school...

is more difficult than that of the US. but i expected that. what i didn't anticipate was everyone knowing the routine, and being extremely confused and feeling left out when everyone around you responds to an unknown sign and pulls out paper and begins to write. it's a very frightening feeling.
all this to say that i'm not too thrilled with my classes here. i take classes in the math and science track, and so they're things that i don't enjoy. but light at the end of the tunnel- i'm changing to the humanities track on friday. that means that i again get to study my beloved languages and some history. yay!
so basically there's not too much going on here. i thank everyone who does for reading this, and i hope that you are well.
¡adios!

sorry it's been a while

but nothing has really been happening. but yesterday was fun! it was a bullfight. i'll explain:
there are 3 matadors (bull killers) with their respective teams. there are six bulls- 2 for every matador. they go nonstop. when the bull is released into the arena, there are several men with colorful capes standing around. they wave them (i'm sure you're familiar with this) and the bull chases them. he gets very agitated. soon after they make him run around for a while, a man on a horse comes out. he carries a long pole with a blade on the end. the cape men make the bull run to the picador (stick man) and the picador plunges the blade into the back of the bull. this makes the bull even angrier. if the picador keeps the blade in too long, the people get mad and start to yell- they don't want suffering. he pulls it out and the bull chases the cape men again. then they repeat the poking and the picador leaves. then come men with banderillas- colorful streamers on wooden poles with spikes on the end. there are three men, each with 2 banderillas- 6 banderillas total. these men run around the bull (with no horse or protection or anything) and stick the banderillas in the bull's back. if they fall out, he did it badly and the people get upset. this makes the bull even madder. finally out comes the toreador or matador. he has a very familiar red cape and waves it around to get the bull to chase it. he whirls and twirls and gets very brave, the braver the better. one of the matadors yesterday actually kneeled with his back to the bull and waved the cape. the better and braver the toreador gets, the happier the people are. they clap as people do at theatre performances in between acts. then he raises his sword and everyone goes quiet. this means that he's about to kill. he gets ready then waves the cape with one hand to get the bull to move towards him, while simultaneously plunging his sword into the back. it must miss the bone and go deep in. also, the bull must die quickly. if the bull is obviously suffering, the people get mad. then horses come out and pull the dead body away.
so we saw the deaths of 6 bulls yesterday. on the second one, the bull was obviously weak and suffering, so the people began to yell and whistle loudly. when the bull fell, some people even stood up. they yell at the president of the event to take the bull out and kill it humanely. this they did with the second bull- the president waved a white flag, and the bull was replaced with another. on the fourth bull, the toreador didn't do enough toreadoring (being brave and waving the cape) and wanted to kill too early. he failed several times to stab the bull well enough, so the people were yelling a lot. they want the bull to die quickly. when he finally killed it, people whistled instead of clapping. they were quite displeased. but it was fun, altogether.

after the fight, we went out into town. there i met the son of some friends of my host parents, so i have more friends now. we're supposed to be going out into town tonight. yay friends! =D

pictures! and a wine festival.

that's what happened today. observe:

this is the view of the town from one of my windows .

this is the view from the other side.

and that's my church. there are no people in these photos because they're the ones i took in the first few days and i need to upload the others. it takes forever so i'll do it another day.

about the wine festival... it was about 20 km away and it was a gathering in a village of all of the bodegas in the area so that people could sample the wine. sorry there's not much detail, but there's not much time. i'll explain more when i put the pics up. adios!

names/ nombres

In light of having nothing to do here until I start school, I'll share what I learned about the complex system of Spanish naming that no American can ever seem to figure out (including myself):
When married, the mother does not lose her last name. Nothing changes. When she and her husband have children, they just give BOTH their names to the children, and the names of ancestors' last names are added on. This means that the children can have an infinite number of names, all the way back to Adam and Eve. But in reality, names are forgotten over time- so on average they keep a modest 8. For example, my mother's name would be Leanne Wiggin Brewer Gould Moore Turner Lybeck. She has more ancestors, but they have been forgotten by now. When in public, she is only known by the first two: Leanne Wiggin. (There are also no middle names). When she has a child (me for example), I am Simon Jerome (from my father) Wiggin (from my mother) Brewer plus the last name of my father's mother and so on (I don't know all the names). But I am only known as Simon Jerome in public (the first two). Andrew would be Andrew Jerome Wiggin... and Becca as Rebecca Jerome Wiggin... But they would be known as Andrew and Rebecca Jerome, the first two.
But I found something more interesting! One can change the order of the last names, if one wishes. Let's say that my mother one day became famous. She is Leanne Wiggin. I want everyone to know that we are related, so I want to be known as Simon Wiggin. This can be legally changed from Simon Jerome, but there's a catch. All of my siblings have to agree to the change as well. This means that Andrew and Rebecca would have to agree to be called Wiggin as well. I asked my host father why, and he just said that if one has brothers, they must have the same last name.
Anyways, I'm going to go out and enjoy the Spanish air. ¡Adios!
=]

some life lessons here in spain...

over my very short time in this country, i've learned some lessons. i hope they help you if you come here.

• ALWAYS wear zapatillas (slippers) in the house. if you don't, the romanian housekeeper will treat you like you're catching plague and tell you over and over that your family didn't send you here to freeze to death.
• one drinks milk warm. not hot, not cold, warm.
• it is, for some reason, very rude to keep one hand beneath the table when it's not being used at a meal. if you're not using it, it's to stay above the table to avoid being stared at by others.
• eat everything that's served to you, and possibly more if you can even stomach it. if not, it's quite evident to every Spaniard at the table that you're dying of hunger and something must be done.
• saying sí just once is NEVER enough. to make one's point, several sí responses must be made. see the following:

Spanish person: ¿estás bien? (are you well?)

American: ¡Sí!

Spanish person: Él se muere. ¡Llévalo al hospital! (He's dying. Take him to the hospital!)

This is the scenario to avoid. See the suggested response:

Spanish person: ¿estás bien?

American: ¡Sí sí sí sí sí sí sí (as much as is necessary to use up all air in lungs) sí sí sí sí sí sí sí! ¡Viva España!

Spanish person: Bueno. =]

• at all times, at least attempt to talk with other spaniards besides the host family. they consider it more rude not to talk than to mangle their language.
• don't tell anyone that you're american when they're listening to music. if you do, they whip out an american song (take barbie girl, for example) on their cell phone and want an immediate translation. it doesn't matter if it's untranslatable. they asked for it, you're american, and you'd better give them a translation on the literary level of don quijote.
• you can never be late in spain. it's simply impossible. even if you have an appointment, it just turns out that the fates wanted you to be there later.
• don't talk to the elderly in the park. they aren't like the american old-timers- they may be sitting on a bench to talk to someone, but it's not you because you weren't in the war and you can't possibly understand.
• everyone is related. don't question it. if you see someone on the street in oyón, it's definitely an aunt. of someone you know.
• making your bed goes a loooong way with romanian housekeeper women.
• the idea of hair gel does not translate. if you need it, bring a life supply. this is not to say that they don't have it, it's just that it's evidently cursed so that no american will EVER be able to find it in any store.
• cars drive wherever they want, however they want. pedestrian right-of-way will happen when the republican party gets through an entire term with no scandals.

that's about all I can think of, for now. i'm sure i'll learn more. keep these in mind!

=D

second day...

not too much going on around here today. school doesn´t start til friday, so i´ve basically just been keeping myself busy by taking walks and bike rides. yesterday we ate the most interesting thing though:
i sat down for dinner and saw a plate sitting in the middle of the table. on it were strips of meat that looked like bright jerky. my host mother said ¡jamón! ¡come! this means ham! eat! so i figured it was ham, right? oh no. i tasted it, and it tasted uncooked. i looked at my host brother and said -¿en qué se cocinó? (what was it cooked in?)- he responded -no se cocinó.(it wasn´t cooked)- i almost died. so as if to elaborate, my host mother went into the corner and pulled a towel off of what i had previously thought was a machine. ohhhh no. not a machine. a leg of a dead deer, uncooked. apparently this is quite normal in spain. i doubt i´ll catch on. =]

I´M HERE!

This is the most amazing city ever. I´m living in Oyón, if you all didn´t know, right outside of Logroño, the capital of La Rioja, a small wine-producing area that is in northern Spain. I´m surrounded by mountains and vineyards in this small town with tiny streets and people everywhere. I´m in love with it already.
My family picked me up off of the train yesterday from Barcelona. It was a six hour ride- way too long. But I got to see lots of Spain! It´s really pretty here, as one can imagine from the mountain and vineyard description. Anyways, they picked me up and I met all of them- Cristina, my mamá, Pedro, my papá, and David and Marcos, my hermanos. They´re all so friendly. I also met Maite, my coordinator from the company in this region. I talk to her if I have any problems. We went to McDonald´s to eat =], then they took me home. They showed me around their apartment- any kid in the States would be jealous ;]. They all live on the third floor of their part of the apartment, and I have the entire fourth floor to myself. I have my own TV, living room, couch, windows, bathroom, bed, desk, and an amazing view. It´s pretty great. Plus the keyboard has keys for accents! It´s great. After they showed me everything and I gave them gifts, we walked around their little town. It´s a really cute old little town, with stone buildings everywhere and this ancient church. I took pictures, which I´ll try to upload later. There´s not really much else to tell at this point, except that it really is as cool as it seems. Í´ll write more later!
=]

SPAIN! =D

I've arrived! This country is amazing. I'm writing this from my hotel room in Sant Cugat, a suburb of Barcelona. We saw a monastery in the city yesterday- the architecture is so cool here! The flight took 8 hours and 10 minutes from Dulles Intl. to Franz Josef Strauss in Munich, then an immediate following flight from Munich to Barcelona that took 2 hours. It was a long day, but I finally got there =]. Now we have an orientation today, and we go out to our respective families tomorrow. I'm so excited! I really want to meet mine. They seem very cool. That's pretty much it for now- the next installment can be expected in about a day and a half, when I move in. =]

one more day of school...

then i'm done! i leave on thursday, as you all can read... yippee! =D
today i got my braces off. that was so exciting.
tomorrow i get my learner's permit. =D
life is good.