Making Progress

September 20, 2011
Today in class someone made a joke and everyone laughed.  For the first time ever I understood the joke and laughed at the same time as everyone else!  Usually I am either sitting there watching everyone else laugh wondering what is so funny or a friend explains it to me in English and then I am laughing two minutes later when everyone else is silent.  It's silly because it's such a small thing but this small thing just made my day.

Meeting the Family

September 17, 2011
Today was the baptism of the new baby in the family so we all went to Jaca, a city 15 minutes away from Sabi, to go to the baptism in a  famous and gorgeous cathedral.  The baptism was cool, very short which I liked but it was the family that was the best part.  This is my host fathers side of the family and he has 7 siblings, all of which have their own families so we were like a small village.  There were so many new names and faces but it was all so great.  I think that I only heard one thing the whole day which wasn't sarcasm, a very fun and crazy family.  Before and after the baptism we went to 3 bars for beer and appetizers (a very common thing to do) and then we went for a huge lunch, all of us sitting at the same table.  It felt like the people at the other end of the table were most likely in France.  All in all it was a great day.  It was very cool for me to feel apart of such a big family, as mine is much smaller. 

First Day of School, Really

September 12, 2011
Wow.  My brain is very sore.  So I met a bunch of friends in the Consti and then we walked up to school together.  When we got there we went right to class.  History first. Turns out that this will probably be my hardest class.  For the fist part of class the teacher talked, very fast I might add, and I understood very little.  The second part we all took a mini test.  We had to math a bunch of events with their century and then read a passage about 9/11 and answer questions.  It was great because I know about 9/11 so I could understand the passage but my responses were awful and I couldn't say what I wanted too.  Also I never got a chance to finish because it took me so long to read the passage because it was Spanish.  In between classes we have 5 minutes which is really nice because you don't have to rush anywhere, and the classes are very close.  Next class was Economy which is my least favorite class.  The way that the professor talks is very hard for me to understand because her thoughts are very jumbled up so as soon as I start to catch onto what she is saying she changes the subject.  This got me very down since I had no clue what was going on, but it turns out that the rest of the class didn't either so I am not alone.  Every two classes (there are 6 in a day) we have a 15 or 20 minute break.  Everyone brings sandwiches to school to hold them over until lunch, the biggest meal of the day, at 2:30 when we get out of school.  There is only a bar (like with coffee and sandwiches) no cafeteria because you eat at home after school.  Today everyone went outside but in the winter I'm assuming that won't happen.  When I returned I went to math.  The teacher was very nice and understood that I couldn't understand anything.  Also numbers are the same in every language so this class was easier than the ones before.  Next was philosophy.  The professor is very cool, definitely looks like he should be teaching philosophy.  Although I didn't understand a lot it turns out for the first lesson we will be doing Plato's Allegory of the Cave which I did last year so I am very excited about that because I will actually know what is going on.  And it will be interesting to get another person's perspective on it.  Another break after that and then to Informatica, which is like computers.  Very energetic professor and I think this will be a break class because computers are the same in every language, or it will be easy to figure out by looking around.  On Mondays it turns out that I get to go home one block early because only the kids taking religion stay for the last block.  My head is very tired but overall it was a very good day.  It's very deceiving not understanding what is going on but at the end of the day I have to step back and realize even though it may not seem like it, I have already learned so much  that I can understand as much as I did.  I'm not going to say I'm excited to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow but for school it isn't bad at all, or at least not yet, no homework on the first day. 

Missing Ingredients

September 9, 2011
I have learned that there are a lot of ingredients that seem so normal to us that the rest of the world has never heard of.  The other day I was trying to bake chocolate cookies because the ones I brought were long gone.  It turns out that it is absolutely impossible to find vanilla, in fact they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.  To me it seems like a kitchen staple like sugar that everyone has in their house.  So I went online and it turns out maple syrup is the perfect substitute for it.  Great news for me since I had just given my family maple syrup and they had no clue what to do with it.  Then another thing I had not thought of, measurement conversions.  I was guessing on every amount of the ingredients or rounding based on what I thought looked right.  Haha, not exactly the science of baking.  They ended up turning out MUCH different but they still tasted great. Today I cooked my host family lunch.  I made a cabbage salad and arugula pesto pasta.  They loved it.  They had never had a pesto kind of thing before so it was very special for them and my simple cooking look great.  The end product was great but from prior experience with the cookies I went to the market with ingredients for about 8 dishes, just in case I couldn't find one of the ingredients.  Next weekend when my host brother is home I will make a more American meal, not a Vermont one.

First Day of School, but Not Really

September 8, 2011
Today I went to school, but only for an hour.  The school is a very nice building, much more pleasant to look at and be in than Harwood.  It goes up in height instead of long.  The classrooms and very clean and nice, no cement bricks or grey fabric covered bulletin boards.  I went in at 10:30 for the presentation.  I met some friends at la Consti (the square in town that everyone hangs out at) and we walked to school from there.  In the presentation they cover schedules, school rules and things like that.  There was another girl from Lithuania that also couldn't speak a lot of Spanish so I will not be alone in understanding nothing for the first month or so.  The teacher who was giving our class our presentation was my Lengua Castellano y Literatura teacher, or Spanish Literature.  This was very relieving for me because I think this will be my hardest class, seeing that I can't even do English literature and grammar and she talked very slow so that I could understand a lot more than usual.  Also a lot of the people I have already met are in my class so it wasn't all new faces.  I start real school on Monday and am very excited, at least for the meeting people part.  It released a lot of nervousness knowing how understanding and willing to help the teachers are.  I don't think this will be so hard after all, but maybe I am just cursing myself by saying that. 

New Places, New Faces

September 5, 2011
Today I went to the school to buy all of my books.  It was very exciting. I got to see a lot of the other students.  One of Merche's friends has a daughter who is in my class.  I went with her and her friend, Claudia and Bea.  They are so nice.  After we bought all the books, which are much lighter than our textbooks because they are soft cover but they are still very heavy, I went out around the town with Claudia and Bea. They introduced me to some of there other friends.  Everyone is very welcoming and it was very cool to hear their point of view about the city and the people. After a nice lunch outside, I went out for coffee and tea with Marta and another one of her friends.  It was very nice, we sat in the square.  After that I met up with Claudia and Vea again.  We went to the Sports Building where a lot more of their friends were playing soccer.  I met so many new people my brain hurts a little.  I am excited for the presentation at school on Thursday to meet even more people in my class.

Daily Life in Sabi

September 3 - September 4, 2011
In the morning Julio and I went for a walk around the town.  We went to the meat store and the bakery and the fish store to buy food for lunch and then to the bike shop to pick up my bike!  Then we walked up to my school which is about a 5 minute walk from my house (this is great news for me because those extra minutes of sleeping are precious).  Next to the school is the public fields and facilities where there is a soccer field, tennis courts and paddle courts.  Julio and many of the other friends LOVE paddle.  IT is like tennis but the walls are glass so you can play the ball off the walls.  Then we came back to the house for a nice lunch with more friends.  I love it because there are always people around.  On the back porch you can hop over a fence to our neighbors porch so there is always a little party or gathering happening very close.  After lunch a bunch of the women all play cards.  It is a very fun game that is kind of like a mix between gin and rummicube.  One game consists of many rounds.  In the beginning or the game everybody puts in 1 euro and then the winner gets the money at the end.  I won one of the games!!!  I now have 6 euros. (The banks are closed on the weekends so I only have American dollars right now).  One girl, Marta, speaks completely fluent English.  She is in university in Barcelona, 21 years old.  At night I went with her to one of her friends houses.  It is called a caseta, a little house, becuase it is only one room with a fireplace and sink and table.  You have a caseta for the piece of land it is on if you want a bigger garden.  All of her friends were incredibly nice.  They were also playing cards but a more traditional game that right now is very confusing to me but I will learn.  Everything is going so good and all of the people are incredibly nice.

First Impressions

September 2, 2011
This is just about one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  As we drove into the valley, all around us were mountains so much bigger than those in Vermont.  It was simply gorgeous.  The roads winded and curved through the mountains.  It felt like I was going to a place unknown to the rest of the world, like Narnia.  After 15 minutes or so I saw the sign for Sabiñanigo. We turned to get off the main road heading towards this cute little city.  We drove the long way around so I could see more of Sabi.  We drove up near my school and the public fields and facilities.  Then we arrived at my house to find about 15 people, all there to welcome me to Sabi.  They were all so nice, all close friends or neighbors.  That night we all ate together.  The flat is so cute.  It is three floors but the bottom floor is just the garage and a small room for entertaining.  My room is very nice and from my window I have a view of some other houses with the Pyrennes in the background.  So far I love everything about this place I will be living in for the next year.

A Ride Through Dreamland

September 2, 2011
I woke up to find out we were going to go back home today instead of tomorrow because it was a very cloudy, rainy day, not a beach day.  I was happy with this because I was so excited to see where I would be living for a year, but there was a long drive ahead of about 8 hours.  I was able to sleep for the first part and then realized that I was missing so much by sleeping.  Almost every hour the landscape completely changed, each time to something just as beautiful as the last.  We drove through olive trees, then grapes, then orange trees, then complete flatness, then mountains with red dirt and then finally to the North.  On the way we stopped in a town that they assimilate to New York because it has the tallest buildings in Spain.  It was a very funny sight.  It was obvious that the highrises were not built out of need for more space, but just for height.  There were random highrises popping out of the ground, all surrounded by grass and no other buildings, just the highrise.  There weren't blocks and the highrises weren't right next to each other.  It was very weird. He drove to the top of one of the hills and had a view of the whole city and the long, beautiful beach.  Then we were on our way.  Our next and last stop was Zaragoza.  Here is where my host father works and host brother goes to school.  They will come home every weekend because it is only an hour away from Sabiñanigo (the city I will be living in).  The city is nice, very industrial looking.  The apartment was very nice as well as Victor, my host brother, and his girlfriend.  Then we made our way to Sabiñanigo!

El Mar Mediterráneo

August 30 - September 1, 2011
Wow! In a million years I would have never expected a landscape like this one.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  Over the three days at the beach we went to a different beach everyday.  The first day we went to one with very fine sand.  It was a gorgeous beach and perfect for taking a long walk.  Merche and I walked for maybe on hour past all kinds of things.  In one section of the beach, no one has clothes on.  They walk, swim, eat, tan, talk, and shop without clothes.  It is really weird.  And most of them are quite old, not the people you would like to see at a nude beach.  Haha.  The next day we went to a beach where there were small rocks instead of sand which lead to VERY clear water.  We snorkeled and saw a lot of fish.  Many kids had filled water bottles with rocks and bread to try to catch the fish.  The day after we went to a beach that had much bigger black rocks instead of sand, and there the water was extremely clear as well.  There were a grouping of rocks underwater that we snorkeled around and saw even more kinds of fish, and bigger ones too.
One night we went up to a town called Mojacar that is this little town in the mountains and every building is white.  It was incredible.  There were a lot of little streets and alleys everywhere and a lot of stairs.  Then we had dinner at a restaurant at the top that overlooked everywhere.  After this night I was feeling very good because my host parents and me talked a lot and everything was in Spanish.  It was very satisfying, like I had actually improved since I got here.  The next night we brought our dinner with us on a beach called La Playa de Negro because the sand is black.  It was magnificent.  The water is so warm but there is always a breeze the blows through that keeps it cool.
So far everything I have seen in Spain is absolutely gorgeous.  It is unlike anything in America, just the landscape alone nevermind the culture.  It has been hard at first with the language barrier, but the nights always seem to cure any hesitation during the day.  Maybe the language part of my brain functions a lot better at night, who knows. 

Through the Hills of Andalucia

August 29, 2011
We woke up and went to the piazza for breakfast.  Churros in hot chocolate, a great beginning to my first full day.  From there we headed to Alhambra, a historic place in Granada.  It was fantastic.  All of the old palaces and buildings were still in tact.  The details in the walls and ceilings were incredible.  And the view from the top of the palace was amazing, you could see the whole city, and all the buildings are white which makes for a beautiful view.  From there we drove south to the beach.  We drove through olive trees for olive oil the whole way down, simply amazing.  When we got to the beach house we went to the pool and I met Julio's sister and her family.  They have a new born baby girl and a little boy of 3.  They were very nice and spoke no English which was good because it forced me to speak in Spanish.  They all like the pool much more than the beach. Haha.  Then for dinner we had a traditional Spanish tortilla which is kind of like a fajita with potatoes.  It's so hot so its very hard to sleep but after such a long day I was fine.

A New Beginning

August 28, 2011
After 20 hours of traveling I have finally arrived in Spain! It is a weird but amazing feeling flying away from everything you know so well into a world that you don't know one thing about.  Merche y Julio (my host parents) picked me up at the airport and we headed to Toledo.  Toledo is a very historic city in a Spain, and a beautiful one at that.  Everywhere you look is another gorgeous building filled with stories and history.  It was fantastic.  We had lunch at a small place in the piazza.  At this point I realized how little Spanish I actually knew.  And on top of not knowing much, there was a new accent to get used.  Between the th sounds instead of the c sound and pronouncing a v as a b I was very lost.  Merche speaks a little English, or at least more than my Spanish so I could understand what was going on.  From Toledo we made our may to Granada.  I slept in the car to try and catch up on some sleep lost on the plane.  It was very hard to sleep on the plane because the seats were very squished together but the lady sitting next to me was very nice and she let me sleep on her lap.  Jaja.  On the way to Granada we got very lost so we ended up arriving there at around 10.  From what I saw of it it is a very beautiful city.  All of the sidewalks are made out of marble instead of cement so the look of it is very nice.  After a quick dinner I fell fast asleep.

P.S. I am very sorry for the bad English but already my English is quite bad.  Only thinking in Spanish even for a couple days doesn't do well for my English.  Also sorry for not posting earlier but I just got back from the beach so I am trying to catch up.