Random Pictures and Thoughts :)

This week I did not have any particular big trips or many new pictures. This weekend I had a match on Sunday as usual, however, this week I was not allowed to play. You can see me walking around on the field above. Following my game last week, in which I scored and played very well, my status as an international player has temporarily been revoked. A coach from the opposing team has called the Spanish Soccer Federation inquiring as to my status. In Spain, as I have recently learned, they tend to be rather protective of their soccer and their league and maintaining a majority of Spanish players. Although there are many Spanish players I happened to stand out a bit and I am guessing it frustrated the other coach that I was an American. Since that phone call not only has my status as a player been revoked but every international player in our division is currently unable to play. Two other starters from my team were benched, both obviously international. One of the girls has been playing here for six years, originally from Mexico, and the other has been here two years from Brazil. My coach said this is unusual but has recently become more common as more international players have made their way into the league. I am hoping the issue is resolved before this weekend.

The theme this week is random. As such this is a random picture with Gabby from my trip to France. This picture is of particular significance because this is a picture of her on her 21st birthday. In my culture class I recently gave a report regarding the legal drinking age in Europe in comparison with that of the United States. It is a very interesting topic with many valid points from each side. I consulted a website which I will place a link to at the end of this but I wanted to know the answers, more or less, to the following questions: Who drinks more frequently? Who drinks heavier? Who is intoxicated more often? The answer to all of the previous questions is the Europeans. This website is obviously biased, one which is wishing for the current legal drinking age in the United States to remain the same. This website did briefly address who drank more responsibly; however, they did not provide much data. The general assertion is that since European youth are exposed much earlier to alcohol in a family atmosphere they learn how to drink and drink responsibly as opposed to the youth of the United States.

This is a picture demonstrating the typical American abroad drinking. I am kidding--i just thought the picture was funny. I also thought it important to check out other sites and other statistics regarding drinking among the youth in Europe versus the United States. The other website I consulted provided data that somewhat explained and in a way rebutted the data provided by the previously mentioned website. Basically, the second site I consulted explained that although Europeans do drink more heavily with greater frequency and are intoxicated more often; the ratio of the amount of times they drink to the amount of times they are intoxicated is much smaller than that of the youth of United States. (Youth in these studies is considered 14-18.) For example, 1 in possibly 30 times that a European will drink he/she will be intoxicated whereas a youth from the United States will be intoxicated 1 in 10 times that they drink. Furthermore, this website stated that the amount of alcohol related arrests were significantly more in the United States and at the time of the study the legal blood alcohol limit was higher than that of most all European countries. In addition, alcohol related casualties in the United States also far exceeded that of European countries. This information may be true but, after reading it, I wondered if they took into account that on average the youth in America drive with much more frequency than their European counterparts. It was interesting to analyze and learn about these figures and the motives and opinions of each website.