Familia

At home, I have a wonderful family.  The best that anyone could ask for.  My mom is my best friend.  We talk all the time, and tell each other nearly everything.  My dad and I are quite similar, and enjoy driving mom crazy by quoting movies like Ice Age and Men in Black.  I'm a daddy's girl.  My brother and I have our conflicts, and annoy the hell out of each other, but we also have these great moments of being really great friends.  It's not perfect, as nothing ever is, but it's pretty damn close.  

When I came here, I was incredibly nervous about missing them, and once I was in my host house, I let the homesickness consume me for that first weekend.  My host family did very little to disturb me.  The first couple of weeks, I tried so hard not to impose, not realising that I needed to.  So, our relationshipthen formed into one between a traveller and the owners of a hostel.  Meanwhile, I created a great relationship with my best friend's host mom, and the more time that I spent with them, the more I realised I was missing.  

Before making my final decision to switch, I went to Pili and asked her if she was willing to try to make our relationship work.  No.  

So now I'm with a new family, a wonderful mother, Ana, and her 4 year old daughter, Clara.  Ana is the perfect host mother, and a good role model.  She's sweet, caring, warm and welcoming.  She is everything that my first host mother wasn't.  She gives me a hug every morning before school, and makes an effort to get to know the host parents of my friends.  She also corrects my grammar, which is something my other host mom never did.  I can feel my Spanish improving, but that also may be due to the fact that I'm talking a lot more.  Every night we have dinner together while Clara eats in front of the TV (she's addicted to Jetex, which airs a lot of Japanese cartoons, like Pokemon and Totally Spies), and Ana and I discuss everything; politics, friends, boys, its amazing.  She is divorced, but doesn't take child support money from her ex-husband.  She owns 2 soap shops, and works hard.  

This is a family that I will miss terribly when I go back to the States.  

Thanksgiving Abroad

Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family around a very large cooked bird to give thanks for what we have.  Thanksgiving also happens to be my favorite holiday, as it is unmaterialistic, brings people together, and is all about delicious food!  Before this past Thursday, I was really scared that it was going to be a hard day for me, because of what it symbolizes.  But it was actually quite fun!  We had a thanksgiving dinner at which we weren't required to speak Spanish, and ate turkey, great stuffing, cranberry sauce, and peas.  It was a really wonderful night.  It was formal, and at a great restaurant near school.  I was not incredibly homesick, mostly happy to be eating food that I was guaranteed to like.  

I also got to spend time with some of my best friends.  It was a very nice night.

However, tonight is not as pleasant.  The neighbors are over, and there is a lot of squeaky recorder playing, along with guttural crying and screaming.  I'm going to retreat back to my iPod, and to Symphony No. 104 in D Major "London": IV. Finale: Spiritoso.  Boy am I lucky to have just one younger brother at home.  

The Older Sibiling Complex

I have a theory: that older sibilings, no matter their age, gender, nationality or any other circumstances believe themselves to be always right.  Always.  I frequently exhibited this complex with my little brother, and with my parents, even though I knew that I was wrong and that I was not going to win whatever argument I was in.  Some may say that I was just stubborn.  Well, that's true, but I think that there might be something else too.  

When I came home on Tuesday from tutoring a girl in my neighborhood in English, I was approached by Estela, the older of my 2 host sisters about a translation.  I read the sentence in Spanish first, then translated the 2 words that she was having trouble with into English.  Now, Spanish and English, both being romantic languages, sound very similar, so translating is often quite easy and doesn't require a translator machine.  But, the other times when a word in one language is different than its translation in the other is strikingly different.  One of the words that she needed help with was one of those words. So, I pulled out my very handy electronic translator (which I highly suggest for anyone going to a foreign country for an extended period of time), and typed in the Spanish word.  Estela was not so confident in the translation, and asked me many times if I was sure of it's accuracy, which I was.  This has happened many times, and it kind of gets to me when she assumes that I don't know many words in my natural language.  This is the complex, one of superiority and self-assured accuracy and intelligence, and it isn't restricted to one country.  

Madrid

This week the 65 students here split up into three groups and went to cities in Spain based on one of our classes.  Because I'm taking Political Science, I got to go to the capital of Spain, Madrid. We saw all of the sites: El Escorial, Aranjuez, we walked passed el Palacio Real, and went into the big cathedral next to it.  We also visited the Senate and the House of Representitives, and the office of that largest newspaper in Spain, El Mundo.  During this trip, I saw so many places, and learned a lot about the city and surrounding area of Madrid, and the history of the government, but I also learned a lot about myself as a traveller.  

On Monday, I learned tha the first day of any trip is always uncomfortable and disorienting, and that I always want to return to the place from which I came, back to my comfort zone.  I also learned the necesity of comfortable walking shows.  Not flats.  Ever.  

On Tuesday, I learned how much I love long train rides, and that gay neighborhoods can bring around great new friendships, wonderful yoghurt places, and matchmaking with younger sibilings.  

On Wednesday, I learned the beauty of places that are off the beaten path, like local markets.  I also learned that the play Sweeny Todd viewed in Spanish isn't that hard to understand, and that Spaniards sound funny when the try to sing in English.  

On Thursday, I learned that I love the office environment in general, and also that I'm very good at navigating subways all by myself.  I also learned that I absolutely LOVE Indian food.  

On Friday, I learned that cathedrals aren't all the same.  I also learned that religion is different for everybody, and that I don't have to conform to a specific religion t communicate with God.  I can question anything,and find the answers on my own anywhere:  literature, art, science, and my own mind.  

La Comida - The Food

So on friday, i made the mistake of accidentally taking food that was meant to be saturday's lunch.  I tried to heat up the meetballs, but I couldn't heat them for long, because the microwave would break.  Eating meatballs cold is not so great.  Meat that is suposed to warm when consumed just doesn't taste good cold.  So, i threw the meatballs that I had already cut in half away.  Bad choice.  My host mom was furious that I had thrown away perfectly good food, as she should have been.  I'm used to being able to throw food away and not having to face any consequences, because in the United States, food is cheaper, and my family has a different money situation.  As my dad pointed out to me when I called him asking for advice, and my host mom reiterated in our making- up conversation, in most other parts of the world, food is not as readily available, and the fact that we're lucky enough to have an excess amount of food.  I've now started to not be picky about food, though it is most definitely a challenge.  Spanish food is not all that great.  

La Elección

Today is one of the most important days in American histroy, because we 're choosing a new leader during a time when the office of president has lost the faith of the people.  I'm a full-on democrat, and very excited about Barack Obama, because I believe that he can change our country for the better.  A majority of the students here have been sporting Obama buttons for some time now, and today, I recieved one from my aunt, Auntie Allie.  I haven't taken it off since I recieved it, except when changing clothes.  I've been scouring cnn.com for everything about the election (well, that's recent).  When I wake up tomorrow, we'll be very close to knowing who the next president is (stupid alaska and it's late closing time).  I plan on checking first thing, and then again when I get to school.  

If Obama doesn't win, I might have to consider moving back to London.  

Primero Post, Segundo Mes

So, this is my 2 month here in Zaragoza, and I'm very comfortable here.  I have a fantastic family: A mother and father along with 2 younger sisters.  Its so similar to my family at home, which is really, really nice.  I live in a house outside of the city, which is amazing, because I have a back yard and a big bed and a a pool and my own bathroom.  However, I am pretty far from the center of the city, which is where my school is.  The program that I'm here with, School Year Abroad, is located locally in a floor of what could be an embassy building in Plaza Aragón, right on the main road, Paseo de Independencia.  It's so close to everything, everything but my house!  On the weekends, it takes my 15 minutes by bus, on the weekdays, 25.  

I'm having an amazing time here, and trying to take advatage of everything I can.  I'm taking an art class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and tutoring a family with 2 children (I actually start tomorrow!), on Mondays.  Wednesdays are reserved for mandatory cultural activities, which tend to be fun, but I often get home late and in turn have to stay up late to do homework.  When Fridays turn around, I'm so burned out that I don't really do much.  I want to find a yoga class to do Fridays and Saturdays, because I seriously need excersize.  There is very little in the diet here that isn't starch.  Yet you don't see any fat people here... But anyway, Saturdays are for going out and meeting Spanish kids.  Sundays are for attempting to do homework.  I get distracted by the oprotunity to video chat with my dad.  Because of the time change, his work schedule, and my need for at least 8 hours of sleep, weekends are the only times we get to talk.  But I video chat with my mom as much as I can  We have an unusually strong bond, almost like that of Lorelei and Rory Gilmore of the Gilmore Girls, which i watch every week with my friend.  We found  place  we can watch tv online for free, so we do that and the office on Fridays. So mom and I e-mail each other and video chat whenever we can.  

Life here is pretty sweet.  Stay tuned, because there will most definitely be more.