3 months??

hellllloo children!

I've been lazy (if lazy means not updating you on my whereabouts and feelings).

Well here it is: my whereabout still remain in Godella, valencia, spain. That much has not changed. My feelings are aplenty. Sometimes i feel like a pregnant woman with the amount of feelings i have. What i'm trying to say is foreign exchange is an emotional roller coaster. And if you don't understand that, i just have a lot of feelings. For example, today i was, for some reason or another, unable to speak spanish so i had a nice day playing dumb and avoiding homework. Twas quite pleasant. And the day before that i was frustrated because i had a spanish test. And tomorrow, ill probably be a little stressed out because i have to study a lot for other tests in which i will probably fail. What i am TRYING to say is both my whereabouts and feelings are more or less exactly the same.

so um.... happy three month anniversary to jane and spain! Now i feel like such a loser because my last blog was at 2 months. I guess i've been a little busy.... not a bad thing right? NOVEMBER WAS GREAT! actually it was EXACTLY the same as october, but with a few more language skills. I still have those stupid moments where i weirdly don't understand anything. I'm not sure exactly why i get them, but i THINK its because i zone out a lot easier here. FOr example, the other day i straightened my hair for school, and so when i got there, my friend was like "has planchado el pelo?" (did you straighten your hair) and i was like "whats pelo?" and he just gave this look like "are you serious???" of course i figured it out right away, but you cant help but feel stupid. but whatever.

What did i do these psat 30 days you ask? well.... i'll tell you.

at the beginning of the month, i studied. Then in the middle, i studied again. Then at the end, i was still studying. IT'S SUPER FUN!

thats an exaggeration. although i do study a lot, i've begun to cut it down because it's getting out of control. I feel bad for my teachers because if i don't do something, i seem uninterested, but in reality, i just don't have the time, and also because i'm more or less uninterested.... i guess their right. But it's not my fault. it's norma to want to have free time when you're in europe. What i actually DID do is the following....

One weekend i went to this island type thing called peñiscola. It was amazing. It was quite literally a city within the walls of a castle. It was exactly like what you see in all those european love story movies when the couples are running through the streets of an old city. a few examples being all of the mary kate and ashley movies, just to halp you out with an image. But it was really cool! A few family friends are architects and were helping to renew the walls of the castle so it would be livable. We got a tour and everything, PLUS food like always. Here are visuals.

The first picture is a night scene of where i was.

The second picture is an aerial view of the little castle village.

The third is a picture of my host dad with fried minnows. thats right, they EAT THEM. i was surprised

the fourth picture is the staircase in which an old priest escaped form the castle. :]

I'm not sure if this next thing happened before or after the peñiscola visit, but i went to FLAMENCO! it was awesome. My classmates don't like it at all, it's more of a middle aged woman thing, but i really liked it. They move their legs faster than anything i've ever seen, but at the same time, their heads don't move AT ALL. its extremely impressive.

It takes a seriously secure man to the things i saw him do.

Thanksgiving was interesting. I will admit that i got a little homesick, but HEY, they don't have turkey or the christmas music station, so it's only normal that i would miss home a little. The actually thanksgiving day was a little rough. i had 2 finals the next day so i studied almost the entire day. It wasnt really fun or anything, but whatever. later that night i went and got my cousin (quinn) from the airport. it was fun to see someone blood related. Friday we all went out, and quinn got to meet all my 15 and 16 year old friends. What a joke... sorry quinn. Saturday was interesting, we had a thanksgiving Paella. it was GREAT, and after we went and had starbucks, and watched sex in the city the movie IN spanish. How cultured we are.

But the bad thing is ambra went back to her house in italy. I think i might have needed to cry or something because i cried for a good solid 10 minutes. And not the loser fake crying, the heartfelt shake cry where you got liquids coming out of your entire face... tears, snot, drool, everything. Disgusting and sweet at the same time. I was rather proud of my gift though. i wrote an amazing spanish poem and drew a few pictures. i was proud of it.

heres the poem, i hope she wont mind:

Te vas a Italia el sábado, que pena (You're going back to italy on saturday, what a shame)

No se que voy a hacer cuando tengamos una cena (I don't know what i'm going to do when we have a dinner party)

por eso estoy aquí porque quiero decir (therefore i'm here because i want to say)

sin ti en mi vida, no puedo vivir. (without you in my life, i can't live)

te acuerdes los dias que fuimos a pasear (Remember those days when we went for walks)

y siempre después de beber, tenemos que mear (and after we drink (water) we always have to pee)

no lo se, todavía, lo que voy a hacer (i still don't know what i'm going to do)

porque cuando estoy contigo, es un placer (because when i'm with you, it's a real pleasure)

que risa los primeros días en Godella (the first days in godella were really funny)

y que bueno es el sabor de la paella (and paella tastes really good)

espero que hayas aprendido a cocinarla (i hope you've learned to cook it)

porque no creo que hagan en Italia (because i don't think they make it in italy)

Estoy contenta de haberte conocido (I'm happy that i got to know you)

seguro que dentro de dos año, a Italia he ido (for sure within 2 years i will go to italy)

no puedo creer que te vayas ya (i can't believe that you're leaving already)

porque voy a echarte de menos mas y mas. (because i'm going to miss you more and more)

Thats it. if you want to know what i means, ill put up the translation later.

TIME IS GOING TOO FAST!

i cant believe it. The first trimester is already over. Soon itll be christmas, and after that i have new years, and then it's JANUARY. Then i have las fallas, and after that i'll be going to Italy. And then sometime after that i might be going to france as well. Then we're already in may when i think nora (sister) is coming, and then i have finals, end of year school trip, and then what? home? wooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww.

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME!

I'm stressin'.

Fun fact:

I was listening to this song called "5 years time" by Noah and the whale (Dad you should download it because its a ukelele song and you would like it) and it got me to thinking where i'm going to be in 5 years. And then i decided that i'll probably be in some university or something, and that got me to thinking about impressing colleges, which got we to thinking that my grades here somewhat matter (not really) which got me to thinking that i WILL pass geography AND castellano. it's my goal. I'm not going home until i do. (don't worry mom, i'm still enjoying myself)

happy december

Jane

TWOMONTHS

Elloder.

Mom and dad this one is for you because I got the feeling that you miss hearing from me because I recently received a lot of emails. and I don't feel like responding to them.

So these past few weeks were a semi success. Well actually they were great successes, with a few downfalls. The downfalls all have to do with school, so they're not really that interesting, just normal. All that happened was I failed my chemistry test (along with my other classmates) and failed a group project. (emphasis on the group) so nothing is really just me being stupid. The chemistry test was the most difficult thing in the whole world, and I couldn't have done it in English either. The geography group project was a group project so it wasn't entirely my fault. Other than that, school is going super good. I've managed to make a few more friends that i believe to be actual friends, or something of the sort.

enough of that.

Two weekends ago, I had to go to an AFS orientation thing again. This time it was actually fun... We stayed in a hostel in the middle of Valencia and got to explore the city a lot. It was run by 3 20 year old men, so it was rather disorganized. One of the main problems was that we didn't complete all the games that we had to, so we ended up doing them until really late in the night which lead to not getting much sleep (I think I got 9 hours throughout the whole weekend). We were all very tired by the end. One of the days I FINALLY got to visit the really cool museums that are in valencia.

The first picture is the coolest thing ever. It might look really lame, but I got quite the kick out of it. This is what you do. One person stands on one side, and another person stands on the other (you're like 100 feet away or something. Maybe more, my guessing is a little off) and you can hear each other perfectly even if you're talking in a normal voice. It's amazing. Yeah, that guy that looks like he's kissing the wall.... he's not, he's talking to his kid on the other side. Other than that, the AFS weekend was more of the same.

The next weekend was halloween.

I had quite the weekend..... Saturday night, I went to a Ska concert for 5 hours. Yes 5 hours. I said that. That means 5 hours of jumping around and having people jump on you and getting pushed around. I know I said something about a concert earlier, like a month ago or something, but this was different. This was WAY more intense. I was actually in pain by the end of the night. By pain, I mean real pain. I soaked my feet when I got home. The way that people dance... you would think they're trynna kill you or something. People literally just run full speed straight at you, push you into the middle of a bunch of people,and proceed to step all over you, push you around, punch you, whatever. Everything goes. It was brutal.

Halloween...... I was Wednesday from the Addams family, but the in the pictures I don't look the part. No one really looked like what they wanted to except these people:

We went to the city where all the people go for halloween. It's called 'Barrio Carmen" I think, although I'm not completely sure. Halloween was really fun, but it was also a little weird for me. Usually halloween is a little more homey. By that I mean you carve pumpkins and rake leaves and dress up with friends and get free candy. The only thing I got to do here was dress up with friends. Otherwise it was all foreign territory for me. The subway ride was by far the best thing ever though. Everyone wanted to get to the city, so everyone had to get on the same subway. So first of all were all waiting at the station, everyones all dressed up and talking and all. Then all of the sudden everyone sees the train, and they just FREAK. Everyone starts running all over the place and yelling a hollering. So when the doors open, everyone get stuffed into the subways. There were people on every side of me, and there was no room to move. SO we're all waiting to get going, but some stupid idiot broke the subway door, so we had to wait for them to fix it. After we FINALLY started going, everyone freaks again, cheering and all that. Every once in a while the train would stop really quick, and everyone would scream and a few people would fall and things like that. Most entertaining 20 minutes of my life.

Then the week happened. I don't know what happened exactly, but I suddenly just got LOGGED with homework. I had like 18 essays to write and like 4 tests and I just wanted to cry every single day. It's so hard. Most of my teachers and me get along pretty well, but we have our issues. As of right now, me and my spanish teacher are getting on pretty well. I understand her sometimes, and she makes an effort to ask me questions and stuff like that. Plus she told me the other day that when she hears me speak spanish with my friends in the hall that I speak "perfectamente". In the end, she redeemed herself big time. Other than that, my chemistry teacher thinks I'm funny because it's honestly the only class that we can goof off in. He doesn't care if my classmates and I say something stupid or whatever, and when we do, he usually just laughs. For example, we were taking notes today in class, and theres this chemist guy named J.J. Thomson, so when I was writing it all down, the only thing I spelled wrong was "thomson". He thought that was pretty funny because it's my last name. Also, apparently I'm always singing in that class. That's what they tell me, but I never notice. huh. Biology is fine. It's a lot of work because it's one of the only classes that I definitely need to pass, so I work a little harder at it. Plus that teacher still thinks I'm stupid, so I got that going too. I like biology, but I don't at the same time. Math is fine. Math is math. I like my teacher. She's edgy. Theory of knowledge is a piece of crap. I don't understand anything in the class because they're always using huge scientific words and it requires a lot of thinking and analyzing things in spanish, and I'm just not there yet. Plus the teacher is exactly what you would think a philosophy teacher would be like. She's fascinated by all things boring like contemplating myths, philosophy blogs, and the other day she proclaimed that hamlet and the "exploration of human fate and destiny" was one of the most interesting things that she can think of. Plus she sort of half got mad at me the other day in class because I wasn't able to reply sufficiently to her question. I'm like, HELLO GIVE ME A BREAK. I'm mean I'm sorry I can't give you a deeply personal, thoughtful response to a random myth that means something that I don't understand in spanish yet. Madre mia..... Geography is a different story completely. Geography is the worst of them all. The class is run in a way that I can't understand. Right now I have to face more than 100 pages of information (in spanish) with graphs, dates, people countries etc... that I need to memorize for an essay test that I have in 2 weeks. There are so many things wrong with that..... first of all, it's in spanish. second of all its an essay test. It takes me like 2 hours to write 1 page of good spanish. I have one hour to write 3 or 4 pages and answer other multiple choice questions. It would be fine if the teacher wasn't so stubborn. She doesn't give me a break AT ALL, and I know that that can be a good thing sometimes, but really..... a little break wouldn't hurt anyone. For example, she docked off points on my essay the other day because i had a bunch of grammar mistakes. What a bunch of crapola is that? Of course I'm going to have grammar mistakes. SPANISH IS MY SECOND LANGUAGE. The AFS people told me to ask my teachers if the tests for the first trimester could be a little easier, so I did, and all of them agreed (somewhat) except for her. Which is dumb because I actually need help in that class. When I asked her about it she just goes "no because you have the same brain capacity as the others. You don't need help. All the information is written down." And I'm like I know, and that is exactly the problem. I tried to explain to her that yes she is right that I'm capable, but it's the fact that I can't write as much or as well as the other students, AND to study 100 pages of spanish gibberish and understand it all in 2 weeks is more or less impossible. Just mark me down as fail already. There is absolutely no hope. ZERO.

Enough complaining.

I could attempt to describe my friends, but honestly I'm scared that they'll read it one day or something and be freaked out. I will say these things. Ambra, the Italian girl is the best. She's definitely my "best friend" here, but the crap part is she goes back to Italy in 2 weeks. I'm so sad! I have no idea what I'm going to do! She's like my buffer. If I don't want to do homework or something, I just say I'm going to Ambra's house, or if I want to talk, I just go talk. It's so easy!

I do have another friend that I like a lot. She's the red head in all my pictures, and she's really funny. She's usually really goofy all the time and tries to speak english (as a joke) and is ALWAYS playing little tricks on me, like tripping me in the hallway, or doing that "oh what's that on you're shirt??" trick. (the one where you look down, and then they flick your face or something) Shes really good at it. I think it's funny.

Then wednesday. I think all things bad happen on wednesday. I just don't like wednesdays.

Anyway, I got sick again. but this time really sick. I got some seriously painful tonsil/ear/head/stomach virus that was just awful. Wednesday was fine-ish. I felt it coming on, but I thought it would go away. I went to bed early that night, but woke up in a lot of pain. Thursday night was horrible because I was tired and my throat had lymph nodes the size of gumballs or somethings, but I had to study because I had a biology test the next day. That sucked. Friday was possibly the hardest day here so far. I was SUPER sick and had to go to school because I had a test, and I couldn't go home afterwards because my host parents weren't home. It was awful. Everyone was like "you look so sick... blah blah" and I was like I KNOW. So guess what happened? My math teacher, out of the kindness of her heart took me out of class and bought me tea and bread and talked with me for a while. It was so nice. I like her a lot. She will be receiving a nice gift at the end of the year. Unlike another teacher I have.....

Anyway, friday when I got home from school, I was so tired and sick that I decided to take a nap. SO I did, and I didn't wake up until 630 PM, which is when I decided to go to the doctor. So I took my first trip to the doctor. It was extremely different. There is one doctor for the whole town, and everyone in the waiting room knows each other and are chatting and laughing..... I thought it was ironic because it was a sick people waiting room but it was so lively. I don't know.... stuck me as weird. I was behind a bunch of spanish old ladies in line so I waiting an entire 2 hours to be seen by the doctor, and all he did was give me a prescription for antibiotics. Now, I'm doing just fine.

Sunday, I went on a practice hike for "camino de santiago" that my school is doing at the end of the year. We hiked more than 20 km, and my legs hurt, mostly because I was with my friend marta a lot, she was just tripping me the whole time like she always does. I managed to not fall, but there were a few close calls. It was fun, but it was a lot of work. I got up at 730 AM on a sunday, and didn't get home until 8PM. so that was kind of a drag. PICTURES. Oh how the spanish love the siesta.... even on rocks.

Ive had quite a few bug pictures.... sorry.

And now for

IM SURVIVING.

Not always good, but never really bad either.

This month (almost a month and a half...) has gone pretty ok. Now all I need to do is find something to do. I was thinking about enrolling myself in some painting classes, but I have to figure out when and where they are. If y'all have any other ideas of cool things I could do, tell me because I'm having a hard time deciding what I want to do. So yeah.

Yes I still like spain, but I think my list of things I miss/dont miss have changed. Funny how that works. Also, I miss more things than I don't miss, but I think thats normal.

Here we go.

Things I miss:

1. coldness

2. my cats

3. the bandshell

4. grandmas house

5. Honey bunches of oats

6. my sister. (awww) (and the rest of the family)

7. understanding school

8. Guitar hero

9. Driving

10. Yes nora P. You too.... (and my other friends)

Things I don't miss:

1. The dentist.

2. feeling like i have to exercise all the time.

3. having to get good grades

4. American food

5. shaving. :]

Thats it. I cant think of anything more.

But really. the only thing thats giving me a hard time is my classes. And seeing that I don't really have to do super good in my classes, it doesn't really matter. I'm just not used to being able to fail so I work myself really hard. But I'm learning to relax. So with time, all will be well.

I'm just going to publish this one. I know I forgot stuff, but I'll write another one at some point. Have a nice day! :]

Jane