Funny little things

Hey everyone,

Random post today. :) Of things I've noticed, little bits of culture that you might not notice if you came to Spain on vacation for a few weeks, but things that are here that I've been lucky enough to discover.

The mail is delivered by a man on a motorcycle here. I just love this. Just because it's so different...the first time I saw the guy zipping up and down our street on his motorcycle I couldn't stop laughing. Culture.

Kids can't drive cars until they're 18, but with 16 years you can drive a motorcycle..so there's always teenagers (almost all boys) zipping around on motorcycles. They love to show off on them and drive on the brick streets where people walk but cars aren't allowed to go.

The questions Spanish people ask me: Do you know any famous people? Do you guys really have lockers at school like in the movies? Can you teach us some bad words in English? Have you been to New York? Which do you like better, Spain or the US? (still don't have a clear answer to this question)

Salad is eaten with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette, and a sprinkle of salt. Always. There's not the whole wall of salad dressings in the grocery store with five hundred different kinds to choose from.

Like I wrote in my last post, for breakfast in Andalusia they have their special traditions. Sometimes I like to fit in with the culture, but sometimes I just go for:

CEREALS. Frosted Flakes are delicious here too. :)

This is like a smoothie in a box- I promise, yummiest thing ever.

The afternoon grind- studying...

Always.

 Here's just some pictures that I've taken throughout the month with my friends here in Mazagon. They've been so welcoming to me and so nice, truly wonderful people. I have tons of fun with these girls! :)

Birthday party!

Last Sunday we went to a surfing competition on the beach!

Not that we have huge waves here or anything...but it was still cool!!

 

 Thanks for caring about my life ;) ..,
Lani

January

Writing the title of that post was so weird. Because when I think of January, I think of cold, cold weather, and snow, and hot chocolate, and days of school...but the reality here is completely different. It's warm. About 60 degrees Fahrenheit everyday...and it's almost always sunny...and then there's always the beach. It's just so different! I think my brain is confused as to what season it is because of the beautiful weather.

Well anyways, I know we are in Febuary now- (don't worry, I'm not totally confused!) but since I didn't update at all in January this is the post for that. I'm just going to kind of throw together a bunch of random things that I've done and seen.

Supermarkets: For whatever reason just going to the supermarkets here are so fun. I don't want to call them grocery stores because for whatever reason the name supermarket seems to suit them better. They have names like Dia, Mercadona, Carrefour... and those are pretty much the big chain ones. It's just all so different. So Spanish. You walk in and head straight for the meat counter (which is huge by the way, and the poor man behind there is always swamped with work. The Spanish love their meat!)... then there is the seafood section... where the freshly-caught fish are all just laying there on their beds of ice. You could reach out and poke a fish eye if you wanted to- they're literally right there as if they were alive but not moving. I promise to take some pictures the next time I go... they'll explain it much better than I can with words.

Basketball: My team has been doing pretty well! I still feel kind of silly because these girls have been playing for years and years and I just jumped in and started 3 weeks ago...but oh well. I've played in two games and we've won both! The first game we played against a team that was not-so-good (we won 70-3), so I got to play alot! :) Because our coach realized that we were going to win anyways so she figured I couldn't screw anything up too badly and let me play almost the whole game :) Then, in the second game we only won by 2! It was super close because the other team was about our level, not better nor worse. So in that game I didn't get to play much, but the only cool thing that happened was that at one point I had the ball and all my teammates were being defended really well so I didn't know what to do.. and I was still pretty far from the hoop. Well, I just decided to shoot it anyways and it went in! Like the only basket I've ever made in a game.. but everyone was so surprised and it was just a cool moment.


In school things are going pretty well... my classes are actually pretty interesting. I don't really know what else to stay about this topic haha.. I understand almost everything and can follow along with the class perfectly now so I guess that's pretty cool! Whenever there's something that mentions the United States... in history class for example, the teachers always look at me. It's pretty funny, I actually taught the class in history about Imperialism in the US, because my teacher was just like "You want to teach?" and I was like "Ok, yeah why not?" So I did. It's realllly nerve-wracking though to talk in Spanish in front of a class of native speakers like that. My words jumbled together alot more than normal..and I like public speaking.


A typical Andalusian (southern-spain) breakfast....Toast with olive oil drizzled on top and slices of tomato on top of that. And with freshly-made Spanish bread...it's delicious

Spain

The 2nd weekend in February I went to Granada with AFS, which was a beautiful and amazing city. That weekend flew by, everything was just like a dream. My next post will be about my time there and I will include a million pictures. :)


Okay guys, thanks for reading :)
Besos, Lani

5 months

 Hello All!

5 months ago today, I left my home, my country. The United States of America. I leapt into a world completely unknown to start a new life in one year. I've never regretted that choice. It's been the hardest experience of my life and there have been times when I was ready to break, but in the end, I'm still living a dream.

Sometimes it just seems like time is stopped. Right now it feels like that. Because with every second that passes, I am nearing the end of this journey. The day that I will have to return to Madrid, fly to Switzerland, fly to New York, and drive home. And I don't want it to be over. But at the same time I've been here a long time. I've had moments when I felt like my family and friends were thousands of miles away and nobody cared about me here. Like I was all alone. That's not an unusual feeling when you move to a new country, alone, without even a language. You can barely talk. Think about how hard that would be. You're forced to wake up everyday with a smile on your face, ready to not understand but continue trying trying trying. That's what makes exchange students so special. I really think anyone who decides to do this is an incredibly brave person.

It's not something for everybody. Not everyone has that spark of adventurousness within them that would even make them want to travel to a new country, much less on their own and for a year. But I really think more people need to think about going on exchange. It changes your perception of everything. Your world is forever changed- it's not just Ohio, US where you have a home but also Spain. Take my school for example. There's probably 1200 students or so (I'm estimating). I am the only student that has gone on exchange this year. And from what teachers told me, nobody has gone on exchange for quite a few years now. Why is that? I'm sure I'm not the only kid that wants a more worldly perspective, to travel, to make friends from other countries, to learn a new language. Something is scaring kids away. I think it's the prospect of leaving home for such a long time, and leaving family and friends. But there's two things I'd like to say to that. It's such a short amount of time in the whole span of your life, and your family and friends will still be there, waiting for you when you return! Yes, you will definitely miss them, I certainly do, but they're not going anywhere! You're just going on a little trip that will change your life, and when you get back, think about all you'll have to tell them about! And also, if 10 months seems to long for you, go for a semester, go for a trimester, go for the summer program! It doesn't have to be a whole year if you don't want it to be.
What I want to say is:

Go on exchange. You're only young once. You can only travel like this without restrictions of family, job, etc. when you're young. So do it. Experience the World.

Maybe that would have been better to write at the end of the experience, but honestly I'm just feeling pretty passionate about it now... so there it is!

I'll write an update soon about what I've been up to here in Huelva... but for now I'll end this post.

Thanks for reading guys,
Besos, Lani.