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