National News: El Pais: spanish doctors perform the first 'domino' kidney transplant

Two Spanish hospitals have successfully carried out the first kidney "domino" transplant- a rare procedure involving the transfer of organs from several live donors- Health Minister Leire Pajín and Rafael Matesanz, director of the National Transplant Organization (ONT), announced on Thursday.

The Virgen de les Nieves Hospital in Granada and the Puigvert Foundation in Barcelona carried out the procedure, which involved six people, on April 6. The process was initiated by a so-called "good samaritan" donor, a priest who allowed his kidney to be transplanted into an unknown recipient. The recipient's wife then donated her kidney, which was flown to Granada and implanted in another man. This man's wife then donated a kidney to a woman in Barcelona. With the new system, the ONT hopes to maintain Spain's world-leading organ transplant rate.

-- i found this article interesting because when i had visited granada i learned that it had a wonderful medical school program. this was very odd to me because granada was such a tiny town and it did not seem all that forward thinking, but this article proved me wrong. This is great that spain is a wold leading organ donor transplant rate, because a lot of the time in america people have to wait very long periods of time to get the transplant that they need to survivie. This domino effect is so wonderful because say a certain person needs a certain type of kidney and can only get it from one person, that person is going to risk their life, now it is possible for a family, or relatives to share the entire process and pass them down until everyone is safe and healed. This is a medical break through and a huge advancement for the spanish culture. This will put them at the forefront of the transplant world and gain them a lot of success and admiration.

Local News; Barca beats Real madrid, april 27th

FC Barcelona won todays match 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, Spain. It was the 1st leg of the Semi Finals for these two clubs. although the first half was boring, it started to pick up after half time. Then, at half time, the fun started. A fight between the two teams erupted on the sideline, and Jose Pinto, the Substitute Keeper for FC Barca who was not even playing got a Red Card!(http://worldsoccerzone.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/fc-barcelona-wins-over-real-madrid-cf/)  Then, later on  Sergio Ramos got a yellow card, Dani Alves was injured, and Pepe was first shown a Yellow Card, then a Red Card after still not listening. The yellow cards did not end here,  Yellow Card for Messi and then  Ronaldo got a  Free Kick. While all of this was happening, this entire game became extremely tense Things got even more tense. King Messi, returned the ball and , kicked the ball past a defender and Iker Casillas into the goal. 1-0. Then, Messi got control of the ball, once again to bring it to a . 2-0, final score.

-- of course i do not know much about soccer so i learned all of this from a website, although i could hear from my aparently the cheers and chants and fireworks and jumping and screaming of the people in the streets. This is a great example of local news, because local barcelona fans are truly indebted to this sport and love it with all of their heart.It was really cool to be able to be here during these later legs of the champions league games, i know that this is a big deal to the people here, and getting to be in a bar and hear all of the chants during the first half was a really cool experience. 

http://worldsoccerzone.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/fc-barcelona-wins-over-real-madrid-cf/

International News from El --Lybia Ceasefire

The Barcleona newspapers heavily cover the situation that is currently going on in libya. one of the video modules i came across when looking at their website was about the leader Gaddafi- in summary what is going on is tha the Libyan leader Mummar al-Gaddafi has refused to leave the country. He was warned that NATO attacked hte Libyanns and libya can take the war to its territory and has urged others about a ceasefire-- my interpretatino is poor because i am having trouble translating the article to english, bear with me! Gaddafi has said that he will cease-fire if all other parties do. He recently said in a television speech that the "The Libyans are free to extend the war into enemy territory, they are right and I can not impose a veto if that is their decision, they are free to defend itself." The leader has flatly ruled out surrender power and leave the country. "I will not leave my country. No one can force me to leave my country and nobody can tell me not to fight for my country," he assured.The cease-fire issue: He stated:"We were the first to welcome a ceasefire and we were the first to accept a ceasefire. But the Crusader attack NATO has not stopped," said urging NATO to negotiate to end the bombing air on Libya, He also stated  "Either freedom or death"
Gaddafi has warned that if NATO states did not want talks, the Libyan people will not surrender and is ready to resist what he called "terrorist" attacks. He has threatedned the leaders of nATO that if they enter the city they will die.   he has also urged his peopel to put down their weapons and stop the internal fihting, he doesnt want brothe to fight brother and has been saying that the libyans are family and they are together in this common cause. 

Leisure activity # 3: George Paynes

Many of the nights here in barcelona were spent at an irish sports bar called George Paynes. This bar is really close to school so sometimes we even go to lunch there because it is buy one get one free lunch specials ! When the superbowl time came, we all packed into george paynes for the game it was so much fun. We all got 10 euro beer buckets and ended up singing Kareoke- this was a pretty enjoyable experience for the crowd, because we sang a horrible song, and got made fun of :) but it was all in good fun. Then just the other day, we all packed in their yet again to watch the champions league game three; Real madrid vs. barcelona. It is a great place to watch games because there are so many large screen tv's and a lot of catalal people. They liek to get rowdy and cheer at all of the goals or losses, which really helps you feel like you are at the game yourself. The people were screaming the BARCA chant, which was really cool to hear just one last time before we head back to the states. This bar is located right across from the Urqiuona so it makes it really accessible ! This bar is one that i am going to miss when i go home, they have the best pizza and nachos and have helped us cope with missing our american foods !!! Here are some pictures from our wonderful singing perfomance on the superbowl:

Important Location #3: Tarragona

Saturday, we went to Tarragona, the old city. It was one of the main cities in spain during the time of the roman empire. It has soooo many roman artifacts still intact like the coliseum, the circus, the forum and other various fortification walls and statues. It was cool to see all that, but i am done learning about roman history now lol it is getting a little bit old after all of these field trips. We got to go into the amphitheater, and walk through the tunnels of the circus so that was all really cool! It was very interesting to see all of these sights, because i had not been aware that spain was so influenced by the roman empire, not only did we get to see these sights, but our teacher taught us so much interesting stuff about each one of the places. We got to walk underground in the circus and learn how the fighters used to take residence under there until teh later years, when poor people would use the separate little rooms  to live in . We also got to walk along the streets and Wim ( our teacher) pointed out that a majority of the buildings we were seeing were actually physically made up of pieces of the circus or the ampitheatre, because in the past they were actually much larger. When we went to the forum, we got to climb up to the very top and look out over the city. It was a really cool experience in total and i got to go with a few of my friends in the class which made it a little more enjoyable. 

 

this is the amphitheater/coliseum!  the coast line was right behind it , it looked amazing

the town of tarragona was amazing as well, it was such a cute little town with a great personality. It looked  a little bit like the tiny winding streets of Italy with a Spanish flair 

Field Trip 3: Museu Maritima/Raval

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

FIELD TRIP--mandatory entry for class

On this field trip, our teacher brought us through an area called el rival, a university area filled with hospitals medical schools and some cute hangout spots, and then to a shipyard

- we started our journey at the ramblas, and took a turn down a really quaint side street that led to an area where children hung out , skateboarded and chatted with friends. We were informed that this area had not always been such a nice area, and at one point was full of bad kids selling drugs, doing drugs, and congregating at night time. The city had the idea that instead of trying to get the bad kids out, they would draw the younger people, families and students to the area, by sprucing it up, putting a museum and allowing people to spend time there during the day. How smart was that idea? instead of sending patrol men, liek we would have done in the states, they made some good use out of the space and now it is a cultural area filled with people! We went through this area, and made our way to a building that our teacher told us can reflect the city skyline at around dusk because it has a top portion that is bent up!

after this, we walked over to the university med school area. We got to see some old hopsitals, the one that Gaudi actually died in as well! He got hit by  a tram,and was sent here, unrecognizable. what a sad death! We learned about hospitals, and their originally function. They are called hospitals now, because back in roman times they were for " hosting" get it host- hos- . people would go there to sleep for a night or two if they were coming to barcelona, and could not get through the huge city walls. The history of hospitals date back to the roman times, and although their function has changed slightly overtime, it is easy to see where the idea came from...a place to rest and recooperate! 

--> an inscription on the wall of the hospital gaudi died in

--> the beautiful courtyard of the university

After this, we made our way to el rival, and area tht was sort of shady looking, but had a cool immigrant culture to it, and was filled with interesting buildings and restaurants. this is the place to come to if you want ethnic food ! One of the buildings pointed out to us was a sort of half way house, that people live in if they are homeless. they decorated the side of the building with a really cool pattern:

After this, we went over the the old shipyard. This is of great importance to the catalan culture, because of the heavy emphasis on mediterranean trade route. the sea was a huge resource for the barcelona people, allowing the infiltration of cultures, foods, spices, products, languages, even slaves who helped to build up roman barcelona to what it became. Without the trade routes, barcelona would never have become as prosperous as it did, which shows the importance of this ship yard. Additionally we got to see a submarine, that was created many years ago, before they were common. Apparently this design was one of the original designs and the first of its kind, although the person who made it did not get the credit for being the first--the british beat him to it.

and that sums up what i did on my field trip with catalan cultures !!!!

Leisure activity 2: BARCA GAME

Well this was one of the greatest days yet in spain.
my friends and i bought tickets to go see the Barcelona Malaga game in the beginning of the semester. This game was so much fun. It was so crazy to get to go to the stadium and see the famous barca team play in person. Although this wasn't a high scoring game or anything it was still a blast and the stadium is wonderful. There were so many cheering fans and you can just feel the craziness in the entire stadium.
Beforehand we went to this bar called Pippermints to pre-game " pre-party". This was so much fun. We got these 6 liter drinks which really are heavy duty. This was so much fun, we all got to sit in our own little section of the bar and share a huge drink with a bunch of different straws. We all wore our barca jerseys and went crazy before the game started!!!! We thought we could walk to the stadium , but we were sadly mistaken and had to take a cab. After the walk up what felt like a million stairs, we reached our seats in the nosebleed section ! It was pretty high up and hard to see the players exact figures, but it was still an amazing experience!