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.