D.I.Y.

D.I.Y.=Do it yourself. And sometimes, that's necessary in the life of an exchange student. It's up to you to have the right attitude about changes and events that you can't control. And it's up to you to make sure you have a good time even through that.

Well, this weekend I was supposed to spending with my club president from last year in Florida, while she's on vacation with her husband in Benitachell (a town about two hours north of my own). Lindsay (another fabulous exchange friend from Tampa) was supposed to join us as well. Unfortunately, we couldn't go, but I couldn't get in contact with my Patty to let her know. I went to work with my host mom Friday morning, since my Patty was supposed to pick me up from there, and I didn't go to school. I got a hold of Patty around 9:30, and we worked out a plan for her to head down here tomorrow night (Monday) for dinner with my host family, and then to my Rotary Meeting! After we figured all that out, it was only around 10 in the morning, so I asked my host mom if I was going to school. I actually really enjoy school  here, so I wouldn't have minded in the slightest (almost preferred) if she said yes. However, she said she had work to do around the Archives, and "would I mind just staying here all day?"....not really! I had all of my Castellano workbooks and excersizes, so I figured I would just work on those until it was time to go home. A tad boring, but what else was I going to do?

GO TO THE LARGEST MARKET IN EUROPE BY MYSELF?

Absolutely! :) It was my host mom's suggestion, and who was I to say no? It was my first time going somewhere completely by myself, but I was fine with everything and had a really great time. Torrevieja is a very popular tourist town for many people from the U.K. and Sweden as well, so there are actually quite a few people here who speak English. Not many of them go to my school, and I've only met a few "in the street", but in the market, a bit later in the afternoon...it's practically all tourists! I ended up translating for more than a few people while I was there, and the feeling of success and pride at being able to help someone else for one time in the last six weeks was incredible! My host parents were not as excited as I was when I told them, but I kept hold of that successfull rush. Go Nicole!

Later on that day, after the market and a lunch of Kepab, my host dad went to take my host brother to his prestigious music class he had from 4 until 8 or 9 that night! My host mom and I headed back to the house for an hour or so, while she finished preparing a presentation she had to give later that night in Cartagena. I was apparently going with her, and the plan was for me to sit during this presentation for roughly two or three hours, and "listen"...hmmm, maybe not. I knew that there were three other exchange students in Cartagena, so I quickly wrote to them to see what plans they had for that night. Luckily, I was able to make plans with Maya, an exchange student from St. Louis, Missouri. We ended up spending three or four hours walking around the town, with a bit of shopping thrown in! It was a really great, impromptu night had by all!

 Saturday brought us new adventures, memorable stories, and even a few moments of "Oh my, what was I thinking...". I know, interesting day.
It started with all four of us needing to take a shower in the short time span of an hour. Unfortunately, there is not enough hot/warm/relatively not ice water for four people to shower here, so the first gift on that Saturday was icicle hair.

Hmmph.  Afterwards, the four of us drove to a town about 45 minutes away that I still cannot for the life of me remember the name of, for the music class for my host brother. It was supposed to last from 10am-7pm. We dropped him off, and then walked around the town for a bit. That quest didn't take very long as the town was only home to 8,000 people! That's only two and a half East Ridges! After about an hour and a half, my host parents and I drove back to the house to pick up the "Auto Caravan", that we would be spending the rest of the day in. After lunch, I was honestly feeling a bit down, because I knew that the alternative to this weekend was supposed to be me and Lindsay having a great time in Benitachell with my club president from Florida! I was so looking foward to that trip, and to have it be canceled less than a day before with all the work I put into getting it prepared was really making me upset. It didn't help at all that it seemed like all my host family could talk about was how much fun their daughter was having on her exchange, how she never spoke Spanish over there, and how she didn't want to come home at all! Of course, these feelings were absolutely ridiculous, and I was reading far to much into them, but it's a bit difficult to hear anything else when you're so focused on being right about something for once. Anyways, I asked my host parents if I could go on a walk, just to clear my head and have a bit of alone time. To my surprise (because we were in a town that wasn't my own), they said of course, and I was on my way. I only ended up going about 400 meters away, but that was enough for me. I sat down, and cried. I won't lie to you all, and say that this year is going to be all sunshine and rainbows, because it just won't. I missed my sisters. I missed my friends. I missed my freedom that came with having a license, and places the trust my parents had in me to go to alone. I missed Florida afternoon rains, and even the ability to make a joke here and there, without having to explain what I was talking about with a vocabulary of about 300 words, more or less. I wouldn't say homesick, because I have no desire to return home right now (don't take offense to that, but I couldn't possibly leave right now!), but the idea of not being able to hug my family for 10 or so months, and then actually going through it is a bit different. But I know that I can.

I didn't cry for very long, and they weren't heavy, wracking sobs that drowned out the sounds of nature surrounding the mini-town, but enough long enough to realize that I needed that. Just for a bit, and then get back to reality. I walked for a bit more, took some pictures, and remembered something my mom told me a few months ago, that wasn't in reference to Spain or youth exchange, or the fact that I would soon be leaving for a bit less than a year. "Live in every moment." So I did.

After the walk, I headed back to the mobile home where my host mom was waiting patiently with a hug and a funny story that I honestly only understood part of, about a trip the family had taken in the mobile home and ended up with 16 people in it at the end of the trip! Though we can't always communicate perfectly, we both try very hard, and I couldn't ask for a better host mom to start off this year. We spent the rest of the day lounging around the mobile home, (I personally went on a few more walks to take more pictures), and of course, eating and celebrating that wonderful practice of siesta :) On the way back to the house (so I thought) my host parents informed me that we were in fact, going to a fiesta. It was of a town about 5 minutes north of my own, and it wouldn't be very big that particular night, since it had been going on since Monday night, and it was now Saturday. We ended up staying for a couple of hours, but that was long enough to see that even six days into a town fiesta, the Spanish people still dress up crazily, and are absolutely ready at any moment for "¡más cerveza!". I'd have to say that out of everything going on, I was most caught up on the fact that there was a 60 something year old woman walking around asking for people to help her catch her rooster. Nope, she wasn't crazy. She had indeed, brought her rooster to the fiesta. Somethings just can't be explained. That's life in Spain for ya. Or perhaps exchange life in general.

Until next time (perhaps tomorrow, as we don't have school for a national fiesta day!)

'Sta luego,

Nicole

More Graffit, this time with Maya!

Salina de Torrevieja: A different view.

Saturday. Mobile home in the middle of nowhere.

Fiesta Rooster!

Club Presidents! S.L--Torrevieja

Sueños.

I almost didn't post this.
Believe it or not, it is not my favorite story.

But because I want you guys to truly know what this whole year is like (with the exception of a few personal memories....), and not just the sunshine and rainbows it might appear to be, I'll clue you in.

It was a nightmare.  The first one since arriving in Spain, but horrible all the same. One of those terrible terrors where you're trying so hard to run, but not moving an inch. I couldn't give way to my legs, I couldn't breathe, It was unbearably hot wherever I was, and I was absolutely stuck there. It was terrifying. My mom was there as well. We were trying to help each other become "unstuck" and it wasn't working very well as I could only shout to her in Spanish! That's right folks, my very first dream in Spanish turned out to be somewhat of a nightmare. Great memory, huh?

I was crying when I woke up. I couldn't figure out where I was for a few moments, and it didn't help that my contacts were practically glued to my eyes. I had been sleeping for an hour and a half after all....Whoops! Luckily for my exhausted exchange student brain, the Spanish culture contains this absolutely lovely little practice that I'll be sure to continue upon returning to Florida.......Siesta! Just after lunch everything shuts down for a few hours, and we just perfect the art of relaxation. It. Is. Phenomonal! Normally during siesta, I work on Spanish in someway. Sometimes it's me and my host brother practicing my speech outloud, sometimes it's me and my host dad working on grammar, and sometimes (my favorite times) it's me and my host mom. She says simple sentences outloud, while I listen for the words, write down what I hope is correct, and then translate it and give it to my host dad to make sure the translation is correct. Though tiring at times, I know the work has been paying off!

Anyways, during this particular siesta, I walked out to the dining room, told my host parents I would be sleeping for 30 minutes...more or less....and then be working on more Spanish. Yeah, not so much.

So that's the story of my first dream in Spanish. I know it probably wasn't the most fascinating story, and not the journal full of exciting adventures you all were hoping for, but dreaming in the target language is a really huge step in the year of the exchange student (that almost sounds like the Chinese horoscopes!), and I want to remember it, even if it didn't play out exactly the way I imagined it would.

 Bizzare, but 5 weeks in a different life helps you to expect the unexpected.

Buenas Noches.

Nicole.

RYE Blog is finally up!

http://www.ryeflorida.org/Students/OB/2011-12/Nicole-Spain.htm

Post-It.

SO. Today is one month into my new life here in Torrevieja! Everyday the language skills are becoming better in Spanish, and my English is slowly leaving me with only a two way dictionary to help express myself! I definitely don't have any problem laughing at myself (at this point anyway), because if I don't, you can bet all of your dollars I would be sitting all alone in my room, and most likely my room in Florida. SO. Bring on the chuckles!

School here is going spectacularly (mostly because I only have to pass math, and I have a tutor for that who speaks enough English to get us by). During my other classes, I only work on Castellano. It's makes each day feel about an extra 4 hours longer than they actually are, but I can tell that it's definitely helping to improve my writing and speaking skills!  I'll do another blog soon all about school, but for right now, this is just a post-it note of an update.

My host family is absolutely the best. They are so willing to endure my lack of grammar skills, and they're always there to help if I have a question about anything. More recently, I've stopped second guessing what something is called to ask them, and just gone for it with a guess of my own. Incredibly, about 95% of the time, I'm right! I still always have my dictionary with me, and I've started one of my own in a journal that goes with me to school, and anywhere else if it fits in my purse.
Anyway, family. My host mom is "una caja de bombas". She has so much patience with me, and if I had to guess, I would say I've spent the most time with her. She doesn't speak a word of English, which helps so much for my dictionary searching skills, and increasing my vocabulary everyday. My host brother is a jokester, but we get along really well, and I'm so glad that I have a sibiling here! He's 14, like Holly (mah sister in Florida, for those who don't know), but I know I've learned a lot from him already. Finally, my host dad. What to say about a man who speak four languages fluently, but will only speak Spanish with me? He's fantastic! In emergency situations (i.e. when I had a problem with my visa and needed a bit of translation assistance), he's willing to help, but other than that, totally in Spanish, and for that I am so grateful. He's also a jokester, but very patient with me as well and I couldn't ask for a better host family!

I have SO much more to say to you all, and I promise I'll scribe it all a bit later! For now, it's 12:30 in the morning, and I'm going to a soccer game tomorrow and I'd prefer to not have racoon eyes!

Buenas noches,
Nicole