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.
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
so that's all I can think of right now. if you have any questions let me know.
mi piso tiene la puerta de "hobbit" también :)
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