almost two months (:

It's almost two months since I got here?! September? It went by sooooo slowly. Longest month of my life. Not because it was bad, but because I did so many new, different things! But now, October has gone by ridiculously fast. It really seems like it was just yesterday that my host mom was telling me that, "Manana es un mes LindsAAAAy!" She pronounces my name like that hahahah! Everyone does; "Leensay".  I pretty much gave up on people pronouncing it correctly the second day I got here, I got tired of spending twenty minutes with ever person I met teaching them how to say my name.
BUT
A few things have happened since the last time I wrote here. I kind of have gotten into a normal schedule of doing things, I finally have a regular, everyday, normal life. Well maybe not normal (: Every morning, or most mornings, I wake up and go to school. Sometimes my school starts at nine, and sometimes later. It's really irregular and it changes a lot, and that has been the cause of some stares when I walk into the classroom an hour late. But, after school, I go home, eat lunch, and most days, take a "siesta". School is really tiring. I used to complain about being tired for school in America, but I had no idea. Even though I don't have to do work in school, just listening to different language(s) all day long and having to translate in your head is mentally exhausting. It's like an overload of information. But as long as I have my siesta, I'm fine (: after I wake up, after about an hour, I do different things depending on the days. Mondays, usually I go out with some friends and walk around, or go to the port and hang out. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go work out with my friend to train for a triathlon that we're doing! On Wednesdays, I have a Salsa dance class with my exchange friend from Canada (: and then on Fridays, I go for a run along the beach/port, come home, shower, and usually go out with some friends. That's my schedule for the week at the moment, but I'm sure it will change soon. Me and my exchange friend right now are looking into a "Spanish for Beginners" class, where they teach us Spanish basics, like vocabulary, grammar, and different tenses, and we teach them the same in English! I'm excited, I think it will be really good for me. We're also looking into yoga, and pilates.  I am up for any kind of exercise, because, as any other exchange student can probably relate, my pants have been getting a litttttlee bit tighter these days. But I'm trying to convince myself that they all just shrunk in the wash.
I have a pretty good group of friends here. All of them are super nice, and really funny. Well, I think they're funny. I can't understand everything, and some things that I find absolutely hilarious, no one else laughs at so I end up doing some kind of snort/cough noise in order to hold back my laughter. A lot of the people I hang out with speak English. I always tell them to speak Spanish to me, but sometimes its really difficult, because it's almost impossible to be yourself in a language you can barely speak. I think that I speak more Spanish here than English, but I honestly think that the amount of english that I speak here is affecting my ability to learn and speak Spanish. It's something I need to work on. One thing that I realized today though, is that I can have an in depth conversation in half english/half spanish! I spoke the english, clearly. But that today kind of motivated me, and bumped up my confidence level about my ability to understand. I get yelled at daily by my teachers here, which isn't normal or good, but it doesn't really bother me because when people yell at me I can't even understand one word they're saying, especially if its not even in Spanish, which happens daily in my Valenciano class. ( everyone here speaks two languages, Spanish, and Valenciano, the dialect spoken in Valencia and surrounding cities) Teachers here aren't the same as in America. They are more casual, or in other words, rude. I understand more than they think I can, and so many times I hear them talking to the whole class about me, sometimes making fun of me. It hurts my feelings, sometimes even scares me.
There have been many very difficult things I have had to get through, and I'm sure plenty to come. But I came with Rotary, so I am prepared (: So, to any future exchangers reading this, know that this is not a year long vacation. You are going to get sick, you're going to cry, you're going to miss things back home, you're going to be upset with your host family, and them with you. This, I have come to realize, is actually going to be life changing- hard, but worth it.
On to a more joyful note, I'M GOING ON VACATION! There are I think three trips my school is doing, and I realllly want to go! I probably wont be able to go on all of them, because money doesn't actually grow on trees, and as once again, as other exchange students can probably relate, I blow my money so fast once I get it, it's not even funny! I need to practice saving... But it's so hard... The clothes are so cute... Anyways, yeah. Three trips with the school. One to Barcelona for four days, one to Germany for TEN days, and then a cruise!!!! YAYYYY! The cruise has five destination points, right now I can only remember two, we leave from Barcelona and stop in Italy and Greece + three other awesome places that I don't know... omg right? Yeah. It'll be cool. I'm excited. And also the Rotary trip to Portugal! This is beyond exciting. Yay (:
Okay, well I have to go to a meeting about the cruise now ( ! ) BYE

ps: I went to another bull thing in the streets, and got this epic picture. Just thought I should share (:

BYE