Hello Folks,
It is has been a long time since the last time you guys have heard from me, but once again we have some exciting updates to give to you. First of all thanks for all the replies that we got from our last e-mail. It is so nice to hear your lately stories, accomplishments and career goals, but we would like to encourage you, as well, to share some photos with us. Well, this year has been a year of great stories and accomplishments. First of all, we know that you guys are crazy to find out how the soccer league in which we were coaching last year ended up. Well, for all the hard work that we put in, they doubtlessly renewed our contract, besides the fact that we lost more games that we won, we will continue for the season 2007-2008 as soccer coaches for little kids from 3 to 5 years of age. It is so funny to see that at the beginning of the season when all the kids run after the soccer ball they started falling down along the way towards the goal. We as coaches have to be on the watch to tell them in what direction they had to run with the ball, because some of them would not care about what direction to go and then would celebrate all the match goals, even if they had scored against there own goal. Also it was difficult to make them to pay attention and often we had to apply some type of punishment. The punishments were of different types and would range from having them seated for a while without doing anything to doing something repeatedly until getting tired. One time we had a 4 year-old kid that liked jumping over a one 1 meter tall (about 3 feet) fence and we would always advise him no to do so, but he would not listen. Until one day we had him jumping over the fence non stop until he got tired. Although it did not stop him from jumping over the fence thereafter, from that day on he would not do it as often. Narciso also passed the exam for intermediate level of Catalan after a six months of going to class twice a week from 8 to 10pm, a lot of times tired after a long day of work, hungry, with the homework half done and having to return home in the freezing cold. Although it was worthwhile the effort since I passed two different exams for the level intermediate of Catalan, therefore, now I have a two Catalan intermediate level diplomas. After this accomplishment I will continue studying Catalan to have the advanced level. Furthermore, I am half way on my Master of Ergonomics which will be done in June of 2008 and simultaneously I am dragging the project of my other Master in Working Safety and Health. Anna is also going back to school, I will enroll on a pos-graduate program on Childhood Psychomotor Activities, every Friday and every other week on Saturdays in Barcelona. I took that decision of doing a pos-graduate study, because I believe that eventually it will open up some doors in my working career and because I missed school as well. I would like also to continue studying English and among my leisure activities, I enjoy reading Brazilian literature. As a yearly tradition, last June we did a bicycle ride through Catalonia with a low level mentally disabled group. This time the route chosen was the Via Augusta Path which is the way that the Romans used to go from Roma, to Cadis (city in the South of Spain) over two thousands ago. It was almost 400 kilometers (250 miles) divided into 7 stages with a daily average of 60 km (38miles) mainly through dirt roads. Our longest day riding our bicycles took us 13 hours to reach our destination and luckily it was only one day. Since we spent most of the way on dirt roads barely signed we found extremely difficult to follow the correct path without stopping every now and then to look at the map. Initially this route was not meant for bicycling but for walking, therefore, we encountered ourselves having to cross harvested fields, small creeks and in some occasions, we had to open our way through the vegetation carrying the bicycles on our shoulders. At the end, this trip was a way to connect the whole group as one and to increase their interest in cycling. Lately we have done some field trips around Catalonia’s northwestern region and in the South of France. There are some many things to visit around here starting with the beauties of the Pyrenees which is a mountain range that works with a natural border between France and Spain. This mountain range offers to its visitors many outdoor activity options that can go from skiing in the winter to hiking on its beautiful plateaus surrounded by the abundant green vegetation and by the lakes and ice-cold waterfalls formed by the glacial meltwater steam. In Southern France we visited a region called Cathar Country which is known for its numerous castles built throughout the centuries to which thanks to its architecture were used as armor against foreign invaders. The Cathars represent a reforming movement that took place between the century XI and XII that preached an absolute moral renovation in which believed in God, but forbid marriage, procreation and the private property. To find out more information about the Cathars and about their capital, Carcassone, visit the link
http://www.payscathare.org/ This summer we decided to go visit my family in Brazil, but we did it a little different, Anna’s parents also came with us. This was the first time that they visited Brazil, so we wanted that everything would go just right. In three weeks we visited the incredible Iguaçu Falls (if you like waterfalls this is a must go, see
http://www.cataratasdoiguacu.com.br/) on the border of Argentina and Brazil and the Hydroelectric power plant, Itaipu Binational, (see
http://www.itaipu.gov.br/) the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant in power production, also considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world, located at the river Paraná which makes the natural border between Paraguay and Brazil. Also we visited the state of Minas Gerais which after São Paulo is the second richest state in Brazil. Although before boarding on this trip we decided to rent a classic Volkswagen van (famous in the 70’s with the hippies) since it was one of a few vehicles that we could rent with room for 7 people and space to place our luggage. If you would like to check out the few changes that this van “Kombi” passed throughout this years go to this web page
http://www.vw.com.br/NovoSite/ Going back to Minas, this state is known for its mineral and precious stones open mines, several churches constructed by slaves influenced by Rococo and Baroque art style and the role played in the Brazilian independence from Portugal in the 19th century. In our visit to the cities of Ouro Preto and Mariana we almost could go back on time and realize the difficulties in the lifestyle of the slaves, the comfort of landlords, and the influence of the church in politics and in the society as a whole, and finally, the classism and racism of that period. Here is a link where you could see some pictures of Ouro Preto, Mariana, Congonhas and some other cities of the state of Minas Gerais.
http://www.descubraminas.com.br/destinosturisticos/lst_municipio.asp Obviously, we could afford not to visit Brasília, the planned city founded in 1960, famous for its shape of an airplane and its green open spaces. To see some pictures go to
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/3416/bsb_port.htm During our visit to Brazil we took the opportunity to announce our engagement to our families. So now we are announcing it and inviting you all you to our weeding next summer on July 19th in Catalonia, Spain. For the record we eventually we will make a renew of vows in Brazil. Therefore you have two opportunities to share with us the joy of this wonderful celebration. We hope to hear from you soon, Anna and Narciso : )
It has past 10 years since the last time I went snowboarding which was in the Big White mountains in Canada. 
So long overdue we decided to hit the slopes and had a good time. This time we could not convince anyone to go with us, but we decided to rent skies and go anyway. We went to a place called Port del Compte, close to the Piriniis mountain range, and I decided to keep learing snowboard, since I had only done two times before and Anna who has more experience decided to go on skiis. It was a beautiful sunny day and the snow was somewhat hard, which was very good for people who like speed, but no too good for learners like me who have a close relationship with the ground, I mean, butt-ground type of relationship. 
So after falling a few times, I did not think that the snow was “that good” for snowboarding and two weeks later I still have what is called “pain in the butt” type of memory of that day. Above all we had a good time and I got to refresh the snowboarding skills that I had once learned. Let’s see with the next time we can get some people to join us!
