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...

... My week...

Hola! It's been a little while! I'm so so sorry, it was a busy week and when I had time to write, I was just way too tired. Anywayssss. Let's get on with it (:

Last week, on Monday, I went to my first running practice. It was the first time I ran with anyone other than myself since I got here, and it was really nice to feel that familiar pressure (good pressure) of running with a partner. It can be difficult to push yourself to run quickly when you are running alone, so it was really nice to have the help of a friend to remind me to keep pushing up the hill, to maintain my breathing, and so on. Overall it was just a good time, and I enjoyed it very much. After practice I felt kind of sick, with a sore throat and so on, so I went to bed earlier than usual. I went to school Tuesday, and even though I felt a bit under the weather, I made it through the day. When I came home, I told my host parents that I felt a bit sick, and so I rested for the whole afternoon. They bought me some cold medicine from the pharmacy which helped a bit, but I still really didn't feel good. On Wednesday I felt even worse, but when I am sick at home, I normally just take an ibuprofen, power through it and still go to all of my classes, so that was my plan here too. When I got to my first class, Physics and Chemistry, I felt realllllly sick. (Wednesday was hands down the worst day I've had here so far). I started to feel really nauseous, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom, and ended up throwing up (sorry if that's a gross detail, I just feel like its important for my story). I didn't have my cellphone, because I don't bring it to school with me, so I didn't know how to call my host parents (they don't have a school nurse or anything like back home). I ended up, with the help of my friends, in the secretary's office, where they looked up the number for my host house. However, at the time, my host mom was at work, and my host dad was running errands in town and had left his cellphone charging at home, so no one was there to answer the multiple calls my school made. 

The really nice thing through all of this was how helpful everyone was. The secretary of the school was even about to drive me home herself (about a 10 minute drive from my school), when my host dad finally called back to say that he would pick me up. When I got home, I watched tv in bed and slept for the rest of the day. My host dad made me a mixture of lemon juice and honey, which is helpful for sore throats, and something that his mom used to make him when he was young and got sick. It was interesting... But far better tasting than the salt water my dad has me gargle at home when I'm sick. 

On Thursday, I still really didn't feel well, so I stayed home again. I slept for about four hours, and when I woke up in the early afternoon and checked my temperature, my fever had broken. My appetite had returned that morning, and pretty much everything went uphill from there. I felt a lot better, and on Friday, I was up for school again (:

On Saturday I went to Zaragoza, a city about an hour and a half drive away from me, with four friends to go shopping. We went to a very well known mall here in Spain, which it must say was hugeeeee and surprisingly fairly well priced. I had a super great day with my friends, and I got a lot of new clothes, that will hopefully make me look less American and more Española. We had lunch at a Spanish chain of a sandwich restaurant, which was super delicious. Overall, it was a really great day. 

Saturday night, we went to a small town about a five minute drive from ours, called Senegue. There was a party that night, so we went to a friends house for dinner before. There, I ate rabbit for the first time (which is like a thing here), and it was actually very good. It was pretty intimidating, and my friends all made jokes that it was just chicken. It was a lot of fun. 

That night we went to the party. It was really cool, there was a huge tent with a live band a lot of people dancing and the streets were full of people singing and dancing and it was really cool, really culturally different, and a really great experience. I went home around 3:30am, which strangely enough, is early here (most of my friends stayed out til 6:00 or 6:30). My host mom didn't want me staying out too late since I was still getting over being sick, and I agreed with her. I'm still trying to get used to how different the timing of everything is here. 

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the home of my host dad's parents for lunch. It was really delicious, we had rice with vegetables, bell peppers, and a sort of Spanish bacon, and of course, chorizo. It was super yummy. 

I was still really tired from the night, so during siesta, I slept about 3 hours on their couch. When I woke up, my host parents had gone for a walk in the woods to find mushrooms, so I watched a television program about a Spanish singer who died about a year ago with my host grandma. I was actually really surprised by how much I understood. It's really amazing how much my Spanish has improved in just the three weeks (three weeks today!!) that I've been here. 

We went home, had dinner, and I fell asleep fairly early. This morning I woke up, and went to school. Today was one of the first days that I really actually enjoyed school. It's kind of difficult to sit in classrooms for hours, and only understand a word or two occasionally that a professor says. But today I really felt that I understand a lot of what they were saying, and my friend Blanca helped a lot by teaching me new Spanish words, and making me little notes of how to conjugate certain verbs and so on. She speaks English pretty well, so I've kind of been using her as an escape when I'm tired to just relax and speak my home language. But today we decided that we're no longer speaking English to each other. However, when I'm trying to tell a story and I don't know how to say something, she's an excellent translator. For lunch, we had spinach with mushrooms and chicken with mushrooms (the ones that my host parents gathered yesterday), and it was very delicious. 

This afternoon, I went to running practice again. I ran 40 minutes of hills with a girl I hadn't met before. She is faster than I am, which is really good because it makes me push harder. Tomorrow I am going to run with her again, and I'm really excited to start getting back in shape. 

That's pretty much been my past week... Thanks for reading(: I'm going to try to update again soon, but the future is uncertain so I will make no promises. 

I can't explain how how strange it is to experience all of this in Spanish, and then translate my experiences into another language. But it's fun, and I'll be able to look back on it happily in the future.

Until next time! 

Hasta luego, Zeph

Meeting the Extended Host Family

I have a couple of days to write about.... But first I have exciting news! My host mom introduces me as her American daughter!!!! I don't know if that matters to you people, but to me it's completely awesome. I really feel like I'm a part of this family.

In other news, yesterday it had my second day of school, which was fairly unexciting except for the fact that I had my first English class! Yay! I actually understood what was going on! I've gotta tell you, knowing more than the professor of a class in her subject is a very strange feeling. It was fun though, and she almost understood everything I said when she asked me about where I live. Also something exciting about school yesterday, on Fridays, I get out one hour early! I don't actually know what this will mean for me, since I take the bus home, but probably it will mean that I'll hang out with my friends for an hour at a nearby park. Which isn't really too bad at all(: 

After school, I went home, had lunch with my family, had siesta, and then went back to Sabi around 5:30 to hang out with my friends. We went to a park for a while, and I realized that I had a deck of cards in my purse so I pulled them out and asked them if they wanted to play a game. Here, American cards are only used for poker, and there are Spanish playing cards that they use. So they were pretty excited to learn an American game. We were a big group, so I taught them BS, which is one of my favorite games. It was very fun, and they actually really got into it. 

After we were done at the park, we went to the concrete park I've talked about. Or the "sitio sucio" in case Maria is reading this. I impressed my friends with some awesome card tricks. They figured out about half of my favorite trick, so at least the other part of it is still impressive. Two of my friends also did a magic trick for me, and eventually they told me how to do it and can I just tell you it is a cheap trick. But whatever. After we were done there, a few of us went to Maria's house, where our parents were having dinner. Maria made us dinner, and then we hung out until almost one AM. It was really super fun, we talked for a while, drank tea, and ended up piling onto Maria's bed (I think there were 4 of us on a twin sized bed) and listening to music and singing to it. It was really enjoyable. 

This morning I slept in until almost eleven. I quickly ate breakfast and got dressed, because my host mom and I were going to Huesca so that I could meet her family. We left around 12, and got there around 12:45. We met her sister at a cafe, and she called me her "sobrina Americana" it was really sweet. Then we walked around the city for a while, I got some new school supplies, and then we went to a clothes store. I bought a really cute pair of jeans, a few shirts, a cardigan sweater and a new wallet (which I was desperately in need of). One thing that I think is funny about the style here, is that a very common thing is to wear a shirt with words in English on it. However many people do not even know what their shirt says. I suppose that we do this with other countries languages in the United States, it's just weird being on the understanding side of it. I found a couple of shirts that had English quotes on them that I liked... Though no one else here can really appreciate them... 

After I finished shopping, we went to my host grandparent's house. They are really really nice, and my host grandpa made us lunch. We had tomatoes with tuna and hard boiled egg (I know it sounds gross but it was actually really good), green beans, and salmon steaks. It was all very delicious. After lunch, we watched an movie called nine days (which I actually really enjoyed), and my host mom and host aunt fell asleep (i was too into the movie to fall asleep), and after that, we left. I was really tired, so instead of trying to track down my friends, I went home. My host parents walked to a nearby bar to relax a bit, and I decided to stay home, put on some music, straighten up my room, and relax a bit in my own way. It was really nice. After that, my host dad went out for dinner with some friends, and my host mom and I had dinner here. We just had pizza and salad, but it was delicioussss. 

Now I am drinking peppermint tea and watching a Denzel Washington movie with my host mom. So far it is very good! 

Thanks for reading! I'll update soon hopefully! 

Hasta pronto, Zeph (:

Schoooooool. And the last couple days.

I'm sorry.... I know I kind of promised a post yesterday, but I was tired, and had to wake up early for school. Tonight we had dinner fairly early (early meaning 9:15ish here), so I have time to update you guys on my last couple days of Spain, and also a update on my first day of school, before I have to go to bed (p.s I'm exhausted).

So let's begin where I left off last: Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, I went to Sabi to see my friends (what I do pretty much everyday). That afternoon, before I left my house, I had done a hair wrap thing. It's pretty much a small braid that you wrap in colorful string, and when I was in Cali, it was a normal thing for me to do... When I went with my friends, they noticed it right away, and got really excited. I had some string with me, so I proceeded to wrap alllll of my friends hair. No joke guys. From 5:30 to 9:00 I wrapped hair. I got reallllly tired, but it was super cool, because I felt like I was sharing a little bit of California with them (even if they do have them here too). It also felt good to do something nice for them because they have welcomed me completely with open arms, and made me feel so comfortable when I should probably be really scared. So the pain and exhaustion of my hands was completely worth it because I want them all to know how completely grateful I am. It's kind of stupid, because making braids seems like a really little thing, but it was nice, I got to have mini conversations with all of them, and even if it was not my favorite activity, I still got to be with all of them. 

Around 9:00 my host parents picked me up, and I went back to my house to change into warmer clothes. It's pretty much already autumn here, and I am one of those stereotypical teenage girls who loves autumn (it's just sooo pretty), so I was super happy wearing an oversized sweater, skinny jeans and boots (no one really cares about my outfit besides me, but it made me happy so I thought I'd share). After changing, I went back to Sabi to have dinner with my friends at a cute little pizza place. It isn't exactly Saucy, but it'll do(: It was actually quite delicious, and I really enjoyed hanging out and having dinner with my friends. After dinner, we went to a little bar nearby, and my friends bought me a mint tea because I had done so many braids that afternoon. It was really sweet. Then we hung out in the upstairs area of the bar, which has nice couches and such, and just talked and goofed around until around 12 when my host mom came and got me. 

Yesterday, I slept in much later than I wanted to. Back home, my mom always makes me start waking up early a couple days before school starts so that I can alter my sleep schedule a bit in advance. I really wanted to do that here, but I guess I didn't want it enough because I "forgot" to set an alarm, and slept in until almost 12. And I hadn't even gone to sleep late. I got almost a full 12 hours of sleep. It was amazing. 

I had a small breakfast, so that I would still be hungry for lunch, and I got some stuff ready for school. After lunch and siesta, my host dad drove me to Sabi for my last afternoon of summer with my friends. First we went to a park, and then my friends Blanca and Maria took me to what is possibly the coolest place ever; this super little super cute tea bar. They ordered for me, since I had no idea what I wanted (I've found that having locals order food, drinks etc for you is the best, because otherwise you would experience so much less when you play it safe by ordering a coca cola every time), and we drank our tea upstairs on little cushions and it was just an absolutely lovely way to end summer. After we were finished at the teteria, we went to the Consti (the main plaza in Sabi), with a couple of our other friends, and hung out there until 9, when my host parents came to get me. Last night I went to bed around 12, and this morning I had to wake up at 7:15, which is no fun, but also is wayyyy better than 6 o'clock like Im used to in California. In the morning I went to school, and I got there kind of early so none of my friends had arrived yet. Which was no fun. So I waited outside in the front until I saw Maria, and then went in with her. My classes are kind of a blur, as far as what exactly they were and who exactly my teachers were, and honestly I think I'd bore you if I try to go into detail, so I'm just going to give you the highlights. I sit with my friends in all of my classes. Which is awesome. Also for the most part, I really like my teachers. I especially like my Math teacher. She is really friendly, and came over to my desk a lot to make sure that I understood the worksheet that we were doing. I've never really had such a great appreciation for math. In the U.S I sort of liked it, and I was sort of okay at it. Like I could get a good grade, but I really had to work for it. Here, I went through I think 3 classes of barely understanding what my teachers were saying, and then went into a class and was handed a piece of paper covered in numbers. That I understood. It was amazing, and it felt great to take a break from using the learning Spanish part of my brain, and exercise a different part. I haven't had English class yet, I'll have that tomorrow, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I will enjoy that as well. All in all, it was school, all of the teachers misspronounced my name (or just called me Carol), but I'm also I'm Spain. That's kind of been my motto lately. If there's something that disappoints me a little bit, I'm just like yeah maybe that's not the best, but I'm in SPAIN for Pete's sake. Keep your head up, you're living the dream. And it works, I am so amazingly happy. Today when I got home, I was completely exhausted, and I slept for about am hour durning siesta. It was very nice. After siesta I went for a walk with my host parents, had dinner, and that brings us to now, sitting on the couch with my host parents, half watching some Spanish drama, half texting my Spanish friends, half blogging. That's three halves and doesn't really make sense, but like I said I did math today and after not doing math for 4 months, my brain can't handle anymore of it.

Anyways, until next time (I won't promise tomorrow because I have dinner plans and who knows), Zeph

My Weekend and More

So today I am blogging a bit early (it's about 12:40PM here), because I did not blog the entire weekend and I meant to last night but I did not get home until it was late and I was tired so I just went to bed. 

This weekend was nice, but pretty strange too.  As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Madrid for a Rotary orientation. On Friday, I had to wake up super early in the morning to catch a bus with a Rotex from my town named Victoria, and an American boy named Ethan from a nearby town. It was really weird, because the moment we got on the bus, we all started speaking English. I almost forgot what it felt like to understand everything in a conversation. We took a bus to Zaragoza, which took about 2 hours, and there we met up with more exchange students, including a boy from California. When I found out where he was from I freakedddd out. Even if he is from SoCal. In Zaragoza, I also met a boy from Japan, which I thought was the coolest thing. In our group of inbounds, about 90% are from the U.S, so foreign people (I guess we're all foreign but you get what I mean), are rare and exciting. When we got on the bus that would take us from Zaragoza to Madrid, there were already quite a few exchange students on it from the Barcelona area. Of course I managed to embarrass myself because I thought that the two boys sitting behind me were Spanish so I started trying to be friendly and introduce myself and such and then proceeded to ask them if they spoke English, to which one of them replied "I'm from New York." Whooooops. They were really cool though, and I talked to them pretty much the entire bus ride. 

The place that we were staying in was a little bit outside of Madrid, and it had Cabins and a dining hall and a swimming pool and a sports field. And that was pretty much it. I really wanted to see the city of Madrid, but we didn't get to. It was a bummer. On Friday when we arrived, we all met each other, and then played name games and tried to get to know each other. This girl I met there, named Reagan and I realllllly wanted to go swimming the first night, so we put on our bikinis and our idea was that once we were in the water the worst they could do was ask us to get out. Too bad we only made it to the pool deck before some Rotex came over and told us that we couldn't swim or else they would get in trouble with Rotary. We thought we'd be making the walk of shame back to camp in our dry bathing suits, but instead we got applause and multiple high fives for trying. 

On Saturday, we had a lot of meetings, explaining the rules of exchange, the Euro Trip, and more. They were fairly boring, and mostly things I'd heard before, and I was really tired, so I almost fell asleep a couple of times. After the meetings, we went outside to take the cliche flag group picture, but with over 100 exchange students, it didn't work too well. That afternoon, after the meetings around 4, the pool was going to be open. I went back to my cabin, and I lied down in my bed, and was trying to make the decision of whether I should take a nap, or go swimming. My subconscious made the decision for me when I quickly fell asleep. When I woke up, I checked my watch and it was almost 7. I knew that the pool was going to be open until 6, but also I did not hear anyone talking outside of my cabin, so I was pretty confused. I put myself together, and left my cabin, to find out that there was no one in the center hang out area, no one in the dining hall, pool, or bathroom. It was almost like a zombie apacolypse and I was really confused as to how over 100 exchange students and 20 or so Rotex had just disappeared into thin air. After walking around for a bit, I saw a girl I recognized walk into the bathroom. I hung out in the middle area and once she came out I found out that everyone had gone down to the sports field (which up until this moment, I had no idea existed). The group had been split into a few teams, and they were playing games to gain points for their teams. I was still really tired, and wasn't really in the mood to play games, so I sat down with a Belgian boy named Hugo who had hurt his foot in a game of fútbol. We talked for a while, just about our lives at home and our lives in Spain, and so on. Eventually, the group split off to create skits, and we were invited to join group 5 (the team that will go down in history). We created a pretty fun skit about the differences between what we expected Spain to be like and what it is actually like. Of course we exaggerated quite a bit, but I suppose it's a good way to explain to you guys some of the things that are pretty different here. 

We started out with greetings. Literally with everyone, when you meet them for the first time, when you see a friend again, you kiss them on the cheeks. I kind of knew that this was a thing before coming, but I thought it was going to be more when I met like an elderly person, not when I met people my own age. It was funny to hear from the Rotex about their experiences getting off the plane in the United States, trying to kiss their host parents on the cheeks, and having them get really confused. 

We talked about the food, and about how a lot of people were expecting Mexican food, but instead were greeted  by lots of seafood and vegetables. We talked about the timing of our days, and how eating dimmer at 10 or 11 is a normal occurrence. And we ended it with siesta, and how our expectation was pretty much the same as the reality. It was was completely in Spanish, and our team won!! It was really exciting, but we didn't get a prize like we were supposed to :( instead, all of us had a dance party inside of the dining hall. The issue was that the music wasn't loud at all, and there wasn't much space, so it got boring quickly. Hugo's foot was still hurt, so I helped him get outside. Once we got outside, we could tell that something was wrong, because there was a large group of Rotex and exchange students looking fairly frightened by the door. What had happened was a crazy, shirtless, drunk man had wandered into camp, in fact many of us had seen him even four hours earlier, but had just assumed he worked there. He was trying to get into the dining hall, so some Rotex were calling the police and some of the other exchange students and I went to a nearby tent area with tables. The Rotex got rid of him fairly quickly, and many more exchange students left the dance and came to where we were sitting. We played cards and just hung out and talked until it was time to go to bed. 

On Sunday, we left fairly early, and the large group of students going to Zaragoza hung out in a Madrid McDonalds for a few hours waiting for our bus. There really weren't any major highlights from my 7 hour bus ride, but when I got home, it was hailing and there was lightening, so that was interesting. Yesterday in the morning I had to go to school, but that was okay because I got to see my friends again, and finally meet Blanca. Blanca is my host sister (who is also on exchange in Colorado)'s best friend. She has been in Africa for the last few weeks so she was not here when I arrived, but we have been talking on social media for a couple of months now, so it was great to actually meet her. She also told me that she has been keeping up with my blog, which is so awesome to hear because I know that it can't be easy to read something which is not only in another language, but also in vernacular language which is not common to here since they study English from England, and not from Californian teenage girls. And yet she still reads it (: At school we got our schedules, and I don't understand mine at all, but that's okay because my friends will tell me where I need to be. After our little thing at school, I went home. My host dad had to go to work, and my host mom was at a meeting, so I was home alone for the first time since I got here. I took that time to unpack my things, hang up my American flag, and relax a bit. It was actually really nice. When my host mom got home, we had artichokes with ham, and turkey with bell peppers. It was delicious. During siesta, we were watching The Big Bang Theory which is one of my favorite shows in the U.S, except we were watching it in Spanish, so I didn't get it. Before my host mom fell asleep, she changed it to English for me. It was really nice to just relax, and watch a little bit of American television. 

After siesta, my host mom took me into town to hang out with my friends. We went to a little bar, and I tried what was pretty much an icee, but in a fancy glass. It was really yummy. Afterwards we walked around a bit, and around nine, I went to Blanca's house for dinner. Her mom prepared rice with vegetables, salad, and some sausage-type-maybe-thing. It was all really good, and her parents are super nice. After dinner, we went back to the bar place with some more friends and one of our friends' dog. I got another fancy icee. It was yummy all over again. We hung out for a while there, just talking and such, and then my host dad came and got me around 12. Which here is a perfectly normal time for a teenager to be out on the town with her friends at. It's strange. I got home, and like I said before, I fell asleep super quickly. This morning, my host mom was at work, and my host dad was on a bike ride, so I was home alone again, this time for a couple of hours. When I woke up, I went for a run. I figured out a nice trail that goes along the road next to my house, straight up a hill. I ran until there wasn't a trail anymore, and then I turned around and ran back down to my house. It was absolutely stunning, and I think I will run this trail often. When I got home, I noticed that someone (not sure if it was my host dad or host mom), had put out breakfast ingredients, including a couple of chocolate pastries. They were delicious. After breakfast, I took a shower, and then relaxed and blogged, and here I am now. My host mom is home, and preparing lunch, so I think I'll go see if I can help. 

Overall, it was a pretty good first weekend in Spain, and a wonderful first week in Spain, and I am so so happy here. Depending on my afternoon today, I may blog tonight, but most likely I won't blog again until tomorrow. 

Hasta luego, Zeph

Ugh okay my pictures are being stupid. Here's what they are:

#1 Amigo de nueva York

#2 Amiga de Florida

#3 Hugo de Belgium

#4 Rotex from Pamploma who went to Cali

#6/7 Rotex Yago and Rotex Victoria

#8 McDonalds Group

#9 Cali Crew

#10 Barcelona Rotex

#11 TEAM FIVE!!

#12 My room completely set up

#13 Alicia (una Amiga)

#14 the group

#15 self explanatory 

#16 My run this morning