Everything was awesome. I really can’t complain about much, other than it’s a bummer they don’t celebrate thanksgiving over there. Go figure. But living there, even though it was a short amount of time, taught me about the culture and their way of life. Things such as eating times, what they eat (which is so much more healthy than the American diet…), and even when they do things– for example, my host sisters (one being 10 and the other 14) were up until 10:30 or 11 o’ clock on school nights, when I was their age I went to bed at 8:30! And the biggest thing I learned was, of course, the language! I probably made myself fluent in what I already knew, (if that makes sense) and doubled it. I can carry on a conversation if it’s directed towards me and I understand the topic. I can understand much more than I can say. It was cool to be able to understand what was going on. 

 My older brother and mom came to Spain the last week while I was there, and I took them around with my friends.  It was cool to be able to talk to the waiters in Spanish and understand and translate for my family. I felt fluent, even though obviously I was not, but I really feel like I learned quite a bit of Spanish, much more than I would have learned sitting in a Spanish class in high school. While my family was there, we also introduced them to my host family and my friends’ families. My friends, Carmen and Fernando, are coming to Michigan in the summer, and their parents wanted to meet my mom and make sure everything was okay. My last three days there, we went out to eat numerous times with my host family and we went to Carmen’s house for dinner, and had tons of excellent meals. It was just such a great time. It was awesome how welcoming they all were to my family!

 The ending was the hardest in two ways. As it got closer to leaving, I realized that I actually was ready to go home. I started to get excited to see my family and talk to them and show them my pictures, etc. But then at the same time, while being excited to leave I was getting sad about leaving the people I have made life-long memories with– people who I couldn’t forget even if I wanted to. Not everyone gets the opportunity to study abroad. I don’t think it’s possible for me to forget an experience like this. It is something I enjoyed and would love to experience again later in college.

 Spain was an amazing experience. Something I will never forget. Definitely recommended.

 Last weekend I went to Madrid. My host father thought it was really important to see Madrid, after all I am in Spain. I honestly, have NEVER seen so many people in one place, for no reason other than it’s a Saturday night. Absolutely packed. It was about 8 degrees C (about 40 degrees F) and still, thousands and thousands of people. It was almost impossible to walk without hitting someone with every step.  I took over 200 pictures.

Christmas lights in Madrid

I have a problem where I never take enough pictures and always regret it, so I made sure I had my camera in my hand the entire time taking pictures of everything possible, like the Christmas lights, which were absolutely beautiful and so different than the usual stuff you see in America, well at least that I’ve seen.

 What was also neat about Madrid is that you don’t only hear Spanish spoken here. You hear all sorts of languages. In Valencia, their local language is Valenciano, so everything is in Spanish and the second language, or sometimes first, is written in Valenciano. Well in Madrid, everything is in English and Spanish, which was kind of cool. I went to a HUGE museum full of famous artwork. It was pretty interesting. My host father is really interested in museums. I was talking to my host sister, Claudia, about it, and she says they go to a museum on every vacation they take.

I had a really fun time in Madrid. I got to know my sisters even more. They have family friends there as well and they came with us sight-seeing, shopping, and to eat. Cristina, my host sister’s friend, is super nice. It was really fun hanging out with them. We had a lot of laughs.

 The first night we were in Madrid we went to a restaurant called ‘Vips.’ I’m not sure if it’s considered American food, but it sure was similar. It reminded me of a diner. It had sandwiches, wraps, burgers and fries–all the traditional American foods. It was really, really, really good. Another day, we went to a German restaurant. It was also very good. Food in Spain is great. I love it.

 Other than Madrid, life has been pretty much the same. We had exams last week, so I didn’t do anything with friends because of studying. I pretty much just hung around the house. The Friday in between exams (they had exams Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday), I went to a friend’s house. As we were leaving the house, there were six of us, and we decided to squeeze into the elevator. Well, bad idea. When we reached about the second floor, the elevator doors opened and we started falling faster. I didn’t exactly know what was going on except that Alba (the girl’s house we were at) started screaming and I then realized we were falling. It was so scary. It all happened so fast I can’t remember it that well. Luckily, we didn’t fall from a higher distance or we could have all been seriously hurt.

Making the best of a scary situation--stuck in the elevator

At first, after everyone calmed down, I was okay, until I realized we couldn’t get out. I am extremely claustrophobic. I can’t stand being in small places especially with so many people. It was almost impossible to take off your jacket. I was silently freaking out trying not to cry. It was slowly getting hotter and hotter, and with our luck, we didn’t have any cell phone service. We ended up getting a couple bars of service because the light cover to the light in the elevator fell out of place so we could put our phones up higher for reception. We were trapped in there for like 30 minutes. We took pictures as well. Oh the memories! 

 Spain has been quite eventful!

All of us at the concert

 I didn’t know any of the music, but I liked the beat and now have some new bands to put on my iPod when I get home. Before I went to the concert, I went with Fernando and we went shopping. The center of Valencia is beautiful and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The scenery and weather here make walking something that you love to do. It’s just so beautiful.

The weather is finally starting to cool down and in the mornings it is absolutely freezing, but the afternoon it is still getting to about 70 degrees. Which I guess is weird for Valencia, as normally it’s pretty cold here around this time. The apartment here has a heater that is controlled by the ‘main person’, so no one gets to chose when they put on and off the heat–they just close their vents if it gets too hot, which I thought was weird. They haven’t turned on the heat yet, so the nights and mornings are freezing here. Well, not freezing, but definitely cold. But I love cooler weather! When I get home to America there will be a bunch of snow on the ground, so that will definitely be different, especially because my friends here have told me they haven’t seen snow in Valencia in years, and when it does it’s kind of like Vegas snow–it snows but it doesn’t stick.

Fountain in Valencia

Hmm, what else? I am learning a little more Spanish every day, not too much, but ‘poco a poco’. I can understand a lot more of what people are asking or saying to me, and if I don’t, they just explain it in another way in Spanish so that I do understand. That’s really cool because speaking Spanish is fun when I know what’s going on! I have somewhat changed my plans for college after coming here. I am kind of leaning towards studying to become a high school Spanish teacher instead of a math teacher. But who knows? I’m sure my decision will change a thousand more times. I just know I’ve wanted to be a teacher since the first grade. I want to be fluent in another language. And if I go to college for Spanish, I will most likely study abroad again! I love travelling, I want to be a teacher, and I want to be fluent in Spanish…so it’s right up my alley!

My best friends in Spain

My friends are awesome, and we have become so close, especially Fernando, Carmen and I. We are always talking and hanging out. We decided we have to keep in touch and get together at least once a year. They are planning to come to Michigan this summer for a few weeks to see what my life is like up there, and of course visit Chicago! I’m so stoked for them to see how I live in America, especially now that I’ve spent months living life like they do. What a blast that will be! They have made this trip amazing! I couldn’t thank them enough.

Well, again, Spain is still treating me well. This trip’s awesome. Only 34 more days, I can’t believe it’s almost over!

McDonald's "party"

I moved to the house (apartment) in Valencia last weekend (I used to live a half hour away, so living here makes it easier to be with friends) and went to a “party” which consists of eating at McDonald’s and walking around the center of Valencia (my house is directly in the center).

 I have a good group of friends who I hang out with. They are a lot of fun. I can definitely tell I can speak Spanish better than my first day here. I definitely am not fluent, but I can understand more and more everyday. I learn a few more useful words each day and that helps. Speaking with friends is easier, as they speak slower and try and use more common words. I also have two really good friends here who are fluent in English, which isn’t actually the best thing because they only want to speak with me  in English because they want to improve their English.. ,  so I have to remind them, quite often, to speak to me only in Spanish.

Me and my host sister Patti at the biopark

The weather here is amazing and everyone is surprised at how warm it is. It is November and today is was 23 degrees Celsius.. after the hottest part of the day, it was probably 27 degrees Celsius! I went to a biopark the other day, which is basically a zoo, but without cages. You walk around and there is a bunch of land where the animals walk and you can see them. It was a lot of fun.

One thing that I love about my school is that we don’t have substitutes, so if a teacher is absent we get out of school early . That is always exciting. Tomorrow,  I have an English verbs exam, sounds easy since I am American, but no, I have to learn all the verbs in Spanish so I can translate to the English form. :/. But I’m glad at the same time because that is 65 more verbs I will know!  After school,  I am going to the movies and to the mall with some friends–I love how everything you want to do is within walking distance. Not to mention gas here is near 6 dollars a gallon! I can walk everywhere, especially with this beautiful weather.

My friend Fernando

I had a huge scare last weekend when trying to meet up with my friends… My friend, Fernando, told me to meet him at the school at 8:20PM. So I decided I would just walk there. I started to walk there around 7:30, but then he called me and told me to meet him as soon as possible, so I happened to be right by the bus stop and I decided I would try and take bus 29 (I was told to take this bus- it was my first night living in Valencia and that Monday I would have to take this bus to school, so I thought I would try it).  Well,  I got on bus 29 and when I noticed a familiar place I thought I would get off, but I thought there was one more stop closer to my destination. Well, then the bus turned a different direction, so I thought to myself, well it has to go all the way back around because I take this same bus from school to my house, so I thought I could just get off where I get on after school.  After about 20 minutes the bus was in some suburb of Valencia and it stopped and the bus driver said “Final”, meaning that it was the last stop of the route. The first thing I said was, “I need to get to Quart Street, I am American and I don’t speak much Spanish.”  He didn’t know where Quart Street was because it’s not pronounced “Quart”  like Americans pronounce it.  He said to wait five minutes and the bus would start up again (they take a break at the end of  their route–at the time, I didn’t know this, and I thought the route was done).  I got off and sat on a bench next to the bus (it was dark out) and I was crying. I called Fernando and the bus driver happened to be walking back out and I gave him my phone and he got me where I needed to go, but I was so scared. I’m supposed to take that bus to school, but I have been to scared to try again, so I take another bus halfway to school and walk about a mile the rest of the way. Maybe when it’s raining I’ll try again. haha.

Otherwise, all is well. I am just trying to make life long memories. I am extremely surprised at how fast time is flying by. Less than fifty days and my trip is over!

me and Carmen at the beach

It was also my birthday the day before so it was a mini celebration with my four friends here at the beach. It was a lot of fun! I got sunburned, silently celebrating that I wasn’t at home with all the cold weather! My friend, Carmen, got me the third Twilight book.. (I’ve become obsessed) and I finished it in two days.. tomorrow I’m off to view the center of Valencia with her and buying the fourth is definitely in the agenda! She also got me peanut butter, which is not something everyone has in the pantry like in America, which I originally thought was crazy.

 Just the other night, I just had soup for my meal and since the Spanish eat a lot of food, they kept asking me if I wanted something else,  and I kept telling them, no it’s fine and they keep asking me if I was sure I wasn’t still hungry, so I got bread and the rest of the peanut butter and some jam out, and put in on the bread and they asked if it was good.  I was so surprised that they had never eaten a pb&j! It was probably my first real meal as a kid, not to mention a meal that I eat every day of my life. But, then again.. the food here is so amazing, why would they make something as simple as a pb&j? The mothers here love to cook, and when they cook,  it’s something fantastic. I don’t think I have had a meal that I didn’t like here in Spain yet.. and it’s usually something different every day.

 After the beach, I went with Carmen to stay with her in her village all weekend because of the holiday weekend. It was a lot of fun. We rode bikes everywhere and had a lot of fun. Her family is a great, and extremely nice! I also met a few of her friends. Some spoke a little English and I could understand a little of the Spanish… My Spanish is getting better, which I’m excited about as well.

Me in Valencia at night

 School, well, it’s a drag. It’s really boring. I just sit there and try and listen to the teacher and understand what they say. I am excited because I understand a LITTLE bit more every day,  poco a poco (little by little).  Sometimes they will make jokes and everyone will laugh and look at me, turns out they normally say something like “Does everyone understand? Well, except her– she doesn’t have to understand!” It’s pretty funny. Rather than concentrating on school being boring (like every school in the world ), I enjoy being around the people. Everyone is really nice. I started gym and luckily I am not the most unathletic one there… I am at the bottom though. We have an examination for jumping, and depending on our height we have to jump a certain distance.  I was seriously so nervous to even do the practice jump because I was so bad. Falling was my worst fear. But, I did it and it was fine.

Every day after school, I go to lunch with my host father. We currently live in Betera (we are moving into the apartment the end of October) and he has an apartment here in Valencia. I take the bus from the school to the apartment. Today, while we were eating lunch, he started talking to a lady sitting near us. We go to this same restaurant every day (the menu changes every day) and this lady has also come in everyday for the past couple weeks. She noticed that I spoke English. When she started talking to me, I couldn’t believe how good her English was. It was the first person I had talked to without an accent. She told me she had lived all over the world. She was a journalist for a really big newspaper and was abroad 11 months out of the year for work. Her story was very interesting. It was nice to hear somebody here speak with such good English. She is fluent in English and Spanish, (she is half Spanish and half English).

As soon as I stepped off the plane in Frankfurt, I could tell that I was someplace different. There were similar advertisements, but with German written where the English was “supposed” to be. The rest of the AYUSA group and I waited for three hours in the airport trying to make time fly by so we could finally arrive in Barcelona. As soon as we got to Barcelona, we took a bus to the hostel and went to our rooms.  There were eight people to a room, and about 60 other people studying abroad through InterHispania.  Right after we dropped our stuff off in our rooms, we immediately went out to explore Barcelona. The malls, the streets, the shops, the supermarket, and the parks (plazas). I never thought that this time would come, for me to actually be here. The weekend went by in a flash. We went sightseeing and saw many structures designed by Gaudi,  and many churches and parks.

After the weekend in Barcelona everyone said goodbye and we all went our seperate ways. Only one other girl was going to Valencia, but she was going with a different group. She was German and I didn’t know her. She didn’t speak English. When I first got to Valencia, I went to my local cordinator’s house for about six hours. They were a host family too, hosting a girl from Germany who spoke English quite well. She was staying for a year.

Soon afterwards, my host father, mother and one sister picked me up. I went to my host family’s house. I was so surprised. It was awesome, and it was beautiful! My host father is an architect, and he designed his own house. It has a courtyard with a pool and views from all the windows. I love it! The next day, I went with my host father and dropped off his daughters, Claudia, 14, and Patricia,10, at school. Driving here is crazy.

The next day, I went to school. After walking up four flights of stairs, and already being nervous, when I entered the classroom with the director, I could seriously feel my heart pounding in my chest. Everyone got really loud. They seemed excited. I got there in the middle of their second hour. Then during the five minute break everyone came up to me talking to me, asking if I spoke Spanish and then trying to talk to me in Spanish. It was crazy, but that’s when I met Carmen, my friend here. She is the only one who can speak English decently. She teaches me common words and leads me around the school. During school, I just sit there and try to listen. It is very difficult most the time, unless it is a one on one conversation.

I also take the bus, which isn’t like a school bus. It’s a bus that everyone uses. I had no idea where to get off, so I guessed and it ended up being the right stop, but that was extremely scary, because I wouldn’t have been able to understand directions in Spanish.

 Shortly after I arrived, I went on their family’s  huge sail boat.  It had four small rooms, a dining room, and a kitchen with two bathrooms.  In the middle of our trip it started pouring rain and thunderstorming. When we were headed back to the boat docks, unfortunately we accidently ran into a child in a little boat! Luckily, he was alright. He was part of a sailing school. After everyone was dried off, my host father went to talk to the boy and the family. He was alright and everything was okay thankfully.

Afterwards, my host family and my host mother’s sister and husband went to a resturaunt where I had Paella, which is most common here because rice is so easy to grow here. I have never had so much food served to me in my life. First, bread, then something fried, (I didn’t know what it was) then squid, then some pizza stuff, then the main dish, Paella. After dinner, we went to their third house right on the sea.

So far, all is going well. It’s not at all what I expected. But my trip has just begun!

          What makes me most nervous is leaving all my friends and family. I am the type of person who hates not being around. I am very dependent on my friends. But I am choosing to do this trip. I know I will miss them all, but the experience will be worth it.

           One big question I have is how people my age act there, and what they do for fun. I can’t wait to meet different people. I am completely stoked to meet my host family and to see what they are like and where I will be living.

           Besides going to see another country and experiencing a different culture, I really want to learn the language during my time abroad. My main goal is to learn Spanish, which I’m trying to study as much as possible before I go. I think the best place to learn will be in Spain, because I’m forced to communicate using Spanish. Apart from learning Spanish, I do have many other goals and hopes for my time there. I also want to be able to come home with a different view of other countries and use that knowledge in my daily life.  

           My cousin just left on a two month trip to Africa. Although we are going to two different places, and we are two completely different people… her experiences in another country for a long period of time will help me in my upcoming trip to Spain. When she stopped by my house before the trip to the airport she was extremely nervous, I think with her going to Africa for two months, and coming back before I go to Spain will be good for me,  because she can tell me a little of what to expect when living in another country and knowing nobody. I just can’t wait to get out of Michigan and see what else is out there!