A Rotary Trip and More Host Family

Last weekend, all of the exchange students who are in Aragon were invited to Logroño (a city in La Rioja, about four hours from where I live), to see a new area of Spain, and meet the rotary club there. 

On Friday, I had to catch a bus from Zaragoza (a city about an hour and a half from here, and also one of my favorite places in Spain) at five o'clock. My host mom already had to go to Zaragoza for meetings in the morning, so my friend Ethan (the exchange student who lives in another small town about 15 km away) and I decided to make a day of it. We arrived in Zaragoza around nine am. Since we were tired, and no stores were open yet, we went to a cafe, to get a cafe con leche. He'd never tried one before, but now he's hooked! I remember before I left my mom told me how good European coffee is, and I never liked coffee in the U.S, but here it's soo good! That day in Zaragoza I think I drank four throughout the day (probably not healthy but they were only a euro!). After we finished our coffee (and Ethan's pastries), we went to Corte Ingles, a popular clothes store here. We looked around for a while, mostly at boys clothes for Ethan. But we didn't really find anything we liked. We did however, find a Halloween section for little kids. It had decorations and costumes and made me realize how much I miss Halloween in the states, and how everything is decorated and peoples yards have pumpkins and skeletons and there are haunted houses (even though I've always hated haunted houses). It's really weird to me that they just don't celebrate it here, they know what it is, but Halloween here is more like, let's go out tonight! Not let's go dress up in costumes and knock on strangers doors and ask them for candy (haha and I think the Spanish are weird for not doing that)! Eventually we left the store, and walked around some more, until I recognized another clothing store called Pull and Bear so we went there. Ethan let me pick him out some outfits (because I love guys fashion, especially the European one). He really liked them and ended up buying two outfits that I put together for him. He even tried on skinny jeans! And actually liked them! 

(We also found a globe in Corte Ingles: California, Illinois, Spain)

After shopping we ended up just walking around. We'd stop in a cafe and get something to drink, or a pastry, and then keep walking.

Around 3:30, a few of our friends who are living in Zaragoza met up with us. We were just sitting on this wall thing in front of Corte Ingles speaking English, when a group of girls walked by. One of them super questioningly said "hi?" And I thought she was Spanish so jokingly I said "sup". They rushed over and it turned out that they are all on exchange in Zaragoza too, just with a much more expensive, much stricter organization that goes through private high schools. We all exchanged our names and where we were from, and one girl told me that she was from California, a bit north of San Francisco! I of course freaked out and asked her where. So she's from Sebastopol, and when I told her I'm from Ukiah SHE KNEW WHERE THAT IS. She's the first person I've met in Spain that has been to Ukiah. She proceeded to tell me that she grew up in the Boonville area. How strange, I grew up I'm the Boonville area too. SHE KNEW WHERE YORKVILLE WAS. I thought that it couldn't get any stranger, until I found out that my childhood best friend, Alex, had been her kindergarten best friend, until she moved to Sebastopol. We probably did meet at some point... And it just really made me acknowledge how tiny this world actually is. 

Of course Ethan just happened to have an American flag in his backpack!

Around 4:30, we caught a bus to the bus station, where I met up with a boy named Ismael, who's also living in Zaragoza, and was the one who I was taking the bus with (Ethan and the rest would drive with a Rotarian the next day). The bus only took a little over an hour, which Ismael and I spent sharing our favorite songs (he actually showed me a few I really liked!). When we got to Logroño, we were met by a Rotarian, and two girls who were my age. One of the girls was Lucia, my "host sister" for the weekend, who went on Rotary short term exchange to Georgia this summer, and the other was her friend that she needed to work on a project with. Lucia's mom came and got us, and Ismael went with the Rotarian to be dropped off at a Rotex (exchange student to Ohio 2013-2014)'s house. I was kind of bummed at first because Ismael makes things a lot easier when I'm with people who only speak Spanish (he speaks it fluently because back home his parents speak Spanish in their home), but I ended up getting along well with Lucia, so it was fine. That night for dinner, we had some kind of pasta dish and salad, and then I went to my room for the weekend, and got to skype my friend Ali, a fellow outbound from D5130 who is currently in Switzerland!

I really feel the need to do this, and it's not because I want to brag, it's because these are my feelings, and I want to acknowledge them. I am so lucky! The first reason that I'm lucky is pretty obvious: almost exactly a year ago, I was accepted by the most wonderful program to live abroad for a year (thank you so much South Ukiah Rotary), and now I am actually living the life that I've been dreaming about for the past year! But my luck does not stop there. I am one of the few (I don't actually know the numbers on this one but I know there weren't many of us) who got my first country choice! Of course I would have been happy with any country, that's part of what you sign up for with Rotary, the possibility that they'll send you to some random unexpected country. To some people that's what turns them off of Rotary, but for me that was something that I really liked. It's about the experience. Not about where you're headed. But I got Spain! And I remember being so happy about that, and I still really am! But there's more about my location in Spain itself that makes me feel so lucky. The language. A lot of people before I left thought I was going to Basque Country. I was pretty unclear on the geography of Spain before I left, so I doubt I corrected anyone. Now, I am in Aragon. Which is not even near Basque Country (Basque Country is next to La Rioja, the autonomous community in which Logroño resides). If I had gone to Basque Country, I would've had to learn another whole language, because sadly enough, Basque is not Spanish. If I had gone to Catalonia (I really did have my heart set on Barcelona), I would be struggling to learn Catalan and Spanish simultaneously. I would be struggling with Galician if I had gone to Galicia, and struggling to understand in plenty of other places in Spain where they do speak Spanish, but the accent is so strong, that sometimes fellow spaniards from different areas have trouble understanding. It's pretty crazy to think about, because in the U.S, you can go from California to New York, and although some accents may sound a little funny to you, you'll still understand everything. Here, in a country about the same length as the state of California, there are multiple languages to learn, and if you drive across Europe (I think it's a little bit shorter than driving across the U.S), you'll. hear so many different languages that your head will get fuzzy. So as far as the language goes, I also lucked out, because where I live, they speak very clear Castellano(essentially pure Spanish), and although occasionally there will be a word in Aragonese that will somehow make it's way into a conversation, the people around me have no problem explaining what it means. But guys, my luck does not even stop there. When I was still in California, my host parents daughter, Alicia,who's on exchange in Colorado, set up a group chat on Whatsapp with me and some of her closest friends, so they were already really excited to meet me before I even arrived! When I finally did meet them, they ended up being some of the kindest, most welcoming people, and they have made my first month and a half here so much easier! I really lucked out by going to a small town because not only are the people here really welcoming, but I also have no other exchange students in my school (the closest one is in a town about 20 minutes away), so I really am speaking Spanish all. the. time. Talking to other exchange students, like Ali for example who knew little German before going and therefore has had trouble making Swiss friends, or even other students in Spain who were not met with the same hospitality that I was, just makes me feel so extremely lucky about my circumstances. Okay, I think I'm done with that, I'll go on to talking about my weekend. 

On Saturday, we met up with the students from Zaragoza and those who are in Logroño, as well as a few Rotarians. The first thing we did was went to a winery. It's pretty crazy, this winery has been there since the 11th century! We went into the cellar where they keep their wine, and parts of it were still remaining from when it was originally built! Once the tour guide found out that I was from Wine Country, he started asking me a lot of questions about the wine in California. Of course I've been to vineyards before, but I really was unhelpful when he was asking about the process, although I was fairly certain that it was the same, if not close to the same as the process here. He asked me what the biggest difference between the vineyards in California and the ones here is, and honestly I have to say that the only big difference I could see is that the ones here are much older, and much more European. All of the buildings were made out of rock, just like the movies! 

Our tour guide at the winery!

They told me I needed to pose with the wine...

After the vineyard, we went to BASQUE COUNTRY! Barely! We went to a super cool medieval town there, where even today, they do not allow cars. It was really cool! We walked around for a while, and then we had a tour of a beautiful Cathedral from the 12th century which had the most amazingly realistic statues!

The view from right outside of the medieval town was gorgeous!

After we left Basque Country, we went to a park in Logroño for lunch, and then had a walking tour of the city. We were all pretty tired, and it was hard to pay attention to/ understand the tour guide, and I ended up with two other exchange students in the back, and we tried to listen, but ended up taking pictures with everything and having a Rotex translate the tour for us. It was really fun!

This giant door was a part of the tour

The group at a park (students from the U.S, Japan, India, Germany and Spain!)

 For dinner, we went to a really nice social (like a restaurant that you cook in yourself), with the rotary club of Logroño. It was super delicious, we had fish of some sort and salad, prepared by Rotarians I believe. We ended up staying at dinner until around 1AM, so we were unable to go out for Tapas like we wanted to :( 

Sunday, we met up in the morning again, and we went on two tours of monestaries. The art in them was absolutely beautiful! 

(U.S, U.S, Germany, India)

We went to a park for our last lunch as a group, which was wasn't too horrible, since we knew we'd see each other in two weeks at another rotary meetup near Barcelona. We ended up playing the most ridiculous game, where someone would spin a bottle on the table, and then whoever it landed on, the person who spun the bottle would peg with a ball of tinfoil. It was such a stupid game, but we were all in hysterics by the end of it, and it made me realize how no matter what we are doing, when exchange students get together, it's always going to be fun. And if it isn't, we will make it fun by pegging each other with trash. 

Ethan, a few other students and I drove back to Zaragoza with a Rotarian, and then Ethan and I took a bus from Zaragoza to Sabi/ Jaca. Ethan and I are becoming really good friends, he's like my little brother, and it's really great. 

I went to school during the week, so nothing too exciting happened. On Wednesday, there was a strike countrywide, so we didn't have to go to school, which was pretty cool and so I just slept all morning and hung out at home. That afternoon, I went to Jaca to hang out with Ethan and the Icelandic exchange student who was there, and Thursday evening I did the same. We pretty much just walk around and eat food (aka the life of an exchange student). On Friday, since I don't have a sixth period, a few my friends and I hung out at a park for an hour until my bus came, just making jokes and goofing off. It was really fun, especially because for me sometimes it's hard to feel like a normal teenager, but when I'm with them I really feel accepted and normal. It's really great.

That afternoom, after siesta and lunch with my family, I went back to town and went to a park with my friends where we hung out until around nine. 

Cris and I were twinning(:

That night, I had to go to my host grandparents house for dinner, because it was their fiftieth wedding anniversary! How crazy is that! It felt a little strange to be present for a private family dinner, but they all treated me like just another member of the family, and I loved it! I also got to meet my host uncle and his husband for the first time, which was great! They are both really nice, and invited me to come to Zaragoza (where they live), for a weekend and tapas sometime. After dinner, all of the adults were a bit tipsy, and ended up in a very heated discussion about politics. I couldn't understand everyone yelling over each other, and I ended up falling asleep on a couch. 

(My host dad snapped this beaut)

We headed home around two AM, and I slept in on Saturday until about noon. Saturday afternoon I took the bus (for the first time alone!) to spend the afternoon with Ethan, and our friend Pooja who is from India and in Zaragoza, but was in Jaca with her family for the weekend. Ethan had found out that morning that the girl who was also in Jaca from Iceland had moved to a different family in Zaragoza because she had some problems with her family in Jaca. He was pretty bummed, but we both know that it's not only better for her, since she'll be happier with her new family, but also better for him because this way he won't be speaking English all the time with her. That night we went out for tapas, which was super fun!

Sunday, I went to a national park about a 45 minute drive from where I live with my host parents and my host uncles. We went on a five hour hike which was absolutely beautiful! We hiked out to a waterfall, had lunch, and hiked back. It was tiring, but fun too! When we got home, my host uncles left to drive home to Zaragoza, and I slept. 

Sorry this post is really late, I've been writing it over the last few days since I knew it would be long. I'm going to a place near Barcelona this weekend with Rotary, so I'll probably update about that sometime next week. Have a great Halloween everybody! Hasta luego, Zeph(:

P.S- this is my friend Marta, she was bummed because she hadn't been in a picture in my blog yet! ❤️

A Crazy Weekend

So if you are a regular reader, you may have noticed the week gap of when my last post seems to take place, and when I actually posted it. It never told me that the post failed, and I just logged on about ten minutes ago, to make a new post, and it finally notified me. Whatever, just keep in mind that all of that happened about a week ago. 

This weekend was Pilares, which is a huge religious holiday in Aragon, and three nights of parties. As I mentioned about my first Spanish party, in Senegüe, my host mom had me come home around 3:30AM because I was getting over being sick and also she didn't think it was a good idea for me when I wasn't really accustomed to the Spanish lifestyle. This weekend was different, because my host parents decided to give me complete freedom as to when I wanted to come home, they would suggest a time, and then I would call them around then to come and get me. 

This weekend also, my host parents' friends from Valencia visited with their two small children. It was very interesting, because their four year old daughter spoke better Spanish than me. I honestly never thought that would happen, that a four year old would understand more than me, but it makes sense, and it was a very strange experience. I really love kids, and I've actually kind of been missing my old babysitting career, so it was nice to take them off of their parents hands and run around a bit. The trees around my house are starting to change colors, and one of their favorite games became looking for pretty leaves in the tree, and then pointing at it and because I'm tall, I would be able to pick it for them. I got the best of both worlds, because during the afternoon I got to run around with the kids, but at night, I was always invited to join the table with the adults. Even though I couldn't contribute to their conversation, it was nice just being able to listen. However, Thursday was really the only day that I spent with them, because Friday, Pilares began.

On Friday afternoon, I went to my friend Blanca's house. I was supposed to straighten her hair, but it was raining, so we decided that by 1AM it would be curly again so it would be a waste of time. I did do her makeup though, and she really liked it! After we were ready, we went to our friend Marina's house for dinner. We had burritos, which were good, but Mexican food doesn't really taste like Mexican food here. After we ate, her mom came home, and we hung out with her until 12. She's a bit eccentric, but very nice. She asked me a lot about California, and my favorite and least favorite parts of Spain so far. At 12, we met up with 7 or 8 of our other friends to walk down to the party. The party itself was in a sports arena, about a 10 or 15 minute walk from where we were. It was pretty cold out, but we were all prepared for the weather so it didn't matter much. For an hour or so, we hung out in a park near the sports arena, waiting for more friends to show up and just talking and joking around. Eventually, we went inside. There were probably about a hundred people in there, and it was absolutely crazy. There was a band playing and everyone was dancing! We just danced and hung out in the club like setting until my friend Blanca and I decided to go home, around 4:30AM (and that was my earliest night!) 

On Saturday, I woke up only after about six hours of sleep. I couldn't fall asleep again so I went downstairs and watched movies with our family friends' kids. On Saturday evening I went to Blanca's again to get ready. I was supposed to straighten her hair this time, but my host dad was really late dropping me off, so we didn't have time. For dinner, we went with about twenty or so of our friends to my family's social. It's pretty much a pimped out basement, with huge banquet style tables, a tv, a kitchen and lots of drinks. Everyone brought their own dinner, so that we wouldn't need to clean up too much, and we linked the tv with YouTube and listened to music. We sat at the tables for a while, we skyped my host parents' daughter who is on exchange in Colorado this year, and then eventually we moved the tables to the sides and danced. It was really fun, and we stayed there until about 12:30, and then cleaned up a bit, and walked down to the sports arena again. The night was pretty much the same as the first one, except that I stayed out until 5:30AM this time. It was very fun.

On Sunday night (we had a holiday on Monday, so this was our final night of parties), we went for dinner at the social of our friend Cris. It was really fun, to just be with all of my friends, making jokes, dancing, and speaking Spanish. We went to the sports arena around 12:30 or 1:00. There were carnival rides next to the sports arena, but we hadn't gone on them any other night. That night though, my friends realllly wanted to try one, so we went on this ride that is like a circle, with a bench all around it, and bars. It's hard to explain. The weird thing about it, is that you aren't belted in at all, you are just expected to hold on to the bars, as the ride whips you around in circles. It was really crazy and seemed like a complete safety hazard to me, but I went on it with my friends, and now my tailbone is seriously bruised. Afterwards, we went to the sports arena, and we danced until 5:30AM again, when my host dad came to get me. Yesterday, unsurprisingly, I slept for most of the day. In the afternoon, I wrote a paper for my English teacher, and went to sleep as early as possible. I went to school today, and when I got home, I napped for about two hours. That's okay though, it's normal here. My host mom left for a class about an hour ago, so I'm currently home alone, and seriously contemplating sleeping for a bit longer. It's going to take a while to regain the hours of sleep I lost with this weekend, but it was totally worth it, I had so much fun! 

Thanks for reading, I'll update again when I have time! 

Hasta luego! ~Zeph(: 

Blanca and I on the first night 

A Really Fun Week

ISo today I was getting a bit bored on my drive home from Sabi, so I pulled out my Spanish phone, and ended up on my blog. I decided to read a couple of my first posts from here, and it made me realize that I need to blog much more often, because I had already forgotten some of the finer details of my first days. Everyone told me that it would be hard to blog once I get settled in here, because when you have a busy life and you're tired all the time, it's hard to find free time to write. But I want to be able to read this blog when this year is over, and I don't want to forget ANYTHING (I know that that's impossible, but still). I also really want to keep all you people at home updated, because I really am having the greatest time, and I am so happy, and it feel like its important that you all know why. 

I believe that I left off on Tuesday...

On Wednesday, I went to my friend Blanca's house for lunch. Her mom made lasagna, and it, just like everything else here, was different from the way we make it back home, but still delicious. After lunch I went to Blanca's English class with her, because her teacher really wanted to meet me, and also Blanca is preparing for the Cambridge exam in December which is this crazy test that gives you a certificate of some sort that I really don't understand, all I get is that it's a really big deal, and there's a conversation portion that her teacher wanted Blanca to practice with another student, me(: Her teacher was super sweet, she made us tea, and let me eat all of her Spanish m&ms. We also played pictionary, and I helped by translating some words that they didn't know. Overall, it was a very good time. After the class, I ran with a Rotex (ex exchange student to Pennsylvania) from my town. It was really fun, we are pretty evenly paced, and she understands what it's like to be on exchange so it's really nice to talk to her. And actually be able to understand each other (we kind of speak a mixture of Spanish and English... It's like Spanish until I don't understand her, or can't respond, and then we switch to English until I randomly say something in Spanish and we switch back, it actually seems to work out pretty well). 

I don't remember anything from Thursday... I'm fairly certain that I slept the majority of the afternoon, and nothing exciting really happened. Actually... That's exactly what I did(: 

On Friday, some of my friends and I don't have a last period, so we get out an hour early. Sadly enough, my bus doesn't come until school gets out, so on Friday my friends and I hung out in the park next to my school for that hour. It was reallllly fun, just talking, goofing off, and learning lots of new phrases.... It was really fun. I went home for lunch and siesta, and then around 5:30 I went to the dirty place with Blanca, where we met up with probably 10-15 of our other friends. We hung out there for a while, and I did magic card tricks for them... I actually got them all with one trick, and the other one only one other girl knew how to do so I felt pretty magical. It was realllly fun. We had to go see a play at the theater for our Castellano class that night, so 6 or so of my friends and I went out for dinner at the pizza restaurant in my town. It was delicious! Around 10 we went to the theater, where we met the rest of our friends and went in to see the play. It was really confusing. There were only two actors in the whole thing, and the set didn't change, the only indication of a different location was a fog machine, and the woman in the play would write the location on a chalk board. It was a bit abstract, but it was a pretty interesting experience. Afterwards, I hung out with my friends, and around 12:30 I went home.

On Saturday, I had to wake up early because my host mom, host aunt and I were going on an excursion! It was a 6 hour hike in the mountains to an abandoned village named Ainellie. Which I still can't pronounce. There were about 40 people also going, my friend Andrea was among them along with my new friend Pablo (who is a year ahead of us in school). The three of us stuck together, and we had a lot of fun. We hiked up, which took about 3 and a half hours. When we got there, the three of us were pretty tired, so instead of hiking into a canyon place, we fell asleep on the grass for an hour or so. When everyone returned, we ate lunch, talked and hung out. The adults drank wine, and we had coffee. 

The hike back down was definitely quicker, but it was pretty tough on my hips and knees (because I'm a 90 year old stuck in a 16 year olds body), and my hips are still kind of sore... When we got to the bottom of the trail, there is an inhabited village in which Pablo lives, and there there was a band, and Spanish hot chocolate. Here hot chocolate is more of a food than a beverage, it's pretty much drinking warm pudding.... It's delicious... Andrea, Pablo and I hung out for a couple of hours, just talking and resting, but soon a group of nine or ten year old girls decided that they needed to come annoy the heck out of us. I know that none of you read this, but this is my formal appologie to my brother and his friends, because I am now fully aware of the 10/11/12/13 year old girl that I was. And oh my goodness. (It just kind of makes me feel better to at least put that out into the universe). We dealt with them for a couple more hours, and eventually locked ourselves inside of Pablo's yard to get away. I left with Andrea and her family around 9:00 or so, and they took me home (my host mom had left hours before). I had dinner, and fell asleep quickly.

Yesterday, nothing exciting happened... I slept and watched movies all day with my host mom. It was nice to have a lazy Sunday. Today I went to school, and afterwards I came home, had lunch and siesta. Around 5:30, my host parents had to run some errands in town, so I tagged along. It was a nice afternoon. We had pizza and salad for dinner, and my host parents told me about some crazy Spanish parties (mostly the running of the bulls, since we are only about an hour from Pamplona). 

It's only about 10:30 now, but I'm fairly tired, so I'm thinking about sleeping soon. I'll add some pictures, and try to update soon. Hasta luego! Zeph(:

I got a tiny bit sunburnt...