Mid - Year Orientation

This past weekend was the mid-year AFS orientation for all the exchange students in the Catalunya area, and let me tell you, it all went by in a blur!

First of all... I got to leave school early Friday to catch a train to meet the others at the main train station in Barcelona (Barna Sants). From there we all took another train together that was about an hour and a half long to the town of Manresa which is to the northwest of my town here in Spain. This town (more like a small city) had a very cool vintage feel. The train station was right next to a small river with a very old stone bridge over it and a bit above the train station was a large, traditional, Spanish church. Also all through the town, like most towns in Spain, there were signs of older buildings that were broken or run down. I love these types of small imperfections they have here. They add character to the town and a story to the view!

Once we got our rooms and belongings all settled in we had dinner and went up to a meeting room in the hostel to start some activities like we always do. However, just as we were starting we heard drums in the streets. After all peering over each others heads and down at the street below us we saw it was one of those parades with the sparklers / fireworks that are so popular here in Spain. (Not sure if you remember, but I went to a parade similar to this one around Christmas time here in my town). Well, since Spaniards are so laid back and easy going, the volunteers let us ditch the activity, for now, and join in on the action.

Imagine, all thirty or so of us, racing through the very European (long, windy and narrow) streets searching the city for the parade. No worries, we found it! When we got there people were just starting to gather and everyone was beginning to get really into it. There was something so intense and irresistible about joining in on the fun of the parade and soon all of us exchange kids were running into the circle of sparklers (gritting our teeth and bearing with the burn) and dancing in line with the drummers.

We followed the band and fireworks down the streets a bit and just went at it! I mean there was sweat pouring down our faces, small shouts of pain as we got tiny little burns, and most of all, as cheesy as it sounds, smiles. We were having a great time and the people of the town, and in the band, and doing the fireworks were having a blast watching us enjoy it! They let us conga line in between the lines of drummers, and even play on there drums a bit. It was just so free and real, a genuine Spanish experience just like in the movies. After about a 45 minutes or so, the parade was over, we said our goodbyes to the people and headed back to the hostile feeling incredibly special to have had such an experience.

Once in the room, we did an activity where we traced each others faces to tape on the wall so everyone could write messages on them and have a poster of it all to bring home. Also during this time we were introduced to four new students from Austria. It was almost like looking (or maybe I should say listening) back in time and seeing how are Spanish was when we first got here. There was something comforting about knowing how much experience we already have from our stay, and being able to answer their questions about what it's like.

After the activities we kind of just called it a day and all did our individual thing for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning came and we had to be up and down at breakfast by 8:30 AM. Then we went into the activity room to play a game. We were separated into two different groups each given a blanket folded in half. Each team had to stand completely on the carpet and try to flip it over without anyone falling off. My team never finished all the way through like the other team, but we were actually really good at the not falling off part, which was harder than you may think, so that was a plus!

Afterwards we went and walked a bit into town. We checked out a the big church, did a little window shopping. I had probably the best frozen yogurt of my entire life during our "town time" as well. It was frozen yogurt over hot chocolate, Spanish hot chocolate which is a lot thicker than American hot chocolate and just better in my opinion, with Oreo's and strawberries on top.

We went back to the hostel after our little outing for lunch and then a few more activities that were just talking about our experiences and little stuff like that. Then we had a bit of free time so my friends and I went back into the town to do a little more exploring of our own. After coming back to the hostel we did even more activities that I can't really remember right now, but I am sure it was just some more talking.

Later after dinner we were called back to the room where we were told to organize the chairs to all be facing one way with an aisle down the middle, like a theatre almost....... suspicious. Written in the email telling us when and where the orientation would be there were instructions to bring "ropa por una fiesta" (party clothes), but no one would tell us what the party was going to be like.

Once the chairs were arranged we were separated into teams of four and given a mission. All of the groups consisted of one boy and three girls. The boys had to be dressed as girls and the girls had to be dressed as boys (that was enough of a party for me! I got to wear pants all night instead of dressing up into a skirt!!!). In addition each group was given a phrase that we had to make a little skit for. So as you can imagine once we were let loose, we went WILD! Literally our whole floor of the hostile was a mess of people running in and out of rooms gathering the right makeup, clothes, accessories etc. Lucky for me my whole team was staying in the same room so we had more time to actually apply things than just run around gathering them.

My groups line was "Las mariposas estan sonriendo" (the butterflies are smiling) so my group and I came up with the idea to do a news cast about people who are taking anti-depressant pills and then having hallucination of dancing butterflies. Another girl and I would be the news casters, then we would play a "video" of a man (another girl) taking the pills and having hallucinations of the butterfly which would be the one guy or "girl" in our group. This kid was SUCH a good sport! we got him to wear a pencil skirt and a lace bralet with blue eyeshadow and sparkly eyeliner THE WORKS!

Presenting time came and our skit went really well! The "crowd" went WILD when our "butterfly" showed up and started dancing and doing his this as a hallucinated butterfly would and just having a good time. Our skit was SO good that we won best overall and got chocolate because of it! We were not done tormenting these boys yet.

Next we played a game where all the boys, still dressed as girls, left the room while the girls prepared a bench (three chairs covered with a blanket) and one girl sat on each end. The boys outside were told to do who knows what, I guess act like a girl to their best ability, while we were literally just told to sit there. After the boy sat down once on the bench he was told he was doing a bad job and had to leave to try again. After he left the room we would pull out the middle chair of the bench so that when he returned he would fall straight down. NOT ONE BOY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON! We literally had four or five different guys come in and do it and not one of them had a clue he was going to fall to the floor. No two reactions were the same, but all of them were completely priceless!

One last activity we did that night was called "Looking for my princess". For this one, one guy had to leave the room. While he was gone some volunteers were chosen to sit in a row. Each had to chose somewhere to point to on their person where the boy would have to kiss them. The last person in the line had to point to their mouth, and would have water in their mouth to spit out at the last second. I give this girl props, I mean if it was me I would have laughed so hard that I would have spit out the water before the time came and ruined it all, but she was able to control herself and pulled it off perfectly!

As you can imagine after all this activity we were drained and just went to bed.

Saturday morning came and we were all EXHAUSTED!!!! Literally we ate breakfast, packed our bags, stripped our beds, and all waited in the living room area in these extremely comfortable chairs, half of us sleeping, half of us watching TV fighting the urge to fall asleep. Next up, game time!

The first game we played was freeze tag. I love how carefree Spaniards are because while we were playing this game we were in a room that was basically like an auditorium without the seats, so just ginormous steps filling it up, now in New York at least, adults would be having a cow that we were playing in such a "dangerous setting" but here? Hell no! They're playing along with us!

The next game was ten times more entertaining. We all sat in a circle. The boys were each given a letter and the girls were each given a number. Once that was established someone was chosen to go sit in the middle. Then someone would call out a letter and a number. If the person sitting in the middle was a girl, the boy whose letter it was had to run and kiss her on the face before the girl whose number it was could kiss them on the face while the person in the middle just sat there hoping to make it out with their life. Depending on who kissed who first, the loser would have to sit in the middle and be the next  "victim".

This game was so damn funny! There were literally people tackling each other down, sticking hands in front of each others faces, and laying in the fetal position covering their faces with their hair all just doing what they had to do. Mixed in with it all was the confusion of who was actually suppose to be kissing who so there were some screw ups when a guy ran straight for the other guy and things like that. It was honestly one of the most entertaining games I have ever played in my entire life!

After all that moving around and energizing, they had us do one more activity talking about our experiences, ate lunch, then headed for the train home! It literally all flew by so fast, but I am so glad I was a part of it! All in all it was a weekend I will most definitely never ever forget!