Final Orientation

This past weekend was the final orientation of the 2013-2014 year program of the Catalunya area.... Let us just take a second to soak that all in. 

As expected the orientation was even better than the last following the pattern that has been set from the start. All of the exchange kids this year are finally completely comfortable around one another and our true personalities were shown full force this time which was just fantastic! 

It all started Saturday afternoon. I caught an hour long train to the station and when I got there I saw a bunch of other AFSers, as expected since it was the only train that would get us there on time. When I say on time I mean a half our early so in that time we could easily find the hostile which we have to walk to on our own right? Wrong. After doing a few circles around the town failing miserably at our map reading skills we were found walking along the beach by one of the volunteers. 

We thought it was sort of strange that the dude had the time to come and find us (only about six out of the group of thirty) considering there was a whole orientation going on already which included ALL of the students going away next year from the area (about like fifty of them!!!). 

We then asked him how the heck he knew to come get us with all that going on and his response was "Well this is the time in the orientation when the sendings (those going away next year) are to ask you guys their questions about being abroad and it's been hard to do because there are only about three of you guys there." Easy to say we could not stop laughing or feel comforted by the fact that a bunch of the others were lost too or just taking their sweet time getting there.

So once we go to the hostile it was complete MADNESS! Instead of asking questions the volunteers had the sendings play a getting to know you game going around asking peoples names, age, languages they knew, and were they were from / going the follow year. I guess they had been playing for awhile because when we opened the door we were MOBBED and added to their already incredibly long lists of names and ages.

Then more of "us" showed up and we were sat in a huge circle. One of the volunteers asked who was from America, which I didn't actually hear, I was just told by a Spanish kid next to me to raise my hand. By the time I had it was too late to realize I was the only "volunteer". I was assigned about six Spaniards going to the US the following year and we were told we had two hours to go and talk about all their questions about their coming year that I would OBVIOUSLY know the answer to... kind of.

My group was actually the bomb and we made some real quality progress in there "Have you ever shot a gun?" "Do you own a gun?" "What do you eat for breakfast?" "Are the school buses actually yellow?" just to give you a few examples. One of the coolest things about my group was a girl from my group, who is a host sister of one of the exchange students here now, already has her host family and she is headed just outside of Boston, Massachusetts only about two hours away! Woot woot!

Lucia, the one in the middle, is the one who is headed to Massachusetts.

After this dazzling activity came a separation time sendings in one room hostings (as we were called) in another. We talked about what we learned from the year and such then began to plan out our super special ceremony for the night. 

Next came dinner which was quick seeing as right after we had to prepare for our ceremony that the hostings would be putting on for the sending (which the volunteers had preformed for us way back in October). We all changed into togas (a white, strategically tied bed sheet) and painted our faces and bodies with some crayon stuff. 

I can't find the group pictures we took (because as anyone here will tell you I don't take my own pictures, I just hop into others and wait for them to upload them because its just easier that way), but this gives you a good idea of what we looked like.

We then headed into a room lit some candles and danced around like animals until the sendings came in and we had to get all serious. I am not too sure if I am suppose to be explaining how the ceremony goes down for those who may be doing an exchange may be reading this and the whole point is for them to ask questions about it and "learn from our ways" so if you are really that interested on hearing how it goes down you can ask me about it in a month when I come home.

Next the sendings were sent free and the hostings got down to the serious, emotional stuffy stuff. Half of the candles were blown out and half were kept lit. The lights were kept off and we were told that the next half hour would consist of us individually coming up as we please to either light a candle and explain a positive that we experienced throughout our last nine months in Spain or blow one out for a negative. 

At first everyone was a bit hesitant to share and there were plenty of struggles with the lighter, but then more and more people came forward and opened up about their time. It was actually super emotional and this was the first point throughout my whole exchange that I truly realized my time here is actually going to come to an end and I am going to have to say goodbye to some of the coolest most incredible people I have had the privileged of knowing in my entire life. Exchange students are all like that you know. We all come from incredibly different backgrounds and home lives and for just ten months we have come together and experienced some of the hardest situations of our entire lives together and formed a bond that is truly unlike any I have ever had before. 

After about forty five minutes and a few laughs mixed with tears we were freed to go, which just turned into a huge hug session. Then we were off to talk and mess around and do as we pleased for the rest of the night.

Next morning came and well nothing too exciting happened that day. We got our exclusive AFS Catalunya t-shirts which are... bright to say the least. We took a lot of photos to immortalize the moments that we know we will look back on with nothing but smiles. Then we separated again as we pleased, half of us going to the beach and half of us going rock climbing up one of those rock wall things. I went for the beach where me and a few others just sat around in the sand talking about TV shows, our exchanges and really whatever else came to mind. 

All too soon it came to an end and I found myself having to say goodbye, well actually about a million goodbyes, then walking to the train station with a few others. Then from then on I was just kind of in shock thinking of how in just one short month (to put time into perspective I was just in Italy a month ago. I know that feels like yesterday!) I will be meeting with these guys for the very last time to head to Madrid to head our separate ways home from there. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO!?! I just don't get it.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I am so incredibly lucky to have made the friends I have on this journey! 

Now I am off to study for finals... maybe... stress on the maybe...

Hope you all had fantastic weekends as well and I will be seeing (most of) you in just one month! Take care!