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!!