one miggety-month

SO brace yourselves for a serious blog here.

IT'S BEEN ONE MONTH!!!!!! Can you believe it? I def-Mc-def can't. But more of that excitement later.

I HAVE STORIES!

Oldest to newest here...

LAST WEEKEND I went hiking in las montañas with a few fam-friends of my neighbors. I have come to the conclusion that I really like mountains. We don't have mountains in Minnesota. Remember when I commented on the driving around here..... just imagine that on mountainous roads. I'm talking unpaved, rocky and skinny, steep 'roads'. More like death traps that people are somehow allowed to drive on. Anyway I felt kind of goofy the whole time because I think I saw more of the ground than anything else. I found it difficult to climb up a steep hill while looking at the scenery and taking pictures and not falling. I tripped a few more times than I'd care to admit, and encountered a few unfriendly spanish plants, but overall I DID enjoy hiking. And I made a friend!

Funny thing about hiking though.... If you don't pee right before you leave, you are screwed. I found that out the hard way. The group started walking around 11 AM, I had to pee around 130 PM. Normally I would just go pee in the woods somewhere, but too bad I only know how to say "i have to pee" in the little kid way: "Yo necesito hacer un pipi." which loosely translates to "I need to make a tinkle." I hope you all can see why I didn't want to announce that to the group of (mostly) adults. This debacle basically led to me not peeing until I got home at 7 PM. This is how I was walking the entire time:

SUPER FUN!

But really though, I did enjoy myself. I really like dem mountains.

They're pretty airy. Good for the mind.

One thing that is awesome about my school is my chemistry class. It's so weird because I hate chemistry, but it's definitely my favorite class here. Ok just listen here. This is my chemistry teacher: close your eyes. CLOSE YOUR EYES! Imagine a spanish version of my dad's face. Now add aunty Karen's hairdo. THAT IS MY CHEMISTRY TEACHER. It's actually so freaky... A lot of my teachers remind me of someone else I know. Examples: My math teacher is a lot like neighbor Eileen. Geography teacher is Mary Ford. Theory of Knowledge teacher is exactly like my mom's friend Melanie (sorry if I butchered your name). My neighbor here, Lola, is the twin of neighbor Toni. That kinda freaked me out a little.....

Anyway back to chemistry. It's so fun because I only have 3 people in my class so we can joke around a little. For example, I was teaching my classmates how to swear in english, and my teacher over heard. So, guess what he did? He stopped teaching so he could learn too. AWESOME! I taught my teacher how to swear. Also, one time he was trying to explain the Mole, so he goes "how many atoms are in a Mole of Carbon?" (The answer is 6.022 x 10 to the 23 power. Which is 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000) And just to further our grasp on the concept, he goes "How many Jane's are there in a Mole of Jane's?" And I go, "6.022 x 10 to the 23 power Jane's." And he goes, "Yes. Let's hope that never happens." AWESOME!

A few other cool things have occurred.

Last night I went to this really intense spanish dance theater performance thing. The dancing was really good, but I understood absolutely nothing. That includes the language AND the 'deeper meaning' (you know how dances always have a deeper meaning.) Nevertheless, I liked it a lot. FRONT ROW BABY! I saw all the funny facial expressions up close. Also after we went to this vegetarian restaurant where some people in my group drank tomato juice. I have come to the conclusion that vegetables should never been ingested in that manner. It's disgusting.

Also, I have finally started to notice that my spanish is getting better. I don't necessarily think in spanish yet, but sometimes I do catch myself thinking of possible sentences that I could say. Good spanish conversation starters. Planning ahead is key.

Also nora, this one's for you. I conformed and joined a basketball team. I am the tallest one. If tall girls don't exist on a basketball team, they are nowhere.

Ok. This next section is something I like to call:

This section will be written once a month, every month to give my overall monthly experience.

Ok. 'The verdict' #1:

Top 10 Things I Miss. (No specific order)

1. My cats.

2. Being Barefoot. I have to wear shoes all the time because it's considered rude or something to not wear shoes in the house. I don't like this because my shoes are starting to smell.

3. Television. Actually just Friends. Friends in spanish just isn't the same.

4. The Zumbro. Actually breakfast in general.

5. Linden Hills. What a great neighborhood. One of the best I'd say.

6. The Fam. Gotta say it.

7. Driving.

8. Peanut butter and jelly sandwichs.

9. Fall. There's no fall here. Or winter. I miss seasons.

10. Southwest High School.

PHYCH!!!! I actually don't miss that.

10 for real. My swing.

Top 10 Things I Don't Miss: (Again, no specific order)

1. Those dogs behind my house.

2. Airplane noise.

3. Speaking English. HAA! I bet you thought I'd miss that, and up until recently I did miss it, but now I like speaking spanish. It's fun sometimes to see if you can make a good sentence. Although it virtually never happens.

4. My chemistry class back home. My class here is SO MUCH COOLER!

5. School dances. Unnecessary drama.

6. Crappy american films. I get to watch them in spanish over here. Which just means I get to make up what the characters say in my head. So much more fun.

7. The food. Food here is fantabulous.

8. Being bored. I've always got something to do. And if I don't have something to do, I get to translate the endless amount to homework I have. yay.

9. My phone. I have a phone here, but I never use it. I like it that way.

10. Having to share a bathroom. I get my own here.

Moment of truth: I like Spain. This first month was extremely difficult for a while, but recently, and I mean RECENTLY (last 3 days) i've been talking more, which leads to more friends, which leads to more fun etc. etc. It's been quite the month, I tells ya.

One of my friends started calling me Griffin. I wonder how long it's going to take for that to spread. I hope soon because I secretly really like it. It's got a nice ring to it. Here's a few picture from the hood.

Castle!

My road

Cool Door

Cool graffiti

Spain's Skinniest apartment.

SO thats about it. I hope everything is going well with all of you.

Watch these things. Its how I learn spanish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox1euwLB_rY&list=QL&playnext=3

Jane