Christmas and a few other things

So..

Christmas abroad..

It's the one thing that everyone asked me about when I told them I was leaving for a year abroad.

“But what about Christmas? Do you get to come home? It's also the thing everyone warned me about. While I admit I was a little homesick in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it was actually not as bad as I expected.

Christmas in Spain is really just the start of a 12 day long holiday. January 6^th is the real holiday and as I've said before, that's the day everyone gives presents. Christmas eve is also an important day here. My host mom bought me a special dress just for the occasion. There was a huge dinner over at my host grandmothers house which while it was pretty fun it was also exhausting. Every time there's a family gathering I always get a bit “overwhelmed “ I guess for lack of a better word. It's weird, I know the word in Spanish but I can't remember it in English. Anyways, whenever there's a huge family gathering I just sit there silently and eat all the delicious food until someone talks to me because it's extremely hard to join in when everybody's yelling at the same time. My goal is to be able to join in on these family discussions by the end of the year. The other thing that's difficult about family dinners is the food! Don't get me wrong, the food is absolutely amazing. Well, I guess that's why it's so difficult. There is so much delicious food and I'm never able to eat it all because I get too full too fast. It's quite frustrating. Spanish meals are broken into multiple courses and in my family there are about about 6-7 courses. I usually get through the first three or four until I have to stop. (Partially because I need to save room for dessert.....obviously..) After dinner it's typical for the kids to go out and party but I was wayyyy too tired for that. I decided to go home and enjoy having the house to myself until about four in the morning when my family finally came home.

On Christmas day, my family didn't get up until around 2 so I just sulked in my room for a good five hours watching people update their Facebook status's about what they got for Christmas. When my family finally did get up we went to my other host grandparent's house for Christmas lunch where I again only made it to course four before I had to stop. I did end up going out with friends on Christmas though which was weird for me. I spent more time with friends than family. Another interesting thing was that almost everything was open. It was just like any other typical night in Jerez and it seemed like no one was in the Christmas spirit, which for me, was a little depressing. Aside from all that though, I did enjoy my first Christmas abroad. It was nice to experience how another country celebrates Christmas because there are definitely some differences. I'm excited to see what happens on the 6^th.

Of course the most important day of this holiday season is the day after Christmas. My 17^th birthday! I was actually extremely nervous for my birthday though. As anyone who I talked to on that morning knows, I had no idea whether or not my host family even knew it was my birthday. This was definitely a weird experience for me. I couldn't decide whether to remind them or not. Luckily for me, my host family, being the tricksters they are, did know it was my birthday and had planned a surprise celebration for me with my favorite food (paella) and a homemade cake. They even got me presents! They gave me one stuffed dog/bunny which even though I can't figure out exactly what it is, is still adorable. They also gave me this beautiful bracelet which I haven't stopped wearing since I got it.. I obviously wasn't expecting anything considering hosting me is a present in itself but, they still decided to do something which was extremely nice of them. I'm pretty sure I said “Gracias” about 9,000 times I was so thankful.

The next day, my friends threw me a surprise party consisting of the majority of my friends, cake, and more presents which I wasn't expecting at all. I honestly have the best friends here. I couldn't have asked for a better placement. My friends even convinced me to play guitar for them for the first time since I've been here. After some of my friends went home, the rest of us went to the central to continue the celebration. Overall, this was definitely one of the best birthdays I've had and I'm definitely never going to forget it.

Since then, I've basically just been spending my vacation sleeping during the day and going out at night. Yesterday, some friends and I went to Cadiz and I actually ice-skated which was something I was not planning on doing. It was funny because my Spanish friend and my Californian friend were teaching me, the Mainer how to skate. I won't lie I'm still terrible but it was surprisingly fun. I might actually be interested in learning how to skate now.

Today is New Years Eve which is again both scary and exciting. Yesterday my host sister asked me where I wanted to go for breakfast after the party which I guess means I will literally for the first time be partying all night.

Anyways,
I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas :)

Happy New Year!

-Libby

And the grades are in!!

So..

I thought I'd write a short little post about my final grades for the trimester. Before I reveal anything though, you need to know a few things.

1. Grades only go 1-10 so don't be shocked when you see the low numbers. Also it's not like 1 translates to 10 and 10 to 100. I would say anywhere from 8-10 is an A 6-7, B 4-5, C 2-3 D 0-1 F.
2. In my school anyway, instead of getting points taken off from a ten, you have to earn points starting at 0. Obviously this is same thing mathematically but because there is no partial credit my grades tend to be lower than they should.
3. Remember that all my classes are in Spanish so my grades are much lower than they would be in English.
4. 5 is a passing grade. I'll warn you right now I did fail 3 classes.

So starting out at the top of the list is...

Gym: 8!! While I did fail every single one of my dance tests my badmitten skills came through for me.

Literature : 8. I'm actually so proud of this grade because obviously reading books in Spanish is significantly harder than in English.

Science: 4. I have no idea how I failed this class. We've done three things this trimester. There was one project which I got an 8 on and then two tests which I scored a 4 on the first and a 6 on the second. I'm pretty sure those three grades would average to a passing grade but....I guess not.....

Philosophy: 6. This grade doesn't really count considering I didn't take the first test which would give me an automatic 0. I think the teacher decided just to be nice and not count it on the final grade.

English: 10. What a surprise..

History: 6. I love my history teacher. She gave me an extra point on my last test just for being an exchange student.

Economy: 4. So close, so close. Maybe next trimester.

Math: 2..... no comment.....

French: 7. Je peux parler francais!!

Art: 7. After 14 weeks I finally turned in my tree project. Every week I thought I was done but my teacher just kept adding more. I guess he thought my tree was good enough to pass though, which if you saw my tree, you'd understand why I'm a little shocked.

Well that's it.

Hopefully next trimester I can do a little better

Especially in math.....

Dios mio...

Adiosss

Almost Christmas!

So..

Finally, after so many tests I can't even count, I'm done. Finished. Well, actually, I do have two more days of school but we're not learning anything so they're basically pointless. Today in school I spent the first three hours playing an intense game of poker with the 10 out of 30 kids who decided to show up for class, then I left. I wasn't planning on leaving considering it's technically considered skipping but the entire class left so.... I figured it would be more beneficial to go with them and actually practice Spanish instead of just sitting in an empty classroom for three more hours. I taught my entire class how to play 21 in Spanish which I think is a pretty good accomplishment. Tomorrow nobody in my class is going except for me because I have to according to the rules of my program... Should be fun.

I still don't know my grades because unfortunately they won't release them until Friday. I think that's the schools way of forcing the kids to come into school at least one day out of the week. I took one final Economy test yesterday and I'm pretty sure I failed so if I averaged everything out correctly, I should have only failed Math and Economy. Obviously I'm extremely disappointed with my Math grade considering most of the material I already knew before coming here. I'm just going to blame it on the fact that partial credit doesn't exist here making all the problems that should be at least half right, wrong.

I can't believe it's December 21^st! Just four days until Christmas, five days until my birthday, and 10 days until New Years eve. Then of course there's the real celebration on January 6^th but I'm not very excited about that because I'm still very confused on what actually happens. All I know is that on that day everyone gives each other presents instead of the 25^th I'm still not sure exactly what I'm giving my host family for gifts. Even though I've been with my host family for three months, I still don't know much about what they like. For example, I know my host father is an engineer and that when he comes home he eats, sleeps, goes back to work, watches T.V. , and then sleeps some more. All I can think to get him is either a wrench or one of those jumbo T.V. Remotes.

I hate buying gifts...

I love giving them, but figuring out what to buy is just too difficult...

It's been really hard to get into the Christmas spirit with my insane amount of tests and the fact that there's no snow. Although I hear apparently there isn't any snow in Yarmouth so I guess it's really not that different. It's weird not having a real Christmas tree. I miss not being able to recognize all the ornaments on the tree and freaking out because my family is actually incapable of keeping a plant alive, even if it's only for a couple of weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about experiencing Christmas abroad, but now that it's only a few days away, I'm starting to miss home more than I thought I would.

Last Saturday I went to a Disco for the first time in a while. Kids here don't go that often because it costs a lot of money to get in and unless you have some sort of connection you can't get in if you're under 18. My friends and I weren't planning on being allowed in considering none of us had any connections, but for some reason I still haven't figured out we were allowed in no questions asked. Because of my lack of curfew, my friends and I stayed out until 5:00 in the morning making Sunday afternoon study plans just a little bit difficult.

Anyways,

I can't really think of what else to say.

This week hasn't been very exciting but I'm sure in the week to come I'll have many things to share.

Feliz Navidad :)

-Libby

Mi árbol de Navidad :)

Tres meses! Mi progreso en español y otras cosas.

So today makes three months since I left for Spain!

It's weird because it feels like I wrote my two-month post last week. I know it has been longer than usually since I've last written but I did that on purpose because I wanted to post something today. I also lost track of time! Weeks feel like days and days feel like just a few hours. I know I've said this before but time really is going way too fast and I don't like it. The friends I've made here are honestly some of the greatest people I've ever met and it will be really hard to leave them in 6 months. The people who are only staying here for a trimester are leaving in less than a week which is insane! I don't know what I would do if I was leaving next week. I have so much left to accomplish here before even thinking about going home. I'm so happy I switched to a year program because there's no way I am going to be fluent by the end of the semester. I unfortunately have been speaking way too much English to be even close to fluent. Recently though, I have been challenging myself to speak more Spanish. Kids at school always like to try out their English on me but last week I told them they weren't allowed to do that anymore. People think I'm not serious about learning Spanish which isn't true. It's the main reason I came here. It's just hard because Spanish can be really frustrating at times. I do talk to my exchange friends in English though because it doesn't make sense to talk in Spanish when nobody can correct us if we say something wrong.

Even though I do speak more English than I should, I do think my Spanish has improved tremendously. I can understand almost everything people are saying and I can even understand some of my teachers. The accent here is much thicker than in the Northern part of Spain which has made it harder for me to be able to understand people. The only time I can't understand someone is if they say a word I don't know in which case I just use my dictionary. I also think that my speaking has improved quite a bit too and I even think I'm starting to pick up some of the Andalusian accent. I learned the other day that the reason I make so many mistakes in my grammar is because many of the sentences where in American English we would use the preterite, the Spanish use the past perfect. For example, before I knew this rule, whenever I finished a test I would say “terminé mi examen” (I finished my test). But what I should have said and what I say now is “he terminado mi examen” (I have finished my test) This is a tense that isn't often used in American English but is used much more frequently in British English. Knowing this has made speaking much easier for me because now people can actually understand me.

Next week my school trimester ends and I'll finally get to know my averages for all of my classes. There's no Powerschool here so I've been left to guess my averages. As of now I think I'm passing all my classes except for Math and Economy (thanks to my last test). The past two weeks have been “testing weeks” I've had tests in every subject which has been a nightmare to study for. French and Math have been the worst because I've had not one, not two, but three tests in both those classes in the past two weeks. Thankfully the torture ends on Friday with one last Science test. Once I have my final grades I'll make sure to share them but I'll warn you, they're not good. Grading here is much different than in the United States. It's perfectly normal to fail and most people usually do. Here, instead of congratulating someone on acing a test, you congratulate them on passing. Some people even get 0's.

This weekend I'm going shopping for my New Year's eve dress. New Year's eve is much bigger here than it is in America, or, well, in Maine. Going to bed before midnight isn't an option no matter how old you are. One party I was going to attend requires you to pay 40 euros to get in. It's an all-night party and apparently it's normal for there to be over 500 people going in and out. I opted out of that one though because my host sister told me the 40 euros is for unlimited drinks which to me is outrageous. Instead, I've decided to go with my host sister to a disco for a much more reasonable price of 5 euros. I'm actually more excited for New Years than I am for Christmas which is weird for me considering Christmas is the day before my birthday.

Today I failed a dance test. Yep. A dance test. It's actually my third one I've failed. I just can't seem to get the dance down no matter how hard I try (which really isn't that hard). I'm actually a little angry though because I feel like even though I obviously can't dance as well as my classmates I had improved a little bit since my last test. Apparently my gym teacher didn't think so because he actually gave me a worse grade than he did last time. To add to the embarrassment, I was the only person to fail out of my entire group. I swear, my gym teacher is out to get me. (In more than one way for anyone who's heard my stories about him.) I wouldn't normally write something so embarrassing on my blog but considering it has never really been my dream to become a dancer, I don't really care. Thank goodness I'm a pro badmitten player or I'd be failing gym right now which would be beyond embarrassing.

Anyways,

I actually really have to go study for my math test because I'm pretty sure failing four in a row isn't really setting me up or a good math grade.

Abrazos y besos a todos

-Libby

A week of traveling

So somehow it's already December.

Time has been speeding up at an exponential rate and pretty soon it's going to be Christmas, my birthday, New years, and then 2012. It's very weird to think about. I've decided that the best thing to do is to stop caring about how long I've been here/how long I have left and start working on filling these next few months with as much stuff as possible.

I've definitely gotten myself in a Christmas mood recently and now spend all my free time listening to Christmas music (especially Michael Buble's new album, seriously amazing), and walking around in the Central which is currently decorated completely with Christmas lights. I know that Christmas and my birthday are going to be extremely hard to celebrate away from home, but I just can't help being excited.

This week I went to both Cadiz and Sevilla. On Thursday I went to Cadiz because I was forced to finally get my Visa. I am now legally allowed to remain in Spain for the duration of my year. I didn't get to see much of Cadiz but from what I saw out of the car/train window, it's beautiful. Cadiz is filled with amazing beaches that I'm definitely planning on returning to when the weather is a little warmer. After experiencing the train station twice in one week, I'm now confident in navigating trains alone which means I will definitely be traveling a lot more in the future. Traveling in Europe is much easier than it is in the States. Flying from country to country is extremely cheap on quite a few airlines. My goal is to somehow see to France or/and Italy before I leave, or any European country for that matter. My main goal is France though because of the fact that I'm being forced to take French.The only problem is I can't really do it alone which makes traveling internationally a little difficult...and dangerous... Oh well.. When I returned from my trip to Cadiz, I asked my host family why they don't go there more often since it's so close. They explained to me that the reason they don't go to Cadiz is because Jerez and Cadiz are rivals. The best way to compare it is Yarmouth and Falmouth. There is no real hate between them but they're very competitive..in everything... I had never heard that before but I guess now I understand why when I told them I had to go to Cadiz they just stared at me with disgust like they were waiting for me to explain myself.

On Saturday I went to Sevilla with two of my exchange friends. Even though we were only able to stay there for the day, I'm pretty sure I've fallen in love with Sevilla. The city is absolutely gorgeous filled with beautiful buildings and churches. There was so much going on it reminded me of an old-fashioned New York City. As I mentioned in my last post, my camera broke so I wasn't able to take any pictures. Thankfully, my friend graciously said I could post some of his so I'll put those at the bottom. Apparently in Sevilla there is a Dunkin Donuts which is weird because I'm pretty sure those don't even exist in parts of America. I unfortunately wasn't able to find it but I did find Starbucks which I was so excited about I had two large coffees in a span of three hours. I definitely wasn't the most pleasant traveler after that....

Anyways,

I have an economy test tomorrow which I awkwardly haven't started studying for even though it's currently 7:20 P.M.

I guess I should get on that,

I hope everyone enjoys the pictures, Sevilla is truly a beautiful place.

-Libby

Thanksgiving abroad...and some other stuff

So....

Before I even start on my update on what's been going on these past few days, I need to address my concern for the lack of information known about Thanksgiving and its history. At least ten people asked me what people do over here for Thanksgiving and if the celebrations are still the same. A couple of people even went as far as to not believing me when I told them Thanksgiving is only an American holiday so obviously they don't celebrate it in Spain. When Thanksgiving rolled around nobody here even knew/acknowledged that it was a holiday. The only reason any of my friends knew Thursday was Thanksgiving was because I spent my entire day in school sulking and complaining about how annoying it was that I was in school when I could be eating with my family. (not one of my finest moments) I did end up having a little celebration in the central with a couple of the other Americans staying in Jerez. While Paella and Gelato with friends isn't nearly as good as Turkey and Pumpkin Pie with family, it was still fun and definitely a once in a lifetime experience. One thing I found amazing was how little people here actually know about Thanksgiving. My host father had never even heard of it. My host mother and sister had only seen it in movies and T.V. shows. When I tried to explain it to them all they said was “Ahh siii, pavo pavo!” (pavo means turkey) I tried to explain the history in Spanish but I eventually gave up and told them to Google it. Needless to say, I was pretty homesick on Thanksgiving considering nobody was around to Skype. Thankfully I have friends here who understand what I'm going through which made the day much easier.

On Friday I went to the birthday party of one of my exchange friends from Finland. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. Two of her friends from Cadiz came up to celebrate, one from Switzerland and the other from Australia. In total there were six countries represented at the party. (3 Americans, 2 Australians, 1 girl from Finland, 1 girl from Switzerland, 1 girl from Germany, and many Spaniards drifting in an out as the night went on. At the party I started talking to the girl from Switzerland and found out that Spanish is her 7^th language. Yes, you read that right, 7^th. Apparently in Switzerland most kids grow up learning Swiss, Italian, French and Swiss German. Swiss-German is where you understand German and you can speak it but not as well as you can understand it. Or well, I think that's what it is. I'd never heard of Swiss-German before Friday so I'm still learning the exact definition. All I know is that the girl from Switzerland was speaking German most of the night and she sounded pretty fluent to me. Anyways, her mother is Russian so she is fluent in Russian, and in school she learned English and Spanish. Obviously I was pretty amazed by this and it got me to thinking about how most Americans don't even know two languages. Schools in the United States don't really pressure kids to keep up with a second language which is sad because most of the outside world is already fluent in two or three languages. For my generation at least, knowing only English isn't going to go very far in our world today. Now I don't mean to criticize the language classes in schools because anyone who completed all four years of high school Spanish or French would be sufficient enough to get by in any situation in the real world. My only point is, is that coming here has made me realize how beneficiary it will be in the long run to hopefully be able to speak both Spanish and English.

Anyways.....

On Saturday, after a nice day in the central with my exchange friends, I went to a party called a Zambomba. I'd never heard of it before this weekend but basically it's a Christmas party...Spanish style... The party I went to, took place in a huge parking lot with at least 100 kids. There were some surrounding buildings with smaller parties inside but I didn't get a chance to go in any of them because they were too crowded. Basically, the party consisted of different groups gathered in circles singing Spanish Christmas carols while doing some weird clapping thing that I never got the hang of. Overall, it was pretty fun and there are apparently many more before Christmas so hopefully I'll get to go again. I wish I could put up pictures from the party but my camera broke so I wasn't able to take any.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Now I have to go translate about 20 pages of Philosophy.

Adiooo

Style in Spain

So as promised..

Instead of giving the usual update on what I've been up to.

I'm going to talk about one of the main differences I've noticed since I've been here.

Fashion/Style

This post probably won't be interesting to most people who read this blog, but at the moment my life is just too routine to explain. (school, swim, siesta, fiesta, the usual)

The reason I'm dedicating an entire post to this is because people here care a lot about what they look like. Well, when they're not in school. Whenever I get ready to go out with my friends they take at least twice as long as I do. I'm talking like two or three hours, maybe more. It's ridiculous. I'm going to break this post into smaller sections considering this a pretty broad topic.

School:

The first thing you should know about the style in Spain, is that school doesn't matter. I wanted to do a little section on school because of the fact that this is where I spend most of my time. Sweatsuits are perfectly normal (Cai this place is perfect for you). I myself have not taken part in the whole sweatsuit craze, unless it's gym, which I'll explain later. The difference between a person at school and a person at a club is almost scary. Everyone looks completely different. At school, girls rarely wear makeup, but at club, at least 85% of the girls look like they just came from a Jersey Shore casting audition. No joke. The reason kids don't dress up for school, is because on days they have gym, which is twice a week, we have to wear your gym clothes to school. Thank goodness it's not hot anymore because those first few weeks here were just unbearable. I have gym first period, so everyone would come to school in their gym clothes, run around outside for an hour, and then go to a confined classroom without changing or doing anything to not look/smell completely disgusting. I had a really hard time with this for a while. Of course, on days we don't have gym, some girls will dress up a little bit, but usually kids just trade out the sweat pants for jeans and wear boots instead of sneakers.

Now that I've talked a little bit about school I'll talk about articles of clothing that I've found to be different than in America.

Shoes:

I came here with four pairs of shoes, my flip-flops, a pair of Toms, a pair of nice sandals, and my sneakers. When I told my host sister this her first question was “What about your heels?” (in Spanish of course) It took her about ten minutes to understand that I didn't bring any. After my first weekend here I understood why my host sister acted the way she did. Everyone, well every girl, wears heels when they go out. The trick is, to wear a pair of flats when walking and then bring your heels for the club. Outside of clubs, heeled boots are especially popular. Shoe stores are filled with boots with the most obnoxiously high heels. I laughed when I first saw them which really confused my friend because she absolutely loves them. Everybody does. Except for the weird American. For guys, it's basically the same. The more pairs of dysfunctional sneakers the better.

Pants:

Jeans, jeans, jeans. Just like in America except there really isn't any other pants besides jeans here. I wore corduroys one day and had at least 10 people rub my leg cause they hadn't seen pants so soft before. With guys, skinny jeans are extremely popular. The whole baggy jean thing isn't as big here as it is back home.

Shirts:

Shirts alone made me want to write this post. You wouldn't believe how many shirts with random English phrases I see on a daily basis. Some of them, have drinking and drug references but they're seen as acceptable in school because no one can understand them. Well, except for a few of the teachers which makes me wonder why they don't do anything about it. Some of them are really bad. I'm constantly getting asked to translate peoples shirts because they have no idea what it says.. I can't imagine buying and wearing a shirt without understanding what's on it. Some of the weirdest ones I've seen are:

• “Party like a cheetah without its spots” (I didn't even bother translating this one considering I didn't even understand it in English)
• “I hate boys, I hate girls, I love me” (Hopefully that designer is out of business)
• “Don't eat my cabbage!” (Maybe this is a reference to something, but if it's not......)
• “Say my name in a Russian accent” (Again, I really hope this is a reference to something that makes sense.)

I wish I was making these up but sadly I'm not.

Jewelry:

Piercings anywhere and everywhere!

I'm talking earrings, lip rings, nose rings, tongue rings, nose rings galore. People pierce random places on their face. My host sister has a piercing on her cheek that I thought was mole for a good two weeks. Guy or girl it doesn't matter. Most people have some sort of weird piercing.

Hair:

Hair styles are basically the same except for when girls put their hair up. When putting your hair up for gym or to go out, the higher the better. Thankfully my hair is to short to do this so I have an excuse not to look like a complete freak. It's perfectly normal for a girl to stick her ponytail right on top of her head and have people rave about how pretty it is. I've seen this happen on numerous occasions and I just smile and try really hard not to laugh. With guys, BEWARE OF THE GEL! Everyone uses hair gel when going out and even sometimes in school. Another hair trend I have a hard time not laughing at.

So that's it from what I've seen. Obviously I don't know what the style is in Madrid or on the runways but from what I've seen in Jerez,

This is style:

Hair on top of their heads/Gel, gel, and more gel

Five earrings, two lip rings, and a nose ring

Shirt with some random phrase that no one understands

Jeans

And some heels or heeled boots/sneakers

I'm sorry this post is not what many people were expecting to read but next week I promise I'll give an update on how my first Thanksgiving away from home was. I'm already getting into the holiday mood which is fun but extremely sad. Lights have gone up around the Central and it makes me miss home every time I see them. Hopefully some more candy will come and I can push away the homesickness with some Starburst and Psych (the only/best cure..although I do think my family is starting to worry about why I'm always laughing to myself)

Abrazos y besos a todos

-Libby

P.S.

I got my internet back!

For now.....

Two months!

So....

It's been a while.

Remember when I said that things were supposed to calm down after last week? I was wrong. Teachers just keep giving me more and more tests to study for. Last week I had two tests in Philosophy and History. This week I have a Science test, two French tests and apparently I have another Economy test coming up. Perfect. I'm not intending for all my blog posts to be about school that just seems to be taking up most of my time lately.

First thing that's changed since last time I wrote, it's been surprisingly cold here recently. I can no longer wear t-shirts and shorts which has been a nice change. Last weekend it was so cold I had to call a taxi and leave my friends hours before I was planning because I actually couldn't handle it. Of course, then the next day it was hot and I woke up sweating. I swear, sometimes the weather here is more temperamental than Maine, and that's saying something.

I actually can't believe that it's already mid-November. Tomorrow is the two-month mark of me being here and that means I'm 1/5 of the way through my trip. I don't know why but it feels like I've been here so much longer. Stuff I did in September and even October feels like forever ago. A distant memory, yet on the other hand, it also feels like time is going by extremely fast. It's hard to explain. I read about this before I came here on other blogs, but nothing really makes complete until experience you experience it for yourself. I can write about how amazing this trip is or how hard it is to be away from home, but it's not like anybody can really understand what I'm going through unless they're going through it too. That's what makes exchange friends so much fun. For the most part, we all miss the same things and are going through the same challenges.

This past week I've been experiencing my first real case of homesickness since my first week of being here. I'm pretty sure this is mostly due to the fact that my internet hasn't been working and I haven't been able to Skype with anyone without the fear of my internet turning off. I don't know what the problem with it is, it just keeps randomly shutting off and when it does work it's really slow. Basically every time I try to Skype all we're able to talk about is how terrible my internet is, and then it shuts off again. After a few days of this I've just given up which has made me sort of homesick. I wouldn't say this is culture shock because according to my program directors, the most common sign of culture shock is when you start spending all your time talking to family, which of course, I can't, so that's not it. I'm embarrassed to admit, the hardest part about having internet problems is the fact that I can't watch last weeks Psych, Grey's Anatomy, or Glee. That's been hard. Spanish television just isn't the same. Hopefully this problem will fix itself, because I don't think I can go much longer without talking to people. Luckily, this problem didn't occur during my first weeks of being here. Now at least I have friends, swimming, parties, and other things to keep me busy. It's just days like today where I'm stuck inside doing homework where I really need internet. I'm proud that I've gone this long without being really homesick. Thankfully, I still have candy left which is always helpful.

Moving on from that, I have a new addiction. Shopping. This weekend I was luckily able to restrain myself and not buy anything, but these past couple of weekends, my German friend and I have gone a little crazy. Don't worry, I haven't spent that much money, it's just the act of shopping which I'm now addicted to. I love the stores here! Oh and the bracelets. I've bought a few more than I'm willing to admit. I just love bracelets! I'm still wearing all the bracelets people gave me before I left. People are always asking me why on one hand I wear the same bracelets every day, while on the other hand I wear different ones every day. I just tell them they remind me of home :). All this talk about clothing has given me the idea for my next blog post. Style in Spain. The clothing choices here are surprisingly different. Everyone's always telling me how they model themselves after American fashion but it just isn't true. Now obviously I don't know much about fashion, but I do know enough to know that whatever the kids are wearing here, isn't American.

Now I know I'm always saying this, but, wow these blog posts are hard to write. Everything is so routine now. Most of the stuff I know would be interesting to everyone back home just isn't interesting to me anymore. I'm still experiencing many new things every day, they're just not as shocking or memorable. I need to start my journal back up so I can remember everything to write down in my blog. Throughout the week, I'm constantly saying, wow I should write about this in my blog, but then when it actually comes down to writing it, I forget. For example, yesterday there was this huge Spanish music festival where these groups of musicians were all dressed up and parading down the central. Now, I would've forgotten that if I hadn't wrote this section on forgetting important things that I should be remembering. Hopefully my internet is strong enough for me to post some of the pictures I took. I would post the video but I don't want to risk my internet shutting off.. again.. It's happened four times since I've started writing this.

Anways,

I have two French tests to study for,

and a science test,

and an art project to do...

If you're reading this Teagan, know that sadly I won't be able to start my bush drawings for a couple of weeks because apparently I have to do a project on the tree I've been working so hard on.

Not...

I swear,

This art class has been the single most pointless class I've ever taken.

First trimester=Trees Second Trimester=Bushes Third Trimester=Flowers.

If only my Spanish was good enough for me to drop out.

But sadly,

it's not.

Adioss

-Libby

They worked!

Halloween weekend

So as I said in my previous blog post:

Last weekend was a four day weekend. It was nice because I was able to have Halloween and the day after off which meant I could actually do something and not have to worry about having school the next day. Here's a summary of what I did on my Halloween weekend in Spain.

Friday:

Friday, my friend Maria (or Snooks as some people like to call her * cough Ben Nelson cough *) and I went out to eat at a Turkish restaurant which was surprisingly amazing. It's definitely the best restaurant food I've eaten. After that, we went back to her house and she helped me finally make a Tuenti! Tuenti is the Spanish version of Facebook, and to make one you have to be invited. I had been putting it off because I don't really enjoy talking in Spanish on Facebook, but I was convinced by Maria that it's the most efficient way to get in contact with people.

Saturday:

On Saturday I met up with my German friend Nele to go shopping in the Central. We went to many different stores that I had never heard of before, but are supposedly in the U.S. Similar to the U.S., quality depends on cost. I bought a gray sweater for only 8 euros that ripped the first time I wore it. Luckily my host mother is sewing it for me so I don't have to worry. I was planning on going out that night but the person I was supposed to get a ride with canceled which meant I had to find another way of getting there. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to get over my fears and try and navigate the bus by myself. I've somehow managed to avoid the bus the entire time I've been here but after being here seven weeks I've realized that I need to start putting myself in more situations where I'll have to use my Spanish. Of course, after figuring the correct bus, getting the right times for getting there and back, and finding the correct bus stop, the bus never showed up. I would've been more disappointed but all the stress of making plans and figuring everything out had left me pretty exhausted.

Sunday:

Thanks to Tuenti, I was able to make plans to go to the movies with some friends. We ended up seeing Paranormal Activity 3 which was actually the perfect first movie to see in Spanish (outside of the movies I watch at my house with my host family where I don't really pay attention). The sentences in Paranormal Activity are simple and most of the movie is just watching creepy stalker footage of people sleeping. It was actually a pretty good movie for anyone contemplating seeing it. One difference I noticed between Spanish and American movie theaters is that the popcorn here is soooo much better. Now I might just be saying this because I've had an extreme craving for popcorn ever since I've been here or because I was starving at the time, but I'm pretty sure it's just because the popcorn here is truly amazing.

Monday:

Halloween. (Also the birthday of Emma Pidden :) Happy Birthdayyyy!!)

I think Halloween was the first time I truly missed home. I missed dressing up even though my past costumes haven't been the most creative (witch, witch, witch, death, spiderweb......) While some of my friends here were able to dress up and go to discos, I went to my first house party with my host sister. Oh how I missed house parties. The party was in this sketchy apartment that was basically just an empty room with a couple mattresses and enough food to feed over 100 people even though there were only about 20. I won't go into extreme details of what happened because it was basically just food, games, and music, but I will say that even though there were no costumes it was still pretty fun. Luckily, I received my first care package the day before filled with candy so between that and Paranormal Activity 3, my homesickness wasn't to extreme on my first holiday away from home. Another thing that I noticed, was that unlike I had been told, trick-or-treating is very much a thing here. Walking around the neighborhood, everything reminded me of Halloween on Princes Point. The costumes, bags filled to the brim with candy, and house decorations, were all the same. While I'll admit it's definitely not as extreme here, Spain has definitely taken after some of America's traditions which was interesting to see.

Tuesday:

Homework day. In the next week I have tests in Philosophy, History, and Science. Yesterday, I had a Math and a Lengua exam. Trying to balance studying, swimming, and skyping with friends has been a challenge recently but I'm hoping after next week things will be easier.

Speaking of school, I think this post would be a perfect opportunity to give an update on school.

Lets start with my absolute fav subject, Economy!!

Economy: The reason I'm starting with this terrible class is because....I passed my test! I don't even know how this is possible. Technically, I only got a 5.5 out of 10 which is still pretty bad, but here that is considered passing. It was a little awkward though because not everyone passed so when anyone asked me my grade I tried not to sound too excited. One thing I hate about my school is the fact that the teachers read everyone's grade out loud for the entire class to hear. I always feel bad when someone finds out they failed a test and then proceeds to get made fun of by the rest of their classmates. If I could change one thing about my school it would definitely be that.

Math: Well.. I've taken two tests since I've been here. The test I took yesterday I'm not sure if I passed or failed. It's hard for me because for about three weeks I was being taught by a substitute who always took the time to make sure I understood what was going on. The teacher I have now doesn't care at all that I'm extremely confused so on the test I felt confident on some parts and on others I just had to guess. I know I should be saying that Math is so easy because it's a universal language or whatever, but that is not true. It's hard to explain why Math here is so difficult but sometime I'll take a picture of my textbook which I'm pretty sure will confuse even the smartest of math wizards. It's not the Math itself, it's the way we have to solve the problems that make absolutely no sense. Today I found out that I got a zero on the test I took on my first day of school. I thought the teacher was joking when he made me take it...but he wasn't...and I failed...miserably.

History: I took my first test a couple of weeks ago and got a four on it. Don't worry though because that was one of the highest grades in the class. People cheered for me when they heard I got a four. Apparently understanding the French Revolution isn't very common here. Thankfully, everything I've learned so far, I learned last year and somehow remember. Next week, my test is on Napoleon so I'm not too worried.

French: I am amazing at French. I can't pronounce it to save my life, but somehow the reading and writing is extremely easy for me. I am currently getting a nine in that class :)

Science: I had to do a presentation on stars a couple of weeks ago which I got an eight on, but other than that I've basically done nothing. I have a test next week but I still don't have a book so I don't really know how that's going to go.

English: I have never loved a class more than English.

Philosophy: I think right now we're talking about evolution. It's hard to follow exactly what's going on because the teacher just sits at his desk and talks for an hour. I'm a little worried about that test.

Lengua; The Lengua teacher is definitely the most understanding of my situation. I've had two tests so far but every time he makes me a different test that's easier. He seems to be the only teacher that actually cares whether I pass or not.

Drawing: I've been drawing the same tree for seven weeks. I'm actually starting to go crazy.

Gym: We're playing badmitten twice a week until February. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a pro at badmitten by the end of this year.

So that's it. I know that was a really long post but I had a lot to cover.

I now have to go finish some Philosophy homework...

On a side note,

Today is my 50^th day in Spain!

Crazyy

-Libby

Bilingual? more like no-lingual

So..

I've actually been dreading writing this blog post for a few reasons.

1. My week has been extremely boring. Basically, after school, I've been spending every afternoon studying for this huge economy test I had today which I ended up failing. No matter how hard I try, I'm pretty sure I will never understand economy. Especially since this is my first economy class and I'm taking it in Spanish. Studying for a test in Spanish is a lot different than studying in English. It's extremely frustrating because no matter how hard or long I study for, I still can never be fully prepared. Google translate only goes so far. Basically, after I attempted to read the text book on my own, I had to give up and type everything into Google Translate. I'm pretty sure I listened to the entire new Coldplay album five times doing this. Ten pages, 4 hours, and ten pieces of gum later, I was finally able to put everything into Google Translate. After that, I had to read all the information, try to understand it, and hand-write it in English so that I would have it for class. It was torture. Normally, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble considering I hate economy, but last week my teacher told me I wasn't trying hard enough and that I needed to participate more. She told me that she thought I wasn't learning as fast as the other exchange students and that I should work harder. I took this personally considering I have been working extremely hard trying to do all the assignments I've been given. So of course, I took this as a challenge and worked all week trying to learn everything there is to know about the “fundamentals of economy.” Luckily, even though I'm pretty sure I failed, I was able to answer all of the multiple choice questions and some of the definitions which was better than I was expecting.

2. I'm awkwardly starting to forget English. I obviously don't mean the actual language but more certain phrases and words. For example, I spent about 5 minutes during my economy test trying to figure out I business had one “s” or two. (I was looking it up in my span-eng dictionary). Normally I would be laughing at myself right now, but I'm actually concerned. This has been a problem with me all week. I sometimes can't remember how to structure a sentence correctly. Anyone who has talked to me on Skype knows that my grammar lately has been much worse than usual. I'm not trying to brag by saying “oh yeah, six weeks, already fluent in Spanish, basically a genius.” No. My Spanish, while having greatly improved, is still terrible. I'm in this weird state where my thoughts are a mix of Spanish and English and only I would understand it. There is no grammar structure just words in both languages mixed together to make a thought. When I speak, I have no problem forming an English sentence, and usually a Spanish sentence (if it's a basic one). It's when I want to write something that I have trouble. Another example being right now, I have this weird feeling about every sentence I write that something is wrong. I am constantly mixing up words in sentences and it always takes me a moment to figure out the correct phrasing. It's extremely frustrating. I feel as though I don't know Spanish or English. I'm hoping this is just a phase and that eventually I'll be fluent in both languages and not just one or the other.
3. These blog posts take me forever to write. If you're wondering why I've only been writing once a week, it's because trying to think of something somewhat interesting to say is an exhausting process that takes a really long time. I usually just give up and write about boring things like my economy test..

In other news, this weekend is a long weekend which means that I have Halloween and the day after Halloween off. I don't know why we have these days off but I'm pretty sure it's not because of Halloween. If it is, then Yarmouth really needs to take after Spain and make Halloween a vacation day. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing on this wonderfully long weekend, but hopefully something that involves costumes, scary movies, and candy because anyone who has spent Halloween with me knows that it's just not okay if I can't watch at least one scary movie and eat at least about a million pieces of candy.

Anyways,

Because I don't have any more Economy I don't really have an excuse not to swim so....

I guess I'll go do that

Adiosss

I hope everyone has a spectacular Halloween :)

Time's flyinnn

I honestly don't know where this week has gone.

I swore it was just yesterday that I wrote my last post, but then I checked the date and it's been almost a week!

I guess it's a good thing that time is going by so quickly because it means I'm spending more time enjoying myself without always missing home. I've also been extremely busy which could be another reason this week has gone by so impossibly fast.

So because I don't remember exactly what I did Wednesday-Friday I'll just start from Saturday.

Saturday:

Of course, once again, my family decides to take me out for one of their famous all-day grocery shopping trips. Lucky for me this one consisted of going to not one but two grocery stores!! This made the total shopping time around four hours...... After those fun excusions, we stopped by an outdoor market which was actually interesting. I unfortunately didn't bring my camera because I was under the impression we were just going to the supermarket. I was instantly blown away when I walked into the market because there in front of me were approximately 40 seafood stands and easily over 200 people all packed into a very confined space. Everyone was yelling and moving around so keeping track of my host parents as they made their way from stand to stand was a little challenging to say the least. We of course stopped at every stand, not just seafood, adding a good two hours to our shopping adventure. Needless to say, once we got home I was exhausted and ready for my siesta. Instead though,my host mom asked me if I wanted to help make lunch, which of course I couldn't say no to. I then proceeded to sit through a very long weekend meal which I wasn't even hungry for to begin with. I know I just made that sound like a horrible day, but it wasn't all bad. I really do love spending time with my host family because it gives me a chance to practice my Spanish without the pressure of being made of (this occurs quite a bit in school).

That night I went out with my friend who speaks English and Spanish (for anyone who's seen my Facebook photos, she's the short one who can be found in about 75% of my pictures.) The reason I mention what she looks like is because as of now she is probably my best friend here. I learn so much when I'm with her because no matter what language we're speaking we're always able to communicate with each other. I met some of her friends who were all very friendly and made me feel like I've known them forever which is always nice.

Sunday:

Nothing much happened except...

Churros!!!

I woke up and went downstairs expecting to have regular breakfast of bread and olive oil when all the sudden the doorbell rang. I froze. I had no idea what to do. You see, for many houses in Jerez, there is the door outside the house and then another door outside of the garden. The entire house is surrounded by a gate so to get in you have to ring the doorbell outside the garden. Usually there is always someone downstairs when the doorbell rings so I'd never payed attention on what to do. I contemplated on whether I should just let them in from the house (you do this by pressing a button unlocking the outside door) or going outside and opening the door myself. I decided on option number two and realized it was my host mothers parents bringing us churros! Best Sunday morning ever.

Other than that my day basically just consisted of homework.

of course.

Monday:

Monday was one of my good Spanish days. What I mean by that is, since I've been here, I've realized that my progress in becoming fluent in Spanish isn't a steady increase where every day I get a little better. It's actually a series of ups and downs, where some days I find that I understand almost everything, and other days I understand very little. This is very annoying but I'm getting used to it.

I also swam for the first time Monday which was quite difficult. First of all, getting the motivation to actually go to the pool is hard enough in itself. When nobody's telling you to go and you have no competitions to get ready for, it's very tempting to just stay in bed and sleep. Eventually though, I got up the energy and made my way to the pool. This was actually a lot harder than it sounds, because I had to make my way through the city over a mile, by myself, trying to remember where to go after only walking there once with my host mother. I did end up making it though and suffered through the terrible experience of swimming for the first time after taking more than two months off.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was supposed to be a pretty normal day for me, but of course, there are no normal days in Spain. As I was getting off the bus, one of my friends told me that I had to go to her house at 5:00 to work on our science project which was due the next day. I awkwardly didn't know we had a science project so I was really confused. Luckily, they didn't expect me to do anything except cut out papers and draw stars (there was some serious first grade déjà vu going on that day.) After that they asked me if I wanted to go the park with them and I accepted thinking it wouldn't take too long and I'd have plenty of time to do my homework. I thought wrong. One of the people I was with is an aspiring photographer so she spent over two hours taking pictures....of everything.... Needless to say, not much homework was done that night.



Wednesday:
I slept. All afternoon. I eventually woke up around 9:00 because my host family went out and I really needed to play my guitar. (I was sick last Friday which is when I usually play.)



This weekend I'm going to dinner with my host sister and shopping with my friends so hopefully there will be many more stories to come.
Now I must go finish my Math homework so I can watch last nights Psych :)
Adioss
-Libby

A few things I've noticed

So today is 14^th . I can officially say that I have survived an entire month in a new country experiencing a completely new and different way of life. I decided that today would be the perfect day to write about some of the differences I've noticed between Spain and America after living here for an entire 30 days. Hopefully there won't be too many repeats from previous blog posts, but I have a hard time remembering what I have and haven't written about.

1. I guess the best place to start off would be greetings. The difference between how Americans greet each other and how Spaniards greet each other is very different. In America, if you were meeting someone for the first time you would most likely shake their hand or give a slight wave if you were meeting them in a big informal group. If you were greeting a friend there most likely wouldn't be any formal greeting at all besides a few phrases such as “Hello” “How are you?” or other things along those lines. Of course, everyone is different and I can't really speak for all of America but this is my experience. In Spain, you must always greet someone with two kisses on each cheek. When I first got here this actually kind of annoyed me because of how time consuming it was. Whenever I go out to a party or to dinner, every person I meet I have to kiss twice on the cheek. I guess now I'm used to it but I still sometimes miss the quick straightforward handshake/wave.
   
2. Another thing that's different here are house rules. First, I am never allowed to take my shoes off unless I'm in my room. I still don't know why this is a rule considering it's just basically creating more work cleaning the floor. I guess it's not really a big issue here because it hardly ever rains and it never snows. Another house rule is that dishes aren't reused without going through the dishwasher first. I have a feeling this is just in my house but I find it very frustrating and I often break it by putting my water glass in the same place every time so that I don't have to get new one. (Dirty dishes go on the counter because the sink isn't big enough.) I know it's not good to break rules, but I come downstairs for water probably 10 times a day and there is no way I'm using 10 glasses a day for water.
   
3. Throwing away trash. Here's another example of me yelling in English at Spaniards when I'm upset. Excuse my anger in this next point but this actually makes me very upset. I don't know why, but kids here seem to think it's cool to throw their trash on the ground. Even if there is a trash can five feet away, most kids think it's perfect acceptable to just throw whatever trash they have on the ground. My friends all laugh at me because I always take the time to find a trash can no matter how far away it is. This is one custom I will not adapt to. The other night I was at a park near a Burger King and even though there were plenty of trash cans around, the entire park was filled with Burger King bags, empty bottles, ketchup packets, etc. It was disgusting.
   
4. From what I've experienced in my school, there aren't really any “groups” of friends which is a lot different than at home. Back in Yarmouth, most people are decent to everyone during school, but if you wanted to hang out with someone on the weekend, you have your specific group of friends to turn to.If there was party then maybe a few more people would be added but there are always those kids you just don't hang out with for whatever reason. Things are very different here. During school everyone is talking to everyone. It's always one big group instead of a bunch of clusters. Everyone seems to truly be friends with everyone. Even the kids that most people would consider outsiders seem to fit in with the rest of the class. Outside of class, it's the same. For example, whenever I hang out with my host sister, she's always having different people over. The only person I've seen more than once is her boyfriend. This makes things much more interesting and has caused me to become friends with a lot more people than I would if I was just friends with one specific group of people.
   
5. There are no school sports here. At Yarmouth High School, it's perfectly normal for kids to be at school until four maybe even five in the afternoon for sports, clubs, and other various activities. Here, it's very different. Ten minutes after the final bell rings the school is a ghost town. Even the teachers are gone. Everyone goes home for siesta. (By far the best time of the day) It's basically just a three hour nap. I'm actually writing this post in the middle of a siesta. Most people sleep during this time but I can never sleep so I spend my siestas playing countless games of solitaire (I still can't beat your score Sydney), watching Arrested Development (I love you Devon, thank you for downloading that on my laptop), or doing homework if I understand it.
   

Anyways,
there are many more differences I could write about but they're minor and I'm sure I'll mention them in future blog posts.
Now I'm off to coloring in my second map for French.
Something I actually understand!

-Libby



P.S. Happy birthday to my little piggy Gina Robertson. I hope it's absolutely amazing. Can't believe we're turning 17 this year. Miss you :)