a year in spain (:: I'll have been here for twenty days on Tuesday !

On Tuesday, I'll have been here for twenty days! Sometimes it feels like I've been here for a lot longer than that, and some days it feels like I've only been here for a couple days! But no matter how I'm feeling at a certain time, the fact that I love it here and am already dreading saying goodbye to this amazing place stays the same. There is so much to say and to tell you, but not enough time in the entire world to give you all the details. So I'll just give you the highlights (:

I'll start with the flight here. I went most of the way, (besides to NY) with my friend Nicole, who is living in a town close to mine in Spain. I don't know what I would have done without her that day, because, as my family knows very well, I am terrible with directions. Add lack of sleep, hunger, anticipation, soreness, headaches, grumpiness, and unbrushed hair to the mix and you have two very lost teenage girls. But we managed! By the time I arrived in Alicante, met my host family, and drove down to Denia, I had been awake and traveling for over thirty hours. But that didn't matter! I was so pumped when we arrived I wasn't tired at all! I stayed up for four more hours meeting all the family and walking through Denia. That night, I slept nineteen hours.

My host family is more than I could have ever expected. They're so nice, and they help me so much- not just with learning Spanish, but they helped me with finding some really good friends, organize my classes in school, help me try to learn my way around town, and much, much more. I have a sister here, and two parents. Alicia, the eleven year old daughter, who seems really shy, but she's warming up to me little by little. Vicente, my host dad, and Maria Angeles, my host mom (who I call Angie for short). I love them and could not ask for anyone better!

I have done a countless number of cool things so far. I'll start from the beginning. The third day that I was here, we went to a wedding! Really different, but awesome. Before it started, everyone in the family got two hotel rooms, because the women didn't want to wear their dresses in the car. It was probably the nicest hotel I've ever been in! Two five star hotel rooms for just thirty minutes to change into dresses you ask? Yeah I don't know. But it was glamourous (: We threw rice at the couple! For food at the wedding, or "la boda", it was...different. I had no idea what I was eating the entire time. The food just kept coming and coming! It lasted hours. The wedding began at nine in the morning, and we got home at one... a.m.

A few days later, on September 7th, I met my first real friend! I've spent most of my time here since then with her and other new friends, other than being with my family. That night, we went a see the "torros"! So many people before then, told me that if I'm going to live in Spain, I HAVE to see the bulls. When my friend asked me if I wanted to go see the bulls, I didn't understand at all. When people asked me, "Quieres ir a los torros?" Every time, I understood "todos" instead of "torros". So I kept saying "Yes. YESS!! Quiero ver a todos!!" Because I really did want to see everything, I just didn't know why people kept asking me. But, once we got there I realized my mistake. There, I think I experienced my first time of utter shock. The poor bulls. The people would hit at it, and taze it, just to get it angry so it would run at them. My first thoughts were: Oh my gosh I'm living with barbarians. But then I caught myself, remembering that this is a different culture, and that this is just how it is.

A lot of the days, I just spend my free time walking around the main street, window-shopping and people watching. Where I live is just a few steps away from it! It's called Calle de Campos, and it has restaurants, clothing stores, a Mercadona, McDonalds (of course), and so much more. The street is marble! it gets blocked off after six so people can relax about cars and "motos" and whatnot. I started school two days ago. The first day, Angie drove me there, thank God, because there is not way I could walk there without getting extremely lost. School was good. It was not a whole lot different from school at home! Besides it being ninety degrees inside the classrooms. I had to walk back! It should be about a twenty or thirty minute walk, but I managed to make it into three hours. Phrase of the day? Estoy perdido. Ayudame? I probably said that over twenty times! Eventually, when I still couldn't get home, I started simply asking where the ocean was. I can only imagine how stupid people thought I was, but I don't care!!!!! I knew, that if I got to the ocean, I could find Calle de Campos and then find my way home. I had never felt and probably will never feel again the success and pride that I felt when I caught the first glimpse of that apartment building. I went from not being able to get to the grocery store in Tampa after living there for four years, to finding my own way home from school in a brand new city with people that don't speak my language. I smile just thinking about it (:

There are still so many things I have to learn, not only the Spanish language, but about the culture here, and why things are the way they are. Right now, there is a very veryyy long list of things I do not understand.
1. Why soccer is played on cement
2. Why, that when you're sick, you go to the dentist
3. Why the dentist writes prescriptions on sticky notes
4. Why there are rooms with no windows, but with curtains and blinds
5. Why maids come every day to clean the house.. how can a house get dirty in a day?
6. Why there are air conditioners in the schools but they are never used
7. Why people would want pictures with a dead turtle
8. Why we go grocery shopping daily
9. Why I have to wear slippers at all times in the house
10. Why there are no pancakes

Plane ride there (: