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.

One month & Language

So Friday was actually the official day that I had lived in Spain for a month. But in typical Spanish fashion, I'm late with this post by a few days. I guess I'm really settling into the culture, what can I say? :)

So it's been a little more than a month, and I've learned more in this time than any other month in my life. I've settled into my life here. My school here is my school and I know how to get around it, (except for every Wednesday when we have gym I always get lost), and my home here is my home. Walking into this house feels homey, and I hardly think about my home in the US. Things are also going very well with my family. I feel accepted as a second daughter here. A partially deaf and mute daughter (haha, but it's true!), but my family has been nothing but welcoming.

School is still very difficult. Some of my teachers talk at a slow enough speed that I can understand almost everything. But paying attention hasn't gotten any easier. Today I tried to concentrate for my entire psychology class and I feel asleep. Yeah, oops.  It's a good thing I'm not in the front row for that class. And it was first period, so I should be cut some slack. :)

My friends are so lovely, and they include me in their weekend plans and everything. I love them <3. This Friday we don't have school because it's some kind of national holiday in Spain, so we are all going to do something together. They all speak English millions of times better than I speak Spanish, but we always speak in Spanish. I asked them to always talk Spanish with me so I can learn, even though naturally they all want to practice their English with me.

Anyways, in this post I want to talk about language, in it's true form, here in a Spanish-speaking country. Here's a fun fact- the Spanish in Spain is actually called Castellano, and I live in the region of Spain called Castilla y Leon. This means that this region is the best place in all of Spain to learn Spanish, because it's where it originated from and there aren't any strong accents or changes in words.
Language really is a central part of life. I didn't realize it so much until I got here, where I MUST learn Spanish if I want to learn anything in school and make friends.

- Firstly, overall there are just a lot less Spanish words than English words. For example, if you look up the Spanish verb "buscar" you get these English equivalents:
search, search for, seek, look, look for, look up, pursue, hunt, seek for, look out, quest, hunt for, look out for, seek after, go after, forage, investigate, scout for, look round, hunt out, prospect for, home in on, scrounge around for.
Personally I think it's a little ridiculous. Why does the English language need so many words? Anyway, this is a huge benefit for me as I learn Spanish, but not so great for the native Spanish speakers here trying to learn English.

-I learned Mexican Spanish in school; and, well, I'm living in Spain. So there are definitely differences. Firstly, some of the words I have learned are like jokes here- nobody ever uses them and everybody knows they are Mexican words. (Spain overall really does not like Mexicans.) For example: carro, computadora, and papas fritas. Spain uses the words coche, ordenador, and patatas fritas.

-Spaniards don't use the subjunctive very much. The subjunctive is a "mood" we don't have in English, but used for uncertainty, doubt, things like this. It's something else that I learned a lot in school, but here in Spain anyways, people always seem to find a way to say something without using the subjunctive. I almost never hear it. (But then again, I'm still not even close to understanding everything.) However, I do see the use of the subjunctive in my books for school.

- People living in Spain are known to have a bit of an accent, or "lisp." While this is true, it definitely doesn't stick out to me as much as I thought it would. The way everyone speaks to me sounds correct, like what I've always heard, it doesn't sound like a "lisp" or "speech problem," haha. An example would be when they say "Gracias," the ci sound: instead of sounding like "si" (yes) sounds like "thee."

- The final thing would be in Spain people are much more open, and honest. For example, my friends will talk about people as "really fat" or "ugly."  It's really different, it seems kinda disrespectful, but then again, at least Spaniards are always honest!

Hasta pronto, Besos, Lani.