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