Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, January 18, 2010
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
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
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
Sunday, January 17, 2010
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
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
Saturday, January 16, 2010
School Buds
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