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 (:
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