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 :)

One month...almost

Originally I was waiting to write this post on the 14^th because that's the exact day I left, but I've been getting many requests to blog more so I guess I'll just pretend this is the 14^th. It's close enough considering today is Wednesday and it was on Wednesday four weeks ago that I started this journey. I think I'll construct this post with an update on the past few days and then a reflection on my first month as a whole.

So this weekend, as anyone who talked to me already knows, wasn't the most exciting. It was a long weekend just like in the US, but still not much exciting happened. This was the opposite of what I thought my weekend was going to be like because my host parents were gone for the entire weekend traveling around Spain. I was sure my host sister would use this opportunity to spend time with friends, go to parties, and stay out all night, which she did, just without me... I'm not going to lie sitting on the couch Saturday night while my host sister got ready for a fiesta that she didn't even bother inviting me too was a little depressing. It wasn't too bad though because I was able to play guitar and Skype without fear of annoying my host family. Thankfully, Sunday night, my host sister asked me to go out with her and I was able to ride on her motorcycle again. I think after riding it for a fourth time I have to say it is definitely my favorite thing to do here.

Another thing I was able to do this weekend was see some of my exchange friends at the pedestrian mall. It's always nice to be able to speak English outside of Skype and have people understand me. I loved hearing all the stories of peoples experiences so far and their reactions to Spain. The pedestrian mall or the “centro” is by far my favorite place I've been to in Jerez. It's hard to believe I've been here a month and there's still so much of this town I haven't seen. If I wanted to take someone on a tour of Yarmouth it would probably only take 1-2 hours yet I've spent entire days just touring this place and haven't even seen half of it. When CIEE told me they were placing me in an town relatively close in size to Yarmouth, they lied. I'm glad though, because I've always wanted to live in a city even if it's just for a short period of time, and now I am.

This week I have/had Monday and Wednesday off of school. I'm still not sure on why I have today off but I'm not complaining. It was interesting though, because that meant that yesterday when there was school, nobody showed up. In total, there were probably about eight kids out of 35. My English teacher explained to me that the reason kids often skip class is because it's not mandatory for them. They're encouraged to go because they can't graduate if they don't, and if they skip enough classes the principal will call home, but overall if you skip a couple of classes, nobody really cares. One thing I don't understand is that some kids missed the entire morning, came in for one class, and then skipped the entire afternoon. What was the point of coming in at all? Why would you walk or drive all that way for one class? The weird thing was, was that the class everyone came in for was French. So basically, for five out of six classes we had eight kids but during French we had 20. I still don't understand Spanish schools and I'm starting to think I never will.
Since last night wasn't a school night, I was allowed to go out with some friends for a birthday party. One thing I love about Spain is how spontaneous everything is here. I didn't even know the girl who's birthday it was but one hour before everyone was leaving I got a call asking if I wanted to go. They hadn't even figured out exactly what they were going to do yet, but they knew it would be a party so of course I said yes. I met so many people which was really nice, but over-whelming as it always is because I can never remember everyone's name.



So that's basically what happened this week and now I guess I'll reflect a little bit on how this month has gone.  Basically, this month has gone by so fast it feels like a week. I can't believe that four weeks ago I was saying goodbye to my friends and family for an entire year. Some days it feels like forever ago and others it feels like just yesterday. I miss everything that I left so much but at the same time I absolutely love it here. America and Spain are so different. There's times when all I want to do is go home and be in a place where people understand me, but other times I find that the challenges of it are what make this experience so special. This past month has definitely been the most challenging month of my entire life. Every week has its extreme ups and its extreme downs. I know now though, that whenever I'm going through a rough patch, I just need to wait because eventually it will get better. For example, on Saturday, when I was sitting alone while my host sister was out, all I wanted to do was go home and be with my friends. I was sure my entire weekend would be spent like this alone and bored, but of course the next day my host sister invited me out with her and it was one of the most fun nights I've had since I've been here. My point is, that obviously this month has had its ups and downs but in grand scheme of things there have been way more ups than downs.
Another thing that I've failed to write about in my blog posts is how I've been improving with the language. This is because up until a few days ago I hadn't really seen any improvement. Now though, I realize that month ago I wasn't able to have a full conversation, even if it's just about basic things, without thinking. It helps that one of my best friends here speaks English and Spanish because if I ever want to know how to say something she's always there to help me.



Anways,
This post has been a lot longer than intended.
For everyone who's taking PSATS today,
Good luck :)
Sorry I can't be there to join in on the fun....
-Libby


P.S. I registered to a pool yesterday!! I'm planning on swimming as much as I can because the pool is absolutely amazing.

Pictures!

So a couple of days ago I thought it would be a good idea to take a walk around my neighborhood and get a few pictures for my blog. Forewarning, these aren't nice artsy shots of the beautiful Jerez. These are quick shots of my house and neighborhood so everyone can get and idea of where I'm living. When I'm in the centro or at the beach I don't like taking pictures because I don't like looking like any more of a foreigner than I have to. I promise though, I will get over this hesitation and take some better pictures soon! 

 My room: Before I unpacked

 View from my window:

 My nicely made bed

 Statue in the pedestrian mall

 Circus! Closed at the moment

 More of the pedestrian mall

 Typical alleyway 

 My street

 Ice cream stand outside my house!

 My house! (Apartment complex)

 These numbers are placed on every block. I'm still not sure what they stand for but they're huge!

 Tennis court by my house

 English stop sign

 Typical garage door

 Side view of my house

Park outside my house

I hope everyone is having a great long weekend. I have Monday through Wednesday off meaning I don't have to go to school until Thursday :)

No Economy for me!

-Libby

Parties, Paella, and Strikes!

Okay so first, I'm planning on this being super long blog post, just to let everyone know.

This past week has definitely been my best week here because I really feel as though every day I'm making stronger and stronger friendships.

Because I haven't updated this since last Friday, I guess I should start where I left off. Don't worry I'll skip over the boring parts.

Saturday:

Saturday was my host father's birthday. The day before my host mother had told me that we were having a “little” party for him with a couple family members. I wasn't really expecting anything big so needless to say when I came downstairs Saturday morning to see over 40 people in our tiny backyard I was a pretty shocked. I don't think I've ever met so many people at one time in my life. The reason I was so shocked is because when anyone in my family has a birthday celebration especially an adult it's usually it's just the immediate family, occasionally some extended family, a cake, and maybe a couple presents. Things were much different here. In Spain, it's very common for an entire extended family on both sides to all live in the same town or in a town nearby. At this party, there were both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles from both sides, and many cousins. Instead of just one cake, there were about 4 different kinds but that was nothing compared to the food we had before the cake. I still can't get over how good the food is here. To list some of my favorites:

-Mussels with a lemon sauce

-Mini sausages in rolls

-Tomato/pepper salad

-And Paella! Oh my goodness. Paella is probably the most amazing thing I've ever eaten. It's a typical Spanish dish with rice, meat, and tons of different kinds of vegetables. It's absolutely amazing. I knew it was good when I was actually craving the vegetables after.

Anyways, the entire family was at our house for over 12 hours but I went to bed early because trying to follow over 40 Spanish people talking at the same time can be both tiring and a little bit annoying.

Sunday:

Homework day (some things never change)

Monday:

On Monday I obviously went to school and once again I ran into the same situation of people trying to skip class. I didn't know what was going on at first but I caught on fast when as soon as the bell rang everyone sprinted out of the classroom and towards the door trying to not be seen by the next teacher. Once outside the kids split off in two directions. I went with the kids trying to go out the front door but of course they weren't allowed access to leave (I don't know why they thought they would be), so, we went back to class. The kids who went out the back made it with no consequences because all you have to do is jump over the fence and your free. Don't worry, I wasn't attempting to skip an actual class the teacher wasn't there that day meaning no class.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, my friend invited me to go out and explore the city with her and some of her friends. I thought we were just walking around so I wore my school clothes but I soon found out I was very under-dressed. I guess walking around town requires a skirt and heels. Figures.. Anyways, seeing more of Jerez was very fun and I was able to see many famous churches and buildings. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but my friend promised we would go back soon and my other friend took some pictures on her camera which she said she would send to me.

Wednesday:

Yesterday I went out with the same friend to go meet a bunch of people for dinner. This was really fun because there were people I knew from my class, people from other classes who I knew of but had never actually been introduced to, and people who I had never seen before. There were probably about 35 people there total which was interesting to say the least. It was nice because my friend from Germany who speaks English was there and we had a lot of fun trying to understand what everyone was saying and making fun of them in English without them understanding. I find myself doing that a lot actually. For instance, whenever someone lights up a cigarette I'm constantly mumbling to myself how disgusting it is and how they really need to stop being so stupid. I often do this without even realizing it so thank goodness they can't understand me.

Today, school was canceled and I was supposed to go the strike but I couldn't find anyone to go with because everyone wanted to use this opportunity to sleep. I'm a little disappointed but I hear that strikes occur often here so hopefully I'll get to go to the next one. Basically, the strike is about the Spanish government wanting to cut the education budget. I honestly don't know what else they can take though. Spanish education, or my school anyways, is about as basic as it gets. If anything, they should be giving money to the schools. Obviously I'm aware of the economy being a factor but in my opinion the Spanish government should find other areas to cut funds because education isn't always the answer when it comes to budget cuts. Just because it's the easiest doesn't mean it's right.

Anyways, that's basically what's been going on this week.

Now it's time for lunch,

At four in the afternoon,

Stupid Spanish eating schedule.

-Libby

Lo siento y HAPPYBIRTHDAYTEAGAN!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days. It's not that I've forgotten about this blog it's just that there isn't anything  new or interesting to post about at the moment Tomorrow I'm skipping school to go to a strike with some of the kids from my class so after that I'll make sure to give a full update (with pictures). :)
Adioss

p.s.
Happy Birthday to Teagan Snyder!!!!
If you're reading this, know that I miss you very muchhhh and I'm so sorry I can't be there on this very special day
Finally 10! wow so old.