train station from Andorra) to Paris arriving at 7 in the morning. This was just in time to get breakfast with Wallace before he had to go off and work (he was not impressed by my intense work week! haha). In the afternoon, I met up with Matt Secrest from WFU/CO and we walked all over Paris just catching up and hanging out with various coffee stops. It was nice to be able to visit Paris without the pressure of what to visit when but rather just be able to stroll. Visited the national archives and rue Bercy, Palais de Tokyo (where we some some funky art, not all of which I appreciated). It was pleasant and ended with Wallace and I catching bar food around the corner. Sunday was another relaxing day with a reasonable wake-up and then we got (and by we I mean I fetched stuff) Wallace's car up and running, only to take the metro.... haha, but we went to the Pompidou center and visited the free exhibits they had going. In the evening we joined another cool officer, his wife, and their super cute little girl to watch Arsenal play Birmingham in the Carling Cup final. Let's not talk about the result.

Monday... I woke up leisurely, visited Wallace at work, ate with the interns who are currently serving there. Let me tell you, a SUPER different experience than mine cause Paris Embassy is massive and there are seemingly a million people. Wallace says he doesn't even know many of the people outside of his section. It was crazy, plus seeing that Paris is so big and there is a large foreigner community, it's not so bonding. Can't imagine being an unpaid intern living in Paris... ugh. But they were very nice ladies both from smaller schools. The State Department is good about getting people from all sorts of schools. The afternoon I rocked out the Louvre. Proved the existence of Venus de Milo (not that cool), spent the late afternoon with AManda Bowers, Brad Keck and his girlfriend Flannery at a MOroccon Hookah bar by Montmartre (fascinating area), and then catching dinner alone at a Senegalese restaurant where I talked a bunch with a guy from the Ivory Coast who just walked up to me (love africans!). Finally, then met up with Matt to go to an acquaintance's birthday bash at a local bar. The night was fun, and ended ridiculously. I ended up being alone on a subway platform with this girl waiting for what we thought was the last metro. The line ended up being broken down. Anyway, she ends up being a famous french actress!

Nah, just joking, but I bet at least one person believed it! haha, so I made quick convo with her, knelt down to pick up my book which had dropped and when I looked up she was literally falling over! Obviously I jumped up and helped her over to the bench to sit her down. She is super white in the face and is saying it's "my heart it's my heart" while rubbing her chest slowly and not really communicating well with me. Luckily about the same time the security came through to kick us out so I wasn't totally alone. Turns out she has a birth defect with a valve and sometimes it acts up and she gets like this... I was like, metros may not be your thing..... Anyway, after about 10 or so minutes she was okay to get up so I walked her to her house (which was only about 20 minutes from Wallace's). Ended up being from Martinique and an architecture student who wants to study in the US! Really nice girl, whose name I never asked, but what a random, weird experience. Nothing like walking around Paris at 1:30 walking a heart-defect French girl from Martinique and reminiscing about ridiculous questions we get! haha, just a standard Paris tour. Tuesday I hung out with Matt, ate a very nice dinner with Wallace and then meeting Matt, Courtney from WFU, and another ETA and his girlfriend

Okay, part two of my break was at the Taize ecumenical Monastery-not necessarily only Catholic monks but definitely an overall Catholic, old-church experience, where I was very excited to go to get an opportunity to kick back, relax, and use some time to connect with God again. Andorra is many wonderful things, but definitely miss a Christian community. I didn't "do" much but rather I "was" a lot. I spent 4 days in silence which was a really cool (and at first challenging) experience. I lived in a room alone sharing a common hallway shower and eating together with other guys who were doing 4-7 days in silence. The oddest part for me was definitely eating all together yet not speaking. It was really a very cool experience which I will treasure but not particularly interesting for you to hear about. Short of it was, I didn't hear God speaking to me in any crazy out-of-body experience but was given a lot of peace and was able to delve into God's word a bunch and enjoy worship at Taize. Taize has a particular style of worship with chants and repetition which was very beautiful. I am sad that I missed out on getting to meet a lot of cool people-a little shout-out to the cool folk I met the last afternoon before I left from Baylor, would have been fun to get to talk more. Also, I understand why a "garden" is the scene of the perfect creation, such a tranquil beautiful place with just the wind, trees, and birds to accompany your soul.

I returned bright and early this morning on an all-night train, this time unfortunately I did NOT sleep. Got into Andorra, unpacked, dug into the multitude of emails that I missed, uploaded photos to F-book, and now I'm about to go off to work for an hour tutoring before watching Arsenal play Barcelona. Hopefully, that goes better than I'm afraid it will... it promises to be a depressing result for me.... but we'll see. I will attach a few photos so you can see a few of the things....

View from top of Slopes

Tamara and I

Me at the top of Grandvalira

Ryders and I

Tour Eiffel

My room in Taize

Peace and Love from the Principality
Mark Titus

January in the Principality

Good afternoon/morning/evening/night everyone,
Stillness. Utter, complete, total silence. Then the smooth sound of skis slicing through the thin air and a green-cloaked monitor comes to a graceful, effortless stop in front of me, snow swooshing up behind him in an arc. "hola" he mutters in his tired, Chilean or Argentinian Spanish. "bon dia" I whisper back in my apparently portuguese accented Catala. Ahhhh..... the day begins. With the groans of frozen metal and the creaks of routine, the ski lift begins its day and I'm on the first seat meeting the sun sneaking its way over the mountain half-way up the slope.

This has become one of my favorite ways to start a day. Heading out of my slumbering apartment at around 7:50 carrying my 20 year old skis and boots with me wearing my shoes and small backpack with mandarins to boot. Getting to the first gondola to the ski lift at 8:30 is described by some as utter suicide on a weekend, an action of folly suggesting that 5 months in the Principality has addled my mind but despite my dislike for mornings, I cannot disagree more vehemently. It is a beautiful thing to be the first on the slopes, cutting across the freshly ironed pistes with only the instructors whizzing by you on one ski, backwards, jumping and basically showing me how very far I have to go before I can consider myself even decent! haha, skiing has been an amazing gift to me this year. With not a lot of ability previously to ski, this has been virtually my first exposure to the sport, and surely the easiest and cheapest exposure I'll probably EVER get. Totally worth every penny and early morning I have suffered. Even the walk up my hill, which seems like Everest at the end of a day of skiing, is worth it. If you ever get the chance to come to Andorra, go skiing, you'll love it. The mornings are my favorite as they are void of the tourists who usually are as bad or worse than me and suicidal preteen/teenagers whose bones may still be rubbery but mine aren't! haha. By this first week in February, I have now clocked up 27 hours of skiing. Yes, I am counting.

What else does a 22 year old American Fulbright do in Andorra? Well, in my free time I enjoy getting coffees and/or beers with friends, whether they are crazy Irish English nut bags or equally crazy French teachers from Canada. I am privileged to get to know such crazies. You all know that I'm not one for late night shenanigans so usually I'll be found lying around the apartment on a weekend, enjoying the fact that I can be inside before 8:30 pm. I drink a lot of tea, admire our view, clean up my room, do my laundry on Saturdays or Sundays and basically just chilax and prepare for the next week. And, if I don't finish my lesson planning, or just want to edit them, I do that on the weekends too. Despite the fact that I only make one or two lessons a week-yes, I know real teachers are reading this with jealously-it takes a surprisingly long time to do so. I also do my food shopping on weekends, plus any other shopping I need, and on Sundays I traditionally make a big meal which I then plastify and keep for the following several days. yes, for leftovers. Sundays has also become our traditional going to Portuguese Chicken place where we eat fries with some sort of drug in it (we suspect), delicious rice, and chicken with some sort of spices on it that make it taste FANTASTIC, and a Portuguese Sagres beer to wash it all down. The three ladies who work there all have different personalities and all know us by sight now.  Life has a lovely rhythm, and Friday continues to be my most favoritest day of the week! oh, and of course, one of the most important elements of my life is watching football every single week watching my dear gunners fight each game to the bitter end in a bid to beat Manchester United to the crown, unlikely but I continue to hope. At least they are good this year... unlike virtually every Wake Forest sport! Oh, another thing I am doing is trying to read a bit, finally finished "Confessions of Saint Augustine" which was a fantastic, albeit difficult read and now I have started Life of Pi which is significantly easier, and a very fun read so far. it's amazing how much you can read doing so only in the bus going to and from work places. :-)

During the week, catala class, language sopar, choir, football, and tutoring keeps me busy every day. Tutoring continues to give me sincere pleasure despite the later hours, choir proves to be an enjoyable use of my time and I continue to enjoy the comradery and language challenge of both the Sopars and Catala class. Two weeks ago I had my first ever true melt-down while teaching. I have had difficult days ever since I got here and my 3cs have always proved a challenge to me but one whom I have been confident I would figure out how to channel at some point. Two weeks ago, I realized that after 5 months, my best students seemed to be getting weaker, my worse students no better, their overall English level hopeless (to be gracious) and their attitude like that of a chihuahua towards a German shepherd, utter contempt. Another similarity to this allusion, like the German Shepherd I am somehow intimidated and unable to realize that their attitude is not my problem.  I broke down.... no tears but real close. haha, anyway, after throwing three out of them of my class for the day, I talked to my head of department and then my principal came in and gave me sympathetic ears. Anyway, at the end of the day, a wonderful conversation with an angel in the form of my sister!, and a few days of sleep, I felt better about it. We shifted some students and... we'll see. Monday was still super tough, but that's just the way life is. I will continue to do what I can, research better ways to channel energy and keep discipline and ask questions but I am determined not to let them ruin my days either. If I throw my fullness into it and it still doesn't work, I just have to keep trying and hope their little teenager radars go down long enough to learn something.

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of having Antonio's birthday celebration at our apartment. Thongdam organized pretty much everything despite being sick, she and Amanda did a shopping storm to get all the food but the veggies which were my charge and then we cooked... for a long time Thongdam and I cooked! :-) well, really I just took orders and Thongdam informed me of what to do. In the end two kinds of enchiladas, lots of dipping veggies, nachos, beans, salsas, and pies resulted. And it was glorious. We had a great time, with a lot of people over

Okay, to keep this brief. The rest of February will be work world, ski world, tutoring etc. PLUS! I'm going to get to sneak out and see the Tom and Liz Ryder who are going to be in Barcelona for a cruise. That's going to be a special treat. Then the end of February happens and before I blink my eyes it'll be april and then another blink it will be May. I go to Paris at the end of February for 4 days where I'll get to see Wallace Bain, my boss and friend from Embassy days in Senegal, followed by a personal trip to Taize retreat center in Taize, France. Then I get back to Andorra just in time to run to Pamplona, Spain for a week-long Fulbright conference with a weekend going to San. Sebastian, then I teach for a week, then I go to Berlin for a week conference followed by a weekend with Sara Brucker and her boyfriend in Ulm, Germany (maybe see Stefan? from RVA days). Then I get back, teach for 3 days before heading off with my school choir to Catalonia for an All-Catalonia choir congregation where 5000 or so students will do a mega-concert. Looks to be ridiculous, loud, seriously off key, and amazing. :-) Then I'll be here in Andorra for a full 2 weeks before heading off to Morocco to visit my dormparents from high school, my old (actually young but old in terms of time) math teacher, and hopefully seeing a friend from Wake. At the end of that trip (easter) I will crown it with a weekend in Madrid, crashing Madridites' couch and watching the Madrid open for a day. I will finally return to Andorra much poorer, probably quite fatigued, tired of the 3 pairs of clothes I will be using during my travels and ready to settle down for the final drive. It is weird to think but... I pretty much have everything from here until May charted out... strange, but virtually true. Sometime in the next few months I need to do: taxes (don't forget to give your $1 for public campaigning ya'll! let's try to get back to that... I'm tired of wasting money on hateful t.v. ads), find a job if my desired one doesn't work out, and keep sane. Plus a haircut, September to December without a cut was a bit much and I want to be a bit neater this time... Maybe I'll do that this weekend. Hopefully I will at least update during the week I'm here in March if I don't squeeze out another quick one before leaving at the end of February.

Tonight, we are (hopefully) having guests from Spain over for dinner, then it's football practice, then sleep then tutoring early tomorrow morning before perhaps skiing with a friend from school, and food shopping... should be a good time! :-) Sunday is a ski day with Jordi, the music teacher, and then laundry, cooking part of life. :-). The quote of the month goes to our friend Kamran who visited from Barcelona-Andorra: "Where good things happen"!

Center of Andorra la Vella

Yah, that's a huge snowman

 

Yes... bitches get stabbed.... hehe

The Cuban, the crazy Irishman, and the mostly normal Catalonian

America, Andorra, and  Brazil, all witness to Antonio's party

Antoine and I at "frankfurter"

As always, thanks for taking the time to read up on my daily life-I know it's not really that exciting-and for your thoughts, prayers, and what you mean to me. Know I often miss family and friends despite being confident I am where I should be. I would ask you to pray for me particularly during travel, during my weekend retreat at Taize, and as I seek out opportunit(ies) for next year. For patience, peace, and that the right situation at the right time will become obvious to me when it needs to be.

Peace and Love from the Principality,
Mark Titus Hoover

Dude, it's 1/11/11. You gotta smile now!

Well, I'm back to Andorra, the booming Principality! My Christmas holidays were fantastic, definitely full of curiosities, colors, sounds, smells... overall, a fantastic Christmas. If you ever get the opportunity to go to India, do not think about it, Just Do It! (thank you Nike). It may not be a country where you would like to live but it is certainly a country that is worth a visit. I guess I'll start at the beginning.

#1 First of all, the 22^nd of December was our school's Talent Show. Wow! Hiliarious, first off, only one brave boy participated in this talent show and he was fantastic, he is a great guitarist. Secondly, virtually every single performance was a group of different girls performing some kind of dance and lipsync to music that was altogether not appropriate. There is something that is coincidentally very funny and sad about watching girls 'shake it' except they really don't have anything to shake... haha, anyway, despite my mild discomfort with both the lyrics and actions of these girls I was impressed with the amount of effort and passion they put into their songs.

#2 The 23^rd saw Amanda, Antonio, and I on an early bus to Toulouse, France-home of Airbus most famously. We dropped Amanda off at the airport before Antonio and I headed off to explore. We proved to be excellent companions as we both enjoyed spacing any kind of formal cultural visits to churches, and/or museums with long stops at cafes! :-) We did see Thomas Aquinas' tomb which was super cool, a black Virgin Mary which was curious, and saw lots of cool statues in the Musee des Augustins. It was nice to be once again in a country where I can communicate more or less fluently. That evening Antonio left and I went to the airport to begin my airport vigil till the next morning. One of the french teachers from my school met me at the airport to hang out for a bit before I truly was solo. It wasn't a bad stay though, for real.

#3 Trip to India. Of course, the 6 am flight (first of the day) from Toulouse was late leaving somehow making the connection between Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle extremely tight. I, along with 4 other stressed, late passengers, jumped on the RER train and got to the airport 20 minutes after my flight had stopped accepting passengers. I was lucky to have a super kind gate clerk who let me on the flight and in the end we sat on the runway for 2 hours waiting to be de-iced. I was very thankful to be there and having slept realistically only about 5 hours total in the last 48 hours, I collapsed into sleep. My flight was enjoyable, the passenger next to me was a very nice Sikh man who was entertaining. He was all about pocketing sodas and the gift boxes we got. :-) haha, I got to travel in Premier Voyageur which is a new class Air France started that is between Economy and Business and is quite nice. You get plugs which I find sweet! I arrived in India Christmas Morning at 2:30 or so.

#4 We stayed in Mumbai until the 27^th getting to relax, meet Jane's boyfriend, some of her/their friends, and explore Mumbai a bit. What a giant city. Over 20 million, which is still mind-blowing to me! After our trip, we returned to Mumbai for another four days which was a nice way to relax at the end of the trip before a long flight back to Europe and work on Monday! Throughout our time in Mumbai were many highlights: seeing Jane's school which is gorgeous and clearly a place of constructive learning, getting to meet her friends and her bf's family kindly invited us over, riding around in rickshaws (a super entertaining means of public transport-box on top of a motorcycle), walking around in shorts! :-), watching Mumbai locals throw on winter jackets against the bitter cold gripping the city (15-20 Celsius!), going to the Taj Hotel to get a coffee, looking at many fascinating architectures throughout the city especially the old British colonial buildings, Victoria train Station, a nice dentist appointment and of course for me... FOOD! FOOD! Delicioso. We also went on a powerful tour through Dharavi where I learned that the slum which is 1.1 million people on 1.75 km2 but it produces more than 500 million $$$ of output. Crazy right? Money flows out and into the pockets of some but not the residents. It was interesting to hear the perspective of our guide-a resident and the resistance of slum dwellers toward any type of gentrification or reorganization-lots more stuff I learned which if you are interested in, you can ask me. Throughout all of these activities, just being together with my awesome parents and sister was a super big blessing that refreshed me more than sleep did! It is always nice to be around people you know have known you throughout all the stages of your life and love you anyway! Haha.

#5 We got to see some amazing things during our trip in India. We began on the 27^th with a “14 hr” train trip. This began badly because it was 9 hours delayed, but during this time we got to eat at Leopold's Cafe which is a famous Mumbai eatery and I will be the first to say: worth the hype. The train was late leaving and then further delayed because the Gujars (a semi-nomadic tribe) was protesting government policies by both blocking the road and the train tracks. This proved to be a good reminder to me of how complicated it must be to run a country as diverse and as complicated as India. Anyway, this train trip turned into over 25 hours BUT I pretty much slept the entire thing! Haha, and when I wasn't sleeping I was virtually always eating as the Indian rail company just keeps bringing you food. Two thumbs up there. We arrived into the capital of Delhi well past midnight having already missed the day we were supposed to have there. A complicated rescheduling followed and we were able to get one full day in Delhi. We saw the Jama Masjid Mosque, an amazing old palace/temple whose name I'm forgetting, the place where Gandhi's ashes lie, were entertained by the ubiquitous melange of cows, motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles, cars, trucks, buses, etc. Incidentally, India is pretty darn crowded, while at the station in Mumbai I saw people sleeping on top of the snackshop roofts, underneath sidewalk shops, pretty much everywhere there were people. Also, we saw some MASSIVE rats-only beat out by rats I spotted in New Orleans a few years ago! Which wandered the tracks free at will feasting on the multitude of trash and other less appealing things on the tracks.

From Delhi we took another late and delayed train to Agra (hometown of the Taj Mahal). We stayed at a nifty little hotel within a short walking distance of the Taj. My biggest observation: there is a lot more around the traditional image of the Taj than I knew existed. Also, the symmetry of the whole place is pretty fantastically amazing and detailed. Inside the Mausoleum within the walls are these precious stones which come from India that glow only when the moon hits them! How cool is that? Once again, I was amazed by the detail that went into the Taj Mahal. After the Taj, we then got an opportunity to visit the Fa which is heralded as the largest gate in Asia. While I have neither the interest nor the ability to defend that statement I will say that it was incredibly large! 70 meters total. Inside was the tomb of a Muslim holy man who was credited with an ability to predict things and also for granting an emperor the life of child by sacrificing his own. It was neat to see people of various religious persuasions all joining together to offer prayers and gifts at this shrine.

We then drove from Delhi to Ranthambore National Park which was about a 8 hr. journey as I remember-again slowed by the Gujar protests. But the protest meant we got to go through a lot of villages which was honestly really cool as it helped us see better what the countryside looks like. Biggest observation: there is virtually NO free land at all, everything has either people or farms on it. It seemed like every inch of the country was covered! This park is famous for tigers but alas we were not able to see any. We did get to see a ton of other animals all of which were new to me so despite some disappointment I was very pleased overall. We celebrated New Years Eve at the hotel just outside of the park. We ended up eating a delicious Indian buffet-style dinner at another hotel. Anyone who knows me well will know that I enjoyed that event immensely as I feasted for a few hours! :-) This year, I was so proud as everyone in my family made it to New Years Eve (albeit barely!)

The 1^st saw us make a 4 am trip to Jaipur to catch a morning flight to Ahmedebad which is the biggest city and defacto capital of the province of Gujarat which is the province from which MANY of the Indians both in the US and in Africa come from. It is a fairly affluent state which is dry and also the home of where Gandhi lived within his Ashram or community. Getting to visit the Ashram was a special treat. Additionally, we were there shortly before the international Kite Festival (envision the movie Kite Runner) so we were able to go to a street which only sells Kite products and watch them making the glass covered string which is used in these fights. Here we were the honored, honored guests of a friend of my sister at her wedding! People were so unbelievably generous as hosts, making us feel incredibly at home, giving us rides, always asking if we were doing okay. My whole time in India I was humbled by the kind welcome everyone gave us. Another example of this in Ahmedebad was the opportunity I got to see a friend of mine from Wake Forest who happened to be there at the same time for his sister's wedding. Despite the fact that the wedding was the day after we were there, he and his family were kind enough to have us over to a traditional Gujarat lunch full of delicious foods and he helped us plan the rest of our day there. Throughout Africa I have always felt welcomed too, but India truly was something extraordinary.

This vacation was remarkable in many ways. Two personal firsts: 1) I never once tickled my father-which many of you know is a difficult thing to NOT do, 2) this new year has marked my commitment to not biting my nails. This is my first serious effort at this so hopefully it goes well. I already had to clip my nails which was the first time in a very long time.... haha. So, keep me accountable!

This is kinda random but... flying reminded me of something I cannot understand. It is almost as difficult to understand as such mind-blowing complexities such as why do monkeys make opening bananas look so smooth, why do we call the bone a “funny bone”-it's never funny to you, and of course, why exactly do we as men continue to be attracted to women when we know our entire lives we will never be able to predict what's going on...? Oh yah, the event which brought this to mind: why is it that the same people who look like they are fleeing the apocalypse while boarding an airplane are the ones who also attempt to climb over you in their attempt to evacuate that SAME airplane?! Is it that they just forget that they don't actually like flying when they are smacking people with the briefcase rushing through line into the plane? Anyway... just musings from me but... for real?

Of course, my time in India had to finish eventually and I returned to Andorra on Saturday, just in time to have a Fulbright friend from Barcelona come to stay with us for two days, he ended up leaving Tuesday night, but he promises to be back! :-) Unfortunately, as ya'll know, Mondays and Tuesdays are fairly hectic days so I wasn't able to spend much time with him after Sunday (as in I did not see him at all Tuesday)

Now I'm back in Andorra, enjoying the high life as I live away. I am finishing up this email at night and we just had a fun birthday bash with some of our close friends here and it was a great time. It is fun to be able to have friends over and just feel relaxed. Haha, it is surprisingly nice to be back to “home” and hopefully this term will go as well or better than last semester. As always, thanks for reading and thanks for who you are! Hopefully this new year will be challenging, fun, and hopefully will end the year with a job! Despite the work and stress/excitement I look forward to being relaxed in the moment as I continue to seek to FULLY live and learn what Love is all about!

 As always, Peace and Love from the Principality!

Jane and I

Mumbai evening

Taj Mahal

Sunset in Ahmedebad

Monkeys in Ranthambore

Mark Titus

December, December, December

GOOD morning/afternoon/evening to all of you,
It is December. hmmm, things to update you on. Well, first off, helping out the English Community fair was pretty fun. I manned the used toy section of the fair, it was actually a really big fair which kind of surprised me. It raised a bunch of money which goes to help different small non-profits here in Andorra. Pretty cool, worked with a Singaporean woman who is living here and is one of Christians who goes to the English church service. I also picked up a couple books when I was at there including 1984 and Life of Pi which are two books I have been meaning to get for ages. It's cool, I have yet to start them, of course, but it will happen. I did finally finish White Man's Burden, written by William Easterly (who I heard at Wake) and I can definitely recommend this. Thank you Megan McHaney for letting me abscond with it. I am done with CS Lewis Great Divorce (thanks Shelly) which is also an excellent read. I am so proud... 2 1/2 books in three months, an excellent record.
What else... I have, of course, watched a great deal of football including a heartbreaker 1-0 loss of Arsenal to Manchester United. My Andorran team, Lusitanos, is rocking along. Our first team and my 2nd league team are both in first place. In fact, our 2nd division team is ROCKING! I continue to really enjoy their company. Last week was my last practice, so afterward we went out and I had a great time with the three guys who are closest to me as well as a few other younger Portuguese who joined us at the dive bar where we always go. Dany really is a fantastic dude whom I feel privileged to get to know. Unfortunately, one of the other guys who goes with us is going through a separation right now and it's super complicated so that's too bad but he's awesome, and a really good football player. You can definitely tell that they have worked for a long time cause I feel like most of them look older than they are. and if you look at Dany's hands for instance, they are all cut up, blistered and craziness like that. As an electrician here, he works in the cold in -10 degree weather for 10 hour shifts! ugh... and cause of the kind of work he does he really can't wear gloves which means they get super beat up. He normally works from 7:30 to 7 pm everyday 6 days a week but a couple weeks ago he was working till 10 pm and one day till 1:30 am... Nuts, right? I always feel seriously lucky and so sheltered cause I've never done anything like that. And on top of it, he plays football-plus he doesn't smoke which is unusual. Just a very cool guy. Oh, they taught me a portuguese card game that was called "up and down"-subir i baixar which was super weird and confusing at first but actually a lot of fun. It was a special deck though, but hopefully we'll play again. Another thing I learned was that in Portugal, at least in the northern rural areas where they are from, it's kinda taboo if a woman smokes!! It came up cause Dany was saying that his wife does and people sometimes give him crap about it back home because she's a woman and all. Anyway, side-note but it was a really interesting conversation.
Choir has also been fun, we had our first concert last week. We sang 4 mini-concerts all at nursing homes which was really neat because it was fun to see how excited and happy 40 teenagers can make elderly. We had two on Friday of last week, and although our singing quality was, at times, a bit shaky, everyone was happy and that was what was important anyway. After each session, we had snacks and got to talk to a few people, although mostly we just milled around and talked to ourselves. Antoine (the French teacher) and I are the two male teachers and two of four basses so we spend a lot of time together. Overall choir=success.
Tutoring continues to move along well, I really enjoy working with each kid and last week, one of the mothers was gushing as she told me she was so excited because she heard her son talk in english for an extended period of time for the first time. Her face and his face made me so happy and definitely energized me. With the exception of one of my students, they all give me a lot of energy and make the work of getting to their houses, getting home at 8:30/9 pm etc. all worth it. Plus, of course, the pay is good too! One of the families also gave me a very nice sweatshirt as a Christmas present, how nice is that? That is really a neat family, and her son is going to England this summer to live with a family which will be great for his english. He is about 14 and just a great kid. One of those kids who is definitely going places.
Christmas in Andorra, a bit weird since we haven't really done any decorating or any of that jazz but the city is nice, with decorations and all, huge Snowman on our big square. Last week was really warm (10 degrees) so that made it not feel like Christmas but definitely the stores and school make it feel like Christmas everywhere. We have had one good solid run of snow-unlike the rest of Europe we've actually had a spell of warm weather and not that much snow which is worrying for the skiing. Talking about skiing, I went for the first time last week which was actually a lot of fun. I went with Frieda-one of the other fulbrighters-because she and one of the teachers from her school were taking a lesson which I definitely wanted to be on. It was expensive, 25 euros for 2 hours but it was nice to have someone focusing just on you and I feel like now I can go on my own for a while till I feel really comfortably on blues. Of course I fell a ton, which is normal, and my hips hurt a TON afterwards-stupid duck feet.... but I had a lot of fun. I went Wednesday and Thursday for 4 hours or so not enough to get too tired but enough to be energized. Clare, the Englishwoman from church was super kind and was able to give me her husband's skis which fit me almost perfect. They are super old-school so that means they are heavier than new ones, and have chips and all that jazz but hell, they are perfect for a beginner like me. This HUGE gift along with a ski pass through school for ALL the country's resorts meant that my total investment for skiing including pants from their version of Salvation army, goggles etc. and pass was only 200 euros which, albeit a lot of money, is AWESOME for a whole year of skiing. I feel very blessed. HOpefully I will get to go again this weekend although because of the warm weather, and now a deep freeze which has hit us in the last couple days, the snow is pretty bad but, better than nothing.
Other things in mind include continuing to look at various things for next year and keeping an open mind-and for those of you who know me I tend to be pretty random until I find something I want and then go after it 100%! haha, also, planning a trip to Germany in March to go to the annual Fulbright conference which takes place there. I will also hopefully get to see an old friend, Sara and maybe Stefan too depending on timing. I'm looking to fly to Berlin for the conference, then to Stuttgart for the following weekend and then back to Barcelona on the Sunday at the end of March. It looks to be a bit pricey by totally worth it if it means that I'll get to see some good, old friends.
Last week, I got to see my cousins cause they were on a Mediterranean cruise and had a day so we got to see eachother for the afternoon on Sunday. It was about time since it has been 5 and 7 years respectively since I had seen them! haha 
Hmmmm, oh, last thing. Christmas is in a week, crazy, right? It's already the latter half of December, hard to believe. Anyway, what am I going to do. Well, seeing that mon soeur lives in Mumbai India, I am going to go fly there and spend it with her and my parents who are coming all the way from Congo! How cool is that? The only bummer is that Jeremy and Lindz cannot come but I can hardly complain. I am very stoked to get to see where Jane lives, meet important people to her, and see her city. Plus touristy things all of which I'm not 100% sure what they will be... haha, I know we are going to Rajastan, New Delhi and I don't really know what all else. But I'm sure it'll be super exciting and EVERYTHING will be interesting. It will be my first foray into Asia so, that'll be fun.
Okay, that's all folks. As always, thanks for following along my blog, I hope you find-at least some of-it interesting and thank you guys for checking. Japan, Chile, Brazil, Lichtenstein, Argentina, Slovenia, Russia, Belgium, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, DR Congo, Kenya, United Kingdom, India, Ghana, France, Spain, Andorra are, I think, all of the places people have accessed my blog from. It's super cool to know that people all over the world are curious-although, I really don't have any idea who checked my account from the first 7 countries... Lichtenstein? Anyway, give me a shout-out whoever that is and let me know who it is. Thank you guys all for caring and I appreciate your thoughts, prayers even when it has been a while since we have directly talked. As I look forward into this next year, I look back happily on many good memories with you all, am enjoying the memories I am making here with new friends, and looking forward to creating more memories with old and new friends! Thanks for helping make 2010 a great year and although it seems hard to believe possible, I'm hoping that 2011 will be even better! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year ya'll!
Peace and Love from the Principality!
Mark Titus

Adam and I from Parc Guell

Sunset from my window

Our choir

Our ravid, fan base-you should have seen our security.... ;-)

Whattup all

November 27th. Can you believe it?
I certainly find it hard to believe that I have been here nearly 3 months! Somedays it feels like I have been here for years and other days I feel like I just got here... strange, right? The last two weeks have been blissfully quiet, and low-key, and relatively cheap! :-) Right after I blogged last time, I went with Antonio to a Barcelona versus Villareal game at the Nou Camp and it was AMAZING. Seeing as I don't really follow la liga, I can't personally vouch for this but we were told it was one of the best games, and certainly I thought it was action-packed. For all those who don't like football because lack of goals (Mark Henjum-i'm looking at you.... :-) the score was 3-1 for Barcelona with Messi getting a brace. Great time. We just went down for the day, leaving at 1:15 from here for the game at 22 hours and then spent the night at a hostel before returning to the Great Principality the next evening.
I spent good chunks of time that weekend and the following working on grades which was... uninspiring to say the least but, it had to be done! In my 3rd years, I have 16 kids failing, and 16 kids who are squeaking by with 50s, but there are only a few who are also failing participation so that's good. My fourth years are doing well though, for the most part, I think it's because their quiz was a lot easier. I know this may sound cruel but I got a lot of satisfaction from giving my troublemaker kids because it sobered them up a lot. A number of them, I think, thought my joke was a complete joke, they didn't think it would really count and therefore were just screwing around but now they realize it means something, they were fairly good last week. Oh, also since my last post I had my first/second outbreak as a teacher. One of my classes is particularly whiny and they were complaining about everything including my class, teachers etc. so I just laid out on them and told them the truth: that they are SUPER lucky cause their school conditions are baller, and I didn't let them talk at all while I was talking. That also seemed to sober them up. Lector Marco getting worked up wasn't something they had really seen and I don't think they were big fans, haha. The last two weeks in general have seemed to be going well. I have a few kids who have told me that they are enjoying class, a few who have been pretty bad seem to be MAYBE starting to turn the corner and be less irritating, and a few who probably will always be thorns for whatever reason but I think slowly but surely I am getting better and dealing with those situations. I am confident that I have a ton more mistakes to make and will continue to have issues but it feels good to have a few good times. Last Monday, our school went to a domestic violence awareness theatre thing and let me just tell you, field trips with jr./sr. high kids SOUND a lot more relaxing than they actually are... whewww... but, we only had one kid manage to escape and he ended up being fine, he just went home. Let's just say that 50 teenagers on a bus is a dangerous for the general public.... Good thing about it though, didn't have to teach my two toughest kids AND got out 1/2 early. Suhweet! :-)
Last weekend I was also lucky enough to get some free skis, poles, and boots from a lady at the protestant church that is held once a month. Her name is Clare and she has been very friendly and helpful since the first time I met her. Still waiting to hear about her and her husbands' drive from Singapore to London... Epic sounding, right? Or, her journey across Ireland with the family in a horse-drawn wagon... yah, that's right. Anyway, it was super generous, cause it turns out that my feet are the exact same size so they fit, are nice and old and beaten up minimizing the damage I'll do to them... Also, Antonio, kinda Thongdam, and I all watched Get him to the Greek which is really quite a funny movie and we also went to Pas de la Casa, just to do it. random fact, you have to go through France to get to Pas de la Casa... funny, eh? Oh, one other thing, learned via Antonio, how to save youtube songs onto my computer. nice! :-)
This weekend so far has been nice and chill. Football practice was really excellent yesterday despite it being -3/-4, I finally felt like I played well, probably only the 2nd time that I've actually played well. I found out that one of the centerbacks on our team was on the Porto kids team when he was young before leaving Portugal. Sweet, eh? which explains why he is probs. the best player on our team. anyway, I was happy. Also, after practice I went with Dani, Piedro, and the younger guy whose name I always forget... oops! and went to the normal portuguese "perv" bar-yah, that's what they're called and met up with Dani's wife, the younger guy's gf/wife, and another dude and played cards. I learned a game they call subir y bajar or rise and fall. it is really strange, and has funky rules but actually really fun too. I got home round 2ish-the other dudes work at 7 am, crazy, right? and then talked to Jez on g-phone for 45 minutes or so which was excellent. Oh yah, yesterday afternoon I did the vitally important task of selecting my best sunset/sunrise photos from the past (since I got a digital camera and a couple that I scanned) and making a folder for them. I've been meaning to update that since 2007, but just have never done it. Next on that list, I want to make one for my pictures of crosses.... stay tuned! haha.

Today, was a relaxing day with the main day-time activity being going to English mass in Ordino which was nice. Me and 80+ year olds plus a random American 40-50 year old I'd guess but didn't get a chance to talk to her. Quote of the day, "the Democratic State of Congo, I remember when I motored through it in... oh, let me see, 1949". yes, awesomeness for old British people who have done AMAZING things. I hope I have half as many cool things to talk about when I'm their age! coolio. Then, came back home, watched Arsenal pull out a nervy win over a spirited Aston Villa. Then, at 4 pm, Antonio and I headed out to Canillo to watch the Chinese Imperial Circus perform-on ice. It was pretty sweet, and albeit expensive, it was probably worth it. My highlight. four dudes doing synchronized worms over a giant jump rope held by two other dudes. yah, awesome. another highlight: in one "scene" there were these huge hula hoop kinda things being swung by two dudes and four girls were getting swung by their necks... crazy, right? simultaneous to the hula hoop thingies were three dudes in a giant hamster ball looking dealio. I realize that these descriptions mean nothing to you but... believe me when I say it was cool. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera so no proof.
Tomorrow, I should go back out to Ordino to help the English community that is helping/putting on a fair and they need volunteers. I think I'll try to go out around 10:30 for a couple hours until 1:00 or so cause Clare told me that's when they need the most people. Then, I am going to try to get lesson planning done both for tutoring but also for the week of December 5th or so because next week on Wednesday we are hosting 3 fulbrighters from Madrid which will be awesome but since they'll be here for a week, I know more than to expect myself to get much work done. Those are my main goals, and yes, I do have a simple life... I know! My aim is also to shake whatever has been dogging me the last couple days, I am not sick I don't really think but I am not completely well either, I don't know what it is but something is keeping me from feeling fully healthy.
Thanksgiving-only really a big holiday in the US and Canada although I have discovered a few other places do celebrate it a bit. Ergo, I had to work Thanksgiving along with everyone else in europe. I did get chocolates for the teachers though in order to celebrate it in some way and when you throw After 10 mints, everyone loves American-only holidays! haha. To celebrate we had Pizza Hut pizza, fancy, right? haha Monday though, is our actual, big party and it should be good. We are having cocktails, dinner, some speeches and drinks etc. The US ambassador from Spain is coming and along with various government people here, it should be a good time. Unfortunately it runs into the "El Classico" game which is Barcelona vs. Madrid so that is kind of unfortunate but... it is one of the costs.
Okay, I think that's all I really have to report from the Principality. I am currently trapped here because my passport is in Spain theoretically getting itself an Indian visa for X-mas so I'm just waiting for that to come back but I don't expect to really go anywhere big before X-mas although I MAY go to Barcelona next to see my cousins who are coming into Barcelona for just over 24 hours on a cruise. it'll probs. depend on whether I get my passport back in time, I'm supposed to but... you can never be totally sure. Oh, before I forget, another thing I did yesterday is load any videos that could possibly be of any interest to anyone, and plenty that won't be to anyone... haha, to my youtube channel I started two years ago and never have done anything with. my channel address is: http://www.youtube.com/user/CKWF#p/u . or you can type google congokidandorra youtube. Anyway, there really isn't much that is interesting there but, I will try to get better at updating it with videos of places I go but probs. will keep people limited just for privacy sake. I hope everyone is doing splendidly and if any of you find yourselves 'motoring' through Andorra, please stop by... hehe.
Peace and Love from the Principality!
Mark Titus

Probably my favorite sunset from my collection

View from my window Saturday morning

Myself at Barcelona

downtown Church a couple blocks from my apartment

all right

Thongdam and I in the Barcelona metro

UK Travels

Ola Ya'll!
Wow! So much awesomeness in the last two weeks! Sorry it's been so long since an update, that'll make this one longer. It is hard to even imagine where to start letting you know about it, life continues to roll along and good and bad events, I am thankful for cause I'm getting to live a pretty cool life! So, I'm just going to give you some highlights.
I left the 28th of October at 5 am from downtown Andorra. This process involved me going to bed at 3 and then waking up at 4! Guess who passed out completely on the 3 hour bus ride?!?! My bus went to Girona which is on the Costa Brava coast of Spain, north of Barcelona and the famous home of Ryan Air-where flying is so cheap you are afraid! I was lucky because the sunrise that morning was unbelievably fantastic. Unfortunately, I did not get a good photo of it but just know, it was truly a recognition of God. wonderful.... I had the whole day in Girona, which, for those of you who have been there, is just about perfect. I went to the Old City which has a bunch of museums and a cool wall that surrounds it. My stops there were primarily the Jewish Museum of Girona-fascinating and the Cathedral-2nd widest in europe after the Vatican. And yes, for those who were wondering, I did wander around the cathedral with one of those touristy headsets on.... hehe. The Jewish museum was also fascinating as Girona was one of the latter places to feel the bite of the inquisition and it was also a large center of Jewish study.  There were some lovely outside cafes and I indulged in some wonderful coffees while people watching and reading a newspaper in catalan (which made me feel like an official retired Catalan man!).
I flew out that evening for the metropolis of Edinburgh and arrived after dark (not hard to do). Thankfully, my expectations of Scotland were not destroyed and it was raining when I got off the plane and walked into the terminal. YES! Stereotype #1 confirmed although I must say teh rest of my time in the UK was pretty fabulous weather-wise. My friend Megan McHaney from Aberdeen was kind enough to come all the way down to meet me in Edinburgh and stay in the city with me. I chilled in the airport for about 30 minutes till she got there and then we headed off to the city center. On our bus (of course it's a double-decker) we got to meet a new friend, Kaytlin who is studying in London and was also visiting. Yay for new travel buddies. Ended up we were staying literally 50m away from each other so we hung out the whole weekend. First thing first, I was about ready to actually eat the Ryan Airplane I came on-which I'm sure I could have done for some fee that they would charge me.... so we all grabbed some Kebabs which were, of course, fantastic! Then we got a drink at a cool bar near the university and just chatted. The next day I began being a tourist in earnest, taking pictures while walking with my face pointed up the majority of the time. You know the type. It was excellent. First thing of the day to attend to was breakfast and we found an awesome little dive and I enjoyed a delightful mocha and ate albeit enjoy is too strong, 3 pancakes that looked better than they tasted. Stereotype #2: Brits don't cook too well. I'm going to have to say I was not disproved, excellent Indian and various other foods but did not eat a lot of British food, only time I ate only with Brits we ate pasta so... I'm not letting this one go. NEW FACT!: They make good coffee AND tea? I had no idea...
We did pay the small fortune required to enter the Edinburgh castle (sorry retirement fund) and I'm not going to lie, it was pretty cool, albeit smaller than I had always imagined. Saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland, shiny and expensive looking hats and scarves if you ask me, but neat anyway. Went through a great museum on various elements of the Scottish army which was fascinating for me-saw a captured flag from Napoleonic wars, cool eh? Coolest part, got to watch the 1 o'clock guns get fired, which was SuhWeet! Did I jump when it was fired? Yes. The next highlight was lunch/tea at this delightful little place on one of the main squares with a clear view of the castle. Cool pots of tea which, all my Wakie friends know, would make me excited considering my minor addiction to tea. Then walked through a lovely park which made me happy as I love nice city parks.That night we went ot an interesting little pub with live music and slept, I was still tired.
Crieff, Aberdeen, and Petersburg shall be lumped together for the sake of your reading. Crieff is where Megan grew up and we stayed with an awesome family friend of hers. They were so hospitable and let me sleep on the bunkbed where their son sleeps-very kind. It was fun to get to see her school, grocery story, and the big Hydro hotel that attracts tons of tourists. It is a sleepy little town and it was a really neat place to get to see. I was also SUPER lucky because I hit the town on the peak of Autumn which was REALLY gorgeous because there are lots of woods around that is awesome to see. Also, Megan and I watched Frost Nixon which I had heard about but never watched which was really interesting and helped my American history.
Aberdeen: Granite... granite.... granite. So, Aberdeen is totally made from the exact same stone and there is very little color in the make-up of the buildings. Highlights: getting to meet Vijay and some others at her church potluck Halloween night, getting to see where Megan works and went to school which is a beautiful university where you feel smart walking around, meeting two American girls who were studying abroad and were with Alban Howorth from RVA, making fajitas which was tasty, eating Indian, countless coffees, a trip to Dunnotar Castle outside of Stonehaven which was gorgeous, great convos and hang-out time with Megan, a trip to Petersburg which is a small little fishing village 30 miles north of Aberdeen. This is where I had my first personal experience with Doric which is officially a dialect but, I can tell you that I understood almost nothing of it... actually, nothing! although, to be fair, some of the Scottish speaking english I didn't understand! That evening, Megan came with me to the airport, I checked in, ate 2 sandwiches in the terminal. One of the tiniest airports I have ever seen in the western... crazy small, only one place to eat food and MAYBE two stores. This flight was EasyJet, which, just so you all know is VASTLY superior to Ryan Air for reasons that aren't terribly tangible but true. So, this is an unfairly short summary of my time is Scotland.

Girona

Me and Girona

mocha with 'pancakes'

Edinburgh

Megan and I in Stoneview

Castle ruins

Aberdeen

England: Ahhhh.... London! I arrived in "London Luton", which don't be tricked, is not anywhere near London but it is cheap! :-) The journey was part of the joy of my time there. I'll keep it short for ya'll's sake but after a one hour bus ride from the airport to town, a bus ride to where I thought I needed to go, and then the discovery that there was a tube strike meaning I had to then find where else to go without a map of London and being clueless at 11 am!, a very nice dude helped me out, pointed me in the right direction only to find out that the train I was supposed to take from the station was also cancelled. Two more wonderful souls who saw my clearly lost touristy look helped me figure out what bus station I should go to in order to PROBABLY get the right bus. While waiting to get on board that bus, I met a cool New Zealander guy who just got to London and wants to work for a while before moving on-hopefully will visit us in Andorra in the spring. Then, on the bus, I had two more angels appear, while talking to one guy about how lost I was, a woman who was sitting across let me know I could get off earlier and catch the bus at another stop! How awesome was that? just out of nowhere! Anyway, then I finally caught the bus that went near where Dave lives in London-with whom I stayed. Unfortunately, for me when I got there I must have read my directions wrong or something cause I ended up walking around for about 45 minutes before walking to 86 Lewisham way which was theoretically where I needed to go. By this time it is after 1 am. I ring this door to no avail.... oops, so I go to a nearby gas station and call (cause I couldn't use my phone) Dave and find out that I was at the wrong street. 20 minutes or so later I finally get to the ride address.... haha. Wow! I had such wonderful people come across my way and Dave so such a sport staying up late when he had to get up early the next day. Also, he had prepared my room for me and all complete with a small bottle of Baileys, which is something I normally drink with my vanilla black tea (for all you haters, don't knock it till you try it!). Awwwhhh, so lucky to have a network of wonderful friends. I slept a wonderfully hard night and then set off at 10 am to meet Allison at Trafalgar square. Megan Huber, I checked out the Malaysia embassy and at least dreamt about how cool it'd be to get a guided tour there! ;-)
London highlights. A) getting to see Allison's world. I have heard SOOOOO much about it so getting to see everything in person was awesome, the bar Steele's, the fantastic french crepe place with people from Marseille, her church (from the outside), the Hillsong church, her neighborhood, the parks she runs in etc. She once again managed to convince me to run which makes me a bit sick still to think about but... this time I had to walk a portion of it. I think while I was walking she easily could have kept running and probably sung too but... haha, I had to let my ego down for this one! B) Primrose park is right near the Worrell House and it is super cool, especially at night when you can see the whole city. C) the bridge that connects St. Paul and the Tate museum of Modern Art. SOOOOOO cool, D) getting to go to the Arsenal Emirates stadium... that had to come sometime!, E) eating delicious Indian food with Kara and Allison, F) watching of the changing of the guards and feeling like the biggest tourist EVA! got to talk to a dude nearby who used to be in the military and did it once! G) a great evening with Dave's roommates who are South African and awesome-there were 5 white africans all together with only 3 America-born Americans, pretty funny, eh?!, H) Allison and I made a great quick phone call with Larry Jones, I) lunch at an outdoor market. In general, I was very impressed with my visit to London. I'll be honest, I didn't come in with super high expectations of the city itself and I left very much enjoying my experience and even excited to look into opportunities to return. Kara goes to London School of Economics (LSE) which has a highly regarded school for Political Sciences and if I could get into it, it's a place I would definitely consider. Overall, London was a wonderful experience.

Traffalgar square

Allison and I with the eye behind

at some arc de triomphe wannabe

Soldiers saluting (me? hehe)

cool pic Allison took from bridge

GO GUNNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My favorite cross I saw on my trip

I left on Sunday morning and had almost EXACTLY enough money to pay for the 4 pound tube ride and a postcard. I ended up having 10 cents left. Got to Girona safely and spent about 4 hours wandering aimlessly getting lunch and coffee and reading. It was fine but not exactly a dream come true, haha.
Got back to Andorra around 11 pm, walked home, crashed, started work the next morning at 8:30. Got home eventually at midnight Monday. This is where another blessing came in. I somehow contrived to drop my wallet on the biggest road of Andorra and was nervous it might be gone for good. I went to sleep Monday night thinking I was going to have to go and try to find it the next day somewhere along the road or in my Catalan class. Turns out at 6 am, I get a call from the police telling me that they found my wallet and I could come pick it up. I did so later that day and not a thing was missing.... how awesome is that??? crazy, right? Anyway, I can't have been more thankful and lucky. The rest of this week has gone by quite normally, tutoring is still going quite well, due to the fact that some government dude didn't sign the right papers last week, we don't get paid until next week which kinda sucks but... oh well. Oh, this weekend, on Saturday night, I am going to go watch Barcelona play Villareal at 22:00 with one of my apartment mates, Antonio. Obviously, I am stoked about that being the football geek that I am. Friday night I may begin tutoring from 6-7 pm. then I have football practice till 12 and then I am going to try to go to a concert in La Massana in Andorra because of my fellow teachers is in a punk-rock cover band and they are playing there. So, Antoine (french teacher) and I are going to go, and perhaps one or more of my apartment mates will join us! should be a good time anyway, but likely going to be a rough morning wake-up to go to Barcelona! haha, we plan on leaving at 12 but... it's flexible.
All right, as always, love hearing from you guys and I do hope that everyone finds themselves in good spirits, good health and in the knowledge that I appreciate what you guys mean to me!
Peace and Love from the Principality!
Mark Titus