I don't know why, but ever since I've come here all of my things seem to keep breaking.
First it was my watch. The battery died within the first month I was here. Then the chain on my favorite necklace broke. The cell phone I was given here is several years old and barely holds a charge. Now the back is falling off to the point where I have to tape it together. It's a good thing the original owner of the phone doesn't want it back. My sneakers look fine, but I only used them to play tennis back in the States so the bottoms are so worn out now that I'm not sure they will make it until EuroTour. My boots are even worse off, falling apart at the seams. I'm pretty sure my purse is almost done for. Also, I might just ditch half of the clothes that I brought here because they are all starting to fall apart, too.
Not to mention the fact that people here keep giving me jewelry as gifts when what I really want is peanut butter and scholarship money. Not that I'm complaining about getting nice things as gifts. I just need the scholarship money more.
Luckily, my host mom is very willing to take me clothes shopping. In fact, we went to Huesca yesterday to buy me new boots. I like these ones a lot more than my old ones anyways. The thing is, this is the time of year that everything is on sale here in Spain. Though I would have paid for the boots myself, my host mom insisted they were a late Reyes Magos present. I'll find a way to pay them back later.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Jaca, Tapas, and Expectations
Back to school, again. Ugh! Life was so much easier when I didn't have to wake up before sunrise.
Anyways, things have wound down after the holiday season, which means that everything is pretty much back to normal around here. I've also been a bit sick lately, so I'm sorry if I end up rambling. I still can't quite think straight.
School started back up on Tuesday, so I (unlike everyone in Wisconsin) had to wake up early and head over to school. Nothing much interesting happened this past week in terms of school, but I do have to present a Power Point some time either this week or next week about the geography of Wisconsin.
Friday night I just hung around the house and sketched. Saturday was a bit more interesting. I went to the first theater group meeting since before the holidays. We read aloud scripts this week. I was only given smaller parts, but I didn't mind because I tend to get caught up on strange words when I'm reading aloud in Spanish. Anyways, they were very fun to do. That afternoon Alex, Grace and I headed over to Jaca to hang out. Grace took the opportunity to talk about the fact that she was disappointed that she hadn't really made a close Spanish friend yet. It turns out Alex was disappointed about the same thing. I found that I wasn't quite sure what they were talking about. I guess that coming in to this experience I had never actually expected to make close friends, even though I would have liked to. I mean, of course I wanted to make friends, but I wasn't expecting to meet someone where four months later I could call up my host parents and say "Hey, I'm headed over to so-and-so's house after school. I'll be back by dinner". The kind of friend where I feel more comfortable at their house than at my own.
After all of that, the three of us went back to Sabi in time to catch the last half hour of a soccer game. Soccer is, as many of you know, a big sport in Spain, so that night we had Alex's host parents and some family friends over at our house to watch the game before dinner. We ate tapas, including some of the meat that my parents ordered from my relatives in Austria (they own a company).
Today I hung around the house again. I finished my project for Geography and watched Ender's Game in Spanish. The movie was very fascinating. I should really pick up the book (or, at least, I would if I wasn't trying to improve my Spanish).
See you all next week.
Anyways, things have wound down after the holiday season, which means that everything is pretty much back to normal around here. I've also been a bit sick lately, so I'm sorry if I end up rambling. I still can't quite think straight.
School started back up on Tuesday, so I (unlike everyone in Wisconsin) had to wake up early and head over to school. Nothing much interesting happened this past week in terms of school, but I do have to present a Power Point some time either this week or next week about the geography of Wisconsin.
Friday night I just hung around the house and sketched. Saturday was a bit more interesting. I went to the first theater group meeting since before the holidays. We read aloud scripts this week. I was only given smaller parts, but I didn't mind because I tend to get caught up on strange words when I'm reading aloud in Spanish. Anyways, they were very fun to do. That afternoon Alex, Grace and I headed over to Jaca to hang out. Grace took the opportunity to talk about the fact that she was disappointed that she hadn't really made a close Spanish friend yet. It turns out Alex was disappointed about the same thing. I found that I wasn't quite sure what they were talking about. I guess that coming in to this experience I had never actually expected to make close friends, even though I would have liked to. I mean, of course I wanted to make friends, but I wasn't expecting to meet someone where four months later I could call up my host parents and say "Hey, I'm headed over to so-and-so's house after school. I'll be back by dinner". The kind of friend where I feel more comfortable at their house than at my own.
After all of that, the three of us went back to Sabi in time to catch the last half hour of a soccer game. Soccer is, as many of you know, a big sport in Spain, so that night we had Alex's host parents and some family friends over at our house to watch the game before dinner. We ate tapas, including some of the meat that my parents ordered from my relatives in Austria (they own a company).
Today I hung around the house again. I finished my project for Geography and watched Ender's Game in Spanish. The movie was very fascinating. I should really pick up the book (or, at least, I would if I wasn't trying to improve my Spanish).
See you all next week.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
I Apologize For My Lateness
I wish I could have had the time to do this earlier, mainly because it's currently 1:30 a.m. Spain time, but I've been running around all day. Fortunately, tomorrow is "Los Reyes Magos" which is a fiesta all throughout Spain celebrating the day that the Magi came to give Jesus Christ gifts. This is normally the time that most children receive gifts in Spain instead of on Christmas Day. However, I'm not looking forward to going back to school on Tuesday, especially because, though my Spanish has improved exponentially since I first came here, I still don't understand Philosophy.
If I'm going to be entirely honest here, I didn't enjoy Christmas that much. I only spent it with my host parents, host brother, my host grandma, and great aunt and uncle here. Basically we just had dinner at our house on Christmas Eve and then went to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch Christmas Day. As good as the food was, no one really celebrates Christmas like they do other holidays here. Still, in true American fashion, I gave my host family their gifts on Christmas morning. My host brother seems to like the Milwaukee Brewers jersey I gave him (despite the fact that he plays Basketball) because he packed it with his other clothes for when he goes back to the University in Zaragoza. My host dad is really into the books about Wisconsin that I gave my host parents. Because the books are in English he works through them slowly, but he is now prone to speaking aloud random facts about my home state that I may or may not have known.
Though Christmas was fine I do have to say that I enjoyed New Years Eve/Day a lot more. We spent New Years Eve at my host mom's mothers house in Zaragoza. The entirety of my host mom's family showed up. After dinner we Skyped my host sister on exchange in Pennsylvania. Victoria got her entire host family together and we all did the countdown to midnight with twelve grapes, in true Spanish fashion. For those who have never heard of this tradition, in Spain on New Years, everyone is given twelve grapes, one for each time the clock chimes at midnight. The idea is to eat one grape every time the clock chimes, and if you finish your grapes by midnight it's considered good fortune for the year. I successfully ate my grapes. After that, my older host cousins went off to fiestas and the rest of the family stayed at my grandmother's house where we sang songs for the rest of the night. Some of them where more traditional Spanish songs, but others were American oldies (YMCA; New York, New York) and others were a little more modern (Macklemore). Because my whole family is aware of the fact that I have an audition in order to get into the music program at the college I'm attending back in the States, they had me sing one of my audition songs. Most of them had never heard me sing before and were apparently impressed (despite the fact that I was a bit off key on account of a head cold).
Of course, with the holidays comes homesickness because of missing my family and all of our traditions. Also, being from Wisconsin, missing the snow. However, I got my longing for snow satisfied because today my host dad drove all of us (Alex, Grace, Jen who was visiting from Zaragoza this weekend, and me) up to the mountains on the French border where the snow is several feet deep and perfect for making snowmen. Jen is from Florida and absolutely loves snow because she never gets to see it where she lives. Though she has been skiing in Colorado, she told me she never had time to make a snowman while she was there, so we made sure to make a massive one taller than any of us. Grace was impressed at how fast I can roll snowballs to snowman size. Hey, I'm from Wisconsin. I got this. I would post pictures, but they are on my phone which is currently dead (again). I'll be sure to do it tomorrow.
After that adventure we went back to Sabi for lunch and then my host family had to take Manuel and Jen back to Zaragoza. We stayed there for the "Reyes Magos" parade, mainly because we couldn't leave until the crowds had cleared out of the main street. It was a small parade but with the equivalent excitement of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When the "Reyes" came past on their floats all the little kids sitting on their parents' shoulders went absolutely wild. Imagine hundreds of small children screaming "DIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOSSSSSS MMIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOO!!!!" like a pack of animals. After the streets cleared out we drove home and ate dinner. Then I went out for tea with Grace and Alex where we discussed many things, but mostly interesting family stories. Now I'm making a blog post at two in the morning. I swear to God this is absolutely normal.
If I'm going to be entirely honest here, I didn't enjoy Christmas that much. I only spent it with my host parents, host brother, my host grandma, and great aunt and uncle here. Basically we just had dinner at our house on Christmas Eve and then went to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch Christmas Day. As good as the food was, no one really celebrates Christmas like they do other holidays here. Still, in true American fashion, I gave my host family their gifts on Christmas morning. My host brother seems to like the Milwaukee Brewers jersey I gave him (despite the fact that he plays Basketball) because he packed it with his other clothes for when he goes back to the University in Zaragoza. My host dad is really into the books about Wisconsin that I gave my host parents. Because the books are in English he works through them slowly, but he is now prone to speaking aloud random facts about my home state that I may or may not have known.
Though Christmas was fine I do have to say that I enjoyed New Years Eve/Day a lot more. We spent New Years Eve at my host mom's mothers house in Zaragoza. The entirety of my host mom's family showed up. After dinner we Skyped my host sister on exchange in Pennsylvania. Victoria got her entire host family together and we all did the countdown to midnight with twelve grapes, in true Spanish fashion. For those who have never heard of this tradition, in Spain on New Years, everyone is given twelve grapes, one for each time the clock chimes at midnight. The idea is to eat one grape every time the clock chimes, and if you finish your grapes by midnight it's considered good fortune for the year. I successfully ate my grapes. After that, my older host cousins went off to fiestas and the rest of the family stayed at my grandmother's house where we sang songs for the rest of the night. Some of them where more traditional Spanish songs, but others were American oldies (YMCA; New York, New York) and others were a little more modern (Macklemore). Because my whole family is aware of the fact that I have an audition in order to get into the music program at the college I'm attending back in the States, they had me sing one of my audition songs. Most of them had never heard me sing before and were apparently impressed (despite the fact that I was a bit off key on account of a head cold).
Of course, with the holidays comes homesickness because of missing my family and all of our traditions. Also, being from Wisconsin, missing the snow. However, I got my longing for snow satisfied because today my host dad drove all of us (Alex, Grace, Jen who was visiting from Zaragoza this weekend, and me) up to the mountains on the French border where the snow is several feet deep and perfect for making snowmen. Jen is from Florida and absolutely loves snow because she never gets to see it where she lives. Though she has been skiing in Colorado, she told me she never had time to make a snowman while she was there, so we made sure to make a massive one taller than any of us. Grace was impressed at how fast I can roll snowballs to snowman size. Hey, I'm from Wisconsin. I got this. I would post pictures, but they are on my phone which is currently dead (again). I'll be sure to do it tomorrow.
After that adventure we went back to Sabi for lunch and then my host family had to take Manuel and Jen back to Zaragoza. We stayed there for the "Reyes Magos" parade, mainly because we couldn't leave until the crowds had cleared out of the main street. It was a small parade but with the equivalent excitement of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When the "Reyes" came past on their floats all the little kids sitting on their parents' shoulders went absolutely wild. Imagine hundreds of small children screaming "DIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOSSSSSS MMIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOO!!!!" like a pack of animals. After the streets cleared out we drove home and ate dinner. Then I went out for tea with Grace and Alex where we discussed many things, but mostly interesting family stories. Now I'm making a blog post at two in the morning. I swear to God this is absolutely normal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)