A Visit to Granada

I recently, as in a matter of minutes ago, returned home from a 8 day visit to Granada with the host family. Now the actual visit itself was actually only 6 days long because it took a whole day to drive there and another whole day to drive back!

Just to give you an idea. 

First of all road tripping across Spain is really one of the coolest possible road trips you could ever go on! Its literally mountains one second, desert the next, and then a perfect sea side view the next! I tried to take pictures, but they did the terrain NO justice. Here are some better pictures courtesy of Google.

More or less.

These kinds of tunnels are very common here!

More or less again.

Also while driving through Spain you get to see a lot of older, ruins-type buildings that we simply don't have in New York.

So in Granada we stayed in an apartment that my host family has in addition to their home here in Castelldefels. We spent the majority of the time there with Ana Maria's family who were all so nice! 

One day we spent in the actual city of Granada we visited the Alhambra.The Alhambra is basically what Granada is known for here in Spain. It is the ruins of a HUGE fortress / palace complete with gardens and fountains! Again these aren't my photo's, they're Google's.

And then another day we went back into the city just to do a bit of wandering and shopping.

So ya! Nothing overly exciting, just a lot of new sights seen and people met!

If you are wondering why I didn't post about Christmas, it is because here in Spain Christmas is not a very big deal, at least not in my family. We had Christmas Eve or Noche Buena which was basically just a huge dinner, and then we slept in the next day. "Christmas" comes on January 6th and is called Three Kings Day. So I will keep you all posted on that when the day comes! As for right now, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!

T'was the Weekend Before Christmas Break

Let's start it all off with Friday!!!

Friday I had a pretty quiet night at home. Unfortunately the internet went out for a little while of that time, so I had to improvise and find something fun and creative today, seeing as no one else was home yet, so I made a VideoStar to Friday by Rebecca Black by myself. So that was about it for a successful Friday. Afterwards just had a low-key dinner with Emma and Ana since the rents were a working.

Saturday, by far the best day of the weekend. Saturday was an early one and started with me waking up at 8:30ish to catch a train to Barcelona. Not gonna lie, it was pretty difficult to get myself up that morning after such a jam packed Friday.... ha! Anyway, caught a train got a little lost with another AFSer (seeing as we were on our way to an AFS event it was obviously easier to travel with each other to have a kind of moral support if (more like when) we got lost. So after almost boarding a train to Madrid, that was a close one, we found the metro line we needed and were off to meet the others. 

When we arrived we were expecting to just sit around and talk like we had done at all of the other AFS "camps", but surprisingly, we found ourselves in the heart of the city counting off numbers and being paired up for a city wide scavenger hunt! We made signs, were assigned eggs that we needed to protect (still not sure what the point of that one was), and our first clue. Soon we, my partner Mattia from Italy and I, found ourselves racing off to the first stop the Columbus statue by the bay. While answering the questions and taking the appropriate pictures for the first challenge we noticed a very official magazine shoot going on behind us. So if you see a magazine ad or TV commercial of a bunch of men in suits with umbrellas by the Columbus statue in Barcelona just know that I was there. 

Next we walked three legged style through Barcelona while asking random people along the way for directions to our next destination which I cannot remember what it was now, but I do remember it was not easy to find! When we finally got there we were allowed to remove the tap from our legs, but then got one of each of our arms taped together. So now looking like some sort of runaways from a prison that couldn't afford handcuffs we were off to the large "berlin" or manger display in another part of Barcelona. For the sake of winning the scavenger hunt, and fitting the role of prison breakaways, we cut the ENORMOUS line by walking in through the exit to take a quick picture, while getting death stares from parents holding three year old's who had been waiting in the proper line for a very long time (I felt like you on the Zebra Mari ;) ). 

After getting our picture we were off to the next place which was some sort of church thing. I should mention that every time we reached the next destination there would most likely be an AFS volunteer waiting in the proximity, not always completely visible. So my partner and I are looking around like idiots (we were usually the firsts ones there, not bragging or anything, just stating the facts) while these volunteers were quietly watching in hysterics until we finally saw them. They would continue to cry with laughter as we scrambled around looking for people to help us answer the questions from our little envelopes before we could get the next clue. Keep in mind that our arms are still taped together, and unless you have ever walked through a city with your arms / legs taped together you should know that this is an EXTREMELY difficult task, especially during a Saturday, during the holiday season. 

When we finally got the information we needed, we got the next clue and an apple. Now, in addition to completing the next little mission thing, we needed to find someone and exchange this apple for something, literally anything else. So as we were walking through these very narrow side streets looking for the next destination I pointed out a random little shop to go to and try our luck at exchanging our apple for something. The man working at this little boutique was very, very nice and let us choose from a bowl of spare buttons and rings and stuff in exchange for our apple. It was so cool and a little strange to me that we were able to walk into a random shop and not even buy anything, simply trade an apple for something random, and have the shop keeper be so accommodating!   

By now Mattia and I were feeling pretty proud of ourselves and were off to our next stop which was simply to take a picture in a very specific spot in front of the opera house. Boom, done, onto the next one... except there was no volunteer there to guide us to the next spot. So eventually a bunch of the other AFS participants are arriving to this place and we are just a massive group waiting in a very central location location for someone to show up and tell us what to do next. So what does a large group like this do when they are waiting around? Sit in the middle of the street and start having a little picnic of course! I mean we are literally like 15 - 20 kids just chilling on the side walk in the middle of everything! 

Finally, after about 15 minutes and half a bar of fudge, a volunteer shows up and asks who was here first. My partner and I, although definitely not the first to show up, race over to the volunteer and act like we were. He tells us the next challenge is to find someone that speaks one of our native languages and bring them back to him. THANK GOD I AM AMERICAN! Saw some teens about my age, maybe a little older (hint if you are ever in a scavenger hunt situation like this one always go for the young ones, they're the nice ones) and boom they were Canadian, spoke English, on to the next one baby!

We open the envelope and it mentions La Rambla Drinking Fountain, BOOM know where that one is! First ones there, drink the water, take a pic next challenge. This next challenge, our worst challenge by far! We had to explain to some stranger what AFS is. Now come on guys! Who, while walking through Barcelona, wants to be bothered by a couple of teens trying to explain a program to you for the sake of winning a game!? No one! We were literally stuck on this challenge for like a good 20 minutes. Finally I just pick out this random girl on the other side of the street and we go for it (again she was a teen, always go for the young ones). So we start to explain, and she mentions she is waiting for the bus, no biggy we think. Well as we are explaining what the program is we literally see the bus coming around the corner and start to panic. We still haven't finished explaining and we still need to show the volunteer that the person we explained the program to is in fact a real person and not just someone we made up to win the game.

*Its worth mentioning that throughout the process of finding someone to talk to quite a few characters walked by and the volunteers kept saying "OK if you explain AFS to that guy you will automatically win the entire game", I am talking STRANGE people. This one guy was riding his bike and yelling random phrases to the world and another was a full on hippy. Needless to say, we missed these two opportunities and our last hope was the girl who was about to leave.* 

So we wrap up our little speak, start jumping up and down waving our hands around like lunatics (by this point our arms are free) and just get their attention and approval in the nick of time. Next challenge, take a picture with the stair statue in the Plaza de Catalunya. Done. One more challenge they say, and they pull out another bag of apples. This final challenge is apparently a typical one of Catalunya. The rules were, you and your partner must eat this apple, at the same time, without using your hands. I was lucky enough to only have one partner for this challenge, while others struggled to try and get all three people to eat one apple at the same time. And just like that, our epic Barcelona scavenger hunt was over. However, Saturday was far from it.

After this we all headed to a little studio type room and had a dinner / meeting / presentation of food from out home countries, explaining Christmas traditions from each country, singing a Christmas song from each of our countries, and finally answering the questions of the AFS 2014-2015 exchange students (crazy that I am even at the point where I can explain my experience as an exchange student and start to help these guys prepare for their time! I remember when that was me with Emma and her exchange student friends!) . As always I met some really nice new people and was hopefully a help to them and all their questions.

After this meeting and eating way too much, Emma, Roman, Ana Maria and I headed back to Castelldefels, were my social life was about to continue. Once home, I was out of the house basically as soon as I had gotten into it and of to this cool like cafe type place called "+ +" (Mas Mas). It is basically the Spanish equivalent to Red Hooks Taste Buds except cooler with just dance projected on a wall, a pool table, bean bags and just cool stuff! 

Here the dance kids / theatre people / people in general were throwing a surprise going away party for one of their own, who is off to Dubai for the next three years. Kind of makes my ten months look like a joke, but hey who says life is a competition!? It was just really fun and super cute. It was completely unexpected and super emotional! I actually really felt like a part of a family! It didn't matter that I had only known this guy for two months and that we had barely even spoken to each other, he was just as considerate and appreciative to my showing up as he was to his very best friends. Its the little moments and human interactions like that, that make you realize that the human race is really just one big team. 

After a whole bunch of pictures, videos and laughs had been shared the dance crew and I headed out. By now it was midnight and I was beat! Despite the hour my friends were going to go hang out at the boardwalk and meet up with the rest of the crew still at + + later and they asked me to come along too. However I knew I knew i had a some what early morning the next day and I really wanted to catch up on my sleep after such a long day, so we parted was, but only after my friends made sure that we would hang out by the boardwalk a bunch of times before I leave for the U.S. again, and honestly, I could not be more excited to go out with them!

Sunday!

Nothing too exciting took place on Sunday. Emma and Ana's school was hosting a little like school community day so the whole fam went to check that out. Afterwards all of us except for Emma headed home for some lunch. Ana and I played some Wii and..... before I knew it, it was Monday!

So there you have it, my super fun and exciting weekend (more like Saturday!) and hereeee are some pictures!

Cutting the line to take a picture with the pooping man called a Caganer. A Caganer is a Catalan tradition. It is a little figurine of a pooping man that is normally hid among the manger setting or "berlin" as they say in Spain. (You can't tell but at this point our arms are taped together).



This is where we patiently sat and waited with the other AFSers while waiting for our next challenge! (See the tape?)

This is La Rambla Drinking Fountain. Folklore says that if you drink from this fountain you will always return to the city. This fountain is also known as the place where the Barcelona soccer team celebrates after a big win! (And our arms are free at last!)



Wish I had some pictures of the going away party to show you, but that's all for now folks!

Happy Holidays!

100 Days Away From Home

Bare with me here! 

One hundred days ago today I woke up with the biggest butterflies in my stomach in my entire life! I was up at 6:30 to see my little sister off to her first day of high school, and trying my hardest to brace myself for a year without constantly seeing her in the halls making faces at one another, stopping to have a whole conversation in a few short words like only sisters can, and most importantly to us both, a year without performing by her side in the school play. 

Today marks 101 days since I last saw my best friends. Having dinner together. Digging through my closet to stake their claim on whats theirs for the ten months I would be gone, and sharing last minute gifts, words of advice, and just plain gossip before we wouldn't be able to do it all for a year.

Today marks 100 days since I last saw my parents. Now you can't imagine how hard this goodbye was unless your have lived through it yourself. Sorry college goers, this goodbye is by far ten times harder to get through and comprehend. And yet my perfect parents were able to keep it together for me, because before arriving to the hotel I made them promise no tears. It's funny, because when I pictured the moment ahead of time I imagined that I would have some sort of feeling, like I was finally ready to face the world on my own and it wouldn't really phase me that they were leaving me for ten months because I would be so wrapped up in excitement that I wouldn't even feel a thing. But I was wrong. Watching the two of them walk out of those sliding doors without me was the hardest thing I have ever done. All I wanted to do was run up to them like, "Hey aren't you forgetting something? ME!" But I was off, on my own, for 10 long months without them. And trying to understand this was quite literally impossible.

However, by the gift of God almost the second I walked into the hotel that day, after signing in and what not, two wonderful people Caroline and Victoria came up to me and asked "Hey are you Emily? We're roommates!" And just like that I knew I was in the right place and that this was the right thing for me! 

Since that unforgettable day I have grown, matured, achieved and changed so much! 

I have learned to come out of my shell! Don't sweat the small stuff! Let things go! Thing happen for a reason, if one door closes a million more are about to open! Quit judging people! Give everything a chance! Not being busy 24 / 7 is not the end of the world! Put yourself out there! You only regret the things you didn't do! And most importantly time goes on, so don't wish you life away!

When I first came here, 100 days seemed like FOREVER, but looking back on it now I feel like I just got here a week ago! I have seen and done so much in my time here so far and I am so lucky to have the time I have left! 

Now that I have gotten that off my chest on to the fun stuff!

I am sooooo looking forward to this weekend! I have my first AFS orientation since OCTOBER (it reallllllly does not seem like that long ago!) and I am pumped! We are having a multicultural dinner where each student is to bring a food from his or her native country. I am making chicken cutlets, which is the most American food I could come up with cause if ya really think about it, do we Americans have a particular food that is simply all american? So not only am I looking forward to the food, but also to seeing the other AFSers. Its true what they say, exchange students are the coolest kids you will ever meet! The time spent with them just goes by so quickly. Plus at these orientations I get to see Victoria, yes the same girl that came up to me that very first day at the hotel. We have roomed together, traveled together and grown together and I simply would not have it any other way!

Tomorrow night after this little event I have even more plans! Which I will tell you about afterwards because I don't know if its suppose to be a surprise or not. And then a family day Sunday doing something that I simply can not remember, but will tell you all about when I have time!

So, on this 100th day anniversary of my leaving the USA I would like to assure you all that I am truly having a fantastic time, the language is coming along, and I miss you all. Thank you so much for keeping in contact with me and sending me letters! It truly makes my day! Love you all and see you in less than 200 days (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?!?)  

100 Days of Memories

100 Days of Memories

The Latest Goings On

Ever since the start of November time has just been whizzing on by! Thanksgiving has come and gone, my mom is helping make my schedule for my senior year of high school, and Christmas is just around the corner. So has time flown by or what!?!?

Anyway there have been a few exciting things that have gone down in my life since I last posted. Some of them are small and insignificant, but I figure you may get a kick out of them, so here we go!

First of all, the other day Emma invited me to go with her friends to see Catching Fire (here its called "En Llamas" which means "in names" totally different but going on) and I obviously said yes! So Emma, Ana Maria and I were in the car, on our way to the train station to meet up with the rest of Emma's friends and walk to the mall, when we saw these black figures running along side the road. Emma pulled out her phone and told me to quickly do the same so we could prove that we saw wild pigs running alongside the road. No I am not joking, actual pigs were right there out in the streets of Castelldefels. I guess if you leave the Pine Plains life, the Pine Plains life comes to find you! So that was something!

Next up on the list, the other night Ana, Ana Maria, Roman and I walked into town to run some little errands and stuff. As we were walking we heard some drums in the distance. Technology savvy Roman whipped out his phone and showed us that tonight there was going to be some little festivities in town at 7 o'clock. So we walked around a bit, went out for hot chocolate, and found our way into the time square where things were coming alive. There was a Christmas tree with lights and lights all over the buildings in town and it was just so incredibly comforting to see a custom so familiar to me being displayed in town, just like home. But this wasn't all Castelldefels had in store for tonight. 

We walked over to a gathering crowd in front of the church and there is a parade of sorts about to begin. However, this is no ordinary parade. There are a bunch of people in strange coats holding marshmallow sticks with something stuck onto the top. They huddle into a circle and a man lights their sticks on fire and things go crazy. Stuck to the ends of these sticks, are fireworks. Not only that, but once these things are lit and going off, these guys just spin around in circles, not having a care in the world where they are going or where their sticks are flying off to. 

So that was a bit unexpected, but very cool all the same. This went on for about six more groups, pretty much doing the exact same thing with intense drumming in between each set. For the grand finally a man / woman in an elaborate dragon suit came out with fireworks on both its mouth and tail. Once the dragon is lit, this person just starts spinning around like a maniac getting pretty close to the crowd, but successfully remaining on their its feet (which if you saw the size of the thing, says a lot!). As we were walking away Ana Maria explained to me that each group was from a different town near by, and for some unknown reason, people who live in the district of Catalunya, simply like to have parties or festivals that involve playing with fire. Fun stuff!

Last up we have probably the least exciting for you, but something pretty exciting for me! This past week, and the rest of this three day school week ahead of us has been final tests for the first school trimester. Here, this week is a HUGE deal! These grades count for something like 70% of your over all grade for the trimester and kids just go ballistic about these tests. So, to be honest, I haven't really been taking these tests too seriously because my grades don't really count here. So we have begun to receive some of the grades for these tests and I am (for an exchange student, or just out of any student here) actually doing pretty well!

Teachers are really tough graders here and it is like IMPOSSIBLE to get a 10 (100%) in anything so I am going to tell you my grades thus far, and the American equivalent. (PS a 5 is technically speaking the equivalent of a 50%, however you only need a 5 to pass here so for my purposes a 5 is going to be the equivalent of a 65% OK? OK!)

CMC (Contemporary Sciences) - 5 overall (65%)

Math - 7.45 on the final (or something like that, we aren't allow to keep our tests here) (83%)

Philosophy - 5.4 on the final (71% and better than majority of the class, AND in Catalan)

And here are some pictures of a quick trip to Tarragona, the second largest (after Barcelona) out of the four largest cities in Catalunya. Emma had a volleyball game here so we decided to do a bit of walking around before the game started.

The Mediterranean Sea

There it is again.

The ruins of an old Roman castle.

El Teatro

This past Saturday evening was the second and last night of the musical Dracula here in Spain. I had an absolute blast dancing along side a bunch of extremely skilled dancers and actors and I am going to do my best to take you back with me and relive it!

I started dancing at the Escuela Preforming Arts here in Castelldefels at about the start of October I think, and I instantly felt a part of something great. Lucky for me we actually started learning a brand new dance the day I began, and from the very start of the dance I could tell that it was going to be very different than anything I had ever done before. 

First of all, these guys learn fast I mean we learn a full dance in one night! And this is no normal Hip-Hop class, this is Street Dance. I mean, obviously by the name of the class I knew this before I began, but I didn't expect it to be so different! The closest thing I can relate it to is the dancing in the flash mobs of Step Up 4 Revolution. It is fantastic, and incredibly challenging! 

Anyway, a week or two later I learned that this dance routine would be in a full on theatrical show. Not only that, but I would also be added into dances that these guys had already been practicing for weeks (super intimidating) as well as learning others with the full crew, and perfecting these dances within 4-5 weeks time for opening night. I mean we were literally learning some of these dances two weeks before the show! It was madness of the very best kind! 

And of course what is a show without tech week? Oh did we have tech week! Literally getting to the theatre at 6 on some days, 8 on others and 9 on others, and always leaving at 12. Yes that is 12 on school nights for a week and a half straight, doing the exact same show over and over again, and yet it never got boring! There was always something new and exciting or unexpected thrown into the mix each night. Dracula was undoubtedly a success, even if we didn't fill every single seat in the theatre, I believe that doing a show is only 40% for the audience and 60% for the performers! 

Here are some pictures to take you through it all!

The Theatre 

The Transformation Pt. 1

The Transformation Pt. 2

The Transformation Pt. 3

The Crew Pt. 1

The Crew Pt. 2

Now we are back to learning new dances for fun and man is it hard! However it is so exciting as well, and these guys just make it 10x more enjoyable! I am so proud to be a part of this crew! 

The Week at a Glance

Monday:

Just a normal day of school and afterwards STARTING at about 9 o'clock PM I had dance. This week I had dance everyday at about this time because it was the equivalent of tech week here! I love theater here (not necessarily more or less than theater at home, I try not to compare things here with things at home because they are simply two entirely different things). The people are so incredibly nice and I swear you step onto that stage and there is no other care in the world beside the part you're playing, which in my case happened to be a vampire.

*Side bar* Being a vampire is A LOT harder than you would think! I have a new found respect for the actors of Twilight, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, etc cause man, it is not easy to pretend to me a vicious man eating monster hissing at one another without bursting out laughing!

Tuesday: 

Another normal school day, another long tech day from about 9-12:30, yes that is on a school night and that is the time I finished, I didn't get home until about another 10-15 minutes later! But I didn't mind because these people, I swear are just so darn fun! Being that it was tech week, we were able to sit in the crowd and watch scenes that we weren't in and this small crowd got a little rowdy! For example, since this show is an original (I think) created by the director herself, the songs are not written specifically for the show, but actual popular songs of the past in present. In addition, some songs are even in English. 

Back to getting rowdy... at one point in the show Dracula sings, You Sexy Thing (I Believe in Miracles), with his male "assistant", which I am sure you can imagine to start with. Add on top of that, a Spanish accent, the fact that this male assistant is similar to an experiment gone wrong so throughout the show he is constantly twitching and jerking around, AND THEN just multiply that by 10! It is just fantastic, and since there are only two of them in this number, the rest of us were sitting in the audience laughing along having a good time. All of a sudden a bra is thrown on stage. We LOSE it then! So there is just one example of the many fun and interesting things that happens in the theater here. Not too different from NY I might add.

Wednesday:

We had a school field trip to a little tourist town, two train stops away called Sitges. Here we were allowed to walk the streets, look around, then later we went to the movies to see a movie in English. Yay for being able to understand the entire movie. However, we went to see "The Beasts of the Southern Wild"which I mean was good and all, but the entire movie was spoken in southern slang, not at all proper English and if the whole point was to see a movie in English..... I'm just saying it wouldn't be my top choice! Anyway, since the movie ended at about 12:30 we all returned in Castelldefels at around 1 and were allowed to go home from there. Teatro later as usual, then sleep at last!

Thursday: 

Regular old school. Then theater with makeup, fake teeth, the works for dress rehearsal. All went smoothly, but the nerves of others definitely started to kick in. Me? Not sure why, but I wasn't nervous at all! Maybe it was the fact that I wouldn't really know anyone that would be sitting in the audience, besides my host family of course, who would happen to be sitting front an center of it all! So yep, all went swimmingly and the 24 hour countdown began 'til show time!

Friday: 

School was a bit different on Friday. In the grade above me, each student had their own huge research project to do and each student in my grade chose three presentations they wanted to see, and once those three presentations were over, we were allowed to leave school. I watch one presentation on some sort of cancer like diseases (I was lost OK, the classes were all different and I couldn't find my friends so I saw someone I knew and followed them into a classroom and this was what the presentation was about. The girl did a fantastic job, I might add!). Another presentation on disorders of how one sees themselves, for example eating disorders, working out until your skin is literally about to burst, all things about self image wrapped into one 40 minute or so presentation. The last presentation I saw was about Hip-Hop as a culture. After this was all over, my friends and I went to the mall just to look around. And wouldn't ya know it, I didn't buy a thing. Later, I gathered my things together and headed off to the theater to start preparing for show time! Here are some photo's and video clips of the stage and during and after the show. (Hope they work!)

Sha-La-La

Time Warp (Spanish Version)

Saturday: 

Saturday was pretty low key. I slept pretty late, since I had a late night before! (^^The show started at 10 PM^^) Then Roman, Ana and I went to the nearby mall so I could buy a birthday present for a get together I had later that night. When we returned to the house the three of us played some pretty intense rounds of Mario Kart, and lets just say, living in another country has NOT affected my racing skills ;) . 

Later I walked to the meeting place for this little birthday get together. I wasn't sure what to expect and I was a little nervous at first, because I don't know if you can understand unless you have been in this situation, but meeting and socializing with people, especially new people, in a different language is EXTREMELY nerve wracking! There are just so many things to worry about! If they will talk to you at all. If they do, will they be patient with you, or just walk away when they get bored. Will they try to speak in English with you, and then you will have to awkwardly explain to them that even though you don't know Spanish very well, it is really important to only speak in Spanish, because that is the only way you will learn. Well, I got lucky! There was a girl from my class there who I had never really talked to before and she came right on over to me and we talked the whole time! We talked about travel, Christmas, all sorts of things, and she never got bored! She even said that I was a better Spanish speaker than most other exchange students she had met in the past. Now, this compliment is nothing out of the ordinary. I am not saying that to sound cocky, its just that the Spanish people are always so nice and encouraging with one another and this is just a typical compliment of theirs'. In reality, it means a lot! It's just a little reminder that some people do admire your bravery of stepping out of your comfort zone and trying to learn something completely new, so thanks guys! (Americans are really nice too, but I don't think we openly express our compliments as much. We should! When I get home I am definitely bringing that trait back with me!) 

Not done with Saturday yet! So the birthday celebration included us walking to the mall, sitting at McDonalds, taking LOADS of pictures (taking pictures here is like a huge thing, like these people probably spend more time taking selfies than the average person spends breathing! Then we went upstairs, and sat like little rednecks in a corner lit candles on a cake and literally ate it off the cardboard pieces from the candles. It was pretty darn classy! OK, brace yourself, still not done with Saturday. So after walking home from the mall, we ate some dinner as a family and then some of Emma's friends came over as well as their exchange students (I forgot to mention that we have a sixth member of the family this week because Emma is doing an exchange with the Canary Islands through her school this year). We played some more Mario Kart, and some poker. Luckily we only use dry beans because I am AWFUL at this game! We called it a night around 1ish maybe 2, not quite sure, but Emma's friends left and I went to bed and was out like a light in now time!

Sunday: 

Sunday started a bit early, 10:45ish with Ana Maria bring churros home from work! Emma, Carla (our exchange student), Ana Maria and I went to town on them churros! Afterwards we got dressed and headed to Emma's volleyball game. However, Emma is currently injured and can't play, so we all watched and cheered together! After the game we went out to eat. We went to a little Japanese restaurant, where I ate, you guessed it, Japanese food for the first time! Fun fact: Although I know Chinese food and Japanese food is different, its pretty similar, anyway, in the US my dad doesn't like Chinese food, and here in Spain Roman doesn't like Japanese food. See where I am going with this?! My families are basically clones!!!! 

Alright so we ate the Japanese food family style, ordering lots of plates and sharing everything, and it was really good! Afterwards, we headed back to the house. Emma and Carla hopped a train to Barcelona, and I headed off to dance to practice, yet again, for the upcoming show Saturday. Dance was great of course, but I since I was at dance, I unfortunately missed the invitation from Emma to go to the movies with them to see "We're the Millers", a movie that I have literally been waiting to see since before I came here, so that was a bit of a bummer. However, it's just a movie, I can see it some other time. Ana, Ana Maria, Roman, and I had dinner together of pasta and meat sauce, and now, we are just chillin' on the couch watching New Moon.

So ya, there is my week in a nutshell! To wrap this up on a slightly different note, tomorrow marks the 25% mark of this wonderful journey of my Spanish life! (I am reading your thoughts as you're reading this mom ;) but ya know what, :P !) So there ya have it! Time does go by and I am thoroughly looking forward to the time I have left here! It's just always nice to know how much you have already accomplished! Lot's of love! Have a nice week! Love Emily!

A Nudge in the Right Direction

Let me start this little post off by saying, before I came here yes I was a believer  in God, but not to the extent of most in my family and church family. I was more of the kind who questioned and challenged the validity of the bible and the right and wrong in every situation. HOWEVER, through my travels so far here in Spain I have, without a doubt, discovered God. The God who does in fact have a plan and purpose for my life. The God that has blessed me with so many wonderful people, experiences and love in my life. And the the God that will guide me safely back home to my family in June.When you are so incredibly far away from everything you have ever known and life seems impossible, this is how you truly find God.

Along those lines, today in school God sent me a message. I know it sounds cliche, but hear me out!

Today in English class a boy, about 19 or 20 years old came in to do a little presentation. Lets just say it was another sign / blessing that this presentation was in English! This guy, about a year or two ago, was just a regular high school student like anyone his age. One day, he decided he didn't want to waste his youth in a school and live the life of the ordinary so he simply stopped going to school. After some time of playing video games and sitting around thinking about what he wanted to do with his life he, literally, went out, bought a backpack and WALKED, alone,  from one end of Spain to the other. When he returned he decided he wanted to do some more traveling, but didn't have the funds to do it. So he went off to a small country to the east of Italy, alone, and worked as a waiter for eight months to earn the money he needed. He then bought a bike, biked around some of Europe, hopped onto a boat and returned to his home in Spain for a second time.

As if this wasn't enough, the boy decided to do MORE but, again, needed the money to do so. So he did some research online, hoped onto a plane and worked as a nurse in Ghana, yes that is Ghana, Africa, for two months. Once he completed his nursing time there, he returned to Spain, bought a new bike cause some jerkface stole his, and rode from Spain to Germany then down to Greece and hoped another boat and arrived in Spain yet again. And this was all over the course of TWO YEARS! 

Now I was feeling a bit down before this presentation today (cause that's just what happens when you are an exchange student, you have your ups and your downs) and as if I was ready for a break. Ready to crawl into bed and wait for a vacation or for the day to come that I would fly home and just continue my perfectly normal life in New York, but this guy made me realize how many people wish they could go on an exchange or do something extraordinary with their teenage years. He showed me that this time is truly the only time you have to do these crazy things before you get stuck in the routine of an ordinary life and wish you had done something like this in your youth, but I am doing it now. It took me awhile to realize it, but I am strong, brave, and I will NEVER regret this experience for as long as I live. In the future I will look back on this trip with such pride for completing something so few have actually done.

There will always be the questions, "Do you miss your family?", "Why are you living here when your are from New York?", and just why in general. Here are the answers to your "whys", plan and simple. I believe that through missing your family more than you ever imagined was possible will help you appreciate them and every little thing they do for you when you are finally reunited and once again in their arms. I believe it doesn't matter where you go, but the fact that you can prove to yourself, and others that you have the courage and the strength to just pick up and literally form a new life from scratch in a place that is new and uncomfortable to you, is an experience everyone should have the opportunity to witness. And I believe WHY to do this at all, is to be the change you want to see in the world. Be an inspiration to others and simply live life to the fullest!

Going into this post I didn't intend to transform into some motivational speaker, but ya know what that is what was on my mind and I just felt like sharing! Plus by not only experiencing my physical experiences vicariously through this blog, but also my mental experiences, just helps you understand on a deeper level what it is like to be an exchange student. Also, to appreciate the weight of the finish line when I finally cross it, out of that gate in the airport, and right back into the best thing I have ever known, my family. 

Here are some pictures of the latest and greatest from Spain.

The large fountain found in Parc de la Ciutadella.

Ana, Ana, Me, Emma

Emma, Me, Ana, Ana

A picnic in the park.

A giant statue at el Centro Cultural in Barcelona.

Birthday, Halloween, & Finishing October

Happy November!

I know it may sound strange, but there is no greater feeling than accomplishing another month as an exchange student. As of now I have officially lived two months away from my family (torture) and have eight months full of potential left to go (which doesn't sound that long to me to be honest). 

Let's start off with my birthday! My birthday celebration started right off the bat at 12:15 AM on October 30th with a Skype call to my family! They sang to me and held up a cupcake with a 1 and a 6 candle and we took a family photo and blew out the candles together and it was literally the cutest thing ever! I love my family so much! After that I opened the package they had sent me. Inside was, a t-shirt from Digitour that I unfortunately missed because I was here (love that shirt by the way!!!! Thanks guys!), a silver necklace with a silver pendant of flowers with an inscription on the back saying Happy 16th Birthday, and 2 packages of Pringles! Oh and I forgot to mention, they sent a crown with 16 written on it that I wore throughout this whole Skype call! We basically could have been in a scene of a movie it was just that cute!

After the skype call, I went to bed and woke up to part two of the birthday celebration! I woke up to find a link sent from my sister in my inbox. I had been warned of a birthday surprise coming my way by her before, but this video topped ALL and ANY of my expectations. If you haven't seen it yet here is the link. Its a must watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyzn-S5CmcM&app=desktop When I got to school the kids there were exactly like how they would be in the U.S. They sang to me in the middle of a lesson, and then for the rest of the day repeatedly wished me a happy birthday! 

When I got home from school I had a nice lunch with Emma and Ana who were off from school for the week. During lunch I opened cards and packages sent from the rest of my friends and family! After lunch we played  Monopoly. We called it a 3 way tie because we had to leave half way through. Before we left, Emma, Ana, and Roman presented me with a gift. It was a like a cable knit sweater with a preppy blue button up underneath! So excited to wear that and so glad it was winter clothes, because I didn't really think to pack much of those.We left to go to the movies and see Elyssium which just gives you an idea how delayed some of the movie releases are here. However, its a bit strange because some movies come out before the U.S., some the same time, and some late. Not sure how that works, but I do know that We Are the Millers is about to come out here and Emma and I are soooooo excited! Sorry a bit off topic...

After Elyssium we went to dinner at Hollywood Fosters for an American meal. I had a fantastic cheese burger with fries, so that was exciting! During dinner Emma and I realized that the table next to us, a table of like 4 college aged boys, were definitely exchange students, talking in English to each other and Spanish to the waitress, as all exchange students do. Now we didn't introduce ourselves or anything, saying we were exchange students as well or anything. Instead we eaves dropped on their conversation for awhile hearing them say things like, "Wait what did we even order?". Emma and Roman, being the hilarious human beings they are, plotted things to say like "Oh you like horse meat too?" or "That's a great choice, the rat here is just fantastic!" Fortunately for the boys, we left before their food arrived. 

We skipped dessert at the restaurant  because waiting at home was a personalized cake with a 1 and 6 candle on top! They sang to me and then had me cut the cake, which I wasn't even half bad at! Ana skipped the cake because like Mari she just doesn't like it. Can we take a moment  to recognize that Mari and Ana have scarily similar mannerisms ? The other day I walked into the kitchen, there's Ana laying on the floor. It is the greatest thing to see some sort of bridge shared between two of my sisters. 

After cake it was bed time and the birthday celebration was over. It was a great, low key day, and I have got to say I am now relieved of two things.

1. The stress of throwing a Sweet Sixteen

2. Getting through my first (and DEFINITELY my last) birthday away from my family.

They say your birthday and Christmas are the two main lows during your exchange and I have successfully made it through one without a having a hard time!

Halloween.

Let me start off by saying that I have never been a huge Halloween fan. Sure its a nice excuse to eat a lot of candy and spend a late night with your friends, but I didn't think it was going to be something I was going to miss. Well I was wrong. I will officially be going trick-or-treating for the rest of my life because I am an American, and America, EVERYONE all over the world is jealous of trick-or-treating and I am going to use and abuse it for the rest of my life just to rub it in their faces!

Anyway... since they don't trick-or-treat here they just party instead. Now since I am officially 16, I am officially "clubbing" age in Spain. I am not sure how many of you are aware of the delayed time schedule they have here in Spain, but this night was a perfect example of how it goes down in Spain.

8:30 PM: Emma's friends came over and we ate dinner together.

9:00 PM: Went to Emma's room to finish last minute makeup / "costume" preparations.

9:30 PM: Left the house to go to the train station.

9:45 PM: Met up with more of Emma's friends by the train station.

10:10 PM: Hopped aboard our train.

10:45 PM: Arrived at the train station in Barcelona.

11:00 PM: Found our way to the club, which I should mention was right on the shore of the Barcelona beach.

12:15 AM: FINALLY made our way into the club after running from one line to another, and cutting the second line we found (what rebels we are ;) ).

12:30 - 4:30 AM: DANCED  ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

4:45 AM: Successfully hailed a taxi.

5:00 AM: Returned home safe and sound!

Ya. THAT is Spain for you! I would just like to say a huge thank you to Emma and her friends for including me in their plans and making me feel like a part of the group! I had an amazing time and truly feel like I had the true Spanish experience of Halloween! Thank you bunches! Hope you all had a Happy Halloween in the U.S.!!! 

The Halloween Crew

Our matching homemade t-shirts!