Sunday Fun

There's not much to explain.

-mb

La Vista

As I sit here at my desk, all I have to do is lift my head up, and this is what I see.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the view from my window.



Right.



Left.











I will not deny the fact that that I am very spoiled. Not only is the view beautiful, but I am very lucky to be in such a nice location. Not just the palm trees either. I feel safe enough to walk around my neighborhood. That is huge. But the point of writing my blog wasn't about the beautiful locations in Spain. It's about how everyone has a different view of it. And depending on their circumstances depends on what they see.

Alicante has many things to offer. The obvious tourist attraction being the sea. And Madrid is a wonderful city as well. huge tourist place. I had a good experience in Madrid. Today I was thinking about all the values I've learned since I've been here, and whether it was worth giving up one year and spending a year abroad. You have your ups, and your downs. But I wouldn't say "giving up" are the right words. Sure, I did sacrifice having some priveledges, but in the end, I've gained millions more in this one year than I would have being at home. And I sure have gained more than I've given up. In the end, it's been completely worth everything. All the waiting, the patience, the frustration, etc. But don't let the pictures deceive you. This was not a year vacation. This was not a "year off." This year was work. A lot of work. A lot of hard work, and a lot of trial and error. A lot of embaressing moments, and a lot of growing.

But like they say. You fall off your horse, you get back on. You won't make the same mistake a second time. This year, whether we want to admit it or not... is filled with mistakes. You have to learn a new culture, language, and adapt yourself to everything around you. You are bound to make more mistakes in a year abroad than in your average life at home. But that's good. Those are mistakes you learn from. And you take what you're learned, and use it for the rest of your life.

So back to the view. Everyone has a different view from their window. Everyone sees things a different way. And the more sides you see, the better person you become. You get to understand the "other side of the fence." What it's like. What other people see. And most importantly, why.

Spain. Big cities. Apartments. Beaches. Suburbs. The Basque Country. Galicia. Rural places. Nature. They are all so very different from one another. We hear about them, see them, but until you live it, you really don't know what it's like. Because YOU must become one of "THEM" ...with "them" being the people who live that certain type of life. It's what this is all about. Living a new life. Seeing it through a different view.


.....And this, my friends, is the view from my apartment in Madrid.

First "snowfall" (and only that I remember) dated Nov. 29th 2010.



Right.







Left.



But don't let these pictures fool you either. For two reasons. One, because the plants make it look like there is some existence of nature. Wrong. There really aren't that many, and they aren't...green. Except like...'halfway green' for this short period in the winter. It really confused me too, you're not the only one. The patio?- It's basically all patio and concrete and tiles and such.

The second reason, is because you cannot judge the view for what the city is like, how pretty it is, and so forth. There is so much to offer in Madrid, and photos like this can make it seem not so... nice. Don't get me wrong... you do get swallowed up in apartments most of the time. My little neighborhood towards the outter edge of the center has more than five times the number of people who live in my small town, USA. And the weirdest thing? You don't see them. Like, at once. You can look at the streets and see a ton of parked cars, and only ten people walking around. Or less. It's weird to describe.

But back to the subject. The two views are completely different. Completely. However, that doesn't make one better than another. You can't look at the two views, and pick your prefered life.

And what's really interesting? The windows have the same type of blinds. Just like people. Things get in our way, distort our view, and cause us to make mistakes. Like judging a book from it's cover. The cover definitely tells you something- I won't deny that. The cover tells you something. Madrid = Apartment-land and you can't deny Alicante has the sea. The catch is... the cover doesn't tell everything. Which is what people forget.

My Madrid window was open in good weather. Always. Same in Alicante. Except... this one has a screen. There are bugs. I miss not having bugs.


So, which window do you want?

-mb

War of the Words

I would like to start my post by congratulating all of the 2011 graduates. And a side note that today is the last day of school at my American high school. 

Last day of school 2010. Spanish 3 Class



I so happen to be another European who has a month left of school.

...aren't we just a bunch of lucky folks.



Class trip to local museum. Credited to Lisa.



So congratulations graduates. You're "big adult life" (away from home) now starts. You are now more responsible for your actions and will be required to make decisions on your own. OooH! Scary.

Graduation here is celebrated by the stress of the 'selection' which is basically just passing the 12th grade [test] in order to go to college. If you don't pass the test/class, you have to re-take that class next year. But only the classes you fail. So if you only fail math and biology, you only re-take those two next year. Awesome? Not quite. When you re-take the test, you have to take it over ALL subjects. That's taking a huge test over a class you haven't had for a year...which requires studying it on your own. For a year.

There aren't any parties. I don't even think they sell congratulation cards. Graduation just simply means you are able to go to college. You are allowed to advance in your future.

Yesterday comments were being made about how more kids than usual are going to probably fail Segundo Bachillerato (12th grade). If there's 50 kids... I think they were counting around 15 or so.

Failing is considered normal. A big group of kids in Primero (11th) are 'expected to fail.'

So with one month of school comes the final exams for every class. Students are obsessive over this. Teachers are starting to post tests up to three weeks in advance. Over material we haven't even covered yet. This is to plan to make sure exams aren't on the same day of course.

I was actually going to write a post on it the first time, in literature class. But then it happened again today.

Usually, the students are the ones arguing with the teachers. But this time, it was students yelling at students. And not just yelling.

Complete War.

Literature class was the worst. They spent the entire 50 minutes in a complete war field absolutely SCREAMING at one another about when to have the test! I'm talking about within a four day difference. Not a drastic amount of time. So our teacher, completely powerless, tried to make peace by 'rationalizing' the options on the board. It took forever. They broke it down over 4 days. One was eliminated right away as the teacher said she wouldn't be here and there would be no class. There was three days left.

The difficult thing with not having a block schedule, is that there are a lot of 'finals' to study for. Therefore, there were already tests planned for the three days. The teacher broke it down all the way to-

Do you have to study concepts or formulas?

Un-believeable. The class is so stressed over the tests they argue it down to this. So the teacher suggested to make it a week earlier, but as you can imagine that didn't get any takers.

The ironic thing is that the kids who are going to pass know the material. One, two, three, or even four days doesn't make a difference. But still, the class went insane.

I was surprised that they even got to pick, really. Our science teacher today had the same problem. Same class. Same kids. But this was only over two days. The 6th or the 9th. Monday or Thursday.

And that brought World War III.

First, he took a count of hands. This dragged in the war... so another hand count was taken. Kids then decided that people were being unfair. A third hand count was taken. Kids were putting two hands up in hopes that they were mis-counted. At this point a fourth hand count was taken.

The teacher somehow decided that the hand counting system didn't work.

So he decided that we would pass around a piece of paper putting our name and what day we wanted. Right away I knew that was worse. Ontop of all the yelling, one student yelled out about how the 6's and 9's could easily be switched around and kids would change other kid's numbers.

A paper was made and passed around. But then? Another paper was made. And another. And every paper had atleast two people traveling with it, trying to persuade each student to pick whichever day.

So the teacher gave up and said- "ES IMPOSSIBLE CON USTEDES!"

(It's impossible with you all!)


Uh, like... clearly.


Glad he finally got that figured out. I turned to my exchange friend and joked- "He called us 'ustedes!'"... which is the formal "you" in Spanish. In Spain the informal "vosotros" is typically used.

And he continued to say he was going to put the test on the day when we had the most test.

Which brought in another battle of when the day with the most tests was. (Along with others trying to lie about it.)

So there it is. Final month of school and there's complete war. I am amazed at how detailed the arguments get. Every student seems to think that they have a reasoning they have to share on what day is better. We do get to pick three classes, so not everyone has the exact same schedule. Economy or Greek, Psycology or English, and Math or Latin.




There are days I would pay serious money for earplugs.

-mb

Where in the World?

So after mutiple questions of:     "Is the food there spicy?"

I have decided that people don't actually know where I live.

It's not close to Mexico and we do not eat Mexican food. I do not remember eating a single spicy food here. Paella, squid, chicken, croquetas, soups, salad (lettuce+olive oil+tomatos y nada mas...), Spanish tortilla (which is NOT a tortilla for tacos. It's more like....scrambled eggs), french fries (eaten with a FORK...), pizza ("American style"), octopus (which is actually good my friends...), other types of seafood, and the famous Spanish ham are common foods in my current life. There are all types of food eaten in this country. The thing about this little country is that there are "typical foods" in every city. Even the small towns have their typical dish.

A big steak? Would feed four.

Meat isn't eaten in such large porportions like it is in the states. It's accompanied by other foods of course but, isn't eaten in large proportions. And like I said before, snacking inbetween meals just... doesn't happen. It's no rule- but just not... something you do. An unwritten rule.

Center of Spain- Puerta del Sol

Back to the point. Where in the world am I? Currently, I am in Alicante, Spain. For the first five months of my experience I lived in the capital- Madrid. Which is in the center of Spain.

Here's a bit of a breakdown. Spain is in Europe.

Europe.

Spain.

And finally Madrid and Alicante. About five hours in car, three hours in train, and forty minutes in plane apart.


There are five-thousand-six-hundred-eleven miles from Madrid to Mexico City. They aren't neighbors.

Infact, my American house is some four thousand miles closer to Mexico than my Spanish house.

A view from the Santa Barbara Castle.

So..... now you know.

-mb

*The map pictures aren't mine- just the added arrows.

***Blogger was down for mantinence and I lost three posts and all comments since May 5th. Only two posts were recovered but none of my comments were. Amazingly, my mom printed off a hardcopy of  "Possibly the most difficult post I will ever have to write in my life" and so all three are back. Comments are still gone though. This is the reason for the absence and misordering of posts...***

The Illusion of Exchange

Possibly the most difficult post I will ever have to write in my life. And here I go.

The truth behind an exchange year which is hidden from everyone is this- there is no such thing as a typical or structured exchange year. But I'm not talking about the cheesy nonsense that you might hear in an orientation. I'm completely serious. And second most- going on exchange from the United States is nothing like going to the United States. They should as well be two, completely different things.

Let me explain.

No matter what program you go with, this is the breakdown.

1.- Apply.

2.- Get accepted.

3.- Physically arriving to host country.

4.- School.

5.- Some-type-of-change-somewhere.

6.- Coming home.

Everything else inbetween is a freebee. Nothing, is guarenteed.


But the reason for me writing is due to the fact that that the above statement, is well overlooked.


"It's amazing it even works at all" is quoted from a conversation when talking about exchange. "You are placing a teenager in a completely different family, with a completely different culture, and taking them away from everything they know."

I'm currently in month nine of my exchange year. If you were to take a survery of the emotions of 500 exchange students, you would most likely end up with 500 different answers. Why? Because this is the time of cramming all the last minute things in, before heading home.



Home.



That's right. We will be heading back to our respective countries in only a matter of time. This whole time of preparation and being on exchange, will end. End in the sense of course that being an exchange student happened in the past. It's not an event in the future- but rather something you hold memories of.

But there's been something that has been brought to my attention. It all started by reading blogs from students who just arrived to their country for their semester program. It was followed by reading the blogs of those who are leaving next year. And what has been brought to my attention is the pre-excitement.


I can remember the excitement of the preparation. Infact, it's so much excitement it's stressful.

Thinking back to the "illusions of exchange", I wasn't thinking things would be perfect, or even close. Of course not. Orientation talks about this, as well as the fact that "the perfect life" doesn't exist. But what does that mean, not even close to perfect? Bad? No. But what?

I read a lot of blogs over the summer before leaving. It never left my mind for a second. I remember watching a video from someone's blog in Italy. She basically talked about how not everyday is a good day. I was aware of that. I completely agree. I never expected to think it would always be good. But a thought? "Well atleast just being there you learn something with the language."

I didn't get it.

We talk about things that we 'think' we understand. You might not get to be that lucky traveler, or the person who lives in a giant house. You might have really annoying siblings, or maybe none at all. You might not have good transportation, and be in the middle of nowhere. You might this, and possibly this... Adapting to culture, learning a new language, making friends, doing new activites... yeah. We think we understand what that means before we leave, when really- nothing can prepare you. There is nothing that can compare you for all the obstacles that an exchange year brings.

So some think a year is overwhelming, and pick a semester. Good choice? I think not. The more you give, the more you gain. Definitely go for a year.

So back to what I wrote on the top. A student between ages of 15-18 goes on exchange. Stays with a family. Goes to school. Hopefully, completes the year- and goes home. Everything in between is like a bonus. It's not guranteed.

For example. Your host family is legally required to give...what? Well, mine didn't sign a single paper. But in order to host- the student has to have food, their own bed, and be "like any other member of the family." So you are guarenteed a family- but are they really interested and excited to host? Do they WANT you there? Are they interested in having you? What are their reasons for having you?

They all vary. Not a one is the same.

I feel almost foolish for stressing out over what country I was accepted into. The reality is- it doesn't matter. The factor that matters is your host family. If you aren't part of a family... well... it doesn't matter which country you're in.

Within each family are things we forget about. What do they value in life? Household rules are easy to overcome. But if you don't have the same values? That gets quite a bit trickier.

Same with school. How does it work? What is the mentality of the kids? And the teachers? This wasn't in any handbook... Making friends is one thing. Learning how to understand and accept their actions, thoughts, and ways of doing things? That's different. Let's not forget the fact that you might not even understand what they are saying until halfway through your stay. Or you understand enough to know what they're saying... but don't understand why. School is where you physically spend most of your time during the day. Don't ever, ever forget that when picking a country.

For example. Teachers in Spain can give out any grade they want without questioning. Fair? You tell me.

This is also why I say going TO the states is completely different that going FROM the states. School is a huge part of your experience. The states? This is what I've found. And I can't speak for all, but only from what I know. We have teachers who like to teach. They will willingly help an eager student. We get homework daily. This helps when trying to learn a language. We have technology... some schools more than others. We have school sports, clubs. This helps you get involved with other kids. There's school spirit. You feel like part of a big 'family.' There's a lot of differences in the school- and this amounts for a ton of your exchange year.

And don't take this the wrong way. I'm not saying the the USA is better or worse than another country. I'm saying it how it is. When you don't have the things- the things you are used to having- you find yourself in a completely different world. From scratch. Any country you go to has new things the states doesn't. The states isn't superior to any other country. It's distinct. And going from one distinction to another is what the exchange experience is all about.

Before I left, I didn't know what to expect. Here's an example. How can you imagine school in a foreign country, if you don't know how it is? So let's say you know a few things. It's typical to take your current situation/surroundings and subsitute what you know, with what you have. This is where the culture shock comes in. It's not substituting. It's starting from scratch.

My school experience has been very, very good for me. I will never look at my American school the same again. Infact, I've had 'daydreams', if you call them, about the first day next year. I can see myself walking in... pretty lost.

Culture to culture will vary the big differences. Some schools are quite different, while some family/customs have a more dramatic difference. And nothing of different is bad. It's simply different than what you had before.

Back to the list. 1, 2, & 3 are pretty simple. Then school. And what next?

Some-type-of-change-somewhere.

Some people call it adapting, whiles others call it maturing, growth, or acceptance. Every student varies. Not a single student will have the same of anything. But somehow, somewhere, you are guarenteed to change in some way. And like they say- the more you give, the more you get. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward.

If you were on a year vacation, you wouldn't be learning much.

You grow depending on the challenges you are given.

And finally, coming home. I'm not home yet, but as time draws closer you can't help but think what life's going to be like. The same, but changed? How? The physical differences? Mental? Still unknown.

Why is all this so difficult to explain? Because not everyone gets it. And some get it, but completely disagree. And some have even been on exchange, and have discovered a completely different world. And that's my point. Not a single exchange is the same. Some of the comments mentioned are about my exchange, while I have combined factors from others as well.

We learn, we grow.

Set the bar high, get there, ...and you will never, ever want to lower it again

-mb

Access Denied?

Brett Favre: I'm 'done with football.'

Was the first thing I saw on a webpage I opened today. It made my day.

 

One thing I keep forgetting to mention is license restrictments. They are all over the place. After 8.5 months I'm used to them popping up, but at first it was like- "What?"

Smaller countries don't necesarily spend a lot of money on buying rights to music, videos, etc. It was something I never thought about really. As far as I remember I had access to everything I wanted at home.

                   

                       ..."no other alternative"? What is this?

Amazon

It started with Pandora music. Followed with Hulu, and later some videos on youtube, ABC News, Rhapsody, etc. Some music videos can't be played either. This doesn't indicate that the content is bad- it just means the rights weren't bought or permitted. (For those of you who don't study computers, your IP address gives away your location. There are illegal ways to get around this- but I don't know how.)



Hulu

 

I've not run into anything too drastic- i.e. Facebook is blocked in China and other countries. Turkey has blocked Blogger before.



The first time was the weirdest. I had a heads up about Pandora and Hulu, but some other times caught me off guard.

As well as licenses and such, many times a website asks you where you are for the language/country news/etc.

Shopping on Nike.com



It's not too big of a deal. Usually when going to MSN, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines- they simply ask your location in order to put the latest news in your area. Some videos are blocked because of a song in the video due to rights, etc. Same with shopping online. Different countries offer different things, have different price/currency, etc.

But we do eventually find our websites that replaces our favorite online music radio.



Skype offers screenshare...

-mb

5.3

An earthquake hit Lorca today. Well, two.
So far here in Alicante we haven't felt anything yet, but towns nearby have. The shaking was noted in the nearby towns Elche & Villena... both within an hour from Alicante.

Click to Watch Video         or Read an Article

Unfortunately the current death count is at 10. Please read the article as you will find there was an earthquake predicted to be in Rome... 96 years ago.

Our lunch conversation was about recent events...

September 11th, 2001- Terrorist attacks in USA
March 11th, 2004- Bombing in Atocha train station, Spain
March 11th, 2011- Earthquake in Japan

Me in Atocha Train Station

 Interesting, eh?

-mb

Cinco de Mayo

Before I even start, do me a favor. Stop whatever you're doing and look at the title of my blog.

SPAIN

Thank you. Now, I will continue to tell you that the famous "Cinco de Mayo" holiday is NOT Mexico's Independence Day. It it the day when Mexico won a battle against France.

Mexico - France

Just to... let you know. You can read my blog title again if you get confused, because here in Europe (Yes, Spain is in Europe) el "Cinco de Mayo" holiday is not celebrated. MEXICO won it's battle against FRANCE. Spain frankly doesn't really... care.

But they do have another party.

Santa Faz is the festival that... well I'm not really sure. It's only in Alicante. We didn't do anything for it today. I was told it's always two weeks after Easter or something like that. So we don't have school this Thursday or Friday... it's been pretty nice, as our Easter holiday was the 20th-2nd. All I really know was that a group of people walked from point A to point B and later went to party at the beach. And it's a long way inbetween. Here at home we've just been getting ready for my older host sister's wedding tomorrow.

Anddddd I'm the photographer. Yikes. I can say I've never been held responsible for capturing one of the most important days of someone's life. Hopefully all goes well.

So that was my first point of the blog. My second was about today's dinner conversation. (And btw- all speaking is in Spanish...somehow that question comes up(?)

My host grandparents are spending the night at our house with the wedding tomorrow. You see, lately I've been trying to figure out how to describe my life.

I have a harder time understanding my host grandparents for, well... different reasons. One being similar to the following conversation.

Abuelo: "Tens fam?" (I somehow heard something on the lines of- ping pong?)

Me:"heh?"

Abuelo: "Oh, so you don't speak Valenciano?"

Me: "Ehhhmmm...no."

(It means- Are you hungary?/Tienes hambre?)

So that gives you a start. Second, as we were sitting at the dinner table- my host grandmother turns to me and asks-

"Do you know what "patos" are?"

"Yes" I replied. Patos = ducks.

"Do you know what "monjas" are?"

"Yes" I replied. Monjas = nuns. 

Conversation = Ended.

Somewhere, somehow, I think I missed something. It was a classic moment- as I had a lot of these when I first arrived. You understand a few words, but not those inbetween. I hadn't had this moment for a while. This type of thing leaves me clueless, puzzled, and lost as to how to respond. You sit there and think..... I really am in exchange. I am sitting in this room, and am the only person who is confused as to why ducks and nuns would come up at the same time. And no one goes on to explain any further, or something, because I guess I really don't know anymore.

Later in the conversation 'el abuelo' started talking about when they went to New York City over ten years ago. Between my host grandparents and mother we had a conversation that went a little bit like this:

Abuelo: "We went to New York and later to Canada (names a lists of cities), and later New York again. We even went to Niagra Falls. Have you been there?"

Me-"No."

Abuelo: "No? Oh...well, I didn't like New York. All the people there were fat and were 'eating in the streets'. It was my least favorite city. I didn't like it there are all... all the fat people with their food."

Me- Speechless. Thinking- He just insulted my country! He just insulted people in New York! He just GENERALIZED New York! New York IS HUGE! How can you say something is the same, for so many people?!

The conversation continued.

Abuelo:"How big is your town?"

"About 15,000. A small town."

Abuelo:"Oh ok, I was just curious if it was a small town or a big one. What the name of it? It's possible we passed through it on our trip."

Host mother:"She lives in Minnesota. It's in the center by Canada. Right? How far are you from Canada?"

Me:"Eight hours? Ten? In car." --->(I don't actually know...)

Abuelo:"Well what's the name of it? It's very possible we passed through there."

Host mother:"But she's far away from New York!"

Abuelo:"We we went all through the area!"

Me:--->humored by the fact someone thinks they could have 'just run' through my town on a New York trip.. "It's impossible, sorry."

Abuelo:"Well, you never know."

Host mother:"You know the United States is like all of Europe?"

That was one conversation. It leaves me wondering if the world really knows how big the United States is. I think not. Because I for one haven't traveled the whole United States. I am so thankful that the AFS Gateway Orientation was in New York, because if it wasn't- I would have no answer "No" everytime someone has asked me if I've been to NYC. And if I had a euro for everytime someone asked me that- I'd be going on exchange again next year.

So the next conversation was about our houses. We the people of the United States, in order to build houses quickly and efficiently, build our houses out of wood. My host mother was going on about how we're not ready if a tornado comes- which was another story we were talking about. I continued to explain that if your house gets hit directly by a tornado- it's going down. And if it doesn't come down all the way, it's come down enough where it's not liveable and insurance will take care of it anyways.

She went on about how she couldn't believe how we could do that. Like why on earth? And then made the comment:

"So that's why you guys don't smoke!"

I want to hope with everything I have that was a joke. So let's say it was. Why would you joke about the education of one country in comparison to another? I found nothing of that funny. But I've also learned not to take it offensively either. Those type of things, you just have to ignore. People will think what they think. You can't change them. You can only attempt to educate them, in hopes that they will change themselves.

But let's make a side note here. An exchange year has these moments. These moments when you just want to sit there and be like, "Are you serious?" and find some way to not be overly opinionated, keep yourself together, and somehow, somehow... find the words to respond.

In Spanish, of course.

-mb

Brick Wall

Typically, "Brick Wall" would be goalie talk. But there's no ice hockey in Spain...

As much as I really want to write something creative, original, inspiring, or funny, I have hit a brick wall on what to blog about. So here goes a very unorganized post. All I wish is that you have the patience to get to the end.

Life right now is what you can call 'normal'. What is normal? I refuse to go on some wild filosofy goose-chase explaination, just to get to the point that normal doesn't exist.

And yes, that is how I now spell 'filosofy'.

A regular day.

I wake myself up at 7:00AM. I hit the snooze button twice and get up at 7:20. First school bell rings at 7:55, and the second at 8. I leave the house inbetween the two- as my school fortunately is right across the street. I walk into school, passing the group of students smoking cigaretts/drugs right outside the gate.

It hit me one day that you can't smoke on my school grounds in the states.

Teacher shows up at about 8:05 or 8:10.

Class?

It's middle school all over again. There is nothing to separate 7th graders from 12th graders.

Everything else?

I've explained it before. Empty room. Add some desks and chairs, and people. Lecture for an hour, and change classes. Even the teachers don't always know where the class is. You just kind of go where no one else is. And it just kind of... works.

Three classes, recreo. two classes, recreo. One or two classes. Depending on the day depends on how long my days are.

Go home, and eat lunch with host family anywhere between 14:30-15:00. We use military time in Spain.

After this, anything goes. Siesta nap, tennis (awesome enough but there's a court and pool in my backyard), gym (2 min. walk across the street), walk along the beach, etc. I am truly spoiled with this. And homework? Homework is hard to explain. We don't get homework minus a few papers... but then again they aren't like papers in the states.

I remember in Madrid once my English teacher told me to write "a letter to a friend."

Five minutes? Done.

I gave her the paper. She looked at me and gave me this terrible face. "Don't you want to write it on better paper without all the lines?" (oh btw regular paper doesn't exist here...well, I mean the same type we have in the states) ..."Yeah, I'll type it when I get home."

And then the lecture.

"NOOOOO!!!!!!! We are not lazy in Spain! We HAND write papers here! What do you think this is?!"

"Not the United States, obviously"--was my first thought. But I was able to keep it simple and reply saying that I didn't know... as it's the opposite in the states.

***Printers aren't a common househould item. And I've not seen one in a house with a scanner. You have to go to "Correos" for that. Or the random public scanners throughout...well... wherever.

Where was I? Oh yeah, so homework, and then there's a meal called "merienda" which is like a snack between lunch and dinner, which is usually eaten around 18:00-19:30 or so. We eat dinner anywhere between 21:00-22:00. Dinner is pretty small. I'll have to start writing a food list to better describe all this.

And then shower and bed. It's hard to describe exchange life without getting too personal. For instance, there are things you just wonder about... example. I take a shower everyday. But not everyone else does. Washing hair once a week from what I have noticed is normal. But then again, it depends on the household. So I can sit and wonder- what do they think of me? Do they think I'm crazy or wasting water? But at this point I don't think like that anymore. I have my routine and any thoughts or impressions would have been brought up by now.

Interesting fact: Taking a running shower blows my mind.

That's right. I've gotten so used to not taking a running shower I actually forgot I do that in the states. I am now able to see through a foreigner's eyes. Do we REALLY take running showers in the states? I don't think so. My mind is completely washed. Mindwashed? ....brain. Brain-washed. I am completely brainwashed. Why on earth would we do such a thing? Doesn't the world want to conserve water?

So that's the closest to what I would call my 'normal' day. Of course I missed a billion details, but more on that later.

My Life: More interesting facts.

Bullfighting is on TV like baseball is in the states. Infact, it's been on everyday for the past few weeks more or less. The thought of "being tired of watching bulls" is a 'normal' thought. At first I didn't have an opinion on it. Very neutral. Now, the more I watch it, the less I like it. That's my stand on that.

My English vocabulary consists of very few words when writing. Hence repeated phrases...and my spelling is horrible. I don't have an auto-correct on here either so... sorry.

I love singing along to music in Spanish. To master a song is more than fun... it's learning Spanish.

Guess of the future- I will not be sending a box home. I think with two suitcases, a backpack, and a camera bag- I won't have to send a box home. Things are expensive here. I haven't bought much. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I'm very spoiled by the weather. I don't know if Minnesota is still wearing coats, but I was sitting out in the sun today. Minnesota mornings at 30degrees Fahrenheit? I don't think it hits that low here in the winter.

And this is how my head spins somedays. Thanks for making it all the 'til the end. A promised effort for organization will be attempted.

'ta luego,

-mb