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!