Half Way

Or, more accurately, half way and three weeks! I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, as sometimes it feels like I've been gone forever and sometimes like I only left last week. Everyone always says that the second half of exchange goes way faster, and so far I'm not having any trouble believing this; in just 3 weeks I will be going to London, in 4 and a half weeks there's spring break (and hopefully I'll be doing part of the Camino de San Tiago) and then April with possible trips to Barcelona and Alicante, in May there's the last AFS orientation of the year, and at the end of June I'll be headed back home. My last day of school is June 25th, but our exams will be finished by the 14th.

A week ago, we had the AFS Midway Orientation in Toledo Friday through Sunday. It was the best AFS orientation I've been to so far, haha; really relaxed and entertaining. We stayed in a hostel that used to be a castle, placed on a hill overlooking the oldest part of Toledo. Throughout the time we were there we did a few activities (mostly on stereotyping if I remember correctly) did a 3 hour "scavenger hunt" in Toledo (we had to find out different facts about the city and ask people for help) and had a fiesta for Carnaval. Nobody slept much, but we talked a whole lot in Spanish! It was amazing comparing it to our previous orientations - we didn't need the volunteers to talk in English at all!

Speaking of Spanish, I consider mine to be coming along pretty well. I understand everything my teachers say (I don't have an excuse not to do the work any more unfortunately... :b) and can actually participate in class. I can also talk with my friends a lot more, read books at a more normal pace and understand Spanish music.

I can't really think of anything more to add at the moment, but feel free to leave questions if you have any! Hope everyone's doing well!

Art

Since I spend a lot of time each day commuting, I usually read or draw on the train. Here are some of my creations.

Andrea Gibson inspired

Inspired by Colmenar Viejo

The Holidays

In Spain (it seems to me) the holidays are a two-week period of time in which everybody eats a lot, drinks a lot, and spends a lot of time with family and close friends. Not only does everyone have Christmas off, but generally Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, and Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos (The Epiphany/Three Kings Day) as well, so there are a lot of festivities. I spent all of break in Burgos, a really nice city about two and a half hours by car north of Colmenar.

Burgos is famous from the epic poem called Cantar de Mio Cid, which is about a man being expelled from Burgos and needing to conquer another part of Spain to regain his honour (I studied this some in Lengua). This is the statue of Cid.

I had a really nice, relaxing and interesting break overall. The only day that was really hard for me was Christmas, which isn't really celebrated here by most people. On Christmas Eve we had a big family dinner, and went to bed pretty late. I didn't really know what to expect Christmas Day, except I knew we were going to a restaurant for a big lunch with a lot of family. This turned out to be pretty much all we did, and while I enjoyed the food immensely (it was several courses and very fancy and delicious. We were eating for 4 hours, not even joking!) it was hard to not have a tree or presents and most importantly, my family. However I skyped them that night for a good while and that really helped.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. At 7 PM there was a 4 kilometer race called the San Silvestre in Burgos. There is also one in Madrid and many of the cities and pueblos of Spain of varying distances, but all on the same night. I ran with my uncle and his friend and it was freezing and raining but possibly the most fun race I have ever run (even though I nearly was trampled at the starting line because there were over 5,000 participants). People were running in costumes and some in very small bathing suits...haha. After the race, at around 10:30, we had a big dinner, and when we finished it was only about 40 minutes to midnight, so we all grabbed grapes and sat around watching the TV broadcasting from Puerta del Sol in Madrid (THE place to go for New Years - like Times Square). When the clock there made the 12 chimes of the new year, you have to eat a grape and every chime, and if you can eat them all it's supposed to be good luck. The thing is the grapes here all have seeds, which people generally don't eat, so it makes it harder to try and take the seeds out of your mouth while eating the next grape and next and so on.

(I just ate the seeds...)

Me and my uncle before the race

FOOD

New Years Eve!

Traditional Holiday time sweets! Turron and polverones, so yum.

And can you guess what we did New Years Day? That's right! A big family lunch! It's really quite amazing how much we ate over the course of the holidays. The thing is, my host-grandmother makes amazing food, so I didn't mind at all, haha. We also had a big lunch on Tres Reyes Magos. Dia de Reyes was a really fun day for me. The night beforehand, there was a HUGE and incredible parade that I swear the entire city crowded to see. Rather than trying to decribe it all, I'll just post pictures. That night we also cleaned our shoes and left them out for the Kings' to put presents in. We watched some of the parade from the apartment and then my host mom, brother and I went downtown to see the kings visit the "Belen" and speak from the windows.

Oh man I loved these guys so much.

giant bird?

see how crowded the street is? That's how it was for about 2 miles.

they were also throwing candy

later the Kings spoke from their windows, telling everyone to be good and sleep early so they could deliver the presents.

The next morning, we woke up to find presents in our shoes! I was really surprised because I wasn't expecting a gift, (simply because I knew that my family wasn't big on giving gifts - they generally buy themselves the "gifts" they need) but in my shoes there was sandals, a wallet and jewelry from Nigeria! After everyone opened their presents we had breakfast and went to my host-great-grandmother's apartment to watch Daniel and two other small cousins open more presents from the "Reyes". Here I was surprised yet again with a handmade wooden journal and new shoes! ( I had been needing new shoes). I feel so grateful for my family, who are all so kind and have welcomed me into their family and have made me feel very cared for.

So those were all the Holidays during break, but I was also able to do a lot around Burgos. I visited part of the Cathedral in the center of town - it's construction began in 1221, and is enormous as well as amazingly beautiful. I was also able to visit two other churches and a monastery where 20 monks still live, all of which were amazing not only in their architecture but their collections of art, books and clothing from the 12th-18th centuries.  I find it baffling that there are books that are older than my country! I also visited the Museum of Human Evolution, which I LOVED. Not only is the museum incredibly interesting, but the building itself is an architectural beauty. There are NO supporting columns within it, so it is very open (other than the exhibits themselves). The building is supported by these giant red X's on the outsides and beams that cross overhead. The reason the museum was created is because a few years ago they began paying attention to an archeological site a few miles from Burgos and found an incredible amount of fossils from the Middle Pleistocene, and some much earlier as well. In an attempt to keep this post a little shorter, here are some links if you're interested:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100714/world/museum-of-human-evolution-bares-it-all.317769


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atapuerca_Mountains

(not my picture)

The famous Cathedral.

Monastery

My host- aunt, grandmother, brother and mom (: and me

And here's an awkward picture of me to finish up this post.

 I hope everyone had some wonderful holidays! Feliz Año Nuevo a todos!

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.