Carnival and Noelle

Two weekends ago was Carnival, which was a lot of fun. My friends and I dressed up like nerds and the Americans I talked about in the last post went with us.

After going out we all slept over at a friend's house.. there were 13 of us. And then we did the natural thing teenagers everywhere do, pigged out. Pizza, ice cream, cookies, chips, pop, popcorn... it was great :)


The Americans turned out to pretty cool, and they also loved me just for no other reason than that I understood and talked English perfectly.
It was really funny because at first they didn't realize I was from the States too. Then I started to speak flawless English with them. Their faces were priceless.


This weekend Noelle, my friend from Sevilla, came and visited me. It was a lot of fun! :)

Noelle in front of the Castle

On Saturday my family took us a Castle close to Valladolid, in a town called Cuéllar. The Castle did a play to explain how people lived in the castle and stuff. It was aimed more for kids, but nonetheless was really cool and interesting.

Me in the castle

On Sunday we went to look at Roman ruins that are outside of Valladolid. This was really fascinating, the only thing left from the house were the floor, but they were from the 4th century!!

a floor made in the 4th century

After the ruins we went to this park that downscaled all the castles and famous churches in Castilla and Leon (the province I'm living in).

Noelle and I in a mini castle

On Monday I had a chemistry exam (which I failed) then I left school early and me and Noelle went and hung out in Valladolid. We walked a lot. First we went shopping in the center and checked out the park (which has peacockss). Then for lunch we met up with Malte at the mall.

It was a 3.5 km walk, but the weather is amazing! Warm, t-shirt weather! I hope it's here to stay!! On the walk, Noelle were talking in English and these two girls our age came up to us and were like: 'wohoo, you guys talk english! what are you guys doing in Spain?' To which we explained the whole exchange student thing . They were really impressed with our Spanish. They were really nice, after we went our ways me and Noelle just laughed about how only in Spain you could befriend random strangers in the street.

After eating we found out that Malte likes to shop, which worked out perfectly with our plan to shopping in the mall.

After going into almost every store and having numerous 'interesting' conversations we walked back to the center of Valladolid so Malte could buy a pair of Vans (which ended up to be pretty hard to find). And to top it off, there was a two-story carousel in Plaza Mayor that me and Noelle couldn't resist to go on. :)

Tuesday I went back to school and Noelle left.


Next week finals start, wish me luck! I'll be needing it!

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

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. — Mohandas Gandhi

Monday was Día De La Paz Y No Violencia which means Peace and Non-violence day. Also my school has existed for 50 years, so they like making a big deal out of everythingg.

Día de la paz was basically two blow off days, Friday we watched a movie (American History X, anyone heard of it.. it wasn't exactly a bad movie, it was interesting...), then we discussed it and did nothing else. Monday was had only first hour (which lucky for me I had Religion, aka we did nothing), after lunch we did a school wide dance to a song (someone in the school wrote it specially for Día de la Paz) then the last hour we did this gift exchange thing.

Our whole class wrote their names on a piece of paper and them we drew names. We had to be the 'invisible friend' to the person whose name we drew all week without them knowing who we were. Then on Friday we had to bring in a homemade gift for the person.

I made an origami dragon for my person (which turned out awesome) and chocolate chip cookies (which were delicious and I was told I need to make them more often) for my whole class. One of my friends, Ángela, got my name and made me two really pretty bracelets.



Also on Friday I got this really bad cold, that literally can out of the blue. Thursday night my throat was hurting a little bit (before that nothing), so I took some cold medicine, and Friday I could barely talk...
Saturday (I had my voice back..ish)  I thought I had a volleyball game at 8:00 in the morning, I showed up and nobody from my team is there. My dad just dropped me off and also our phones weren't working... (we could only receive calla).. So I go up to this guy that looks he's in charge, but the only thing he knows is that my team was not playing there today.

great. I'm in a gym full of people I don't know, without a phone, and my dad won't come to pick me up at least for another hour.

I politely ask the guy if I can use his phone, he gives it to me, I have my iPod with me with has all the numbers of my friends and family in Spain. There are two numbers under my dads name. I call one, and get my sister. She tells me the right number, I quickly call that and it was going to take my dad five minutes to come back for me. I give the phone back and thank the guys. And head outside to wait for my dad.
It took about 15 minutes with all the traffic.


Then later I was talking to my parents about going out that night:

Them: Are you sure you want to go out with your cold?

Me: Yes! I feel fine!


 -----> Sunday I could barely talk again. Karma, I might of deserved that. (but it was so worth it!)



Today I had a math test, I studied SO much for and I thinkkkk I passed (knock on wood). I'm for sure that I got at least 4.5 points and that I got one wrong (I need 5 to pass and it's out of 10), but we`ll see.




My post is all over the place today... SORRY! ummm, hopefully the next is better!

ps if my school posts a video of the dance I'll be sure to add it:)

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson

Last Sunday was my host dad's birthday, any guesses on how we celebrated? If was answer was food, you're catching on to how things work in Spain. :P

Along with a ton of other food, we had a delicious sponge cake with whip cream in the middle and chocolate frosting cover all of the outside... all made from scratch by my dad!


Also last weekend was this 'international motorcycle rally' (that's how that internet describes it...) called Pingüinos (Penguins). Basically it's 25,000 motor-cyclers getting together and partying for a weekend. It's quite a sight. hahaha.

There's a parade, where alll the motorcycles drive through Valladolid, but I didn't get to see it because I had I volleyball game (we won!). I did, however, go to the campsite and see all the motorcycles parked, not quiet as cool, but still. It was something you have to see in order to understand what TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND motorcycles are.
Pingüinos is the largest motorcycles gathering in the world that takes place in the winter. :)


Other than that, life is normal. Today I had volleyball practice and the gym is basically a gigantic freezer! It's literally colder inside the gym than outside. (and it's around 30ºF outside). And it was a really tough practice, but fun at the same time... you have to keep doing something or else you'll freeze. My coach is great, he makes us work hard, and it took me awhile to get used to the way he coaches. But now that I'm used to it, practices are amazing :)



School is school, in my biology class we're learning bio-chem stuff and we have to study it every night in order to have a chance at passing the exam. So guess what I've been doing? Studying, studying, and more studying!! My math class started out really well, and I understood everything more or less perfectly. But now that things are way more complicated, everything I learned jumbled together and I'm once again hopeless lost. (my friend Carlota and another kid in my class, Jorge are trying to help me, I have two weeks until the exam. wish. me. luck. :P)





¡¡FELIZ SUEÑOS!! <sweet dreams>

 (because it's 11:30 and I need to be getting to sleep, Gerda this post was specially for you, I hope you're happy now! hahaha)

ps. Speaking of dreams I've been dreaming Spanish!! (well for a couple of months now, I just kept forgetting to tell everyone!) In the first dream in Spanish that I remember, I was in my freshman year biology class (with Mr. Shifflett) and absolutely nothing spectacular happened, expect for half the people in that class where speaking Spanish and the rest either English, a mixture of the two, or some made-up language.

Los Reyes Magos

Christmas Break, sadly, is over.

On the 30th of December, we had a failtacular AFS orientation. Only three of us showed up. Me, Malte (who lives in Valladolid) and Emily. We first went ice skating and then went out for churros, so beside the bad turn out, we still had a good time. :)

Eating churros with the other AFSers

On New Year's Eve (Or Nochevieja as they call it here) we went to my Aunt's house where we ate A LOT of food. And we also ate the traditional 12 grapes in the last seconds of the year for good luck. I managed to eat them all and NOT choke. :)

New Years Day we ate another HUGE meal at my grandparents house.


Januray 5th we went to a parade called, Cabalgata De Reyes, in the town next to mine. Andrea, one of my friends, was in it as a duck.

This is a video of the parade in Madrid from last year, I think... I saw the one from this year one on TV.

My friend:)

After the parade, we went home and ate Roscón, which is a traditional dessert for Reyes Magos. In it are too 'surprises' is a bean and the other is a king. The person who gets the king becomes the 'King or Queen' and the person who get the bean has to pay.

Roscón

My sister was the 'Queen' and there was a car inside the cake, not a king :P

On the sixth we celebrated Los Reyes Magos or Three Kings day. Which celebrate the three kings that brought the gift to baby Jesus. This is the day that you open up your presents. So that morning we ALL got woken up by my sister yelling 'Get up! Get up! Let's open our presents!' and singing a Spanish Christmas song. We opened presents and then some friends of my parents came over to eat breakfast, we ate the rest of the Roscón.

Also today it SNOWED!! Which is NOT normal in Valladolid:) It only lasted about 2 hours and it all disappeared but still IT SNOWED! :) 

Upcoming News:

February: AFS orientation, Carnival (I'll explain more about this later), and Noelle, an AFSer in Sevilla is coming up for a weekend! 

My host dad made crepes over break :) yummmmmm

Trimester One Grades

I forgot to post this yesterday....
Final grades for the first trimester:

Philosophy: 1

Physics/Chemistry: 1

Lengua: 2

Math: 5

Biology: 5

P.E.: 6

Science of the Contemporary World (Earth Science): 8

Computers: 8

Religion: 10

English: 10

For those of you who can't count (or don't want to) that's SEVEN classes passed and ONLY three failed.

Now I need to read 175 pages of my book (Fahrenheit 451) for Philosophy... wish me luck! (I have 12 days...)