PLAN-LESS

Hello.

I don't have a plan for this entry. I plan on simply talking because nothing too dramatic has happened. An 'update' would be a fitting term.

Over all, I'm am doing well. I sort of just take everyday as it comes. I am completely aware that that is SUPER vague and corny, but just deal with it. Here, I'll even give you an example or two.

Today was what I now call a 'mixed' day. At one point at school today, I got really frustrated, but an hour or so after that I was joking around with my friends. This is what happened:

I went to school. The first two hours of wednesdays are biology. I have taken a dislike to biology recently because it is more than obvious that the teacher thinks I'm dumb. She talks directly to the other kids in my class, and then after, she summarizes what she just said, but looks right at me and talks slower and louder. Then after that she loudly says "Do you understand me? No, no you don't understand do you? Did you understand what I just said?" "No you didn't. I'll explain again." And then I have to try to explain to her that I in fact DO understand what she says most of the time, and when I don't understand, I will ask her to repeat herself. We have some serious communication problems. Half of me is extremely annoyed with this because I feel like a 3 year old child in her class, and half of me is fine with it because I can cut myself a little slack in that class. I just wish I could say, "Hi, my hearing is just fine. It's the fact that I don't understand the words that are coming out of your mouth. The volume level is perfect. Thank you." But I think that would be a little bit too much of a complex sentence. And a little sassy. Anyway, after that debacle I had quite a nice little day. I figured out how to make jokes in spanish, and was the only one in my chemistry class that did the homework so I got to explain it to my classmates on the whiteboard. I felt smart. Plus (and this is the best part) every wednesday and friday I have the last hour free, so I usually go to this little cafe really close to my school, and today when I got there, the lady goes "cafe con leche, no?" I'M A REGULAR! Well, I guess it's not so difficult to remember my face because I look different than everyone else, BUT STILL. How cool is that? I had such a hard time hiding my pure happiness. Anyway, when I finally went home at 5 PM, I waited until there was no one in the house, and prepared myself a nice little treat as a reward for a long day:

No, it is not a cup of whipped cream. Well, just about, but there's some coffee under there somewhere. It was fantastic by the way. It was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits. That and the video of Stephan Colbert dancing which I watch every single day. I'd suggest that you do the same, because it's healthy to laugh everyday. And also because this video will change your life. I'll post a link later.

School is going pretty ok I think. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my whole life ever, but it's something I like to call character building. Southwest is about to be SO EASY next year. I'll be like. "What?? The homework isn't in spanish? I don't have to take really neat notes all the time? I don't have to translate me homework? what??" Speaking of which, everyone is so neat here. My classmates take notes that just blow my mind. They color code everything. For example, the title of the section will be in green marker. The writing will be in black pen. The activities will be in pencil. The diagrams and pictures will be in red pen with blue captions. That's just an example, but it actually is like that. I'm like, I have one color of pen, and a pencil. I can't compare. But all is well because I wrote my first essay in spanish! So proud of myself!

Before:

After:

Las Consecuencias

Todos sufren de las consecuencias del cambio climático. En cada región, hay consecuencias diferentes. Algunas de las consecuencias ya son visibles.

Un impacto grave del cambio climático son las tormentas muy fuertes. Los países de América Central, América del Sur, Asia Sudoriental y Gran Bretaña sufren de los desastres naturales. América Central es vulnerable a los huracanes porque la humedad es muy alta en el Golfo de México. La más grave fue el Huracán Mitch de 1998. Porque la región ha seguida tener condiciones climáticas extremas, no se puede recuperar. En América del Sur, especialmente en Venezuela, las lluvias torrenciales disminuyen mucho de la zona turística y el litoral central. En las tierras bajas de Asia Sudoriental y Gran Bretaña están expuestas a inundaciones causadas de una serie de tormentas.

Otra consecuencia es la sequía. La sequía afecta principalmente a los países de África. La región de norte de África es la región más seca del mundo. Aquí es donde la disponibilidad de agua per cápita se reduce a la mitad. Esta zona no tiene muchas opciones para aumentar el almacenamiento de agua. En África al sur del Sahara, la economía depende fuertemente de los recursos naturales. La agricultura da empleo al 70% de la población, Sin agua, la mayoría de la población estaría sin trabajo. La seguía provoca otros desastres también como los incendios forestales en el sur de Europa.

El cambio climático ha causado cambios dramáticos en los océanos. Greenpeace predice que la gran barrera de coral en Australia se morirá dentro de 30 años debido a la contaminación del agua. Está ocurriendo algo muy parecido en América Central. Con el calentamiento y contaminación del mar, es posible que los arrecifes de coral en el Caribe se mueran también. Los arrecifes de coral son muy importantes porque proporcionan protección natural, comida y dinero. En la Antártida y el Ártico las temperaturas han aumentado cinco veces en los últimos 50 años. Según el IPCC, los hielos de la región Ártica prácticamente desaparecerán a finales de siglo. Debido a esto, el nivel del mar aumentará hasta 4-6 metros. Por esto, las costas y países como Holanda y Bangladesh van a desaparecer. Por último, según el IPCC, la emisión de carbono antropológico desde 1750 está acidificando el océano. En este siglo, predicen una reducción del pH del océano entre 0´14 y 0´35. Esto tendrá efectos negativos sobre los organismos marinos.

Finalmente, el cambio climático afecta el hombre directamente. Las enfermedades aumentaran. Especialmente en los países del África. La gente no tendrá comida no trabajo debido a las lluvias torrenciales o las sequías. En conclusión, cambio climático nos afectaría todos.

You don't actually have to read that. And just to add, I had help from a classmate of mine who edited it a little. But otherwise it's all my own work. YES! LEARNING IS FUN! Too bad today my fun was ruined when I was told it was supposed to be more like 4 pages long. It's fine. I'm proud of what I did so I shall turn it in with pride. Speaking of learning, I have recently become inspired by language. I want to learn all the languages ever. Actually this year I AM going to learn spanish AND valenciano (catalan), but I also strive to learn a little bit of italian and french as well since I will be visiting (hopefully) both said countries. It's a long shot, but I just don't care. I WILL LEARNN! I WILLLL!

I would like to take some time to talk about this (awesome) celebration I attended the other day (saturday). It was a parade type thing or "demonstration" of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. It was super amounts of fun. It was mostly about the elimination of poverty, so everyone was chanting either "Cero, cero, cero. Pobreza cero." or "No nos mires. Unete!" (Don't just look. Unite). My group of friends likes to dance a lot, so we hung out by the drum band the entire time. We were dancing and walking for like 3 hours or something. BUT IT WAS SO FUN. I even talked to one of the band members briefly. He told me I speak quite well. I have pictures:

I have come to learn that when you aren't living in the comfort of your own home, you have to do a lot of things for yourself. If you want something, YOU have to do it. For example. If Ineeded shoes, I can't just say, "Hey host mom! Go buy me some shoes!" I have to physically get on a train and go find a shoe store and buy myself some shoes. Also if I'm hungry or something and it's not meal time, I can't just order someone to get me a snack. I have to get my own snack. Another example is I'd been craving a hearty american breakfast the last few weeks, so I had to organize a morning where I could cook. It was awesome by the way because I cooked pancakes for 6 people and they all liked them. YES! PICTURE!

Ok. After this, I'm done talking. I'm going to seriously talk here about spain. This is Jane's mind uncensored. Spain, thus far is going pretty good. I have yet to encounter something that goes smoothly for me, but that was only to be expected. Even english class is hard because it's physically and mentally straining to force myself to pay attention. It's THAT boring. Today we talked about what sports are popular is each country. I had to talk about what I like and don't like about american football. No one understood me. But anyway. Yes, school is hard. Yes, talking is hard. Yes, I'm tired a lot. No, I'm not happy every single second of every single day. Yes, I get frustrated and annoyed. Yes, I feel dumb a lot. But yes, I really like it here. It's all part of the experience and I know that so I've been learning how to give myself a hugnormous break. I figure if I get stressed out over things in the U.S that happen to all be in english, than it should be more than normal to be frustrated with things over here. It's not like I'm on a vacation, (well I sort of am) I'm supposed to try to live normally, only in a different country, and with living normally comes a little bit of every single mood. Most of you know that I am NOT happy all the time in the states, and so that carries on over here as well. I have no idea if you understand what I'm trying to say, but whatever. I warned you, you are reading what is going on in my head right now. Now that we have that straightened out, I would like to talk about customs. I am living in an upside down world. What I mean to say is that everything is new for me. EVERYTHING HERE IS CLEAN! Mom, you are going to be so happy with me when I come back because my room here is never dirty AND I eat everything with a fork and knife. Including fruit and salad. Other than that, my host family says everyday when we sit down to eat "You're going to taste yet ANOTHER food today. We're having duck!" Or anchovies, or blue cheese and apples, or pumpkin soup! It's crazy! One thing that has seriously messed with my head is the metric system. I can't do anything! The first few days everyone was asking me how many meters I am. I had no idea how many meters I am. And also 1.100 is One thousand, one hundred. 1,100 is one point one (1.1). Trying to grasp that concept and listen to my math teacher explain things at the same time SERIOUSLY screwed me over. Also the whole km thing, but that was less difficult to figure out. One other thing is that I am both extremely annoyed and fascinated by the time schedule. It was hard to change my eating habits to fit their schedule, and I have found that I need more sleep than I am able to get. I hope ill adapt to that soon because I'm sick of being tired. There there you have it. You can go right ahead and be jealous if you want, but you should not it's not ALWAYS a good time, although it's usually pretty fun.

I honestly don't have much else to say. I have yet ANOTHER AFS orientation this weekend, so if we do anything super cool I'll be sure the say something. I sorta of really doubt it though. Minus the fact that everyone has to make something from their country. I'm making cookies!

Just one more thing. I can't tell you how many friends I've made just because I have a cousin named "Peter Griffin" So thanks Sarah and Greg for that.

Alright thats all.

Here is the best Youtube movie ever made. So long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXGhjOwvnNQ&feature=related

Jane

(Griffin)