Vida en España: Week Two

Hello everybody, I hope you're doing well. This a the post about my second week in Spain! (Primarily about the weekend!)

Schoolwise- Things definitely got harder. I think it's fair to say that based on the material alone and what's expected of you, Spanish schools are 3x harder than schools in America. I can certainly understand my teachers a little bit better now than I could in the beginning, but they still move really fast and I still have to learn so much new material on top of the language. I'm not going to write too much more about school in this post, but I will have a post coming up that will be in detail about the differences between American and Spanish schools because there are a lot, and it is really interesting for me to take note of all of them. So stay posted!!!

Now, on to the weekend! This is what I was really excited to talk about because my weekend was very very fun. Firstly, on Friday, my sister had told me that we were just going to study and get all our homework done so we could have a "free weekend," but naturally that wasn't what happened. I was trying to translate my physics homework so I could at least understand the questions when my sister came outside (I like to study on the outside patio) and was like quick, quick, we gotta go! We were going to "tomar algo-" a phrase that is used all the time here, and basically means to go out and have drinks or tapas with friends. We went with Maria's best friend, Ines. After, when we were just walking around the "central comercial," (I think you can figure that one out) we saw my AFS friend Megg with her friends from school. We joined up with them, and went together to a grassy park (kinda sketchy) where we hung out and talked. Megg and I also showed them both how to dougie and how to tap dance, amid lots of laughter. When everybody had to go home, and Maria and I arrived back at our house, there was lots of more socializing! My parents are the type who love to host the parties, and they had lots of their friends over. We all ate dinner together in the house, and then played some foosball (called footballin) and ping pong before devouring an ice cream cake. The night finally ended at around 2 am, and it couldn't have been more fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this night. :(

On Saturday we had more of a relaxed, lazy day. We woke up around 11 and just hung around until we went to my abuela's house for lunch at 2 pm. We stayed at her house for a few hours, mainly playing with her dog Curro, but also enjoying the new baby chicks that had just hatched! (She has a chicken coop.)

Holding a baby chick

Saturday evening was something we had been planning for almost a week! Shannon and Megg, two other AFS students, and Shannon's host sister Raquel and Raquel's best friend (whose name I can't remember, sorry) all came to our house.

Before we went out!

We first went shopping at Zara (honestly the most amazing store ever) to get more winter clothes as it's already starting to be chilly here in Ponfe.

Shopping in Zara!

After, we waited in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento (like a town hall) for the two other AFS students who were coming to join us, Emils and Derin. We took alot of pictures, because heck, we're in Spain.

My sister Maria, and AFS friend Megg

American Ponferrada Girls- Shannon and Megg

Me with my lovely sister Maria

When Emils and Derin FINALLY arrived, (In typical Spanish tardy fashion) we went to a popular pizza place in Ponfe that was delicious. I got the "house special," and it was a pizza larger than my face with 8 slices, and yes, I ate the whole thing. Yumm. Afterwards, like the Spanish like to do, we went to "tomar algo" at a bar, and took more pictures. And that ended my third Saturday in Ponferrada.

Naturally we had to do "guns in the air"

Something about AFS kids...can't take normal pictures

Of course one with my girl Megg

And everyone!

Sunday: We had plans to go "karting," (like driving little cars around a track) but a huge storm rolled into Ponferrada and it was too dangerous. Instead, we drove up a nearby mountain where there was a little "pueblo" (town) and a very nice restaurant. I got some kind of huge hot chocolate thing with cream that was 10x better than the ones in America, but naturally I drank it all before I could remember to get a picture. Oops :). It was very pretty, and we picked some grapes from the mountainside before heading back home. The final event of my weekend was baking my chocolate chip cookies with my family. They taste substancially different with Spanish ingredientes, but they were good none the less.