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