First Trimester

So my first trimester of Spanish school is DONE! Thank goodness, that now we have break and I can focus more on learning Spanish and having fun and not worrying about school! To be honest I never really was worried too much about school, because I don't think I'm going to be getting much credit at my school in the United States for the classes I take here, if any. But I still wanted to pass Psycology and Spanish language, becuase those are the most likely classes that I could get credit for.
Anyways, here are my grades for Trimester 1:

Ciencias para el Mundo Contemporaneo:  9

Educación Física:  10

Filosofía: 3

Lengua Castellana:  8

Inglés:  10

Biología:  3 

  

Física y Química:  4

Matemáticas:  6

Psicología:  8

So basically, this is how the grading scale works : Anything lower than a 5, and you fail. A 5 is passing, a 6 or 7 is like a C in the US system. An 8 is a B, and a 9 or 10 is an A. 

Now this is the real equivalent- based on the difficulty of the schools here compared the the US, and the huge amount of material you have to study to do well. A 5 is a grade many kids are thrilled with because there are some classes that are just so hard you are super thankful you could pass. A 6 is decent. A 7 is what most kids shoot for- shooting for 7's and 8's is like A's and B's in the US. A 9 is almost unheard of, only the geniuses typically get 9's. And 10's aren't given out. Ever. I swear some teachers have a bias against giving 10's. Except for the exchange students, when it's your native language ;) Which explains my 10 in English.

So overall, these grades are pretty darn good for an exchange student, especially considering I'm not putting alot of focus on my grades here. I failed 3 classes- not too bad.

MERRY CHRISTMAS A TODOS!

Besos, Lani

Videos and Music

Firstly, how is everyone doing? I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season! So, I thought it would be fun to share some of the entertainment/youtube videos and music that is really popular in Spain right now! Or at least, in the region that I live in and among my friends.

First, this is absolutely all the rage in Spain right now. It's been the number one youtube video here for months, I'm pretty sure. It's basically the song for Spain like "Call me Maybe" was to the US. You hear it everywhere and people are always humming it; and when it comes on we all do the dance. I really have no idea if it's popular in the US too, I'm sure it probably is... but anyways GANGHAM STYLE. (I have just been informed that yes, it is also immensely popular in the US, but whatever, because it is in Spain toooo!)

So the truth is that songs from America and just English songs in general are really more popular than Spanish songs here, but there are still a few "typical spanish" songs I can include.

Pan y Mantequilla:

Some people here hate this song (probably because it's played so much), but I personally love it!

Yo Te Esperaré:

 

This one is also a personal favorite:

Te voy a esperar:

 

And finally, this is a Spanish commercial for Fanta that is seriously amazing. If you don't watch any of these videos, at least watch this one. I think it's hilarious:

 

I'll hopefully write again soon, Besos, 

Lani.

Random Things

So we only have about two weeks of school left and then the first trimester is over. That means 1/3 of my time here is already gone. Craziness.

I can't imagine leaving. I know I have so much time left still and that shouldn't be on my mind yet, but I can't help it. I'll be listening to my teachers rambling off in Spanish and I'll think that next year, I'm not going to have this immersion. It's going to be so much harder to keep up my Spanish. But that just makes me even more determined to listen and try to learn becuase it's like- I only have this for a limited time.

School is actually fun. I enjoy going because my teachers for the most part are all nice, and funny, and it's not too long and boring. Only six classes and they go by in a breeze. We've been having alot of big exams recently because the trimester is coming to an end. For some classes, all we have is like two exams and our entire grade is based on those two. So it's stressful for the kids here, and they have to spend all weekend studying. I'm really not a fan of the Spanish school system now that I've seen it first-hand. We almost never get together after school because everyone has to study the whole time or go to extra classes like English or French. Then on the weekends, there is a lot more studying- although we do usually leave at night. But the thing is, the majority of the kids study sooo much but yet still don't do well. Nobody gets 10's (A), 9's are very very difficult (B), most kids shoot for 7's. Which technically would be a C and not an amazing grade, but here kids are very happy if they get 7's. I usually just try to pass with a 5. I could spend my whole life here studying (which is definitely not going to happen), and I probably wouldn't get higher then a 6 or 7. I don't know why this is, but I really think the school system here isn't right and puts way too much pressure on kids.

So my Spanish is going pretty good... when I pay attention to everything in class I can usually understand everything. Not every word, but the idea of each sentence. (Usually, but it does depend on the day and some teachers I understand better than others.) For example Paco, (Yes, that's what we call him!) my Physics teacher talks so fast that half the time it doesn't even sound like Spanish. Understanding him is a whole other goal that I have yet to achieve. And my speaking skills are moving along too- it really helps that I only speak in Spanish with my friends.

I think I'm learning that not every word in Spanish has to have an exact, sensible English definition. I just have to accept Spanish as the combination of sounds it is, and learn the words and when it's appropriate to say them. Not necessarily translate every new word into English to learn it. Because that oftentimes just leaves me confused. For example, at the end of talking with someone, the Spanish many times will say "Venga" to end the conversation. This literally translates as "come-" however it obviously doesn't make much sense to say "come" at the end of a conversation with someone. So I just have to accept it and learn it as what it is, not as words translated into English and back.

Last night I went out with my friends and this ice cream blended with juice thing was amazing and look how cool it was-

We also got a muffin and it was amazing

Also, I just realized I have to make a post of when I visited Bembibre! That will be coming soon.

Besos, Lani.

Realizations

Firstly, I just wanted to say I have dreamed in Spanish! It was the night before Thanksgiving, so I guess you could say "Thanksgiving Eve,"- and I don't remember the dream at all except it was all in simple Spanish, but hey, I was still pretty excited.

Anyways, I really missed having Thanksgiving. I never really liked the holiday very much and I still don't, but I just missed the general spirit that we have in America around this time- everybody preparing plans and talking about how much they're going to eat. Here nobody, and I mean nobody even thinks about celebrating it. It's not like Halloween which has made its way to Spain and now a lot of people celebrate it. On Thanksgiving, I woke up, went to school, and it wasn't until halfway through the day when I realized what day it was.

I had intentions to do something for Thanksgiving here, but it just didn't work out with everyone's busy lives. Not to mention it's very expensive and time-consuming to prepare all that food. I told my family all about the holiday, and that was that. The next day, Friday, we actually had a get-together for AFS for Christmas, so I had to prepare my Christmas cookies the day of Thanksgiving. Here they are: (they are in Christmas shapes and they were supposed to have red and green sprinkles but Spain doesn't sell those!)

 

 

The AFS fiesta was really fun, there was TONS of food especially desserts which is always good! :) Every person brought something from their country- so besides all the Spanish dishes that our families brought, we had carrot cake and chocolate-chip muffins (obviously also from the US), a chocolate cake type dessert from Germany, a dessert similar to apple crisp from Denmark, and the dessert from Latvia which I really can't describe. It was the only one I didn't like :( It had raisins, and pineapple chunks, and a bunch of other things thrown in and although I'm glad I tried it, I definitely wouldn't want any more.

 

It was also bittersweet though, because Ida from Denmark is going home this week and it was like a goodbye party for her. We are planning to do something Thursday this week, (the day before she leaves!) but I still don't want her to go :( It makes me realize how glad I am that I chose to come for a year. Spanish is just now starting to sink its way into my head- I mean my speaking skills are moving along slower but I can understand a LOT. I know I can't understand everything, and when people don't vocalize and talk super fast I'm clueless, but I'm happy with where I am as far as understanding. 3 months, or even a semester in another country isn't enough to become fluent, for sure.

 

Anyways, these were the realizations I wanted to talk about:

 

Every exchange is different. Every student has a different experience, but it really doesn't atter. In the end the year is fulfilling for everyone. I don't need to compare my year to the years of the other exchange students because they are all wonderful in their own ways.

 

I have so much appreciation for my family in the US. I miss having that natural closeness with people who you're related to by blood. Appreciate your families guys! Coming into a family in another culture with another language- it's incredibly hard to integrate yourself. It's alot of work.

 

Well, with that I end this post. Thanks to everyone who reads this- I have over 5000 blog views now which is incredible. I hope you all enjoy!

 

Besos, Lani.



La Comida

So I know that I really need to update... trust me I've been reminding myself to write a post for a while now. It's just alot more difficult than you would imagine because my life here has kind of evened out, and it's normal now. It's just my life, and everything is regular, and it's hard to think the things I do here would be interesting to you guys. But anyway, in this post I'm going to talk about FOOOD. Because I haven't really touched on this subject very much yet, and in my opinion Spain has such an interesting cuisine, one that's very different from America.
So today I was running around my kitchen, taking pictures of everything that I could think of that's different in America, but there's alot of things I don't have pictures of- for example I can't really show the quanity of meat we eat here, etc., so I'll just talk about that stuff.


Okay, so first- this is the tiramisu cake we had for my sister's birthday party. It's pretty standard here to have cakes at birthdays just like in the United States.

Okay so this isn't anything Spanish- but I just wanted to show how strong my skittle collection is going! (My family sent me them in a package.) It's been hard not to eat them all at once since they are so delicious and they don't exist here. :(

So another thing I wanted to mention, obviously we have Fanta and Coca-Cola in America, but there's a lot of differences here. Firstly, there's Fanta naranja and Fanta limon (lemon and orange), so if you order a Fanta at a restaurant or bar, they always ask you which one you prefer. Also, EVERYONE in Spain drinks Coca-Cola. It's literally everywhere- and nobody bothers with the diet coke stuff- actually thinking about it now, I haven't seen a single Diet Coke can since I've been in Spain. They might drink other types of pop here, but I honestly couldn't even tell you because all I see people drink is Coca-Cola and Fanta. Oh, and these drinks are sooo delicious here- I've heard it's because Europe uses real sugar? I'm not really sure on that one but seriously... yum.

Okay, now into the real "typical spanish." If someone is going to make a chocolate cake here, this is what it will be like. My abuela made this one- It's made with layers of chocolate, a whipped cream type of vanilla, and chocolate- which has the consistency of chocolate pudding, but I don't think that's actually what it is. It's kept in the refrigerator, and we eat it cold. It is so delicious. After I took this picture, I actually had a little piece. Shhhh ;)

This is something why often eat on top of salads. I'm still in the process of figuring out what it is- the bag says "Rallado" but that just means grated so that doesn't help. I know it has a little bit of a seafood taste- I promise when I figure out the name I will update this post with it! *Okay, so it's imitation crab meat :)

The coffee maker that we have- it's old fashioned but I really like it. Although the coffee in Spain is SO STRONG. I can't even drink the cafe con leche which is like a sugared, watered-down version of the coffee here. People normally don't drink coffee in the mornings. It's much more common to have a cup or two after the big lunch. And if you're going to meet a friend for coffee, that implies you will meet at around 4 pm in the afternoon, after eating lunch.

BREAD- the staple of the Spanish diet. Well, that's what I would say anyway, that bread and meat are the staples. We always eat bread- with every lunch and dinner. Bread is a necessity because you have to use it to move the food in the direction of your fork. You break off a little piece, and use it like a tool. People go to buy fresh bread probably about every other day here. There's special stores called panaderías that only sell bread. People love their bread here, and I do too. :)

And here's the pasta that my brother loves- in the shape of bicycles. We have this for dinner a lot of times, since dinner is a very light meal- and we normally have it with some type of meat or an egg. 

This is our fruit supply- as you can see we have alot of oranges and nectarines. Those are the main fruits we eat, along with kiwis and sometimes bananas. We don't usually have apples very often, but the ones we do have are from my abuela's farm.

This is the seasoning that is used to make pechugas which is like breaded chicken breasts. Also it can be used to bread fish with when we have that. Not every time we have meat it's breaded though- we eat so many different parts of different animals and if we have cow or lamb, it's cooked on it's own without breading.

This is a quince- it's a type of fruit if you've never heard of it before. You can't eat it though, only use it to make jam and the most possible use in Spain- quinces smell really good so people put them in closets or rooms- like a natural air freshener!

And to finish off this delicious post, these are typical Christmas sweets! They are called polvorons- and there is a lot of different varieties as you can see. There are also ones flavored "cocoa" but those were polished off before I could get a picture ;). I like them- the texture is really odd because they are really dense and dry- but the taste is really good! (Oh and sorry the pictures are sideways, I tried about a million times to rotate them until I gave up.)

These flavors are: traditional (has walnuts within), cinnamon (my fav), one made with olive oil, and that last one literally translates to "homemade ice cream." Which it's definitely not, I tried it and all I can say is it's really good and it has little sesame seeds on top.


Alright, so I think that's enough about food :) Until next time, Besos;
Lani

¡Ya viene!

I'm writing a post guys! Sorry it's been so long, I'm a terrible blogger I know, but I just wanted to say it's coming! For now you can admire these two beautiful pictures of where I live :)

We went on a (amazing) mountain drive last weekend- and here's a picture. There's snow in the mountains already because last week it was pretty cold, but since I live in the city in the valley between the mountains, it almost never snows here in Ponferrada.

And here's a picture of part of the city- there's two rivers that run through Ponferrada and you can see one of them, although I'm not sure which. Also you can see the mountains in the distance. And note how alot of buildings look like castles- the architecture is beautiful here. Also, I live in the region Castille-Leon, and there are the most castles in this region than any other place in the world.

October is gone; ready for November!

Hello everyone!

So this post begins with Halloween. Typically Halloween isn't a big deal here, but from what my family has told me I think it's growing and more and more people are beginning to celebrate it. My mom isn't the type to let any kind of holiday pass by without a fiesta, so naturally we celebrated. About a week before, she had found these devil costumes in an advertisement that were only 10 euros each. So she called up all her friends and created this plan that we would all (my family and my mom's friends with their families) go out for a walk and to dinner on Halloween. All of us (minus the little kids) wore the same devil costume. It actually was pretty funny walking down the street all as devils because not many people were dressed up, and they were all staring at us. After we ate dinner (first we had tapas at a bar, then we went to a pizza place), we dropped the kids off at home since it was 12 am. Then we went out to the discotecas! Honestly these are so fun. Everyone is just dancing all night and enjoying themselves- the nightlife in Spain is incredible.

We got home around 3 or 4 am, I don't really remember, and went straight to bed. Oh, I should mention- Thursday and Friday we had no school, not to celebrate Halloween, but for Día de los Santos. Thursday was the day to celebrate this- but it's a sad time when you take flowers to the cemeteries for the gravestones of your ancestors. I appreciated the break off of school and had planned a trip to Valladolid, the capital of Castile-Leon (the region I live in).

So on Thursday I caught a bus at 12:30 pm, with plans to arrive in Valladolid at 4:30. And I did this alone!!! I felt such a sense of independence, traveling in a foreign country alone. Although nobody talked to me, it's probably better that way, because I didn't have to explain the whole "I'm an American, I don't understand, Can you please speak slower?" When I got to Valladolid, Monica- an AFS volunteer was waiting for me and she took me to her house where I would be staying for the next 2 days. That night there was an AFS Halloween Party and I got to see some of my wonderful international friends. AND I got to meet some Spaniards who live in Valladolid and had gone on exchanges to Tennessee, Arkansas, and New Zealand. The party was really fun- we ate gummies and talked and decorated with spiderwebs and balloon garlands and carved pumpkins. I think my pumpkin was the definite winner ;)

My lovely Hungarian friend Lucy <3

Took me a second to remember what we were doing, I think it was that there was a cool echo effect?? hahaa

Making pumpkin towers

Pumpkin tower

This picture is actually scary

Carvingggg

The best pumpkin :D

YUMMM the best part ;)

Oh and we are crazy exchange students- so actually we did eat some pumpkin. I have no idea whose idea it was, but it tasted alright, kinda like melon without a strong flavor.

After all this, the people that weren't wearing their costumes yet got dressed and we all painted our faces white, with red paint for blood and black for black eyes. The funny thing is none of us Americans had known previously that we were going to be going out after the party at Monica's house. But it's Spain, so I guess we should've expected. :D We left the house at about 10 pm for the discotecas and bars. (Just so you know, in Spain you only have to be 16 years old to get into the bars and discotecas, so we follow the law haha.) It was a lot of fun and we did tons of dancing. At 1 am we had to return home, and we all came back exhausted and happy.

Scary with our face paint

And happy :)

On Friday I started the day just relaxing- eating breakfast, watching some Spanish TV shows. Although for breakfast I did try something really delicious from Argentina (Monica is originally from Argentina.)

Argentinian Dulce de Leche Spread

Spanish juice which is delicious

Between 5-6 pm my AFS friends Megg and Paige who live in Valladolid took like 5 buses, and then walked up a mountain to get to me. How sweet :). We first walked around and they showed me the center of the city, El Corte Ingles, and Plaza Mayor- plus alot of other sites in Valladolid. Paige could barely talk because she had no voice- so we stopped at a sort of restaurant for coca colas. We were planning on going to the discotecas and bars that night but they don't open until between 8-9 pm, so we spend an hour or two with just our coco colas. Such a Spanish thing to do ;). Then, we wanted to each something for dinner- so we decided the cheapest way would be just to go to a supermarket. We ended up buying salt&vinegar chips, these sour olive things that are AMAZING, and a bottle of water. Kinda a strange dinner, but it was really good. And then, you're not gonna believe this- we ATE AND WALKED ON THE STREET. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before in my blog, but Spaniards have this idea that Americans eat and walk all the time- I guess they see it in movies or something. Here in Spain nobody does it- you sit down at a restaurant or eat at home. But what else were we supposed to do- sit down in an aisle in the grocery store?? So left with no choice, we were walking down the busy streets of Valladolid eating chips and olives. So fun.

After walking a bit, we sat down on a bench in what I think was the Plaza Mayor to finish our dinner. Another funny thing, a Spanish man asked us for directions to somewhere- I'm amazing that he chose us considering how American we looked in that moment.

Some of my best friends <3

I WILL return to Spain just to eat more of these!

Paige with our chips in the Plaza

Also, I almost forgot- we went to a Spanish candy store! It was wonderful- candy all along both walls!

I was happyyy

Then we were off to the discotecas- it was alot of fun and we met alot of nice Spaniards. We got invited to go out the next night with a bunch of girls, so I was kinda sad I couldn't stay in Valladolid longer. The discotecas are typically pretty full- going out is a part of Spanish life- but were some with almost nobody. We left the ones with almost no people pretty quickly because they are just not as fun. Around 1 am Monica picked me up, and took me back home. I had a cup of hot tea and than went to bed.

That night, at about 3 am, Michelle's (Monica's daughter) friend from Finland arrived by bus. He is going to stay visiting in Valladolid for 2 weeks. We spent the morning on Saturday with him until I had to leave at 2:30 pm to catch my bus back to Ponferrada. It was really interesting as he shared alot of cultural differences that Finland has with Spain and America. For example, in Finland they shake hands with everyone, and Finns are generally quite shy and don't talk with people. Quite the opposite from Spain where you kiss everyone upon first meeting them and everyone is loud and talks to you.

Finnish

Absolutely AMAZING cookies from Finland

Spanish milk- quite different and it's not refrigerated

Graffiti is EVERYWHERE in Spain

The huge shopping mall- there's nothing really English about it

Every wondered what the inside of a Spanish mall looks like?? The Same!

And yummy yummy yummy Finnish chocolate

After walking around Valladolid with Michelle and the guy from Finland, (So sorry, if I remembered his name I would write it.) we ate lunch at 1:30 pm- a pretty early hour for lunch in Spain. Then I took the bus back home. And it felt really good to be back home, with the familiar. Even though Valladolid is amazing, I honestly prefer Ponferrada because it's smaller (still 3x the size of Avon Lake) and I can actually walk around on my own. It's safer, and better for me because with my terrible sense of direction- I would be lost all the time in Valladolid. But life here never stops, and after arriving my family and family friends went on a walk and then to our friends' house. Then we went to the centro comercial (mall) and we ate at McDonald's with more friends. (I actually have eaten at McDonald's 3 times in my two months here- more often than in the US.) When we got home at 10:30 pm, we watched the second half of a James Bond movie until midnight. Oh, but before that, I opened my care package from my parents!!! It's wonderful to have peanut butter and skittles again- and my family wanted to try peanut butter right away.

WOOO HOOO thank you thank you thank you to my family :)

The big test

So now for the big truth: they actually didn't all hate it! First they all smelled it, and my mom and brother liked the smell but my sister didn't from the beginning. My dad remembered the smell as he spent a year in the United States as a teenager.Then they tried it- my mom said it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be! She said she liked the taste, but not the texture- and although it's not something she would eat everyday, it was decent! My brother didn't say much, I think he thought it was alright but certainly didn't want more. My sister wasn't a fan. But I can imagine it's something very very different for them- not a texture or taste that they've ever been introduced to before. It's probably like how the cold ostrich meat was for me- literally a huge shock. But anyways, I was thrilled to get peanut butter again and ended up finishing up the little snack size cup.

On Sunday, we hung out at home until going to another friend's house a bit out of Ponferrada in the mountains. For lunch we had cochinillo- which literally translates to roast suckling pig. It was quite a sight, this little baby pig with ears. I guess it's actually a food typical of Valladolid. I tried a few bites, but honestly didn't really like it so I had crema de calabacín- zucchini soup which was very tasty. I hadn't brought my camera with me- so here's an internet picture- but it literally looked exactly like this-

Hopefully you're not squeamish

Well, I think that's about all for this post. It's now 9 pm on Sunday and I have done none of my homework, but at least I've updated you guys! I hope you've enjoyed!

Besos, Chao
Lani.

Day in the Life

Thanks to the multiple messages I received from people telling me I need to blog more, I'm finally writing this! :) This is for you guys! Oh, and shoutout to the Spanish classes back home reading this ;).

It's amazing how normal my life is here. On my drive to school in the morning, or at dinner with my family, it doesn't even register to me that I'm living in SPAIN, in EUROPE. And then sometimes it hits me and I get these butterflies in my stomach- like just the excitement of living my dream. I'm only 7 weeks in, but it's amazing how quickly those weeks have passed and how much I have already learned.

My Spanish is improving. Without a doubt. Although I would hope so, since I am surrounded by it. But it's not as easy as you would think- being immersed in a language doesn't mean you'll just naturally pick it up. I think it's because English is everywhere- it's like I can't escape it. All the shirts have writing in English, only English songs play on the radio, and everyone knows at least some English. Plus I obviously still have to think in English, and translate everything I want to say. The thing I struggle with the most is pronunciation and the accent. People here are very insistent that I get the Spain accent, which is definitely a good thing. I can think of the words in my head, but then I don't know how to pronounce them.

But I love when someone's talking to me in Spanish and I just respond without thinking in English or translating anything. It doesn't happen often, but it's a really cool feeling.

So here's what my typical routine here looks like:

7:25 am: Wake up. I still can't get over how wonderful it is to wake up an 1 1/2 later here than the time I had to wake up in the US. It's going to be a hard readjustment when I return.

7:45 am: Go downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast doesn't change too much, and it's definitely the simplest meal of the day. First we (my mom, sister, and I) have a kiwi, or if we've run out of kiwis we have a banana or other fruit instead. After, we have some type of baked good- sometimes store bought, sometimes homemade. It can be some type of sweet bread- like bizcocho that my mom has made, or toast with homemade jelly, or almendras (almond cookies), or fruitcake. *Funny story about the fruitcake- when my dad brought it home from the store my friend Shannon was over (another AFS student from California), and as soon as we saw what it was we burst out laughing. Since fruitcake is kind of a joke in the US because nobody likes it and everything. We explained this to my family and everybody started laughing. And then they insisted we try some right there on the spot, and it's delicious! Like the taste is actually really good- I can't believe I've lived this long not realizing how delicious it is!* Anyways, back on topic, we also always have one glass of milk in the morning, and that's all the milk there is for the day. We don't drink milk with lunch, or dinner, or with a midnight snack, or at any other time.

8:15 am: Leave for school. Well, this is when we are supposed to leave, but it's usually more like 8:20-8:25 am. Maria gets dropped off first at her school (she goes to a private school), and then I get dropped off at mine. When we leave the house at 8:25 am, I usually am running into school well after the bell rings.

Then I have my classes: 3 classes of 50 minutes each, recreo for 30 minutes, and then another 3 classes of 50 minutes each. The next post will be more detailed about this and the description of my classes.

2:15 pm: School ends. At a wonderfully early hour. Maria and I typically walk home- which is only about 15 minutes- but it's not so fun with our heavy backpacks and the fact we haven't eaten since 7:45 am. Honestly, I am always so hungry at this point in the day.

2:30ish pm: We get home, and eat lunch. Lunch is always exquisite and delicious. It's the biggest and most important meal of the day for Spaniards. We have a first course of salad or soup, with little appetizers. Then we eat some type of meat or fish, everyday. And it's a lot of meat, always accompanied by something like vegetables or potatoes (although vegetables aren't eaten very much here). Oh, and there's always bread, the white type of Italian loaf bread that is delicious. Bread is a necessity because you have to break off a little piece to use to move food the direction of your fork. We only drink water with this meal and dinner, which is actually something I hadn't even considered until writing this post. It seems so normal- the fact that we never drink juice or pop, it's only milk with breakfast and water the rest of the day. (Although I do miss having other drinks in the house.) Finally, to finish off the huge meal, we have "postre," or dessert. Typically it's fruit, or yogurt, and sometimes chocolate.

After lunch: I usually talk with my mom and sister for a while. I really like this time because it's one of the few times during the day when I can actually talk and improve my speaking skills. My afternnon/evening schedule really changes all the time. Some days I have extra Spanish classes from 4-5:30, sometimes I have rhythmic gymnastics at 5 or 6, sometimes my sister and I go to the gym at 7, or sometimes we all just take siestas and study. I don't do much homework, because as everyone has told me it's better to spend my time learning, talking, and listening to Spanish instead of putting in hours to memorize all the bioquimica terms for Biology.

Around 6:30 pm: We usually eat a snack. This doesn't happen everyday, depending on what we ate for lunch. Typically its ham from the fridge with some bread, an apple or other type of fruit, or cookie-type things. It's really up to each person individually whether or not they want this snack, it's not like a time when the whole family gathers in the kitchen.

Between 9-10:30 pm: We eat dinner. Dinner is much smaller, usually some type of leftovers, or an egg and some meat, and afterwards a yogurt. A lot of times we watch TV during dinnertime, as everyone's pretty tired. There's no dessert after dinner, I really think of it more as a winding-down meal.

After dinner: We either play a few games of dominos or Uno, (I think it's great that I'm actually in a spanish- speaking country playing Uno, the first time I thought of this I laughed.) or watch a little TV.

11 pm: Bedtime. And I need all the sleep I can get, so it really is lights out.


Well, that's what a day in the life looks like! I hope you enjoyed it! And remember, if you ever want to ask me anything, you can always post questions in the comments :).

Besos, Lani.

AFS orientation

Last weekend we had an AFS orientation here in Ponferrada. It was almost 30 kids in total, all exchange students, and from all over the world. It was honestly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I can't tell you how cool it is to really become close with these incredible people who have the same motivations as you do to study in a new country. I honestly love every one of them- and feel so connected with each of them. All of us have left our comfort zones, in our own cultures and languages, but to have an experience that will change our lives. I am going to try to list all of the countries that students were from: Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, China, Turkey, Belguim, France, Finland, Latvia, Serbia, Iceland, and of course the US. Keep in mind these are only the kids from the surrounding regions- Asturias, Galicia, Castille-Leon. There's many more exchange students from other countries too all over Spain.

The actual orientation part for me wasn't the most important, but I'll talk about it anyways :) Basically I decided to travel with the exchange organization AFS partly because they are so supportive throughout the whole exchange. They host these orientations to check up on all all of us, remind us of the rules, and give us a chance to all meet and talk to each other. We played a lot of games including the ever-popular kissing game, which basically involves people running around trying to kiss each other. (on the cheek, of course) We also had questions to answer about our experiences so far, and we each got a chance to talk about how we felt we were settling into our families. My favorite activity was when we had to write a letter to our future selves, a letter that we will get back at the end of the year.

The orientation was held in sort of a secluded spot, with a dining hall and cabins. It definitely brought back my summer camp memories. :) Everything was very nice, the food was pretty good- they gave us chocolate for merienda (snack) so I was happy! We stayed up late all talking and taking pictures, and learning so much about everyone's different cultures. I know it's an experience I will never forget. I absolutely had so much fun, and I can't wait for the next one. ;)
 Some of my wonderful friends:

Luca from Hungary

Milena squared from Switzerland

Luca and Dancsi from Hungary

Sólveig from Iceland and Amy from the US

All the girls :)

Aaand everybody :)

Besos; Chao, Lani.