I AM STILL LIVING

WELL HI!

warning. this is going to have a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes. i can tell you that right now because i wont have the time or desire to read over this again.

HAPPY HALF WAY CELEBRATION!

well to tell you the truth its more of a crap bin than a celebration. I don't like how i'm ALREADY half way done. please note how ive said already, because quite frankly i cant believe it, but we'll get to all that later. (i plan on talking about my feelings..... you should continue reading just for that. just kidding)

Well, you may ask what ive been doing the past month. The answer is not much, which has actually been quite tiring. I've fallen into some weird routine, which can be a good or bad thing. Most of january i did more or less the same thing everyday, and since then, i've figured out that i don't really lake that, so i've been trying to change things up a bit lately. I don't remember what the last event i talked about was, but all just wing it here.

I've been gettin' on pretty well. i made a few new friends, and everyday i find out wonderful new things about myself. For example(s): i think i'm less awkward when i have to speak a different language (how can that be???) because i rarely have awkward silences, and i rarely get nervous. OF COURSE there are exceptions, like the fact that sometimes i say really dumb things, or do dumb things, and of course i do get embarrassed sometimes, but you know... yah live. yah learn. yah just gotta pretend like somethings just never happened (except its difficult for me becasue when i get embarrassed, i become a tomato, so everyone notices. Those dang spaniards and their tan unblushable skin.)

SPEAKING OF REALLY DUMB THINGS! These past few weeks have been extremely interesting. Reason #1 being that i've reached some kind of mental health equilibrium which has may or may not have something to do with some self realizations and self growth which i have realized in myself and in those surrounding me. This particular theme i will get into later, as it concerns my personal feelings. Reason #2 is that i ran into 2 things recently. Literally. I'm usually not that clumsy, but i guess i proved myself wrong. The first time i did it was when i was leaving school, and i was walking along side a friend talking and not paying attention to anything, and all the sudden there was a large red pillar. Right in front of me. My friend restrained from laughing some how, and all he said was something that loosely translates to 'take that!' which is when i burst out laughing, blushed a lot and ran away like a little kid. The second time was a little more discreet. I just ran into a little construction pole thing, but there was only one old man sitting near by who i SWEAR giggled a little. I'm glad i made his day i guess.

ANYWAY. What have i been up to lately? Well that is actually a really good question. There hasn't been much going on thats super exciting. Lets see...........i learned how to do a rubik's cube. I do homework....

But the coolest thing i've done since my last entry (which was like a month and a half ago.. oops) was probably that i went to Barcelona. That was pretty cool. In all honesty i was walking around the whole time just hoping someone famous would show up or like Tyra Banks would come up because i know she went there one time for americas next top model. I don't know. I DID really like it, but it wasn't as spectacular as we think it is. Well yes it is, but i don't know. What i'm trying to say is that it's amazing, but you'd need a lot of time to soak it all in. And La Sagrada Familia is freaking amazing (the huge church thats been in construction for ever) I had no idea it was so flippin tall. it's huge......

Other than that, i've been doing other things. i don't know if you all have seen them, but i put a lot of video of myself singing on facebook. That was fun, and now all my friends here want me to record one for them, so i've been busy with my musical studies. and ALSO, i started an art class. Probably the most wonderful decision i've ever made because its SO FUN. Just imagine this. This class, its me and like... 10 other kids, all under 5 feet and all under the age of 12. At first when they all figured out i was american, they asked me probably every single question physically possible to ask about my life. i honestly think these young ladies and gentlemen know more about me than most others here, but whatever. It's really fun because they're so interested, and don't seem to be affected my the 'ugly american' image. which is nice for a change. PLUS the teacher is quickly rising to the top of the list of my favorite spanish people. Te other day, he put a rag on his head and walked around for like 20 minutes pretending to be his own grandma. That part wasn't even the funny part. The funny part was that when the lottery ticket guy came in (a lottery guy comes in everyday.... he's kinda old and i dont think im very right in the mind) alvaro (my teachers name is alvaro) went up to him and started talking to him in his little grandmas voice saying the alvaro wasn't there, and that he'd have to come back later and bla bla. After like 5 whole minutes of that, he finally took off the rag, and was like'YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS ME RIGHT???" it was hilarious. Other than that, hes a good teacher, and i'm actually learning stuff.

this is probably the story of the month (2 months?). I got in trouble in school. usually i would be embarrassed to admit this, but lets all face it, we all get in trouble at SOME point in school. and if you say you haven't you're a liar. Anyway, what happened was that i am an idiot. I experienced a cultural difference in extreme. A few weeks ago me and a few friends 'snuck' out of the building (even though the security dude lets us) after testing one day to drink coffee during a free study hour. Considering said circumstances i didn't really think it would matter, even though i admittedly knew that we are not allowed to leave the building. Well that and the fact that everyone always leaves and nothing ever happens. Its a universal thing. Well, my english teacher saw us while we were out, and we had a little panic attack at the moment, but after that, no one said anything so we THOUGHT it was all fine. Little did we know that we had been reported to our counselor. Anyway, one week after we had been caught, we got called into a meeting with our counselor and the principal to discuss the punishment. I thought they were just gonna yell at us for a while and maybe put a little tardy mark or something but no. the principal decided it was fair to suspend us for 2 days. Considering the fact that if i get suspended, i get sent home to minnesota, i immediately started sobbing and trying to explain what MY consequences are and that it's not just being suspended for 2 days, that it's going home forever (a very embarrassing moment of my life) but finally she changed her mind. Now we have to play hall monitor for 2 weeks and possibly miss a field trip (to be determined).

THE ITALIANS CAME!!!!!!! (for those that don't know... im doing an exchange thing in sicily for 10 days, and right now, the italians are in spain. I'm going to sicily in april) My italian is super cool and fun and likes to talk and is teaching me italian and bought me earrings and stuff. The only thing is that i. am. so. tired. I can't even believe it. i spent all day today walking around valencia doing the tourist thing (which still interests me) until 7PM (10AM-7PM) and my feet hurt like crap. The only really cool thing i got out if it was that i got to see a mascleta today, which is this thing they do here during Las Fallas. It's basically just a whole bunch of noise for about 5 minutes with sone fireworks, but the ground shakes and theres a lot of smoke and it felt like the end of the world. and i loved it. I'll post a video at the end.

Other than that, i don't have any really GOOD stories. so now i'll just go right into talking about my feelings.

Concerning this theme, there are two options. I could become really corny and express my feelings in a poetic and loving way, or i could just tell you like it is. considering im not really into the whole poetic touchy feely thing (and never will be, ever) i'm just to to express them plain and simple like i always do.

The bottom line is that now that i've already passed half way point, i'm just here to enjoy myself. By enjoy myself, i do not mean go out and party every single night and never do homework and things like that. What i mean is i'm just trying to become more a part of everything, and if that means that i fail a few assignments, or become a little tired, or whatever, its really fine with me, because you just have to try to experience as many things as you possibly can. I know this blog says i published it like.... 2 weeks ago, but the truth of the matter is that its march 10 or something tomorrow. IS ALREADY MARCH, AND I HAVE TO DO SO MANY THINGS STILL. i only have 4 months left to do like a billion cool things that i still want to do. CRAP.

Honestly that sums up my feelings. I feel crunched for time. BUT i do miss minnesota. like a say every time i write stuff. I was talking with one of the italians the other day, and she was asking what i missed about home, and i was saying stupid stuff like we can't stay out so late, the food it different... blah blah, but then she was like, no really.... what's different. So i had to think a little and came up with the fact that home is Minnesota if i like it or not. Here i can't argue with my parents or leave my crap around or eat a bunch a junk food without having to sneak it. I'm always aware of what i'm doing... It's not as comfortable. That isn't to say that i don't like my family here, it's just to say that the natural comforts of your own home are taken fore granted, and that everyone should be aware that home is wonderful.

OK.

ME AND ADRIANA SAY HELLO AND GOODBYE (the italian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZBVlm1gSyc

and the following weeks......

Happy reyes!

We have had the epiphany. It was fun.... i got to do the whole put your shoes out, and then the kings come in and leave you stuff. I woke up this morning with presents, and it was wonderful. like a late christmas. The kings gave me a book, pajamas (with penguins on them) and a shirt. It was really funny, because my host mom, even with her kids all being over the age of 16, still pretended they were real. She opened her nice new set of knives and exclaimed, "oh, i really wanted to have this! look how pretty they are!" all excited. i couldn't help but laugh even though the rest of the family found it a little less than funny, maybe even a little dorky. I don't know. i like when people do things like that. i just know that when i'm older i'm going to get myself gifts. Why not? If you have an excuse to buy yourself something nice, why wouldn't you take it. It just doesn't make any sense not to. Anyway...... there's this tradition were the whole family eats this cake called kings cake (i think), and there are 2 prizes inside it. One prize is this bean, and if you get that you have to pay for the cake, and the other is a little figurine, which you get it, you get to wear a super cool crown and are named the king (or queen, depending on said person's gender). It just so happens that I WON, and was named queen. No big deal. Twas splendid, except the fact that the cake is disgusting.

When i was talking about my philosophy class in my last blog, it really got me to thinking in the last few day about philosophy. I know i'm supposed to be talking about my spanish adventures in this blog, but this is really starting to bug me. I know that some of the most respected people in the world were famous philosophers such as Plato and those guys, but really, to me, it's all just a bunch or crap. I have been forced to study up on my philosophy because i have a test coming up, and i just can't make myself think and analyze it because it really doesn't make any sense to me. Every chapter, my philosophy book raises a few questions that are supposed to provoke some kind of grand conversation, but usually i read these questions and about 3 sentences come to mind. Three sentences equals about 3 seconds of talking, and yet my teacher can go on and on for about 3 days debating whether or not the sky is blue. Literally. If someone asks me if the sky is blue, i'd probably say something along the lines of "Well, sometimes, when it's a nice day out. Other days it's kind of gloomy. Sometimes it's a mixture of blue and grey." Or if you want to get fancy you could go with the scientific weather paths, you know the ones that say that the weather usually moves from out west, and just kind of moves across the united states. So if the pressure drops or rises, chances are the sky color is bound to change. Or even better you go could with chemistry and the color spectrum. It's all science really, but yes, the sky IS blue... you can't really argue with that. I'm not meaning to sound ignorant, i would just like to state my point of view, and how i shouldn't have to be studying why things the way they are, when really there's nothing to study. Things are the way they are because that's the way they are. That doesn't mean said 'ways' can't change. That's what the people are for, and the government and all that stuff. It's just the way it is. Plato and his follows and role models, in my opinion, are just reading way to into everything. It seems like they just look around and say "what deeper meaning does that window have over there?" "Why do we use this table like this" "Why am i here." "Where am i exactly?." Although some of these are descent questions to ask, we can't always know these things. Sometimes we just have to say, "well... that window probably doesn't have a deeper meaning other than just to look out, or let light into the house." or "The table is used to put stuff on." and more importantly, "I'm here because i was born." and "Well, i personally am sitting on my bed in my room right now in Godella, spain." The most questioned question, probably, is "what happens after death?" JUST LEAVE IT ALONE. you'll know when you die.... you can't die and then come back to life. it just doesn't work like that. Some of these serious questions that people spend their whole lives debating and arguing over just have simple answers, that sometimes change and sometimes don't. The other day we were talking about how we are unable to know things. i was just sitting there like, that's ridiculous! Of course we can know stuff. i know what 2+2 is. i know my parents and friends. It's just like GEAT REAL. You can't tell me that i don't know things. i know how to slap you across the face if you want. This doesn't mean i don't like my philosophy teacher... she's actually really nice. She impresses me everyday y how excited she get over the difference between the truth and reality. Done with that.

I would now like to talk about one thing that recently happened. I have meet a large number of dog's lately. I don't know why really... it just seems like everyone has a dog. This weekend i went to a little pueblo (again) to eat, and the family had a huge dog. By huge i mean HUGE. I was the only one who pet it at first, so naturally it followed me around the rest of the day.... slobbered all over my shirt and barked at me when i left the room. It was funny because the family just didnt take any crap from him. He was bugging me at one point, and the mom just took out a book and slapped him real hard. I dont know why i found it funny, probably because this dog was huge, so they can hit him harder if they want without hurting him. My host family gave them a ping pong table set for christmas, but i have a feeling the paddles aren't going to be used much for playing ping pong. They seem ideal for 'love patting' their huge dog. It gave me the impression of small horse. a pony per se. Heres pictures of all the doggies.

Little tibet attacking my host father.

Cucka, the cat dog.

But thats it. I've met more doggies, i just don't have pictures. i would like to talk about our natural inner system need to have an order for everything. I’m not saying that we all are super OCD or anything, but we as humans don't just walk around aimlessly. I have been paying attention to how things are done here, and there are quite a few things that have a specific order to them. It’s pretty goofy if you think about it.

My morning schedule is the same every single day. Set alarm for 6:50. Get up at 7:15. Go pee/wash face/brush teeth. Get dressed super fast, put on a little make up (at which time my host mom tells me to hurry up). Put on my shoes, throw my crap in my backpack, go eat some cereal and chug a cup of coffee. Walk to my neighbors house, wait for her to be ready for 15 minutes. Run to meet who ever is bringing us to school. Arrive at school.

Afternoon schedule: Get home, throw my backpack in my room. Eat lunch. Watch the news with my parents while talking about stuff. Go to my room, pretend to do homework. Go out with neighbor/ go to library/ go chat with my host sister/ play the piano. Actually do homework. Eat dinner. Watch movie.

Daily schedules aren't exactly what i'm talking out. We do specific things and a certain order as well. For example, eating. A few people have a certain way of doing things when they eat. I'm sure my eating habits are notable in some way or another (mom/dad don't say anything), but i've been observing things, and i have found that my host dad and brother do things in a specific order. First of all, my host dad has a profound passion for 'el vino' and always has a hefty supply in the house. At dinner, he sits down, compliments the cook (my host mom), pours himself a glass of wine, smells it, sips it, and then makes a satisfactory noise such as 'mmmmm' or 'que BUEno'. Then (depending on the food) when he gets served, he just goes at it. mixes everything and cuts everything up into little pieces using rapid fork and knife motions. Sometimes i like to watch because i think it's funny. My host brother has a very nice and clean way to peeling his oranges. First of all, he never touches his food with his hands ever, so he uses a fork and knife to peel the orange. First he cuts it down the middle, then each half once again, then, very carefully, cuts the orange peel off, stabs the whole orange piece and stuffs it into his mouth. That always makes me giggle because he's ever so careful while peeling it, but then stuffs it into his mouth all messy like, usually ending in a small orange juice puddle.

Other than physically eating, we have the normal lunch party. When a few families gather this is what happens 99.9% of the time. First, sit in the big room with couches to talk and drink something, gather around the table and wait for someone to set it. Someone sets the table, and everyone comes to eat. Then you sit down, eat normally (vegetables first, then meat, then salad), After eating you eat more usually something like cheese and wine, then someone will bring out a dessert with a bottle of champagne (or two). Once thats all over, theres coffee and little sweets like chocolates or fruit or something.

Other than food, i have my little orders as well. For example, so get the the metro station, i go down the block, turn left, then turn right on the main street. Walk until i see the bar with the green sign, turn left. Walk until i see the shoe store, turn right. Turn left at the old wall with a bunch or graffiti, walk straight until the station.

There's plenty more, but i just dont have to time to explain EVERYTHING.

The other day i went to l'horta (i think it's called) to help my neighbor with his garden, so that was pretty fun too. I felt all handy and stuff, and he gave a bunch of plants to bring home. I decided im going to make him a scarecrow about of stuff i find in godella. It's going to be awesome.

This is my dad and my chemistry teacher. feel free to admire the similarities.

Happy january.

Jane

happy 4 month christmas new years blog

Hello kin.

This is my holiday entry. I will attempt to make it festive, full of laughter and joy.

Now that christmas has passed, i can say that i was rather surprised. I thought i was going to get all down and sad ‘n stuff, but quite frankly i had a wonderful time. (that doesn’t mean i didn’t miss the good ol’ minnesota christmas.) But before i tell you about spanish christmas, i need to catch you up on my latest adventures.

FIRST, i went hiking again. I keep doing that, even though every time i go i always end up in serious pain, and something bad always happens. This time, i ended up with 3 blisters on my feet, and a picture of me sleeping on the bus uploaded to spanish facebook. The last time i went, i ended up with blisters as well, along with sunburn, and i fell twice. The conclusion? hiking+me=embarrassment+pain. Anyway, this time i basically only went because they told me there was going to be snow, (which there wasn’t. Liars) BUT i did get to go into a real cave. unfortunately i didn’t get a picture, but i’m telling you right now it was the real deal. We had to climb down this little hole thing, slide down a rope, and then a teacher had to help us down to the ground. There was no light, so we all got little flashlights and all that. At first i was kinda creeped out, but then i started looking around, and actually it was super cool. it had all those weird slimy looking rocks, and those drippy looking rocks hanging from the ceiling. i felt so outdoorsy. And that was that. Heres my winter break so far.

I didn’t really even realize it was christmas until the 23 of december when i FINALLY got off school. i will tell you, the last few days of school were awful... very slow and stupid.... just like at home EXCEPT FOR A FEW THINGS: Since we're in school until later here, i spent my last week or so in school spending more time in the cafeteria because they put up a nice christmas tree in there. It made me feel better about being in school for so long. It's the little things that count right? (plus the lunch guy is really nice, and you can order coffee and such if you want). And also, one day at lunch i sat down, opened my lunch, took out my sandwich, bit into it, and you can imagine my pure surprise and delight when it was a wonderful peanut butter and jelly sandwich. i had to hide it from my classmates because they all think it' weird, but it was wonderful none the less.

The last day of school was actually fine, we just had a bunch of activities in which a few friends and i skipped out on that and just kinda walked around for a while. I think my problem is that in valencia there’s no snow, and it’s around 65 degrees every day, so my body/mind can’t deal with the fact that yes, it is christmas. It was quite the shock when i got home that afternoon, and my host sister was happy that we were off school and that it was christmas. It’s really not my fault.... in spain they don’t celebrate christmas as much as we do (actually they think we’re weird for decorating our houses and all that) and so we don’t have a tree or anything in the house. So naturally i snapped into action, and took to decorating my own room a little to spread christmas cheer to myself. (Jenson’s, i already told you this) I put out a bunch of red and green clothing, including a red scarf and a green sweater, hung up a red bow and the christmas cards i’d received on my wall, continuously streamed an irish christmas station on the internet, and set my laptop background to a picture of snow. I thought i did pretty good considering the circumstances.

Anyway, to celebrate the end of this first trimester from h-e-l-l, my classmates organized a dinner that was quite pleasant, and after we hit up a super cool juice joint. Looking back at my first trimester, i’m actually kinda sorta proud. Here are my grades:

Spanish-no grade, BUT i did pass an essay test in which i wrote 3 pages comparing three books (Hamlet, Oedipus the king and The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof) with a wonderful D- that i will never forget ever.

English- passed with a 7/7. Hooray!

Biology- passed with a 5/7. Hooray! I can explain to you what a stem cell is if you want. To remember them, i call them magic cells. Because they are magic.

Philosophy- no grade this trimester. although i did pass a project i had to do for that class. See how i’m focusing on the positives? Except now i'm just going to comment on how i really don't like philosophy. Quite frankly, i don't really care what the true is, or what reality is or what is the reason is. My teacher was trying to explain the difference between reality and truth, and i'm just sitting there like why does it even matter. I forget the real example, but she said something like a car is the reality because no one can say that the car doesn't exist, but our perception of the car is the truth because we all see the car differently or SOMETHING like that. I'm just sitting there thinking, why are we spending 30 minutes debating whether a car is the truth or reality or the reason for living or the objective of life or whatever you want. From my point of view, the car is a car, and we don't have to question why the car is there or for what is serves because i can tell you that right now. The car is here because some dude invented it, and we use it to get around. That's it... there's nothing more to it.

Chemistry-passed with a 5/7. Hooray! Except i don’t get chemistry.

Math-failed. Oops..... I have nothing to say.

Geography- failed. with a 2/7. Never though i could ever get such a bad grade. This is more than failing. This is failing to an exponential power that is googol. I failed to the power of googol. I will admit that i didn’t ‘give it my all’ per se, because i think some of the work i had to do was keeping me from doing necessary things such as sleeping and showering.

Moving on. Christmas eve was wonderful. I woke up at the wonderful hour of 12, ate a wonderful breakfast of chocolate cereal, sang wonderful songs with my host dad/sister (in the wonderful languages or italian, spanish, english, valenciano etc.), ate a wonderful christmas eve lunch of wonderful things that i don’t remember what they’re called (something that looks like shrimp but has eyes and feet), Talked on skype with wonderful cousins and friends and family, ate a wonderful dinner, and opened wonderful presents from wonderful people while talking with my wonderful family over skype. Twas wonderful. I will say i got a little choked up at one point, but nothing too bad, and after everyone else opened their presents and everyone was happy just like it should be. Everyone really liked their presents. Here's my host dad and his new wallet.

Christmas day was something of a different sort. We got up early to drive up the the Pyrenees mountains. I, being half giant half human here in spain, was rather crunched and was unable to sleep, so i had a nice time looking out the window. We stopped halfway to eat lunch in this antique old village house that serves as the cabin of the ex-wife of my host moms brother. (if you don’t follow, it’s fine... took my 3 hours to figure it out) We ate there, where i got a tour of this weird house that has pictures of jesus everywhere and rooms for things like storing potatoes and apples, and then we were off again. Three hours later we were driving up the mountains (i knew this because my ears hurt like crap) where i saw snow! I was so happy even though it was crappy ice snow and unplayable, its all the same to me and my minnesotan soul. I never really thought i would miss snow so much, but its true that snow is a very important component in my life, and also because i missed the only snow day that has ever happened in the minneapolis public school system ever in my life, and probably will ever happen in my life... we’ll see if i get lucky next year.

The mountains were amazing.... all snowy and european, not to mention tall and pretty. My family has an apartment here, it’s pretty small but i really like it. It reminds me of a urbanized version of those little cabin’s we used to rent in the middle of nowhere. We had a minor crisis the first few hours of the trip when the water heater/ air heater wouldn’t work, and the apartment was freaking cold. We all thought we were going to have to spend 5 days wearing blankets all over the place, and having to choose between death cold shower and no shower. It finally started working right before we all went to bed, so it worked out nicely. The stupid thing is i got sick AGAIN, so i was probably coughing the whole night, annoying everyone. This whole sick thing is NOT gaining me any popularity points. The first day we were there, i didn’t so ski because i felt gross, and my ears hurt and it was just stupid, so we went and walked around in various old villages, which i happen to like a lot. I secretly want to buy a little house in an old european village somewhere when i’m older. I think i might just do that. The second day i didn’t go ski either because my host sister was feeling gross so we did basically the same thing. The thing is, is that it was an astounding 60 degrees or something like that, all the way up here 2000 meters above sea level in northern spain. Only stupid people would question the climate change theory now that we have like... 50 feet of snow in minnesota, it snowed in north carolina for the first time since the 1980’s, its 50 degrees in the pyrenees mountains, and half the the airports here in europe are closed due to bad weather and dangerous conditions. Following my environmental speech, December 28th is similar to our april fools day, so every year they play a small trick on my host dad. This year (this is complicated to explain... hang in there) they told him that the boyfriend of their daughter (who owns a restaurant in MN) was going to hold a spanish week when my host parents go visit their daughter in MN, and that they wanted my host dad to sign flamenco for an hour every night. He got all excited about it and everything. Twas funny. The third day no one went skiing. We took a day trip to a small village called Roda de Isabena that was literally a village on a mountain top.

All these little pueblos are basically the same. They are circular, all the houses connected with a plaza in the middle of the town usually with a restaurant, church and bell tower. All the streets are made of stone, all hilly and skinny making it virtually impossible to drive through. This particular village had an amazing view of the mountains because it’s really high up, and also a rather old church. We got a tour of it, and virtually everything inside was built before the 15th century. There were paintings from the 12th century, a baptizing bowl from the 12th century, authentic clothing from some bishop, and the best being some columns holding up the building from the 9th century. I have never touched anything that old in my whole life. I felt to connected to history even though i really despise history. After, we visited a few old sanctuary/monastery (i’m not exactly sure what they are called) but they were both built int he 11th century (one in 1104, and the other a short time before or after) they were both from roman descent and very pretty.

The last night was interesting... well, not exactly for me because i was not conscious when the excitement happened. Apparently i talked in my sleep, which is something i NEVER do. I’m they type that never moves in my slept, i’m like a brick normally. But when i woke up the next morning, my host sister told me i had been talking in my sleep. Naturally i was embarrassed because my host sister, host brother and i all slept in the same room, and therefore everyone had heard. She didn’t make a big deal of it at the time, but later we all sat down at the dinner table and discussed it. It was funny, because my host brother was the one who told me all about it, so that made it just exponentially more embarrassing. He said first i said “no se” and then “mama!!” really loud. And after a really long sentence in spanish that he doesn’t remember what it was. At least we know i dream in spanish... too bad i don’t remember anything. And that ends my pyrenees experience.

New years was more of the same, just at later hours. They do this thing where you have to eat 12 grapes, one for every second before 12 AM. it was funny to watch everyone stuff their faces with grapes. I find joy in watching people to dumb things. Anyways, i'm fine before apparently ill have good luck the whole year because i did all of the right things on new years eve. 1.) i started the year off with no dirty clothes (my host mom says it's bad luck to start the year with dirty clothes). 2.) i ate all my grapes. and 3.) i wore something red. so yeah. BUT one good/interesting thing happened. I met this girl named Elin from switzerland (i think.... sorry if i'm wrong) but it was so weird because we got to talking, and it turns out that she lived in minneapolis for 2 years. i probably like... saw her around one day. In fact she lived in the minnehaha area so thats pretty close. SO WEIRD. it's a small world huh?

Well.

I’m sitting with 4 months in spain. It literally just feels like a REALLY long and difficult week. Now, i can’t make any more excuses. Technically i’m supposed to be close to fluent, comfortable and well adjusted by now, but quite frankly i think i need just a LITTLE more time. not even a month, just 3 weeks or something until i’ll feel really good about everything. In three weeks i’ll but basically half way (crazy) through my stay, so if i’m not completely self sufficient by then, i’m doing something wrong. Having said that, it’s not like i’m not well adjusted. I DO have friends that i’m comfortable with, and i understand almost everything, slightly depending on the day, but it’s true that i understand almost everything. Speaking is a different story, and i’m making it my new years resolution to talk more everyday, since my family says i’m shy. Probably everyone reading this knows that i, in fact, am not shy, so i think i need to change their minds. Hence the new years resolution. My other new years resolutions would normally be something along the lines of be nicer to my parents, get better grades, help someone less fortunate than i, etc... but the truth of the matter is that i’m extremely nice to my spanish parents (and nicer to my normal parents with the distance and everything), i don’t care about my grades very much, and now that i have experienced being a true outcast myself, i find myself able to relate more to people less fortunate than i, hence making it a lot easier to help them out. Plus i plan to go help out at the Red Cross with my host sister. So normal new years resolutions have already been resolved. This presents a debacle, because i believe that everyone should have at least a few resolutions, because we can all improve our lives and the lives around us. So what i did was put my thinking cap on and came up with a few more resolutions. The first being that of improving my talkativeness. The second being to make friends with my host brother. The third to keep my room clean because if it’s not clean i feel bad because everything’s always clean. Plus it’s a little weird that my room is dirtier than my 21 year old college student host brother. The fourth is to learn a little valenciano (just because i love it and it’s pretty and it’d be fun to learn a little.) The fifth and final is to learn some trivia. There is a story behind that. The story is my family and i played trivia pursuit in the mountains one night, and they all knew all of these random facts about everything FOR EXAMPLE who was the most famous violin player in italy in the 1900’s, what province was named after a random guy i’d never heard of, who was the captain of a random soccer team in 1987 etc etc. I will say that i did answer 2 questions right (1 1/2) one of them being who was the main writer of the declaration of independence, and the other being where are salmon born, in the ocean or river. I said river all proud and stuff, but my host dad thought it was the ocean and made a good argument so i went with his answer and we got it wrong. It fine though because i have the satisfaction of knowing that i was in fact right. So that ends new years.

I had a few other things to say, but i can't seem to remember them right now. i'll entertain you with some cultural funniness next time.

My host dog and myself bid thee farewell.

Last couple of days...

Hello,

I am writing on the first snow day in the history of my life. Congratulations Minnesota for having such crap-tastic weather. I've been spending this wonderful day trying to think of things to make myself feel better that i'm not getting to experience my first snow day, and this is what i've come up with. Y'all are probably going to get sick. Apparently only good things follow me around (like, for example, the weather). I am still able to walk outside in a t-shirt. My boogers don't freeze. No one's dying in snow related accidents. I don't have to wear boots to school (that's a really good thing because i keep forgetting to get a locker). I can see living things such as plants and people on the street. Things like that.

Well i'm writing today because, as some of you know, i'm deathly ill once again. Here's what happened:

Thursday, i came home from school feeling a little tired and disoriented, so i took MY FIRST SIESTA (look how spanish i am) and then after that i stayed up until 12 or so trying to complete the ungodly amount of homework i had, which included a 6 page written opinion paper about a book for philosophy (yes, i did that) 2 thorough explanations of graphs for geography, and to study for a biology test on friday. You can imagine that i was a little stressed out, so i didnt listen to my body (as cousin karen would say) and ended up getting sick. Friday was awful. I got up for school, and actually went even though i felt like crap, because i had my biology test. But i couldn't even manage doing that, because somewhere between question 3 about cells mutations and question 4 about mitosis, i fell asleep. After about 15 minutes, i woke up and went home. And slept. Today is monday, and i am still feeling a bit down, so i don't know how long this one's going to last. Curse you european viruses.

BUT while i was at home all weekend, sleeping and doing other exciting things like that, i figured out that i understand spanish movies now. I was at my neighbors house yesterday watching movies with her mother. We bonded over a corny christmas film, tea and nail polish. It was weirdly fun. The only thing of substance i've really eaten this weekend is crackers and soup, and ive also managed to loose some of the massive ton of weight i gained here, so really his weekend hasn't been bad at all. It could definitely have been worse.

Let me just talk here for a second, more in detail, about what i said about not having a lot of time left. Yes, everyone, i KNOW i still have 7 months, but just listen. This weekend, im going to alecante to have 'christmas' with my spanish grandparents. The weekend after that is REAL christmas which is where im going to the mountains. The weekend after that is New years which i will be spending with friends and family, The weekend after that is the 3 kings holiday (the epiphany?), Somewhere in january i will be going to both madrid and barcelona. February i have italian people in my house (i think)... This like that. Between march and july, i don't know EXACTLY what im doing, but i'm going to italy (hopefully france too) Las fallas, my sisters coming, finals, camino de santiago, and then a week of summer. See how jam pack i'm talking here? I know it's going to go so fast, and i'm kind of sad.

Having said that, the spaniards are not seeming any more normal to me. I'm am not fully accustomed to their ways or anything like that, that does not mean i don't like their way of life, i just don't understand it real well. They surprise me everyday, for example(s): They always wear shoes in the house... soon i'm going to start sleeping in my shoes. They always dress nicely. They are not fat. They clean a lot. They study all day, everyday. The new broadcast people seem very friendly (more about that later). I haven't met anyone who dries their clothes in a dryer, they all have hang racks. but the thing that most surprised me about them is that no one knows how Helen Keller is. I was fascinated. We have jokes and books and plays and everything, but here, no one knows her. It's so weird!!!

Just a little side comment about the new broadcast people. They start every section saying hello and asking each other how they are and talking about their day and all that, like it's a normal conversation. At first i thought it was cute and friendly, but now i'm just like, really... no one really cares if you've had a fantastic day or not because we're just here to see what happened in the world today. So please, just give me the news report. That might just be me, but it's fine.

Other than that nothing much has happened. I'm starting to pass random things in school that i didn't think i would pass (like that 6 pages philosophy paper i wrote... i passed it) and other random assignments. Its a good feeling. Expect for the fact that i had an English test today, and i think someone forgot to teach me grammar because i had a fairly hard time deciding what teh Present simple, past simple, present blah blah blah is. i hope it's what i put because it would be really embarrassing if it isnt.

On the contrary, I would like to say that one of my rather proud moments of this week would be that i finally learned the words to La Bamba. :]

Sorry i don't have any pictures to put up, but i would like to share this.

I watch this show every single night.

El Intermedio

I don't actually know if i've seen this one before, but i just searched it on youtube, and it's the first one that came up. So yeah.

Soo long!

Jane

:]

I just have one thing to say.

I PASSED A SPANISH ESSAY TEST TODAY!

5.75/10

(me=kitteh)

And then i got sick because i studied too much. oops.

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