El Escorial

so yesterday I got to go to 'el escorial', which is a big monastery. we only went into the church part, but it was still so amazing. it's only a half-hour drive away, and my uncle lives there, so hopefully i'll be able to visit often. anyway, in the morning, we picked up our grandparents and headed out.

 so this is a fruit stand kind of in the middle of nowhere. but they're pretty popular. usually they sell watermelons and some other kind of melon that I don't know the name of. but yeah, pretty cute

  there is graffiti everywhere. I actually like it, I think the art is unique. it might be stupid at times, but I don't know. I like it. but I see it all the time.

 

here are other buildings and such that I saw on the drive

 

 

so when we were picking up our grandparents, we parked outside of the building that they live in (they have a piso), but it wasn't really a parking spot, but there were no other spots, so I was left to stand guard. yeah. me. standing guard. riiiight. they just said if the guy comes and starts to write a ticket tell him we're just here to pick someone up, just 5 minutes. so basically the whole 10 minutes it took them to bring my grandparents down I was trying to think of how to say that in Spanish and if the guy actually came i'd be screwed. but luckily, he did not, and we left without having to pay any money.

so anyway, it was really rainy yesterday. which I think was good because I miss cold, sweater weather, so I finally got to snuggle up in a coat and feel cold again. which I know sounds a bit odd, but I really do miss the cold. anyway, we got there and we walked a few yards to the entrance. and let me tell you, it is so much cooler in person than it looks in the pictures.

this isn't part of the big building, its more of like the entrance to get to 'el escorial'

this is my sister ana, my grandfather, grandmother, and my mom. and since it was raining I got a raindrop of my lens and didn't even notice so in a few of the pictures theres one spot that kind of fuzzy. anyway, aren't my grandparents so cute! ha, I love spending time with them

 

this is just one side of 'el escorial'. the floor is basically a square. hopefully some day I can see the whole building.

 

 

this is the entrance to the church. inside the church you aren't allowed to take pictures, but it was amazing. you walk in and in front is two rows of pews. on the right and left are old paintings and some sculptures, and the high ceilings were also painted. there was a huuuge organ that I really want to hear, and in the front was the altar. it was just amazing. describing it here isn't nearly enough. its seriously the most awesome thing I've ever seen. Ever.



So after we were done looking around, we went to a restaurant called la rueda, where we met up with my uncle Inda, his wife, and their 2 kids. At first we got these little cups of like carrot soup or something. It kind of tasted like chicken noodle soup broth, but thicker. And orange. So I wasnt a huge fan of that. But then we all ordered and I got rabo del Toro. Bull tail, literally. But it wasn't. It was just beef. I really liked it, but there was soo much food, I couldn't finish. I also tried clams, croquettas, some vegetable with cheese, and this dessert which I also couldn't finish. Just so much food.

At one point Inda was feeling really sick and had to leave. When he tried to stand up he fell against the table and he needed help to leave. So Sylvia, his wife, took him home, and when we were all done, abuelo paid, and we left. I saw the bill and it was 236 euros! 236! Oh my goodness. That's like $320. A lot. That's a lot, man. But it was good. So anyway, after that we went to Sylvia's house, where Inda was sleeping. But we just hung out and I slept for about an hour and a half. After that, we headed back home, and dropped off our grandparents. Also, I haven't mentioned that this whole time I've been sick. While we were walking around I didn't feel too bad, but once we got home, it really hit, so I decided to go to bed after watching a bit of tv. So I was in bed for about 10 minutes before I hear someone crying. I thought it was just the tv, but then I heard the noise get louder and my mom came up the stairs and knocked on my door. I came out and I kept hearing Inda and muerto. Inda died. We had just saw him a few hours earlier, I had even taken pictures of him, and now he's dead. Its so crazy to me. He was a really nice guy and spoke English with me when I didn't understand. And now I won't get to know him anymore. So I was kind of in shock last night.

                    this is Inda and abuelo. Its so odd to know I have the last picture of him.

So this morning my parents and Ana left to tell my grandparents that their son died. I cant even imagine. So here I am. I ate lunch at Lola's, our neighbor and good friend of my moms. She's super nice. She called my mom to ask how she was, and I learned that they're going to do an autopsy on Inda, so they won't know what exactly happened for 3 months, but they think there was some growth or something in his head.

So yesterday I had both the best and worst times of my exchange so far.
Yeah
   

 

this is a view of the whole thing. I basically went in through that middle door and straight back and that's it. But it was phenomenal

orientation in consuegra, toledo

so this past weekend the exchangers and rotex (past exchangers) from district 2201 all came to Madrid, and took a bus to Consuegra, Toledo. it was an hour and a half ride and we arrived at about 1930. we got out, were told what houses we were staying in, and went and unpacked our bags.

this is what our houses looked like. I think there were about 6 that we used. also, these are a couple of the many friends that I made. meeting all the other exchange students was one of my favorite parts. I had known of them through facebook but actually meeting them is so much better.

this is part of the town. after we had unpacked and ate dinner, we were allowed to go down to the little mini-carnival thing they were having until 12. there were lots of little rides and shops everywhere. first, my buddy and I walked all around by all the shops and rides, then we went with some other people to flamenco dancing. it was so awesome watching the dancers. sadly, I did not bring my camera to the fiesta so I don't have any pictures of it.





these are the many stairs we had to go up and down every time we went to the fiesta. so. much. climbing. but it was fun. the town was really old so just seeing all the houses and buildings and the big church was just amazing.

on one of the walks into the town, I saw them cleaning the streets with brooms and soapy water. it was quite odd to see it, but I guess its good theyre keeping it clean :)

so the next day, after getting only 6 hours of sleep, we ate breakfast and headed into town to this building where we got to hear all the rules and get all the information we needed about our visas and families, etc. it was long, but actually not boring. we learned how we would go about travelling throughout the year and what activities rotary had planned for the year. also, there's a cruise at the end of the year that goes to France, Italy, and somewhere else I cant remember. but its only going to be like 800 euros or something, so hopefully I can work something out and go, because that sounds amazing. during one of the breaks we had, all of us exchanged pins, which was one of the most fun parts. if you didn't know,  all rotary exchange students get a blazer, and we trade pins from our home country with everyone else and put them on our blazers. so anyway, after that presentation was done we went back and ate lunch. then after that everyone went to see the castle and the windmills. we had a tour guide that had only limited English, but it was still awesome to hear some of the facts about all of it.

 

 

 

 

 

so all that was super fun to see and explore. after that, we came back and did some activities with everyone, some of which included lots of balloons, which we had to clean up later... but eventually we ate dinner. afterwards, we again got to go to the fiesta. but we got to stay out until 2. so we went, and we walked around a bit. I got some pitufo flavored ice cream, which is blue, and basically tastes like superman except not quite as good. but ice cream is ice cream, so obviously I loved it. after that, I met up with my friend mary and we went to the music. it wasn't flamenco like the night before, but it was still really awesome. the day before it was more of a performance, but this day we were dancing. at one point mary went and asked someone to dance, and we all watched on the side and laughed at how cute and awkward it was. lol. but anyway we danced for a couple hours. then mary and I split off from the group because we were starting to get tired, but we didn't want to head back so we wandered around the town a bit and eventually got back and stargazed and talked for a while. then other people started to get back so some of us played a game of spoons, in which I got 3rd place :) after that I was exhausted, so I headed to bed. I fell asleep around 230, which actually wasn't too bad compared to some of the other girls.

the next day, we got up, ate breakfast, packed, stood around for a couple hours, and left. something was wrong with our bus, so after about 10 minutes we actually had to switch, so we got home around 1400. at that point I was extremely hungry, so I came home with papi, ate lunch and uploaded some pictures to facebook. I took a total of about 550, and narrowed it down to 66 to upload, so I think I did pretty well :)

 

at one point, we all got our blazers on (in the extreme heat, I might add) and got out our flags and got pictures of everyone together. so here are all the inbounds and rotex. in Spain almost almost all the inbounds are from America, but we did have some people from India, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Sweden.

 

 

and this is Mary and I. we clicked right away and I had a great time with her. earlier we had planned to play euchre, but we didn't find any one else who knew how to play, so that was kind of sad, but still we had an amazing weekend. unfortunately for me, she lives in the canary islands so I don't know when i'll be able to see her again.

 

so overall the weekend was amazing. I loved it.

 

random about madrid

so here in Madrid there are a lot of different things that I've noticed, so i'm going to try and list them all but usually I forget half the things I want to say anyway so we'll see how this goes.

1. wildlife: since I live in the suburbs of a big city, there isn't much forest or anything for animals to live in so the wildlife I have seen: a few ants, birds, bees, mosquitos (but even the bugs I have seen, there aren't that many, which is awesome), I think I saw a gecko once but im not exactly sure. and that's about it. obviously there are no deer or rabbits or squirrels, which is kind of sad, but also there are none dead on the side of he road so that's great!

2. speaking of driving, people are crazy here. like I said before, there are a lot of small cars, but there's still regular sized cars, but everyone goes at least double the speed limit, even though there are speed bumps everywhere. there's also a ton of round-a-bouts and hardly any stop signs. and stop signs say stop, in English, which I find odd. anyway, people drive fast and crazily, but they're also really good drivers because since so many people walk, there are a ton of crosswalks. here people hardly even look to see if cars are coming, you just walk across and the cars have to stop. usually when im in a car my mom is driving, and she is crazy! its just really fast and sharp turns and dizziness and fun. yeah

3. pets: a ton of people have dogs, but I only know one person with a cat so far. but dogs here are just awesome. like, all of them are just really good, obedient dogs. hardly anyone uses a leash when they're on a walk, and they don't bark too much or bite. its awesome.

4. cleaning: I don't have to clean anything. we have a maid. a frickin maid! and she's only like 22. but still, she comes almost everyday to do our laundry and wash the dishes and sweep the floor. I don't even have to organize my room. and she puts my clothes away. its really nice but I feel like I don't do anything to keep up the house. unlike in the US where my dad has me clean everything (love ya dad *wink* ).

5. clothing: people here overall just dress nicer. I wore my soccer slides to a rotary meeting, just because I was in a rush, and alex told me I look so American and Spanish people don't wear those. lol. but even at school its more formal. its not like I cant wear my sports shorts and tshirts, but no one else does. but I guess I do anyway... but that's because I don't have that many clothes with me anyway.

6. greetings: if you didn't know, you kiss peoples cheeks when you see them (not guys to guys, but girls to guys and girls to girls). also when you say goodbye.

7. food: I've already gone over the eating schedule, but the food here just isn't as greasy and fatty as America. lol I love the food here, its just not as much sweet. but the desserts are the same :)

8. TV: usually my dad watches tv every day, either sports or some show or anything that's on, really. but there are a bit less commercials. theyre shorter and don't happen as often, but they're still as annoying as they are in the US. lol

9. school: I also already went over this in the previous post, but I just want to add that I had gym class today. lol it was so fun. so first of all, I need to say I forgot my tennis shoes, so I had to wear my boots, so I kind of got yelled at, but that's okay. anyway, first we ran for like 5 minutes, then we did these stretches, then we did that thing where you sit on the floor and put your feet against that wood thing and see how far you can stretch forward and the teacher marks it down. then we got out medicine balls that were really light and threw them. that was it. yeah. fun lol. also I want to add that I go to school with 12 year olds and 18 year olds so that's really odd, its like middle school all over again. ugh

10. housing: I only have a limited knowledge of the housing and names of different things here, but here goes. so I don't really live in a "house" but in one of a string of skinny, connected houses (that's a really bad description sorry). I don't think anyone here has any lawn or actual land here, but anyway, there's also a 'piso'. this is basically a flat. one floor, usually for 2 or 3 people. so that's basically all I know, but there are probably apartments and stuff like that, too. also, like every building is made out of bricks which is pretty sweet.

11. smoking: a ton of people smoke, adults and teenagers. I haven't seen any weed, just tobacco, but still, there's a lot of it

12. weather: it. is. beautiful. when I go out in the morning to walk the dog, I have to wear a sweatshirt because it's a bit chilly, but during the day it is awesome. we always leave the doors open and its always the perfect temperature. also, it stays light here until about 8 or 830. which is great.

13. people: the people here are pretty much like the people in the USA personality wise. like, I know some jerks and some nerds and some really nice people. however everyone is a bit more 'touchy' with friends and even people they don't know. I mean, we kiss people's faces that we just met, so that says a lot. but as for skin, like 75% of people have darker skin like I do, and the other 25% look white. so basically its the same because half the girls tan in the USA so its not too different.

14. math: so I've had math class a couple times and there are so many different symbols. I've seen people write 1's in like 5 different ways, the comma and period are switched in numbers, and my math teacher puts the comma near the top of the number not at the bottom. yeah, I was really confused at first. also, the sign for divide is sometimes : which I had to ask about. so that's different.

15. websites: they end in .es obviously standing for espana.

16. inside the house: I have some pictures of the different things I've seen inside the house i'm living in.


light switches. they either look like this or they have 2 switches
also you usually push the bottom to turn it on so that's opposite

showers. you can see a little glass door there. that's all
the door that I get lol. the shower basically works the
same except I cant turn it on without stepping in so
I have to take the shower head out and set it on
the bottom of the bathtub so I can turn the water
on and let it warm up

the stove. its not attached to the oven, but it works basically the same. but here the numbers are 0-12.

this is a view of my kitchen. there's the table on the right and the cupoards on the left. also on the very right of the cupboards there's the washing machine! we don't use a dryer, but hang our clothes outside. which is pretty sweet. also, after our clothes are dirty, we just stick them in the washer until its full, there are no hampers or anything

I know its hard to see but this is the side of a window. to open the blinds you have to pull on the pulley thing on the right.

 this is the sink. we have a dishwasher but we only use it if we have guests over and have a lot of dishes. also usually there aren't that many piled up. but after we eat we just wash what we used and set in the cupboard above to dry. the bottom shelf is plastic and catches the water.

 

 

this is the microwave. I don't know what the top dial does, but the second on is the timer, but it only goes by minutes. the 3rd one is the temperature, but we don't move that, and the last one I also don't know about. so really I don't adjust anything but just stick my food in and press a button on the bottom that you cant see. pretty easy.

 okay this is on the top of the toilet and you push it to flush. I don't know why on this one that it's split n half, its usually just one button. but in our bathrooms we have the stuff that makes the water blue so I enjoy that. lol. but otherwise toilets are the same.

 

 

this is our milk stash. I don't know whats in the milk that makes it able to be stashed, but its really weird. it doesn't go bad or anything. also it has an extremely odd taste. im a big milk drinker back in the US (yay whole milk) but here, I hardly drink it at all. its like a really sweet, old milk taste. just weird. really weird.

 and hobbit doors! well, only front doors, but doors none the less. basically to open your front door you have to have a key, which kinda sucks, so the knob is just for looks, but its still pretty sweet. on the other side it's normal.









so that's all I can think of right now. if you have any questions let me know.

cole

so yesterday was my first day of school, although it was only 4 hours for the first day. but I was fine with that. anyway, I got there around 1010 and it started at 1020. I didn't really know what to do, and everyone else was outside, so I just sat down and waited. eventually I noticed that people were looking at these papers outside a couple of the doors. they said what group you were in. so here i'll explain how schooling works here.

I am in something called ESO, although I forget what it stands for. its for ages 12-16. there are 4 grades within ESO. im in the 4th grade. within those 4 grades there are different groups. for my grade there's A, B, C, an D. each of these groups has different classes. I don't remember what I chose, but I ended up being in B. So after ESO theres something called bachillerato. there are 2 grades in this, but I don't know how it's split further. but both ESO and bachillerato are in the same building.

so anyway, I went up to look at the papers and found my name and it said E4B. I had no idea what this meant. so im just like riiiiight, E4B. so at that point people were starting to go inside, so I was kindof just following the crowd and ended up going to the top floor. the doors had signs on them like 4 de la ESO C on them, but since at that point I didn't know what group I was in, I didn't know which to look for. so I found a teacher and basically said I had no idea what I was doing. so he said what grade are you in, and I said 4, and he asked what group and I said no idea, but by my name was E4B. so he was like oooooh then youre in group B. although I don't know for sure, I think it stood for ESO grade 4 group B. but im not sure if the E is ESO. anyway, he told me where the room was and I went in and sat down. there were about 30 green desks and chairs, and one bigger desk in the front. also, the teachers use chalkboards here, not whiteboards, which is pretty sweet. anyway, when everyone had arrived there were about 23 people or so. so we started out by the teacher writing out the schedule for 4B on the board. here, we don't have the same classes everyday. they're very mixed up, like I have math 3 times a week and history 3 times but they're not at the same time each day. Im not sure why they do this, but its kinda nice to have something different everyday. also, the teachers switch rooms most of the time, unless its the time for our optional classes; for example, I could choose French or technology, so since I chose French, I have to switch rooms because technology is in our main classroom. so first we had fisica y quimica, physics and chemistry. since it was the first day the teacher just explained what would be in the class, not that I understood that much anyway. but then we had recreo, which is basically a 25 minute break where people go outside and hang out and eat food, since we don't eat lunch at school. since I didn't know anyone, I just sat alone. which kinda stunk, but I was really tired and didn't want to go up to a group of people I didn't know. so after that was done we went back to the room and had lengua castellana; Spanish. the teacher put some stuff up on the board, I think the word patrimonio, but I've noticed a ton of people have terrible handwriting here so its hard to read, and he was seeing if people knew what it meant. it was almost like a grammar lesson, but also vocabulary, but I didn't understand a lot of it so im not exactly sure. then we had our optativas (optionals or whatever), but no teacher came in with the list of what classes we had all chosen, so we sat around for like 10 minutes then we all wandered out to the secretary and someone came out with the list and told us. I had chosen literatura universal, so I had to go to a different room. this other guy also had it so I just followed him. basically the whole day I was just watching people and doing what they did, if you haven't noticed. so we got to the room late, and sat down, and I have no idea what the teacher said at all, but I would assume about the books we would read or something. school gets out at 220, but the teacher let us out early, so that was the first day. the walk home was hot, but its still super nice. by that time I was super hungry so I got home and ate lunch with ana; leftover salad and chicken. yum. also to explain why this post is called cole (co-lay) its because we call school colegio, like college, but college is Universidad, so the nickname for school is cole.

so that night I had my first rotary meeting at 9. my mom drove me to hotel pozuelo, where alex, his father, another guy, and his daughter were standing outside. so I got out and joined them, and my mom left. I had known alex from the orientation day, but no one else. so more people kept showing up, and eventually we went in and down a floor into this room with a long table and like 20 plates of food. wow. it looked awesome. alex, Mercedes (she's 14 and wants to go to the US next year), and I sat down at one end of the table, and the adults everywhere else. there were 18 of us, I think. anyway, we started eating and I tried a ton of new stuff. there was this pumpkin soup thing in a glass that was really weird, salmon, a special ham (which alex told me is the poptarts of spain, lol), this mushroom and fish salad (which is super weird, there's no lettuce, only this really thin and long fish and icky little mushrooms), Spanish cheese, some kind of tapa with bread, ham and onions, salad, this odd potato cake thing, and my favorite part; the bread. bread here is just fantastic. also there was this dessert table with a chocolate cake thing and a vanilla cake thing, but they weren't really that sweet, but it was good, and also fruit. so the meal was great, but overall the meeting was really boring, especially since I didn't understand anything. in the beginning, the 3 of us kids gave little presentations of what we were there for, lol. mine was really short because I had to do it in Spanish and I didn't know exactly what to say, but it worked out. alex talked a little about his experience in the US, and Mercedes said why she wanted to go to the US. but then after all the adults were arguing, I mean talking, about what to do with money, as alex told me. he was very amused the whole time. apparently it was quite funny, but I really had no idea. so then after 2 and a half hours, we finally got up to leave. I had met my counselor, Javier, and he gave me a ride home, after figuring out exactly where I lived, lol, I knew my address, but his gps was being weird. he's the guy I go to if I have any problems with my family or something. so yeah, I got home and went to bed because I had school the next day, and I was exhausted.

so this morning I had to be at school at 830, so I got up and got ready and left at about 805. I got to school and went in, same as yesterday, but today we had different classes. I had lengua castellana, historia, tecnologia (where I was actually supposed to be in French, so I missed the first class of French, but whatevs), recreo (where I sat alone again, but I wont be tomorrow!), ingles (yay English, I gave a little presentation and now everyone knows im a foreigner), educacion fisica (where I didn't understand anything but apparently we have to bring in clothes for gym) and tutoria, which we have once a week, and this guy, our tutor, makes sure all our classes are going well, and stuff like that. then school ended and as I was walking I saw laura (previously spelled lora but obviously I have hearing and spelling problems) and we walked home together and made plans for tomorrow. so yeah, school. fun. kinda.

also, I found this picture of my host father when he was younger and he looks like the guy from Up! lol its awesome

 

so now he has white hair, but seriously its exactly alike

one week anniversary

so I've been here for a week already! wow it feels like its been... a week. lol I've done a ton of stuff but I also have a lot of free time so it does feel like a week.



oh my she is so cute

so the last two days I've met a ton of family. yesterday, my uncle Ramon, and my grandma Abuela (lol I don't know her name) came over. Abuela is 92. frickin 92! wow. I loved her little old grandma Spanish voice. we talked for a little bit but since it was hard to hear her, I ended up saying no entiendo (I don't understand) a lot. but she is super cute.

ramon and my father! ramon is 52 and my father 56

they came over for lunch but I already forgot what we ate, sorry. but we basically just hung out outside and in the living room and talked. they are relatives on my dads side, so it was awesome seeing him teasing his brother and having fun. also last night I went out with ana to Irene's (ee-reh-nay) house. we were there with 3 other girls for dinner; macaroni, tomato sauce and sausage. pretty good. after that 3 guys came and they were just talking and hanging. I was really tired, so I went home. but on the way ana said like 20 more guys were going to come. that's a lot. and we were just outside and there weren't that many seats. but anyway, they weren't there yet because they were watching soccer in a bar. which is not unusual. so yeah, I got home and went to bed.

today I got up around  1030 and sadly I haven't found a church yet. since im not catholic, it might be awhile until I do. but hopefully I can find some people at school or something that I can connect with. anyway, I got up and ate a nutella-and-bread breakfast. it was awesome. then after a while, family began arriving for the big lunch we were about to have. these people were all on my moms side. there was her brother (Ilda), his wife (Sylvia), and their 2 daughters (Pati and Lucia), and her mom and dad. I had already met her parents, but not the others. Ilda spoke English really well so we chatted about iowa and my house and I showed him some pictures. I know im supposed to be learning Spanish, but talking to someone in English is really nice. also they help me if I don't know a word, or they can explain a Spanish phrase that I don't get. it works out. so anyway, lunch. first there was potato chips, cheese, and little sausages set out while the food was finishing. we almost always have these as little appetizers. usually there are also olives, which im not a huge fan of. then we had salad with spinach, green tomato, prunes, potato, and some kind of fishy thing I don't remember. I only really like lettuce so I didn't eat much of that, sadly. then the main course was chicken. yay chicken!  then for dessert we had this lemon cake. oh my goodness it was delicious. Ilda told me that there's a pastry store in Madrid that supposedly makes the best lemon cakes and that's where they got it. and I have to agree, it was fantastic. its kind of like a lemon bar except there was more crust, the lemon part wasn't as tart and was creamier, and theres like a whipped cream like topping. so it was awesome. im loving the desserts here. I've also tasted and loved mango ice cream. which is weird because im not a huge fan of mango, but I love this stuff. so anyway we ate and chatted, and im becoming much better at separating words and understanding when people talk, but I've still got a long way to go. also, the person I actually exchanged with, Nando, my host brother, is in Buffalo, New York, so we all skyped with him after lunch. He is having a harder time with the language there than I am here, but it seems like he's still having a great time. then later I was talking with my grandparents and they said they wanted me to come over to their house, only me, and have lunch and go somewhere! wow I felt so loved. they are so cool. seriously people here are just really chill, its sweet. so then Ilda and his family went home, and we took abuela and abuelo home. they live in more of downtown Madrid, although its all pretty much downtown...lol its just more in the city. so we took them home, then dropped ana off so she could go see her boyfriend, and my mom and I drove around part of Madrid and I saw some big parks and statues that hopefully if we find a parking spot next time I can get some good pictures :) so that was fun.

then we came home and I ate some bread and ham for dinner, and of course some mango ice cream. I also chatted with a few of my friends on facebook and here I am.

also, oh my goodness, huge revelation, I found out my dogs name is actually vera. like what the heck. I thought it was bella. but I guess its pronounced basically the same way. so no one noticed that i said it wrong, but then I asked ana how you spell it and she said v-e-r-a. wow. embarrassing. lol. so that was my revelation of week one. we'll see what happens next week ;)

friends and fun

just to let you know, I wrote this, went to change the youtube song, accidently exited out of this tab, thought it was deleted, finished rewriting it, posted, then saw this was still here. ARGH. but I like this one better so yeah. here ya go

wow. what a day. I did a ton of schtuff today.

first, I woke up at 6:40. yeah, that's right. but it was all for naught. you see, I thought I had to leave for school at 7:30, but apparently not. we actually left at 9:30. yeahhh, so I was all ready and stuff, so I just went on facebook and youtube and just busied myself. but I actually got a little bit more sleep right before we had to leave, so that was good. anyway, Ana, Raquel (Ana's friend) and I headed off to my school, Gerardo Diego. we stopped for a couple minutes for them to roll their own cigarettes, but otherwise its an easy walk. smoking here is extremely common, so its not odd at all that they do that. anyway, we continued walking. its only about 10 minutes. we got to the school and went in, looking for where I had to go and asking around, the usual. so we finally got to this room, where Ana and Raquel left me to fend for myself. however, about 3 minutes earlier we had asked a girl where to go so I was kind of following her and she was friendly. Her name is Lora, I believe, and we immediately became friends. anyway, this room had desks, but apparently, like, everyone had to go in there so all the desks were full and we had to sit on the floor. there were about 100 kids in there. yeah, pretty tight and hot. there were about 10 teachers in the front, and one was speaking, I presume about the rules, although I only caught a little bit of the speech. i'm in the 4th year of ESO, which i'm not going to explain right now, and Lora is in the 2nd year of bachillerato (above me). so after the speech we had to go with our grades and get a tour of part of the school. so at first they called the grades inder ours, so we had a bit of time to stand around. Lora introduced me to one of her friends, Alex (i'm not sure if that's his Spanish name or what, but that's what he said so I don't know) who exchanged to seattle last year. Yay I found an exchange student! he spoke great English, as did Lora, so the three of us immediately became friends. they're the kind of people I love to be around, just funny and nice and awesome. so yeah, that was cool. anyway, I missed the call for my grade, so Lora said to me 'I think you have to go now' but I had no idea where so I was just like, um, right. so I went out of the room and joined this group of students, but they were apparently the 1st year of bachillerato, I found out after asking someone. all in Spanish let me remind you. so I asked 'where is 4 de la ESO?' and theyre just like, 'idk man Spanish Spanish spanish' that I did not understand. so eventually I heard the word secretaria so I went to the secretary and im like 'um im American/stupid and I have no idea where im supposed to be' but I don't really know how to talk so she had no idea. and this lady, man, she looked annoyed and pissed, so I was a bit afraid to say anything, but this other lady came out and was nice and led me to someone who spoke English. yay English! so she basically told me that I had missed my tour, which I was cool with, since I wouldn't have understood anyway. so then I saw Lora and Alex again and explained what was happening and we laughed. it was nice :) its so hard for me to express myself in Spanish so being able to laugh with them was great. at one point a really tall guy, like, really tall, came up to me and said 'so what are you doing here?' lol apparently they don't get many exchangers. I was just like 'uhhhhh, going to school?' lol. so then school was done for the day, but I guess it wasn't really a school day, just the informational meeting thing.  Lora also lives in Aravaca, so we walked most of the way home together. she is super cool, so its great that i'll get to see her a lot.

so I got home. and Ana said she was going with Raquel and one of her friends, Mano (which is hand, so I don't know if that's a nickname or his actual name or what, but whatever) to lunch then to his house. and she asked if I wanted to come, and of course, I did. so I had about an hour, then we left. we took the train to Principe Pio, then the metro all the way to Opera. there we went to McDonald's. it was my first time ordering in Spanish, so I ended up not getting a drink because I was afraid to ask and say it wrong. lol. so we ate outside, and its beautiful during the day, so that was sweet. basically I didn't understand anything, so I watched this little girl play with her balloon and try to catch pigeons. also, during the walk to lunch and everywhere we went after that, we saw many street performers, from singers to a cellist (my favorite) and those guys who do the still life thing. that was pretty sweet. anyway, mcdonalds, it was pretty much the same, except there was someone who came to pick up our trays. yeah. so then we went to mano's house. we did a lot of walking, which I'm not mentioning much, but just seeing parts of Madrid was awesome. I would've had my camera, but i'm very hesitant to bring it anywhere just because I don't want it broken or stolen. and I don't have a phone to take pictures, so that's kinda sad. anyway, we walked through the puerta del sol! that's basically where theres a fountain and statues and maybe an important building but I don't know. so that wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, but it was still fun :) so we then walked to mano's. it was a really nice little apartment thing. there we just listened to music and they smoked a bit. so after we said goodbye to mano and headed back to Principe Pio. Ana went off to hang out with a different friend of hers, so I stayed with Raquel and her girlfriend Maria that we met up wih. yes, another Maria. but they're super cool and we just sat outside and talked. They taught me a lot of slang and bad words in Spanish, which I think is good to know, but lol it was fun. Maria had gone to Ireland for 5 years earlier, so she had great English and it was easy to communicate and have fun with them.

so then I headed home, by myself, on the train. it was an easy ride but my first time alone. total, throughout the whole day, I had spent a lot on metro and train tickets. probably like 10 euros. yeah. most people have something called a bono, which you buy once a month and then you don't have to pay each time you utilize public transportation. it kinda sucks paying out of my own pocket, but I always have a great time. so I got home and went on youtube for like 2 hours, which is always fun. then it was about 21:30 and my parents were out so I made mah own dinnaaa. my mom had already cooked rice yesterday so all I did was cook some turkey to go with it. it was great. I also just tried cola-cao, which is the chocolate milk mix of Spain. the milk here is so odd it was hard for me to appreciate it. then Ana got home and she and her friend had pizza, which I didn't have any :( but then they headed out again, and here I am. other rotary students in Spain from other districts are here in Madrid for their orientation (mine is the 20th) so I'm trying to see if I can go and meet them sometime, but we'll have to see.

so finally after 1.5 hours I finish my blog post! yay lol
so yeah, a great day

my movie experience

so after my totally awesome fun day that I described in the last post, we went to see a movie. theaters here are very similar, but there are obvious differences. when you walk in, there isn't a counter where you buy tickets, theres just a computer touch screen thingy that you click the movie you want and buy tickets. also, you have to choose your seat while you buy the ticket, which is actually kind of clever because then you don't have to be right next to anyone if its not too full and you know where you're going to sit so you don't have to look for a seat. so that was nice. also the theater is on the second floor, above lots of different little shops. however, there might only be a few like this, because the whole building was called 'kinepolis' so it could've been a little mall thing, then they added a theater. there are probably just theaters out there somewhere. so after you buy your ticket, you go through the little place where they tear your tickets or whatever, and past that is where you can get food! yay food. so theres all the regular popcorn and soda, but theres also this candy thing, like at supermarkets, where you have a bag and scoop whatever candy you want and you pay as much as it weighs. here they had all Haribo candy. yum. so we got some of that. anyway, we walked into the actual theater part, and it was basically the same as in America except there were much more comfortable seats, and it was wider; like the stairs were wider, and the seats were farther apart. it was nice. so we watched the movie (tu eres el siguiente: you're next, a horror movie, which I don't like, and it was just weird, the Spanish kind of made me laugh anyway, but I kept up, it was obvious what was happening) and at the end, you go out a different way than you went in. you come in through the hallway thing, and here its only on one side, and you exit through a door on the other side, which leads to a hallway which goes outside. also overall, the whole theater building was bigger. there were many more places to sit and talk, and there were more TV's showing different trailers or what not.

so yeah. Spanish theaters

9-11

hola!

so recently I haven't been too busy but i'm having a great time! i'll give you a glimpse of my schedule: every morning I have to take the dog, bella, out on a walk. this is definitely helping me get to know my neighborhood and how to get around. and the dog is awesome, so that helps too. the weather here is fantastic, but it gets pretty chilly in the morning. so then I get home after about half an hour and have free time to do whatever because my parents are at work and my sister ana is at university until 12. so I usually get out my camera and get pictures of different things, or go on facebook, or take another walk. then ana gets home and she usually hangs out with one of her friends, they talk and I try and understand, but they speak very very quickly. however, I am getting better already. also, ana is super nice and knows English really well (she went to Ireland for a year) so she helps me out a ton. so then around 230 or 3 we have lunch, ana, her friend, and I, usually salad or spaghetti, something simple because we have to make it. then ana takes the dog out, and sometimes I go with her, sometimes I stay home with my dad, who gets home around that then. also, that's siesta time, so I take a nice long nap :) happy nap time. anyway, since im not quite used to the time difference, I sleep for like 3 hours. so I get up around 6, and go downstairs, papa is probably watching tv, so I join him. basically just hang out until 9ish- dinner. then we might  watch a soccer game or the news, which is fun. I like soccer. but if we watch some other show I have no idea whats happening. and what really stinks is that the shows are dubbed in Spanish. and im not a huge fan of dubbing so that's kindof annoying. anyway, then I go to bed. yay sleep.

buuuuuut today, I did something totally different. so first I woke up at 8, because bella was barking -_-  and went down and ate breakfast. so I had cereal, frosted flakes to be exact, which is great, except the milk here is really odd. its not as sweet, and it has just an odd taste. but I guess i'll have to get used to it. also we have a milk stash, so apparently milk doesn't go bad here or something. I don't know. anyway, I ate breakfast, and my mom took me to my school and I registered! yay. so that was pretty easy to do. then we came home and ana said we were going to eat with her grandparents. my moms mom. so we got ready, and headed out. abuela lives in Madrid, so we had to take the train. yay my first train ride here! so yeah the train is only like 2 blocks away so we got there, bought the ticket, and got on. aravaca (where I live) is just outside Madrid so it was only like a 3 minute ride. so we got off and got on the metro! yay first metro ride. no.  it was basically the same as the L in Chicago so it wasn't that exciting. so yeah, we took the metro and walked a few blocks to abuelas. there we had a snack, and waited for lunch to be done cooking. we had chips and salchichas (basically sausage but this kind was in slices). so then abuelo arrived. he is pretty cool. at random times he just falls asleep so it was really cute. anyway, we talked for a while, well, they talked for a while. then lunch was ready. first we had this bean stuff. and for me, I only like cold bushs baked beans, so this was not very exciting. I felt really bad for only eating a little and when asked if I liked it saying nada mucho. but really I don't like that kind of thing. and apparently its very Spanish food so I might have to get used to it. but that's okay. so when ana and abuela were clearing the table for the next round, abuelo and I talked. he doesn't know English so it was fun. we talked about iowa and my family and such, every once and a while him falling asleep ^.^ so then ana and abuela brought out this beef dish thingy. it was really good. the sauce was really sweet and just overall I liked it. so then we had fruit for dessert. I had an apple, and I tried this new fruit that I still don't know the name of. it was some kind of white melon. Im not a big fan of melon but it wasn't too bad. so yeah, abuelas was fun.

also, abuela needs dialysis, so we then went to the hospital. by taxi! so many new ways to travel. the hospital was pretty small and simple, so we just went in and sat down to wait for her to go into the room. ana told me that sitting a few chairs away was a ex-prisoner, who had apparently killed his wife 0_o wow. so yeah we saw some guards around him. but he needed dialysis too so what can ya do. so yeah, abuela went in, and we waited for mom to pick us up. so we drove home and here I am, writing my blog. I wish I had pictures, but it was raining today. i'll definitely get some tomorrow.

hasta luego!

wow. spain.

so here I am in Spain. it's still just hitting me that I'm here. Freaking Spain! anyway, I flew from Cedar Rapids to Chicago to Boston to Madrid so I had a long flight. however, my friend Sean was with me and he continued onto Alicante, but he made the ride go quite a bit faster. so I arrived in the airport and we had to take a train to the main part of the building so we could go through customs which was much faster than I expected, and then I picked up my bag. our flight was a bit late so I arrived later than scheduled and my host parents were very worried. aw. but they are such sweethearts.

my mom and my sister speak really good English so that helps me out a lot. immediately after the airport we went to a churreria, where we had churros and chocolate, which were not as sweet as I was expecting them to be. the chocolate was thick and not really milky or sweet, but overall it wasn't that bad.

my sister's name is Ana and when I got home, she was with her friend, Alea, and we took the dog out and walked around the neighborhood. its a very beautiful place. brick buildings and lots of houses together. our house has 4 floors, and a neighborhood pool.

this is my room. its about the size of my one at home and I have enough closet space so I really like it, and the nice view of my neighbors house

    the beautiful brick roads

notice in the picture below that the washing machine is in the kitchen. at first I didn't even realize it until Ana pointed it out. lol

so then we went to another of her friends houses and I met more people but I don't remember their names, but they all speak really quickly and I could only catch a few things. other than that, whenever the neighbors said hi or my parents speak to me I can understand very well. so after that we got home and I unpacked, which I am an expert at and it took like 3 minutes, and I got out my tablet and got on facebook of course. since I didn't sleep at all on the plane I fell asleep on the couch for an hour. my parents went out shopping and when they got home they were quite surprised because it wasn't siesta time yet. so we ate; two different types of noodles, lettuce with vinegar and salt, bread, and some beef afterwards. with coke. it was my moms birthday a couple days ago so we had cake but I was too full to eat any so i'll eat that later :) so after that it was siesta time and I took another nap, got up, and watched part of a crime show with Ana for a bit. now my parents aren't here so I've been taking pictures of the house to post on here.
so yeah, Spain. i'm loving it <3

PS this whole editing a post thing with pictures isn't going so hot, so sorry that this post isn't visually attractive, im workin on it