Adios España!

Well I am back home after 5 months that flew by! For my last week in Spain my mom, aunt Deana, and cousin Maddie came to visit me for the end. It was amazing seeing my mom again and getting to show them around Spain, and introduce them to the friends I've made. It was also cool being able to speak Spanish and they had to rely on me for getting them around;) I met them first in Madrid. The day we were in Madrid I actually ran into my friend Zac who is working in Madrid this summer! What are the chances of that? After Madrid I brought them to my city Cadiz, where they got to meet my host family and all my friends. Then we went to Tarifa, Sevilla, and ended in Barcelona. With them I discovered my favorite thing in Spain, Gaudi's architecture. I think he was a brilliantt architecture, and his style was very different, but beautiful. It looked kinda like Doctor Seuss. Anyways, throughout that last week I had to say goodbye to a lot of people and my beautiful city I lived in, Cadiz. I think it's going to be hard not seeing the same people every day in Cadiz. The goodbyes on my last day were definitely the hardest. In the morning I had to say bye to one of my best friends Kevin. Kevin lives in Australia, so when I will see him again is really unknown. A few girls and I got really close over these past 5 months, and I consider them some of my best friends. So when we all said goodbye once we landed in Boston was horrible. Leaving for Spain I cried saying goodbye to people, but I knew I'd see them in 5 months. Now we have no idea when we will all see each other again. I do know we will someday though, and hopefully very soon. I think we made quite the scene at the airport hugging each other and balling our eyes out hahah. That's the worst part about being an exchange student, you meet the most amazing people that become your best friends only to say goodbye to them without knowing if you will ever see them again.

It's nice being home, and weirdly feels like I never left. Everyone makes jokes telling me it must suck to have to come back to boring Ohio, but it really doesn't because as much as everyone talks about how they hate where we live and how boring it is, it's home, and nothing is better than being home. (to all my international friends who I am trying to convince to come visit me in Ohio: I wasn't lying it's really really awesome, and why people say it's boring I have no idea ;)  ). It doesn't seem that long ago I was going to the airport all anxious and excited to get to Spain and start this experience. This experience has been the most amazing experience of my life. It definitely was not easy though. There were times I felt extremely homesick, defeated, frustrated, exhausted, etc. and just wanted to come home, but those times just made the great times so much better. I have learned so much in these last 5 months and have definitely become a stronger more independent person. If you're thinking about doing something like this DO IT!!! I am more than happy to answer anyone's questions that are looking into being an exchange student. I believe everyone should experience what it's like living abroad.
So I guess this concludes my blog. I hope whoever has been reading this has enjoyed it:) Adios!

Some pictures from my last week in Spain

Ran into Zac in Madrid

Exchange student dinner party

My mom and I at the top of Torre Tavira- Cadiz

Gran Teatro Falla-Cadiz

Last night in Cadiz with Kevin and Nirmala

 Alcazar in Sevilla

Maddie and I at the Alcazar

Plaza España- Sevilla

Plaza España

Casa Batlló (by Gaudi)-Barcelona

Casa Batlló

 

Casa Batlló

La Sagrada Familia (by Gaudi) -Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia

Parc Güell (by Gaudi) -Barcelona

 Parc Güell

 Parc Güell

 Parc Güell

Tarifa,Malaga, OHIO and an SAT Prompt

So this past week my friend Claire who is living in Madrid came to visit! One day she was here we went to Tarifa, which is about 1 hour and 45 minutes by bus from Cadiz. It's the southernmost part of Spain and you can see the mountains of Africa in the distance! It was sooooo beautiful! We went scuba diving too. Claire has her scuba diving license, so while she was doing her first dive I was learning some basic stuff. She then came on a dive with me where I had to start off doing some basic things. At first it was so hard to get use to breathing with the mouthpiece, and somewhat scary. I eventually got use to it and we finally started exploring. We went pretty deep but I wasn't able to go as deep as Claire did with the other group since I don't have my license. It was soooo beautiful though! I really loved it and hope to get my license and do it again:) tarifa was full with beautiful little boutiques with mostly morrocan inspired items, since it's so close to Morroco.

I finally gave my presentation about Ohio! I was soooo scared to talk in front of the class in Spanish for a long period of time. I talked about random facts and information about ohio first and then about where I live, what my friends and I do and about my school. I had several pictures and for school I talked about the simple stuff that's so interesting to them like school dances, sports through school, and our parking lot hahahah they all told me how jealous they were because my school is like high school musical! My favorite part was when I talked about Ohio State. They loved the Ohio State Marching Band video where they make the Michael Jackson moon walk formation. Then I explained to my class how in Ohio when one person screams OH another answers with IO! I got them to do it and they all thought it was awesome. Now in school they always do it! At the end they asked me questions and I was proud to be able to explain things that weren't rehearsed in Spanish in front of everyone. It ended up being 20 minutes and at the end they all clapped and told me how great I did and how they all loved it. This was a very proud moment for me and I felt pretty awesome for awhile after it! 

Friday we went to malaga because nirm had to take the SAT. Our first night we were outside of malaga and it was just a calm night. The next day we checked into a hostel in the center of malaga and right when we got there the workers were all so nice and invited us to a boat party!! The boat party was cool and the coast of Malaga was beautiful. That night they let us join their barbecue on the terrace. We had a fun time talking with the workers who were from France, US, Holland, and Italy. It's interesting to hear everyone's stories about their lives and what they were doing in Spain. They also helped add to my collection of swear words in other languages hahahah! That night we went out with them and some other people staying at the hostel who were from England, Israel, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. We had a lot of fun and a majority of the time I was cracking up because the guy from London was hilarious! The last day we lied out on the beach and did some sightseeing. We saw the Alcazaba roman theatre. I actually had no idea what it was an we came accross it by accident. We explored it and i don't know why it's called a theatre because it was mostly gardens leading up this hill which gave us a beautiful view of malaga:) 

On Nirm's SAT she had a question asking something along the lines of "are people happier when they stay in one place and have strong relationships with the people around them or are they happier moving from place to place meeting new people?" I feel like this prompt is very relatable to a lot of us exchange students right now. There is no right or wrong answer for this I think, it all depends on what type of person you are, and choosing one over the other doesn't make you a better or worse person. For myself I think staying in one place makes me happy because I'm surrounded by people I've known for a long time and have been with me through a lot, but I think I've learned what would make me happier is moving around and traveling. I am lucky that I am in Spain and learning about Spain and it's culture, but I have also gotten opportunities to meet people from all over the world. I am not a shy person. I'm very open and will strike up a conversation with almost anyone (didn't completely realize that until recently so thank you Hilla for telling me hehe) anyways that brings me to my discovered yearning and love of meeting people. I love hearing the stories of other people I meet and learning about their lives and culture in the country they're from along with sharing my story and culture. It's very eye opening and interesting. For example before I came to Spain I didn't really even know what Scandinavia was, and now I can tell you all about what each country in Scandinavia is like from the government to random hobbies the people do. I am so grateful for all the people I've met, the connections we've made, and all the knowledge I've gained from them. My experiences with them have truly made me happy. I now hope in the future I get the oppurtunity to live in other countries so I can continue discovering and learning, because that is what makes me happy:)

I have only one week left independentently and then I will be going to meet my mom, aunt, and cousin in Madrid and we will the travel a little before I leave. So I consider this last week the end for me. I am so excited to see my mom and go home but at the same time I cry thinking about leaving this beautiful country and everyone here:(

For some pictures of my Tarifa and Malaga trip check out my Facebook:

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

It's All about Who You're With!

I feel like I find myself writing my blogs mostly about what I've done, where I've gone, and what I've seen. These of course are all very important because my blog is mostly to let people see what it's like for me living in another country, and also for me to remember my experiences. I have now been here for 4 months and have only 1 month left, and I really think those four months have really matured me and changed my views on life in general. So one thing I think I've realized and really want to write about is my belief that it's all about who you are with to make somewhere special. I think if someone asked me where my favorite place was in Spain(besides Cádiz obviously) I would say Valencia. I have realized though that I'm not sure if Valencia is the most beautiful city in Spain, and I'm not even that sure of what all the amazing things there are, but I spent my time there with some amazing friends, I met awesome other people living there from all over the world, and I overall had the most amazing time just doing the most fun stupid things with my friends. Valencia I think was what made me really realize this idea that who you are with make a place and your experiences there so special. I also have been feeling a little bad about the fact I mostly hang out with exchange students and actually never hang out with Spanish people outside of school. I have spanish friends in school, and they are awesome! I have a tiny grade of only 30 students and every single one of them are very nice, and I love talking with them at school, but our friendships are only in school. I feel a little bad about this, but I've realized that some of the exchange students are people I will stay friends with forever, and we all have a much stronger relationship because we are all going through the same thing. I also came into this expecting my experience would be great because of the Spanish friends I would make, and never even thought about exchange students being my friends. I really believe the exchange students that I am friends with are a huge part of the reason I am having an amazing experience. Also because of becoming friends with so many other people from all of the world, I've grown a much larger appreciation and interest in other countries and cultures. I love when my friends talk about where they are from and what their countries are like, or even when our exchange student group chat suddenly starts talking in finnish/swedish/german etc. I just think this is so cool because we've grown up in countries that are so different and far away from each other, but were so close and have become such good friends. My feelings and opinions about this are really hard to explain and I don't think I am able to portray it good enough through writing, but hopefully you are understanding somewhat what I mean.


Okay well about this past week. My friends Lena, Andrea, and Gabriella came to visit Nirm and I, and to see Cadiz. I was excited to do some of the touristy stuff with them and show them around. It was pretty cool having them visit and showing them around because I LIVE there! It's my town, where I live, and I don't know it was just a cool feeling. I had the most fun doing the simple things like eating bocadillos(sandwiches) on the rocks leading to the San Sebastian Castle, stargazing on the beach walking through the streets of the old town, getting our nails done, and of course just talking with each other about everything. Nirm and I took them to Torre Tavira, which is a lookout tower used back in the day to watch the ships coming into Cadiz. From visiting that I learned that Cadiz is the oldest town in western Europe, which I thought was cool. We also took them to the San Sebastian Castle, which is connected to the Cadiz with a long bridge; Gran Teatro Falla, a famous theatre in Cadiz; and Catedral de Cadiz, the beautiful cathedral in Cadiz! We also went to La Punta which is a really popular spot in Cadiz for teenagers to go to. It is filled with discoteca's (clubs) and on top a long bridge thing right by the water. A night at La Punta starts REALLY late though (this goes for all discoteca's in Spain though)! About 2 am people start getting there but it gets most busy around 3-4 am! We had a lot of fun though. Since we didn't go until 2 am we started our night watching the Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid game for the Champion League Finals. It's funny because I don't need to watch the huge futbol games because I can hear exactly what's happening from the people screaming in all of the bars and in the streets when a team gets a goal! For those of you who don't know Real Madrid won WOOOOOO!!! After we hung out on the beach for a little with the other exchange students. Lukas, from Sweden, brought his guitar. I felt like it was just like the movies with all of us sitting around on the beach and Lukas playing the guitar and singing! It was an amazing week and I was really sad saying goodbye to the girls:(

Another thing I want to mention is Feria! Feria is basically like a festival, but obviously a Spanish festival. It was held last weekend in Jerez, a town close to Cadiz two weekends ago (they have more in other cities for different weekends too though). It was so cool with all these beautiful lights set up and sooooo many women and girls had on flamenco dresses which are BEAUTIFUL! One day Nirm and I said we are going to find a store with them and try some on just for fun:) They had rides and fair food in one section and then a huge park with a ton of people drinking and having fun. It was a pretty cool thing to experience!

Anne, Hilla, Leti, and Ellen at Feria

The lights of Feria!

Stargazing on the beach!

Lena and I in the Cathedral

Eating bocadillos on the rocks. (Fun fact my sweatshirt is from a popular Spanish store called Pull and Bear, when we were shopping and saw this we thought it was hilarious they had a tropical flowered sweatshirt with "Ohio" on it. Also typical shirts say New York, California, etc. so I was excited Ohio was cool enough to be on one, so I had to buy it!)

La punta!

Valencia

VALENCIAAA!! I went to Valencia last week with my friend Kevin and Andrea. There we met our other friend Chris, who is from Sweden and is living in Valencia. It was one of the best weeks here and Spain, and I really really really didn’t want to leave! I’m feeling a little lazy and theres not much to write about anyways because it was mostly fun because I was just hanging out doing stupid stuff with my friends

To begin, my mom sent me a package about a month back it had some Ramen noodles, so I brought those along to Valencia for Kevin(Australia) and Chris(Sweden) to try for the first time. I explained to them Ramen Noodles are what poor college students typically eat, but everyone loves them anyways. Of course they loved them, and I made sure to get a video of them trying them for the first time:) Also during the week for dinner Chris taught us how to make swedish pancakes. They are basically crepes and then you spread syrup or a type of jelly on them and roll it up. They were sooooo yummy! 

One day we went to see The City of Arts and Sciences which is an entertainment-based cultural and architectural complex. We went into the aquarium which is actually the biggest aquarium in Europe. It was really amazing! The architecture of the City of Arts and Sciences was really beautiful though, and much different than the other beautiful buildings I’ve seen in Spain because they are very modern looking. 

One of the nights I FINALLY got to go to a discoteca and have a true “Spanish” night. I’ve heard over and over about how the Spanish go out so late but so far its been about the same for me. A discoteca is basically just a club. The first night we went wasn’t that fun because it was a small group, but we went again for Chris’s friend Daan’s birthday, which was wayyyy funner with a huge group of us. It was fun hanging out with his friends since basically everyone was from a different country(all exchange students and a few spaniards). I also realized how hard the Cadiz accent is to understand when I was talking to one of the guys from Spain. He spoke so clearly, I could understand everything he said!  We went a little before 2:30 am because if you went before then it was free, the party didn’t get huge until about 3:30-4. Then we were there all night and came back around 6. I was pretty exhausted the next day. 

On our last day we ventured far down the beach to “Little Venice” which was really pretty. The name is pretty self explanatory, it looks like a smaller version of Venice. It was really beautiful, and unfortunately we got there so late in the day we only stayed on the beach for about an hour. Here I was so excited to get a picture of some of us doing OHIO. I did it with my friend Tristan from Australia, Daan from Belgium, and Chris from Sweden. Therefore, Ohio is being represented all around the world:) It’s weird, I love Spain and all, but I have really come to love and appreciate Ohio/Howland so much since I’ve been here. Mostly because it’s my home probably and we have so many things that are special to me because they are things that make me feel happy and comfortable. Anyways, Sunday morning Andrea, Kevin and I had to leave. Saying bye to Tristan and Chris was pretty sad since it may be the last time I see them... ever. I hope not though. We’ve all become such good friends, so I hope in the future, even if it’s 10 years from now, we will end up seeing eachother again:) 

Heres some pictures but if you want to see them all go check out Facebook 

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

The City of Arts and Sciences

Discoteca!!!

Aquarium 

Sushi in Valencia

Sevilla and Semana Santa

Okay before I go into writing about Sevilla and Semana Santa I completely forgot in my other post to write about my last day in Madrid when I met up with Emilio! For anyone reading this who is not from where I live, Emilio was an exchange student last year at my high school from Spain. I was excited when I found out my placement in Madrid was close to Emilio, and knew I had to meet up with him at some point. So we ended up meeting up my last day in Madrid. It was so awesome to hang out with someone I knew from home (even though he’s actually from Spain). It was also interesting talking to him about how he felt when he was an exchange student at my school. To everyone from Howland Emilio said he misses everyone:)

Anyways last weekend I went to Sevilla with the other exchange students, another Interhispania trip. Like Madrid, we had a lot of fun together! It’s cool how all of us exchange student’s click so well, and I really believe these will be people I will stay friends with after we go home. I think exchange students are a special kind of person. We all have the desire to see the world and the bravery to put ourselves out of our comfort zones by leaving our homes for a long amount of time. We’ve all had great days and we’ve also had really really bad days, but we all understand what each other is going through and we’re there for each other. I didn’t really expect that I would have become so close with the other exchange students before I came. I made a friend Sophia before I came to Spain. She is a year exchange student, and I met her through our facebook group. She has been such a great friend to me. I swear in Madrid she could read my mind and knew when I was having my worst days and would message me asking me how I was. We even skyped one time when I was having a bad day. She always gave me great advice and made me feel better. I finally got to meet her in person when we got to Sevilla and I was sooo excited! Overall a lot of these exchanges students I feel like I’ve known forever. We all know everything about each others lives from talking so much and have really bonded. Thinking about saying goodbye to them already makes me want to cry. 

Okay now what we actually did in Sevilla (didn’t plan on writing a mushy gushy paragraph about my exchange student friends when starting this). Sevilla was beautiful! Everywhere we walked it was beautiful, and smelled so good because of the trees called “Arbol del Amor” or “Arbol de Judas”. We walked along the Guadalquivir River a lot, and it was absolutely beautiful with the buildings sitting along it. One day a group of us got a boat for an hour and rode along the river, which was a lot of fun! We visited a navigation museum one day. Sevilla is where important explorers from Spain left from. Christopher Columbus probably being the most famous. We also saw the Torre Del Oro(where the explorers kept their riches), Plaza De Espana (built on the Maria Luisa Park's edge to showcase Spain's industry and technology for the world fair in 1929, also some scenes from star wars was shot here) Real Alcazar (a royal palace), and some other things I can’t remember at the moment. We also got to see a flamenco! This was pretty interesting. Not what I expected though. It was one women and two men accompanying her with instruments and clapping. I guess I didn’t really know what flamenco dancing was because she did a lot of clapping and stomping, and it was pretty impressive. One day we walked through a park (I think the Maria Luisa Park but I’m not sure). There were sooo many birds and you could buy food and they would fly on you and eat out of your hand. This didn’t really appeal to me, birds just annoyed me I guess, and I typically would shoo any near me. Well I decided “Hey everyone’s doing it I will regret it if I don’t”. This is when I discovered I have a fear of birds. First I just bent down and tried feeding them out of my hand but would jump back whenever one came near. FInally one flew on me..... and lets just say everyone got some entertainment from my reaction while the bird stayed on me. Now looking back at the video Andrea got of me it was pretty funny. When we were in Sevilla it was the beginning of Semana Santa, so we got to see some of the processions. These consist of people dressed up literally like the KKK, but they are called “penitentes” and do not at all sympolize the same thing as the KKK. The costumes represent them covering their faces for mourning their sins. Also in the processions have people carrying “Paso’s” which are these beautifully decorated floats with Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Even though we all know what the “penitentes” were, it felt weird seeing them because we all are so used to associating the costumes with the KKK. The processions were very interesting to see though. Our last day in Sevilla I had to say goodbye to some people who won’t be coming home with us in Barcelona, which was pretty sad:( I have a feeling I will be seeing them in the future though. Zoee if you’re reading this, expect to see me in Cali soon;) 

This week in Cadiz for Semana Santa just felt like a regular week for me. My host family isn’t very religious so we didn’t go to church or do anything special. One night I went to see the Processions with some of Nirm’s spanish friends. The processions are held in the center of Cadiz. Again it was amazing to see all the paso’s. Getting through the center was really difficult with all the people though! Today was kind of sad though because it was Easter (Happy Easter everyone!) but Easter isn’t really celebrated here like it is in the U.S. So today I felt a little homesick since I didn’t wake up to an easter basket, or have an easter dinner, etc. Nirm and I tried to go to El Corte Ingles to buy some chocolate and make ourselves our own easter basket, but it was closed. Today is also my last day of break which I am happy about because sitting around the house and sleeping a lot is getting old. Also since I was only in school two days before I break I didn’t really make many friends to be able to hang out with over break. So I have been with Nirm and Kevin mostly, so I’ve been speaking English way too much. Kevin and I went to see Spider-Man 2 last night though and I was really excited I understood a lot of it! Okay well that’s all for now. Hope everyone had a great Easter! Adios!

p.s. I am only including a few pictures because I'm lazy but to see more check out my Facebook album https://www.facebook.com/camille.wyand/media_set?set=a.651584874899615.1073741832.100001443265031&type=1

Emilio and I!

Plaza de Espana

Sophia and I taking selfies with the Penitentes

My encounter with the birds, a little embarrassing but funny! (if on a phone you may not be able to see the video) 

Kevin was must more graceful with the birds

Paso's in the church before Semana Santa began 

Us exchange students hanging out on the balcony probably about 3 am

Mis Chicas:)

Cádiz processions

New Beginnings in Cádiz!

Ahhhh okay I have been both excited and dreading to right this blog post. First I am dreading it because I have to explain some things I don’t want to really talk about. I have kept my blog almost completely positive. Therefore it seems like I have had an amazing time, and when an exchange student told me “I love reading your blog, and I am so jealous it seems like you’re having an amazing time!” I laughed a little and told her how I really felt and why. Therefore this next part may be a surprise for some also. I have actually been very unhappy. I don’t want to go into much detail about why, but overall I was not happy in Madrid, and pretty depressed most days. There were several reasons why, and I actually got to the point where I decided to come home at the end of April with the trimester students. I came to the conclusion I couldn’t go on being so unhappy anymore so I wanted to at least make it to how long the trimester students were staying, but I moved this week to a city in the south of Spain called Cadiz, which if you’ve read my other blog posts I have actually been here already. We had tried to switch me before, but my organization in Spain wouldn’t allow it. I emailed them one last time asking them to reconsider and if not to give me information on how to come home early and to my surprise they decided to change me. Overall where I was in madrid just wasn’t the right fit for me, and I really wanted it to work out, but it didn’t. Anyways I am not going to dwell on the bad things because now I got a new start in a new place with a new family and school!

With my new host family I have a host mom Maria, and two host brothers, David (13), and Jose (20). I was really excited to have brothers, since I have my 3 brothers at home! I live in an apartment, and get this.... I AM A 10 MINUTE WALK FROM THE BEACH!!! My second day here I went to the beach almost all day with Nirm and another exchange student Lukas from Sweden, and I didn’t really think I needed sunscreen and I have no idea why I thought so stupidly, but I haven’t gone to the beach since because I am recovering from some bad sunburn! My first night here was awesome, I met up with Nirm, Kevin an exchange student from Australia, and Erling another exchange student from Norway. We mostly walked around and they showed me some of Cadiz, but it was a lot of fun! Monday I just went to make my schedule, but thought I was going to school too, and my host family did too. So when I got home early no one was home and wouldn’t be for a few hours, so I had no way of getting in. I spent a few hours at El Corte Ingles, which is like Macy’s but with so much more. It has everything from mattresses to toys to clothes to makeup and with a grocery store attached. They have El Corte Ingles everywhere in Spain, and it’s really nice its only a 5 minute walk from my house:) 

I had my first day of school Tuesday and it was great! Everyone was so nice and came up and talked to me and introduced themselves. A group of girls discovered I live by El Corte Ingles like them and invited me to walk home with them! Theres another exchange student Melissa who I knew before who is also in my class. She’s basically fluent in Spanish though from having grandparents from Mexico, and studying in Spain another time. So I feel like the stupid exchange student a little hahah. After school Tuesday I joined a gym with Kevin and Erling, because hey what else do I have to do after school now that it ends at 2:30 instead of 5 like it did in Madrid. This was funny because there were only big buff guys there, and there I was, scrawny skinny little me trying to work out. Kevin and Erling taught me how to use some of the machines and assured me more girls are there other days. Yesterday was leg day though.... so I can’t really walk today, for I am extremelyyyyy sore! Yesterday I also met Lynn and Julia two other exchange students from Norway and Italy. We ran into them at El Corte Ingles, where Erling Kevin and I went after the gym. I am surprised because Cadiz is small but I don’t think it’s that small and we’ve run into people several times. I mentioned earlier I was at the beach with Lukas, well I saw him at Mcdonald’s and he ended up coming along to the beach, the next day I saw him again on the boardwalk! On my way to school today I ran into another exchange student named Emily (oh yeah I walk to school now). I’ve only been here for 5 days and have almost seen all the other exchange students from our organization! 

I feel like there is so much I want to write about because I am so much happier here and can honestly say now I am having a great experience  There is so much more new things I want to tell everyone about. Its late here though, and even though I had a 3 hour siesta today I am still exhausted! I also tried to get this blog in before I leave for Sevilla tomorrow(another trip with exchange students with the organization) so I guess that will be it for now. Buenas Noches from Cadiz!!!


First night in Cadiz with Erling, Nirm, and Kevin!

Me, Nirm, and Lukas on the Beach:)

Weekend With My Fellow Exchanges Students in Madrid:)

MADRIDDD! Okay so I went to Madrid this weekend with the other exchange students and it literally was the best weekend since I have been in Spain! I've really really been struggling lately so it was great to be with them all for the weekend. I had soooo much fun with everyone and didn’t want to leave. The weekend didn’t start off so good... it actually started as a nightmare and this is what happened.

    I had to take the bus and then 2 metros to get to the hostel. Everything was going great until I was on my last metro. I looked down at my suitcase and noticed it was almost completely open on the bottom and half of the side! The zipper broke from the bottom and slowly continued to open it as I was traveling. I started trying to fix it and realized I had my Mac was sitting right on top.... and it was no longer there. I remember that morning questioning if I should put it in my back pack or my luggage. I chose my luggage because it’s really heavy in my back pack and I’d have my luggage with me the whole time, SO WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? My luggage breaking thats what went wrong. So anyways when I noticed I started shaking and saying some swear words to my self while face palming myself, and everyone on the train was staring at me as I was panicky looking at my broken luggage. I got off at the next stop and grabbed a taxi back to where I got off the bus to take the metro. I retraced my steps looking for it. I tried explaining to people at the metro that I think worked with the buses my situation. This was all in Spanish though and they just told me to try and look for it. When I retraced all my steps I just went to my final destination, went up to the streets of Madrid, sat on a bench, and called my mom and balled my eyes out. When I finally got out why I was crying so hard she laughed and said calm down, she was scared I got stabbed or hurt or something worse. She told me it was just a laptop and it can be replaced. I felt a little better she wasn’t mad, but still was extremely upset. I talked to my mom about talking with apple and possibly tracking it. I had a little hope I’d get it back, but I knew that my laptop was gone and I was probably not getting it back. Then I needed to find the hostel, and couldn’t find street signs. As I was searching for it and crying I saw a Starbucks, so I went in to get a drink, calm down a little, and get wifi so I could find where my hostel was. 

I calmed down a little and found my way to the hostel but I just couldn’t wait to see my best friend Nirmala and give her a huge hug and just cry about everything going on. I have needed that, since I don’t have my real mom here or my best friends Nirm was able to substitute for them. I arrived at the hostel before anyone but went some of the students arrived I got to hug Nirm and cry to her. I think everyone was thinking “what the heck is going on with this girl?” Anyways I explained what happened and the people from Interhispania said after lunch they would take me to the police station to make a report. While at lunch I got a call from my host dad saying he had my laptop! I didn’t even tell my host parents because I wasn’t sure they could actually do anything, and I also felt a little stupid and embarrassed. My mom got a hold of them though and told them what happened. They made some calls to the police stations and train stations and got my computer! THEY ARE AWESOME! I feel like I can’t thank them enough for what they did. 

Anyways now the actual weekend. A majority of the students I already knew from orientation in Barcelona, but there were a few people I didn’t know. I made a friend named Christoffer (looks like Christopher, but no its pronounced Chris-t-off-er) He is from Sweden and spoke fluent English. I also made a friend from Germany named Thomas but his English was not as good. We refer to them as “Sweden” and “Germany” mostly though hahah. It’s pretty cool making friends from around the world and learning how their lives are different and similar.... and when you have friends from other countries you have an excuse to visit those countries;) We got to see a lot of things in Madrid like Museo de Prado, Plaza Meyor, Palacio Real, and other things that I don’t remember there names. I don’t want to bore anyone with a history lesson of what these things are so just google it if you care, or I’ll put up some pictures. I surprisingly didn’t take many pictures though. Almost the whole weekend we all stayed up super late and had to get up early, so when it came to tours and what not it was a struggle to understand since I was exhausted, also the tour guide spoke in spanish most of the time. We had a lot of free time which was cool so we could just explore the city on our own, or hang out at the hostel and talk, or watch funny videos about sweden and how to speak swedish hahahah. One day Chris (the swedish guy) brought speakers, and at first we kinda made fun of him because WHY WOULD YOU BRING SPEAKERS AROUND? He finally ended up playing music and we walked around the city listening to music. Chris had some pretty awesome music too! At night we had a lot of fun going out and what not. I’d say that a good way to describe our nights overall is... interesting hahahha. One night some of us were skyping there friends from home to introduce to our friends here, so I skyped my best friend Logan:) I was really happy she got to see all my friends that I have told her about. One of the nights it was so awesome because we walked into the hotel and my friend Taylor was there! I’m not sure if I’ve written about Taylor but he’s an exchange student at my school from China/United States. He was friends with one of the guys that works at the Hostel, so was coincidentally staying at the same hostel for the night with his friend! Taylor and his friend ended up hanging out with us for a lot of the night. The last day everyone went home around noonish, but I stayed in the city for awhile with Andrea, who changed and now lives in the city. We went to a mall close to her where we got lunch. Her mall had TACO BELL!!!! Taco Bell is definitely not in any way a super good place to eat, but I ALWAYS go in the middle of the night with my brother or with my friends, so it was nice to get some taco bell! Great way to end the weekend:)

       Over the weekend some of us exchange students became a lot closer. We actually started a group message on Whatsapp (haven’t mentioned this but people in Spain ONLY use WhatsApp to text, its like kik) the group chat literally has me cracking up all day. IT IS TAKING OVER ALL MY FREE TIME!!!!! No not really, but we’ve discovered if you don’t have your phone for about an hour you will come back to at least 100 messages, it’s kinda funny. 

Kate, Me, Nirmala, and Gabriella

Me, Sebastian (New Zealand), Spencer, and Zoee

Nirmala, Me, and Kevin (Austrailia)

All the boys from different countries! Chris (Sweden), Thomas (Germany), Sebastian (New Zealand), and Kevin (Australia)

Chris and I

Me, Kate, and Nirmala

In front of Palacio Real

Isaac accidentally photobombing the picture

I don't remember what the name of this is behind me…..

MY AUSSIE KEVIN

Andrea, Taylor, and I

Isaac and I (it was our last morning and I forgot we didn't get a picture so yep random one in the hostel)

Andrea caught my moment of happiness taking my first bite into taco bell for 2 months