Trips and Other Stuff

okay so I havent written a blog in awhile. I just havent really been in the 
mood, but last night I skyped with my family and my friend Emily (also my 
brothers girlfriend). My mom told me how people have been asking why I havent 
posted in awhile, and emily informed me the screen outside my schools main 
office advertises my blog. Therefore, I feel obligated to finally catch up and 
make a post. Since I havent written one in awhile this one might be pretty long 
and choppy with scattered thoughts. To start off, these past few weeks have been 
been pretty hard. I expected this to be hard but didnt realize how hard it 
would be. Hahaha If anyone has talked to my mom this past week you know overall 
how its going for me. Anyways I'll try to explain some of my struggles but for 
most of it I am just going to try and write only about the positive things.

I've tried to limit talking with friends at 
home, but still give in and have a few friends I'll talk to at least once a 
week. I finally skyped some of my friends for the first time last week. First I 
skyped 2 of my best friends Logan and Jenn. Right when I saw there faces I 
started balling my eyes out! Both because I was so happy to see them and I also 
missed them a lot! It was nice to catch up with them and hear about what's been 
going on in their lives. After I skyped with my friend Kurt, this time I was 
able to compose myself and not ball my eyes out like I did with Logan and Jenn! 
It's been weird not being able to talk with my friends that I am used to talking 
to everyday, but I was happy I skyped with them:) My friend Andrea, who I've 
mentioned in other posts, is another exchange student who went to my school. She 
had some problems with her host family and last week changed families. She's now 
in the center of Madrid. It's only been a few days without her in school, but I already miss her a lot:( Her last day we had to give a presentation for Chemistry/Physics. It did not go so well. I had everything written on a paper that I read from, which I think I did okay with. When the teacher started asking me questions everything went down hill. I was so nervous so I couldn't comprehend anything he was asking me and I just stood at the front looking like a deer in the headlights.He was nice though and told me to calm down and it was okay. When we finished he said we did a good job though. Anyways the past weekends I traveled to Cadiz and Paris! This was really awesome.

Cadiz:
I originally was invited to Cadiz for Carnaval before I arrived in Spain by a 
girl I became friends with through the exchange student Facebook page. She is 
really nice, but unfortunately she ended up leaving the program early. Luckily 
my friend Nirmala lives in Cadiz too, so I went to visit her and go to carnaval 
with her instead. It was amazing! Cadiz is a beautiful city! Nirm lives about a 
2 minute walk from the beach, which was great. We went to the beach a little, 
but it was really windy so we didn't stay for long. Andrea, nirm, and I all 
needed a haircut so we decided to just go for it and get our haircut in Spain! 
We were a little nervous that maybe they wouldn't understand us and suddenly all 
our hair was cut off! It turned out good though, and the people that cut our 
hair were really nice! Carnaval was in the center of the city so we had to take 
a bus to get there. Carnaval was so energetic and exciting with all the people 
dressed up in costumes and people singing and dancing on the streets. It was 
packed with people though, so it was hard making it through crowds with Andrea, 
nirm, and nirms friends. I'm not sure how to correctly explain carnaval so 
here's an explanation from wikipedia:

Los Carnavales is one of the best-known carnivals in Spain. The whole city participates in the carnival for more than two weeks each year, and the presence of this fiesta is almost constant in the city because of the rehearsals, recitals, and contests held throughout the year.

It is a widely held opinion that the city of Cadiz is blessed with the wittiest people in Spain, so it is not surprising that the main characteristics of the carnival in Cádiz are the acerbic criticisms, the droll play on words, stinging sarcasm, and the irreverence of parody. While some carnivals, elsewhere in the world, stress the spectacular, the glamorous, or the scandalous in costumes, Cádiz distinguishes itself with the sheer cleverness and fertile imagination of its carnival attire. It is traditional to paint the face as a humble substitute for a mask.





It is easy to get involved in the fiesta even if one is a visitor and knows no Spanish. On Saturday, everyone wears a costume, which, many times, is related to the most polemical aspects of the news. However, the Carnival of Cádiz is most famous for the satirical groups of performers called chirigotas. Their music and their lyrics are in the center of the carnival.


Now the weekend after Cadiz I went to Paris with my school. I loveeee Paris and 
for those of you that don't know, it was actually the reason I became and 
exchange student. So here's the story: I went to Europe over the summer with my 
school in the US. We went to London, Paris, Florence, and Rome. I fell in love 
with the city of Paris and thought the language sounded so beautiful. I am not a 
history person, but was actually interested in the history I learned about Paris 
when I was there. So I came home and had this desire to learn French, I bought 
Rosetta Stone with my own money and literally spent so much time in the summer 
learning French. I swear I'm not lying! My friends Logan, Jenn, and Alyssa would 
make fun of me because I was ALWAYS doing Rosetta Stone! So one night I was like 
hey! Being an exchange student would be cool, I'm gonna look into it. I did some 
research and then presented a slideshow to my parents of why I should be an 
exchange student. When they took the idea seriously we began to consider other 
countries. Spain ended up winning for several reasons, but mostly because I was 
actually learning Spanish in school, and French isn't even offered (I ended up 
exchanging my French Rosetta Stone for Spanish by the way) ANYWAYS MY PARIS TRIP

PARIS 
Obviously it was amazing because it's Paris! A majority of people speak some 
English in Paris, so at restaurants, stores, etc. workers spoke to me in 
English. For some reason I always accidentally replied in Spanish just by 
natural instinct because they weren't Native American speakers (whenever people 
in Spain speak to me in English I always reply in Spanish) it's hard to explain 
that feeling but it was weird. I did learn some simple phrases in French to use 
just so I could be somewhat respectful to the people of France (yes I don't 
remember any french I learned in the summer). I finally got my first Starbucks 
in Europe!! I'm not a huge die hard lover of Starbucks, but it's the closest 
thing I can get to my dads coffee shop Jo for the Road, which is 10 times 
better. It was funny because the language the French and the Spanish shared was 
English, so whenever we needed directions they asked in English. I don't know 
why the teachers never asked for Claire Andrea and I's help because we kept 
getting lost. I never knew when they were asking for directions though, or I 
would've listened to the directions we were given. Overall Paris was great and I 
had a lot of fun:)

Segovia
Segovia was just a day trip I took with my host family on Sunday. It was only 
about an hour drive north of where I live. First we went to a palace and 
explored the gardens, which were very pretty. After we went to the actual city 
of Segovia which was also very beautiful. In the city we at a "traditional 
Spanish" restaurant. At this restaurant they have this tradition when someone 
orders a baby pig to eat (yes the whole pig comes out on a platter). The person 
in the restaurant then presents the pig to the whole restaurant (idk what he 
said though) and then cuts it with a plate. He took a regular plate and just 
pushed it onto the pig everywhere. The meat is really soft to make this 
possible. After he finishes cutting it he simply just throws the glass plate 
where it shattered in front of us. The plate doesn't actually cut the pig into 
separate pieces so after the plate is thrown they separate the pig and serve it 
on plates for us. It was a pretty interesting thing to see! 


This week I'm finally going to go and actually explore madrid for our 
interhispania trip (interhispania is my Spanish company I came through and 
they've organized some trips for us) I'm really excited to see the other 
students and hear how there lives in Spain are going!

I'm too lazy to put all the pictures on my blog because it takes a long time to individually pick each one so heres a link to my Facebook album with my pictures from the past trips and other pictures I finally uploaded. 

https://www.facebook.com/camille.wyand/media_set?set=a.651584874899615.1073741832.100001443265031&type=3

One Month Down!

So I have officially been here for more than a month! I can’t tell if it went by super fast or slow (I think fast though). Last weekend was my one month mark and I was feeling really bad about my spanish, for I still struggle to understand a lot. After talking to some other exchange students, I found this was normal. There is another exchange student who has been here the whole year named Sophia. I know her through our exchange student facebook group and we have talked a lot. She also came with almost no spanish, so since she has gone through this all she always gives me great advice and makes me feel better:) I have been working pretty hard and try to limit my English. I have only listened to MY american music once(half their music on the radio is from the US though), and I have also kept myself from watching any tv shows or movies in English. This week I began reading the book The Fault in Our Stars in Spanish, which is called Bajo La Misma Estrella, which actually translates to “Under the same star”. I think I have spent more than 2 hours reading it and I am only 15 pages in. I have read those 15 pages several times though. I read and try to comprehend it, and highlight words I don’t know along the way. Then I go back and look up the words and try to understand the details of it, and then re read them. I read half of the book in English, so I am hoping once I get to the part I left off in English I will be able to complete it easily in Spanish. 

Last week I started taking ballet classes! I really like it:) It’s hard sometimes because the teacher shows the combination ONLY one time and then we do it. So trying to understand what she is saying along with memorizing the combination is pretty difficult for me. The teacher and other girls in the class are very nice though. Monday after ballet on my way to the bus stop I stopped at a pasteleria called Rosquipan (there are so many everywhere, which is awesome). At the pasteleria I met the owner named David. He is from London so we talked for a little in English. He was extremely nice and told me all the people that come in there love the donuts, but they only have them in the morning because they sell out so fast. When I told him I could only stop in in the afternoons when I have dance, he said he would set one aside for me when I have dance wednesday! So yesterday I went to get my donut, as I was walking down the sidewalk Vincente (the other worker I met monday) was outside cleaning the windows and greeted me with a big smile and an “Hola Camille!”. I was happy he remembered me! Then when I walked in David’s wife Anna already knew who I was and introduced herself and told me she heard all about me from David! After I got my donut I asked if I could stay a little and read before dance, so David got me a chair, told me to make myself at home, and offered me coffee. I assumed I was going to pay for the coffee but when David gave it to me I asked how much and David exclaimed, “No, no, you’re at home you don’t have to pay for it!” I thought this was very sweet and generous:) I ended up not reading but instead talked with David and Anna the whole time. Anna is an English teacher, and I spoke with her in Spanish and she would correct me when I would say something wrong or tell me words I didn’t know, which I really liked! They said I can come in every Monday and Wednesday before dance, which I look forward too because they brightened my day with their kindness:)

Yesterday was my last day of school for a week, Primero Bachillerato (my grade) has their finals Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. When they do finals here, there is only 1 or 2 a day and then they go home. I don’t have to take any so I don’t have to go at all! So today for lunch Andrea and I took the bus to Villalba (a larger town next to our town) for lunch. We had no idea where would be good, so we stopped in at Rosquipan to say hi to David, Anna, and Vincente and ask where a good place to eat was, and also buy a pastry for our dessert after lunch:) Anna told us about a restaurant close by. It was very good, I kinda like fish, but typically don’t prefer it, but Anna said the restaurant had great fish so I tried it and it was delicious! Andrea and I talked to each other in Spanish the whole lunch and mostly on the way back to the bus stop. We also stopped to get some snacks for our train ride tomorrow. Tomorrow for   the weekend I am going to Cadiz with Andrea to visit my friend, another exchange student, Nirmala, and go to Carnaval! I think my next post will be devoted solely to my Carnaval experience:) I am a little nervous to travel by myself though with Andrea, but Andrea has traveled more by train before and doesn’t seem worried.

Now just some random stuff from this week. My host brother showed me a tablecloth and said the word for it in Spanish “mantel” and asked how to say it in english. I could not think of the word!! I felt so stupid but Pablo assured me that it was good because that means I am thinking so much in Spanish. This also happened at dinner with friends when they were asking me what the song was we sing at the beginning of sporting events called in English. I could not think of the word anthem, and finally remembered when we translated the spanish word for it! A funny thing I learned this week is animals make different sounds in Spanish. Dogs don’t say “Woof woof!” but insead say “Wow wow!” and birds don’t say “tweet tweet!” but instead “pio pio!”. I never even thought about animal sounds being different. This weekend I went to a Real Madrid basketball game with my host family which was fun, and Real Madrid won:) On my bulletin board I have several pictures, and one is with one of my best friends John at his bowling match. In the picture is a sign I made that says “for a man twirler you’re really good at bowling!” (If you are reading this and not from the Howland area, this may not make sense to you, sorry!). Spain doesn’t have marching bands, so I had to explain marching bands to my host brother and sister, and then what a band major and majorettes were in order to explain the joke of the sign. I did this by showing them the Ohio State marching band to demonstrate what John does as the Drum Major for my school, and then found some videos of my high school band so they could see all my friends who are the majorettes. It was pretty hard to explain in Spanish, but it was cool to show them something that they don’t have in Spain but is pretty big in High Schools in the U.S. Thats another thing I learned, high schools in the U.S. are actually awesome, and I now appreciate my high school a lot more! Girls always ask me about Prom and Homecoming when I say I am from the U.S. also other people have explained how cool they think it is since sports are so huge at schools in the US too. Schools here don’t really have sports through the schools as much, and if they do it’s not like in the U.S. where for example we all go to the football games on fridays and cheer in the student section while dressed up according to the theme. In the U.S. we also have a lot more freedom and options for school too, like honors and AP classes, or our electives like choir, drama, different types of art classes, programming, etc. Here you pick a track either Humanities or Sciences, and then you are basically given the classes you have to take. In a way I think this is good though because you are already on track learning what you will need in college. Okay well I think that’s all I have for now so, Hasta Luego!