It has been a week since my last post, sorry to keep you waiting.
Today is a pretty big day. It has officially been two weeks of school and one whole month here in Spain.
The second week of school has definitely been better. My friends at school are all encouraging me to speak and I am am beginning to enjoy their company. They have yet to let me in on their plans for the weekend, but that will come in time. For now, I have Maria and her friends for support on the weekends, which I am grateful for.
This week was pretty uneventful, if I do say so myself. I went to school everyday, came home, did homework, ran, went to bed. Yesterday, was a bit eventful, I guess. I went to the Police station to extend my Visa. The visa that I recieved from my consulate in New York City is only valid for 180 days, so I had to go to my local police station (with organizaion a lot like the DMV, but worse, because it is a bunch of foreign people trying to get visas, some who don´t know the language...like me...however they don´t have a host mom basically doing everything for them). Because I went to the police station I missed my three morning classes, but that is no big deal because it was only english, chemistry and physics (the teacher has been absent all week, so it is just a study hall), and PE. So, I didn´t miss anything vital. Yesterday, afterschool I went to my friend/Maria´s friend´s house for lunch for her birthday. We didn´t stay too long because everyone had homework to do.
Next week I will have my first tests, I have one on Monday for my sciences in the contemporary world class (easy because its a short chapter, and on stuff I learned in like 7th grade about hypothesises), one on wednesday for math (stuff I learned last year...like logarithms..easyyy), and on Friday I have a test in Philosophy (which should be pretty easy. Not as easy as the other too, but I am pretty sure we dont have school for some reason on Thursday so I have alll day to study.) I might have a biology test, but I won´t know until next week.
That is pretty much all that has happened this week. Not much. But I guess that is because things are falling into a pattern, which is good, I am settling in. I will say, one thing I need to do less is use the computer less. i use it way too much. So, that will be a goal for me for next week. Use the computer less (especially facebook!)
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
"Every day is a good day when you run." -Kevin Nelson
I thought I should do a short post about something other than school. So, when I am not in school melting my brain with spanish, I am either home working on more school stuff or running.
Honestly, at home running was my sport that I did for excercise. Here, it is something completely different. Something I cherish and look forward to at 7. I get home from school at 3 and I fill my time until I go to run at 7.
Running is great, and for millions of reasons. First off the obvious one, excercise. I eat soo much here. I eat breakfast (fresh bread with olive oil), lunch at school (a fresh bread "bocadilla", or sandwich), another lunch after school at 3 (a full course meal), "merienda" or snack at 5, and dinner at 9 (usually leftovers from other meals). Sooo much bread. So, running is going to hold off that weight, hopefully...
Another reason I run is because I can do it myself. I don´t need to be led around like a little kid. I can walk to the beach, run as long as I want, as far as I want, whenever I want. It is nice to be independent, a rarity here as a foreign student.
While I run I just space out, let all my stress just flow through my feet. I run and I run fast, not running away from my stress because that would be cowardice and if I stopped, the stress would eventually catch up. Instead, I let my stress work its way through me. The first ten minutes of running are always the hardest, because the stress is still in my head, then with each step I take it pounds closer and closer to my feet and then to the pavement, and as I continue running, I am running the stress to the ground and by the time I have finished, I have stomped my stress into the dirt, feeling good as new.
And lastly, running is a challenge. Because school isn´t as challenging as I was expecting, despite the language barrier, I get home from school and complete my homework in an hour or two depending on how much reading I have to do. And after I translate whatever it is I am doing, the actually work is simple, not making me have a challenge. So, to take the place of the challenge I recieve at school at LOLHS, which was academic challenge, I challenge myself in running. If one day I run a really fast 40mins, I say to myself, okay, tomorrow I will run that same speed for 50 mins. I run fast for 50 mins, but I am still feeling good, so I finish with a full out sprint for the last 200 meters. A challenge I was never really willing to take in the US.
In Spain, it is still around 70, usually higher, everyday. So, after I run I am HOT. So, naturally, the sea is right there, I jump in. Too bad, aparently 70 degrees is too cold for the beach in Spain, so I am the lonesome swimmer that people think is crazy. But, I don´t care, it feels really good. And the sea isn´t even cold...so I don´t know why people don´t take advantage of the beach. But, maybe that is just me being from CT. My host mom specifically thinks I am crazy. When I retur home after running and my hair is wet she always asks with disbelief, "you went in the sea again??". She doesn´t disaprove, she just thinks its crazy. But what can I say, its hot!
Also, today I skyped with my family, because it is my little sister´s 10th birthday! It was nice to see all of them. I miss them all so much:( Happy Birthday Dani<3 I love you!
Honestly, at home running was my sport that I did for excercise. Here, it is something completely different. Something I cherish and look forward to at 7. I get home from school at 3 and I fill my time until I go to run at 7.
Running is great, and for millions of reasons. First off the obvious one, excercise. I eat soo much here. I eat breakfast (fresh bread with olive oil), lunch at school (a fresh bread "bocadilla", or sandwich), another lunch after school at 3 (a full course meal), "merienda" or snack at 5, and dinner at 9 (usually leftovers from other meals). Sooo much bread. So, running is going to hold off that weight, hopefully...
Another reason I run is because I can do it myself. I don´t need to be led around like a little kid. I can walk to the beach, run as long as I want, as far as I want, whenever I want. It is nice to be independent, a rarity here as a foreign student.
While I run I just space out, let all my stress just flow through my feet. I run and I run fast, not running away from my stress because that would be cowardice and if I stopped, the stress would eventually catch up. Instead, I let my stress work its way through me. The first ten minutes of running are always the hardest, because the stress is still in my head, then with each step I take it pounds closer and closer to my feet and then to the pavement, and as I continue running, I am running the stress to the ground and by the time I have finished, I have stomped my stress into the dirt, feeling good as new.
And lastly, running is a challenge. Because school isn´t as challenging as I was expecting, despite the language barrier, I get home from school and complete my homework in an hour or two depending on how much reading I have to do. And after I translate whatever it is I am doing, the actually work is simple, not making me have a challenge. So, to take the place of the challenge I recieve at school at LOLHS, which was academic challenge, I challenge myself in running. If one day I run a really fast 40mins, I say to myself, okay, tomorrow I will run that same speed for 50 mins. I run fast for 50 mins, but I am still feeling good, so I finish with a full out sprint for the last 200 meters. A challenge I was never really willing to take in the US.
In Spain, it is still around 70, usually higher, everyday. So, after I run I am HOT. So, naturally, the sea is right there, I jump in. Too bad, aparently 70 degrees is too cold for the beach in Spain, so I am the lonesome swimmer that people think is crazy. But, I don´t care, it feels really good. And the sea isn´t even cold...so I don´t know why people don´t take advantage of the beach. But, maybe that is just me being from CT. My host mom specifically thinks I am crazy. When I retur home after running and my hair is wet she always asks with disbelief, "you went in the sea again??". She doesn´t disaprove, she just thinks its crazy. But what can I say, its hot!
Also, today I skyped with my family, because it is my little sister´s 10th birthday! It was nice to see all of them. I miss them all so much:( Happy Birthday Dani<3 I love you!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” -Benjamin Franklin
I have had 5 official school days, so I guess that counts as I have made it through one week of school as a primero bachillerta of sciences at IES Mayorazgo in Spain.
Each day has improved immensly from the day before. I now know how to get to my classes, sort of, some I am still figuring out..but it is not that difficult. I know my schedule, and how to follow it. I have almost all of my textbooks (still waiting on Math and French). And I have a super helpful group of kids always willing to let me copy their notes if I get behind, or explain to me the assignment if I didn´t catch what it was, or share a book if I don´t have mine. These kids have definitly helped me make it through my first days of school, and I cannot thank them enough.
So, it turns out that my Math, biology, and chemistry classes are literally exactly what I learned last year or freshman year in the case of biology. Because I already know the material, each day is just relearning the material that I forgot the logistics of over the summer, but with spanish terms. In these classes, the terms are all from latin routes, so I can usually guess what they mean when they are written. My math teacher is really great, she is super nice and understanding. I don´t think she knows yet that I already learned this stuff, but thats alright. My Biology teacher (who is also my "science in the contemporary world" teacher) is the opposite. He is the classic science teacher, gray hair, skinny with that mustache and overall look that screams that he teaches science. He does all of his notes verbally so it is hard to follow, but as long as I can read the handwriting of the kid next to me I survive. In my other science class with him, which I have only had twice, he has given handouts. Each time I completed it he told me to keep mine, and collected the rest of the classes. I don´t think that this teacher really expects much out of me. But I know his oppinion will change because the concepts he teaches are really very simple, I just need to get past the spanish part. Lastly, my chemistry teacher is also really great. He, also, doesnt expect much out of me, but in a different way. He is actually pretty good at english so if he sees I really don´t understand something he will translate to english for me. He does it a lot, sometimes even if I do understand, and it gets alittle annoying, becuase I just want to be like "Yes. I understood in SPANISH!". He thinks that I don´t understand anything at all in spanish, but I guess that isnt really a bad problem.
All the other classes really aren´t that hard either. My hardest classes are definitly Philosophy and Lengua. The actual context and themes of these classes aren´t that difficult, it´s just the fact that I have to read and write a lot in spanish that makes it difficult. My lengua teacher is clearly preoccupied with the rest of my class and doesn´t really have much time to really remember that I don´t understand, but I don´t mind. It is one class with a challenge. I also really enjoy literature classes, so I like what we are going to learn about, it will just be tough. We read this poem the other day in class, I literally understood none of it until I got home and translated the whole thing with my dictionary (my spanish-english dictionary is my best friend at school). Philosophy is also really interesting, but my teacher is sort of crazy. He is really easy to understand, and as long as I do the homework I can follow what he says really well. So, that class is tough but its manageable.
English. Oh that class is great. I have only had one class, but it was hilarious. The teacher learned her spanish in Ireland, so when she speaks it is an irish accent and a spanish accent combined (extremely entertaining). She had me go up to the board, draw the US and point to CT. She also asked me tons of questions about the US and had me answer them. The kids at my school arent very good at english, so they didn´t really understand what I was saying, so sometimes she had me write my answer on the board. It was interesting, and I can´t wait for another class.
French. enough said. But it also really isnt that hard. Today, we learned the french alphabet. So, as you can tell this isnt a really high end french class.
I also have a couple other random classes like study hall (ACE here), proyecto, and maybe a couple others I forgot about. I also have PE here twice a week. So far we havnt had to bring clothes, so its been a study hall, but I was listening to the teacher the other day while she was talking with some of the students, and although it was in spanish I understood that they were discussing the units that we will cover. One including Salsa. interesting.
So in summary, I am catching the drift that this school doesn´t have very high standards of acheivement, and the fact that I don´t understand spanish very well has made the teachers drop my standards of achievement even lower. I have high standards for myself and in the US my teachers and family had high standards for me too. I used to get tired of those high standards and I used to wish that people expected less from me, because I though it would be easier. But, with these low standards there is no challenge. People automatically assume that I won´t understand if they talk in spanish, so they immediatly result to trying to tell me in English. Or, they immediatly assume that I don´t get what the teacher is teaching me and they look at me and ask and when I show them my work and its correct they are astonished. It is frustrating being treated as a little kid all the time, I want them to know that, honestly, I act a lot more intelligent in english and I swear I am more social. It´s just the language is so tough. But, I am learning and just this morning I was talking with the other exchange student at my school (who understands really well, but cant speak it very well, the opposite of me, so we are quite the pair, however I never see her because she is the grade above me), one of the kids she has been taking classes with spoke to her and I understood all of it. It made me so proud. Also, I have been holding through multiple full conversations. I still get stuck on words here or there or conjugating verbs correctly. But it has only been about 3 weeks since I have left home. I have improved a lot and I definitly feel more confident. Life is good.
Each day has improved immensly from the day before. I now know how to get to my classes, sort of, some I am still figuring out..but it is not that difficult. I know my schedule, and how to follow it. I have almost all of my textbooks (still waiting on Math and French). And I have a super helpful group of kids always willing to let me copy their notes if I get behind, or explain to me the assignment if I didn´t catch what it was, or share a book if I don´t have mine. These kids have definitly helped me make it through my first days of school, and I cannot thank them enough.
So, it turns out that my Math, biology, and chemistry classes are literally exactly what I learned last year or freshman year in the case of biology. Because I already know the material, each day is just relearning the material that I forgot the logistics of over the summer, but with spanish terms. In these classes, the terms are all from latin routes, so I can usually guess what they mean when they are written. My math teacher is really great, she is super nice and understanding. I don´t think she knows yet that I already learned this stuff, but thats alright. My Biology teacher (who is also my "science in the contemporary world" teacher) is the opposite. He is the classic science teacher, gray hair, skinny with that mustache and overall look that screams that he teaches science. He does all of his notes verbally so it is hard to follow, but as long as I can read the handwriting of the kid next to me I survive. In my other science class with him, which I have only had twice, he has given handouts. Each time I completed it he told me to keep mine, and collected the rest of the classes. I don´t think that this teacher really expects much out of me. But I know his oppinion will change because the concepts he teaches are really very simple, I just need to get past the spanish part. Lastly, my chemistry teacher is also really great. He, also, doesnt expect much out of me, but in a different way. He is actually pretty good at english so if he sees I really don´t understand something he will translate to english for me. He does it a lot, sometimes even if I do understand, and it gets alittle annoying, becuase I just want to be like "Yes. I understood in SPANISH!". He thinks that I don´t understand anything at all in spanish, but I guess that isnt really a bad problem.
All the other classes really aren´t that hard either. My hardest classes are definitly Philosophy and Lengua. The actual context and themes of these classes aren´t that difficult, it´s just the fact that I have to read and write a lot in spanish that makes it difficult. My lengua teacher is clearly preoccupied with the rest of my class and doesn´t really have much time to really remember that I don´t understand, but I don´t mind. It is one class with a challenge. I also really enjoy literature classes, so I like what we are going to learn about, it will just be tough. We read this poem the other day in class, I literally understood none of it until I got home and translated the whole thing with my dictionary (my spanish-english dictionary is my best friend at school). Philosophy is also really interesting, but my teacher is sort of crazy. He is really easy to understand, and as long as I do the homework I can follow what he says really well. So, that class is tough but its manageable.
English. Oh that class is great. I have only had one class, but it was hilarious. The teacher learned her spanish in Ireland, so when she speaks it is an irish accent and a spanish accent combined (extremely entertaining). She had me go up to the board, draw the US and point to CT. She also asked me tons of questions about the US and had me answer them. The kids at my school arent very good at english, so they didn´t really understand what I was saying, so sometimes she had me write my answer on the board. It was interesting, and I can´t wait for another class.
French. enough said. But it also really isnt that hard. Today, we learned the french alphabet. So, as you can tell this isnt a really high end french class.
I also have a couple other random classes like study hall (ACE here), proyecto, and maybe a couple others I forgot about. I also have PE here twice a week. So far we havnt had to bring clothes, so its been a study hall, but I was listening to the teacher the other day while she was talking with some of the students, and although it was in spanish I understood that they were discussing the units that we will cover. One including Salsa. interesting.
So in summary, I am catching the drift that this school doesn´t have very high standards of acheivement, and the fact that I don´t understand spanish very well has made the teachers drop my standards of achievement even lower. I have high standards for myself and in the US my teachers and family had high standards for me too. I used to get tired of those high standards and I used to wish that people expected less from me, because I though it would be easier. But, with these low standards there is no challenge. People automatically assume that I won´t understand if they talk in spanish, so they immediatly result to trying to tell me in English. Or, they immediatly assume that I don´t get what the teacher is teaching me and they look at me and ask and when I show them my work and its correct they are astonished. It is frustrating being treated as a little kid all the time, I want them to know that, honestly, I act a lot more intelligent in english and I swear I am more social. It´s just the language is so tough. But, I am learning and just this morning I was talking with the other exchange student at my school (who understands really well, but cant speak it very well, the opposite of me, so we are quite the pair, however I never see her because she is the grade above me), one of the kids she has been taking classes with spoke to her and I understood all of it. It made me so proud. Also, I have been holding through multiple full conversations. I still get stuck on words here or there or conjugating verbs correctly. But it has only been about 3 weeks since I have left home. I have improved a lot and I definitly feel more confident. Life is good.
Friday, September 16, 2011
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." -Confucious
School. I think that my first day of school here in Spain has easily been the most difficult and worst day of my life so far. I used to complain I was overwhelmed at school at Lyme-Old Lyme, but let me tell you, never again will I complain about school. My first day of school here has shown me a whole new light. I walked into that school yesterday without ever having been there before. I didn´t know my teachers. I didn´t know any of the kids (except for another exchange student from switzerland but shes in the grade above me so I never really see her). I didn´t know what classes I´d be taking. The one thing I did know was that I was a primero bachillerta de ciencas. Which helped direct me to my first class where I was given my schedule. So, I had a previous source tell me that in Spain you stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers come to you. Not here. You move around with the same kids, not always the same exact group, but its always the same kids, but a different combination in each class. Also, the teachers don´t each have their own room, you go to the room that class is assigned on that day. It is all very confusing.
So here are my official classes:
-Philosophy. (I almost cried today when he was giving the assignment because I understood absolutly zero of it)
- English (havn´t had it yet, but it will be easssyyy)
-Biology and Geology (only six kids, but it will be nice because then it will allow me to get better extra help from the teacher)
-Physics and Chemistry (the teacher is hilarious, and he actually knows some english so he attempts to help me understand)
-Science for the Contemporary world (yeah, three sciences, I hope my science teachers love me when I get back)
-Lengua (another class I almost cried in...it is a really large class so the teacher has very little mercy. She also gave my first Spanish homework assignment)
- Math (The teacher is great, and the math is things I learned already so far, so its a class I actually enjoy. We learned about different kinds of numbers like natural, rational, irrational, etc, stuff I already knew, but now I know a lot of math terms in Spanish!)
-ACE (basically study hall)
-French. (really? french? I know nothing in french. And now i have to take it spanish to french, both languages in which I am not very good.)
-PE
-and lastly Proyecto Integrado, which is a class where we doin various projects, we only have it on Fridays, but it sounds cool. Our first project is to make a travel guide for Malaga in a group. The kids in my classes with me are super supportive, and two kids asked me to be in their group so I have a group and we are going sight seeing on Monday to get information for our guide! What a unique way to see the city :)
I will say that today (second day of school) was better. And it can only improve from here. It is just really tough not understanding, but "poco a poco", little by little I will begin to understand and improve.
So here are my official classes:
-Philosophy. (I almost cried today when he was giving the assignment because I understood absolutly zero of it)
- English (havn´t had it yet, but it will be easssyyy)
-Biology and Geology (only six kids, but it will be nice because then it will allow me to get better extra help from the teacher)
-Physics and Chemistry (the teacher is hilarious, and he actually knows some english so he attempts to help me understand)
-Science for the Contemporary world (yeah, three sciences, I hope my science teachers love me when I get back)
-Lengua (another class I almost cried in...it is a really large class so the teacher has very little mercy. She also gave my first Spanish homework assignment)
- Math (The teacher is great, and the math is things I learned already so far, so its a class I actually enjoy. We learned about different kinds of numbers like natural, rational, irrational, etc, stuff I already knew, but now I know a lot of math terms in Spanish!)
-ACE (basically study hall)
-French. (really? french? I know nothing in french. And now i have to take it spanish to french, both languages in which I am not very good.)
-PE
-and lastly Proyecto Integrado, which is a class where we doin various projects, we only have it on Fridays, but it sounds cool. Our first project is to make a travel guide for Malaga in a group. The kids in my classes with me are super supportive, and two kids asked me to be in their group so I have a group and we are going sight seeing on Monday to get information for our guide! What a unique way to see the city :)
I will say that today (second day of school) was better. And it can only improve from here. It is just really tough not understanding, but "poco a poco", little by little I will begin to understand and improve.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
So school begins tomorrow. I will be spending my Junior year at IES Mayorazgo, and I have no idea what to expect. At all. Nada. At this moment in time, I don´t even know when I have to get up in the morning. I am also not even quite sure exactly what classes I have. What I actually do know is that I don´t have to move around from class to class for each subject. You stay in one classroom the whole day with the same kids. (Thank god. I would be so lost) This whole one classroom/same kids deal for the whole year probably leads to some pretty tight friendships, so hopefully that will work to my benefit. I have been spending the previous two weeks with Maria´s friends, who don´t go to my school and nor does Maria. Maria´s friends are great and I don´t doubt that I will be hanging out with them this whole year, but it will be nice to also have my own friends.
A lot has happened since I last blogged. My Spanish is improving, I guess. Its only been barely two weeks, but I definitly understand more. I am also opening up and trying to say more, which is also good. Hopefully school will also boost my spanish skills. But, boy am I nervous. School is going to be so difficult.
Below are some pictures from this past week: the first one is a cameleon. Yeah, they have cameleons here. I found it on the door when I was about to go out one night.
The next two are me with some friends of Maria. The first one was a party for Maria and her friend Miri for their Saints day. The other was a picnic that we had for our last day before school begins.
A lot has happened since I last blogged. My Spanish is improving, I guess. Its only been barely two weeks, but I definitly understand more. I am also opening up and trying to say more, which is also good. Hopefully school will also boost my spanish skills. But, boy am I nervous. School is going to be so difficult.
Below are some pictures from this past week: the first one is a cameleon. Yeah, they have cameleons here. I found it on the door when I was about to go out one night.
The next two are me with some friends of Maria. The first one was a party for Maria and her friend Miri for their Saints day. The other was a picnic that we had for our last day before school begins.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
"We live in a world full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. "
I made it. I have started on my new adventure on my year abroad.
I have been here for about 4 days now and I am loving it. It´s rough though, because my spanish is horrible. Coming into this experience I knew that I wouldn´t know a lot of what was going on, but I guess I wasn´t quite completely prepared. In Spain I feel like a deaf mute. I sit in a room with everyone talking and it all makes no sense whatsoever. (It also really doesn´t help that Spanairds are very loud) I try and pick out pieces, which I do, and I try and make sense out of it, but it is really difficult. But, I am learning, and Maria, her family, and her friends are all helping me out. When they talk with me they talk "muy lento", very slow and when I speak with them and I don´t know words, we work together to figure out what I am trying to say. Even though Maria speaks fluent English, and it would be easier for her to speak with me in english or she translate for me, she speaks with me in Spanish so I can learn faster. But despite the language barrier (which I will soon overcome) Spain is amazing.
I will update when I can. Hope you all are doing well!
I will update when I can. Hope you all are doing well!
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