Weekly Rewind

Buenooooooo, pues (alright so)

This was my first "normal" week in a long time. Well then again I don't know how normal you can consider a life abroad, but anyway. I didn't have an activity to do absolutely everyday after school, which I miss, and I had a lot of plain old free time. 

Monday was just a normal school day. I got back into the flow of things and braced myself for a long, routine week. 

Tuesday was another normal day to and from school, nothing special. I may have made brownies after school that day, I am not too sure but they were from a box so I mean... nada especial.

Wednesday hmmmm pretty sure just another low key family day after school. Wednesday I found out that this huge project that everyone else in my class has to do is started this year and completed next year, when I won't be here, therefore I am excluded and can leave school at 1:50 on Wednesdays while all my poor classmates have to work their butts off on some extreme project. 

That same day I was able to skype my family because they had a snow day which just made it so much easier time zone wise and that was fantastic! I love talking with my family and I am so glad I have chosen to keep in close touch with my them throughout this experience, talking a bit more than the program recommends. It has brought us so much closer and I love sharing little everyday details with them that may otherwise never be shared!

Thursday came and I was dying to go to dance! Especially because my class had a bit of a surprise planned! You see the previous Saturday was my dance teachers birthday and we wanted to do something special for her sooo we bought her tickets to the equivalent of a Broadway show. But that's not all. My classmates and I went to the theatre a little early for some preparations. We hung streamers, blew up balloons, and just made the room party presentable. There was even a cake!

This was all a surprise and it was so exciting having to be cautious and continually checking the door to make sure she wasn't coming early or anything like that. As we sat in the dark I realized this would be my first successful surprise party! 

Of course we had a few close calls and a few false alarms because of late comers, but finally we were all together sitting in a dark room waiting with confetti guns in hand waiting for our teacher to walk through the door. Finally we saw the hall light, leading to the room, turn on and we were sure, well as sure as we could possibly be, that it was her. 

She literally opened the door, didn't turn on the light for awhile, and just stood there. There were streamers hanging right in front of her face so I can only assumed what that seemed like in the dark, but when she finally turned on the light, the guns were popped, we sang happy birthday, all hugged each other and all jumped up and down in a huddle, as we have a habit of doing. 

I love this dance class! We are honestly more of a family than just classmates and teacher. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true. 

After a bit more celebrating we went on with the class and realized we had two new students! It was a bit strange having someone new, I wasn't the new kid anymore. I then began to think about it, and we have recently gotten a few new kids in school as well. I'm no longer the new kid there either! Its strange to think about, time passing and people coming and going, but these new changes just made me that much more aware of it! Time goes on, who knew!

After class we went outside as a group and had the birthday cake that someone had made together and just hung out for awhile enjoying each others company. 

Friday came and with it came another normal school day. However, after school my host sister Ana and I went to the public library with the rest of the people from dance class and theatre to put on a small show for the parents and the public. Each class just did a small dance number or sang a song, and it was kind of just like a small talent show.

All the students from my class received official certificates for the sports ceremony the Friday before. It was pretty cool to receive an official certificate, certifying you did something... cool from Spain. It's just cool to have I guess! Afterwards Ana and I walked home together, just talking about school and our days and what not. 

All of Friday night, Saturday and Sunday were low key family days spent at home, which may sound lame to some, but they were just what I needed. We spent some time watching the Olympics together and playing card games and just enjoying time off from activities! 

My first week of "normal" school actually ended up flying by pretty quickly, and its not going to start to slow down now! Wednesday I am going to a on of my AFS friends towns a few train stops away and we are going to buy some cheap, knockoff pennyboards that we are really excited for! I have always wanted a pennyboard, but at home we don't exactly have the best roads / sidewalks for it so I can't wait to take advantage of the usable sidewalks here! Then Friday afternoon is the start of a three day AFS orientation weekend which should be nice as well. 

So as everyone said it would, the time is really starting to pick up and I am trying my best to make the most of it. For me that doesn't necessarily mean going out and being busy 24 hours a day, but just enjoying every moment I have here. I hope you are all enjoying your school / work year this year, cause before we know it, it will be over and we will just be onto the next one! Have a nice week! Can't wait to tell you all about it next time! 

Glass Half Full

As of Thursday January 30th, 2014 my time here in Spain has been half lived. Now I have been thinking a lot about what this means to me personally and I am full of SOOOO many emotions that its impossible to sum it up in just one word. However if my life depended on choosing just one, it would have to be 'unforgettable'!

This past week was a bit busy and flew by so so fast. School was a blur of coming and going in and out of class. I passed another test (barely, but hey here a pass is a pass!)! And got a new seating chart, which sounds kind of lame, but its kind of the perfect way to meet new people within your own class that you may never have talked to otherwise so I am actually pretty excited about it.

Another reason this week has gone by so quickly was because my dance class was chosen to prepare a few numbers for an awards event in town which was super cool. We had all of one month to prepare five full numbers. OK well technically for me only four because one was a ballet solo for another girl in my class, BUT during that solo I had the responsibility of lifting and waving around a banner like water and stuff and getting the timing and such down for that to a song with no words is harder than you may think. Plus that thing was like forty feet long and heavy, so I am counting it as another number I was in anyway. ONE month, FIVE dances.

These rehearsals felt just like play practice at home, which I have been missing a lot, so it was really nice to have something so similar to do that filled the gap of home! The other four numbers were quite insane if I do say so myself. We opened the whole ceremony with a routine to "Give Me All Your Love" by Madonna (feat. Nicki Minaj) and based it off the Superbowl routine from two years ago... I think it was two years ago, well you all remember that halftime show! Not only did we dress up as cheerleaders (more like the baton twirlers in our schools marching band with the little skirts and everything) but in the background we had a acrobat duet act. It was crazy. Like I am literally talking about those people, one guy one girl, and the girl is seemingly weightless and thrown in the air with all kinds of twirls, flips, and cool stuff that. It was one of those acts that would have made my mom grab my arm and say "I can't watch this, I can't watch," and freak out like a little kid. (Love you mommy!) And as if that wasn't enough there was even a break dancer thrown into the mix!

Next we danced to "Space Jam" which was probably my favorite. We got to dress like people from a work out video from the 80's (I rocked the leotard over leggings with leg warms) and we danced it as a battle and our dance teacher was a referee! It was really exciting and hard not to laugh while staring at each other with our "game faces" on. Another break dancer came in for that dance and did all sorts of cool flips and stuff that break dancers do!

Following that we danced to a remix of "Rocky", "Eye of the Tiger"and "Survivor" which was incredible. Since it was a sports ceremony the town of Castelldefels lent us a bunch of sports uniforms of literally every sport imaginable. I was given a figure skating leotard dress thing which was really pretty and surprisingly comfortable. A little bummed we had to give them back. Anyway, the routine had many elements to it which caused a lot of nerves before hand. It started out with a boxing rink and two of our dancers acting out a boxing scene with above lighting which made it literally seem like you were in a stadium, however this damn rink was nearly impossible to keep from tangling and we probably spent more time practicing setting up the rink than the dance itself. Thank god all of that work paid off and it ended up going very smoothly. However the rink was only the first 30 seconds of the song. Next came the dancing..... with jump ropes. I had never danced with a jump rope before and it was actually a real challenge to get everything right on cue when its not just your body you have to control. In the end it was nothing short of awesome!

After "Rocky" was the banner number with the Olympic song with the torches and stuff. You know "da da da da da daaaaaaaaaaa", well you can't actually here me, but you get my drift! That all went well and the acrobats came back and did some more super impressive stuff and then it was on to the next one.

Here is the final number! (Sorry I don't have footage of them all, but I happened to be a little preoccupied at the time)

I Gotta Feeling

After the show was over the whole dance crew and I went out to eat, and celebrate our dance teachers birthday. Afterwards she drove me and a few girls home and I was actually able to give instructions to my house! Now you are probably thinking... 'really that's an accomplishment to you?' YES IT IS, because every freaking road here is a one way street and for living somewhere that you walk every place, yes, giving accurate directions is a huge accomplishment. 

So now I go back to my normal school weeks with dance only on Thursdays. Well, who knows! I may show up this Thursday and have a whole new list of plans laid out for me there! I can only hope!

Hope you had a great weekend. Enjoy the Superbowl tonight and see you in a shorter amount of time than I saw you last... if that even makes sense. Can't wait to see what the future here holds for me, and then I can't wait to tell you all about it! 

LOTS OF LOVE!
            ~ Emily

Emma's Birthday + The Weekend

I would like to start out this post by saying as time has gone by here my actual English hasn't gotten too bad, however English phrases and idioms are getting to be incredibly hard to remember, so just keep that in mind while reading!

SO Friday was Emma's 17th birthday and I took it upon myself (not gonna lie, it took me a few minutes to remember that phrase right there) to do a few extra things to make it special. 

The first of the two projects I took upon myself was the cake. Before coming here my mom wrote out the recipe to carrot cake, remembering that it was one of Emma's favorite foods, and this very recipe had not seen the light of day since the very day I got here. So, this being my first time ever making this cake (or any cake for that matter) from scratch, had very low hopes. Actually I almost told Ana to buy a back up cake just in case because my expectations were just that low!

Anyway, they bought all of the ingredients for me and I took on the baking job all by myself! Everything was going great until I got to shredding the carrots. Now I had seen a blender type thing used before that I figured would work for this, but I didn't know if carrots were too hard of a food for it to handle so instead... I used a hand grader. This was killer and the carrot came out the other side as mush rather than shreds, so that ended after... 1/6th of a carrot. Next I decided to take the risk and just use the blender thingy, and what do you know it worked perfectly!

Next minor set back came when it was time to mix the stuff all together. They don't have a blender here so I had to hand whisk the whole thing. Not only was that extremely tiring (I know I live a tough life), but also the dry ingredients kept puffing up at me and by the time I was done mixing I was probably wearing more on my shirt than what was in the actual bowl. 

The last set back came with the oven. Converting Fahrenheit to Celsius? No problem! Fitting the pan in the oven? Piece of cake (ha ha)! Getting the actual cake to cook? Huston we have a problem! Now first of all, this oven has a bazillion settings like if you want it to cook from the top, bottom, both, left or right, and I was like hmmmm lets go for the all around right? Right!? WRONG! Apparently to get the cake to "rise" you must only cook it from the bottom. Next set back, I took like a million years to cook through and every time I checked on it, it kept psyching me out by looking all cooked and beautiful from the outside, but watery and jello like once you moved it. After a some time (I think, I had to leave for dance class before the actual cake came out of the oven, Ana very kindly did that part for me) the cake was done. 

Next day, frosting time! As if making the cake wasn't enough of a challenge now I had to make the frosting! For me, there are two different parts of baking. There is the part where you feel really accomplished from making something out of nothing, and then there is the part of you that wishes you had never made the thing because you realize what exactly the cake is made up of and some things are just better unknown. The baking the cake part, something out of nothing. The frosting part... there are some things you will never be able to "unknow". Sparing you the dirty details, I made the frosting and although not evenly mixed and spread the cake looked decent enough and I set it in the little ventilated pantry thing to cool. 

Final birthday project for Emma came in the form of balloons. The day of her birthday after returning home from school I blew up 50 balloons to stash in her bathroom as another surprise. I didn't blow them up all by myself, after about ten balloons in and an extreme feeling of light headedness (these were pretty big balloons) Roman stepped in to help and brought with him a half functioning pump. 

When Emma came home we ate the cake, discovered the balloons and had a good time. Later that night she invited me to go out with her and her friends to dinner, which I happily accepted and enjoyed as always!

Saturday came, and I had an early morning with dance from 11 to 2. With our event coming up this Friday, we have begun to cram and get a little nervous that we won't finish in time or be ready when the day comes. However, things like this always have a way of coming together, so personally I am not too worried and just having some fun with it! 

After dance the whole family went out to eat at a very nice restaurant where I tried some new vegetables that are considered typical food of Catalunya. After our very nice lunch we went off to the movies and saw "The Book Theif" which I really, really enjoyed. Not my typical type of movie, but I liked it a lot and understood 95% of it which might have played a part in how much I liked it as well. After the movie we had a low key night at home.

Sunday was also spent low key and at home, with a nice surprise FaceTime call with Mari, Nicole and the Long Island crew! The nice relaxing day was great and much needed, especially considering this whole coming week is going to be a whole lot of school and dance, and very little sitting around doing nothing! The balloons are still lying around the house. Every now and then you hear an earth shattering explosion and think someone has just, I don't even know what, but then you just realize it was just another balloon popping. I would say they are about half way popped by now. Little Ana has even drawn a face on one, not sure if it has a name or anything, but it definitely does have a face!

Its been another great weekend full of new experiences and rest. Although I wish the weekends could last forever, I am ready to dive head first into this coming week with a good attitude and ready to dance... a lot!

Hope you all had a nice weekend too! Stay safe and stay warm!

Love, 

Emily 

Before

After

Emma's Bathroom

Just the Regular Goings On

I know I haven't written in awhile, so here ya go!

Since going back to school things have been pretty normal. Not a lot of school work, well compared to most juniors, just normal school days. By this point in time the other students are treating me just as anybody else. You know, with the casual innocent jokes, lighthearted 'good mornings', that sort of thing! There's something just very calming and settling about everyone knowing your name and making you feel at home just like any other Spaniard. I can most definitely say I feel settled in here, like a home away from.

Here's the class!

Also dance! DANCE! I love dance! Practices have been picking this month because we have an event the 31st of January, and when I say picking up I mean I have probably been at the dance studio about 18 - 20 days this month. Some people might think it could get old, but I love it and could not be happier!

This explains us too well!

So... not too much to tell, lots of dance mixed with a little school work here and there.

Hope all is well at home! Love you lots and I promise my next post will be better than this, I just felt like it had been tooooo long since the last one! BYE!!!

Three Kings Festivities!

Want to know something funny? When I was in the 4th grade I did a project on Christmas in Spain, well not Christmas exactly, but Three Kings Day as that is what is celebrated here. At the time I was only imagining what it could actually be like. Who could have possibly known that seven years later (jeez that sounds like a lot) I would be living the holiday first hand!?

So Emma, two of her friends and I got into the holiday spirit by taking the train to Barcelona to see the Three Kings parade together. This parade was pretty hardcore if I do say so myself. Almost like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was still pretty impressive! 

There were lots of lights, dancers, floats, and of course candy. Each King (Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar) had his own float. Just like in the U.S. if a child was naughty during the year they are given coal, so there was even a float of miners just for a reminder! I wish I had decent pictures of the parade, but all I have is a picture of a few blurry dancers, and one of a bald guys head. Sorry to disappoint!

After the parade we took the train back to Castelldefels and spent the rest of the night out with Emma's friends. We even went out to eat at a restaurant of food from Istanbul. All we had was wraps so I'm not sure if that counts, but the menus were in the language of Istanbul so I'm gonna go ahead and say it does count. 

After hanging out a bit longer in the middle of town, we finally headed back home. Once inside I was told to bring one of my shoes to the sliding door in the living room, because that is where the Kings would come in, and that is how they would know to leave me presents. So I brought my red Ked sneaker into the living room and set it alongside the others and called it a night, patiently waiting for the Kings to come and work their magic.

The next day...

We woke up at around 10 and all walked into the living room together. There we found clusters of presents with each of our shoes laying on our cluster. Everybody opened their presents together, tried on their new clothes, and said the sincerest of thank yous and, although it wasn't exactly the All American Christmas, it was a cute little holiday morning that I will always remember! 

After gathering all our loot from the living room and finding places for everything in our rooms we all got ready to go to a family friends house for a Three Kings Day meal. When we got there we found the table all set up, as usual. After the arrival of some more friends we sat down to the customary tapas. After filling up on some of those we moved on to the main course which was, carne (meat). 

Its funny, here food is either called fish or meat, and when its meat they never specify what kind of meat it is. So here I was getting all excited because we were having meat. In my experience so far meat meant either chicken or beef, so I wouldn't have to choke down some fish smiling all the while pretending to like it, however as fate would have it there was a new type of meat thrown into the mix, lamb. Now this was my first time having lamb EVER and I am still not sure if I like it or not, but I kept my game face on the whole time saying how much I loved the food, regardless of how I actually felt.

After the lamb we had not one, not two, but three courses of dessert. The first was a fruit platter with chocolate fondue. The second was the customary Three Kings Cake. Cooked within the cake was a king figurine, and a bean. Whoever's piece of cake contained the king got to wear the paper crown that came with the cake for the rest of the meal, while whoever got the bean had to pay for the cake. We had two of these cakes, one just the usual, and one with a massive whipped cream filling. 

Normal Three Kings Cake. I couldn't find a picture of the cream
filled cake, but just imagine this one with a solid 3 inches of whipped cream inbetween.

As luck would have it one of the family friends got the king figurine in the first cake and Emma got it in the second. Oddly enough, no one got the bean in either cake so I guess the host was stuck with paying for the cake! The third course of dessert was coffee and chocolate truffles. I skipped this course since I was stuffed to the rim already!

After all the plates were cleared and goodbyes were said we went to the house of another family friend to see the new toys of their four year old son and play along with all of his new games. After doing that for awhile we headed to the mall with the intention of seeing a movie (this would be our third time to the movie theatre over this vacation, we go a lot!) however we didn't check the schedule ahead of time so the movie we wanted to see had already started. 

However we didn't waste this trip to the mall. Instead we spent it searching for a cord for my iPod, since my old one broke, and also looking for a case for Ana's new phone. Luckily we were able to find both! Then we headed back home and here we are sitting on the couch watching some random movie on TV and just taking in our perfect little holiday. 

Thank you Felez - Roldan family for making this Three Kings Day special and a holiday I will never forget!

Family Photo #1

Family Photo #2

   

New Years!

For New Years Eve we hosted the dinner festivities here in our apartment. The whole family pitched in to help prepare the food, set up the tables, and lay out the dishes. For dinners in Spain presentation is everything. This isn't just for the holidays, but for any gathering or family get together where eating is involved. When you arrive at the table the silverware is set up formally, with the little dessert spoon on top and all the plates lined up so that the detailing matches up perfectly. 

A Spanish dinner always starts of with little appetizers or tapas. Normally this includes slices of ham (cut right from the pig leg that is commonly found just hanging out in the kitchen), slices of cheese, pieces of salmon, shrimp, bread and various spreads. That day I tried one of these spreads and guess what it turned out to be? The liver of a duck. Yum.

After most of these foods were consumed the first round of plates were taken away and the next dinner plates were collected and brought into the kitchen to dish out the main course. The main course of this dinner was fish cooked over apple and potato slices. Not being a huge fish fan myself I was a little skeptical at first, but it was actually really good!

Next course dessert! We had a cake that was kind of like marzipan, except it had a cool rhyming name that I can't remember. By this time it was getting close to midnight so all got out our little bags of disguises, as is customary in the U.S. as well, and we each grabbed a bowl of twelve grapes. These twelve grapes were to be eaten on the twelve strikes of midnight on New Years Eve for good luck. I am proud to announce I was able to choke down all twelve right on time!

The New Years gear!

Once we kissed everyone in the room, as is customary in the U.S. for New Years as well, Emma and I headed out to a beach town called Sitges, one town over, to bring in the New Year with a few of her friends. We went to a very cool discoteca there called Prado, which doubles as a movie theatre. The room in which the party was held had a stage where the DJ played his music, and where the audience would be was a huge dance floor where all the party goers could dance! To my surprise this club had less attendees than the place we went to on Halloween and we thankfully had more room to dance without someone bumping into you every two seconds! 

We had such a great time singing along to the songs and dancing together that we didn't leave until 6 AM. That sounds crazy compared to the norm in the U.S., but this kind of time frame is customary here in Spain! While on the train riding back to our town I realized some of the other people on the train were dressed and on their way to work! Our train pulled into town and Emma and I walked the rest of the way home. I was finally ready and tucked into bed by 7:30 AM New Years Day. Safe to say I had to be woken up at 3 PM that day for lunch time!

Before we headed out!

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!!!