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

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!

Great Weekend:)

This weekend was the best yet! Friday my friend Taylor, the other exchange student from China, brought me and Andrea out to meet a few of his friends. They were very nice, and we had a lot of fun. Taylor’s best friend in Spain knows English very well, so I would try to speak in Spanish but everyone ended up speaking mostly in English. I don’t like when people speak to me in English because I want to practice Spanish. When people just speak to me in English without trying Spanish, I sometimes tell them to speak Spanish, but then I am embarrassed when I don’t understand. Most people speak to me in Spanish first though, then if I don’t understand they will explain it in English. I like when people do that more. When I hung out with Taylor and his friends, I took the bus for the first time by myself! On the way there Sonia had to go to Basketball so she helped us get there (it was very easy). On the way home Andrea and I were a little nervous. Paty, my other host sister, was texting me reminders about the bus. One text Andrea and I thought was just information we already knew, but eventually asked Taylor to make sure we translated correctly. We didn’t. The text was telling us to press a button on the bus when we needed to get off. Andrea and I didn’t know this so thank god we asked Taylor! He explained that one of his first nights out he took the bus home and didn’t know that and long story short it was a really really bad experience for him! So I am happy that didn’t happen to us. 

Saturday I went to a surprise party for my friend Laura. I was really excited to be hanging out with only Spanish people, but I was also soooooo nervous all day! My spanish is getting better, but it is still a struggle for me to communicate and understand. At first I felt a little awkward because I had no idea what anyone was talking about, and therefore couldn’t contribute to any conversations. Eventually everyone was including me and helping me understand. I met a girl Clara at the party who I really like, but she doesn’t go to my school. She was very nice, and we had a lot of fun talking, dancing, and taking pictures! It was hard not being able to be my usual self at the party because of my Spanish, but overall I still had a lot of fun with everyone!

Sunday, Andrea and I went shopping! I brought a small amount of clothes so I could buy a lot of clothes here. Because of when our host parents could drop us off and pick us up we were there for a longgggg time. We didn’t mind though:) When we were there I realized it was near the town my friend Emilio lived. Emilio was an exchange student from Spain at my high school last year that I was friends with. I wanted to meet up with Emilio, but unfortunately he was really busy. We planned on hanging out soon though, which I am very excited for! I am hoping when we hang out I will be able to speak with him only in Spanish. 

School today was veryyyy boring because I was extremely tired from skyping my mom late last night. School is hard enough to pay attention in the U.S. when I understand the language and wayyy harder here because I barely understand what the teachers are saying! I finally performed my song for my English class though. We sang the cup song for our English song. For our Spanish song, we ended up singing the song Vamos a la Playa (several of us exchange students loved singing this song all the time in Barcelona). It was a pretty easy song to sing since part of it was in English. Andrea and I added some choreography which everyone thought was hilarious. Even though our voices were HORRIBLE the teacher loved our performance and gave us a 10 (grades here are 1-10, they don’t have A’s, B’s, etc.) We also had to record it, and later edit the video by adding cool effects, so maybe I will put it up on my blog when I finish. It’s pretty embarrassing though so I’m not sure!

p.s. To any of my English teacher’s that are reading this, I originally was trying to have good grammar and follow all the rules I have learned while writing these blog posts. I got too tired of paying attention to those detals. Please don’t be disappointed with my several grammatical errors I made or will make:) hahahah

Me, Clara, Pablo, and Julio at the surprise party:)

School and Food Differences

This week I met the other exchange student in the grade above me named Taylor. He is from China, but lived in Hawaii for awhile so is fluent in English. During break I went to the pastry shop by my school with him. He was very nice, and told me he wanted me to come hang out and meet his friends! He also told me he was only supposed to stay for the first semester, but loved Spain so much he is staying for the second! I am still working on feeling completely settled and comfortable. I don’t think this will happen until I can converse more easily though. I can tell my ability to understand and speak is getting better, but I still have awhile to go to reach where I want to be. I thought dancing here was non existent, but I finally met a girl that dances! She is very nice and told me where she danced. I think I might try and take some ballet and modern classes there. I am a little nervous to try and take classes though because of my lack Spanish, but I know it will actually help my Spanish and help me meet more people. I think I will go and watch a class first though, just to see what it’s like.

I am understanding more in Chemistry and Math because what they learn is the same in the U.S. I have realized though they teach things differently. In math I go crazy because the teacher NEVER factors any equation(which is faster) and instead goes straight to the quadratic formula. In my school in the U.S. we use the quadratic formula only when it can’t be factored or has larger numbers that would take a while to figure out how it factors. Also in Chemistry we are doing Lewis structures. The teacher always goes through all these steps I think are unnecessary, but the way I learned involves very few steps and is much faster. A concept I haven’t figured out in school is substitute teachers. I think when a teacher isn’t here they just don’t have class and instead it’s a free period. The other day my Chem teacher didn’t come to class, but I saw him in another class earlier and at lunch after. This confused me. 2 other different things I’ve noticed in school is all notebooks are graph paper, and I think notecards are barely used for studying. I wanted notecards to study Spanish and we went to a lot of different stores before finally finding these odd large ones that were lined on both sides. 

Today during lunch the gym teacher sat at a table with us because the teacher’s table was full. We ended up staying in the cafeteria the whole lunch talking with him. He spoke to us in English to practice, and we spoke back in Spanish. We discovered most sports in Spain are played through outside clubs and not through the schools. When I told him my school has a bowling team, he laughed and said “Typical americans” which I thought was pretty funny (my friend John on the bowling team wasn't so happy when I told him that comment though hehe). Also, sports in college isn’t like the U.S. you can play sports in college, but college sports aren’t very popular and shown on TV like in the U.S. There’s no such thing as scholarships for athletes to play at a college either. The gym teacher then told us about his opinions of the U.S. when he went to Orlando when he was younger. He explained how he thought it was cool that you could wear anything anywhere and no one cared. He said there were also more fat people and they didn’t seem embarrassed of their clothing, like when they wear tight clothes and short shorts. I thought this was hilarious! 

FOOD!!!! So I haven’t talked much about meals here. Breakfast is much smaller, and eggs are NOT a breakfast food here! Lunch is the largest meal of the day and is eaten around 2 or 3. Dinner is eaten veryyyyy late. We typically eat dinner around 9:30. When we eat dinner at my house here, we all eat dinner together every night. After dinner, we almost always have some type of dessert. I have discovered fruit is considered a dessert here. Dinner is longer too, for we spend a lot of time talking about our day and usually wait for everyone to finish eating before we leave the table. When we have hamburgers for dinner we use toast instead of buns, and sometimes use one piece of toast on the bottom and pile everything on top. If they use it like a bun, on the top and bottom, they cut it with a knife. I still eat mine with my hands though. Pancakes(my favorite food) are non existent here, but my family has maple syrup, which their exchange student last year gave them, so one day they said we will make pancakes, eggs, toast, and bacon, a “typical american breakfast”:) Since dinner is later everyone stays up later too, I think I am always the first one to go to sleep. Dinner may last until 10:30-11 so I usually go to sleep right after dinner even though I wake up much later for school (8 but in the U.S. I woke up at 6:45). 

After some complications I am officially going to Cadiz for Carnival! I am sooooooo excited, and also excited to see my friend Nirmala:) The weekend after Cadiz  I go to Paris, and it seems like almost everyone in my grade is also going!