friday Afternoon

A friend of mine called Edu and I decided one day to go fishing in the Sant Pere Pescador last friday because it was his birthday and we had to do something to celebrate it. we had gone various times before but have never cought anything. I have never ever in my whole entire life cought a fish or even got close to catching a fish so I knew that we were going only to pass the time because I knew that we wouldent catch anything but I went anyway.
This time edu came prepared and had diferent ideas, he had tecniques to catch fish easily. I was using worms and snail to try and catch them and artur started laughing and said, your never going to catch anything with those worms, he went to his bag and took out sweet corn, he put a few pieces of sweet corn on the hook and threw it into the river, and surley enough after ten minuits a fish cought the bait, I couldent believe it

After we caught the fish we went back to edu's house to prepare the dinner, all of our clan were going for a bite to eat in edu's house to celebrate hos eighteenth birthday. I wanted to cook the fish but edu did't wanto to , so we ate hamburgers, chips, amd many other things before going out to figueres for the night.
He did'nt know that there was going to be so many people there, he thought maby four or five people but in the end we were like teenty.

Well , this is going to be my last entry for this term, and until september I won't be doing another one. I'll propaply start next years first entry with what I willl have done during summer. I hope your few months break goes well too. :)

Me a few years ago

This video is of me a few years ago in a lake called Lough Mucno. They were holding the Irish championships there where over one hundred people were participating in all diferent ages and groups. This video is of the final, the wind was very strange and that's why there were so many crashes, and as yiu can see i fall on the malding in one of them!!


did you laugh?

MY NEW HOUSE

My new house is nearly finished!!!!!!After nearly two years and finally its nearly done, I don't have any recent photos but these will do anyway. The only thing left to do is put in all the electrical appliences and finish off the tiling in the pool and were done.

When we first came here is was always my parents dreak to build the ideal house , so after nearly three years of planning they're almost there. It's been like a monument for them, every day going there and seeing how it grew over the past year. At the start they were always bringing me there and showing me the new things that have been done and in the end I got sick of it, so i decided to go each month because that's when you see the real change.



When my parents were planning out the house i asked them if I could have a balcony in my room, (I think it's very romantic ahah) and they looked at me and they said ''yes jake , of course'' but after a few minuts of asking repeatedly I coulden't get a straight answer so I left and stopped thinking of it. I have been in the house thousands of times but never knew who's room was who's so I asked my Mom which room was mine and she pointed out to the only room on the house that has a balcony, i coulden't believe it so i'm very happy =).

these photos were taken a long time ago, so when I have some recent ones I'll put them on


My room is at the top, and under the house we have done like a sort of basement, we'll put the pool table and the fuzzball table down there aswell, so thats where most of my friends are going to spend there summer ahha. The cars will be down there too of course.

If your lucky maby i'll invite you:)

WATERSKIING

as you all know im really in to waterskiing, it's my favorite pastime.
I haven't really started skiing yet this year yet beause of school work and stuff and our trainer is getting worried because we haven't been practising much. We have big and important competitions this year so I can understand him.
The photos were done a few weeks ago. the one on the left is me before a slalom set, and the onw on the bottom is me jumping afterwards.


I can't wait to get back into it, when you have trained a lot and look back on the start of the year and see what kind of an improvement you have done it encourages you even more.

well anyway, our trainer has already given us a calender of the competitions we will be doing and where we will be going to train this summer He had to make a special clander for me though because i'll be going to America to work as a ski instuctor during August.
The week school ends i'll be going straight to Denmark to train with the whole spanish team because one of the best teachers in the world has organized a course there. We will be there for two weeks, and after that we will go to a competition in Germany, then i'll be coming back here to train for a month and work with my Dad to make a few euros too.
Also ill be going to many competitions un spain and near the boarder in France aswell, before going to Norway to the Europeans for a week, we have a good team, last year we came third which was a great result because there are really talented teams like Italy, Great Britain and France of course that could of beaten us.

In waterskiing there are three events, one is jumping which is my favorite, it's also the most dangerous event, many people have died recently from not being thought the right way and going out and doing stupid things, but if you are thought the right way it's a real thrill. I have never ever hurt myself skiing before, i mean not badly, i've never been to the hospital before ,because of skiing ,not even once and that's because i've always been around the right people that know a lot about the sport and teach me new things every day. The most important thing they ever told me was to always know what to do before you go out, go over what you have to do in you mind and never try to show off because a few friends are watching you, and honestly the only times I have hurt myself jumping was when other people were watching me and I would always go out and they would be in the boat and laughing, that's when things can go wrong.

So, you know what im doing more or less this summer, what about you?

barraques 09'

Every year in many towns and cities across catalunya they hold an event called ''barraques'', it's sort of like a huge party where thousands of people go to in the open air, there are places specially open to serve drink and food to the people and a big stage in frint where lots of famnous bands playu there.

Normally this party last's over two weeks, but because of some kid that got really drunk and had to go to hospital they only did it fot four days which is kind of annoying and this year if your not eighteen they did'nt let you in.

I , of course, went every day, it's tradition. The best night was Saturday night because we started the night at a friends house with his parents, who are like friends to us, watching the Madrid Barcelona match, when Barcelona won the place went crazy and all af my ten friends started drinking a lot. After dinner at we went walking to ''barraques'', it's like a great reunion of friends, you always see loads of people that you have'nt seen in ages, and your talking and laughing the whole time. Most times we would stay there until six in the morning but at about four o'clock the guys decided to go to some bar, so we went to one called ''Natural''. when we stopped in the parking i suddenly saw lots of multicolour flags around the place but i did'nt take notice ''i was kind of drunk'', anyway we went in and I saw two guys kissing and then i saw two other guys kissing which I thought was kind of strange. I asked my friends where the toilet was and they said ''it's over there , you have to go into the dark room and turn on the light'', so when I went in hands just started grabbing me and thats when I found out it was a gay bar, I ran out of the room and i saw my friends just dtanding there and laughting. I will nevere forgive them. If not fot the it would of been the best barraques yet. Until next year.


I think that this is a good form to go out with your friends and to enjoy the weekend because you always find a lot of people who you haven't seen since a lot of time and it's also a possibility to listen some of your favourite groups.

Pacha

This weekend I met up with a few friends that I haden't seen in a long while.

My parents could only leave me in Empuria Brava at about ten o'clock, so I was a couple hours by myself until my friends arrived. I hate beong on myself but anyway I was very hungry because i haden't eaten yet , so I went to get a bite to eat in any restaurant that was showing the football match between Madrid and Valencia because it wasd the decider to see if Barcelona would win the league or not so I ended up in one called TicToc which was very good, they were very polite and the food was great, the only bad thing was that Madrid lost, and badly. 3-0:(

Anyway at twelve o'clock I left the restaurant and I headed up to the bar where my friends were waiting for me, here is a photo of us in the Sikim, on the left there is Marc, he used to go to school here in Castelló, but he left to study somewhere else. The other two are brother and sister, Felix and Marina, there was also another marina but she is'nt in the photo and another guy called frederico, who was the guy that brought us all around Empuria Brava in his car.


We were in the Sikim for a couple of hours and we had a few drinks , there we talked about what we had been doing, it had been ages since we has seen eachother, after we cought up on things we decided to go to the disco called Pacha, we were in the line for about half an hour, but it was worth it because a famous DJ was playing in there, and the music was more than good. There I met up with Lauren, a girl in my class who sits behind me, were always laughing about things, I also saw my sister there, which was a surpriza because I thought she was going to Fata, which is another disco in Sant Pere Pescador
After the disco it's tradition to go to the charito, they open at like half past four in the morning, specially to make us drunk disco-goers a bite to eat after a long night. They make sandwiches and chips and things like that, it's soooo good. Afterwards, very early in the morning, we went home to sleep.

is downloading videos good?

Since we have internet in our houses we can listen to music or watch videos and do almost anything we want, but say if we were to download a movie, would thid be good fot the cinema industry

on the one hand, downloading a film has some disadvantages, for example, the people that do the movies will make less money beacuse instead of buying the movie in a shop you only have to press a few buttons on the internet and then you have it. Also, if you are buying all the new films on the internet, that means that your not going to the cinema either, which has two disadvantages, the conema's make less money, ans you eliminate a social act of going out with your friends.

On the other hand, going to the cinema nowadays is so expensive, it usually costs more than ten Euros to go out to the conema and furthermore, if you download a film, you have it nearer than the cinema, it is in your own house and you can watch it whenever you want and as many times as you want. It has'nt been a long time since people have been downloading films so nothing bad has happened like nobody buying any films, in hollywood they are still selling blockbusters

To conclude, I love watching movies and I like going to the cinema even if it is a little bit expensive,

AC/DC

YEAAH!!!

During last term a a huge group of friends and I went to one of the biggest rock concerts in Barcelona. where over fourty bands were going to play over two days , the best, and my favorite being AC/DC.

We started our trip in the morning a day before the concert, we got the train from figueres to Barcelona where a couple of friends and I went to a friends apartment who used to go to school in Castelló but is now in university. We stayed there for most of the day because it was raining so we coulde'nt do anything, in the end we decided not to go to the concert today if we went we would of got soaked, anyway, after endless jokes and laughter in the apartment we decided to all go to bed to be ready for tomorrow.

Wednesday afternoon, everybody was really exited and nervous because of the concert later on, but they wern't playing for another six hours, so we all decided to go and get something to eat in a bar or something and then head off to the concert. After a few burgers at Mc Donald's we got the metro to where the concert was being held.
The line was huge, but when we finally got in the atmosphere was great, it was in a stadium so wherever you looked you could see people all around.
When AC/DC came out i nearly went deaf with all the screaming, i even got goosebumps.
They have been together for more then thirty years now, so they really knew how to work the crowd, making everybody laugh by pulling there pants down or saying something funny in spanish with his australian accent. Plus we were at the front, it just made it all that bit special:)
I had a really great time.

saturday mountain ride

Hello everybody
Well this is my last entry for this term. i just have to finish my portfolio now



Its sunday morning and im very tired. I was out with my friends last night in Fortiá. We saw our catalan teacher there, shee was dressed up as a tiger I think so i did'nt recognize her until she finally said hellow to me.


Well yesterday I went mountain biking with two friends of my Dad's. Carles and David are very good mountain bikers, they go to competitions around Spain and all around Europe, they took me out yesterday for a 6v hour ride. We started at my house first, then we went on some back roads to Ventallo, that is where the hard bit began, going up steep hills and over uneven tracks, then we ended up in a town called sant mori where we went up some really nice mountain tracks, it was very percefull,until we got to vila robao i think it's called, where we stopped to have a drink and something to eat.
From that town we headed back another route to get to l'escala and then finally we arrived in Sant pere, to David's house. My whole body was in like a state of shock, all my muscles were hurting and i felt really weak, I hade'nt done any soprt or training since september, so I was kind of expecting to fell this way when we finished. In Davids house we ate a lot of ham , bread and olives, I was so hungry and ate until I was full, but when I got vack home in Torroella de Fluvia I vomited it all up.
The photo was done at the top of a mountain in ventallo
:)

My favorie comedian

Hey guys

Here are two videos, one is of my favorite comedian called Billy Connely, he is one of the best well known comedians in the world, mostly because he travels around the world doing shows in many caties on his tricycle.he appears on the television meny times a week.

The other one is from a comedian called richie. Very funny.

I hope you laugh as much as I did

there are hundreds more videos on youtube. just type in his name;)

Battle field

hey guys

This summer if you are all bored I have something for you to do.

My Dad went to Australia a few weeks back and I thought that he went for a holiday , but it was to make a buisness deal with the makers of Battlefield. It is a game similar to paintball but just withought having to wear sweaty overalls and masks and specially, no pain. The guns you have shoot laser guided beams. On your head you have two sensors and on your gun you have on aswell , if you get shoot your gun will make a sound of someone getting shot.

There are many diferent types of games you can play like the famous catch the flag, or defend the fortress. The prices are cheap and the games are long. So if you have nothing to do get in contact with me and ill give you directions:)

i'll be working there when I can this summer to help my Dad out, coming back and forth from america where i'll be working as a ski instructor. I'ts a really great game and a lot of fun, it works great with parties for small children or big groups, mainly because there are'nt many accidents and nobody gets hurt.

or you could go play paintball haha
bye

Carnaval

This years Carnaval was the best one yet. We went to a load of diferent towns including Sant Pere, Escala, Castelló d'empuries, Empuria Brava, Olot and fortiá. Last year we went as Farmers so we decided to change this year and we went as cook's.The idea came from a friend of mine called Edu, who is studying to be a chef, he gave us prices to buy the clothes to dress up as cook's , so we dicided on that.

The town that I think put the most work into making this years carnaval very enjoyable was in Castelló, because they put up barriers so cars cant interupt the passing floats, they organize photografers and then they send everyone a book with all of the photos in it. They also organize two of three music groups like Hotel Cochambre for the after party who are a really fun group to go and see because threy sing countless great songs from other bands, the're really good.

I also liked Castelló the most because i have lots of friends that live there and because it's the carnaval where nearly everybody comes from the surrounding towns.

On our float we has a huge cooking pot, made from sheeted aluminium, the shape was really hard to make beacuse of it's round form. Carles, a friend of mine, made a lid for the cooking pot , that could be lifted from the inside, and when we lifted it up, at the toutch of a button, we could make smoke pour out from the top.

well, some people have already started thinking of some new ideas for next year, but carnaval still is'nt over, we still have to go tho Fortiá..

Until then:)

Summer job

hey guys


My parents have been getting at me about getting a job this summer but I wont be able to ski and have a job at the same time, the irish waterski federation told me that this year I would have to work and train harder than ever because I went up an age group so I would be competing against older and more experienced skiiers than me.

When I told them that my parents made me work this year the federation said that if I don't train enought this year they woulden't accept me on the team.

I was really sad for a while because I thought that I woulden't be able to ski for the team but then I had an idea. What if I worked in a ski school?

My parents thought that it would be a good idea so I rang up some ski schools in Spain but they said that they were in no need for more help.

I thought I was finished but then one day when I got back from school my Dad told me that he got me a job in a ski school. I got really exited but then I asked him where. He said that is was in California, ina place called Bennets, a really known waterski school. At first I thought it was really far away, but then I remembered back to a tournament that I went to there and the people were friendly and I knew the boss.

When I told the federation that I found job in a ski school they told me that it would be fine to ski on the team and work in a ski school.

So that was a whole load of pressure off my back.

(picture is of the three lakes in benetts, the color of the water is diferent because weed grows in the lakes , so they use coloured dyes to kill the weed)
see ya.:)

Walking the dog's

If you know a better way to walk the dogs please tell me, haha. I used to never bring them walking, because I hated walking them around the town, but now on the skate-board the dogs can jog at there own pace, and I can have a bit of fun aswell, all I have to do is hold on the the leash.

The second year students have just got there results from there treball de recerca. It's a relieve not only to them but to me and other students aswell , because before at brektime and during the day it was the only thing they spoke about, day and night. But anyway ,all this time listening to them talking about it, al least they all got good grades, and are more or less happy with themselves.

SALOON

hello!!

I had a great friday night a few weeks ago in the Saloon bar in Empuria Brava. It was a party for all of the second year students that went away to London for a few days. They wanted to make a little bit of money, so what better way to make money than to have fun doing it.

Me and a friend of mine, carles, organized a pool tournament during the night because there were three pool tables there and a lot of people playing aswell. The entre fee to join in the tournament was ten euros, we were really suprised when we got almost sixteen teams to play, even two teachers from the school were playing.
Carles and I had to referee every match, and that was very stressfull because we coulde'nt think about our own game. We play pool every weekend, so we thought that we had a good chance to win.

The night was long but in the end Carles and I made it to the final, right from the break I cleaned up the table , and only had to pot the black ball, it was such a pressure shot. I entered the black and we started cheering , but the white ball had'nt stopped rolling yet, and it fell into one of the holes, and we lost:(

It was a gutting loss, but a great end to the night, and we made 160 $

Vallter 2000*

here is a great photo of me and a friend of mine called Edu eating at a bar in a place called Vallter 2000, we went there to ski. Carles was there aswell, we brought them up with my parents. We went on the 30th and 31st of December, before the big party in Sant Pere that night, we knew we would be tired but we did'ny care much.

Edu and I snowboarded but Carles skiied. It was really fun because sometimes we went out of bounce and skiied on fresh snow that nobody had touched yet, through all the trees ands big rocks and jumping down cliffs, really good fun. We fell quite a lot and i'm still recovering from a rib injury because I fell on a big jump and into a tree but im fine.

the photo on the left was when I crashed into a tree. My sister took the time to stop laughing and take a photo.

good times, can't wait to go back and do it again.

My bike

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY. I hope everyone had a great new year's party the other day, because im sure that I did.

On new years day we went to a motorbike circuit in Vilamacolum, a town near mine. The track belongs to a friend of our's called Carles, he also lives in Vilamacolum. There were about seven bikes there, all friends of mine, and we races all day long, until we were broken or until we had no more gas left haha. Our bikes are all competition prepared so its illegal to drive them on the road, because they are not insured or anything, but we still do it sometimes through the backroads and orchards to get from town to town.

All in all these few days rest from school have been well deserved but now ot's back to the books.

HAPPY NEW YEAR again.

My class last year

This is my class from last year, they were real great people to be around and they stil are. I spent one whole year sitting next to these people and I enjoyed every minute of it.

In the front row there is a guy called Artur, he's the one with the white shoes, he was one of my best friedns from last year, but sadly , because he's from Russia, he had to go and do military service for one year. I have'nt seen him since he left in september and I cant wait to see him again in summer.

Another pearson that stood out for me in this photo is called Iñaki. I sat beside him for half the year last year, he is the pearson that made me laugh more times than i can rmember, he's such a fun guy to be around. He's the one thats beside pep, the guy in the white.

All of these people have awsome personalities and I would tell you each and every one of them but is would take an eternity.

see id you can spot me

see you tomorro

Ireland

As most of you know I wasn't born in Catalunya and that I didn't grow up here either. Im from ireland, and I lived there for 14 years in a county called Kildare, south of Dublin. But then my parents made a life changing desicion to move to Spain. I think that the main reason was for the weather, but also because in previous years we had come to Spain and had a real great time.

I miss my friends from there obviously and whenever I go to Ireland I make an effort to go and see them. We always have a good time when I see them and spend hours catching up on things.

Ireally like Spain now. In the beginning it was hard to get use to the language and make friends but now I have a really good life here and I wouldent go back.

My parent are in Ireland now with my brothers, but I didn't go because I had a lot of work to do(blog and portfolio eheem)

Germany

hello everybody

This summer a friend of mine and I have planed a trip to a ski school in germany. we will be staying in a small town in the west of Germany on a lake where we will ski every day for two weeks. We are going because a very good waterski trainer will be there, he's called Ray Stokes from Australia. He has been teaching me since I cab remember and is a very good friend of my parents.

I went there last year and had a really good time. The lake belongs to a german family, the Shipners, who are good friends of my parents too. They are providing us with beds and food during the day. They have a son who won the world championships last year in France.

I also went sky diving, Karting, mini golf, and we also went to see a football match last year between Germany and Portugal. So there are a lot of other things to do than skiing.Hope you enjoyed.

This is a photo of a friend of mine called Bojan on the lake in Germany called Feldberg.

BYE

Car lisence

Hey guys,

Not everybody wants what I want but im sure they all want their own car lisense, who doesent?? no asking your parents to pìck you up from a party, no getting the bus to school because you can do it.

I dont think ill be able to get it this summer because I have a lot of work to do but im sure ill be able to get it during winter for next year. Some of my friends are 18 now but they didnt get their theory exams so now they are dying because they could be driving a car now but because they were a it lazy before they cant drive a car yet.

Which car would you pick??

If I could pick a first car it would be the BMW one series, its a really good and eficient car similar to the SEAT leon wich I also like , or the Renault Clio Sport.
But these are expensive cars so if I cant get any of these cars second hand i'll have to settle with a car in the range of my budget, more like a Renault Twingo jajaajajajajaj.

drive carefully

bye

ITALY 06'

Hellooooo

Who could forget the annual school trip to the famous Italy?

I had the time of my life there. From the constant laughing on the bus to the sleepless nights in the rooms with my friends. And it's true , they do make the best pizzas, i think it was the only thing I ate there, o yeah and a lot of pasta.XD.

I had a lot of fun in all of the cities and town we went to. I saw xavi, the football player for Barcelona, I ate ice-cream, mostly vanilla, I bought a lot pizzas, margaritas , I got given out to, by teachers I went to a disco on a boat, I went on a Gondola, I lost my phone, I slept in the isle of a bus, I made a song, I swam in the sea, I drank hot chocolate, we sang the himne of barcelona a hotel cafeteria full of Madrid fans, I played football in the street, I behaved myself, but most of all I think I became closer to all of my friends and even made new ones.

I would go again but I know that that trip was a once in a lifetime experience, but I still want to go again jeje.

We all look so young compared with now.

thanks for reading.

Halloween party

im back

Hallween, during the last few years it has been a real anoyance for me because i am to old now to be going door to door and asking for candy. Not last year.

This is a photo of me at a great halloween party last year. I was at a Waterski tournament in America during summer holidays. Sunday night , the night after the yournament, happened to be halloween. So we dressed up as tradicion. I , as you can see, dressed up as a snow skiier.

I dressed up before I went out but as you can see some people coulde'nt wait. It was a real great laugh and I had a lot of fun, we went to a friends house first for a few drinks, about 25 people, then we went out in the town to a few discos, we were the only people in the street dressed up so it was a bit embaresing, but a lot of fun.

On the right are pictures of (from left to right) Lorenzo, Manon, luca, Luis, Marcel, Ambre and me.

Luis and marcel are on the spaish team with me. What a cray night

Sky diving

A few weeks ago I went sky diving. It was the best feeling that I had had in a long time. I went there with my waterski trainer who is an experienced sky diver. He has jumped over 800 times. Before we went up I was really nervious, even to nervious to listen to the safety rules, while the teacher was saying the safety rules he asked me something and I did'nt remember so he had to explain everythink again jajaj, everyone was anoyed.

When we got on the plain I had a great desire to go to the toiete, but now it was too late, we were over a kilometer in the air. At the jump spot I was last out, attached to my trainer with pullies. When we jumped out I had the greatest view over the Empuria brava coast. We were flying for 53 seconds which felt more like 10 seconds because I was having so much fun, hense the exrlession time flies when your having fun. We were suspended in the parachute for 10 minuts and floated safley to the ground.

It was great fun

The picture is of me and Ray , my trainer

EXAMS

hello readers
I hope you are all good


I think that all of the readers would agree with me that (TOO MANY EXAMS) all next week we have exams so this weekend is not really a weekend for me. Its more like school just withought the teachers. jeje
Today I did a Spanish exam and it went ok. I should have studied a little bit more I think.

I hope that the exams go well for everybody , remember, study first then party.

take care bye

About me

Hey guys

This is my first entry to my blog so i'm going to tell you a little bit about who a little bit about myself and what i like to do

My name is Jake, I live in Torroella de fluvia,I was seventeen just a week ago on the twelfth of october and I go to school in Castello d'Empuries, I really like school because we are like a little family, everyone knows everyone and gets on very well.

I used to live in Ireland three years ago, but my parents decided to come and live here
''I think they wanted to come because of the climate''
Before I left Ireland I went to a school in dublin. I was doing first year. I used to play a lot of rugby in Ireland, our team was really good, we always used to win tournaments. Here in Spain they don't play rugby, only football

My favorite hobby and sport is waterskiing, when I lived in Ireland my house was on a lake and I went waterskiing every day. I started to ski when I was four years old.
Today I was at the championships of Catalunya and i passed first into the finals, tommoro i'll ski in the finals so wish me luck

SEE YA

My new house.

good afternoon.


Im a bit tired today because I was out last night at a friends party and I just remembered to do an entry for the blog so today its about my new house thats in construction at the moment donse january last year. Its a project that my parents have been wanting to do for a long time and now its a reality


The picture on the right is where it all began. Its being made about 2oom of where our own house is at the moment, so its quite near to us. The hole is so big because we are making a basement underneath the house, like a garage.

The picture on the left was done five months ago, the house is almost done. It has a roof, tiled floors and windows, the only thing left to do now are the electronics and where to put the solar panels. The two in the picture are my brother and his friend.

I'll keep you up to date on how the house is doing every now and then, so until nextime.
Take care