Andorra, Pamplona and Host Family Appreciation

Hi everyone! I'm not sure how long this post will be, I have a bit of free time so I thought I'd update everyone on my last few weeks of my life in Spain.
Last weekend I went on a Rotary weekend to Andorra. For those of you who do not know, Andorra is a tiny tiny country in between Spain and France. I do not know much of their history, essentially they used to be a part of Spain, and then about 200 years ago (do not quote me on that I have no idea when this actually happened) they just kind of said "we're going to be our own country now" and Spain was just like okay have fun with that. It's tiny and when I say tiny I mean like really small. Like the size of my county back in California.
Most of the exchange students from my district went, I believe there were about 20 of us. There was a Rotary conference going on, which we only went to for maybe thirty minutes overall. It was a very beautiful place, and it was a blast to spend the weekend with some of my favorite people. It was our last time all together, and there were plenty of tearful goodbyes. It is so weird to think that there were people there who I may never see again in my life. I hope I do though.
Yesterday, I went to Pamplona with my American friend Izzy. Pamplona is a city about an hour and a half from here. It's very old and very beautiful and is very famous internationally because it is where San Fermin happens. San Fermin is also known as the running of the bulls for those of you who just said "famous yeah right I've never heard of San Fermin." I really enjoyed exploring the city, and I will post pictures on Facebook laterrrrrrr.
Today, I went with my host parents to visit my oldest host sister Sabina in Zaragoza where she is currently studying Economics. It was my first time meeting her and it was a lot of fun. We got Chinese food for lunch (my first Chinese food in nine months) and then we went to drink coffee in an outside bar. After that we went to a tea bar, where I asked my host sister to just recommend something for me, and it was delicious. I'm not sure what it was though haha. After that we went home.
This is where the last part of the title of this blog comes in. I really feel the need to share my extreme appreciation for this host family. Just to start it off, they did not have to host me, they were not obligated in anyway at all. They chose to- something that I will never stop being thankful for. Nothing can be perfect but I can honestly say that I have had a hard time finding an imperfection with my situation here. Today on the ride home I thought long and hard about it and the most negative thing I could think of is that they discuss politics a lot and while having intelligent conversations with them in Spanish does make me feel really smart, it also really tires me out. I think that if the worst thing I can think of about my host family is that their intelligence exhausts me that's probably not too bad of a thing. Today was the first time I'd really done anything with my host parents without my host sister Lucia (she was at home studying) and I feel like I haven't really told you about them enough, they're just really awesome people. My host dad Paco is a really quiet guy, unless we're talking politics. He's always smiling, I don't think I've ever seen him unhappy or mad or anything. He really likes horrible jokes, which is really fun for me. He laughs a lot and it's really contagious. My host mom is very talkative, and very funny as well. She has only been sweet to me and they have both opened their home and brought me and really made me feel like a part of the family.
One thing I really like about my host mom is she is very straight forward. My whole host family corrects me on my Spanish when I say something incorrectly, something I always say thank you for because it really helps so much. She also really makes me feel appreciated. When I started coming out of my shell (I was a bit nervous at first and kind of quiet for the first two days maybe) and making jokes at the lunch table she would tell me that I had a really good sense of humor. When I was skyping my parents she came in to both calls and told me to translate to them that they love having me in their house and that they like my jokes and my attitude. And then today in the car ride home she told me what was probably the nicest thing that anyone has said to me yet here. She told me that I really set the bar high for any other exchange students that come to the town. She said that the fact that I am always eager to learn about the culture and that I am always trying to improve my language skills and that my general attitude towards the experience is exactly what an exchange student should be like in her opinion. It was so so nice to hear because I really have been trying this whole year and no one had called me out on it here. These people I'm living with are just such wonderful humans, and I don't want to think about how difficult it will be to say goodbye in a month. I am in the last stretch of my exchange, I'm terrified, and you all have heard all this already. I don't know how much I'll be updating this just because I'm trying to squeeze every last drop out of this year, so if you don't hear from me for a while don't worry. I'm happy and in good hands, and absolutely loving this experience. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your support.
Zeph :)

Changing families (whattttt?!?)

Sorry I haven't updated for the last couple of weeks, but I've been a bit busy with what I'm sure you've already guessed by the title of this post, switching families. I don't really feel like dwelling on the past, so I'm not really going to get into why I switched, if you know you're probably a Rotarian or my family, but for one reason or another I switched. 

When my old host mom, Olga, told me I would switch two weeks ago today (it feels so much longer away than that, wow), I was shocked, even though I knew it was coming. It just felt really weird to think that I'd be moving out of the house I had lived in for almost eight months, and away from the family who had taken me in and done so much for me. I don't think either of them read my blog, but I have to say I am so extremely grateful for them and everything they did, because the 80% of my exchange that I spent with them was wonderful and I know it would be so different if they had not hosted me. No family is perfect, and no exchange student is perfect. I feel like that's something we forget sometimes, but even the best family will have flaws. 

Although I was sad to leave that family, I am so so happy that I did. I didn't realize how sad it made me feel sometimes just living so far from town where all my friends live. I was jealous of my friends who walked to school, even though they had to walk up a very steep hill to get there (now I hate that hill and wish my old bus would come pick me up, it all just depends on your perspective I suppose). Now I live right in the center of town, about a ten minute walk from school, a block from the Main Street and a five minute walk from my Spanish best friend's house, and I love it. 

I don't only love the placement of my new apartment, I also love my new family. It consists of Rosa (host mom), Paco (host dad), and Lucia (host sister). I also have two older host sisters but I have yet to meet them because one of them is in the University of Zaragoza and the other lives in Madrid, but I will meet the one from Madrid (maybe the one from Zaragoza I get their names mixed up) this Saturday!! My host parents are so sweet, and they've made me feel at home since the first day. They're very relaxed people (unless they're talking about politics) and I've found it very easy to get along with them. My host sister Lucia is a year ahead of me in school, so we have different friends but we still walk to school together (and I've made friends with some of her friends since we started living together). She has a lot of homework right now, because the last trimester of high school here is a big deal, because there's a test in June that covers everything they've learned since the beginning of Junior year that determines what Universities they can go to, as well as what majors they qualify for (it's a very different system here). She studies a lot (right now she's studying) but she comes out of her cave for about thirty minutes for an afternoon snack of toast and chocolate (I join her for that), and for about an hour for dinner. Lucia also spent last year as an exchange student in East Australia (a bit North of Sydney!!) so she's fluent in English (don't worry though, we never speak in English unless she doesn't want her parents to understand something).  She's kind of (really) crazy but she's also super kind and a goofball and we get along really well. The hour and a half she spends outside of her room everyday are my favorite hour and a half of my day. It's really really nice to have a sibling again, I forgot how much I'd missed it. 

Anyways, my last week and a half have just really been getting used to my new family and their schedules. My host parents let me decorate my room how I wanted to so my American flag/ Polaroid pictures/ mini American flags are hung up all over and I love it. I also actually have a desk and shelves in this room so I've set out all of the cards I've received this year on a shelf and put some of my souvenirs up too. It's really nice, it feels a lot more like my room. I've been spending my afternoons hanging out with my host parents when they aren't working, walking around town with friends, and relaxing around my house watching movies and such. 

This past weekend my friend Amelia came to visit (something we'd been trying to plan since before I found out I would for sure be switching). Friday we had off from school, since it was Labor Day in Europe, and also just happened to be Jaca day. So Thursday night everyone went out in Jaca. Amelia, Izzy (the other American in my town) and I decided to go as a group, and our plan was to take the bus on Thursday evening, but we didn't anticipate how full the bus would be, so we ended up getting tapas in a super shabby bar a block from the station waiting for the next bus... We were the only ones in there, it was interesting. We got to Jaca around 11 and ate some pizza for a real dinner (it might seem a bit late, but it's Spain, dinner at 11 is considered early by some people). We found my friends at a park around 12, no one would go to any clubs until one or two. We hung out with them for a while, and then we went for a walk through the park, and ended up sitting on a bench and talking. There is a group of seniors at my school who are hardcore communist people, and one of them found us on the bench and started talking to us (I'd talked to him before he wasn't a stranger or anything), and eventually the whole group came over and started trying to convert us to communism (I know it's not a religion but I'm really bad at Englishing right now so that's what I'm sticking with). It was a very interesting conversation, and some of them were extremely intoxicated which was pretty funny although annoying too. We ended up going to the clubs with them, and we danced for a while, but then the three of us set off to find other people, since we were getting bored. 

We stayed out til seven am, and then walked for about thirty minutes to a barbecue breakfast at the cemetery. At nine am we took the bus home, and Amelia and I slept all day. 

Friday night we did nothing, we cooked ourselves dinner and then watched a movie, and made sure that we stayed in pajamas. On Saturday morning we walked around, got Spanish pastries and just showed her the town. We had lunch and dinner with my host family, and then we went out for a few hours with my host sister. It was really fun! 

On Sunday, Amelia had to leave around 12, and I spent the rest of the day with my host mom and sister since my host dad was in Zaragoza for the day. It was Mother's Day in Spain, and I had bought my host mom a nice springtime scarf and written a nice card, she told me it was really sweet, and I think she really liked the scarf because she has worn it to work the last three days. :) 

Today I didn't have school because the teachers and students were on strike (they do that occasionally) and since I actually understood what they were protesting against (it's a law the government is passing to put government standardized tests in the schools to create a ranking for all public schools in the country, and then give more technology, resources and stuff to the schools with higher rankings, which to me seems ridiculous, and if anything they should give more resources to the schools with lower rankings, to try to improve the schools that need improvement), I went to the demonstration. It was my first time being part of a strike, it was absolutely riveting (it really was fairly boring, there weren't many people there). What we did was the thirty or so of us who were there stood around the government building (really just hanging out with signs) for about an hour. Then for about five minutes, six or seven people stood in front of the group with signs and a megaphone, and explained what the law was and why it was wrong. Then we marched up and down the Main Street chanting. It was interesting, and definitely a good experience, I'm glad I went but honestly I don't feel like it accomplished anything. I think it's very cool that they do strikes like that though, and I wish I could see some in a bigger place where more people would get involved. 

That brings us to now. I feel like sharing my feelings right now, so that whoever you are can understand them, but also so that I can look back and read this and try to connect to past self. And also because I haven't really written about feelings much. And they're important. 

I have less than two months left in Spain. That's really crazy to think about, and really sad to think about too. Time is going by way too fast right now, and I feel like I don't have nearly enough time to see everything I want to see and to experience everything that I want to experience. I'm not ready to go home, the closer it gets to my return date the less and less I miss my family and friends. It's hard to hear everyone talk about how excited they are for the summer, normally that would be me too, but right now the thing I'm dreading the most is July. I'm trying to stay positive and live in the moment, no matter how difficult it is to forget what little time remains, that's what I'm trying to do. I've fallen head over heels in love with the people, culture and food of this beautiful country, and I'm not ready to give up the Spanish lifestyle (or the Spanish siesta). I know I can always come back and visit, but I will never get to live my exchange again and that scares me so so so so much (more so's but I'm too lazy to add them). But as my dad always tells me, carpe diem, seize the day. I'm making the best of my time here, and taking chances on weird experiences, and saying yes to as much as I can. Even though saying goodbye is going to be so so hard (again, more so's), overall I'm just so so (you know the drill) greatful to have had this experience, and I'm glad that those of you who have followed this blog for a while have gotten to experience a bit of it with me. Thanks for reading everyone!