Twas the night before Christmas

I keep forgetting to post this, so while since I remember right now, I will post it. I found this awhile ago, but I was going to wait and post it on christmas eve, but then I forgot so here it is:
It is a "twas the night before christmas" rewrite titled, "twas the night before departure" and it is a exchange student version. I think it is amazing...
its kind of long..but my favorite part is the end. So read the whole thing! :)

'Twas the Night Before Departure
Author: Tanner Orion
Published: January 2nd, 2001
Views: 1388
'Twas the night before departure, and all throughout the land
Next years exchange students with plane tickets in hand 
they said their farewells, and hugged everyone goodbye
not knowing of the crazy adventures in front of them that lie...

A room full of memories all packed in a hurry that night,
"Hey Mom, can you sit on this for me while I zip up it tight?"
Visions of faraway places and foreign lands they dream
It's all fiction until tomorrow, when their planes will leave

Half way across the world their new friends awake
they don't know it yet, but he/she will be their best mate
their dreams continue, all exciting and stoked
little do they know, this time next year they'll be broke

The moon gives way, for the bright sun the next day
they wake up to reality, for today is the day
A day of tears, fears,

and many make-up smears
A day of joy, adventure, and a little maturity I might add
I love you so much, I'll miss you Dad.
"Hey Mom, who's gonna do my laundry?"
"Just kidding, I'll miss you real bad."
"Hey Sis, I took your favorite dress (hehe)...

no I didn't, but I wanted to real bad. I guess I never said this,
but I love you like mad

The tears trickled through, but the excitement prevailed
All proud and adventurous, as my moms arms "flailed"
I never thought I'd miss them so much until they weren't by my side
The plane took off, and the flight attendant brought drinks,
A little turbulence got me nervous, but I'm ok, I think...

The flight continued, and in their dictionaries they looked
Actually, this was the first time they had ever opened this book
"How do I say 'Hi'? 'Goodbye'? and I need to go the bathroom?
I don't know!" The fear inside them began to grow.
Another night passed, and thus another day
They are all needles in a hay stack, special in their own way.
The flight attendant woke them all up, "hey lady, I don't want any orange juice,
why did you have to wake me up?" They say...
A great way to start off such an important day

A smooth landing and they were there at last
about to meet their new host families, not knowing
their year would go by too fast
A big smile, and some good-old morning breath
"I can't wait to take a shower, I hope they have one, I wept"

A new culture, a new family, a new language and land
"Anything else? ... I don't even recognize the sand"
"Where am I, who are you, how do I say... and what's this?
I feel really lonely, I can't stop thinking about everybody I miss."
"I wonder what my friends are doing right now, what happened
at that party, and who kissed."

The story continues on, for about nine months to a year
The adventure has just started, and the end doesn't seem near.
Their days pass, and their friendships grow,

"leaving my new home
was the toughest part... I wish I had known."
Their eyes are wide, they're flaunting overwhelming smiles alike
I hope mom and dad don't mind my new tattoo, curfew, study habits, and insight
I've changed a little bit, gotten out on my own, you know
I've lived by my own rules for a year, I thought you should know
It just won't be like it was before my friends
I'm lost in my own paradise, I no longer need your advice.
Hey, what's up? Not much I say.
If I told you, you wouldn't understand, anyway

The sun sets, and back in their own beds they lay
A year of their life, well worth the extended stay
So many stories, and so much to tell
The experience of a lifetime, "I went through heaven and hell
I can't say it was easy, and I can't say I loved every minute
But I grew a lot, I learned a new language, and no that's not it
sometimes I like to keep it to myself, that way I don't ruin it."

Merry Christmas!

Today is the day after christmas, and I have accomplished nothing. I have watched two episodes of Glee and i watched Grease with my host sisters. And that is all so far today. Maria has invited me to go out with her friends tonight but i am just not feeling it, plus because I have made my own friends, I don´t really feel the need to go out with her friends anymore.

So on Christmas Eve all we did was make christmas cookies that my parents sent me from home :)

We later got dressed up and went to mass at 8:30pm and then after went to my host mom´s dad´s house (this was my first time meeting her side of the family). Her side of the family is considerably smaller, but I enjoyed it. They have three cousins on that side of the family, Blanca (Dani´s age), Marta (..13?) and another girl, but I cannot recall her name, she is Fede´s age. They were all really nice and they all had a good sense of humor. Marta liked talking with me and she thought it was hilarious when I didnt understand, which was fine by me, I have gotten used to not understanding and I now know how to handle it without getting upset. We didnt get home until 1am...

On christmas I didn´t get up until 10ish, the latest I have ever slept on Christmas. Maria and I went to her Grandma´s (on her dad´s side of the family) to help prepare for lunch, considering that this side of the family is much larger (almost 40 people...).

I have come to the conclusion that Christmas here is a lot like Thanksgiving at home. They have different meanings, but the traditions are very similar. I won´t be doing any gift exchanges or any of those types of traditions until January 6th on Three Kings Day.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful day!

tenth day of christmas.

Okay. I have lost my momentum, and 10 things is too hard to come up with.
But on a good note I had an awesome day!

I didnt have school so i got up around 10, ate some cereal with Teresa, and then cleaned my room. Well, my room is actually pretty clean here (no laundry on the floor or anything, be proud mom) However, being me, everything cant be perfectly clean, so of course my closet is exploding. You open it up and literally my clothes attack you. My wardrobe has probably tripled since i got here...I have no idea how I am going to bring it all home....but i have 6 more months to buy more stuff and worry about it later :) I also watched some TV shows on my computer that I was behind on (Bones!!! I love that show so much...)

Then after lunch I recieved a package from home. However it had stuff for christmas in it so I cant open that stuff til christmas. My 18 year old host sister helped me open it and was almost more excited than me that I got a package!

After that I went out with my friends, Mariely and Anca to the movies. We saw "Dont be Afraid of the Dark", a horror movie. Here in Spain, horror movies usually dont scare me becuase they are in spanish, so i dont fully understand whats happening. However, now since I can actually understand 100% better this movie freaked me out! It was crazy. This movie was one of my turning points, like not once did i think to myself, "i wish i understood" or anything like that. I can honestly say I understoon at least 95% of what was said during the whole movie :)

After the movie I talked with anca and Mariely as we walked to Mariely´s house where Anca and Mariely were going and near where my bus stop is. We talked about how we each celebrate christmas. How Anca celebrates the holidays with her romanian family, how Mariely celebrates the holidays in her family becuase her mom is french, and how i celebrate the holidays in the US. They were all so interesting to hear. I also sort of realized that Anca, Mariely and I are a pretty diverse group of friends. Each talking with each other in our second language, because my first language is english; anca´s first language is Romanian, and I am pretty sure that Mariely speaks french at home even though she grew up in spain, so its not necesarily her only first language, she learned french and spanish at the same time. I just think that it is cool, that we all speak two languages :)

When I got home after walking that mile or so from the bus stop to my house at 11pm..alone. I saw a package on the counter. Another package for me:) I began to open it and immediatly my little brother cam e running over and asked me what was inside. He helped me open it and when i pulled out his birthday gift his whole face lit up. Oh so precious :) I love my host brother.
I also explained to him the meaning of a lot of the things that got sent to me. My family sent me a package for making sugar cookies, and I explained how we make those for Santa Claus to eat when he comes. They also sent me the book "Twas the Night Before Christmas", which my family and I read every year together. It was one of those books you can record, so thats what my family did. My host mom had come into the kitchen by this time, so we listened to the book together (not that she understood much, but she enjoyed hearing my family´s voices and Fede´s voice in the end) I think I am going to work with Maria to translate the book into spanish, so that my family and I here can record the pages in spanish so when i return to the US next christmas I will have a piece of spanish with me on christmas :)

I love my family :) Both of them, at home in the US and here my new home in Spain :)
1 day til christmas (and despite the packages, it still just doesnt feel the same :/)

The ninth day of christmas

On the ninth day of christmas my friend went with me (almost) nine miles walking
8 cross walks
7 more things learned
6 more clothes stores
5 jewlery stores
4 more random stores
3 more strangers talking
2 more christmas presents
and one free meal at burger king

I went to the photography school downtown today to fill out the rest of the forms and be officially enrolled in the class. I took the bus downtown and found the place, pressed the buzzer, and got there all by myself. I am so independent :) After I finished their I began to walk to the town hall where I was supposed to meet my friend, I had 30 mins to spare (becuase I gave myself extra time in case I got lost, but I didnt...soo) so i went to a couple stores and bought a few things I have needed like tights and the such.
Oh, but wait, I forgot. After I left the photography school some middle aged guy on a bike pulled up next to me and asked me for the time, since I hada  watch I told him and then kept walking. Except, he followed along side me and started making small talk, and i didnt want to be rude...but he was clearly like twice my age, if not more... He thought i was german too.. I was just like, uh no, bye now.
My friend, Mariely, and I walked basically all over malaga. I didnt mind, I have been slacking incredibly on running. So, it was good. We also talked the whole time, in spanish. It is so easy now to talk in spanish its incredible. The whole time Mariely kept on telling me my spanish is great. Every once and a while shed correct me, but only if the meaning of what I was saying was changed by how i said it, for example, I told her i hated the color of something, so i said, "me odio este color" however this mean "I hate myself color"...obviously not what i wanted to say. its supposed to be, "Odio este color" without the "me".
We also went to burger king for lunch, where Mariely had a coupon that was a 2 for 1 deal. So we got one sandwich free. The lady who was giving the food, assumed that since we got two sandwiches we also ordered two fries, when in reality we only ordered one, because the two for one didnt cover the whole meal, just the sandwiches, so we only got one fry to share. However the lady didnt read the ticket with our order and gave us two fries instead. Free french fries1 plus our two for one deal. good day.
Mariely and I talked a whole bunchh. So, basically we also have a lot in common. She does crew, which means shes athletic (unlike a lot of people here) She also wants to travel all over the world like I do. I am pretty sure she is fluent in French becuase her mom is from France. Becuase she is french, her family celebrates christmas with Santa Claus like we do in the US, I thought that was neat.
Well i think that is it for now. Two days til Christmas. Only two days! (and its still like 70 degrees)

The eighth day of christmas

On the eighth day of christmas I arrived at school with 8 kids of 23.
7 students by 9am
6 students by 10am
and at lunch we all left.
no school tomorrow
nor on friday
2 days extra for holiday
and i passed almost all of my classes.

When I got to school this morning, I walked into our first class to discover literally only 8 kids had come to school. (in my class) Only the kids that had to retake tests and stuff like that (I had my biology recuperacion). And bascially as soon as the kids took their test they left. At lunchtime ,after my biology test, I left too. We are allowed to. Aparently since we already took all our tests we cant learn anything in our classes the week before vacation, so no one goes. I technically am supposed to have school tomorrow and on friday, but im not going because no one else is...

Also, the trimester ended so I recieved my grades, I passed all of them pretty well, except for a 3 in Lengua. But...thats lengua so its okay. Only two other kids in my class passed ALL of the classes, everyone else failed at least one, but some people failed 2, 3, 4, 5, even as many as 8 classes failed. Another difference, is that the teacher in first period who told us our grades (i think they are also online) didnt call everyone up one at a time to look at your grades, she said them out loud so everyone knows what grades everyone has.

I dont remember exactly what I have...but its something like this:
English: 9
Math: 8
Lengua: 3
science for the contemporary world: 7
Philosophy: 7
French: 8
Biology: 6 (but i think my recuperacion that i took today bumped it to a 7 or 8)
chemistry: 6
PE: 8
proyecto: 5 (becuase my group never fills me in on what i need to do..but its still passing so whatever)

the seventh day of christmas

On the seventh day of christmas my host mom went with me to 7 different dress shops
6 different shoe stores
5 tourist shops
4 jewelry stores
3 random shops
2 grocery stores
and all instead of going into school :)

I actually didnt go into that many stores, but roughly I did. Maria and I didnt go to school today (becuase nothing important happens in the week before vacation, my school probably had about 5 kids per class today...and it will be like that for the rest of the week.) to go shopping for dresses and other stuff for New Years.
I have to go to school tomorrow becuase i have that recuperacion for biology, that i dont even have to take. And i am pretty sure no one is going to go to school on friday, and I am not sure about thursday, I might not. I  might go shopping again, but with theresa.
Who knows?  Gotta love spain:)

Man..only like 4 days or something til christmas...it doesnt feel like christmas at all

The sixth day of christmas

I skipped yesterday, but thats okay because now, the 12th day of christmas will actually be christmas. Doing these posts everyday reminds me why I dont do this normally. I simply don´t have that kind of time.

On the sixth day of christmas my host brother played with me 6 games of playstation,

5 games of wii

4 minutes of winning

3 hours of losing

2 sore arms

and all instead of studying for my trimestrales.

Well..this was actually yesterday. nothing really happened today worth writing down. Mhm. I played way too many video games yesterday. We started playing that playstation game that has the censor, so you play the game with your physical movements. Man. that game is tiring. I could hardly lift my arms after. Pablo won that, well i won once. But thats all. And then we played MarioKart Wii (much less tiring) and I won that, basically after he lost 3 times in a row (getting second...) he just gave up. Pablo thoroughly enjoys winning, and does not take it so well when he loses. Today is also Pablo´s 11th birthday. Felicidades Pablo! :) I am going to the movies this afternoon with him and Karina (she helps out around the house, but its like shes family, shes also not much older than me). Anddd on top of all that...I took a chemistry exam today...probably didnt do too well, but whatever. And i still have a biology exam this week (on wednesday).

The fifth day of Christmas

On the fifth day of christmas I spent the day downtown speaking too much english,
eating american food,
taking pictures,
more conversations,
and I still have a trimestrale.

Today I spent with Julian in Malaga (speaking english, all day...) We also went to an american resteraunt and ate burgers, then after seeked out a place that sold muffins (also considered an american food). I decided that it is okay, becuase some days it is nice to get a good dose of american stuff. We went to the alcazaba and to the port, where i took tons of more pictures (but still less that usual). We talked so much, about basically everything. About how it doesnt feel like christmas (at all..), how we have been feeling being exchange students and all, stuff like that. I also got asked for directions again...I literally cannot go a single day without being asked for directions. Luckily though, today the people asked me for directions in english, and they asked me where the entrance was to the Alcazaba, which I knew! sooo success!! Now I am going to go watch Mr Poppers Penguins with my host family....instead of studying or doing my journalism homework :)

The fourth day of christmas

On the fourth day of christmas my teachers let me leave four hours early,
gave me more good grades
more conversations
and one more trimestral in chemistry.

Today was actually quite humorous. We went to first period (math class) where we took a 5 question trimestral... only 5 questions? I dont understand how 5 questions here (the same type of questions I had a at home...) take me and hour, and the whole class an hour to do, when at home i had an hour to do 25 question math tests, sometimes more. I am still trying to figure that one out. Then after math I went to Biology, where we reviewed to for the recuperacion, which no one HAS to take, we are just taking it to make our grades a 7 or 8 instead of a 6...
Then after that we had a study hall where the teacher never came, and we all decided that since our next three classes are unimportant (we have already taken the trimestrals for these classes which means we wont learn anything else in these classes until after the holidays...) so we left. However, only some of the teachers agreed to let us leave, so in escence we had to "sneak" out the front gate. Which was hilarious..becuase my class has around 20 kids...so its sort of hard to just "sneak" out...

So, in writing my fourth day of christmas thing i had a bit of a debate...i couldnt decide whether to say they let me leave four hours early, or mention how many times i got asked for directions today....I swear, if I got a dollar for everytime someone asks me for directions, I´d be rich! And the annoying part is, its not that i dont understand what they are asking me, i can never give them answer becuase i simply dont know the names of roads....except my street and the main street that I walk on to get places. I also dont know a lot of the names of places...so therefore i am not that good at helping people, even though I really wish I could.
Being asked for directions makes me feel like i fit in more, because if they are asking me for directions, they obvioulsy think i am spanish and that I look spanish and everything :)

Third day of Christmas

On the Third day of christmas my teachers gave to me three good grades
more conversations
and only two more trimestrales.

I guess im sort of cheating...becuase i change the verses before hand, but if I don´t it doesnt all fit together.

So...I still have a math trimestrale tomorrow and a chemistry one on monday, plus a recuperacion* in biology on monday, annddd a biology test on our last chapter on wednesday. Sounds like a fun a week before christmas...
But on the good side my tests have been good so far. To begin here is the grading equivalents, so you can understand how good these grades are :) spanish grades=american grades
10= 95-100 (high A) 9=90-95 ((low A) 8=85-90 (high B) 7=80-85 (low B) 6=75-80 (high C) 5=70-75 (low C) 4=65-75 (high D...technically failing) 3=60-65 (low D...but is actually a fail) and 2 or less is an F.

Alright...sooo on my CMC (science in the contemporary world) test I got a 6.5, making my total for this trimester a 7, because my other grades were pretty high.
On my philosophy test I got a 6, originally i had a 7, but the teacher took 1 whole point off for grammar mistakes, like missing accents. For real? But..its still passing soo that means I don´t need to take any recuperaciones* for this class, which i originally had too, becuase my last test was a 3.45.... All my other grades in this class were 7.7 and 7.3 soo my average grade is passing. No recuperaciones!! woo.
On my math exam I got a 7.25, this class is easy...i mean, considering the tests are only like 5 questions long, so if you get one wrong thats 2 points off....sooo thats why my grades arent spectacular, because i make dumb mistakes.
so those are my three good grades :)
I havnt gotten my french test back yet, i will get it back tomorrow...but I am pretty sure I did really well. knock on wood.
Also....yesterday we had a lengua trimestral, but I didn´t even take it. the teacher didn´t give it to me because, well....its on like all the grammar rules in the spanish language that these kids have been studying for around 5 years now, plus they speak the  language. sooo, the reality is, its impossible for me to pass. Instead, she gave me a spanish book to read and write a summary of what i read in a half hour. works for me!

*Recuperacion = So, for each unit we cover we have a test, right? If you get a 4 or below, you have failed it (basically everyone in my school...) So, at the end of the trimester, the teachers have "recuperaciones" for the students to retake whatever units they may have failed, if their average grade is failing. So, if you only failed one exam, and only by alittle and your average grade is not failing, then you dont need to retake that failed test (you can if you want a higher grade, but no one does..) And, in the case of most of the kids in my class, they fail 2 or 3 or even all of the units and so, in one hour they need to make up every single one of those tests, which each took an hour to begin with. This is the part I don´t get...
On monday, for biology i have a recuperacion of the last unit, my grade was insufficient, however my overall grade is still passing. My biology teacher thinks i can do better, and that "i just didnt study hard enough" (part true...but it was also a really hard unit...) so i am taking the recuperacion on monday to make my grade better.
Soo in conclusion...these kids could just fail everything until the end of the trimester and just make everything up in the end of the trimester. Que suerte.. (what luck) we dont have that in the US....if you fail, you fail. You dont get a chance to make it up.




Another quick thing for me to look forward to :)
my AFS friend Julian is coming to malaga tomorrow to see the lights in Malaga, and then hes staying in Malaga overnight and we are going to go (possible... not positive yet) to Sevilla on saturday to see the city and a couple more of our AFS friends :)

The second day of Christmas

So....my twelve days of christmas are a little off, becuase my twelfth day of christmas is christmas eve, not christmas, but thats okay. I think technically the 12 days of christmas are actually from christmas day (the 25th) to three kings day (january 6)...soo

On the second day of christmas my new friends talked with me about holidays
and the trimestrals we have to study.

So...today I had a realllly long conversation during my biology class (the teacher gave us a free period to study) about the holiday traditions in the US and the traditions they have here. They all were so excited to share their traditions with me and help me learn about the spanish celebrations. It actually was pretty entertaining, theyd all talk at the same time, and then as soon as I started to say something about the US theyd all get real quiet, becuase, ohmygoodness the american girl is actually talking. I really do talk a lot with some of the kids in my class, but not all of them. So, some of them still think i am deficient at the language and cannot communicate, so sometimes, when I even say one whole sentence (no matter how simple..) they are like "yay ally! You are learning!!". Its hilarious. Although, it is sort of a pain, becuase I really dont like it when all of the attention is turned to me whenever I am talking, but here, thats just how it is. I start to speak and literally every single head turns to me and everyone is listening, no matter how unimportant the subject is. They all want to hear the american girl talk, and when i say it perfectly they all clap and when i mess up at least 5 people correct me. For a regular conversation, it can get pretty annoying. So, i usually just stick with speaking to the kids who know me, and know that I am actually able to communicate pretty well and they do correct me sometimes, when it, but they treat me like I am spanish too, or at least, they treat me as an equal and not just "the american", which i really appreciate.

The first day of christmas.

Soo...becuase I am bored and Id rather not study (I have a math exam tomorrow on trigonometry, a lengua test on spanish grammar...which i am gunna fail, and a french test. in spain.) since today is 12 days until christmas (i think...I hope I can count..but who knows) I am going to do a small post each day about my twelve days of christmas as an AFS student. I will also try my best to correlate to the song...so by the end I will have a twelve days of christmas song, AFS version!

Alright, so on the first day of christmas my teachers gave to me a trimestral and books to study.

A trimestral is basically like a final, except here they have trimesters, and instead of a half way point for midterms, they have two third of the way points, i guess thats how it would be explained... and this test is on everything we have learned since september. However...my school doesn´t really have trimestrals, every other school does and all my AFS friends are freaking out about them, cause cmon...who wants to do their finals in a foreign language? I mean, they are hard enough already. I do have a trimestral tomorrow for lengua, along side two normal tests, as I already said. And on monday i have a trimestral in Chemistry, actually my first test ever in chemistry, so this should be interesting. Now...I should study....

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." Buddha

well, so this week I basically had no school, leaving me with a plethora of free time (which I guess I oculd have studied...but my attention span for studying only lasts about a half hour...). With this free time I looked at a lot of old pictures, reminiscing on last summer and things back at home. I have also obtained a new addiction, travel blogs. So, I also spent way to much of my time on travel blogs reading about the adventures of some crazy people in this world who I envy, and vow to be like in the future. Then, I realized that although remembering home is healthy, and planning your future is smart, I need to live in the moment a little more. I need to do less of both those things and start living here an now. I am in Spain! I have remembered that I am here for only a short time and I can worry about the future as it comes, and the past has already happened.
So, that is my philosophy lesson for this week, since I didn´t actually have filosofia in school this week with Carmelo.

I mean, granted I had a lot of free time this week, I did actually do stuff too. On Tuesday, we went golfing again, at the same place as last time. Except this time I was sort exhausted, so I didn´t try to hard, or play that much. But after we went to the same Pizzeria. Oh, increiblee, me encanta la pizza :) and all the pizzas were for only five dollars. I got a hawiian and was in paradaise. I love pizza so muchh. When we got home I took a nap. I was so tired...

On Wednesday I had school, except in the afternoon instead of having french class, well for the whole school, instead of having our last period class, we ate a traditional food of Malaga called "Migas". It is fried bread crumbs with vegetables and meat, or anything else you want with it. It wasn´t delicious, but it wasn´t bad either. All of my friends were obsessed with me trying it and every single person in my school asked me if I liked it or not. My lengua teacher even gave me a small history of it.
Aparently, it is the food for the poor, becuase it can be made with stale bread and you wouldnt even know it becuase the bread is fried. And migas can go with anything, so whatever you happen to have in your house you can mix in, and voila! you have a meal made with stale bread that still tastes good. After eating you could go home, whenever you want, even if school didnt close for another 40 mins.

On Thursday I went to church in the morning with my family and then we went to the port. This part of the port was just recently finished and is gorgeous! This was my first time down there. We went to "Foster Hollywood" an american resteraunt, which I dont know if its just me, but I have never heard of it until now...
We had burgers and cheesecake, yummmm.

The view of the cathedral and the mountains
from one side of the port

The boats :) 

the port.

On Friday, I technically had school, but because its a Friday and we didn´t have school on Thursday no one went. So, I decided that I didn´t want to go either :) I went downtown with Theresa and went shopping alittle, finishing up those last few christmas gifts, and we talked about christmas and holiday traditions. I would tell you all what i learned from theresa, but I think it will be better to explain the traditions after I actually witness them. Only a few weeks! 

On Friday night I didn´t do anything...I just studied all afternoon...and night.

On Saturday we were supposed to go to Antequerra and Rhonda, two old towns in Malaga, except it was forecasted to be cloudy which wouldnt be any fun...i guess...so we didnt go. I dont know, in Malaga city, on saturday it was perfectly sunny. We went out to lunch at the beach with the family (I dont think I have been out to eat more times in one week...) 

And saturday night I went out again with my two friends from school, Anca and Mariely. We went to the movies (we walked the whole way.... I met Anca near my house at the bus stop, we then walked to Mariely´s house...and then walked to the center, where we would normally get a bus, but kept walking all the way to the theater...guess that makes up for not running...) 

After the movies (we saw "In Time" by the way...it was really good, sorta confusing, but i understood it even though it was in spanish!!) we met up with Anca´s sister and her boyfriend. I may have mentioned this, but Anca is from Romania. Her sister is too (obviously...) and so is her sister´s boyfriend. So, occasionally in the middle of conversation in Spanish (already hard enough to understand) they would start talking in romanian. Awesome. At least Mariely doesn´t speak romanian so she didn´t understand either. By the time we finished eating dinner it was 11 and we walked to the center where, Mariely realized it was 11:23 and she had to be home by 11:30. Her house isnt too far from the center to walk there, but its too far to walk there in 7 minutes, so we went to wait for the bus, but after 11, only the N1 bus runs, and it runs the whole city, instead of it being broken into three different busses, so by the time the bus got to us it was 11:28. We sprinted onto the bus, and at Mariely´s stop she ran off the bus and sprinted down the street, it was pretty hilarious. I think she ended up being 4 minutes late, but it was okay because her mom was on the phone with her brothers at college, so her mom was in a good mood!

So, when my stop came along, I got up and pressed the stop button. The bus stopped at my stop but the doors in the back of the bus where I was didnt open...I freaked out. the bus continued on so i pressed the stop button again for the next stop and ran to the front of the bus to get off there. I only had to walk an extra block, but it was still a pretty frightening experience when you miss your stop...

Today I went to church and to my grandmas house, like usual. And now I am going to go play wii with Pablo, becaues he was just playing mariokart by himself, and he looked at me and goes "ally its no fun without you!" so...i guess i will finish writing this blog and play wii with him, instead of studying.

The shortest distance between new friends is a smile.

To be completely honest, I think that last week was my first week that I actually went to school every single day, and for the whole day every single day. Quite the quality education, huh? I think I have missed more days of school here in the last three months than I ever did in the 11 years in Old Lyme.

So, on Friday I was informed that by Monday (today) I had to write an eight page essay on the psychoanalysis of the book "Frankenstein". Plus, I also had to answer eight long answer questions AND write two OTHER essays one about the immortal soul and another about the mind vs. the brain. Oh, and on top of having to do that work I actually had things planned this weekend.

On Friday I went to the movies with two of my friends from my school, Mariely and Anka. We went to see "Breaking Dawn", well here it is called, "Amenacer". I walked to a nearby bus stop to meet Anka, because she lives close to me and because Mariely was still at crew practice. I was alittle early for meeting Anka so I decided to loop around and see where a certain road goes making me go past this one spot twice. Both times, this kid in my class was there and he gave me the wierdest look when I came around the second time. I think he thought I was lost...

After the movie we went out to dinner and Mariely walked home. Anka and I took the bus, however, the bus that I normally take doesn´t run after 10pm, so, I had to take the night bus that stops 20 mins from my house. So, in short, I had to walk 20 minutes to my house, at midnight, alone.

On Saturday, my AFS friend, Noelle, came to Malaga for the day. She is currently living in Sevilla and she is originally from Arizona. My AFS friend Julian also came. I do not know exactly where he is living in Spain, but it is a really small town and the closest city to him is Malaga, so, he comes here quite often. He is from California. We spent the day basically just walking around...I showed them my beautiful city.

After they left I went home and wrote. and wrote. and wrote. and wrote. Those darn essays...and I didnt even finish them all...

On Sunday I went to mass, then to lunch and then to the movies again to see "Jane Eyre" with my aunt and my two sisters. I guess that could be considered a bad decision considering I still had a lot of work to do, but the movie was really good! and...it was in spanish...so i was learning...

So, this week I don´t have that much school. I had school today. I don´t have school tomorrow for a holiday and then on Wednesday I have school again. Thursday I don´t have school for another holiday and then on Friday, no one goes to school, which means I don´t need to either. So basically...4 day weekend here I come!

However...my four day weekend will be spent studying becuase this coming week I have at least one test every single day....

Well time to get back to those essays that I never finished....that were due today....thank god my teacher is understanding and is letting me hand them in late with out points being taken off :)