So...since you "haven't had time to update", what have you been doing?

Well somehow Spain has changed me and made me actually want to do things and meet new people and spend time with my friends. So in December not only was I very busy with school, I was really busy with running and hanging out with people (my Spanish friends and AFSers).

Speaking of school, the first trimester is over! I got my grades on the 17th, I think, and passed all my classes except for Lengua, but there's a re-test sometime in January so I might still be able to pull my grade up.

(4 and below is failing, 5 and above passing. People are perfectly content with just a 5, 6 and 7 are reasonable, 8,9 and 10 VERY good.)

Another random thing about school is that in March I will be going to London with a bunch of kids from Primero Bachillerato! It's supposed to be like an "English Immersion" ahaha... I'm super excited!

grades

Annnd speaking of running, as of the other day I have officially run 1,000 miles this year! A big leap forward from the accumulative 300 I had last year. On the 31st my host mom, uncle and I are going to run the San Silvestre in Burgos but I'll talk more about that later.

So, things I have been doing...I guess about 2 weeks ago, now, I went to the Hobbit with a bunch of AFS friends! We went to a theater in the center of Madrid that had it playing in English with Spanish subtitles. It was so fun. Beforehand, I went to a Mexican Restaurant that I found by accident with my friend Sofia and it was quite shocking to have spicy food again! I was a little disappointed by the Hobbit but at the same time...I can't help but have loved it. It's probably one of my favorite books of all time, and being able to be transported into that world like that is the best.

Mexican food!

awkward photo of me with my Hobbit ticket and POPCORN

The Friday before we all saw the Hobbit I went to El Prado with Ilhan and Boom and we saw the Goya exhibit which I swear contains the most haunting paintings I have ever seen in my life. I am completely enamored with the way Goya can paint the darkest side of humanity, the terror, the brutality. El Prado, in general, is such an amazing collection of work, and I've barely seen a part of it.

At some point I also went to a friend's house for lunch after school and then we watched Castle in Spanish (an old episode, sadly) and went looking for a dress for me for Nochevieja (New Years Eve). It really amazes me sometimes how I can have full conversations in Spanish now (even though my Spanish is FAR from perfect). We didn't find a dress (I still haven't...) but it was a lot of fun.

A few weekends ago there was an AFS potluck for Navidad, where everyone had to bring something from their own country. I made sugarcookies with my mom and brother (: I love all of the AFSers in Madrid so much, they are a fantastic group, and it's amazing to watch everybody be able to speak in Spanish after not even four months!

Although...the four month mark IS coming up. I can't really believe it's been that long!

Colmenar Viejo

Now that it's Christmas Break I finally have to time to write a bunch of posts about what I've been up to! Sorry for not having been very consistent with keeping you all informed on my life here.

I guess first off I need to talk about the family I've been living with for the past month now! As most of you know, I had to change families a few days after my birthday in November because my host-grandmother in my last family needed an intense surgery and my family needed to be there to care for her. My family of now lives in a large village north of the city of Madrid and includes my host dad, Festus, my host mom Maite and my 2 and a half year old host brother Daniel. They are all wonderful and I'm am very happy with them. Currently, for the holidays, we are staying at Maite's parents' apartment in Burgos with her two siblings as well. Burgos is about 3 hours north of Madrid, in the province of Castilla y Leon, but I'll talk more about that later. Both my host parents and my host brother speak fluent english but we still talk in spanish most of the time.

I am still going to the same school in Alcorcon, for several reasons. I have friends there, and the teachers know and like me. Also, the isn't another school closer to Colmenar that has the same Arts Course that I'm in. This means that I have to get up at 6:30 every day to catch the train at 7:16 to arrive at my station in Alcorcon at 8:20 and walk to school to be there in time for school to start at 8:30. In the mornings my host dad drives me to the train station and in the afternoons I either take a bus or walk home, usually not getting home till just before 4. I usually study or draw on the train, so the commute isn't really that bad, and I'm really grateful that I can continue going to the same school. In fact, in March I'm going on a school trip to London!

Colmenar Viejo is nice, much more "countryside" than Alcorcon, but it's smaller so that does mean that there's a little less to do, but my host mom has been looking into a lot of activities for me so that I can make friends there. One thing I've noticed is there are quite a few hard core runners and bikers, and I've found several nice places to run, including a really nice (and challenging) 6-8 mile trail.

a trail

Colmenar Viejo (picture not by me)

my new room

Birthday and Thanksgiving

I know, I know, this post is almost 3 weeks late, but here I am (finally) to tell you about my birthday and thanksgiving. For those of you who didn't know, my birthday is always around (sometimes even on) Thanksgiving. Obviously, Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Spain, so here I didn't have to worry about the two colliding. What I did worry about a little was the fact that I would be changing families just a few days after (see previous post). However, I ended up having an awesome birthday and birthday week!

In fact, the Saturday before a bunch of us AFSers got together and made our own Thanksgiving! Everyone brought food, and those not from the U.S. brought dishes more typical of their country. It was tons of fun, and the food was great. Cameron got stuck in the bathroom, and we ended up watching Mean Girls and sharing music. Afterwards, some of went to Sol because it was Ruby's last weekend in Spain! She's from Belgium, and chose to come to Spain for only a trimester. I hung out with Ruby, Ilhan and Ilhan's friend Adrian until 1 in the morning when I had to catch the metro home. We had a great time, and I miss Ruby so much now.

The next day my host family celebrated my birthday (it was on a Monday this year, and we were all going to busy). It was so wonderful, we skyped with my real family and Blake and both of my families sang me happy birthday! I don't think I've ever been happier.

going to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Ani with my birthday cake: a traditional Roscon de Reyes, usually eaten for Christmas or Three Kings Day

Both families!

Tuesday, the day after my birthday, was really fun as well. I went ice skating with my school for a field trip! I am so fond of my class, they are all so great. I also talked quite a bit with Cameron, a guy from Canada who is helping to teach English here. He told me it's true that most Canadians ice skate and know how to ski.

I think this is pretty much my entire class (:

 In addition, on Monday Melisande and I went into Madrid and I got my nose pierced, and she got her tragus pierced!

So that was my birthday and thanksgiving. I can't really believe I'm 16...In the U.S. that's a pretty big deal, with being able to drive and such. Here you can't drive until your 18, and that's the drinking age as well, so 16 isn't considered as important. Nevertheless, my friends and family made me feel very loved and celebrated.

And thank you everyone for the birthday cards! It's so fun receiving mail here in Spain. I have a whole bunch of postcards I've been meaning to send for over a month, I just have been to lazy to go buy stamps!

Happy Holidays! I'll do another post this week about my new family, don't worry.

El Cambio

El Cambio. The change. "Cambiar", or "to change" is one of the first verbs I remember learning when I first arrived in Spain, nearly 3 months ago.

I've been avoiding writing this blog post for a week or two now. The fact is, tomorrow I will be leaving my current host family - where I will be living, I still don't know. I do not want anyone to get the idea that my host family and I do not get along or were having problems, because honestly we are a pretty perfect match. They were even planning on hosting me the entire year, rather than just half (which they put on the application because they had very understandable concerns about how difficult it could be to have a host student). The problem is that my host grandmother - my mother's mother - will be undergoing brain surgery next week, and my mother will need to live with her for awhile to care for her. This, along with the general stress this puts on my family, is why I am changing.

I am sad that I will be changing families, because as stated above, I could not have been placed with a better family for the person I am, and they are just honestly some of the sweetest and most understanding people I know. It's also sad that there is a possibility that I will need to change schools, because I really enjoy my school and my classes and have made a lot of really great friends. I want to be able to tell you all that I could be placed with a host family here in Alcorcon or close by, but I honestly have no idea what is going on right now. All I know is that I am somehow going to be able to finish the trimester at my current school - this I have been promised.

As those exchange students who have had to change families know, it is not a prospect one can look forward to with ease. Upon arriving in your host country, your host family becomes the first place that you begin to feel secure in, a little area of sanctity in an otherwise unknown universe. The idea of having to "start all over" in sense is very difficult to come to terms with.

But here is what I'm trying to say in a nutshell: change is hard. You don't always expect it. Often, you can't do anything about it.

Yet at the same time you have to try and remain positive. I have been looking back on all the amazing changes that have happened since I've arrived in Spain: I now am pretty much conversational in Spanish. I have had my eyes opened on what it means to be fully responsible for yourself. I have turned 16. Made friends. Stepped outside my comfort zone.

With changing families I will have the opportunity to meet many more people and become part of their lives as well, and this I do look forward to. I have fear, yes, but also hope and excitement because I refuse to let this make my exchange experience any less. Change is inevitable; sometimes it is big and all encompassing, and sometimes it is small and slow. But how we react to changes is what determines whether they are for the better or worse.

(This post is a little heavy. Expect a more light-hearted update about birthday and thanksgiving and school soon.)

10 weeks (aka: I couldn't think of a more exciting title)

Well, as the title of this post states, it's pretty much been 10 weeks since I left Flagstaff. 2 and a half months. I'm not really sure what to think about that amount of time.

I apologize for not updating more often. Last week I really got hit hard with homework, and I'm finally starting to get invited to do things with friends more, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'll talk about in this post. Honestly, the reason I'm writing this right now is because I don't want to do filosofia homework...I'll put headings every few paragraphs so y'all can just read the parts you're interested in.


Halloween
I guess I'll start with Halloween. Halloween was a lot of fun for me, because it was pretty popular at my school. Not many adults really care about it, and I guess not a lot of kids, but some of the young ones will go "truko  o trato"  (trick or treating) throughout the apartment building. But because my friends (and class in general) is awesome, quite a few kids (yes, including me) dressed up for school. That night, my friend Paula (who lives in the same building as me) invited me to go to her house and watch scary movies and eat snacks with her and some of her family and friends. That ended up being a lot of fun and I didn't go home until midnight (although that's considered a pretty respectable time to go home here).

The next two days we didn't have school because Thursday was All Saints Day and Friday was "la puenta". I'm not exactly sure how to explain this, as it's kind of just how Spanish logic works...but basically if there's a holiday on a Thursday with no school then there isn't school Friday because it's "bridging" (puenta means bridge) the gap between Thursday and Friday.

Friends
Anyways, that Friday some of my friends were throwing a surprise birthday party for our friend Amanda, so we all went to a Creperie and ate crepes and shakes and talked for a few hours. Just so you know, the stereotype that los espanoles are loud is very, very true. Sometimes I get confused for a second before I realize that, just because they're yelling, it doesn't mean they're angry. But back on the subject of Friday, after the creperie we went to meet with some other friends and another girl who I hang out with sometimes at school, Elena, was with them and I ended up hanging out with her and these new friends for a few more hours. I'm really happy that, when I first meet people, they don't realize I'm not Spanish, and when they find out I'm foreign they don't assume I'm from the U.S. at all.

Orientation
Three weeks ago? was the first orientation we had just with the AFSers in our area (Week 6 Orientation or something like that). It was...fun. Yes, mostly fun. What I enjoyed most was watching all of us speak in (albeit broken) Spanish, and be able to understand it (mostly). We've all come so far since arrival!
And to any Madrid Kids reading this...let me see your f*cking chicken :b (I have a feeling we'll never forget this).

School
I really like school for the most part, and I fully understand about 85% of it, and have some vague idea of what's going on for about 10% of the time. The other 5% is spent sleeping... Like I said earlier, in the past two weeks I've been getting a lot more homework. I don't mind too much, as it gives me something to do and is really helping my Spanish. Last week I had an English Test (easy peasy) and a report on Mars due. The way they do reports and projects here is a lot different, for one thing you don't type it all out. You hand-write it all on blank paper. For this reason they generally need to be longer, 4-6 pages. You have to take the projects and exams very seriously because they pretty much determine your grade - for example, my entire 1st trimester Ciencias grade is based on that Mars project (30%) and an upcoming test on everything we've learned so far (70%). So when I say homework, it's more like studying or reading or working on projects because teachers don't actually grade homework and the reason you do it is so you know what's going to be on the test. Kids here have to be a lot more responsible for their grade.

Gym
Starting last month, I joined a gym that's close to our apartment and owned by a friend of my parents. I usually go four or five times a week: 2x a week to kickboxing, 2x a week yoga, and then various other things like strength training (I lift weights...) and sometimes I use the elliptical or treadmill if it's been raining or I didn't have time to run. Speaking of running, I'm now about 120 miles away from having run 1,000 miles this year! Woo. I'm really enjoying my runs here.



That's all I'm going to say in this post, again, I'll try and update more often so they aren't so long and random. And if I'm making grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, that just proves how much Spanish I have in my brain...I can't tell you how many times while writing this I wanted to substitute in Spanish words, or couldn't figure out how to spell something (English spelling is so tricky, gah.) I hope everyone is doing well - yay U.S. for electing Obama! Also, good luck to my amazing sister and all my friends who are doing NaNoWriMo, I really wish I could do it again this year!
Annnd...November's already almost half-over. Que loco. Have a Happy Thanksgiving! (Although I hope to update before then).

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” ― Marc Riboudmy

my Ciencias textbook

bocadilla de Nutella y leche...yuuum

Huelga = strike

Alcorcon

a section of the path I run on several times a week. It got green here rather suddenly after we had a few days of rain.

at the 1930's exhibit at the Reina Sofia

Atocha Train Station, beautiful building

Tiempo y Conecciones

Believe it or not, it has been 5 weeks since I left Flagstaff. It has been difficult for me to get a grasp on time here; does a week really last a week when you feel like it’s barely been a day? I admit there have been times when I’ve wanted nothing more than to take the Metro to the Madrid Airport and stow away on the next flight back to Arizona. But at the same time, when it occurs to me I have 9 more months left (only 9 more months?!) I wonder how I could possibly waste a single moment here not being excited and passionate and bold.

This isn’t to say that every day here needs to be a completely new experience. This weekend I’ve had a pretty bad head cold, and done almost nothing but lay around. But one of the things I am slowly learning here is to find the virtue of every moment, good and bad. To realize that I need quiet, sleepy days just as much as I need the strenuous adventure ones. It’s finding balance, and it’s difficult but worthwhile.

This past week has been the best one I’ve had here so far (other than being sick). When I ask myself why this is, what made it better than the rest, I find it difficult to pinpoint an exact answer. The fact that I am beginning to actually see/hear improvement in my Spanish, that my classmates are becoming more interested and willing to communicate with me, a sudden realization that I have my whole life ahead of me to learn and explore and love– all of these things have given me hope and made me feel better. Underneath it all, though, it is finding connections between cultures and people and places and ideas that have made this week wonderful. Becoming more adjusted to the way things are here has made me realize that, despite the sometimes vast, chasm-like differences in the actions and attitudes here compared to the U.S., beneath every gesture and word it is possible to find a similarity. Over many years, people have developed the need to give labels to everything and everyone; these can vary from “wrong” and “right” to “Spanish” and “American”, “girl” and boy”, “rich” and “poor”, etc. It is absolutely necessary to define things, I know this, but I feel that much of our inability to change the world for the better comes from this inherent belief that what defines us also separates us. We look for the differences first, in order to make comparisons that give us a sense of place and time, and then so often fail or forget to look for similarities - connections.

And yet, there are so many that completely bypass language. Sitting in class on Friday afternoon, I can feel the familiar excitement among my peers for the weekend, and the familiar frustration in the teachers. When we go to check out at the Grocery Store, everybody tries to find the shortest line. When my host brother’s phone was stolen from him last weekend, everybody in the family was startled and a little frightened, because it doesn’t matter if you live in a city or a small town, getting robbed is something that “only ever happens to other people”. There’s always going to be that kid in class who gives the most bullshit answers on purpose. You will find that in the course of your life you will meet people over and over again who have some connection to you and who you are - just this past week I met a Canadian studying abroad here who knew someone at NAU and found out my new yoga teacher studied abroad with AFS as well.

These connections are how the world…works. And I think that’s beautiful.

And whether or not this is because we’ve chosen to make it work this way or it was “meant” to work this way or it only seems to work this way, it makes me realize that we have no reason whatsoever not to explore this world to the best of our ability. This doesn’t mean you have to hop on a plane and fly to Morocco (although, man, that would be so cool), it means that each day we must dare to find those connections, sometimes to make those connections. It's the only way that we are ever going to be able to change anything about ourselves and our lives and our world.

I've probably been listening to my Filosofia teacher too much, with all this abstract talkin'. 

Anyways, I'm doing fine, and I am really happy here.

Colegio

WARNING: this post is really long, and I often get off topic. But it's mostly about school here.

 To begin with, school goes from 8:30 in the morning to 2:10 in the afternoon, with a 25 minute break in between the first three classes and the second three. Classes last about 50 minutes, and we don't change classrooms that often (the teachers do instead). And, to make it just a bit more confusing, every day my schedule is a bit different. There are as many as 36 kids in some of my classes.

Oh, and the bathrooms are so disgusting. It's not even funny.

On Monday I had my first full day of colegio (just a note: they don't say escuela here very often/at all). My first class was English. Lucky, right? No. First off, the teacher talked a lot in Spanish, and I was not prepared for how actively I need to listen to things to understand. Then she passed out an assignment which was basically to read a paragraph (that would actually be very difficult if you don't know a lot of English) and answer some questions. A lot of the questions were about grammar, things like phrasal verbs. I have no idea what a phrasal verb is. (If you're reading this and you do, then please explain them to me). Other questions were about vocabulary and it was at this moment that the enormity of the amount of Spanish I do not know slapped me in the face. Luckily, no one else understood the worksheet either and so instead the teacher told us to write a composition on one of the three common English phrases she wrote on the board. I wrote mine on "Honesty is always the best policy", or at least tried to. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to be doing.

Next I had Dibujo Artistico. I had to change classrooms for this, which was a little confusing, but man I adore the classroom this is in. It's 20+ easels and a bunch of statues and other things to use as references. And the teacher is really awesome too. He told us what all we needed to buy for the class (because here YOU have to buy ALL of your supplies. The school doesn't provide any. No books, pencils, nothing. This sometimes ends up costing as much as 300-400 euro, so thank god AFS pays for this) and I didn't understand any of it but a nice girl let me copy her list. Then he gave us paper and told us to find and easel and to draw anything we wanted, because he wanted to observe our different styles. He really liked what I drew, and said it was really good. I think he was surprised.  On Mondays and Thursdays I have this class for two periods in a row before break, which is fantastic.

Anyways, after Dibujo Artistico it's snack time! The teens here eat so unhealthy. Basically things like twinkies and such are considered appropriate and suitable snack food. Also juice boxes and bocadillas (sandwiches). ( I usually take a fruit or vegetable and whatever else I can find that won't get smashed in my backpack. On Wednesday I took a red pepper (pimienta) to eat whole, like an apple, like Noor does at FALA. People do not like eating peppers raw here, and everyone stared at me.) Did I mention that my classroom is on the third floor of the school? That's a lot of stairs everyday for someone who is not used to stairs. During break some kids go out front to smoke but most kids go to the courtyard area or like where the basketball court is. The girl who let me copy her list earlier asked if I wanted to eat lunch with her and her friends and I was pretty much like YES PLEASE THANK YOU because eating alone is terrible. Her name is Paula (only pronounced pOWla) and the other two girls are Amanda and Laura (lOWra). They are all very sweet.

Making friends is SO difficult with a language barrier, not to mention that I'm not good at making friends anyways. This first day everyone seemed rather indifferent towards me and didn't talk to me at all, but since then I have realized that this is just the normal "first day of school everyone is scared and a lot of people are new and nervous" type of thing. Since then my classmates have definitely warmed up to me a bit and to each other and people smile at me and say "hola!" now. (Some of the kids in my class are 18 (maybe older?!). Here it is totally normal to have repeated a grade. This makes some people very intimidating, though. Also, everyone has piercings. A lot of piercings. And some terrible, TERRIBLE hair cuts. And fashions. Some of the guys wear these athletic-type pants that are cinched at the ankle and oh gosh it just makes me want to laugh at them. Other than that the styles are fairly similar, SO many people wear shirts with English on them!)

To continue with the first day, though. After break I had Cultura Audiovisual (which I have so much trouble pronouncing). I am so excited for this class, which is basically all about photography and developing pictures and the history of film and comics (?!) and story-boards and things like that. Unfortunately, what with all the necessary vocabulary for this class it can be very difficult to understand.

After this I had Filosofia (Philosophy). I do not enjoy this class very much. Maybe if I understood what was going on I would, but even the other kids in my class are super-confused. Luckily, I moved seats and was sitting next to Amanda, who let me copy her notes, because this teacher just talks and talks and talks and expects everyone to write down what she is saying. Whenever I think I understand something in this class, she says it's wrong. Madre mia.

My last class of the day was Lengua, which I thought was also going to be super difficult. So far, it hasn't been! The teacher is so sweet and nice. The first day she went over some rules but then she just chatted with the class for a good 20 minutes or so, and joked around with them and such.

Unfortunately, the second day I had a bunch of NEW classes to adjust to, because of the weird schedule. It went something like this:

First I had Ciencias del Mundo Contemporaneo, which I did not understand at all. Honestly, until right now, writing this post, I had forgotten all about it because I only have it twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays). First hour has been most difficult for me every day because my brain has been thinking in English all night. I thiiink this class is like Social Studies. We talked about the Universe and what is in the Universe (I think). [After I wrote this my host mom came home from buying my textbook for this class and it seems to be an overview of astronomy/biology/health/environmental studies/etc.]

Next came Dibujo Tecnico. This is taught by the same teacher who teaches my other drawing class. It appears it will involve a lot of geometry, so I'm glad I learned it last year. I understood most of what he said! I have this class everyday but Monday and so far I've liked it and understood it every time.

After that I have Volumen, which I learned is basically like the 3D Art class at FALA. I think it will be good, and the teacher for this class is also my "Home Room" teacher. I'm the first exchange student she's ever had to deal with (I think I'm the first exchange student ever at this school...) but she's really kind. Actually, all of my teachers are really kind, even though I can't talk much. I hope they don't get frustrated with me. Anyways, Volumen. Here I learned that we will do soap carvings and work with wood and things like that. Cool stuff.

Break again.

Annnnd...I have Volumen after break too! On Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Honestly though, on this day I just sat in class and teared up because I had suddenly gotten very homesick and sad. I don't think exchangers talk enough about being homesick, because we feel like we shouldn't be or shouldn't let people know or something. But I get homesick a lot. And this doesn't mean I think to myself  "Oh golly gosh I just want to go home and have the nice American things I'm used to," it means that I miss living a life that is substantially easier, filled with the people I've come to understand and adore. It is really difficult to feel clueless 90% of the time. But I was able to cheer myself up and I think it made some of my classmates take pity on me.

(Someday I will write a post without ever getting off topic, but apparently not today.)

After Volumen I had Educacion Fisica (Gym). We didn't do anything because it was the first class and all, and I couldn't understand the teacher at all because the gym was echo-y. The only thing I understood was something about working up to being able to run 20 minutes (*sarcastic gasp*) and how two gym classes a week was just not enough. I nearly fell asleep because being at school makes me exhausted.

My last class was Lengua again, and I understood a great deal of it. We talked about communication. If I was religious (Catholic) and my family wanted me to, I would have to take Religion as a 7th period class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am glad that I don't have to, not because I have anything against it, but because it's one less class to worry about. Also, by the time I get home, around 2:30, I'm very hungry for lunch and exhausted and I can't imagine having that one extra class some days.

The next two days (Wednesday and Thursday) went pretty well. I understand a fair amount of what my teachers say, and my classmates seem to be warming up to me! I think I made it sound like my teachers are difficult, but they all seem like good people, and the next English class I had was much better. They aren't used to American-English accents here, because they're closer to Britain. English was actually really helpful because everyone's learning English vocabulary and so it helps me learn Spanish vocabulary.

That's pretty much all I've got for now...

In summary: I'm so happy to be taking arts classes. It's so exciting to be learning again. I get homesick but I also am glad to be here glad to be with a family who is so kind and glad to have loved ones back home who are all wonderfully supportive. I'm am trying not to stress about things and just be open to all these new experiences and smile at everybody.

my schedule

proof I'm doing fine

Poco a poco

"Poco a poco" is something my host mom says a lot, and I say it to myself a lot. It means "little by little".

I have been in Spain for one week now, and tomorrow it will have been one week since I met my host family and they brought me into their home. I feel so grateful to be here with them, because they are honestly some of the sweetest, kindest and most patient people I have ever met. 

I have been a little homesick, in part because I've been a little bored because I didn't start school until today! And on the first day you only go for an hour. Instead of being in the Social Sciences course like I originally thought, I'm in the Arts course! I'm so excited for it. Instead of History, Math and Economics, I'll be taking Technical Drawing, Artistic Drawing and I think Sculpting. Also, possibly Photography.

In general I have been doing very well. In the evenings I go running, either through town (they have something like the Urban Trail) or in one of the giant parks they have around town (kind of like Buffalo Park). I've also spent a lot of time exploring the city and trying to learn the layout. Every time I get a little less lost (:

These are a bunch of differences between the U.S. and Spain I've noticed so far:

1. Language: obviously. But I would also like to point out that their accent here is COMPLETELY different from the Spanish accents we have in the states. Sometimes I'll be trying to understand someone and I realize that I know the word they are saying, but the way the pronounce it make it hard to recognize. The main phrases I use are "Vale!" (Okay!) "Si" (Yes) "Me gusta" (I like it) "Yo quiero" (I would like) and "Voy a..." (I am going to...). I'm slowly getting better at speaking, and already I understand a lot more than originally. 
2. Driving: If you can, you walk, but if where you need to go is farther away you usually drive. The drivers here honestly scare me to death. They use roundabouts here, and there aren't a lot of lights or speed limit signs. There are a lot of crosswalks, and basically you just walk out into them and expect all the drivers to stop. 
3. Parking: the Spanish are so good at parking. Holy cow. They can back up into tiny spaces and get within a centimeter of a wall without using their side mirrors at all. In fact, side mirrors here fold in when you park so that when people drive by they aren't just ripped off the car. They are equally good at parallel parking. I have no idea how they do it sometimes.
4. Roads: the roads here are really narrow. REALLY narrow. And there's generally two separate roads for each direction. This means that sometimes you have to take little detours to get to places because of all the one-way streets.
5. Graffiti: It's everywhere. Literally. 
6. Schedules: There are a lot of different things I want to say about this. One of the biggest things that effects the schedules people have here is that it doesn't get dark until 9 (!!). People eat breakfast between 7 and 11, lunch between 2 and 4, and dinner between 9 and 12, and adults generally have coffee after breakfast and lunch and at random other times (I'll talk more about coffee and food later). Kids go to school (generally) from 8:30 until 2:30, and then have activities later, for example my brother David has soccer practice three times a week at 7 in the evening. People are most active (they go shopping, hang out, etc.) around noon and in the evenings and at night. If you go out running or anything right before or after lunch they will think you are crazy. People really do take siestas (naps) and in general just relax in the afternoons.
7. Food: My host family actually eats fairly similar to how my family eats at home. For breakfast I have fruit and sometimes toast with peanut butter that I brought from home (they don't have peanut butter here) or else some yogurt. Sometimes breakfast "cookies" with milk. For lunch, which is the biggest meal, we have fresh bread (bought daily), generally some sort of meat like turkey, chicken or fish, pasta or rice and salad. I've heard that to a lot of families lunch is the most important part of the day and they're very serious about all eating together and such, but my host family isn't like that. For dinner, we usually have leftovers and salad. Dessert here can be fruit, pudding, yogurt or chocolate. For a snack my sister Marta will sometimes have a nutella sandwich, but I usually have cheese or yogurt or something like that. They definitely do not snack a lot here.
8. Coffee: they drink coffee in really small amounts. Just a very small shot, usually with cream and sugar or honey. One of the things I miss the most is having a big cup of coffee in the mornings.
9. Bathrooms: the toilets work differently. Also, in our bathroom we have a bidet, but I don't think anyone uses it.
10. Laundry: we have a washer, but no dryer. I think this is pretty common, because you see clothes racks on balcony's a lot. We do a little bit of laundry each day.
11. Affection: when you meet someone here, you greet them with a kiss on each cheek (unless they are your teachers or something like that). You don't shake hands at all. At first this was something I was really nervous about, but it comes very naturally. Also, you always kiss LEFT then RIGHT. This is important. In general, though, they are much more "touchy" here. There are not the physical boundaries that we are accustomed to in the U.S.
12. Old Folks: I think there most be a Spanish rule somewhere that simply says that older folks can do whatever the hell they want. I sometimes see caution signs, like the ones they put by the road in areas where there are a lot of children, with a stick figure of a hunched over man. This is because older folks will just walk into the road when they want to cross. Also, if a child is being loud or misbehaving, they are entitled to say something about it and even tell the child/baby to quiet down. There is a lot of respect for them here.
13. Crosswalks: if there is an actual walk/don't walk sign, then you can cross when it is green. If it is blinking green, then if you can run across. If it's red, you can cross and hope that no one will hit you. If there's no sign, then you can cross and the cars are supposed to stop for you.
14. Pedestrians: do not expect people to make room for you on the sidewalk if you are walking towards each other (or running, or biking). There is no sense of courtesy in that aspect.
15. Runners: there are a lot less female runners, especially in the city. Also, when you are running people will stare at you. If you are running over the bridge that crosses the highway, truckers will honk at you.
16. Dogs: people rarely clean up after their pets.
17. Nudity: is much more accepted here. If you are a girl under the age of 10 it's perfectly acceptable to not be wearing a shirt. People also don't try as hard to hide nudity from children (see number 18)
18. News: the news program here is 10x more informative than our programs. It is also much more graphic. I was watching it the other day and it showed images of people who had been shot in the head in Iraq, also a man being attacked by a bull. At one point it was talking about dildos.
19. TV/Music: They have a lot of American shows dubbed in Spanish (ex: Adventure Time, Spongebob, iCarly, Castle, Law&Order, Parenthood) and it is perfectly acceptable to download movies and shows from the internet. They also play A LOT of American pop music on the radio.
20. School: there are the primary grades (I'm not sure how many), then four years of E.S.O, then two years of Bachillerato. Once you get to Bachillerato, you choose a more specific course of study. I haven't had a full day of school yet, but I'll update this later when I have.
21. Teens: they are super stylish here. Piercings are also super popular it seems. I think teens and preteens generally stay out pretty late. I think my brother's curfew in the summer (and remember he is 12) is 1 AM, but it's earlier now that school has started.
22. Clothing: like I said, people tend to be very stylish. There is a lot of clothing with english writing on it, even though not a lot of people speak english. Not a lot of people wear flip-flops out and about, or sweatpants or things like that.
23. Shopping: if you ever need ANYTHING there is sure to be at least a few stores where you can get it. Stores here are very small and specific, with the exception of a few supermarkets. To buy bread, you go to the Panaderia. To buy fruit, you stop at a store that sells fresh fruit. If you want shoes you go to the shoe store, etc. I swear, there are at least a dozen Hair Salons around town. I have no idea how they all stay in business.
24. Attitude: at first, everyone you meet seems very stiff and judgmental. However, people warm up to you very quickly. I am still having trouble reading people's emotions, but I've found that Spanish people laugh a lot and are very expressive with their movements and gestures.They are also very loud.
25. Drinking: it is perfectly acceptable to sit outside at a Bar and drink and talk anytime after 11 in the morning. People sit with their kids and their parents and smoke and talk and talk.

Wow, sorry this turned out so long. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! There is a nine hour time difference, but I am trying to find times to talk with people. Hasta luego (:

Arrival

Last tuesday, around 4:30 in the afternoon, I said my final goodbyes to Flagstaff and the people I love there. It was very difficult, but I also felt ready for this adventure. My mom and I drove down to Phoenix and spent the night at the most generous Geoffery Gooby's house, because my flight to New York left at 7 the next morning. We had to get up at 4 so that we could be at the airport a little after 5. It was hard to say goodbye and get on the airplane alone, but I was also extremely excited.

I arrived in New York about 45 minutes later than planned because of some weather delays. Me and a boy going to Italy got our luggage and took the AirTrain in JFK to the shuttle area, to be picked up by the Hotel's shuttle. I was nervous because we were on our own, but it all turned out fine. At the hotel we got our room keys and another AFS booklet and an agenda for the orientation. The orientation wasn't that bad. The next day it was only until about 12, and then we had lunch and waited. I played ukulele with a girl going to Italy who also had a ukulele and a boy going to Ghana who had a banjo. We left the hotel at 5 and were all waiting in the terminal by 7. My bag was exactly 44 lbs, or 20 kilos. At 8:30 we boarded the plane - it was the largest I've been on. There were three rows, the outside rows had two seats and the middles row had four. I was in the middle row in one of the middle seats. There were tvs for each seat and we were able to watch some movies that were in theaters this summer. They also served us dinner and breakfast. Some people were able to sleep, but I couldn't at all. It was about an 8 hour flight, but we arrived in Zurich around 10:30 the next morning.

At the Zurich airport we took the airport train and went through customs, which was basically just handing over your passport and having it stamped and moving on. The Zurich airport was very nice and kindof fancy. We waited there for awhile and some people bought some Swiss chocolate. Then we got on a smaller plane and were finally off to Madrid!

It was so exciting landing in Madrid, but I was a little nauseous too from all the flying. In the Madrid airport we collected our luggage and went to find the AFS Spain volunteers. They were very excited to see us. We waited at the airport for awhile and then all got on a bus to go to the Youth Hostel where the last orientation would be held. There, we were given rooms to share with other kids who were going to be in our area. I shared a room with a guy from Sweden, a guy from Thailand, and a girl from Finland. At first, the fact that boys and girls were sharing rooms and bathrooms was startling, because it would never happen in the U.S. However, I really liked the people in my room.

Another thing that would never happen in the U.S. is the first game we all played. There were about 80 students there by that point, the kids from Asia hadn't arrived yet. The game went like this: one person would sit in the middle of a giant circle and call out two numbers. Everyone in the circle had been given a number. The two whose numbers were called had to run up and try to kiss the person in the middle on the cheek before the other person who was called. To make it more amusing, the person in the middle had to try not to be kissed. All the U.S. students thought this was pretty strange. All of the other games we played were very...physical as well. The volunteers were trying to get us accustomed to how "touchy" the Spanish are. After games we sat through a quick orientation and then ate dinner. After that, everyone just hung out. I played my ukulele and talked to the Swedish guy, Erik. I was telling him about my life in Flagstaff and he says, "You're really a hippie, aren't you?" I thought it was hilarious. He dressed very "hipster" as my friends would say - thick glasses, stylish button up, etc.

I slept like a rock because I don't think I had slept for something like 32 hours. The next morning we got up and went to breakfast, then played more games. Host families arrived around 10:30 for the kids staying in Madrid, but we didn't get to meet them until 2 because they had to sit through an orientation. When we finally got to meet them, the volunteers told us to smile really, really big. When we entered, all the families applauded. Then volunteers called out the family name and our name (Spaniards have some trouble reading mine) and we walked up to each other and gave each other two kisses, one on each cheek. then I met my liaison and got to go home!

Alcorcon wasn't far from the hostel. It was a little awkward in the car, I'm just glad my host dad, Jose, knows some english. I live in a 7 story apartment building, my family has an apartment with a room above and a patio on the roof. It's very nice. They are all making me feel very at home. Yesterday, after I got there they told me that there was a party that would be going on till 3 in the morning in the courtyard, to celebrate the last days on summer, I think. We ate lunch and Jose's parents were there. They were also very nice. After, I took a nap because I was still very tired. When I woke up I talked with my host mom, Ani. Later, we ate some dinner and went down to the party. They were playing games and then started blasting mostly American pop music, and everyone started dancing. Jose hurt his back earlier this week at work, so he and I left early because, once again, I was tired. Ani and Marta and David (my little sister and brother) stayed downstairs until 3:30. I unpacked and fell asleep.

I am so excited to be here. I think I'm going to have an amazing time.

airport train in Zurich

flying over Zurich

in Madrid

Youth Hostel room

view from my bedroom

 

Last Post from Flagstaff

It's noon here, and in just a few short hours I will be on my way down to Phoenix with my mom because I need to be at the airport tomorrow for my flight to New York at 5 AM. It's hard to believe that I won't sleep in my bed, eat at our table, or draw at my desk for 10 whole months. I have spent some time being sad about this, but I'm not anymore. I am excited (and probably not nearly prepared enough!) for this adventure. Besides, I'll be back in what will probably seem like no time at all.

I spent my last full day in Flagstaff yesterday climbing to the Mt. Humphrey's summit with Blake. It was the perfect way to spend my last day. It took us 6 hours for the whole hike, and afterwards we just about collapsed. I'm am going to miss beautiful Flagstaff and the trails so much, but it will be so fun to experience city life

I think I am finally done packing. I'm glad that I can bring along my ukulele (thanks again Simon I love it so much, and thanks everyone for signing it <3). Last to pack is some art things that I'm still using...

I am so grateful to my mom for helping me with everything. I could not have done it without you. I'm sorry I've been snappy, I hope you know how much I appreciate your help and how much I'm going to miss you.

I'm not good with goodbyes, sorry guys. Goodbye seems too final. But I will miss you all, and can't wait to see you again in 10 months! Have a great year.

Got my Visa yesterday!

2 weeks and one day after my appointment at the Consulate. Yay! Today, I am working on packing, which is proving more difficult than I originally thought it was going to be.

On another note, it was weird seeing all my friends and my sister start school on Thursday. I'm going to miss you all so much this year! Gah. On Thursday I also finished the first half of my 11th English credit, and now I'm working on the second half of U.S. History. Yay for doing an already accelerated 6 week course in 4 weeks! (sarcasm).

I realized last night that after tomorrow, I'll only have two weekends left in Flagstaff, which is crazy. I'm starting to get super duper excited about leaving again!

School in Spain

I recently found out that I have been ok'd to go to school at I.E.S. Ítaca in Alcorcon, enrolled in the equivalent of 11th grade. It's about 10 minutes from my house, so I will either walk or bike. Here are some pictures:

I've been placed in the Social Sciences course (in Spain once students reach a certain grade they can choose a more specified area of study, depending on what they want to do). I think this will definitely be the best course if I want to try and transfer credits back. Also, it's not the Sciences course, which I really really did not want to be placed in. For those of you with not as much understanding of Spanish, it looks like I will be taking Spanish (Castellana) Language and Literature, English language, Philosophy and Citizenship (not entirely sure what that means), Contemporary World Sciences, P.E, Religion (these are required for the grade), World History, Math, Economics (these are the "Social Sciences" classes), and one of the "Optativas" courses (I'm kind of hoping they'll let me take French).