Mountains, Discos, Boots...oh my!

I am so sorry to all my dedicated blog followers! I have taken a little hiatus(yes family i now know how to spell that word after the 50 emails you send me about it) from my blog writing, but I will try to write a quick something. I'll just share two things that stick out from the last two weeks.

My host cousin is part of the girl/boy scouts. But it is more of a mix between that and a youth group...and semi cooler. I went on a retreat with them last week. We stayed in a tiny pueblo built right beside a mountain. It was nice because the older kids were given a little free time from being the camp counselors to hike up one of the mountain/hills Saturday afternoon. Other than that we played typical camp type games and did a choreographed dance while dressed up like elfs! The most entertaining part was a game we played where you had to steal the flag from someones back. Obviously I was the champion of this game and plowed through everyone by tackling them and wrestling. My host brother is still mad about the fact that I beat him twice.

We returned to the Disco Tecca this week! We went Thursday for the class party of the private school in my town. I went even though I don't go to the school, because my friends do. But this also meant that I happened to have school the next day and therefore had to wake up 3 hours after I went to sleep. It was a costume party and we went dressed up like lumberjacks! We danced till about 4 30 am, then I walked home with a group of people as it snowed. First snow of the year(it wasn't a lot though and only lasted for about 10 min).

Quick Potpurri:

1. I discovered I actually like fish

2. I feel safer here, it dosen't seem as dangerous. And its not wierd to walk home in the dark as long as your with other people.

3. I have officially given my host mom my credit card to hide from me as to prevent me from spending more more...I have a shopping addiction.

4. The boots here are so amazing...I want to buy them all!

5. Christmas is approaching...dosen't feel like it at all though!!

6. Every weekend I find myself teaching people how to fist pump or frollock jajajajaja!

"City Love"...and a lot of other things I love

I am sorry I have been slacking a little on the blog posts. It's just so hard to decide what's significant and what's not. Everything seems so important to me, but I am sure that it wouldn't seem as exciting to you all. I always start a blog and then realize that I am going nowhere with it and just stop. But now I am determined to write this post. I'm listening to some John Mayer and Jack Johnson and am going to write this post! This blog will be named after the John Mayer song I am listening to at the moment "City Love".

Living in a city is so amazing. Even if it is a small one. I could 100 % see myself living in a European city when I grow up. That was something I always thought I wanted, and being here has only confirmed it. I definitely don't see Miranda de Ebro where I will end up, maybe not even Spain. But I would love to live in Europe, whether Spain, Italy, France, Belgium. I just love walking down the street and there always being people out in the streets. I love how easy it is to catch the bus and go from one place to another. I love how we hang out in the streets. Just walking around, going from cafe to candy store...just walking and talking. And I love how last saturday I went dancing with people, like in crowded bars with amazing music!

Side Note: I have some sad news. My fellow exchange student/australian friend got switched into a different city. So now I am once again the only exchange student in Miranda. It was really sad when she left. When me and some friends from school said bye to her, I said how now I am all alone here. They then all exclaimed "'CRISTINA!! You are NOT alone! We are here for you....we can even speak english if you want!! Badly. but we can speak it!"' That made me really happy.

I love the people here! Another thing I love. My friends are so great. The ones from my school and the ones from the other school in town. Friday I went out with my friends from the other school and we ate a humongous bag of sunflower seeds. I know sunflower seeds are SUPER popular here, but the amount of sunflower seeds consumed was a little ridiculous. Then Saturday I went to see Harry Potter with my friends from school. The movie theater is a lot smaller than what we're used to in the States. We had to wait outside until it opened for that showing of Harry Potter. It's not just open all the time, playing a bunch of different movies. I do have to say though...the chairs in the theater are a lot better than in the U.S.

side note: why is John Mayer so frigen amazing. I wanna see him in concert!!! I want to see Shakira in concert too! Shakira is SOOO popular here. Her Spanish songs and her English songs. Honestly though I don't why I only realized how amazing her music is until this year.

Oh and last but not least...I LOVE SPANISH. I love how people ask "Cuanto tiempo llevas in espana?" (how long has you been here). But literally would translate to how much time do you wear/carry in spain. And I find myself telling random stories about my brother, solely because I love to say "hermano", I love the way the pronunciation sounds!

And to round it out. I love journaling, I love when Concha makes Arroz con Leche, I love my Host grandpa and how he walks with two canes. I love after school when I drive home with Fernando, I always learn something new about Spanish grammar. I love how when you back into someones car, you just say "screw it" and park somewhere else!

Just living in Spain

Well here I am sitting at my computer on this Sunday evening. Another week has come to an end and another one is begining. Today was a lazy day. Took a nice walk to church, came home and had lunch with Concha and Rodrigo, then skyped with my mom, grandparents, and Anna. Anna was drinking a Dunkin Donuts coffee and it made me a little jealous. Now I'm just relaxing. School tomorrow, the normal routine. Been here for 2 months, 60 something days and it starts to feel like real life, like life in NJ seems foreign. I haven't posted in over a week, so I'll just share some significant things that have happened.

Halloween was celebrated on here on Friday the 29th. I went with my friends to the nightclub in our town. It was a lot of fun, everyone dances...no exceptions! The party goes on until 6 in the morning, but I had to leave around 4 to get a ride home with someone. Not many people dressed up and the people that did weren't dressed up slutty like in the states.

After Halloween I went away with my host family for the weekend. We stayed in Fernando's family house in a small town outside of Leon. It was a very old, creepy house and we all joked around how it was the perfect place to spend Halloween. Patricia, Rodrigo and I all slept in the same room cause we were scared to sleep in the other rooms all alone. Above is a picture of me and my host siblings is the courtyard of the house. Sunday we visited Olviedo, which is a beautiful city in Austurias, Spain. It rained the whole day, which made it hard to do much but it was beautiful. Monday we visited Leon, which is another great city. The weather was good that day so we had a good time walking around and seeing the city. Below is a picture of a church in Oviedo.

Some other news. I am now not the only exchange student in my town. There is a girl here from Australia. She came this week but is only here for 3 months. Luckily she is super nice. We went out Saturday night and ran into people from our school so we hung out with them and talked with them in Spanish. My spanish seems to be coming along well. It is definitely easier to understand what people are saying then to speak though.

School. Chocolate Milk. Trying not to get shanked...

I feel this post is long overdue. I have been in school for 5 weeks now, so it is about time I share with you devoted blog readers what the majority of my time in Spain is spent doing. I have also realized that my blog is a piece of shit do to the fact that I usually write it in five minutes before I go to sleep. But today, I have 5 hours until badminton, so I will put a little more time into it.

^^Pictured above is my school. Representative of true, ancient Spanish architecture. UGLY?!!! Ugly you say? How dare you call my beautiful institution of knowledge UGLY! Okay, fine I admit it is pretty depressing looking. Or as I would call it "ghetto". Don't worry, despite it's appearance people don't walk around school shanking people, no matter how prison like it looks. Miranda de Ebro is a very safe town.

A normal school day begins with me waking up at 7 30 am and attempting to look semi-presentable before I run out the door to the bus stop. The bus(its not a yellow school bus, but a public bus) drops me of right next to my school. School starts at 8 30am and consists of 6 classes in a day, each lasting 50 minutes. After every 2 classes, we have a twenty minute break where people snack, smoke, talk, ect. Pictured above^ is the love of my life. The coffee/hot chocolate machine of wonders. You pay 30 cents and get a wonderful beverage of yummyness.

Being in the arts track at school...I take some arts classes. First Dibujo Artistico(artistic drawing)-It's a chill class, I like it. It's serious drawing though. we.have.easels! No joke, look at the picture above, we actually draw on easels!!!! Next, Dibujo Tech(technical drawing)-it's a lie. It is not a drawing class. Okay it is, but it's more like a method of torture. I hate that class-enough said. Fotografia(photography)-I hate that class also. We actually get homework and I never have any idea how to do it. Upside is sometimes, like today, we get to go outside to take pictures. Volumen(some kind of 3D art class?)-Love it. We do sculptures and 3D art and the teacher is awesome. She printed out pictures of objects(like scissors) and the Spanish word for them and hung them around the classroom, about twenty of them. How nice is that?

A picture of one of them is below.

I am in the arts class at school but I have to take some regular classes as well. My classes are as follows. Lengua(literature)-very difficult, at the moment I am reading "El Principe Destranado" for that class. Filosofia(philosophy)-the only class I really take notes in. I understand a bit. Ciencias(science of the contemporary world)-I like the class because it's only basic science and I understand a lot because the words are similar to english. Speaking of english...Ingles(english)-the professor speaks english the whole class which is nice, but very bad english. Religion(religion)-everyone talks during the class and the teacher just patientally asks us to be quiet the whole time. Right now were watching "Se7en" in that class.

A couple random facts about school.

1. Science teachers wear lab coats. hahaha

2. There is no toilet paper in the bathroom....

3. I carry around a cuter(which is a sharp knife object) for volumen. In the United States, for saftey reasons, there is no way that would be aloud.

Music, Letters...Being an akward foreighner. (who cant spell)

This post was going to be about school. But then I had some things I need to share so change of plans.

I would first like to say that there is a big difference between understanding Spanish when it is spoken to you and understanding Spanish when it is sung in a song. It is very difficult to understand songs. Today I understood to songs I listened to! First one the main line say "Tu eres mi cancion"---"You are my song". And the second one says "Mi cama huele a ti, tu perfume y miel."---"My bed smells like you, of your perfume and honey." If I saw this written out I would've understood it, but I was pretty excited I understood it while it was being sung. I feel like my Spanish is improving, ecspecially because now I use a lot of past tense, not just present tense with a hand gesture that implies it happened in the past.

Today I was a girl on a mission. Here the story. Me, three letters in need of mailing, and my stupidity. This is about the third time I went to the post office attempting to mail these letters. Today I went with my letter, bought envelopes, sealed them and addressed them only to realize I didn't know my address in Spain. Not to be defeated I speed walked to Fernandos office to ask him what our address was. I had to be back before the post office closed in 30 min. Thank god Miranda is a small town, because I made it back by 8 20 pm. 10 min before closing. Unfortunately I stepped in dog shit on the way...

Oh god...so on my way to the post office I stopped in this little place to get a snack. I wanted one of these tiny chicken croquette things. I ordered it and the lady then proceeded to fill a box full of these things. I didn't know what to do so I paid and took them. I had no idea what to do with them, so I will not lie, I put the bag on the sidewalk and walked away....without eating one of them. Can you say awkward foreigher?

xoxo

CARPE DIEM

Today we went to Villarcyro to visit Fernando's father. We had a four day weekend, because today is some holiday. I am not one hundred percent sure which holiday. I have heard people say it is the Spanish Columbus Day...but then I also heard it is the day to celebrate Pilar, some virgen saint who is celebrated here. Either way, there was a four day weekend, so all in the world is good.

So in Villarcyro we had a wonderful meal in celebration of either Christopher Columbus or the Virgen Pilar. I am leaning more torwards Pilar, because I have a host aunt named Pilar and we gave her gifts today because it is the day of her saint? I think? I know it was definitely not her birthday though. So theres a quick update but what I really wanted to share was something else so here that goes...

I had a short discussion with my host grandfather. He has studied some Greek and Latin, so of course I pulled out the one latin word me and the rest of the world know..Carpe diem. Seize the day...or Coge la dia. Then I just talked to Aunt Kristen about it too. I guess the saying has become a little cliche now, which everyone wearing Jac Vanec braclets saying "Carpe diem" and so on. The phrase originated this way.

Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

which translates to...

While we're talking, envious time is fleeing: pluck the day, put no trust in the future.

And its true, today is today so why not live for that. There is no tommorow, cause whenever you wake up it will be today. As David Thoreau would say, we must "suck the marrow out of life". Since we do not know what the future will hold, we must simply live in the moment and enjoy it. No matter what cards were dealt in life, that is something we don't get to change. As I always say (my mom call me a walking hallmark card). If you are not happy with nothing you will not be happy with everything. We need to enjoy the moment were living in and thank God we were given the oppurtunity to live that moment and experience it. Seize it, enjoy it..and in the words of Jay Z.."on to the next one" (okay that part was a joke)

xoxo

abrazos y besos

One Month....Nine to go?

I can´t believe it, but I have officially been here for a month. I meant to write this post on Sunday but the internet was down, and yesterday I was going to write it but I got distracted skyping with Libby and then my Mom. So now it is midnight and I am writing it, because the internet was down again most of today. Though I dont even know if anyone besides my mom and Beth read this, but whatever I´ll write it anyway! So I have officially been here for four weeks! It is crazy to think that this is already 1/10 of my exchange. A month went by so fast and I already feel like I have changed so much. It feels like just yesteday I was boarding the plane but at the same time it feels like another lifetime ago.

I really miss all of you at home...really, really miss you. It´s so hard to be away from everyone, but at the same time I know it is worth it. Everything I am going to learn this year and all the experiences I am going to have, and then eventually I will be home again with all with all of you, wishing I was back in Spain, I´m sure. For now though seeing you on skype will have to do! Honestly, skyping dosen´t make me homesick. I know some people who aren´t planning on skypng their families till the holidays!! No way, I coudln´t do that. Nana, just letting you know when you skype i.m. me saying ¨hi¨ or ¨r u there¨. That makes my day, I love hearing ffrom people back home, even if it´s just a little message like that, just so I know life in New Jersey hasn´t stopped!

I´m trying really hard to learn Spanish. I love the language. I love practising it. I have been reading Spanish books and everything to help me learn the language. I am also volunteering at the Cruz Roja (red cross), which is good and 3 more hours a week of listening to someone just speak spanish. My friend in school shows me how to conjugate a new verb is past tense every day(cause I only know present tense)....However, certain things I can´t give up, like watch new episodes of Gossip Girl and Weeds online and reading books in english( although I don´t have any left, and my package with books is stuck in Madrid no apparent reason!)

Well, I´m tired...and a litle sick today. I´m up late because I don´t have to go to school tommorow. The Prince and Princess of Spain are coming to Miranda de Ebro on there way to somewhere else, so we are going to go see them. Not meet them, but maybe wave to them in the streets or something.

Hasta Luego

xoxo

p.s(funny story) Today in Philosophy we were comparing philosophy and religion and my teacher started talking about this religion called pastafaris. I didnt know what they were so two girls next to me tried explaining it. After me not understaning for 10 minutes someone else jumped in and explained they are people who eat pasta as their religion while listening to reggae music....this sounds like my kind of religion! I said that and we laughed...and I was so excited to finally make a joke in Spanish!!

"Ella es muy maja"

So the last couple days have been eventful. Friday, I got to ride home on the vespa(always fun). Then, later, I got introduced to some of my host sister's friends (the sister thats in Florida and is my age, not the younger one). They were really nice, we just wondered around the city for a couple hours...that seems to be all I've done since in Spain. But it's enjoyable to just walk and talk and go to the candy shop, because we are always doing that here. It was once I got home that my family pulled

out their favorite saying..."Ella es muy maja!" or "Ellas son muy maja!" Which mean She, or they are really nice and friendly. These people where very nice but the funny thing is they seem to tell me this about everyone.

Saturday we went to a reunion of some sort. It was Fernando's friends from childhood. It was in Vitoria, which is beautiful city. The food at the resturant was horrible though, Concha is a much better cook!. After we ate I went with Patricia and some of the other girls who were around 15 into the city. We walked around the city for a couple hours (refer to above comment about that being all I've done in Spain).It was freezing but the city was great. Vitoria has a lot nicer stores than Miranda de Ebro. It is also a lot bigger, maybe 4 times the size of Miranda. We went into the candy store, everyone go sunflower seedss( they are very popular here) You buy them at the candy store and eat them while you walk around, spitting the shells onto the ground. After about 3 hours outisde we began to freeze. And it started raining. Fernando and Concha came to get us. Now it's around 9 pm, I am under the impression were going home and I can take a warm shower and hope I don't catch a cold after standing in the 40 degree weather while it rained. But no, then we went bar hopping. Well the adults did(Fernando, Concha, and Mancho, cause everyone else had left at this point). Patricia, one of Macho's daughters(also named Cristina) and his son(don't remember his name), Rodrigo, and I just hung out in the back by the mens room and told guys "No that's for women" so they would go into the wrong bathroom. It was immensely amussing Finally after going to three bars we went home. On the way home of course I was asked "Ellas son muy maja, no?"

Sunday. Oh Sunday! Finally, finally, finally I felt like I was with family! We went to Fernando's father's town, Villarcayo, which is a little over an hour away. I was introduced to my host aunts and cousins. I then met Ana, my host cousin who did the short term rotary exchange this summer...now here a story...........

>>Ana went to East Orange this summer, which is ten minutes away from where I live in New Jersey. She stayed with Zahra, who I met at the orientation for out bound students in April. When Zahra went to Spain with Ana for a month they even spent time at my host family's house. No one even thought to connect the dots that this six degrees of seperation thing was going on, but oh well!

Well, small world. So the family was very nice!! Majisimo (very maja). Before the meal, instead of praying grace, we sang it. My host grandpa LOVES TO SING in a loud opera voice...hmm sounds like someone....oh wait, i know, Grandpa Roy, oh how I missed my grampa's singing. Well then we had a delicous meal of peppers stuffed with shredded chicken and cheese, then octupus in this black sauce with rice. Plain white rice, Filipino style (oh how Ive missed my Filipino neighbors>

Today I went shopping, bought some great stuff for really cheap...got a little lost on the walk home though cause I wanted to take the scenic way =) Tommorow I think I'll go to church(nona you'd be proud). And wednesday I am tutoring Alba(a ten year old girl down the street) in English...she speaks English better than I speak Spanish. Just trying to keep myself occupied!

xoxo Ciao.

Madrid and School

First, Madrid. Well more like the outskirts of Madrid. This past weekend I went to an orientation with all the other inbound students in Spain. There were also a couple of students who had gone to the United States or Canada last year. We stayed at a university a couple miles outside of Madrid. Mostly everyone there was from the U.S. or Canada and there were a couple of Germans as well, so we spoke English the whole weekend weekend consisted of rotary speaking to us for 3 hours and then leaving us to just relax the rest of the time. The reason we didn't go in and see the city of Madrid was because last year some students lost their passports and themselves and such. It was nice to meet other exchange students, ecspecially if we go on the portugal trip in March we will know people already.

School. Today in Lengua(which is like literature) we had an assigment where we had to read a passage and then answer questions. Though I understood the jist of the passage I had no idea what the questions were asking. So instead of answering them I wrote about a page of everything I knew how to say in Spanish and handed that in(so the teacher knew I was trying). That's my plan, to show the teachers that I am putting forth my best effort.

I am in the arts track at my school, because in Spain when you are 16 you get to choose which track you want. I may be switching out of it. Though the classes are easy because there is not as much of a language barrier, I don't know if art is really my calling. So now I have to choose if I want to stay in that or take Math and Psycology. It's a very hard decision, and I completely don't know what to do.

Other than that school seems to pass pretty quickly. We start at 8:30 and have two classes(an hour each) then we get a break. It is a ten minute break where people smoke and have snacks...I drink chocolate milk during this time. Then two more classes(an hour each) and another break...same as the one before. Then one more class and the day is over. It isn't long or tedious at all. Also, from what I hear another a student is coming to the school from Australia in October, which could be cool.

Observations

I have now been in spain for 11 days. Though I don't think that is enough time to judge Spain as a country or the Spaniards as a group of people, I do think I can make some observations on at least the area I'm in.

First, we eat a lot of meat here. Every meal besides breakfast. Now this might seem like my brother Alex's dream, but me...not so much. Always meat, meat, meat...oh and of course on the rare occasion...meat!

Everyone is always out in the streets. Since Miranda is a little town, there is a town center where most people know at least half the other people. Whenever we walk somewhere my host family runs into at least 20 other people they know.

Like expected, there is a lot of smoking here. During the snack breaks we get in school(not lunch, we eat that at 3 once at home) everyone is smoking right on the school steps. This isn't something I was shocked at after going to Montclair High where everyone smoked across the street from the school( though at the Mount I never saw one person smoking on campus(ahhh to many schoools to keep track of!!)) Anyway Ive seen teens smoking in the street while they stop and give Aunts and little cousins of theirs hugs...with a cigarette in their hand.

Fashion wise, for the people my age. Across the body bags are very big, which I anticipated and luckily brought one. Everyone wears converse( my host sister owns a pair in almost every color). Most people wear straight leg or skinny jeans. Nothing real different from the U.S. Very casual. I haven't seen to many kids at school decked out in expensive label brands or anything.

Other than that I am going to Madrid this weekend with all the other exchange students for a rotary meeting. Then comes my second week of school. Once I get through that I'll do another blog about how school is going, ya know with the whole me not really understanding the language everything is thought in thing...

xoxo

Finally in Spain

So finally I am in Spain, have been for three days. I got here on Sunday, my host parents met me at the airport. They had a sign that said Welcome Cristina, so it was no trouble finding them. They showed me a little bit of Madrid, but it was so so hot that we did not stay long. On our way to Miranda deEbro, we stopped at a castle. there was a little cafe that was meant to look old. That is where I learned the difference between old and antique in Spanish. Unfortunatey I left my camera there, so at the moment I have no pictures to upload, but I have to pick it up one day this week, then I will upload pics of my house and family. The house is beautiful and ver spacious. From my bedroom I have a nice view of the mountains!

On Monday Concha(host mother), Patricia(host sister), Rodrigo(host brother) and I went into the center of the town, because they live in a townhouse on the outskirts. It was a five minute drive. We stopped to say hello to Fernando(host father) at his work, he is an optometrist. Then we stopped in a cafe where I met one of Concha´s friends, and her friends son, who goes to the school I am going to. After we went food shopping and then went back to the hosue. Patricias friends came over a little later and we watched The Lovley Bones (in spanish of course). Then we went into town again, except this time we walked. It took around 20 minutes to get there, the we just hung out on a bench in the center of town. There were a bunch of people just hanging out outside, kicking a soccer ball around the sidewalks. We got home lat and ate dinner....at 11, 30 pm!!!!!

Over here we eat lunch at 2 or 3...lunch is their biggest meal. Then a light dinner usually around 10. I have tried a lot of different things I never ate. Sardines in salad, pigs intestants(unbelievably delicous!!!) and today for Fernando´s birthday we had rabbit, which was also very good.

That´s about it for now. So far everything is going well. The language is a little difficult, but they speak slow for me and use hand gestures. The only problem so far is the stairs. The problem

isn´t walking up the stairs, it´s walking down. So far I have fallen three times, because I always forget tha their is another step at the bottom. When it´s dark and I ca´t see it is hard to navigate. Other than that everything is great!!

Hasta Luego

....someones cell phones just rang downstairs and they have the same rigtone as my cell in new jersey did...I am getting a little teary eyed. lol

THREE DAYS!!!!!

So as August ends and September starts my time in the United States dwindles down. This Saturday, only three days away, I will be boarding a plane and leaving for Spain. It's crazy to think it's come so quickly, but it also cant come quick enough.

Today I finished most of my preperations for Spain. I went shopping for clothes, but now I must pack. I have most of my stuff laying out, now it must make it's way into my suitcases. I went to my salon got my hair trimmed and highlighted. I also bought my host family presents today. I got them books with pictures of my town and state in them, and I also got them some polo shirts and scarves. A family friend whose husband is from Spain advised me on what to get them =) My last stop of the day was at bestbuy where I got a new mac book!! My parents didn't want me to take my old laptop because....well I'm not really sure why, but I'm not complaining! So I'd say I'm pretty prepared to leave for my year long trip!

I guess the next post I write will be when I'm in Spain, so until then...

xoxo

Preparing for Exchange

So I still have a little while before I leave for Spain, but I am so SOO excited. I'll be staying with the Robles family in Miranda de Ebro, a city of about 40,000 around 3 hours outside of Madrid. My host parents are Fernando and Concha, I also have three host siblings! Rodrigo is 10, Patricia is 14, and Cristina (same name as me) is 16, but she will be living in Florida for the year. I have only really talked with my host father, he signs every letter--Un fuerte abrazo (a strong hug). So they seem like a really great family and I'm looking forward to meeting them =] OHHHH and of course the best part is they have a Golden Retriever named Pepa!!!

I have my meeting with the Spanish consulate on Friday so I can get my visa. After that I will be able to pick when I leave. My classes start on September 15 and my host father tells me there is a fiesta in the city on September 12, so I am hoping I will be able to leave around the 6th. Also the weekend right after school start...sept 17th I have to go to Madrid for a weekend with all the other exchange students. I can't believe it's less than 2 months away!!!!!!

xoxo