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