Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
My hair is blonde and my room is always clean. Oh, how things change so quickly..
I tried surfing for the first time this weekend. Of course, it was a miserable failure, but I couldn´t expect anything more. I went with a friend from AFS that´s living with a family in San Sebastian. We actually ended up spending more time eating than surfing, but I suppose that´s just the way things work around here.
I also watched a movie in San Sebastian (part of the festival de cine going on here) which happened to be in English. It´s called Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it was in black and white (made in 1956, I think). I thought it was a pretty good movie.. I´m going to see another movie this Friday. My host mom has been going to watch multiple movies a day on the days she doesn´t have to work. She´s an artist (photographer, not sure if I mentioned that already) so I suppose it´s pretty fitting that she´s interested in the festival. I find it pretty cool.
But anyway, that was my Sunday, a little more relaxed than Saturday. Saturday morning I watched my team´s soccer game (couldn´t play because of some papers that need to be sent to Madrid with my signature), saturday afternoon I watched a women´s proffesional game (superliga) and at night, I went to the stadium in San Sebastian to watch Real Sociedad (San Sebastian team) play against Real Madrid. Madrid won 2-1, but Real played really well, so I was content. Other than that, I got to see Ronaldo, Ozil, Khedira, Xabi Alonso, and many more... It was quite the experience.
As for school, which probably sounds a little less eventful than the weekends, things have been going alright. I have to make double the effort to understand what I´m learning (in Castellano, too, not even Euskera), and then to actually answer questions from the textbooks also takes an immense effort. Nevertheless, I find that I´ve been able to manage with most of the homework and the work during class. So far I haven´t missed or not been able to do a single assignment, so I think for my first few weeks of school I´m doing pretty well. I´m more eager to learn (Castellano, Euskera, and the stuff we´re learning in class too) than I ever have been. It´s really satisfying when in History class I understand what I´m reading in the textbook and I can reply to the questions about it, even if it does take me a lot more time than it would if I knew the language. I feel acclomplished after every assignment I finish, which I guess is pretty cool.
And as for the rest of my life here, everything´s going pretty smoothly. I was surprised to see on my watch that it was the 20th already. 10 days until October, wow. Day by day I learn more and more and understand more of the language, the culture and the lifestyle they have here. It takes me a while to fall asleep (no matter how tired I am) because I hardly have time to think, so when I lay down to sleep everything that I haven´t had time to think about during the day runs through my mind. I still find myself thinking about things that happened in America, but then again, I have only been away 20 days. I´m still transitioning from Tenafly to Urnieta. But, I can´t learn everything at once, so I´m not concerned about that. Poco a poco, as everyone here likes to tell me. Little by little, it will all fit together.
I also watched a movie in San Sebastian (part of the festival de cine going on here) which happened to be in English. It´s called Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it was in black and white (made in 1956, I think). I thought it was a pretty good movie.. I´m going to see another movie this Friday. My host mom has been going to watch multiple movies a day on the days she doesn´t have to work. She´s an artist (photographer, not sure if I mentioned that already) so I suppose it´s pretty fitting that she´s interested in the festival. I find it pretty cool.
But anyway, that was my Sunday, a little more relaxed than Saturday. Saturday morning I watched my team´s soccer game (couldn´t play because of some papers that need to be sent to Madrid with my signature), saturday afternoon I watched a women´s proffesional game (superliga) and at night, I went to the stadium in San Sebastian to watch Real Sociedad (San Sebastian team) play against Real Madrid. Madrid won 2-1, but Real played really well, so I was content. Other than that, I got to see Ronaldo, Ozil, Khedira, Xabi Alonso, and many more... It was quite the experience.
As for school, which probably sounds a little less eventful than the weekends, things have been going alright. I have to make double the effort to understand what I´m learning (in Castellano, too, not even Euskera), and then to actually answer questions from the textbooks also takes an immense effort. Nevertheless, I find that I´ve been able to manage with most of the homework and the work during class. So far I haven´t missed or not been able to do a single assignment, so I think for my first few weeks of school I´m doing pretty well. I´m more eager to learn (Castellano, Euskera, and the stuff we´re learning in class too) than I ever have been. It´s really satisfying when in History class I understand what I´m reading in the textbook and I can reply to the questions about it, even if it does take me a lot more time than it would if I knew the language. I feel acclomplished after every assignment I finish, which I guess is pretty cool.
And as for the rest of my life here, everything´s going pretty smoothly. I was surprised to see on my watch that it was the 20th already. 10 days until October, wow. Day by day I learn more and more and understand more of the language, the culture and the lifestyle they have here. It takes me a while to fall asleep (no matter how tired I am) because I hardly have time to think, so when I lay down to sleep everything that I haven´t had time to think about during the day runs through my mind. I still find myself thinking about things that happened in America, but then again, I have only been away 20 days. I´m still transitioning from Tenafly to Urnieta. But, I can´t learn everything at once, so I´m not concerned about that. Poco a poco, as everyone here likes to tell me. Little by little, it will all fit together.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
First Week
As promised, I will (try to) post a picture a week of me during the year. I didn´t remember until now (two weeks in) so here´s me in the airport in New York City with some other AFSers.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
La primera semana
So, I´ve been here a week, but it certainly doesn´t feel like just one week. It´s probably because of all the things I´ve done in the past few days (it seems as though I only have two weeks left to live...) and the siestas. It´s like the morning and afternoon is one day, siesta, and then the evening and night is another whole days (much shorter of course, but some days have felt that short).
Anyway, there´s so much to tell, I probably won´t be able to share everything.. I´ve been to San Sebastian 3 or 4 times (I can´t exactly remember right now) and it´s a very very beautiful city. We went to watch the waves crashing against the beach and this other area where there´s a big sidewalk type thing that is about 2 meters above the ocean and sort of goes out into the ocean past the beach, but its still attached to lland. It´s pretty hard to describe, but anyway, there were waves that were around 4 meters tall, it was insane.. But very beautiful.
School started too, and since everything is taught in Euskara (basque language) for the most part I´ve been pretty confused. I was put into a few classes with kids that failed the class or need more attention, which is pretty helpful, but at the same time the kids are a ot louder and rowdier, so it´s harder to focus. Then again, the work is easier, so there´s a balance. My teachers have been pretty accomodating. I have two textbooks that are in Castillian instead of Euskara and a few of them talk to me in Castillian too. Overall, it´s not so bad, but we´ll have to see how things go in the next few weeks, as I´ve only had 4 days of school. Of course, English is pretty boring for me, but I suppose I couldn´t expect anything better.
I had my first AFS orientation yesterday. It was in Bilbao (an hour´s drive, but after the 6 hour bus drive from Madrid to San Sebastian, it seemed like nothing). I didn´t get to see a lot of the city, but there´s plenty of time for that. The orientation itself was just about going over the rules (for the 50th time, but that shows how important they really are) and talking a little bit about first impressions. After we were introduced to our ¨tutors¨ (liasons, aka the AFS volunteer that we can contact at any time for help or questions or problems etc) we went downstairs and we got to talk to eachother (the AFSers to eachother and the host parents as well). I talked to a girl from Canada for a while who live in San Sebastian, and we ended up getting along pretty well, so I think we´ll probably spend some time together in the future (its a 10 minute train ride, so its pretty convenient).
As for the everyday things, I can pretty much understand everything people say in Castillian, except when they talk reallly really quickly, which I guess is a lot of the time. The food is great and I don´t mind the different mealtimes. Everybody spends time in the living room and not too much time on the computer. With that said, the world cup of basketball final is on right now, and it´s the first time Turkey is in the final (Turkey vs. USA). I´m going to watch it with my host father, so I´ll write more next week.
Anyway, there´s so much to tell, I probably won´t be able to share everything.. I´ve been to San Sebastian 3 or 4 times (I can´t exactly remember right now) and it´s a very very beautiful city. We went to watch the waves crashing against the beach and this other area where there´s a big sidewalk type thing that is about 2 meters above the ocean and sort of goes out into the ocean past the beach, but its still attached to lland. It´s pretty hard to describe, but anyway, there were waves that were around 4 meters tall, it was insane.. But very beautiful.
School started too, and since everything is taught in Euskara (basque language) for the most part I´ve been pretty confused. I was put into a few classes with kids that failed the class or need more attention, which is pretty helpful, but at the same time the kids are a ot louder and rowdier, so it´s harder to focus. Then again, the work is easier, so there´s a balance. My teachers have been pretty accomodating. I have two textbooks that are in Castillian instead of Euskara and a few of them talk to me in Castillian too. Overall, it´s not so bad, but we´ll have to see how things go in the next few weeks, as I´ve only had 4 days of school. Of course, English is pretty boring for me, but I suppose I couldn´t expect anything better.
I had my first AFS orientation yesterday. It was in Bilbao (an hour´s drive, but after the 6 hour bus drive from Madrid to San Sebastian, it seemed like nothing). I didn´t get to see a lot of the city, but there´s plenty of time for that. The orientation itself was just about going over the rules (for the 50th time, but that shows how important they really are) and talking a little bit about first impressions. After we were introduced to our ¨tutors¨ (liasons, aka the AFS volunteer that we can contact at any time for help or questions or problems etc) we went downstairs and we got to talk to eachother (the AFSers to eachother and the host parents as well). I talked to a girl from Canada for a while who live in San Sebastian, and we ended up getting along pretty well, so I think we´ll probably spend some time together in the future (its a 10 minute train ride, so its pretty convenient).
As for the everyday things, I can pretty much understand everything people say in Castillian, except when they talk reallly really quickly, which I guess is a lot of the time. The food is great and I don´t mind the different mealtimes. Everybody spends time in the living room and not too much time on the computer. With that said, the world cup of basketball final is on right now, and it´s the first time Turkey is in the final (Turkey vs. USA). I´m going to watch it with my host father, so I´ll write more next week.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The start of it all
It´s been a while since I´ve updated this blog, and a lot has changed since then. On the 1st of September, my adventure began. My dad and I drove to the AFS orientation in New York City and I spent the night there with all the other AFS kids leaving from the airport there. I got to know the kids going to Spain (of course), France, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey. On September 2nd, all 31 kids going to Spain were dropped off at the airport in New York City and after checking all of our luggage and passing through security, we were on our own. We managed to handle everything smoothly and soon enough, we were on the airplane, off to start our exchange in Spain. At the orientation in Madrid, we met all of the kids from other countries coming to Spain as well and talked as much as we could for the day that we were together. Around midnight, most kids went to bed. The few of us that couldn´t sleep or didn´t want to went outside to talk to the volunteers. At around two, I was the only student left. For the most part, I listened to the volunteers (most of them under 25 years old, I think) as they talked in Castillian, but I did manage to talk in English for a while with a volunteer from the Basque Country, which is where I was headed. Two of the volunteers and I actually stayed up all night talking about their experiences, my worries, etc.
Of course, the next day arrived and we all parted, each of us taking a bus to our respective parts of the country. I went on the bus to San Sebastian with one other girl going to live in the city and one volunteer that helped us with everything.
We arrived in San Sebastian 6 hours later, and so the exchange began...
Of course, the next day arrived and we all parted, each of us taking a bus to our respective parts of the country. I went on the bus to San Sebastian with one other girl going to live in the city and one volunteer that helped us with everything.
We arrived in San Sebastian 6 hours later, and so the exchange began...
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