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! ❤️