End of the First Quarter/October in Spain

So I have to admit, I had my first case of homesickness last weekend. It was strange to not be at home for Halloween. I missed the decorations and the neighborhood kids trick-or-treating. Halloween is celebrated here, but on a way smaller scale. Some trick-or-treaters came to my apartment and I had to tell them I didn’t have anything for them, which was definitely a first. Other than that though, between Pilar, school trips and life in general, October flew by. The quarter ended last Friday and my parents are visiting in a month and a half—I can’t believe the year is going by so quickly!

Two weekends ago I went up to the Pyrenees with about half of my classmates and 2 teachers. We got in late on Friday and stayed in a hostel then spent all day Saturday hiking. It was definitely a challenging hike, but a lot of fun. It was nice to be with a smaller group and the Pyrenees were gorgeous! On some levels it reminded me of being home and at our cabin, but the mountains were also so different. It was so crazy to be hiking in hot weather at the bottom and by the top be in 5 inches of snow and still have it be warm enough for tennis shoes, leggings and a t-shirt.

Last weekend was my host mom’s boyfriend’s daughter’s birthday, and mine is this week, so they took us to the pueblo where he grew up. We stayed in some cabins on a campground owned by family friends of Joaquin’s and went to a mountain springs heated pool. The next day we went to a monastery with the most amazing park imaginable. It’s filled with waterfalls and caves and takes about two hours to walk through. The monastery is famous for two other things as well: a wine museum and for being the first place in Europe to make chocolate. The coolest thing about being in the pueblo was seeing what a community it is and how deep peoples’ roots go there. Though Joaquin had moved away around 20 years ago, people still asked about his family, and he knew everything about their families. The idea of a pueblo is so different from anything we have in the U.S. A pueblo is unlike a suburb (it’s not as developed) and it’s not like a small town in the Midwest (it’s less spread out and more independent). It is very modern (they have a hotel and restaurants) but it’s like it’s from another era. It has 400 people and a 30 person school.

As far as school goes, it gets a little more normal everyday. We got our grades this week and I was happy to see that I am passing all of my classes, though a fair amount of people who are otherwise successful in school are on academic probation. It’s definitely a different way of teaching, a lot less guided, a lot more up to the student to decide how well they’ll do. Though it started off as my least favorite class, Spanish Literature has become one of my favorite classes because it’s one that I can see and feel clear improvement from week to week. Another class I really enjoy is my Mediterranean Art History class, but that is because I love my teacher, Aalvaro. This entire week the school is splitting into three groups and going to three different parts of the country, and I’m really happy that Aalvaro is the teacher for my group, along with Oriol, who I don’t have but everyone loves. The groups are about 21 students each and are going to Salemanca (where I’m going) near Portugal, Madrid, and San Sebastion.

I’m really happy I’m here, it’s been such a great experience and I’ve gotten to see and do things I never could at home!

a few Photos from the past month

school day trip to a monastery (Leyre)

a town on the way to Alberacín (school trip)

monastery (leyre)

 school day trip to a castle (Olite)

SYA class of 2010

Pilar

(this is a pyramid of flowers brought by people from around the country)

the spanish kids we spent the first weekend with

Pilar in Zaragoza 2009!

First off, I have to apologize: my grammar seems to be getting worse by the week, so pardon any glaring errors! also, i will post pictures as soon as my new computer comes in the mail.

Today ´sthe last day of the weeklong festival of Pilar. Pilar is a religious festival celebrating Spain´s saint, the virgen pilar. (any pictures you´ve seen of zaragoza probably include a huge church, the church of pilar.) The entire country comes to Zaragoza to celebrate and partake in traditional activities (such as the parade in which people bring flowers and completly cover an enormous metal skeleton of a pyramid) while wearing traditional dresses and hair styles. For a lot of the people though (younger people), its a weeklong party with concerts (free and prepaid tickets) and street vendors (waffles, cotton candy, art).
     for me, it was a chance to meet spanish kids and hang out with different american kids. through a friend whose part of the after school program/exchange with my school and a few local schools i met a group of spanish kids. on the first friday we all went to the free Boney M concert. (youtube boney m, it is hilarious. it is a very 70´s black man with a parted afro, sparkly leotard under sparklier--very tight--bell bottoms, who sings in english.) we spent the next four days with them and enjoyed a much later toque de queda (curfew) of 2 AM, which was still a bit of a hinderance seeing as the spanish kids had curfews of between 4 and 6 AM.
    one of the highlights for me was the bull fight. it´s one of those things that is really easy to say how horrible it is, whether or not you´ve seen one, but after getting over the initial shock of watching the bull taunted and killed, you can really start to see what an art form it is. the costumes are phenominal, and the way the maestros move is almost a dance, with elongated, exagerated gestures and poses, as well as they seem to ¨play¨ (i cannot for the life of me think of a better word, though this is clearly the wrong one) with the bull. one of the many things that surprised me was that it was very apparent which of the bull fighters were more skilled, as they were the ones who were comfortable enough to play up the crowd just as much as they could the bull.
       if physically possible to wake up at 7AM any morning during Pilar (and it very well may not be, for the only reason i could get up so early was because i´d only been asleep for an hour when my alarm went off, and half the crowd had yet to go home after the last night´s festivities) it is well worth it to head back to the bull ring. here, the audience is given the chance to enter the ring  (in 2 hours i only saw one girl in the ring; the rest were 16-30 year old boys/men) and run from a (small, horns capped) bull while trying to pull a hoop from its horn.
     the free conciertos are a really fun way to pass part of the night (there are always at least 2 free ones, one in the plaza de pilar and one on the blocked off street Independencia) and a way to see some of the culture. two of the three nights i went to concerts were my best nights so far (for many reasons, one being that it is impossible to avoid being surrounded by spaniards and the culture of spain).
     throughout Pilar, i was reminded of how lucky i am to have Ana as my host mom. from what a lot of the kids say, i think most families are pretty strict, which i don´t think is something i could handle very well. Ana and i talk a lot, and from that i think she trusts me a lot more than some of the other families do. an example of this is if i call around midnight to ask/notify her about a curfew change (such as a sleep over at a friends who lives closer to the bull rings, or an emergency that will make it impossible for me to get home on time) she asks me a question or two and gives me the green light.
    as with anything like this, there were highs and lows and high school drama, but overall, there is no other way to remember it as anything other than amazing.





this is really not very relevant to Pilar, but i´m finally starting to figure out the food here! for Pilar, i found amazing street waffles and fresh cotton candy, as well as a crepe and smoothie restaurante close to school. the best day since i´ve gotten here (as far as food goes) was friday. i went with a friend to a pasteleria (bakery) that we´d found the day before to buy a ham and cheese croissant but realized that we could buy an entire baguette for half the price of the croissant as well as a wedge of cheese (also less than a croissant) and gelato. we found a grassy patch and had the cheapest and best lunch since starting school.

the first month as an american in spain!

first off, sorry it´s been a while since the last post!

this first month (today it is officially 4 weeks since i arrived in spain) has been amazing, with many highlights and just a few glitches. i´ll start off with the glitches, the first was that it took a full week to get my suitcase with most of my clothes (it kind of sucks to make your first impression on your classmates wearing the same  pair of stretched out jeans everyday and sloppy t-shirts (the only thing that was in the small duffle that came through right away). of all the glitches that could have happened, this really wasn´t that big of a deal. the other glitch (which is currently halfway to being fixed) was that my computer broke. the good news and the bad news is that it was less than a month old. yeah, it´s a bummer to loose it so soon after i bought it, but it also had almost nothing on it, which means nothing was lost (every photo that was on it is still on my camera memory chip, and almost all the music is on my ipod). it costs more to fix than to buy a new one, so a new one is on the way.
other than those two hiccups, the transition has been really smooth. i couldn´t have gotten a better host mom (the daughter is difficult-like all 7-year-olds- Ana, more than makes up for it), the people at school are great, and i´m getting adjusted to the classes. i realized this week just how much more i can understand than i could 4 weeks ago. i finally feel like i understand about 90% of what my crazy history teacher is saying (history and literature are by far the hardest classes), though i´m still constantly terrified í will be called on. although i can understand much more, i still have a hard time figuring out just how to articulate what i want to say. literature is difficult because the stories we read tend to change tenses fairly often. the only reason i´m surviving in that class is because my host mom is so amazing. she asks me about my homework every night and has learned that the subject i most often need help in is lit. I read the stories then tell her what i do and don´t understand (usually i understand each individual paragraphs but not how they relate) and then she goes though the whole thing with me. the first night she spent thirty minutes walking me through a story.)
we´ve been on two school trips so far, one to albraccin (a small pueblo in the province of teruel, 2 hours south of zaragoza in Aragon) and a day trip to Leyre (a monastery) and Olite (a pueblo around an amazing old castle), both 2 hours north of us in Navarra. the trips are a nice change in pace because we live in such a busy, modern city, it´s cool to be able to see the more historical parts of the country, and they are also a good time to get to know more of the class and in a different environment.
Next weekend is the festival of Pilar, the patron saint of spain. the entire country comes to celebrate it in the streets of zaragoza. í don´t know much about it now, i´ll write more about it after it happens.

thanks for the emails and letters! i´ll try to post some pictures soon (it won´t be until i get my new computer though).

hope home is good!

First day at School!

Pues, hoy fue el primer día de colegio, (pero no clases).

Well, today was the first day of school (but no classes).

The whole day was an orientation day with 2 tests at the end. One test was to see how our Spanish is (i.e. should we go into AP Spanish, AP Spanish literature or DELE—I expect to be in AP Spanish—it is the lowest level offered here, but is the highest at most American schools) and to see what math we should go into. I’ve learned that when I can’t follow what the teacher is saying our if it just becomes to tiring, it is extremely easy to daydream for quite a while before realizing that you’ve missed the last five minutes of instructions on what to do should you becom ill. Throughout the day there were moments when I would look around and realize that this would be my life for the next nine months. I would wind up sitting there with a stupid grin as the teacher talked about which areas of the city to avoid at night.

My favorite part is about an hour into the day there is a 45 minute break to get coffee or a snack from a nearby bar (I had a café con leche and a chocolate croissant—the croissants are so much better here, even in the airports). For lunch (one hour) we went to a local high school (today there weren’t local students because they don’t start until next week) where the food es muy mal (bad, but I guess it’s really just your standard high school cafeteria food  standard all over the world). After the first few days I think I will pay a bit more and buy lunch somewhere else unos días de la semana (a few days a week). The people I’ve talked to are interesting—the flight from Boston was an icebreaker—many of us had already talked to each other a bit. After school many of us broke into groups and walked around. (My group attempted to buy cell phones, but learned that we need our passports.)

After talking to one of the girls, I recognized just how lucky I am to have the host mother that I do, and I could just as easily ended up in a very difficult and demanding family. I met my host sister Clara today! (She hasn’t been at home this past weekend, which happened to be her birthday.) Ella tiene 7 años, and she starts school tomorrow. So far she’s pretty cute, but I only met her an hour ago! 

photos from the first days

en el auto bus de madrid a Zaragoza ( 3.5 horas)

boston a paris

mi cuarto

el soap story (una de las tiendas de Ana)

chairo!!

el catedral de pilar

la vista de mi casa

el rio

un mercado muy famoso

joaquin y anna

yo y Ana

el catedral

well, i'm in spain now!!!

Spain, September 5, 2009 (first full day)

It’s 12:45 AM and I just got home from an amazing day with my host mother, Ana and her boyfriend Joaquin. I honestly couldn’t have added a thing to make it more perfect. I slept until 1 (it felt so good to sleep in a bed after 2 days of traveling and napping on planes and busses) then went to the mall with Ana to see the two shops she owns and to eat lunch. (And to buy underwear because the airport lost my suitcase. One of my bags—the small duffel—made it through though, so I have a year’s worth of T-shirts, all my hygiene stuff (YAY!), sports/exercise clothes, scarves and my voltage converter, as well as one extra pair of pants that I only packed so I could say that I didn’t only bring jeans. Though I don’t have most of my clothes, I think it would be much more difficult if the small bag had been lost….thanks, mom, for making me pack 2 bags!) Lunch was a little bizarre (pureed fish in a weird pepper thing and REALLY good lamb) but tasty, as well as huge. We came home and I learned that she has wifi (pronounced weefee in Spanish) which fairly uncommon here. Her boyfriend picked us up at 8 (which is pretty early here) and drove us around in his convertible so I could see Zaragoza. We walked though the biggest plaza in Spain and through the Catedral de Pilar (es muy famoso). We then walked around for a long time (we saw about ten people in wedding dresses and tuxes—apparently the area is super popular right after wedding ceremonies, as well as 2 groups of women in which all were dressed as devils and one was dressed as a nun---a typical bachelorette party) before stopping in a bar for tapas (here, a bar is where you go if you want tapas). We got a plate of 6 tapas for the three of us (each tapa is about 3-4 inches long/in diameter). I knew that dinner (la cena) is small here, but not that small…though very good, it was not very much food. We walked back towards the car (as I planned how I would eat when we got back home) then stepped into a very small street towards an incredibly cramped bar for more tapas. I tried foi gras for the first time (Ana hates it, Joaquin loves it). As I was deciding if the taste was good enough for me to get over the fact that it felt like I was eating butter, they both told me that if I didn’t like it, no problem, just give it to Joaquin. I took another bite then passed it on and tried a ham one and a cheese one, both of which were muy delicioso. We walked on (I was feeling much more satisfied with the meal and could go back to enjoying the amazing city around me) and entered another bar were we had a post cena coffee. I ordered a café con leche (basically a latte) and received odd looks from Ana, Joaquin and the bar tender. Apparently that is only for the mornings. After meals you have the Spanish specialty, café contado, which is an espresso-sized coffee with a drop of milk. It’s bitter, but very good. As we continued to walk back towards the car I was thinking about the perfectness of the meal and the night as a whole…then we walked into a chocolate café. First there was the bar with different truffles on display—good…we went past that and sat at a table and opened a menu of chocolate desserts—heaven. I had a quartet of chocolate (somewhere between fondues, drinks and sauces), one white, one chilled like very rich chocolate milk, one acidic Spanish specialty, and one astounding, thick dark chocolate. Then we walked back to the car (for real this time).

Though I still need to meet my host sister, I think being to only kid around has made it easier to get to know Ana and Joaquin They’re both really nice, and I roughly understand about 85% of what they say but only because she speaks really slowly for me and if I REALLY don’t understand something then he tries to explain it in English.

That’s all for now…I start school the day after tomorrow!