200 Trees

I played iPod roulette today on the bus ride back from Zaragoza. "iPod roulette" is a game that I made up where you put all of the songs on your iPod on shuffle and see what you get. It's interesting for me because I haven't gotten rid of any of the songs I put on my iPod, ever. I still have CD's that I downloaded in 6th grade that I don't even like anymore. Occasionally I run into a song that I forgot I had downloaded and I end up really liking it.

Anyways, the reason why I was in Zaragoza this weekend was because Rotary Zaragoza invited us to another event. This week we planted 200 trees on a nature reserve. Our planting crew consisted of Alex, Grace, Jen, Cheyenne, Sergio (who is Cheyenne's host brother), Cheyenne's host parents, Alex's host parents, and three Rotarians. I teamed up with Sergio to tackle a designated tree-planting row. I actually ended up doing more of the physical labor because, no offense to Sergio, but he's twelve years old and not exactly muscular. Since I have had past experience with wielding large gardening tools, I found digging holes in the ground easier than Sergio found it, since he has never planted a vegetable garden. Honestly, at the end of the day, despite having a splinter in my palm that refused to come out, I was quite content to plant things and get my hands dirty. Besides, Sergio was an entertaining partner as he kept defending his inability to dig a hole in the ground because it was "village work", dancing like a chicken, and naming the trees that we planted. Sergio knows a lot of random words in English so a few of the names that he chose were Steve, Dick, and Condom.\

After laboring in the gorgeous spring-like weather that had persisted for the entirety of this week, we all ate at a nice restaurant and headed back to Zaragoza. Originally, us Sabi exchange students were supposed to split up and sleep at separate Rotarian's houses. However, after a bit of convincing by Cheyenne's host mom, we were given permission to all stay at her house. This plan worked out better for us because it gave us a chance to hang out around the city that night.

Since my host parents were in Zaragoza this weekend with Carmen's parents again, I had to spend Friday night away from home as well. We had a sleepover at Alex's place.

I have also had a head cold since Thursday, and I had a test in Philosophy on Friday. I am not looking forward to getting that test back.

Also, on Friday I had the pleasure of meeting Grace's actual parents. They had been in Monaco for a week for business purposes, but came to Sabi on Friday to check out the town. We all had lunch at what is now Grace's house, which was a very traditional Spanish meal (gazpacho, paella, etc.). Honestly, the whole thing was a bit bizarre because us exchange students had to keep translating for our parents and host parents. The thing is, we could understand what everyone was saying, but we kept forgetting that not everyone else could.

Jumping to this afternoon, Disney's Frozen was finally playing at the movie theater here, so Grace and I, because we absolutely adore Frozen, went to see it. I was so glad to finally see the movie in Spanish since I had only ever watched it in English. Now I am in the process of memorizing "Let it Go" in my second language.

Now that I'm finally back home, I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. Unfortunately, tomorrow is Monday, which means that I have to wake up early and face that Philosophy grade.