the grand finale

Hello my wonderful readers!

I am so sorry for the delay in my posts, so much has been happening between my last few days in Zaragoza, my flight and dropping my sister at college! There is so much that I wish I could tell you, but I cannot put the words together.

My final days in Zaragoza were joyful and tearful, and my last day was filled with knowing glances from Silvia, my family and my friends. On Saturday, we had a small get together so that I could say goodbye to all of my new friends and to the city of Zaragoza. I was devastated that I would not get to say goodbye to my two of my best friends from school, Laura (the 18 year old from the picture), and Sergio, who sat in front of me in class. They had already made plans for the night. We went out to the Discoteca, Sala Green, and India and I spent the night talking and dancing with about ten of our closest friends from school. I had a Semaforo, the delicious smoothie-ish drink that I will miss terribly, and Laura called me while we were there. I ran to the bathroom to talk to her and she was sobbing! She said that she was never going to see me again and that her dream of visiting New York would never come true. While this was happening, a group of boys came into the girls' bathroom to listen to my American accent and I could hardly understand Laura over their shouts of "Hello American!"

At the same time that the boys were yelling and Laura was crying, a random girl came out from the bathroom stall next to me and started crying on my shoulder about how much she would miss me... I had never met her in my life. While I had a crying stranger on my shoulder, yelling boys and a crying friend on the phone, a group of my friends who were leaving came to say goodbye. Bea, one of my good friends and classmates started crying too and I gave out lots of hugs and kisses while Laura waited on the phone and stranger-girl continued to wipe her tears on my shirt.

Well after that stressful experience, I said goodbye and cried with the girls outside of the disco and then we went to the Gran Casa mall to get dinner. Luckily, Bea came with India, Claudia, Silvia and I so I had a little more time before I had to say goodbye to her. On our way to Mcdonald's in the mall, I saw lots of classmates who I got to say goodbye to, and when we walked into Mcdonald's, I saw Sergio! I got to say goodbye to him and then sit down for dinner with Laura as the only person I longed to see before I left. As we ate, we cried a little and India and I talked. When I turned around, Laura was walking in with Susannah behind her. They planned to surprise visit me after I got off the phone with Laura, and we had twenty minutes to hug and cry and talk about our time together! Everything worked out perfectly and I got to say goodbye to all of my favorite people.

After dinner, I got a series of running hugs from Claudia and India as we attempted to part our separate ways. When Silvia and I got home, we had a slumber party in my room and talked and hugged. My bags were packed and STUFFED full of clothes and I was as prepared as I would ever be for a 6:00 wake up call and an 8 hour flight.

The airport was stressful but I miraculously made my flight in the nick of time despite the directional section of brain having been inactive for most of my life. It's true, I've been going to the same school for six years and I still couldn't tell you how to get to it, but apparently I can find my way to Gate 74 in the Madrid airport. I had said goodbye to my incredible host mom back at home, and now I teared up hugging Silvia, Laura and Mariano, my host dad who drove me to Madrid.

After the eight hour flight and my reunion with the fam and the dog, I realized how many things have changed. Not only to I accidentally go in to give kisses on the cheeks, but my pickiness when it comes to foods has almost gone away. One of my first meals at home was a grilled mushroom! Now that is a big step for me. I use the Spanish phrase, "Ay Bah," when I drop things and I even find enjoyment in the fact that I gained 8 pounds eating ham and deep fried foods in Spain! My ear hurts when I sleep from when India and I got our cartilages pierced, and sometimes I sing Nelly Furtado's, "Manos Al Aire" around the house.

The biggest change though, is that I now have a group of over 100 friends and family member in Zaragoza who would be ready at anytime, to take me into their homes and raise me like a daughter. I can only hope that a little bit of the kindness and generosity that can be found in every resident of Zaragoza rubbed off on me. I am so blessed to have a second home with my sister Silvia and my mom Marimar, who said that whenever I need it, there is a space at the table for me. The transition has been hard, but I can think back and be grateful for my amazing experiences that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

And I can't wait to go back and visit!!!
Besicos...
Maddie

English

Wow! I am so sorry for the time that I was not writing! I'm in school again, so I can' not say much. But I want to tell you about some of the things that have happened in my days without Maddie. also I apologize to anyone who did not understand my post yesterday, (Lindsey Alpeter) I have translated it for everyone to see.

Sunday: A very sad day. Claudia, Silvia, and I cried a lot because maddie has gone to new york in the morning. Claudia and I were at home all day crying, doing homework, eating, and listening to music. At night we played Wii Sport with the little sister. They were all astounded by my amazing skills and find it very hard to believe that in real life... I can't play tenis. But after the dinner was when the real crying begins. After dinner, the mother received a call by telephone, a neighbor and friend died that morning . He had been suffering from cancer for some months, he was only 16 years old. He was one of Claudia's best friends, she cried all night. It was a sad night at my spanish home and I found it very difficult to fall asleep.

Monday: We woke up and got ready for school like a normal day. In fact, it wasn't, was my first day without Maddie at school and one of the best friends of Claudia had died the previous night. Claudia does not speak in school, and if someone were to ask "Whats wrong?" she began to cry. For the first time during my stay, we went home to eat lunch. And at home there was even more sadness. That night, when Claudia and her parents went to the wake of the boy,Lucia and I were home for two hours. Lucia, who is a big fan of Hannah Montana, asked if I could show her the popular Hannah Montana dance, the "Hoedown Throwdown". These few minutes of laughing and dancing was my favorite part of the day.

Tuesday: The biology teacher was sick and so we got to wake up an hour later. Tuesday was the birthday of our friend Laura, she turned 18! In Spain that means you are an adult. You can do anything. For lunch we ate in the dining room and I got to talk with my friends during lunch. During recess the kids asked me what are the coolest rap singer and songs were in the U.S. I didn't know the coolest, but I showed him some Eminem and he was pretty satisfied... he was still thinking that 50 Cent was most popular before I showed him some music. After recess I gave the gifts that maddie and I bought to Laura. She started to cry a little bit and said she will miss us. After school we went to the Bread Store to buy Palmera, a sweetish bread. I think they are called 'elephant ears' in English ... it was fantastic! Tuesday was a much happier day than Monday.

Wensday: This was not included in Yesterdays post because it was wensday yesterday! We got to wake up early again because every wensday school starts at 9:05. It was a very fun and happy school day. The teachers didn't kick too many kids out of class, there were not too many tears, everyone played soccer at recess... hmm correction, Everyboy played soccer at recess. There was one difference, yesterday, the library was locked last period so I decided to go to french class. French is when Silvia and Claudia's classes combine in this one huge room. It was so much fun, they know less french than english so half the time the kids in the class would look at me and whisper that they liked english so much better. I wish I had gone to more than one french class this entire time, It was really fun and I'm sad that my first class had to be my last. After school Claudia, Silvia, Isabella( silvia's best friend), and I went to hipercore to buy spanish treats and goodies to bring back to the U.S. Although that was very fun I had more fun playing hide and seek in the grocery aisles and tickling Claudia and Isabella with Silvia. Wensday night I started packing, it is the worst task and yet it has to be done.

I feel my stay here getting shorter and shorter and it makes me so sad to think of how much I will miss my friends and school here.

till next time,

Besos India

sin Maddie

Vaya, Lo siento muchisimo por el tiempo que no estaba escribiendo! Estoy en escuela ahora, entonces no puedo hablar mucho. Pero quiero decir un poco de que ha pasado en mis dias sin Maddie.

Domingo: Un dia muy triste. Claudia, Silvia, y yo lloramos mucho porque maddie ha ido a nueva york en la mañana. Claudia y yo quedamos en casa todo el dia llorando, haciendo tarea, comiendo, y escuchando musica. En la noche jugamos Wii Sport con la hermanita. Pero, después de la cena fue cuando el llanto real empieza. Después de la cena la madre recibio un llamada por telephono, un vecino y amigo murio ese dia por la mañana.Él había estado sufriendo de cáncer por unos meses, solo tenia 16 años. El fue uno de los mejores amigos de Claudia, lloró todo la noche. Fue una noche triste en mi casa, español, y me pareció muy difícil conciliar el sueño.

Lunes: Nos despertamos y nos preparamos para la escuela como si fuera un día normal. En realidad, no era, era mi primer día sin Maddie en la escuela y uno de los mejores amigos de Claudia había muerto la noche anterior. En escuela Claudia no habla, y si alguien pregunta "Que pasa" ella empiezaba a llorar. Por el primero vez comemos en casa para comida. Y en casa había mas tristeza y muchos abrazos. El lunes por la noche, cuando claudia y sus padres iban a la estela del niño. Lucia y yo quedamos y casa por dos horas. Lucia, que es un gran fan de Hannah Montana, pregunatame si puedo eseñarte el baile de "Hoedown Throwdown". Estos poco minutos de reindo y bailando fue mi favorito parte del dia.

Martes: El profesor de biologia estaba enferma y por eso despertamos mas tarde. El martes fue el cumpleaños de nuestra amiga Laura. Se cumple 18 años, en España es un adulto. Se puede hacer todo. Comemos en el comedor y yo hable con mis amigos durante comida. Durante recreo los chicos me preguntaron cuales son los conciones mas chulos de rap. Despues de recreo me dio los regalos que maddie y yo compramos a Laura. Ella empieza a llorar, dice que ella va a echar de menos a nosotras. Despues de escuela fuimos a la paneria para comprar Panuelos, un pan dulce.Pienso que se llaman 'elephant ears' en ingles... pues fue rico! Martes fue mucho mas feliz que lunes.

English equivalent

Hey all,

Sorry about my blog being in all spanish yesterday, I was so tired to write in English. I'm just going to sum up what I said, I'm not writing the equivalent in length. Yesterday was a day maddie and I have been anticipating with joy and dread. We were excited to wear our uniforms but that also meant Maddie's final day at school...However we went to school wearing our school skirts and two white shirts and black stockings, I have to say, we made quite a scene ahahha. The girls all loved our uniform because they think ours is much nicer than theirs. They used to have to wear a long grey skirt lower than their knees and a dark sweater over their shirts and they can only wear dark blue shoes. The boys did not really understand why we were wearing the uniform but they thought it was funny more than anything else. Sergio told both of us that he thought our skirts were very ugly, while garci commented that we would get in trouble because they were too short. I never would have thought that our skirts were short, but one teacher who did not know that it was our uniform almost got mad at us because girls are not allowed to wear skirts.



Break was madness. Maddie brought her camera and we ended up taking more than 400 photos. It was so crazy, fun and sad. We would start by taking a photo with just three girls and then millions of people would jump in and before we knew it, we had more than a hundred people per photo. I loved taking photos with all of the people who I had met over the past few weeks. It made me very sad to see all of the photos afterwards because I knew that half of the people who were in them I would never see again...

I am not remembering what I said yesterday very well but I do remember telling one story, a story about a visit to the library. Yesterday I went to the library to do some work while maddie was still in one of her classes. Moto, Golem and their little crew also were there. They sat at the same exact table as me for the whole free and stared at me. It was very very awkward for me because I would be trying to read a book and I would get that uneasy(ish) feeling of someone watching me. Whenever I looked up, Moto's grinning face greeted my confused one from a very close distance. It is very hard to concentrate when you have someone staring at you from a very close distance, I had to pinch myself to keep from laughing.

Again, I ended up writing very late at night and as a result I end quickly and in a very tired state. I will talk to you all either tomorow or the next day about maddies FInal day (depending on how tired I am). However for now, I leave with a swift goodbye and kisses on both cheeks!
India
p.s. I had asked in the last post whether or not it was still wierd to kiss on both cheeks in the U.S. because I have gotten so used to that custom I don't want to stop!
p.p.s. If my english is horrible, please excuse me... I fear I am forgetting how to speak correctly...

Sadness

Hoy fue el final dia de escuela para maddie, que triste!!! fue una dia muy interesante y divertido! Maddie y yo hamos estado planeando lo que ibamos a llevar para todo la semana. Y esta manana yo llevaba mi uniforme de los estados unidos al colle. Todas las chicas tienen mucha celos porque nuestro uniforme es mas bonita que vosotras. Ellas llevaban una falda muy larga y gris... es un poco aburrida. Los chicos piesaban que nuestro uniforme es muy fea y graciousa, pero ese no importa nada a nosotras jaja. En almuerza maddie llevaba su camera y habia un fiesta con nuestro grado. Cada persona queire estar en un foto, tenemos fotos con mas de cien personas. Los chicos estan fascinados con la camera de maddie y muchos quitanlo para sacar fotos... ahora tenemos mas de 400 fotos, es loco.

En uno de mis tiempos libre yo fui a la biblioteca para estudiar sola. Pero con Moto y Golem, nada es sola... Los dos sentaban a la misma mesa de yo para una hora. Y para la hora Golem y uno de sus amigos estaban reindo de mis 'stickers' en mi ordenador en uno de mis lados. Y por el otro lado Moto estaba mirandome fijamente. Era muy incomodo porque era, literalmente, menos de un pie de mi cara. Fue muy dificil para concentrar...

Despues de escuela fui a la casa de Silvia con Maddie para pasar tiempo. Nosotras sacamos fotos y empezamos a poner fotos en tuenti ( spanish version of Facebook). Despues fuimos al grancasa para hablar y pasar tiempo con claudia. Comemos una merienda aya y mas tarde sacamos... MAs fotos jajaja.

Hoy me di cuenta de lo mucho que voy a echar de menos espana y los personas de zaragoza... casi lloraba hoy y ni siquiera soy la que está dejando de esta fin de semana. Me encanta este escuela yo voy a echar de menos muchisimo...

pues, besicos para la noche, es la una necesito dormir jaja.

adios, India

p.s. ¿Alguien puede decirme si los besos en las mejillas es aún raro en los EE.UU.? porque creo que estoy camino a utilizar para que se detenga

Group Picture

From top left: Claudia, Silvia, Alberto (Garcy), Sergio, Alvaro, Carlos (Charlie), Bea, Marin, Diego, Andrea, Maddie, India,  Julia

sleeping street performers in Barcelona!

fruit market! yummm

El Internado and quesadillas

I really quickly wanted to mention the show that we watch every Monday night. It's called El Internado and it is so amazing. If it were in English, it would easily beat out Gossip Girl or Heroes or whatever is popular right now. It is a sort of dramatic/mystery/horror/soap opera show about a boarding school, hence Internado (meaning boarding.) India and I get so excited all weekend and whenever we are together we talk about El Internado! It is hard to understand at times and the plot is really twisted, but we love it none the less. The actors are sub-par and there are lots of dramatic deaths and murders. Yesterday Carol died. Major drama in my house. Laura managed not to cry, but Silvia was sobbing next to me. Carol was one of the main girls who got abducted and murdered in the woods. Bad new bears. But she will probably come back to life next season, it happens a lot. I am going to miss my new favorite show when I get home and I'm hoping it will be online, and maybe even with subtitles so I can get other people addicted too! Or MAYBE we could watch it every monday in Spanish class (any thoughts Sra?) But anyways, it has become a major part of my week when I get to snuggle on the couch with my sisters and learn new Spanish phrases off the tele.

Today, Marimar bought me tortillas and cheese so that I could make them quesadillas! India and I were appalled when we learned that no one has heard of quesadillas, burritos and other Mexican delicacies! So today after school, I prepared simple cheese quesadillas and they were a big hit! Of course they added  ham to spruce them up, but other than that, it was a whole new concept for them! It was so much fun to cook in the kitchen with my adorable host mom. She teaches me the words for lots of foods. I can't wait to make more quesadillas tomorrow and maybe I will add some ham or chicken too!

oxoxoxo

Barcelona and some other adventures!

Like India said, we had an awesome time shopping on Friday night. I was supposed to go to Barcelona to visit Silvia's dad, but we decided to leave in the morning instead. While India was off on other adventures on Saturday, I was in the car with Laura, my little sister who is currently on crutches with a foot injury, and Silvia who sat up front with her dad. Mariano is my host dad's name and he is so amazing! He is a hysterical and loves to try to talk to me in English even though he commonly confuses kitchen with chicken.

The ride to Barcelona was unbelievably long and although I lost track of time, we got to the city at around 4:00 in the afternoon. He drove us to the top of a huge hill and we walked to the very peak where we got to look over the entire city and at the ocean beyond! It was so pretty and so enormous! After that, we met up with his girlfriend, Loli, and I got situated in my room at their cute apartment.

It became clear that the reason we went to Barcelona was so that I could see the city. For hours later on, we walked around through all of the famous streets and looked at lots of cool buildings and old churches. I love the street performers here in Spain! People make a show and career out of dressing up with props and face paint and standing frozen in the streets. People give money to take pictures and pose with the "statues." Silvia and I were too nervous to go up to any of them to take pictures, but I got one photo of a couple who painted themselves silver and propped a bed up in the middle of the street where they pretended to sleep! It was so cool!

After much sight-seeing and a rest stop at their favorite coffee place, Starbucks, we headed back home and went right to bed. In the morning, Silvia and I woke up a little on the early side to go out into Barcelona again with her friend. He lives in Barcelona so he drove us around to see Sagrada Familia, a famous church, and then we stopped at a little cafe for cokes and to hang out. We went back home again in the afternoon to get ready for our ride home! The drive seemed even longer this time and we got home just in time for kisses from Marimar (host mom) and huevos fritos con aceite de oliva, salchichas y pan. This consists of fried eggs, olive oil, sausages and lots of bread! I thought it was delicious!

Today, I was excited for school and to see India! My first two classes were Language and Social Studies which were very hard to sit through. Then I had English class. Rosa Marie has been out for the past week with a cold, so we had class for the first time in over a week! She made me read paragraphs aloud in Spanish and then translate them on the spot into English. It was really hard and embarrassing when everyone laughed at my pronunciation, but thankfully Rosa Marie does not speak perfect English and she couldn't tell when I was making up my translations!

At recreo time, India and I talked with some friends and taught Laura to sing Tik Tok by Keisha. It was thoroughly entertaining. India and I have decided that besicos are the way to go. We have grown to LOVE greeting people with kisses on the cheeks! Although our first encounters were awkward and we couldn't stop laughing, now we give besicos whenever we get the chance! We are having a hard time remembering how weird it is to give kisses in the states, so I guess we'll have to see when we get back. At least we'll have each other in case everyone else thinks it's strange.

I have been practicing the Spanish poem for school with my family. They help me with my pronunciation so that I sound like a true Spaniard by lisping all of the words with S in them. Laura likes to laugh hysterically every time I say the author of the poem, Juana de Ibarbourou, which makes me really embarrassed, but it's so fun to get Spanish lessons!

Today at school we had two hours of library time in the afternoon today, and we listened to Chemistry podcasts and tried to ignore EVERY SINGLE freshmen who insisted on staring. We can't figure it out, but for some reason, no one cares if they get caught staring... they don't even look away! We had two girls pointing and whispering about us. Two boys talking audibly about how we were probably just listening to music and not doing any work with our headphones in, and another boy in the back of the room was staring and blowing kisses. I wonder what India will do when she is alone in the library for her last week!

We went to the gym today and saw Colorado kid. We met him the first day at the gym when he came up to us because we spoke English. We talked really awkwardly while Silvia hummed and laughed to make things worse. Turns out... his name is Nicholas and he wants to hang out this weekend at a disco or a park in town. Good thing we had an excuse... but a sad one! I'm getting ready to leave for Connecticut this weekend! How depressing!

I told Silvia that I am going to miss her so so much and she invited me to live with her.... I'm glad I have options. But at dinner tonight where we had emenadillas with salchichas, peaches and licorice rice (don't ask me), we talked about how sad we're all going to be!

I am having so much fun but I can't wait to see all my American friends and family!
besicos besicos and more besicos

Weekends

Sunday morning and no rain is falling! jaja, that is a little pun I just so cleverly made up. It is ussually raining in the mornings and there is a song by Gavin Degraw and the first line is " Sunday morning rain is falling..." Well, I thought it was funny, however getting on now that we have established that it is indeed Sunday.

I have had an amazing weekend so far! Friday we did go to the mall as maddie had said. Claudia and I arrived at the mall ontime (for once!) at 5:00 p.m. and Silvia and Maddie showed up a long twenty minutes later. Of course they smiled and gave many kisses as apologies. Claudia rolled her eyes and hurried off because she had to get some work done so I stayed behind with Maddie and Silvia. I'm pretty sure we stopped at EVERY single store in the mall... EVery store, It was great. I bought shorts in Blanco, earings in Six, a 'Hersay' (more on that later) in berksha, and finally a star wars shirt in H & M. Silvia almost cried when she saw the star wars shirt that maddie and I decided to buy ( we split the bill). She forbade us from buying it, and when that failed she attempted to steal it from us and hide it. She was still trying to dispose of it after we had bought the shirt. After five hours of this I am proud to say I have possesion of the shirt. Back to the Jersay... Apparently in spain there are significant differences between what makes a sweater a jacket and a hersay. I'm still not so sure but aparently sweaters don't open, hersays always open but are about the same material as a hoodie, jackets open and can be thin or thick but... ok I'm not very sure. All I am sure about is that I thought that I bought a sweater and Silvia was appaled that I didn't know that I had bought a jersay. I really didn't care, 'as long as I like it' is my motto when shopping. For the rest of the night we ran around laughing at eachother and making jokes. We ended up eating pizza with Claudia for dinner, which was a perfect end to a fun night.

On Saturday we had churros with sugar for breakfest, which was treat for all of us. Yum! The rest of the morning, I didn't do much so I will skip to lunch. Lunch was eaten with the cousins and Grandmother. They gave us all presents which I thought was so nice especially since I had never met these cousins before. We had a lasagna type dish as our first course, which was deliscious! Second course everyone had chicken, except me, my host mom was nice enough to prepare tofu for me! It was grilled, dipped in a lemon and oregono sauce and served with oil. Very filling! Afterwards Claudia and I got ready for a night on the town. I wore black tights with shorts which is a very popular style here. It was really wierd to where shorts in winter but much more comfortable than wearing a skirt which for some reason is more popular in the states. We then ran to the mall because we were late. We were going out to a discoteca with only the french kids and their host brothers and sisters, or so I thought. About forty other people from my school came. Later about thirty more came to join the party. Our huge group got on the bus and headed out for the discoteca, again this is what I thought. As we got off we went to this little CVS like store and people kept going in and coming out with bottle shaped bags... mm. Turns out they were paying people over 18 to buy them beverages. They also would buy lemon sodas so they could mix their drinks. Then we went to the park and they started mixing drinks as if they had been doing it forever. A lot of people from my class had a lot of fun in the park that night. Claudia and I left the park after about 45 minutes to go to the discotec. At the discotec, this one was called Sala green? ( I have all the admission tickets to show off when I get back home so you all will see), and was a little different than the other one. The dance floor actually was a few feet off the ground in Sala Green and there were couches that decorated the edges of the room. There were less people in this disco, but it was still just as fun ( yes there was also a smoke machine in this disco). We danced for about two hours before leaving by bus. After all this activity I thought we would be going home, mmm no, instead we went to dinner at the fancy mcdonalds. It was there that I got into a mini argument with some of the french boys who were convinced that France is and always will be a better nation than America. When I demanded a reason they answered saying "Food" and with that they nodded towards the mcdonalds sign. I stopped talking, they had won fair and square jaja. Dad picked us up at the mall and we got home at about 11:45 p.m. Claudia and I stayed up much later taking pictures and talking In my room. Almost everyday We either go to her room or mine and talk or exchange songs. They love Lady Gaga and I am starting to share their love. She has also taught me how to salsa dance and that is so much fun... well fun for her to watch because I am not very good. But I love our little room sessions.

Today: Sunday - I learned some bad news early this morning, my grandma died yesterday. My family was very comforting about it and Claudia and I have spent most of the day talking and listening to music... I am so grateful that I am close enough to my family here that I can tell them what's going on with my family in the U.S. I love my family here, we have been through so much in four weeks and I am not looking foward to saying good-bye in two weeks. The latter part of Sunday was definately the mellow part of the weekend. Tomorow I have school so, I will talk again later.
I miss everyone,
kisses... India
p.s. In one of my other posts I spelled Pyrenees, Pirineos... I apologize for those who were confused, that is the spanish spelling of the mountain chain. While I am talking, I also apologize for any other spelling errors, Speaking in spanish all the time keeps me from maintaining my english.

Excursion

Well we had our field trip yesterday to the Pyrenees Mountains outside of Zaragoza. It was about a three hour bus ride with the French exchange students and some of our classmates. For about an hour, the roads were just wide enough for our bus, and we were only feet from careening in a rushing river shown in the picture above. Note: the blurry part in the corner = our bus. The trip was so much fun and I even enjoyed the long bus ride listening to music and talking to India. 


We got out of the bus at the top of a mountain where the view was amazing of snowy mountains and little villages below. There was a stone monastery called San Juan de la Peña built into an enormous cliff. We got a tour of the frigid church and unfortunately had guides who only spoke Spanish and French! But it was lots of fun and so cool!


Even though the church was the only site we saw, the trip took a full 12 hours and we got home at 8:00! I got an extra  hour of sleep though because Rosa Marie, our English teacher, has been sick all week and we had her class first period! It was so nice to sleep in! At school today, Silvia had a Social Studies test on Goya, the famous painter. She studied all night and all morning so she is glad that it's over. 


During recreo time, we went outside (it is a beautiful day!) and talked on the blacktop. It is such a fun time of day because everyone is required to go outside and get some fresh air. For almuerzo (snack) I bring a bocadillo everyday. I have learned to LOVE the food here, and every day I eat two pieces of toast with jam, a bocadillo (sandwich) with ham or chocolate for snack, a sandwich with cheese and ham for lunch, crackers, and a wide variety of starch and meat for dinner, There is almost a different meal every night! 


During lunch time, Silvia and I get to walk home because we live so close to school. India and Claudia eat the school lunches because they have a longer walk. Today we had macaroni with ground beef and it was delicious! Every day we heat up our food and watch Hombres and Mujeres, a game show with lots of drama, Ruleta de la Suerte (Wheel of Fortune), and Los Simpsons (easy enough to translate on your own.) I love watching tv here because it takes so much more focus to understand it! During Wheel of Fortune, Silvia and I guess the puzzles before the contestants do, it's our favorite game. 


We decided not to leave for Barcelona until tomorrow morning, so tonight we are going to back to Gran Casa, the shopping mall to wander around. I can't wait to meet Silvia's dad and see Barcelona! I hope my last weekend in Spain will be as fabulous as the ones before!


Besicos

field trip!

Cosas

School is almost over!

Right now we are in the library and the teacher who we like to refer to as Blondie just made us sit separately and with our backs to each other. Whenever we see her in the hallway, we like to dive into classrooms or run down the stairs to avoid her constant yelling. Today she found us sitting outside of the library waiting for someone to come unlock it. Bad news for us… she had the keys.

Today is a Wednesday, which means one more hour of sleep, and two hours of gym class. In gym class today, we played soccer again. With Diego, my partner, we beat Jordana and Carlos 8-0. Success! Then we did ten sets of 100 meter sprints outside. It was so tiring and I’m glad that it’s over.

At the end of gym class, we take quick showers and get changed. The poor boy, Hector, who sits in front of me in class, gets made fun of because he never showers after gym class. From the girls locker room I can hear the boys chanting, “Hector no se ducha! Hector no se ducha!” Translation: Hector doesn’t shower.

India brought a container of Jiffy Peanut Butter to school today to show everyone. We have been eating it out of the jar and letting people try it. No one eats peanut butter here, and the closest thing they have to it is Nutella. I can’t wait for Claudia and Silvia to learn about the foods that we like to eat. I want to introduce them to PB and J sandwiches, quesadillas, blueberries and raspberries and so many other delicious foods that remain unknown to Zaragoza.

India and I are planning for my sad last day of school, which is on next Thursday. We are going to wear our uniform skirts to school! We are so excited. Although picking out outfits has been a challenge in the mornings, we have come to the conclusion that we no longer care what we wear to school, and so our kilts should be a great success.

Tomorrow we go on an “excursion” to the Pyranese mountains with the new group of French kids. It should be fun, or at least more entertaining than school! India and I will bring our cameras to take pictures to show you!

On Friday afternoon I’m going to Barcelona with Silvia and her sister to meet her dad. I can’t wait to see the city and stay with Papa Alquezar! He is a cute little fat man, as Silvia describes him, so I can’t help picturing Santa Clause.

Well.. now I'm at home...

Today we had bonding activities with the French kids. We played so many fun traditional pueblo games. Afterwards, we went to the mall with them to “explore.” We ended up going bowling and I unfortunately lost to Maxime… one of the French boys. At least I did better than India, whose ball went into the gutter every time. Literally, every time.

I am exhausted and have way too many things to say. I am sad that I am leaving so soon! I am mostly nervous for my flight home alone, but I will think about that later, now I have to go to bed!

Adios!

Short post on frenchies

Estoy muy sueno porque es muy tarde pero he prometido darle información sobre los 'frenchies' y por eso yo voy a escribir un poco para mantener mi promesa. Los franceses son muy diferentes que los españolas. Ellos son muy tímidos y tranquilos y no le gustan hablar a nadie excepto a sus compañeros franceses. Ellos no saben mucho de español ni de ingles entonces, nadie puede entender ellos. En nuestro clase tenemos siete chicos franceses. La mayoridad de ellos son tranquilos pero hay una chica que, pues... no tengo mucho palabras maja para describirla. Ella es catorce y tiene pelo corta y rubia. Ella siempre esta hablando y cuando ella no esta hablando esta haciendo ruido. Por ejemplo ella le gusta hacer un sonido con sus labios, casi como si estuviera escupiendo... pero no... Sola que acaba de causar una interrupción en la clase. Que tonta! pero bueno, ella esta expresando a su mismo... Este jueves, Maddie y yo vamos a una excursión con todos los franceses a los pirineos montanas, no puedo esperar! Pues es muy tarde, y yo quiero dormir... Mañana escuela empieza a las nueve y quince, Mas tiempo para dormir! jajaaja

I am very tired but I did promise to give you an update on the french, but I will make it quick because I want to go to bed and keep my promise! The 'Frenchies' are very different from the Spainards. For one thing they are much quieter and more shy than the spanish. They don't like to speak to anyone except their own friends. They don't speak spanish or english very well, so no one really understands them. In our class we have seven of these french students, (there are fourteen in total), who like to sit in the back of the classroom and babble away in rapid french. The majority of these kids are quiet, but one girl is the prickly red rose in a field of thornless, yellow, tulips (there's always one). She is fourteen and has blond short hair. She smokes cigarettes and enjoys making trouble. She is ALwAYS talking! The rare moments when she is not talking she finds other ways to be noisy. For example, she likes to do this thing with her lips, almost like she is spitting... but no she's just causing a distraction. She also brought a two liter bottle of Coke to school and she just sits in the back of the classroom twisting the cap on and off so it will make a 'ssssss' noise that always turns heads. How annoying! She is definately playing her exchange student card... because I can tell that she knows that none of her shenanigans will put her into serious trouble. I guess in ways it's good... I mean she's expressing her individuality for sure... Well this thursday Maddie and I are going on a field trip to the pirineos Mountains, I am definatley excited. I know I will have funny stories to tell when I come back! Well it's late, and I want to go to bed! So talk to you later! Ciao
p.s. Every.Single.Day. I eat potatoes and greens for lunch... I think I need to redefine vegetarianism to the school, because I know a few more days of this might just make me sick.

What a MonDay

Today the attention was stripped from the Americans and turned towards the fourteen new French students that arrived late last night. In my class we will have seven, we haven't officially met any of them yet... tomorrow is the fateful day. But they were still seen walking around the school and... Speaking French... more updates on the fourteen vistors tomorow!

I only have one story about one of the French girls who was with us for Lunch. At lunch the boys play this game with the soccer ball which involves girls, walls, and of course a soccer ball. The girls always sit against the wall during recess and the boys kick the soccer ball against the wall above the girls’ heads to see who can kick the ball closest to a girls head without hitting her. Oh yes, it's just as wonderful and amusing as it sounds. However today, when they were playing, Manzano kicked the ball a little to low. The poor French girl was smacked right in the face on her first day. She assured Manzano that it was ok, but red cheeks and twisted glasses told a different story.

During our free today, Maddie and I caught Golem staring at us many times, yet again... (If you do not remember, Golem was introduced in my previous post) He may not ever get used to us being in the same school as him...I mean he still finds it necessary to turn and look at us every few minutes and talk about us every minute he's not looking.

I just finished watching a telenovela (soap opera) with Claudia called El Internado; Spanish soap operas are so fun to watch. They have these incredibly ridiculous plot lines, for example in tonight’s episode one of the girls was pushed off the roof and landed on her back, and she’s of course still alive...

I never thought I would live to see a day such as today, but I say with semi seriousness that I almost died when I had to explain what Peanut Butter, Pretzels and Blueberry's were today. I completely blame the food corporation for this obscenity, how could you keep a country from such wonderful foods? It's crazy I know, but even worse, they don't know what quesadillas, enchiladas or tamales are either... I know those are from Mexico, but that doesn't mean they must remain unknown to the rest of the world.
OH vey, what a day! If my mother is reading this, I give many Besicos for the wonderful package of peanut butter... I will be sure to bring it to school tomorrow and show it off as one of the most wonderful wonders. Hugs from Spain
India

Aracon

The Pueblo was an experience worth having, but a slightly frightening and humiliating process. I will start from the beginning and this may end up being a very long post (much to India's dismay.) I apologize in advance for my vivid explanation of the night.

For those of you who don't understand the concept of a Pueblo, everyone in Zaragoza has a small village that they call they call their own. It is a place that the family has been visiting for generations. Alacon, "my" village, is an hour away from Zaragoza, in the middle of nowhere. It is hard to say that the landscape and buildings are beautiful because it is such a depressing scene. As we drove, we passed enormous fields with olive trees and abandoned, crumbling stone walls and homes. Alacon could have once been a beautiful town. There are old churches and clock towers lining the streets, and every house is made of a tan, round stone that looks extremely unstable. The windows are old and covered by thin curtains with little insulation, and there are caves dug out into the huge stone slabs that the village rests on where people put chairs and couches inside for a shady sitting area. The sad thing is, everything is crumbling. The huge tower is falling to pieces and its too dangerous to stand inside. There is garbage in the streets and bonfires fill the alleyways with lots of smoke. I can imagine that Alacon, and many of the surrounding villages were once sweet, quiet towns... but not as much anymore.

When we arrived, we brought our bags into their frigid two story house and then went back outside, where despite the snow, it was still much warmer than the house. In the kitchen, Marimar told us that we were free to do whatever we wanted, or as she put it, "Libre como pajaricos." Free as little birds.

Alacon is small enough that Silvia knew everyone, and we could walk around the perimeter in less than ten minutes. We walked to her friend Alba's house, a hysterical fourteen year old who I have met once before. I was completely oblivious to our plans for the night and only followed behind them as more and more of their friends, and as I later learned, enemies, walked out of their houses to walk with us. I met Silvia's other best friend, Maria, who was small and sweet, but wild and loud. We all turned down a dark alley where sparks from a huge bonfire blew into our eyes and made it so that even 7 hours later, my eyes still burned as I tried to fall asleep that night.

A group of older looking guys stood around the fire, smoking and daring each other to try to jump through the flames to the other side. We reached the fire, said hello and then turned into an open doorway leading into a small room on the first floor of an abandoned building. The door was painted red and had the name of the "secret club" written on it. "El Kanuto." I still don't know the meaning, so excuse me if it's anything bad. Inside, there was a small DJ booth with speakers and wires taped up along the grey walls. The walls were covered in graffiti and symbols. Some I understood, like swastikas and Vive Espana, but most of them I could not decipher. The girls we had met up with looked to be out of high-school and I watched as the night progressed, each one of them smoke an entire pack of cigarettes without a break in between. When I came home later on, my clothes wreaked of bonfire and cigarette smoke.

We sat on the rotting couches in this room for an hour, watching as the boys filled the refrigerator in the corner of the room, and listening the techno music. The lights were turned out and it was pitch black except for our glowing white shoelaces from the small black-light hanging from the ceiling. When Silvia, Alba, Maria and I left, I didn't expect to be returning. We went to Alba's house, ate pizza and watched tv. I was relieved to be away from the creepy room and blazing fire.

Within an hour, I followed them, not having been filled in on our agenda for the night. We walked to a store and picked up some desserts. Then we walked back down the dark alleyway where there was now and entire cushioned couch blazing in the fire. The boys chanted around it as one of then took a running leap, landed on the couch and then jumped out with the cuffs of his jeans smoking and his face ecstatic. We proceeded inside where for the next 5 hours, my lungs continued to blacken from second-hand smoke, my eyes teared up from the ash and sparks, and my new 14 year old friends, Alba and Maria drank their mixtures of lemonade and vodka, apple cider and gin.

I was the laughing stock of the group of boys, who liked to remind me that Americans are fat and boring. Well that was easy to brush off, but I could have done without the whispering and pointing that I endured for the entire night. The chain-smokers were nicest to me and talked to me in English because they dreamed of either moving to New York or becoming English teachers. I lost track of time though, and after watching boys try to leap through the enormous fire, and listening to Wiki Wiki and I've Got a Feeling more than 10 times, we finally went home at 3:00 am. I was exhausted, and like I said, my eyes burned while I tried to fall asleep from all of the ash.

I know it was an important experience to learn about the Pueblos and to meet Silvia's friends, but it was one of the harder nights to get through. I wish India could have been there to keep me entertained, but I know she has her own Pueblo stories to tell. For now, I plan on washing the smoky smell out of my hair and then reading a book in my bed. Colegio tomorrow puts a damper on things, but it sure beats El Kanuto, that is for sure.

On a lighter note, on our way home from Alacon, we went to a Chinese restaurant for Sunday lunch. Every Sunday, it is traditional to eat out with the family and then return home for Ciesta, which in the U.S. could be translated as a food coma, or nap-time. The funny thing about Zaragoza is that ham is simply unavoidable. There was ham in every Chinese dish, salad and rice included. Later, while India and I tried to explain to Silvia and Claudia what marshmallows were, we learned that they also call them Jamon (ham) or nubes which means clouds. How can everything here translate to ham?!

Today at school, a group of 15 French exchange students arrived. I have no idea how we will all fit in class, but they don't speak ANY Spanish... so the field trip that I will be taking with them this Thursday should be... thrilling to say the least.

One thing we forgot to mention about school, everyone stares. While India and I sit in the library, we look up to see everyone staring at us. Even people who sit with their backs to us turn their entire bodies to watch us suffer over our homework. It is quite awkward and sometimes we like to wave to break the tension.

Until I have more interesting stories to tell...
Besicos,
Maddie

Fin de semana

Among the many things I learned this weekend, I admit one of the most fulfilling pieces of information I learned was that Hakuna Matata's meaning doesn't change when translated. And so, with the soundtrack of the lion king stuck in my head, I survived a very crazy weekend.


Friday: Even though Friday is technically still a weekday, I feel it is too close to the weekend to be discounted and categorized as a lowly weekday. Friday's in Spain may be one of my favorite school days; here the school schedule goes accordingly to weekday. Fridays I started the day with two hours of P.E. We warmed up by doing some soccer drills and passing the ball with a partner, we then played some keep away with partners. It is actually one of the funniest things to sit back and compare the skill levels between boys and girls in soccer here. The boys are raised from the moment they are able to stand up to dribble with a soccer ball. The girls.... well they aren't raised to do anything that involves the rising of their pulse. After we had finished playing soccer we all walked across the street to the park to run laps. The coach would blow a whistle and we would run for six minutes and stop for one, and keep running in this manner until the end of class. The running groups were like so, athletic boys (the ones who are good at soccer), un-athletic boys (the ones who are not good at soccer), popular girls, and then two other girls in the class. Haha as you can probably just see from the running groups, their clique situation is so strong it decides what group you can run in. Anyhow, so their idea of running is very twisted... it’s essentially speed walking... in place. So when we started 'running' I ended up passing all of their little cliquey groups. This did not make any of the boys happy and it became a game so that whenever I got closer to them, they all formed a line and sped up so that there was no way I could pass them. This went on for quite a while and I kept trying to find ways to get pass them. I stopped trying when I tripped on a sprinkler and missed a pile of dog poop by a few centimeters. I only had two more periods for the rest of the day and those were tutorial and a free. In tutorial we spent the period watching Good Will Hunting in Spanish. For my free I went to the library with Maddie to work on some school work. Almost every free that we have together we share with three other boys. One of them we know rides a motorcycle to school and we call him Moto. The other we don't have a name for but he is part of the threesome. And the last we call golem. The first day that we saw them, Moto told golem that we thought he was cute thinking we could not understand them. When we objected and told him we understood he said he was only joking because his friend looks like golem from Lord of the Rings. Maddie and I thought this was the funniest thing we had ever heard and decided to keep the name Golem for this boy. On Friday in the library we kept catching Golem staring at us. It was not the kind of subtle glances that one might do to make sure that the person does not know they are staring... No, these were long stares that required 'Golem' to turn his body toward us in such a way we could not help but notice his staring. I am pretty surer he turned to look, at least, thirty times. If it's been two weeks, and people have to look thirty different times at the Americans, I wonder how long it will take them to get so used to us they don't need to look at all. Friday after school Silvia, Claudia, Maddie and I spent the night at the mall shopping! We were at the mall for only three and a half hours shopping and eating, not long at all... We said our goodbyes and went home afterwards...excited and anxious for our weekend at the pueblo


Saturday: We woke up at around 9 and got ready to leave for the pueblo by 10:30. The drive to the pueblo was very scenic and beautiful. I saw the countryside of Spain which was like driving through a world that was 400 years old. Unfortunately the drive was also very curvy and I suffered from a bit of car sickness when are car climbed over the Perini mountains, which were covered in snow! After an hour and thirty minutes we arrived at the adorably old fashioned town of Luesia. We live in a little house that looks like it could belong in the century when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ruled Spain. There was no heat, just a fireplace, and everything was made of stone. My weekend was a lot quieter than Maddie's, the next time we go there will be a party they said, and I spent a lot of my time inside. We met Claudia's best friends at the Pueblo two young girls, one our age and one the age younger. And we went to eat lunch in an old cow barn turned into a dining hall. That was when I first learned that in Luesia, when people want to smoke, they smoke. The barn soon was enveloped in fireplace, cigarette, and cigar smoke. We had a typical Luesia dish of ormigas, which are bread crumbs that have been fried on the stove. They were very good, and I was relieved that after a week of potatoes and greens for lunch everyday I could have something different. We drove up to the top of a snowy mountain after lunch to take picture in the freezing cold. That was pretty cool, although all of the stone faced hunters we passed on the way up, who had guns, were pretty unsettling... We went back home after lunch and Claudia, Lucia, her two friends and I watched TV. while the parents went out. I think I watched enough Spanish Jonas brothers TV. to last me a life time... I sat very awkwardly watching the tele because I didn't understand any of what they were saying. After about two hours of this awkward sitting and watching we went out to the bar for dinner. The bar was just a smoke haven, full of drunks and crazy twenty year olds. We had dinner and sat in the bar for two hours and a half. It was about twelve when we left the bar, by that time I had learned that couching obnoxiously does not have an affect on smokers in Spain, they continue to smoke. After leaving I thought we would be going home because it was so late, but no, we went to another bar for more drinks and smokes. There we sat for another hour and a half having drinks and inhaling smoke... such fun...I was very tired and in my head I was very cranky with myself, but I made sure to put on a smiling face and managed to stay awake until we finally were able to walk home. The house was still very cold when we got home so I slept with a heated pack of water in my bed.


Sunday: We got to sleep in a bit because of the previous night, so I got out of be on Sunday morning at about eleven. My throat was itching and I had a cough from all the smoke from the previous night. I couldn't stop imagining my lungs looking like the black sponges in all the lung cancer commercials. We packed up and got ready to head back home, or so I thought. We ended up side tracking at another pueblo, and hour north (FARTHER away from Zaragoza), to see the sights of a town just like Luesia. We had lunch there at a very posh restaurant, the lady at the table next to ours kept looking, and I just know that she was jealous of my Sacred Heart field hockey hat. I slept in the car on the way back to Zaragoza, but was very relieved to wake up in the at least somewhat aware smoke aware city. Claudia and I walked over to Silvia's house to talk to them about our weekend. We spent about an hour at Silvia's house talking and eating popcorn, we had only spent a day without seeing them and it felt like a week. We walked home and had cheese and tomato sandwiches for dinner talking about our weekend while quietly playing American hand games. I went to bed early because my throat hurt and just like that my weekend was over!

I apologize for not writing in a while; I will try a lot harder I promise! :]]
till later, Besicos para todos!
India

School Buds

The girl in the brown jacket is named Laura. We met her yesterday and she is in another class in our grade. It turns out that she is almost 18 and has been held back twice! A lot of people at school get held back because the testing is very difficult.

La Luna

En la clase de la semana pasada, estábamos hablando sobre el medio ambiente. La clase votó que los Estados Unidos fue el peor país en la protección del medio ambiente. En Zaragoza, la gente está trabajando muy duro para conservar la energía. Todas las luces, los fregaderos y duchas públicas se apagará automáticamente para conservar el agua y la energía. El papel higiénico viene en hojas en lugar de rollos de lo que no uso mucho. Ellos usan secadores de manos en lugar de toallas de papel. Toda persona que recicla su papel en la escuela, y en apartamentos durante el día, todas las luces están apagadas y que usan el sol para iluminar las habitaciones.

En la clase de Inglés, estábamos hablando de los primeros hombres en la Luna. La profesora le dijo a mi clase de la que algunas personas creen que los americanos en la Luna fue todo un truco. Sé que algunas personas creen que nunca hemos llegado a la luna, pero todo el grupo pensó que era falso! Todos pensaban que los Estados Unidos le mintió al mundo. Yo no lo podía creer!

In class last week, we were talking about the environment. The class voted that the United States was the worst country in environmental protection. In Zaragoza, the people are working so hard to conserve energy. All of the lights, sinks and showers public turn off automatically to conserve water and energy. The toilet paper comes in sheets instead of rolls so you do not use too much! It's so cool. They use hand dryers instead of paper towels. Every person recycles their paper at school, and in apartments during the day, all of the lights are off and they use the sun to light the rooms.

Also, in English class, we were talking about the first men on the moon. The teacher told my class that some people believed that the americans on the moon was all a trick. I know that some people believe that we never made it to the moon, but the entire class thought that too! They all believed that the united states lied to the world. I could not believe it!

Other than that, the week was relatively normal and slightly boring. Today though, I am going to Silvia's pueblo! Every one in Zaragoza has a village where they travel to in the summer and on weekends. It is the small town where one of their parents were born. Silvia's pueblo is called Aragon and it is an hour away. India has to travel and hour and a half to hers. I am sort of nervous because they know EVERYONE who lives there. I will be giving out lots of kisses of the cheeks and awkward introductions. But it should be fun and I get to meet everyone at a party/gathering tonight. I have to go pack my stuff now to sleep-over at their house in Aragon.

Hopefully it will all go well!
p.s. If anyone wants to learn how to cry on command, just rub some blistex in your eye. I just did accidently and I have tears streaming down my face

My beautiful bedroom!

School Week!

Well a summary of the week...

On Monday, Silvia and I were exhausted, But India and I got to leave some of the boring classes to go to the library to do homework. We went to the gym and some certain Spaniards who shall remain nameless thought it would be fun to do a step class. FALSE. Not a good idea. An hour of aimless spinning, dancing and walking was more than I could handle.

On Tuesday, I don't really remember much happening, but I find it necessary to add that on Tuesday, and the days following, India and I decided to start speaking in Spanish when we are together so that we can get better. Sometimes we manage a 5 minute conversation, but we are so in the habit of being able to talk about whatever we want because we know no one will understand us in English. We're working on it though.

Wednesday was a relatively good day. School started an hour later and ended three hours earlier... a major plus. It was also gym day. Silvia and I had gym class first thing in the morning. It was nice outside, which was a bad thing because that meant that we would be running in the park. We wore our gym clothes to school and started out by playing futbol. Nearly every boy in my class aspires to be a famous futbol player, but I have never seen anyone play as well as Guillermo, Sergio and Manzano. They were incredible. In the first 5 minutes, we played "knock out," and tried to kick eachother's soccer balls out of the court. The creepy gym teacher targeted me because he has something against girls being relatively adequate at exercise related activities. Luckily I got away in time to run full on into some random kid from my class. We both fell onto the ground and experienced quite a bit of mockery afterwards. But thanks to my general ability to dribble and keep the ball close to my feet, I was deemed a futbol star by the pros of my class.

Unfortunately, after futbol came the running. We walked out to the park next to the school in the 40 degree weather. Now saying that running is not my forte is an understatement, but I was determined to keep up with the slightly big-headed futbol players of my class. Along with that, the gym teacher told me that I wasn't strong or good enough to run with the other guys, so I had to prove him wrong. So I left Silvia and her friends to run with Manzano, Sergio, Guillermo, Marino, Carlos and some other guys. It is a good thing I have been going to the gym, because I could have easily died. We ran for 20 minutes around the park and I stayed with the group of guys for the whole time!! I was told multiple times as I passed the gym teacher that I needed to slow down because I was a girl and I shouldn't run so fast... so it was a huge motivation! I sprinted for a full 20 minutes just to keep up. I am so sore today, but it was totally worth it!

Today at colegio we had so many boring classes in a row. En la clase de Ingles, Rosa Marie, my teacher, assigned me homework where I have to translate sentences from Spanish to English. It would be easy except for the fact that she tells me I don't use proper English. hmmmm.

Well tomorrow is another half day! I'm bringing my camera to take pictures of all my friends and classmates! And after school we are going to the mall to go shopping! I can't wait. Oh and after that we go to the gym to take a kickboxing class! I will let you know how it goes.

Well I'm Skyping with my lovely family back at home now and it sounds like Connecticut is the same old Connecticut! We saw the guy from Colorado at the gym again today and his ungreased hair and unpierced face makes me miss home!

BESICOS!

Nuevas Palabras

Aquí están las nuevas palabras y frases que han aprendido en clase y en casa. Algunas de las palabras sólo se usan en España o en Zaragoza.

Que Majico! (how cute, adorable, little, sweet, charming)
Que Chulo! (that is so cool, awesome, impressive)
Yo voy a hacer mis deberes. (I am going to do my homework. No one says tarea here)
Vale (yeah okay, alright) - they say this A LOT
Sa Sa Sa Sa (yeah yeah not important, hush hush) - to get someone to stop talking
Hola? Que tal? (hello?! are you there? are you listening?) - when someone is being weird or not paying attention
Que Raro! (How weird, strange, ridiculous, out there, crazy, mental) 
Quieres Pelear? (Do you wanna fight?) 
Hombreeee... (whoa..., oh boy)
Ay Ba! (oh dang, shoot, oh!, of course)
Besicos (little kisses!) - used a lot in phone conversations and emails

Recreo / Comida y Biblioteca

Hoy, tengo dos cosas para decir sobre de esta lunes y martes. Voy a hablar sobre los recreos y el tiempo que maddie y yo estamos en la biblioteca. Cada dia Maddie y silvia van a casa para comer porque ellas suertes viven menos de un minuto del collegio! Pero para comida Claudia y yo quedamos en escuela para, pues para comer jajaja. Tenemos dos horas para comer.. me gusta mucho porque antes de comida tenemos cinco clases!!

Ayer comí con claudia y cinco chicos de nuestro grado, sergio, jordana, manzano, carlos y guillermo (Oye, sabes que en ingles guillermo es William! facto divertido jajaja). Para comida teniamos pasta, el pasta tiene carne... entonces yo tenia una pasta especial. El concepto de vegetarianismo se fascino todos los chicos y immedietamente pregunto si yo era una religion differente como, hindu o budista. Despues de comer fuimos afuera para hablar. Afuera hablamos sobre todo pero mucho del tiempo ellos preguntan a mi que es los estados unidos. ( son muy celosos que tenemos mas tiempo en el verano para vacaciones)Un chico muy gracioso se llama Manzano pregunta a mi si yo puede ensenarle el himno americano. Tambien manzano trato a cantar "I'm Yours" por Jason Mraz.

Hoy para comida... hacemos el mismo pero hace mucho fria afuera (estaba lloviendo) y entonces nosotros hablamos adentro.

La biblioteca es una lugar que Maddie y yo vamos cada dia cuando tenemos clases como, lengua o biologias ( clases muy aburidos y cuando no entendemos Nada!). Hacemos deberes por Sagrado Corazon en los estados unidos. La biblioteca es una pequena habitacion donde no se permite hablar. Hoy tengo un historia muy divertida sobre mi segunda visita a la biblioteca. Para clase de lengua yo voy a la biblioteca sin maddie. Y cuando estabo a punto de ir, un chico de mi clase, Alberto, pregunata me " Donde vas?" Y yo explico mi situacion. Y le preguntó si podía faltar a clase lenguaje tambien. Me reí de el y salí de clase. Pero cinco minutos mas tarde el entro la biblioteca y me sonrio. Mas tarde me aprende que se metió en problemas a propósito, sólo para que pudiera faltar a clase y ir a la biblioteca, como yo.

Today, I have two things to say about this Monday and Tuesday. I will talk about the breaks and the time that Maddie and I are in the library. Every day Maddie and Silvia walk home to eat because they live less than a minute from school! But for lunch Claudia and I stay in school, to eat. We have two hours to eat .. I like this long break a lot because we have five classe before lunch!

Yesterday I ate with claudia and five boys in our grade, Sergio, Jordana, Manzano, Carlos and Guillermo (Hey, you know that Guillermo is William English! funny fact of the day!). For lunch we had pasta, the pasta has meat ... so I had regular pasta. The concept of vegetarianism is fascinated by the spainards and they immedietly asked if I was a different as religion, like Hindu or Buddhist. After lunch we went outside to talk. Outside we talked about everything, but most of the time they ask me about the United States. (They are very jealous that we have more time in the summer for vacation)A very funny boy named Manzano asked me if I can teach the American anthem. Manzano also tried to sing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz to me.



The library is a place that Maddie and I go every day when we have classes such as, language and biology (very boring classes that we don't understand !). We do our homework for Sacred Heart in the United States. The library is a small room where talking is not allowed. Today I have a funny story about my second visit to the library. For language class I go to the library without maddie. And when I was about to go, a boy in my class, Alberto, asked me "Where you going?" And I told him how I was going to the library because I didn't like language class. He laughed and asked If he could come with me. I laughed and told him to have fun in language and left the classroom not thinking much more about it. I was studying in the library for less than five minutes when a smirking Alberto walked into the library sat at my table holding two notebooks. He purposefully was obnoxious and disruptive in class to the point that the teacher told him to go to the library. I couldn't help but to laugh at the determination he had to get out of language class . I just hope I haven't given him any ideas of what to do in the future. It is VEry very very late in Spain right now and I do have school tommorow so I will finnish my post right ( and going to bed) Now
- india

Watching 7 Almas (7 pounds)

El Pilar. Zaragoza's famous Cathedral.

Oh say can you see

After the packed weekend, we started the week of school off by getting a whopping 4 and a half hours of sleep. Monday brought about new experiences, including falling asleep while standing, falling asleep while eating and falling asleep while reading. I have been spending most of my time in the kitchen watching El Internado, a teenage soap, and La Ruleta de la Suerte (Wheel of Fortune). If I'm not in the 6x6 kitchen, I am in Silvia's room helping her with English homework, or I'm in my room, staring off into space.


At school, Silvia takes lots of classes. Math, Biology, Language, English, Social Studies, Ethics, Latin, Health, Religion, French and Gym. We have seven classes a day. All in Spanish. All week. So India and I opted out of three, mine being Latin, French and Biology, and now we go to the library to work on Chemistry and English. It's so hard to focus when every single person in the library is staring at the two Americans. We are greeted in the hallway every day by a boy singing the National Anthem, and it is extremely entertaining being the odd ones out. But in the library, our only opportunity to work during the school day, it gets old.


During Math class today, the teacher tried to convince me that I should be doing the math homework, even though I cannot understand a thing he teaches, and for the past few days he has told me to read during class instead of take notes. hmmm. In English class, I am the second teacher and I get to talk about things in the United States in front of the class. Yesterday I accidently told everyone that in New York, if you drive too fast then you go to jail. Whoops. But their reactions were priceless. On the highways here, you are allowed to drive the equivalent of 90 mph! Most of the boys are very rude to the teachers, who they are permitted to call by their first names. In language class, we have the strictest woman teaching us. The same boy who sits alone in the back and smokes outside during recess has been kicked out of class three times in a row. The teacher has a thing against all of the boys and makes at least two of them leave the class per day. I don't see it as a punishment, considering they get to go to the library or go outside and play Futbol.


Speaking of Futbol, tomorrow I have two hours of gym in the morning! We run outside for twenty minutes, and then play Futbol in el gimnasio. After I told everyone that I play soccer at home, some of them actually want me one their teams! This is a huge change from elementary school, being the last one picked for kickball. Well tomorrow there is going to be much disappointment when everyone discovers my lack of skill. As India said, this is when I wish I could play like Erin Myers (shout-out).


My general sleeping habits during the school week at home are, go to bed at 10:30 (11:00 at the latest), and wake up at 6:35. Well here I am running on a whole new schedule. I get home from school at 4:30 and go right to the kitchen to get a snack. Since I've been here, I am constantly hungry even though I eat about 6 smaller meals a day. Then I go to Silvia's room to harass her and teach her English slang. Then I go to my room and try to organize myself, but to no avail. Then Silvia yells for me to pack my bag for the gym. I guess it's a good thing we work out every day considering how much I have been eating. I pack and we go to the gym. When we get home 2 hours later, we eat dinner. Then I watch some television with the family, and then I go the Silvia's room to hang out. Then I go to my room and do homework and talk to some people who speak English on my computer. Then I go out of my room to see Silvia again and then we watch a tv show before bed. I don't know how, but bedtime always ends up being at around 12:30 or 1:00. Then I wake up at 7:20 and do it all over again!


Normally, the gym is really fun. We run for 20-30 minutes of the treadmill or elliptical and then do the other machines. Today however, Claudia and Silvia thought it would be fun to do a step class. First of all, it was taught by a very happy, flamboyant guy who claimed he was from Rochester, although he didn't speak English fluently. He was very nice to us, but in the beginning of the class he told us that the first time, we wouldn't be very good. We laughed considering we were in a class filled with about 15 old people. Well, it was the worst HOUR AND A HALF that I have ever had to dance through. On top of it all, I had to go to the bathroom really badly and I was dying of thirst. Bad bad bad. It was actually impossible to keep up with the choreography. I'm amazing I made it through unscathed. 


Today for dinner we had the same deep-fried mystery meat that I am actually starting to enjoy, and french fries. I have noticed, that almost everything in Zaragoza is eaten without silverware. Meat and vegetable and fruits, you can always use your hands, but for french fries they use forks! Of all things, it's a finger food for goodness sakes! Also, people here must have really sharp teeth to be able to eat all the tough smoked ham, sausages and what not. I can't do it! Along with that, their taste buds must be dead from all of the extremely sweet things they eat and drink! I have been drinking Pina and Uva juice-boxes, and I actually die of sugar over-dose every time I take a sip.


But I am really enjoying every thing I do in Spain, including step classes, discotecas, singing Party in the USA for a group of strangers and doing watching Spanish soaps. 


But now it's time for me to go do my deberes! A new word for homework. Tarea is not in their dictionary and it makes things very confusing! 


pues... tata for now
Besicos

Our brains are getting SOOO filled with Spanish!!

Wiki Wiki

Yesterday I woke up a wonderful three hours later than the morning before. This appears to be a universal custom, waking up late on weekends. After savoring the sleep in for a extra few minutes, I abandoned the lazy attitude and started to get ready for the day. Claudia had been invited to a birthday party and it started at 2:30 in the afternoon. Claudia suggested we go to the mall because she wanted a new outfit. I agreed with her suggestion and we set out for the mall at 12:00.

We hopped from floor to floor and store to store Claudia ended up with more than just a new outfit and I ended up with less than a heavy wallet. After our seventh store Claudia looked at her watch and nearly screamed when she saw it was 2:00 p.m. We had thirty minutes to run home, change our clothes, straighten hair (claudia) and run to the pizzeria. The running was excluded from the plan, so we arrived at the pizzeria an hour later. It was a double birthday party for two girls in our class and everyone got very dressed up. There were about 22 girls in total and we all squeezed into the restuarant for pizza. Maddie, two girls from our class (Marta and Carlotta), and I shared the cheese only pizza. The rest of the girls had ham pizza I am pretty sure.

After we were done eating, the girls gave presents and took pictures to and with the birthday girls. After we were done eating and talking we walked across the street to the bus station and headed towards the Pilar to go to a discoteca. The bus was crowded with kids under the age of 18 and filled with energy. We got off and walked to a discoteca called Sala 976, we paid an entrance fee and each got a stamp so we could enter. It was drug free place only for teens under eighteen. There were flashing lights that gave off an illusion that everyone was doing the robot. Blaring music that shook your bones blasted out of the stereos. Every so often fog would blow out of a pipe above us. (Maddie and I thought this was the coolest thing about the discoteca) The music was mainly a mixture of popular american songs with a spanish salsa base added to them. A popular song was called Wiki Wiki, If you want to listen to what some of their music sounds like you can click this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8rOwk9SEnI . When this song comes on they all yell and get very excited.

As the night went on more people arrived to dance at Sala 976. There was a drink that was free with the admission ticket that was called el semaforo. It is spanish for stop light, it is called this because the drink has three different liquids in it, one red, one yellow, and one green. It was very sour but we were so thirsty we couldn't complain. We danced for about two hours and a half, and Silvia's parents gave Claudia and I a ride home. I was so tired from the long night, but we still had dinner to eat when we got home. We ate dinner at around 10:25 p.m. a big difference than what would have happened in back in the United States. Overall I thought the night was very fun and I can't wait to see what happens next weekend!

a few more things...

Well, today I had to describe my favorite fruit, animal and sport to my family because they had never heard of them. The only sport that people play here is Futbol (soccer). For boys, if you don't like soccer, you don't have friends. Girls on the other hand, are not expected to be good at anything involving physical activity so they prefer to sit and watch.

I showed Silvia and her mom a picture of a lacrosse player and told them how it is played. They were AMAZED. Then I showed them pictures of blueberries. In Zaragoza, they only eat berries in jam. They had no idea what blueberries, rasberries and blackberries were! I told them that my favorite fruit was little and blue and they died laughing. Apparently they had never even thought that blue fruits existed. I showed them pictures and they had really never seen them before!

Next I showed a picture of an otter, my favorite animal. Silvia responded with the frequently used Zaragozan term, "Que mahico!" It means "How cute!"

Another interesting thing happened today... India and I have been going to the gym to get in shape for lacrosse and crew. In Zaragoza, nobody speaks English very well and we like to use that to our advantage. We can talk about whatever we want and whoever we want as long as we talk fast! It's so fun! But in the gym today, a guy walked past who looked around twenty, and heard us talking. He back-pedaled to where we were standing and said, "YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!" He told us that he was studying abroad in Spain for a year and he doesn't speak any Spanish! He lives in Colorado and we got to talk about American things! It was so fun to talk to someone who understood our accents!

Well tomorrow is Saturday, which means pizza and discotechas! India and I plan on showing everyone how to do the Thriller dance. When we asked what we should wear for the party, everyone said, "guapa." So all we know is that we have to look pretty... it is hard to look pretty when you have to wear a down coat everywhere and you can't really pull off the leggings look like Claudia and Silvia. Well I guess I'll have to plan tomorrow, I am seriously sleep deprived at the moment.

Here is Silvia, her family, and Sacred Heart!!!

The Spanish Countryside

This was the view my mom and I had on our way to Zaragoza. I just uploaded these and thought this was amazing! The dirt is red and the grass is bright green with little trees everywhere! They look like Dr. Suess trees with little tufts of leaves. They're so funny. The train ride was amazing and the trains are gorgeous and so smooth. It takes 3 hours to drive to Zaragoza from Madrid, but only an hour and a half to take the train! It's so fast.

So much to say

I am home for lunch after my first day of school! I am having so much fun but it is so tiring and sort of lonely too. It takes a ridiculous amount of focus to always be translating from English to Spanish in my head. I realized recently though, that I have started to think in Spanish and translate into English! It's so weird.

Yesterday was Los Reyes Magos, a holiday like Christmas that is dedicated to the Three Kings at Jesus' birth. I woke up at 12:30 in the afternoon and Marimar, my AMAZING host mom gave me an I LOVE ZARAGOZA sweatshirt. It's so cute. The night before the holiday, my first day in Zaragoza, I went to the parade and it was so cold! Even though the temperatures are the same here and in Connecticut, it is so damp here that everything feels colder!

Last night I was so nervous for school, and on top of that I was feeling a little woozy from the fried pig skins, pickled asparagus, deep fried mystery meat, seafood paella and a multitude of other interesting foods. I have never seen anyone eat as much as the Spaniards. More than once I have been asked why Americans are so fat, a common stereotype here in Spain... but I have to tell them in my broken Spanish that unlike Spaniards, most Americans prefer one or two course meals. Here in Spain my meals consist of a huge appetizer of ham, eggs, mayo and deep fried mashed potato and bacon nuggets. Then comes the main course of deep fried meat with butter-dipped fries and peppers. Next comes snacks like toast and candy. Then comes dessert, lemon whipped cream, sugared bread with whipped cream, or chocolate with whipped cream. There is not a lot of variety. Oh and after that we go home and eat melon. No wonder they think I don't eat enough! The main dish here is ham. Smoked ham is in everything! In my kitchen here, there is an entire leg of a pig that they take shavings of ham from. It's pretty cool actually... I am slowly adjusting to the different food choices, and luckily Silvia is a picky eater too, so it all works out.

The first half of school was ridiculously boring, but entertaining in between classes. All of the boys have been looking forward to two new female additions to the grade, and I was informed by Sergio, my desk mate, that I am a new "fish in the sea." Well India is really a major topic of discussion... the boys like to reach over and pull her hair. They tell her she is Bob Marley and she is commonly referred to as Tarzan.

In ethics class, the teacher is so funny and likes to speak in English for me. In the beginning of the class, I was able to follow what he was saying, unlike biology and Latin, but towards the end I couldn't focus anymore. I hope that eventually I will start to understand more in class.

I got invited to my first birthday party in Spain! I get to go out with all of Silvia's friends this weekend for a birthday party. Luckily, India is coming too so we can stick together while we are thoroughly immersed into the social lives of Zaragozans. I think we're going to a discotecha for the party... so that should be interesting.

All of the girls ask if I know famous people since I live near New York. I like to tell them I do... but they never believe me. The boys tell me that they are famous Futbol players. Manzano introduced himself to me as Cristiano Ronoldo, and Sergio asked me if I knew Obama. Everyone is so funny and social and they all want to know about the U.S. They sing Fiesta en los Estados Unidos (Party in the U.S.A), and ask who has the best American accent. It's so much fun!

I'm off to school again for History class and English! Yayayya English class finally! I met the teacher and she doesn't speak very much English, but some of the students do and it will be fun to see how much they know. It is SUCH a hard language to learn. I was trying to help Silvia with simple fill in the blank English homework and I could barely do it. Nothing makes sense in the English language.

Pues... Adios!