Sleeping in Castles: That's what we do in Spain

Toledo

So the AFS orientation was awesome.

It started with Malte (the german exchange student also living in Valladolid) and I taking the train by ourselves to Madrid. In Madrid we were supposed to meet up with an AFS volunteer. Everything went great, until we ended up in a deserted part of the train station, no restaurants or stores and very few people. We were confused... 'This is Madrid right..??' Also only Malte had a phone, but it didn't have any minutes on it. So we couldn't call anyone. After a bit the volunteer called us (Malte could still get calls, just not make them).:

"We are you guys?"
"Outside, close to a Plaza Castilla."
"What!? I'm inside by a BurgerKing."

*Me and Malte* 'Did you see any BurgerKing?' 'Nope.' Hmmmm

"Alright we're going back inside and we'll see if we find you"
 (All of this was in Spanish of course) 


After doing some backtracking we figured out we followed the people to the metro station (which was part of the train station), once we got to the main hall of the train station (which had shops, restaurants, and people) we found Pablo, the AFS volunteer.

After that, we all took the metro to another train station in Madrid.. and thanks to the detour Malte and I took we missed our train to Toledo. But it wasn't that big of a deal because there was another train leaving a little later. Pablo ended up showing us the train station and a little bit of Madrid, so missing the train was good thing.

There's a mini jungle inside the train station in Madrid

In Toledo we met up with the other exchange students and we walked to the where we were staying.. when are got there it was a castle.. talk. about. awesome. I had a great time. I got to meet people who I either met at the Madrid orientation back in September, but didn't talk to much or people who I never knew existed.  (note: exchange student = coolest people you will ever meet) Two people I got really close with was Andrea who's from the Philippines and Maya who's from California, but is living in the Canary Islands (how cool is that?!) .

(left to right): Maya, me, and Andrea

The castle where we stayed at :)

We only went inside of Toledo once, which was disappointing. We did a scavenger hunt in Toledo.. it involved splitting into groups, getting a paper with questions on it, then being sent into Toledo to answer the questions. Basically the only rule (besides not cheating) was that we had to be back at the castle BEFORE 6:00. My group had one determined person in it and it's thanks to her that we got any answers... (I wasn't the determined person). And of course to answer one last question we ended up a bit short of time so we sprinted half of Toledo. (I don't know if you know this, but Toledo is all hills: uphills, downhill, then uphill again... in other words a really good workout) But we made the deadline with 4 minutes to spare.

And to make it all worth it, we won :)

My group after we won

First place got a box full of these pastries with apple filling, a tile magnet (apparently it's something typical of Toledo), and one person in our group got a wooden sword (unanimous choice .. the 'determined' person).

Second and Third place shared a box of another type of pastry.

The of the groups also had a box of pastries to split amongst themselves.

We ended up trading and sharing so more or less everyone got a fair share of pastries. :)


That Sunday when we had to leave came way to soon, it's so easy to relate to the other AFSers. I've always heard that some of the best friends you make when you're an exchange student are the other exchange students and it's so true.  No one else can understand what you go though as well as they can.

Me and fellow AFSers

This time we were all taking the bus to Madrid (expect for me, Malte, and Maya everyone was from the Madrid area). But by the time we got to the bus, there wasn't room for all of us so ended up waiting a half hour for the next one. And because we got in Madrid later, me and Malte (with a volunteer), had to take the metro to the train station. Where we had to sprint (literally sprinting, with an overpacked backpack with all my clothes and stuff for the weekend in it) to get to the train on time. We got on the train at 7:44pm it left at 7:45pm... it was moving before we found out seats, that's how close it was...


It was a fun, exciting weekend, but I was glad to be home again; with my family and my bed and a fridge that my parents insist I help myself to whenever I feel like it. :)


School this week was normal.. I had a biology test on Tuesday, I took the same test as everyone else. I have no clue how I did on it... And two weeks ago or so I had an exam in Philosophy. I'm not going to lie, I didn't even look at my book until the night before the exam... I crammed the whole day and managed a 3.2 on the exam. It's failing. But my teacher was so impressed I actually wrote stuff on the test that was kind of right (normally I make stuff up or just turn it in blank...), he's going to try and help me pass the test. Aka, I'm getting an easier exam. This is a good thing and bad thing... good because I have a chance of pass the class and passing classes is good. Bad because I actually need to try now.. I feel like cramming isn't going to cut it anymore.. :(


On Wednesday, the weather became really nice! So my family went for a walk instead of going to the gym. There's this forest right next to my town and it's really pretty. We got kind of lost and found a swing that someone made in between two trees.

The view of the forest from a really bigl hill and Black

On Friday I went and got my hair cut for the first time. It was kind of terrifying. I only wanted a trim, so of course it turned out okay. Still, the whole time I was l wondering, what if she misunderstands me and cuts a lot of my hair off or thinks that I want bangs or something. But no, she was really nice, and triple check how I wanted my hair cut before actually cutting it. So that went well!

Yesterday my sister and I went out and she taught me how to roller skate. (Having big feet is obnoxious a lot of the time, but it come in handy when I can borrow my dad's roller skates :P ) I'm really bad at it, but getting better. We went again today and I'm improving!


Monday and Tuesday I don't have school thanks to Carnival :) . Monday me and my friends are dressing up as nerds and going out and then later we're all going to sleep at one of their houses. Also some Americans from Boston are going to be staying with some kids from my school for two week for a mini exchange; some kids in my class went to America back in September, so that should be fun (interesting at least)

A really long post for my lack of posting:

Hasta el próximo vez:)   

Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there. -David Zucker

I'm officially past the halfway mark. How strange.

Part of me feels like I've been here forever and another part feels like I just got here. I miss everyone at home like crazy, but I can't bear the thought of leaving and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It's all very confusing.

I'd like to write of the amazing thing I did the past week, but life has been boring and uneventful. I managed a 6 on that math exam (woohoo!) and Saturday I had a volleyball game and we won (which we normally do, so that's nothing new..)



However the next couple weeks should be more exciting. :)

This weekend I have an AFS orientation, NOT in Valladolid, like originally planned, but in Toledo. (AFS is splitting the Castilla y Leon and Galicia region, which is super upsetting, but at least I get to go to Toledo and see my friends in the Madrid region.)

Next weekend is Carnival! :)   (click here, for those of you who don't know what Carnival is)

And then the following week, Noelle, whose living in Sevilla, is coming up to visit!!



Finally here are some pictures of a couple weeks ago when I went to see the castle in the town where both my grandparents live:

The Castle, it was small and kinda of falling apart, but a castle none the less:)

The Castle had a catapult :)

I climbed on one of the walls of the castle