... My week...

Hola! It's been a little while! I'm so so sorry, it was a busy week and when I had time to write, I was just way too tired. Anywayssss. Let's get on with it (:

Last week, on Monday, I went to my first running practice. It was the first time I ran with anyone other than myself since I got here, and it was really nice to feel that familiar pressure (good pressure) of running with a partner. It can be difficult to push yourself to run quickly when you are running alone, so it was really nice to have the help of a friend to remind me to keep pushing up the hill, to maintain my breathing, and so on. Overall it was just a good time, and I enjoyed it very much. After practice I felt kind of sick, with a sore throat and so on, so I went to bed earlier than usual. I went to school Tuesday, and even though I felt a bit under the weather, I made it through the day. When I came home, I told my host parents that I felt a bit sick, and so I rested for the whole afternoon. They bought me some cold medicine from the pharmacy which helped a bit, but I still really didn't feel good. On Wednesday I felt even worse, but when I am sick at home, I normally just take an ibuprofen, power through it and still go to all of my classes, so that was my plan here too. When I got to my first class, Physics and Chemistry, I felt realllllly sick. (Wednesday was hands down the worst day I've had here so far). I started to feel really nauseous, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom, and ended up throwing up (sorry if that's a gross detail, I just feel like its important for my story). I didn't have my cellphone, because I don't bring it to school with me, so I didn't know how to call my host parents (they don't have a school nurse or anything like back home). I ended up, with the help of my friends, in the secretary's office, where they looked up the number for my host house. However, at the time, my host mom was at work, and my host dad was running errands in town and had left his cellphone charging at home, so no one was there to answer the multiple calls my school made. 

The really nice thing through all of this was how helpful everyone was. The secretary of the school was even about to drive me home herself (about a 10 minute drive from my school), when my host dad finally called back to say that he would pick me up. When I got home, I watched tv in bed and slept for the rest of the day. My host dad made me a mixture of lemon juice and honey, which is helpful for sore throats, and something that his mom used to make him when he was young and got sick. It was interesting... But far better tasting than the salt water my dad has me gargle at home when I'm sick. 

On Thursday, I still really didn't feel well, so I stayed home again. I slept for about four hours, and when I woke up in the early afternoon and checked my temperature, my fever had broken. My appetite had returned that morning, and pretty much everything went uphill from there. I felt a lot better, and on Friday, I was up for school again (:

On Saturday I went to Zaragoza, a city about an hour and a half drive away from me, with four friends to go shopping. We went to a very well known mall here in Spain, which it must say was hugeeeee and surprisingly fairly well priced. I had a super great day with my friends, and I got a lot of new clothes, that will hopefully make me look less American and more Española. We had lunch at a Spanish chain of a sandwich restaurant, which was super delicious. Overall, it was a really great day. 

Saturday night, we went to a small town about a five minute drive from ours, called Senegue. There was a party that night, so we went to a friends house for dinner before. There, I ate rabbit for the first time (which is like a thing here), and it was actually very good. It was pretty intimidating, and my friends all made jokes that it was just chicken. It was a lot of fun. 

That night we went to the party. It was really cool, there was a huge tent with a live band a lot of people dancing and the streets were full of people singing and dancing and it was really cool, really culturally different, and a really great experience. I went home around 3:30am, which strangely enough, is early here (most of my friends stayed out til 6:00 or 6:30). My host mom didn't want me staying out too late since I was still getting over being sick, and I agreed with her. I'm still trying to get used to how different the timing of everything is here. 

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the home of my host dad's parents for lunch. It was really delicious, we had rice with vegetables, bell peppers, and a sort of Spanish bacon, and of course, chorizo. It was super yummy. 

I was still really tired from the night, so during siesta, I slept about 3 hours on their couch. When I woke up, my host parents had gone for a walk in the woods to find mushrooms, so I watched a television program about a Spanish singer who died about a year ago with my host grandma. I was actually really surprised by how much I understood. It's really amazing how much my Spanish has improved in just the three weeks (three weeks today!!) that I've been here. 

We went home, had dinner, and I fell asleep fairly early. This morning I woke up, and went to school. Today was one of the first days that I really actually enjoyed school. It's kind of difficult to sit in classrooms for hours, and only understand a word or two occasionally that a professor says. But today I really felt that I understand a lot of what they were saying, and my friend Blanca helped a lot by teaching me new Spanish words, and making me little notes of how to conjugate certain verbs and so on. She speaks English pretty well, so I've kind of been using her as an escape when I'm tired to just relax and speak my home language. But today we decided that we're no longer speaking English to each other. However, when I'm trying to tell a story and I don't know how to say something, she's an excellent translator. For lunch, we had spinach with mushrooms and chicken with mushrooms (the ones that my host parents gathered yesterday), and it was very delicious. 

This afternoon, I went to running practice again. I ran 40 minutes of hills with a girl I hadn't met before. She is faster than I am, which is really good because it makes me push harder. Tomorrow I am going to run with her again, and I'm really excited to start getting back in shape. 

That's pretty much been my past week... Thanks for reading(: I'm going to try to update again soon, but the future is uncertain so I will make no promises. 

I can't explain how how strange it is to experience all of this in Spanish, and then translate my experiences into another language. But it's fun, and I'll be able to look back on it happily in the future.

Until next time! 

Hasta luego, Zeph

Meeting the Extended Host Family

I have a couple of days to write about.... But first I have exciting news! My host mom introduces me as her American daughter!!!! I don't know if that matters to you people, but to me it's completely awesome. I really feel like I'm a part of this family.

In other news, yesterday it had my second day of school, which was fairly unexciting except for the fact that I had my first English class! Yay! I actually understood what was going on! I've gotta tell you, knowing more than the professor of a class in her subject is a very strange feeling. It was fun though, and she almost understood everything I said when she asked me about where I live. Also something exciting about school yesterday, on Fridays, I get out one hour early! I don't actually know what this will mean for me, since I take the bus home, but probably it will mean that I'll hang out with my friends for an hour at a nearby park. Which isn't really too bad at all(: 

After school, I went home, had lunch with my family, had siesta, and then went back to Sabi around 5:30 to hang out with my friends. We went to a park for a while, and I realized that I had a deck of cards in my purse so I pulled them out and asked them if they wanted to play a game. Here, American cards are only used for poker, and there are Spanish playing cards that they use. So they were pretty excited to learn an American game. We were a big group, so I taught them BS, which is one of my favorite games. It was very fun, and they actually really got into it. 

After we were done at the park, we went to the concrete park I've talked about. Or the "sitio sucio" in case Maria is reading this. I impressed my friends with some awesome card tricks. They figured out about half of my favorite trick, so at least the other part of it is still impressive. Two of my friends also did a magic trick for me, and eventually they told me how to do it and can I just tell you it is a cheap trick. But whatever. After we were done there, a few of us went to Maria's house, where our parents were having dinner. Maria made us dinner, and then we hung out until almost one AM. It was really super fun, we talked for a while, drank tea, and ended up piling onto Maria's bed (I think there were 4 of us on a twin sized bed) and listening to music and singing to it. It was really enjoyable. 

This morning I slept in until almost eleven. I quickly ate breakfast and got dressed, because my host mom and I were going to Huesca so that I could meet her family. We left around 12, and got there around 12:45. We met her sister at a cafe, and she called me her "sobrina Americana" it was really sweet. Then we walked around the city for a while, I got some new school supplies, and then we went to a clothes store. I bought a really cute pair of jeans, a few shirts, a cardigan sweater and a new wallet (which I was desperately in need of). One thing that I think is funny about the style here, is that a very common thing is to wear a shirt with words in English on it. However many people do not even know what their shirt says. I suppose that we do this with other countries languages in the United States, it's just weird being on the understanding side of it. I found a couple of shirts that had English quotes on them that I liked... Though no one else here can really appreciate them... 

After I finished shopping, we went to my host grandparent's house. They are really really nice, and my host grandpa made us lunch. We had tomatoes with tuna and hard boiled egg (I know it sounds gross but it was actually really good), green beans, and salmon steaks. It was all very delicious. After lunch, we watched an movie called nine days (which I actually really enjoyed), and my host mom and host aunt fell asleep (i was too into the movie to fall asleep), and after that, we left. I was really tired, so instead of trying to track down my friends, I went home. My host parents walked to a nearby bar to relax a bit, and I decided to stay home, put on some music, straighten up my room, and relax a bit in my own way. It was really nice. After that, my host dad went out for dinner with some friends, and my host mom and I had dinner here. We just had pizza and salad, but it was delicioussss. 

Now I am drinking peppermint tea and watching a Denzel Washington movie with my host mom. So far it is very good! 

Thanks for reading! I'll update soon hopefully! 

Hasta pronto, Zeph (:

Schoooooool. And the last couple days.

I'm sorry.... I know I kind of promised a post yesterday, but I was tired, and had to wake up early for school. Tonight we had dinner fairly early (early meaning 9:15ish here), so I have time to update you guys on my last couple days of Spain, and also a update on my first day of school, before I have to go to bed (p.s I'm exhausted).

So let's begin where I left off last: Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, I went to Sabi to see my friends (what I do pretty much everyday). That afternoon, before I left my house, I had done a hair wrap thing. It's pretty much a small braid that you wrap in colorful string, and when I was in Cali, it was a normal thing for me to do... When I went with my friends, they noticed it right away, and got really excited. I had some string with me, so I proceeded to wrap alllll of my friends hair. No joke guys. From 5:30 to 9:00 I wrapped hair. I got reallllly tired, but it was super cool, because I felt like I was sharing a little bit of California with them (even if they do have them here too). It also felt good to do something nice for them because they have welcomed me completely with open arms, and made me feel so comfortable when I should probably be really scared. So the pain and exhaustion of my hands was completely worth it because I want them all to know how completely grateful I am. It's kind of stupid, because making braids seems like a really little thing, but it was nice, I got to have mini conversations with all of them, and even if it was not my favorite activity, I still got to be with all of them. 

Around 9:00 my host parents picked me up, and I went back to my house to change into warmer clothes. It's pretty much already autumn here, and I am one of those stereotypical teenage girls who loves autumn (it's just sooo pretty), so I was super happy wearing an oversized sweater, skinny jeans and boots (no one really cares about my outfit besides me, but it made me happy so I thought I'd share). After changing, I went back to Sabi to have dinner with my friends at a cute little pizza place. It isn't exactly Saucy, but it'll do(: It was actually quite delicious, and I really enjoyed hanging out and having dinner with my friends. After dinner, we went to a little bar nearby, and my friends bought me a mint tea because I had done so many braids that afternoon. It was really sweet. Then we hung out in the upstairs area of the bar, which has nice couches and such, and just talked and goofed around until around 12 when my host mom came and got me. 

Yesterday, I slept in much later than I wanted to. Back home, my mom always makes me start waking up early a couple days before school starts so that I can alter my sleep schedule a bit in advance. I really wanted to do that here, but I guess I didn't want it enough because I "forgot" to set an alarm, and slept in until almost 12. And I hadn't even gone to sleep late. I got almost a full 12 hours of sleep. It was amazing. 

I had a small breakfast, so that I would still be hungry for lunch, and I got some stuff ready for school. After lunch and siesta, my host dad drove me to Sabi for my last afternoon of summer with my friends. First we went to a park, and then my friends Blanca and Maria took me to what is possibly the coolest place ever; this super little super cute tea bar. They ordered for me, since I had no idea what I wanted (I've found that having locals order food, drinks etc for you is the best, because otherwise you would experience so much less when you play it safe by ordering a coca cola every time), and we drank our tea upstairs on little cushions and it was just an absolutely lovely way to end summer. After we were finished at the teteria, we went to the Consti (the main plaza in Sabi), with a couple of our other friends, and hung out there until 9, when my host parents came to get me. Last night I went to bed around 12, and this morning I had to wake up at 7:15, which is no fun, but also is wayyyy better than 6 o'clock like Im used to in California. In the morning I went to school, and I got there kind of early so none of my friends had arrived yet. Which was no fun. So I waited outside in the front until I saw Maria, and then went in with her. My classes are kind of a blur, as far as what exactly they were and who exactly my teachers were, and honestly I think I'd bore you if I try to go into detail, so I'm just going to give you the highlights. I sit with my friends in all of my classes. Which is awesome. Also for the most part, I really like my teachers. I especially like my Math teacher. She is really friendly, and came over to my desk a lot to make sure that I understood the worksheet that we were doing. I've never really had such a great appreciation for math. In the U.S I sort of liked it, and I was sort of okay at it. Like I could get a good grade, but I really had to work for it. Here, I went through I think 3 classes of barely understanding what my teachers were saying, and then went into a class and was handed a piece of paper covered in numbers. That I understood. It was amazing, and it felt great to take a break from using the learning Spanish part of my brain, and exercise a different part. I haven't had English class yet, I'll have that tomorrow, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I will enjoy that as well. All in all, it was school, all of the teachers misspronounced my name (or just called me Carol), but I'm also I'm Spain. That's kind of been my motto lately. If there's something that disappoints me a little bit, I'm just like yeah maybe that's not the best, but I'm in SPAIN for Pete's sake. Keep your head up, you're living the dream. And it works, I am so amazingly happy. Today when I got home, I was completely exhausted, and I slept for about am hour durning siesta. It was very nice. After siesta I went for a walk with my host parents, had dinner, and that brings us to now, sitting on the couch with my host parents, half watching some Spanish drama, half texting my Spanish friends, half blogging. That's three halves and doesn't really make sense, but like I said I did math today and after not doing math for 4 months, my brain can't handle anymore of it.

Anyways, until next time (I won't promise tomorrow because I have dinner plans and who knows), Zeph

My Weekend and More

So today I am blogging a bit early (it's about 12:40PM here), because I did not blog the entire weekend and I meant to last night but I did not get home until it was late and I was tired so I just went to bed. 

This weekend was nice, but pretty strange too.  As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Madrid for a Rotary orientation. On Friday, I had to wake up super early in the morning to catch a bus with a Rotex from my town named Victoria, and an American boy named Ethan from a nearby town. It was really weird, because the moment we got on the bus, we all started speaking English. I almost forgot what it felt like to understand everything in a conversation. We took a bus to Zaragoza, which took about 2 hours, and there we met up with more exchange students, including a boy from California. When I found out where he was from I freakedddd out. Even if he is from SoCal. In Zaragoza, I also met a boy from Japan, which I thought was the coolest thing. In our group of inbounds, about 90% are from the U.S, so foreign people (I guess we're all foreign but you get what I mean), are rare and exciting. When we got on the bus that would take us from Zaragoza to Madrid, there were already quite a few exchange students on it from the Barcelona area. Of course I managed to embarrass myself because I thought that the two boys sitting behind me were Spanish so I started trying to be friendly and introduce myself and such and then proceeded to ask them if they spoke English, to which one of them replied "I'm from New York." Whooooops. They were really cool though, and I talked to them pretty much the entire bus ride. 

The place that we were staying in was a little bit outside of Madrid, and it had Cabins and a dining hall and a swimming pool and a sports field. And that was pretty much it. I really wanted to see the city of Madrid, but we didn't get to. It was a bummer. On Friday when we arrived, we all met each other, and then played name games and tried to get to know each other. This girl I met there, named Reagan and I realllllly wanted to go swimming the first night, so we put on our bikinis and our idea was that once we were in the water the worst they could do was ask us to get out. Too bad we only made it to the pool deck before some Rotex came over and told us that we couldn't swim or else they would get in trouble with Rotary. We thought we'd be making the walk of shame back to camp in our dry bathing suits, but instead we got applause and multiple high fives for trying. 

On Saturday, we had a lot of meetings, explaining the rules of exchange, the Euro Trip, and more. They were fairly boring, and mostly things I'd heard before, and I was really tired, so I almost fell asleep a couple of times. After the meetings, we went outside to take the cliche flag group picture, but with over 100 exchange students, it didn't work too well. That afternoon, after the meetings around 4, the pool was going to be open. I went back to my cabin, and I lied down in my bed, and was trying to make the decision of whether I should take a nap, or go swimming. My subconscious made the decision for me when I quickly fell asleep. When I woke up, I checked my watch and it was almost 7. I knew that the pool was going to be open until 6, but also I did not hear anyone talking outside of my cabin, so I was pretty confused. I put myself together, and left my cabin, to find out that there was no one in the center hang out area, no one in the dining hall, pool, or bathroom. It was almost like a zombie apacolypse and I was really confused as to how over 100 exchange students and 20 or so Rotex had just disappeared into thin air. After walking around for a bit, I saw a girl I recognized walk into the bathroom. I hung out in the middle area and once she came out I found out that everyone had gone down to the sports field (which up until this moment, I had no idea existed). The group had been split into a few teams, and they were playing games to gain points for their teams. I was still really tired, and wasn't really in the mood to play games, so I sat down with a Belgian boy named Hugo who had hurt his foot in a game of fútbol. We talked for a while, just about our lives at home and our lives in Spain, and so on. Eventually, the group split off to create skits, and we were invited to join group 5 (the team that will go down in history). We created a pretty fun skit about the differences between what we expected Spain to be like and what it is actually like. Of course we exaggerated quite a bit, but I suppose it's a good way to explain to you guys some of the things that are pretty different here. 

We started out with greetings. Literally with everyone, when you meet them for the first time, when you see a friend again, you kiss them on the cheeks. I kind of knew that this was a thing before coming, but I thought it was going to be more when I met like an elderly person, not when I met people my own age. It was funny to hear from the Rotex about their experiences getting off the plane in the United States, trying to kiss their host parents on the cheeks, and having them get really confused. 

We talked about the food, and about how a lot of people were expecting Mexican food, but instead were greeted  by lots of seafood and vegetables. We talked about the timing of our days, and how eating dimmer at 10 or 11 is a normal occurrence. And we ended it with siesta, and how our expectation was pretty much the same as the reality. It was was completely in Spanish, and our team won!! It was really exciting, but we didn't get a prize like we were supposed to :( instead, all of us had a dance party inside of the dining hall. The issue was that the music wasn't loud at all, and there wasn't much space, so it got boring quickly. Hugo's foot was still hurt, so I helped him get outside. Once we got outside, we could tell that something was wrong, because there was a large group of Rotex and exchange students looking fairly frightened by the door. What had happened was a crazy, shirtless, drunk man had wandered into camp, in fact many of us had seen him even four hours earlier, but had just assumed he worked there. He was trying to get into the dining hall, so some Rotex were calling the police and some of the other exchange students and I went to a nearby tent area with tables. The Rotex got rid of him fairly quickly, and many more exchange students left the dance and came to where we were sitting. We played cards and just hung out and talked until it was time to go to bed. 

On Sunday, we left fairly early, and the large group of students going to Zaragoza hung out in a Madrid McDonalds for a few hours waiting for our bus. There really weren't any major highlights from my 7 hour bus ride, but when I got home, it was hailing and there was lightening, so that was interesting. Yesterday in the morning I had to go to school, but that was okay because I got to see my friends again, and finally meet Blanca. Blanca is my host sister (who is also on exchange in Colorado)'s best friend. She has been in Africa for the last few weeks so she was not here when I arrived, but we have been talking on social media for a couple of months now, so it was great to actually meet her. She also told me that she has been keeping up with my blog, which is so awesome to hear because I know that it can't be easy to read something which is not only in another language, but also in vernacular language which is not common to here since they study English from England, and not from Californian teenage girls. And yet she still reads it (: At school we got our schedules, and I don't understand mine at all, but that's okay because my friends will tell me where I need to be. After our little thing at school, I went home. My host dad had to go to work, and my host mom was at a meeting, so I was home alone for the first time since I got here. I took that time to unpack my things, hang up my American flag, and relax a bit. It was actually really nice. When my host mom got home, we had artichokes with ham, and turkey with bell peppers. It was delicious. During siesta, we were watching The Big Bang Theory which is one of my favorite shows in the U.S, except we were watching it in Spanish, so I didn't get it. Before my host mom fell asleep, she changed it to English for me. It was really nice to just relax, and watch a little bit of American television. 

After siesta, my host mom took me into town to hang out with my friends. We went to a little bar, and I tried what was pretty much an icee, but in a fancy glass. It was really yummy. Afterwards we walked around a bit, and around nine, I went to Blanca's house for dinner. Her mom prepared rice with vegetables, salad, and some sausage-type-maybe-thing. It was all really good, and her parents are super nice. After dinner, we went back to the bar place with some more friends and one of our friends' dog. I got another fancy icee. It was yummy all over again. We hung out for a while there, just talking and such, and then my host dad came and got me around 12. Which here is a perfectly normal time for a teenager to be out on the town with her friends at. It's strange. I got home, and like I said before, I fell asleep super quickly. This morning, my host mom was at work, and my host dad was on a bike ride, so I was home alone again, this time for a couple of hours. When I woke up, I went for a run. I figured out a nice trail that goes along the road next to my house, straight up a hill. I ran until there wasn't a trail anymore, and then I turned around and ran back down to my house. It was absolutely stunning, and I think I will run this trail often. When I got home, I noticed that someone (not sure if it was my host dad or host mom), had put out breakfast ingredients, including a couple of chocolate pastries. They were delicious. After breakfast, I took a shower, and then relaxed and blogged, and here I am now. My host mom is home, and preparing lunch, so I think I'll go see if I can help. 

Overall, it was a pretty good first weekend in Spain, and a wonderful first week in Spain, and I am so so happy here. Depending on my afternoon today, I may blog tonight, but most likely I won't blog again until tomorrow. 

Hasta luego, Zeph

Ugh okay my pictures are being stupid. Here's what they are:

#1 Amigo de nueva York

#2 Amiga de Florida

#3 Hugo de Belgium

#4 Rotex from Pamploma who went to Cali

#6/7 Rotex Yago and Rotex Victoria

#8 McDonalds Group

#9 Cali Crew

#10 Barcelona Rotex

#11 TEAM FIVE!!

#12 My room completely set up

#13 Alicia (una Amiga)

#14 the group

#15 self explanatory 

#16 My run this morning 

Jaca and more...

It's very late here. Actually, that's not true. It's about 11:30 and the people of Spain really don't go to bet until 12:30 or 1:00. Actually even later than that. But I am very tired, and I have to wake up early tomorrow, so for me, this is late. But today, I did SO MUCH and I would feel horrible if I did not tell you all about them so I am putting off sleeping for another 30 minutes or so, so that I can tell you all about my very interesting, fun day. 

Today was the first day that my host parents told me what time I needed to wake up. My host mom had a meeting in Jaca (a nearby city) at 10, so I needed to wake up at 9 and be ready to leave by 9:30. Which was not an issue. My host dad and I dropped her off at the school that she teaches at, and then we went to a small cafe nearby, he got "Cafe con leche" and I got "Té con leche". It was very yummy. After we finished, we went to walk around Jaca. 

The town that I live in, Sabi, is fairly new. Some of my friends actually informed me today that it is only about 100 years old (at least I think that's what they said). Jaca however, is a very old place. One of the things that I got to see today was a cathedral from the 11th century. It's absolutely amazing. I have never seen anything so old, I have only read about things like it. My host dad and I went inside, and there was a mass happening. It was super crazy, they had the organ going, and these three priests were kind of humming and droning in Spanish. I felt like I was in another world. I have never witnessed anything like it. The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous on the inside. The ceilings are covered in elaborate paintings of saints and biblical stories and there are columns everywhere with super intricate carvings on them. Super different, but really cool too.

Next we went to a castle! Which was the coolest! It's shaped like a pentagon and it has a most (not full of water, but deep enough so that other armies couldn't bring their horses inside to attack, and it was all very old and very beautiful. A really cool thing about going around Jaca was how excited my host dad was to show me everything. It was clear that the history of the city is very important to him. After we were done walking around, we picked up my host mom and I got to meet some of her colleagues. 

After, we went to the home of my host dad's parents in the mountains. We had a very delicious seafood meal. My host dad's parents are very nice! I really enjoyed speaking with them. 

At lunch, I told a story about my family in California and my host dad told me that as far as how correct my Spanish was, he gave me a grade of 8 or 9 out of 10. This was really great to hear, since when I first arrived, all that I said was "qué?" It's really crazy how much more I can say and understand after only being here for 4 days. The full emersion thing. It's awesome. 

After siesta in the mountains, my host parents took me back into Jaca where some of my friends were. We met up with some of their friends from Jaca, and we walked around, got Cokes and walked around some more. Around 6:30 or so, we took the bus back to Sabi (my first time on public transportation here!) and we went back to the place I've talked about before, where all of my friends hang out but I don't actually know what is (jaja). I call it the dirty plaza because the people here in Sabi litter everywhere especially in this area. Sunflower seeds are very popular here, and in order to sit down there, you have to sweep away all of the shells from them. They think it's funny when I call it the dirty place, because they agree. It's how I identify it. When we got there, I sat in a group of 6 or 7 people who I didn't really know very well. I knew a couple of them, but the rest not so much. But that was fine, I got to know them, and they asked me a lot of questions about the U.S. and what my friends are like and such. They thought it was funny when I showed them a picture of my friends and me all dressed up for trick or treating last Halloween, because here only little kids do that. I had a super great time with all of them, and I was sad to have to say goodbye for 3 days, since tomorrow morning (muy temprano), I will go to Madrid for an orientation with all of the other Rotary exchange students in Spain. So I most likely won't blog again until Sunday or Monday, so don't be worried. For dinner we had pizza, and salad and tomato and such. It was really yummy, and similar to home (: 

I really can't stress how amazingly quickly I am gaining Spanish skills. Today when I was packing for Madrid, I suddenly noticed myself subconsciously talking to myself in Spanish. Now that my subconscious speaks Spanish, my conscious just needs to catch up and I'll be set. 

Thanks for reading, and I'll write again after this weekend (which won't do good things for my Spanish since I'll speak English most of the time :() 

Hasta pronto, Zephyr

 Té con leche (:

Crazy carvings in the cathedral.

CASTLE!!

El camino de Santiago

The first king of Aragón (aka my new bestie)

Lunch and the view from my host grandparents cabañai

Host momma

Siempre fotos con María <3

A few of the people I hung out with today (:

Un Buen Dia

Hi everyone! So I guess that my post from yesterday "When Things Don't Go As Planned" did not post, so today you get two posts! Yay! 

Today, I woke up around 10:30 to go running. I just ran around the area that I live in, which is called Latas, for about 30 minutes. It's crazy, I'm really not used to the elevation here, and running was awful. I could feel my heart having to work 20 times harder, and it took a lot of effort to run just for 30 minutes! The good thing about this, is that when I return to Ukiah after this year, running will be very easy! The girls here don't really run, so they think it's strange that I do. I'm okay with that. Here, and back home for that matter, I am used to being different. The views on my run were absolutely beautiful! The views in general here are gorgeous! I will never get bored of seeing the Pyrenees every day. 

After running, my host mom and I went to the pool and to tan. I burned... Whooooops. It's not painful though so I'm fine. We stayed at the pool for about an hour, and then went back to our house to have lunch. Today we had spinach with shrimp and some other kind of fish (I'm really not sure what it was). It was very good, just like everything else here. During siesta, I texted my friend María to make plans to hang out, and my host mom slept. Around 5:00, I got ready, and we drove to Sabi. I met María and Andrea in the plaza and we went to a nearby shop to buy snacks and then went to meet up with other friends. We walked around Sabi for a while, I got the full tour, it was very cool. The town seems very large to me, since it is unfamiliar, but they assure me that it will seem very small once I get to know it. We sat in a park for a while just talking, mostly they wanted to know about California. It's cool, because when I don't know a word, they act it out or explain it to me, and then ask me what it is in English. That way, we both learn something new. I really like it. 

Afterwards, we went back to the little store that we were first at. I asked María what was good, and she told me that I had to try ham flavored potato chips because they do not have them in America. I also got some little candies. I ordered it myself, which was very scary, but very exciting also. The chips were actually very yummy, and the small candies were too! And very cheap! I payed .85 EUR for the chips and 6 or 7 little candies! Que baratoooo jajaj (:

Afterwards, we went to a park near my school. It's very pretty there, I will post a picture below. After that, we went back to the place we were at yesterday, with the stairs and such (I still don't know what it is really), where some other people were. I met a few new people, but most of them I already met yesterday. We sat around and talked for a while, and it was very fun.

It's super great, I understand so much more than I did when I first got here, even though that was only two days ago! Even my host mom told me today that I speak much better Spanish than I did when I first arrived, which is pretty much the best compliment ever. So hanging out with people is way more fun, because I actually understand a lot of what they are saying! It's great! I'm having such a good time here! I didn't want to have too high of expectations about what it would be like, but e reality of the situation surpasses all expectations that I could possibly have. I love love love it here. 

For dinner, we had chicken kabobs, and a simple salad, and French fries and cheese. It was all superrrr delicious. I have to wake up early tomorrow to go to Jaca, so I am going to leave you all now. Hasta pronto! Zeph (everyone calls me Zeph here because Zephyr is pretty difficult for them. But that's okay, I love it)

Even the water fountains are different!

Con estas guapas😘😘

The original "Cheers Bar" in Sabi, of course.

Mi escuela!

A park near my school

Que raroooo!

When Things Don't Go As Planned

I just wrote this whole post out... And then I went to get the pictures for it and it deleted the whole thing.... So this is not going to be as long, but I'll try to make up for it tomorrow with a much longer post.

Today, I woke up to my host dad knocking on my door and informing me that it was one o'clock I

in the afternoon. I checked my phone and he was right, I had overslept quite a bit. My host mom had already gone to get Maria and Amdrea, so we couldn't go to Jaca. Another day though.

I started to get ready to meet them, and I took my first Spanish shower... Which is really no different than an American one but it was still exciting for me.

Very soon they arrived, and they are absolutely wonderful! We walked around my house for a while, and they are both very talkative. Also they speak very quickly, so it was hard for me to understand, but it was okay, and I was able to recognize some of what they were saying and respond to their questions. They are both very nice! They also helped me learn new words, Maria speaks some English and if she didn't know the word in English they would act it out. It was very helpful. We walked around for a while, and then my host dad met us and we got drinks at a little restaurant type place nearby. Then we went home, and lunch was ready. We had seafood paella (to continue with the theme of "típica España"), and it was absolutely delicious! During siesta, Maria Andrea and I sat outside and talked about which movies we like, our friends, and our favorite music. They showed me some Spanish music that they like, and asked me to show them a song. I played one by Rebelution (típica California), and they enjoyed it quite a bit! 

Afterwards, we went swimming. Maria and I swam for a little while, but it was very cold, so we got out and sat on the pavement near the pool with Andrea and talked some more. They invited me to come to Sabi with them and meet some of their friends, and my host parents said that it would be okay, so we went back to my house to change and get ready. 

When we got to Sabi (my first time being there except for the supermarket yesterday), we walked around on the main street trying to find their friends. Eventually we found them hanging out on some stairs. It was a huge group, 15 to 20 people, which I guess is a normal occurrence. It's very different because I'm used to 8 or 9 people being a large group. After I met everyone (a kiss on each cheek), we walked to a nearby park. Everyone talked a lot, very quickly, and all at once, so it was very very difficult to understand, but I picked up on some of it. I am noticing myself recognizing more words, even than just yesterday. It's amazing. Some of them tried speaking English with me, and I subconsciously began speaking a mixture of Spanish and English. It was difficult to switch my mind from Spanish mode to English. That's progress I think.

My host dad came to get me around 9, and I went home to eat dinner. We had salmon, salad and French fries. It was very yummy. All of the food here is delicious, I love it so much! Now I am watching a Spanish soap with my host mom, and I will go to bed soon. But don't worry, I will set an alarm this time. Tomorrow I am going to go running in the morning! For the first time since I got to Spain! 

Hasta pronto, Zeph(:

Andrea is on the left, and Maria on the right.

Paella(:

España

My layover at JFK was about four hours. It got a bit boring, I got lunch at a not very tasty yet extremely overpriced burger joint and then sat at my gate reading a book. I did make a new friend, a girl named Lorena who was traveling home to Madrid with her family was sitting next to me at the gate and we had a nice conversation (Spanish practice for me) which made the wait less boring. The flight took about 8 hours, they served us dinner, and I slept the rest of the time. I arrived in Madrid this morning, around 10 to see my host parents holding a giant "Welcome to Spain" sign. My tiny town of Sabi is about a four hour drive from Madrid so we pretty much instantly began our journey. I wasn't too hungry since I did eat dinner on my flight, but my host parents insisted that we stop to eat something so we stopped at a little restaurant off the side of the highway. I suppose that I should start out by saying that EVERYTHING is different here. No exaggeration. The mountains are different, the trees are different, the people are different, the language is different, the road signs are very different (they're all in kilometers, and I spent much of my drive attempting to convert them), and the restaurants (or at least this one) was very different as well. The first thing that caught my attention were the huge slabs of smoked ham hanging from the ceiling in the front. The picture below is actually from a supermarket later, but it's the same basic idea. My host parents ordered for me since I had never had Spanish food, and they got me something which is a normal snack for the Spanish, a ham and tomato sandwich and a Coca Cola to drink. But the coke wasn't even the same as U.S coke. It comes in a glass bottle, like Mexican coke, but it is very small. It was 200 ml which makes for a very small bottle. I thought it was absolutely adorable. My sandwich was very good. The food here is interesting. So far it's all been things that people in the U.S eat, just mixed together in ways I've never seen. And lots and lots of ham. In fact all of the meals that I have had since arriving (only two) have included ham. The drive was so long. But the scenery was absolutely stunning, and everything outside was interesting. The absolute coolest thing was a random 12th century castle about 25 minutes outside of Madrid. I have never seen anything like this place. I did fall asleep, for about the last hour of the trip. I really didn't want to, but I had been traveling for over 24 hours at that point and I was completely wiped out. I missed driving through Zaragoza, but I'll be there on Friday on my way to a Rotary orientation in Madrid so I will see it then. When I got home my host parents went to prepare lunch and I went to my room to unpack some of my things, let my parents know I'd gotten here safely, and just relax a little bit. I came downstairs and was shooed out of the kitchen when I asked if I could help and they told me to relax and watch the cycling race on the TV. It was the Tour de España (which I didn't even know existed) and it was actually very interesting (plus I like listening to the Spanish commentators) but soon enough I started feeling really homesick because watching it made me think about how much my dad would love it and I just suddenly felt muy triste. My host mom came in and could tell that something was wrong. She guessed that I missed home and then she and my host dad took me outside on the patio in the sun and told me that they thought I was very brave for going on exchange, that it's normal to miss home, and that they will be with me every step of the way. It made me feel a lot better and the homesickness went away quickly. I wasn't expecting to miss my family so much already, so I'm kind of bummed about that, but it's really good to know that I have such loving and supporting people on both ends. 

For lunch, we had green beans with ham. It was very delicious. One thing that I have noticed about the food here is that it is very salty. We also had turkey with fried bell peppers. It was really good, and I was very full. Which was perfect because next came siesta. My host parents like to watch TV and nap on the sofa during the siesta time, and they asked if I wanted to join them or go to my room. I stayed downstairs with them and they gave me the prime spot on the sofa where I could stretch out my legs.

My house is so nice, I absolutely love it. My bedroom is smaller than my one at home, but I don't plan on spending much time in there. I'm not even blogging from my room, I'm blogging from the sofa where I am watching a soccer game with my host dad (España is winning!! (:) while my host mom makes dinner. Yes, it's 9:30 at night and dinner is only just being prepared. But we did eat lunch around three so I'm really not starving. 

After siesta, my host mom and I went swimming at the pool for this suburban area. Some of her friends were there so she introduced me to them and they all began bombarding me with questions in Spanish that I did not understand at all. I just smiled and my host mom tried her best to explain to me what they were asking, and she answered most of them for me. I mostly just sat back and listened to them talk, which I really enjoyed. Spanish is so beautiful and I love listening to people speak it. Swimming was really nice, and very relaxing. 

Afterwards, my host mom asked me if I'd like to go to the grocery store with my host dad. I was very curious about the food here so I tagged along, and she came too. They have some of the same foods (no peanut butter D:), like Oreos and candy, and most of it seems like things we have in America just in Spanish. My host parents wanted me to pick out the foods that I wanted to eat but I had no idea what I would like so we got a lot of everything and I'm supposed to try it all and then tell them what I liked and what I didn't like. So far I've liked everything I've had. Everything is so delicious. I just took a quick blog break to eat dinner, we had lettuce with vinegar and oil, a tomato/onion/olive salad with olive oil, and a Spanish tortilla, which is pretty much an egg cake. It's eggs with any vegetables you want (ours had onions) and it is cooked in olive oil. Everything here is cooked in olive oil. I love it. Everything is simple, but absolutely delicious. Tomorrow, in the morning my host dad and I will go to the nearby town that my host mom works in to visit an ancient cathedral. I am so excited, now I actually get to see things that we learned about in AP Euro last year. After that, I am going to go swimming with some of the girls who will be in my class in school. This will be my first Spanish teenager experience, and I am so excited! Everything is so different, I know I already said that but I truly cannot emphasize it enough. The light switches are different, the outlets are little holes in the wall and they have the European circular two prong thing going on, everything is in Spanish, and everyone is so nice! I'm now watching CSI with dubbed Spanish with my host dad, and I want to pay attention, so I'm going to leave you guys for now. Thanks for reading my blog, and I'll update again soon! Hasta pronto, Zephyr

Airplane Blogging

So I am blogging from my first flight: SFO to JFK. I am so sorry, because I really wanted to start this blog a few weeks ago with a quick post about what kind of things I'll post on here, but the last few weeks have been exponentially busy, and I truly have just not had the time. I definitely overestimated the time that I had left in the USA, and because of that, I feel as though I did not say goodbye to everyone that I would have liked to. Which is sad, but also okay, because I will see you all in a year. And that is okay. To anyone who I did not have the opportunity to say goodbye to, goodbye, I love you, hasta luego. 

So this blog, as I am sure you have guessed by the title, is my exchange blog for my year abroad in Spain. I am going to try my absolute best to keep you all updated on here about what I am doing, how I am doing, etc, so that you all can live my exchange with me.

A little bit about the program. I am studying abroad with an organization called Rotary International. Rotary is pretty amazing in that their one mission is to help people worldwide, they help people in other countries, but they also help people in our country, and one of those ways is the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. They send teens between the ages of 16 and 18 to other countries for almost an entire year, giving them the most amazing experience of their lifetimes. Rotary is truly amazing, and Rotarians are some of the most generous and kind people I have ever met. I am so grateful of them, and also to the program itself. 

One thing they tell you when you become an exchange student with Rotary is that you are not a Rotary Exchange Student until the doors on your plane close. When I was first accepted, the idea that such a wonderful thing could be so easily swept right out from beneath my feet was absolutely terrifying. Now that my plane doors have officially closed, it's easier to see their intentions with that statement. Rotary is recognized worldwide, and their reputation is important. So as a RYE student, it's super important to represent them well. Now that I can say that I am officially a Rotary student exchanger, I must way that I am so proud to wear my blazer and that title. 

Yesterday was muy difícil. Saying goodbye to my friends at lunch and my family at dinner. Goodbyes are hard. That's all that I can really say about that. But I know that next year when I come home I'll annoy all of my friends so much that they wish that I had just stayed on exchange forever. 

Also, if this seems a tiny bit all over the place or hard to understand, it would most likely be because Chance and I stayed up last night watching a movie until midnight, which doesn't seem too late until you factor in the fact that we needed to wake up at 1:30 in order to leave for San Francisco. So I am the tiniest bit tired. But way too excited to sleep.

In case I haven't blabbed on to you yet about what exactly I'll be doing this year, I'll give you all a little bit of info. I will be living in a small town in Northern Spain (in the Pyrenees), named Sabiñánigo, or Sabi works too. I will be attending a small high school called IES San Alberto Magno. I have a host sister, who is currently on exchange in Colorado, a host mom (Olga) and a host dad (Jose). I get to meet them in about 15 hours, which is soo scary, but so exciting too!! I'm just so excited, and I know that this will be a truly unforgettable year!!