9 months and counting

wow. its been awhile. so I've done a few things since I've last written but mainly I've just been lazyyyyy. I finished school two days ago but im still doing swim. and orchestra ended with our last concert last Saturday. lately I've been hanging out at lauras house and taking late night walks to get ice cream. its been a great summer so far. anyway, for what I did before:

I hung out with Sergio

 

I showed him the temple

 

 

 

I went on a small trip to the north of spain with 10 other exchangers from the other districts

 

 

 

this is in the national park of spain where we hiked for a few hours

 

the most beautiful part of spain I've seen so far (I got a lot more pictures but they're on the flashdrive all the way up the stairs....)

 

 

and i also moved back to my old house.

 

but something very special about today is that its my fathers birthday. hes getting so much better from his stroke and I miss him a ton, but i'll be back soon enough. he's an amazing dad <3

 



 

he's also a badass

 

 

M





lately

I haven't written since I went on semana santa, so i'll be telling you about when we had another short vacation and I went to Almeria, and just whats been up.

so in spain there was labor day on may 1st, a Thursday, and we got Friday off of school as well. so my old host mom offered to take me to vera, Almeria (in the south) to her summer home for the weekend. and of course I accepted. so we went, and we met up with her friends, Javier and Ester. vera is on the beach so basically everyday we went to the beach until lunch time, ate, and then in the afternoons visited some place around vera.

 

this is Javier, me and ester when we visited the little village in the mountain mojacar

 

the beach of vera

 

the dock and batman

 

I got to climb so many trees it was amazing

 

this is when we climbed up the hill to visit jesus (see next picture). one of my favorite photos I took

 

another favorite. it was pretty cool seeing jesus, honestly. and the sunset was great

also, my Canadian friend marie left yesterday and I am really sad I wont see her again for a while. but im glad that I have her friendship and that we spent the time together that we did. she was here for just 3 months, and they went by sooo quickly. this past Friday we hung out and then sunday we had a barbecue with all the Canadians that were leaving. this is marie and I being cuties

 

 

 



 so yeah that's whats been up. I also just today won the math-photography contest that I entered with a photo I took in the Korean palace. I would show you but ugh to look through all those photos again. anyway, it was cool.

also, im eight months in already and I cant believe it. im now planning my summer trips and im so excited. my mom is coming so soon and honestly I think this summer is going to be one of the best.

M

 

los toros

so I went for the first and last time to see la corrida de los toros. I went with marie, max, devin and sophie, and the tickets were only 4 euros. we sat at the very top so my photos aren't that close, but you'll get the idea. but anyway, I hated it. and I cant imagine why people think its fun.

heres what happened

 

they watered the field. to make it easier for the bullfighters not to fall and die. and also put down 2 circles of white sand, which you'll see later

 

this is a picture from where we were in the stands. notice the white part in the middle where I would assume important people, like a king, would sit

 

they brought two horses out that went to the kings seat and they did a little bow or whatever

 

and then everyone came out: the fighters, horses,  and some workers

 

the first bull (we think they do 4 or 5, but we only stayed for 2) about half an hour each

 

they tire the bull out a bit.

 

then they bring out 2 horses, opposite each other so whichever way the bull goes, there's one there. the horses are all padded and I think a cloth is over their eyes so they don't see, but the fighter gets the bull close enough so the bull rams into the horse and the guy on the horse sticks a stick thing with a point on the end (sorry I don't know the word for it, a spear, more or less) into the part between the neck and the shoulder, making the bull bleed. in this photo the bull has already been injured, and you can see all the blood coming out.

 

I hope you can see, but theres also little red/yellow and white things coming out of the back. before the main fighter comes out, they stick these in the bull (up to 6) to continue to tire and hurt it. after they do all those things to the bull, the main guy comes, wearing gold and white, and with a red cloth (the others pink and yellow). the point of this guy is to stick a sword into the neck of the bull, later pull it out, and then stick it back in.

 

after he does his little show, the other guys come back and circle the bull. at this point the bull hardly goes after the cloth and is exhausted. theyre waiting until it falls

 

it goes down on its knees, and they finally kill it.

 

the 3 horses come out, they tie a ring around the bulls neck and its pulled away.

 

and those guys in the blue pick up the bloody sand

 

and im not sure where the bulls go, but yeah. that's what happens.

 

 



so I hated it. it was disgusting and mean. im glad I went for the experience but it was not fun. and this is what spain is known for. bullfights and paella. I cant even imagine how many bulls are killed each year in each city in spain.

M

Valencia

semana santa. aka easter break. in march my dad was planning on coming, then that got delayed. then I was planning on going with my host family, but they couldn't find a ticket. then my counselor said we were going to the pyranees. but guess what, we went to Valencia instead! which was fine with me because I hadn't been there yet. so we got off school on Thursday, I went to my counselors house on Friday, and we left for Valencia on Tuesday. meanwhile, I hung out with a couple friends and wandered around the neighborhood.

 

the first tree I've climbed all year. it was amazing

 

I played chess with alex (which was a 5 minute game because he said he "didn't want to think," he "got too bored". but then I played with his friend and got beat. barely, though ;)

 

 



so those couple days were good, especially since I got to sleep in. then we headed off to Valencia. only a 3 hour car ride so it wasn't too bad. for those of you who don't know, Valencia is the region on the east coast of spain. we went to Sagunto, about 30 km north of Valencia city, where they have an apartment. the reason we went there instead of the mountains was because my counselor's dad wasn't feeling well, so when we arrived he went off to see him as we sat around the house.

the next day we went to la playa, and it was fantastic. the water was cold, but Barbara (11 years old) and I swam anyway. there weren't many people because it was a work day and their vacations are different.

 

that's barbara

 

it was really, really great

 



so we went to the beach for a couple days, and then went to Valencia, the city. its one of the biggest port cities, and its famous for paella. if you don't know what paella is, what are you even doing. im actually not a huge fan of it, but when its made with chicken and not sea food, its amazing.

 

this is a store only selling paella pans. the one in the back left is huge. they love their paella.

 

this is a little map of part of the town.

 

the great cathedral. although these days I feel like I've seen every cathedral there is...

 

 

 

 



we had been looking online for interesting things to do in Valencia, and alex found this thing called the xroom. its basically where youre in this room for an hour and you get certain clues that lead to codes that lead to more codes that open locks and you have to get out. it was pretty fun, actually. we also went and got delicious ice cream. then walked around a bit more and went home.

over the last few days we went and visited the underground caves (pretty, but kinda boring),  and the castle (pretty fun).

 

view of sagunto

 

meeee with view of Valencia in the way way back

 

Susana

 

 

 

so overall it was just super fun. i wish I had brought my nice camera, but its nice not having to worry about taking pictures. ALSO, we got ice cream like twice every day so that was amazing. I tried so many different flavors. and at the end I got this orange thing but it turned out to be not an orange thing and ended the streak terribly. but thats okay, now i know.

 

anyway, now we're back to school and im going to try really hard this trimester so I can pass all my classes.

 

also, if all goes well, i'll be traveling to the canaries for a couple days, but I dont have all the permission stuff done yet, so we'll see.

 

M

korea

so as a warning, this will be extremely long. it will entail my 9 days that I spent in korea. parts of it wont be in sentence form but more of like a list because I have a ton to talk about. here goes.

day 1:
12 hours in a plane. run and meet emmy. die. of happiness of course. buy flavored milk (strawberry) and bus card. realize we have like 5 hours before mom comes. take a ton of photos:

 

 

emmys selfie

 

my selfie

 

grumpy faces

 

she so cute

 

sisters para siempre

buy ice cream in shape of fish with red bean paste inside. delicious. wait more. talk. mom comes. die again.

 

note the hair did by emmy when we were super bored

get on bus to go to ansan where emmy lives. get on subway. get off and meet emmys best friend coraline (from france).

 

coraline is in the green coat

go to Hivice hotel that was surprisingly cheap but really nice but that also didn't even ask for mums name when we signed in. walk around a bit and go to a restaurant. we ate spicy japchae (consists of glass noodles and vegetables), and mandu (kinda like an empanada). learned of emmys amazing Korean. went back to hotel and went to sleep.

day 2:
we got breakfast tickets from the hotel (which were needed to get in) so we went down to eat breakfast, which was only open from 7-830. it was a whole buffet thing and the pineapple was great. we had kinda planned some things to do so we went near emmys old house and went on a hike type of thing

then we met emmys host mum and sister and ate 'shabuh shabuh'. or something like that. it was basically a big bowl of broth and we added meat and mushrooms and all sorts of vegetables. I really liked it, although some of the plants were not quite to my taste. after that we ate like this rice soup. during the whole meal we were totally impressed with emmys korean. its so cool to listen to her talk and understand. so after that we went to her house and watched some tv. then took the bus home and took a nap. then we met up with coraline again  and went to a movie: 300. it was pretty lame. so afterwards we got some cupcakes. which were pretty good. then we needed to go shopping, so we walked to a homeplus. which is like a corte ingles; it has food, and clothes, and everything you will ever need, except cheaper. so we bought snacks: yogurt, chocolate covered pomegranates, choco pies, yogurt, and chips. after all that we were super tired and went to the hotel and fell asleep.

day 3:
we woke up, ate breakfast, and went back to sleep. emmy and I watched the movie 'hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy'. pretty good movie. then we took the bus to a park and walked around a bit.

 

on the way

 

this photo inspired by my nephew

    after that we got Chinese food (a lot like Korean food really), and later, some ice cream.

then we took the subway to anyang to do some shopping. we went to the underground, which is just a ton ton ton of little shops underground. mostly clothes. so we walked around for a while and got some stuff. after that we met up with another exchange student named anna whos actually from Platteville like us. so that's pretty cool. we went to a cat café (drink expensive drinks and have cats all around), which was fun.

 

 

literally me the whole time

 

we got cat food on our hands to feed the kitties

then we went to a meat restaurant thingy where its like a buffet of meat but you have to cook it yourself. and it was seriously delicious.  we could cook as much as we wanted and it was amazing. we made little lettuce and meat sandwiches and I loved it. then we went home to sleeeeep.

 

so that's emmy and anna. and you can see the plate of meat on the right and we're cooking it with some pineapple

 

here you can also see the side stuff to eat with the meat

 

this is a lichi. or leechee. I don't know how to spell it. I've had leechee candies and I really like them. I thought it was good. odd texture though

 

day 4:
this day we had planned to go to the zoo. so we ate and got on the subway and went to the zoo. but as it turns out the zoo was closed due to an outbreak of bird flu. so that sucked. instead we went to the  myeongdong market/underground. which was a lot like the anyang one. after that we wandered around a but through seoul.

 

fountain with some big building behind it

 

regular shopping street

 

we went near a bank an it had a ton of different countries and the money they use. I looked at all of them individually and its really interesting. what people they have on the bill, if they have any. what amount they use. the name of the money (dollar, yuan, rupee, etc). super cool

 

this is the money museum

we walked a ton. then walked some more and went to the namdaemoon market. then finally went home.

 

part of namdaemoon

day 5:
so before, we had had breakfast tickets, but we had used them. the first day we got 3, and used them that day, then later went down and asked for more, and got 6. so then this day we didn't have any. so we asked and apparently you have to pay for them, but we had gotten more for some reason. it was weird. so we didn't eat the breakfast buffet. we ate in the room and later went shopping for shoes. afterwards we headed back to the hotel and ate lunch, consisting of choco pies and pears. then after that amazing meal we went to emmys school. her homeroom teacher (a cute little short guy) showed us around and took us to different classrooms. we were quite popular, and I waved at everyone. it was awesome. we went to an English class and sang the cup song. that was weird. but fun. we got pictures with emmys class and I saw a ton of cute Korean guys. then we met the president of the school and it was super formal and the English teacher translated for us. he gave emmy and mum hand towels with the school name in it (emmy later gave hers to me). so it was really cool to meet him and he was a cute little old man, but they just have so much respect for elders its so interesting. the teachers bowed really low and the English teacher was super nervous translating and you could really tell that the prez is an important guy. so after that we left and got ice cream, of course. this whole time emmy was looking for this kind called papico. which is like the chocolate fudge bars from America. delicious. and we finally found it at a little store outside the school. we also tried to find a chicken place but all the ones we saw were closed so instead we went to loteria. basically the mcdonalds of korea. after that we went home and emmy and I watched a movie and fell asleep.

day 6:
since we didn't need to go to breakfast really early anymore, we slept in. and for lunch went to this little kimbap restaurant (kimbap is kinda like sushi, but Korean. I don't think it has fish in it). after that we went to the modern art museum. we walked there and went in and wandered around a bit, but ended up not really going into the museum part. so we went to the gift shop and got some stuff and left.

 

on the walk there we saw quite a few little things

 

 

 

outside the museum. there were a ton of sculptures

 

the side of the museum

 

we planned on going to a park and afterward meet emmys old host mum, but the times were changed and we didn't have time to go the park, so emmys old host mum picked us up and we went to a really nice restaurant and ate a ton of good food.

 

this is like seaweed pancake. pretty good actually.

then we went to her house and met the 2 exchangers there now, juan (brazil) and jack (Taiwan). theyre super cool.

 

from left: juan, jack, me, emmy, emmy's old host mum

her former mum works at a movie theater and gave us tickets so we went and saw noah. it was alright. after that it was cold and we had to walk home, so it ended up being a kind of run. but it was fun.

day 7:
slept in again.  we had planned to go the palace. so we took the hour long subway to seoul and first went to the palace museum.

 

one of my favorite photos

 

history of korea

 

there are so many grammar mistakes I cant even tell you

then to the actual palace

 

super cool to see a really old palace and then over the wall is the city

 

through one gate

 

and another

 

and another

 

there were some show things goin on

 

super cool ceilings throughout the whole thing

 

the royal seat. you can kinda see the painting of the sun, moon, and five peaks. its pretty famous and there was stuff about it in the museum

 

the little guys on the roofs were amazing

 

the folk museum.

 

another favorite. actually taken with my phone.

after that we headed towards insadong. a long street with shops on both sides. and on the way there we found a bulgogi restaurant (bulgogi is thin beef in some sort of sauce with peppers and onions, etc) it was delicious as usual.

 

the side dishes for the bulgogi

so then we went down the street and got some souvenir type things. in the street we got Turkish ice cream (super thick but amzing) and fried dough. we walked for a ton and then went home. emmy and I watched another movie (now is good) and went to sleep.

 

the sign says insadong and some other stuff lol

 

day 8:
slept in again. we were going to go to namsan tower but emmy and mum didn't want to go into seoul again, so we didn't go. so we went to a pizza place and had bulgogi pizza. it was alright, not like American pizza. then we went home and mum and I walked around a bit while emmy stayed at the hotel. we saw these 2 young guys again, who were at loteria before, at a table next to us, and it was odd. but they were cute so its all good. then emmy and I watched the hobbit while mum slept. we went to emmys house to pick up some coats for mum to take home with her. packed. and for our last night, we decided to go to noraydong (Korean karaoke). we went with juan and coraline and it was the most fun thing. we went for an hour and a half and had a ton of fun and it was seriously just awesome. we got a 100 on hotel California. we were very proud. then we got ice cream and went home.

day 9:
say goobye to emmy. leave with mum to airport. say goodbye to mum. fly away.

 

so overall it was freaking amazing. here are some random photos that I have that don't really fit into the story.

 

it may be hard to see but it says 21th. so many mistakes

 

they were piano stairs. PIANO STAIRS. and they actually played the note. so that's awesome

 

mum and I ran across the road and emmy stayed behind and I thought it quite funny

 

movie theaters. really really comfortable.

 

hilarious shirt that I saw at forever21

 

more cool stairs. we also saw some that had how many calories you were burning going up.

 

some street performing by insadong

 

 

in the subway. usually not this empty, let me tell you. many times we were standing the whole ride

 

sooo many lights. lights and lights and lights

 

our window view

 

this is korea. where all the shops are there, and there are signs everywhere. here in spain its like there are stores on the bottom floor and apartments above. but in korea, its all stores and huge apartment complexes in different places

 

we bought a cake for all the missed birthdays

 

street signs and a cool city view in the back.

 

 

so thats that. it was a phenomenal trip. i loved the food and the people I met. but I dont know if its somewhere i would go back to. it seems like if you go once, you have enough. but it was awesome. really, truly, awesome.

 

M

 

 

also, my mum still has to send me some photos, so there will be another post with those. including the ones with emmy's class.