October 12th, 2016: Celebrating the Universal Language of Fútbol

Pelé's Famous Bicycle Kick

This past Wednesday, I had the fortunate opportunity to join a viewing of Pelé: The Birth of a Legend (2016) with one of the producers of the film. I was never much of a soccer player myself, but I was captivated by Pelé's story and skills. The movie transported us to Brazil and took us through the same journey that the Brazilians experienced with their World Cups. I was really able to connect with the movie and feel the sorrows when the Brazilians lost their 1950 world cup. This connection at the beginning of the movie allowed me to embark on a journey with the characters and be more invested in Pelé's success. When the Brazilians went to the 1958 World Cup with Pelé, it was fascinating to see how soccer was the universal language that all these different countries spoke. Whether you speak German, Spanish, or French, you can appreciate a great soccer player like Pelé.

October 9th, 2016: A Day at the Races

Brunch at Frontrunner's

Waiting for the horses!

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to go the horse races at Santa Anita racetrack with our exchange student from Italy, Caterina. The other GIP students were Charlie, Maya, and Katie. We asked her a lot of questions on the way there and the most popular one was if she has seen horse racing before. She mentioned that she has seen a little bit with her host family because they own some horses. Caterina was excited to see the races because they didn't have anything like it in Italy. Once we got our tickets and entered into the track, the racehorses were all parading around in a circle for the potential betters. We got to get up close and personal with the horses. We were particularly shocked by just how small the jockeys were! As the racehorses approached the track, we moved towards our seats before the races started. The horses were all being filed into the gate when we arrived so we stood right up next to the railing for the best view of the race. After we consulted our programs, we got excited and practically were leaning over the railing to see the horses race past us. As the horses raced past for the first time, we noticed an ambulance flying behind them. We wondered if the ambulance was for the horses or the jockeys; either way, we decided we would love to have that job. Since we saw our first race up close and personal to the horses we decided to go up to the 5th floor to have brunch at the FrontRunner restaurant. The FrontRunner had all glass on the same side as the racetrack so it was a picture-perfect view for brunch. While at brunch, we were able to do a lot of people watching and see how enthusiastic and passionate some people got about the races, some were full out yelling in the hopes their horse would win. Astonished by the passionate yells, we decided to join in and we passed the program around the table choosing our own horses for the next race. We were disappointed when none of our horses won and resumed our brunch conversation. We learned a lot about Caterina. One of the most interesting facts is that they have to go to high school for 5 years! We couldn't even imagine having another year after this one. Caterina constantly would slip into Italian and would apologize because she was so used to speaking with her friends. As Global Scholars, we were really intrigued about how Caterina got the opportunity to come here through AFS. Apparently, she made a list of the top 10 countries she wanted to go to through AFS. The US was her top choice and some of the others included South Africa and Russia. I really admired her because it's a very bold decision to choose to take a year abroad. As the afternoon heat settled in, we decided it was a good time to leave. Yet just as we were leaving, we ran into Coach Beerman! Coach Beerman told us he had just arrived at the races. He mentioned that he owns a few race horses and was here today to see some of his trainer's horses compete. Overall, it was a great day and I loved spending time to get to know Caterina better and can't wait for this upcoming year.