Paella and More

On Thursday, Irene and I got shushed by the Filosofia teacher for talking during class…I think I’ve accomplished my goal from the last post. ☺

School is quickly becoming more routine. I have classes where I understand almost everything, and classes where I’m completely lost. Biology, for example, is easy to understand because the vocabulary is similar. Philosophy, on the other hand, is still very difficult in terms of understanding the Spanish (and the material as well- right now we’re discussing such things as “What did Plato believe ‘reality’ is? Are some things more real than others? That is to say, are our emotions ‘real’ even though they are ever changing?”). Oof.

As far as this weekend goes, it was very eventful. On Saturday, we went out with Amparo’s parents to a gorgeous old mansion that was converted to a restaurant. We had an incredible 4 course lunch (actually the meal is called la comida…it’s the one that’s around 3:00), and we didn’t finish until around 5:30. That night I went out with practically my entire class into the city to surprise Yentel for her birthday. It was a great night, and all the girls then slept over at Yentel’s. Around noon on Sunday, my host dad came to pick me up. Then it was paella time.

Now, let me tell you something about paella. If you didn’t know, it’s a typical Spanish dish of rice and seafood (or other types of meat), and it originated in Valencia. It’s kind of a big deal here. I mean, there’s paella, and then there’s Paella Valenciana. At the orientation in Madrid, we had paella. But when I told people this, they assured me that I had not actually tried paella, since paella made in Madrid is nothing. Well, this weekend was the Fiestas Mas Camarena (Mas Camarena is the name of my neighborhood) and so one Sunday there was a paella contest. It was quite the sight to see 30+ paellas being cooked over open fires. My host mom explained to me that there are many theories on what the secret is to a good paella. Many say it is the water, and there are some restaurants in Spain that actually import water from Valencia to make paella. Others insist is the wood for the fire, or the rice. Either way, the paella turned out to be delicious, and I have to agree that the one I ate in Madrid did not compare.

After the paella we went to Ambrosio’s brother’s house for Julia’s first birthday. The ENTIRE family was over. And when I say entire, I mean entire. 15+ children all under the age of 6, at least 20 adults, and me-the only person between the ages of 12 and 40. But it turned out to be fun, and we ate and talked for hours. Julia was monísima, and the poor thing was passed from person to person all night. By the time we got home, I was exhausted from staying up all Saturday night and a long Sunday of paella and birthday cake. Over all, an incredible weekend, and I hope it was the first of many.


Paula and the birthday girl
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Palmtrees at the neighborhood clubhouse area where the paella contest was held

My host parents and I with the paella

I tried to get a good picture of all the paellas but this was the best one. There were just too many people.

The men and the paella....for some reason it's just the men who know how to make it.

Rotary Orientation

Skip to the bottom if you just want to see pictures...(if you didn't know, you can click on them to make to them bigger).

This weekend I went to Madrid for a orientation with all the other Spain inbounds (it’s weird that I’m now an inbound….). I flew from Valencia to Madrid with the other exchange student in Valencia and her host brother. It was an easy 45 minute flight…I felt bad for a lot of the other exchange students who had to take 6 and 7 hour bus rides.

The weekend made me realize how lucky I am for three reasons:
1. I met a couple students who already are having host family and school problems, and so I feel very thankful to be having no such problems.
2. There are also some students in the Barcelona area whose family and friends mainly speak Catalan. I feel lucky because I don’t think my Castellano (Spanish) would get nearly as good as I want it to be if I lived in Cataluña.
3. There are some students with other exchange students at their school and in their classes. Although it would make things easier initially, I’m glad I’m the only exchange student at my school because I am truly immersed- there are no American friends to rely on.

Basically, we were given a presentation on differences we might notice in Spain, and then got yet another presentation on the 4 D’s (no drinking, driving, drugs, dating). Here, however, they changed the “No Drinking” rule to “No Drunk.” Haha. It was fun to meet everyone, but overall we didn’t do much. We stayed at a university campus about 30 minutes outside of Madrid, but we never actually went into the city. Apparently last year they took everyone to sightsee and some kids got lost so this year they didn’t do it. Thanks a lot, last year’s inbounds. My host parents were disappointed that I didn’t see much of Madrid, so they said we’d take a trip there sometime since my host dad is from Madrid.

Since most of the exchange students are from the U.S., we spoke English the whole weekend. However, even though my Spanish obviously did not improve, it was incredibly fun to laugh about all of our experiences so far. Some of my favorite conversations included:
1. customs officers examining a stuffed penguin for drugs,
2. the obsessive amount of fruit peeling in Spain, and
3. agreeing to unknown things because you just say “vale” and “sí” to everything.

I talked so much that my throat actually started hurting. I hadn’t realized how little I’ve been talking here. Next week that’s my goal- to talk more. I bet a lot of people are laughing right now as they read this, since talking has never exactly been difficult for me. But honestly, a lot of the time I’m too scared to talk because I’m afraid it will be wrong. But this week I’m just going to talk and not worry about correctness.

So that’s the plan. Until later- besitos.

XOXO Paige

P.S. For my family who’s reading this- I met a girl from WARRENTON, VA!!! How crazy is that? I don't have a picture of us posted, but I'll email one later.

Miss Louise

I was going to wait until after this weekend to blog, but decided to fill you in on Miss Louise.

The English teacher, and my homeroom teacher, is named Miss Louise. She’s from Britain and today I was eternally grateful for her. Suffice it to say that today was an unusually frustrating day and by Math class, I was on the verge of tears.

During our study time in the library, Miss Louise asked if she could talk to me for a few minutes, so I followed her into one of the conference rooms. She was really friendly, and asked how everything was going so far and how I had come to study in Spain. I told her all about the process of going on Rotary Exchange, and how everything was going great for the most part, but it was very frustrating trying to communicate. She laughed and told me she remembers her first year here and how much of a struggle it was in the beginning. My favorite was when she asked me “Do you have those times where you’re forming a sentence in your head, and just when you have it, they’ve changed subjects and the moment has passed?” I nearly hugged her. It was so good to have someone who understands.

She told me that before I had started school, when people described me to her they said “She’s a lot like you Miss Louise….tall, blonde, and pale.” Haha. Then she asked when I arrived and when I told her Friday she said “Oh my gosh! Have you cried yet? I cried my entire first week here!” So, of course, I started crying.

Now, those who are reading this, please do not worry. In truth, I have really been having an incredible time. I just think that all the exhaustion and frustration over not being able to understand or be understood finally caught up with me, and it was absolutely wonderful to have someone so….well, nice doesn’t do her justice, but you get the idea. We talked for almost an hour, and by the end I felt much, much better. I won’t bore you with the entire conversation , but basically she told me that I am to enjoy this year and not worry about anything. They switched my schedule so that I go to a different class every day instead of English, but she told me that if I ever want to just stay in English and not go to Philosophy or History twice in one day, I can just stay and “read in Spanish….or take a nap.” She promised me that the language will come, and that this will truly be the best year of my life.

Three cheers for Miss Louise.

Senior Year: Take 2!

“You’re taking a year off to go to high school again? That sounds awful!” I got this comment a lot last year when I told people what I would be doing on my exchange. But the reality is that Rotary is a youth exchange program, and so students go to secondary school. After my first couple of days at Colegio Mas Camarena, I can say that I really don’t mind at all.

The first day, Amparo drove Paula and I, even though it’s about a 2 minute walk (Paula wanted to ride in the convertible). I was originally supposed to go to the public school, because Mas Camarena has never had an exchange student. But apparently when my host parents went to visit, they didn’t like it all. So I’m going to the private school next to our house that is, as my host father told me in English “very very much much better.”

I’m in Sengundo Bachillerato, which is the second of two non-mandatory years before university. For your Bachillerato years, you select a track to study. My school offers two: Letras (Humanities) and Ciencias (Sciences). At the end of Segundo Bachillerato, you take a test that has an official name but everyone calls “El Selectivo” (the Selection). Your score on this one test decides what university you can go to, and what you can study there. So, naturally, there’s a lot of pressure to do well on it. At the start of every class the first day, we got lectured on how important it is that we do well on the Selectivo. I don’t have to take it, but it makes me nervous just thinking about it.

Technically, Mas Camarena is a bi-lingual school, but for your Bachillerato years, everything (except English obviously) is in Spanish. And even though everyone in my class speaks Enlgish pretty well, they’re all too scared to speak to me in it, which is good because I want to learn Spanish. Here are my classes (I’m in the sciences track, in case you couldn’t tell).

-Hisotry of Spain
-Philosophy (I have 3 Philosophy books…one on Plato, one on Descartes, and one on some other philosopher who I don’t remember right now….yikes).
-Valcenciano (also known as Catalan, it’s another language spoken in Spain, mainly on the coast. Everyone is nearly fluent so I usually work on other stuff during this class).
-Spanish Literature
-English (they’re working on switching me to another class when I have English)
-Math
-Biology
-Earth Science
-Chemistry

Some big differences in school:
1. You stay in one classroom and the teachers rotate
2. We (the Bachillerato students) can leave during lunch
3. For every grade, you buy all your books
4. We have different classes every day
5. The schedule is waaaaay different. We start at 9:15 and have a break at 12 when everyone eats a snack. The Bachilleratos can go to this little cafeteria where they sell food. We have lunch at 3, and then on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we go until 5:00 (!!!). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we can either leave, study in the library, or use the pool or tennis courts. Most of my class stays because they have to wait for the bus, so I do too.
6. There are only about 17 or 18 students in my class, with about 35 in my grade.

It’s going great so far, although it’s only my third day. Everyone’s really nice, and they all love to ask me differences between America and Spain (they think it’s crazy that in the U.S. I would go to bed as early as 10:30, because that’s when most people are starting dinner). I have a group of friends who explain everything that I don’t understand, and they were talking today about taking me to the beach again soon :) Well, this weekend I’m going to Madrid for a Rotary meeting, so until then, besitos!

XOXO Paige

The picture is of my books, minus Math and Spanish Lit.

Days 2 and 3

Finishing up the last post:

Day 2:
I came in third at Mario Kart!!!! Paula was so proud- it was the highlight of my day. Just kidding. The real highlight was the beach, but I’ll get to that later. In the morning I went a tiny mall near our house with Amparo and Paula, where Amparo got some groceries and Paula got a haircut. When we got home we ate lunch, which is usually served around 3, and is the biggest meal of the day. It usually has several courses, and after the meal we always have fruit. They all peel and cut all their fruit before eating it, which seems to me like a lot of work just to eat a peach. I’m sure one day I’m going to slice my finger open peeling a plum or something. We talked about September 11th a bit, and how everyone remembers what they were doing that day. Amparo told me that the two dates that everyone remembers in Spain are September 11th and the day Franco died.

After lunch, it was siesta time, and Paula and I both fell asleep watching TV. After our little siesta, Amparo said we would all go into the city so they could show me Valencia. Paula’s first question, of course, was “are we taking the convertible?” We did :) Valencia is gorgeous. We went to the port, and then…..drum roll please…the beach!!! It was amazing. I have never felt sand so soft in my life. Absolutely incredible. I could have stayed there for many days, staring at the Mediterranean with the sand between my toes.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that Amparo told me is Paula’s favorite. It was a Hollywood themed American restaurant, kind of like an Applebees. The best part was watching my host family carefully cut the onion rings, mozzarella sticks, and buffalo wings with a knife and fork, and then carefully dip them in the sauce. Of course I did this as well, because I didn’t really want to clue them in on the fact that these things are usually eaten with your hands. Paula ordered an entire rack of ribs, which, to my disbelief, she proceeded to nearly finish. Ambrosio said that she always orders it, and the waiters always put it in front of him because, of course, they don’t think the rack of ribs is for this tiny girl. By the time we finished it was nearly midnight, which is typical Spain. Then it was home, and off to bed.

Day 3:
Today was Amparo’s birthday!! The entire family came over for a barbacoa- three grandparents, Ambrosio’s brother and sister-in-law, and their baby Julia. Amparo’s parents arrived first, and Amparo’s mother deemed me hermosa and told me my Spanish was quite good. We had a HUGE lunch, at a very typical time of 3:00. It consisted of bread and olive oil (of course), salad, pasta salad, baked potatos, lamb chops, some kind of sausage, and two cakes for dessert. Everyone kept telling me to eat more food, and by the end I was so full and tired I could’ve fallen asleep at the table. Everyone stayed until about 6:30. We talked, cleaned up, and chased baby Julia around, during which time she took….another drum roll please….her first steps! It was so cute. Everyone cheered and Julia gave a proud smile. When Ambrosio’s brother was leaving he asked if I played tennis. I said no, not very well anyway, and he said “good, we’ll play sometime so I can finally beat someone.” I received many invitations to come visit anytime, and we all are invited to Julia’s 1st birthday at the end of the month. Overall, a truly wonderful day. Tomorrow is the first day of school, so wish me luck!

XOXO Paige

P.S. For those of you who are wondering, the lisp has already begun to sneak in when I'm talking.

Bienvenida a España

Sorry for taking so long to write-the past couple days have been busy. This is my third day here, so I’ll give a recap of the last couple days. I broke it up into two posts.

My host family is wonderful. It consists of my mom Amparo, dad Ambrosio, and little sister Paula. Amparo works at the Valencia campus of the University of Madrid doing something with finances. Ambrosio works for Ford, and thus gets a new Ford car every few months from the company. Right now he has a convertible, which Paula adores. She does a little dance every time we get in the car. Amparo says they will only have the car for 6 months, but it will probably be the best 6 months of Paula’s life. Haha. Amparo and Ambrosio both understand English, but they told me they will try to just speak Spanish to me, which I’m happy about. Paula speaks a little as well, because it’s required at school. Paula is just generally adorable. She’s 12, talks a million miles a minute, and has a special fondness for rescuing drowning ants from the pool and catching baby lizards. So, the first day:

The flight was long, and my big plans for sleeping the whole 8 hour Chicago-Madrid flight did not happen. When I arrived in Valencia, Amparo and Paula met me at the airport, and we dropped off my bags at the house. The house is so typically Spanish I can’t help but love it. Tile roof, tile floors, and PALM TREES IN MY BACKYARD. Enough said.

Next we visited my school, where we had a meeting with the person in charge of scheduling. I didn’t really know what was going on, but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow (Monday) when I start school. When we got home, Paula asked if I would play Mario Kart on the Wii with her, and how could I say no? Amparo says I have a lot of patience with Paula, and I say it’s because I don’t have a sister so it’s fun for me. We played for about an hour, and I royally suck at video games, because out of 12 places, guess who came in twelfth 16 times in a row? At one point I was on the verge of coming in eleventh, and Paula was practically hysterical cheering me on. Then I fell into a pit of lava. Yeah. On the plus side, I learned valuable phrases such as “Be careful not to fall off the cliff because then you lose a life.”

He suggested we jump in the pool before dinner, and told us he’d vacuum it for us. Paula said she would do it, and Ambrosio told me it’s a good thing I’m here, because Paula has never offered to help clean the pool before. Pretty sure she was showing off for me :) We swam for about half an hour, and then had an early (for Spain anyway) dinner. By 9:00 I could hardly keep my eyes open, so slipped into my bed and fell fast asleep. Everyone is wonderful, and I have to keep pinching myself to make sure it’s real.

Here we go!

Tomorrow’s the day. I depart from the Minneapolis airport at 11:10 am. I thought tonight I would be so crazy nervous and excited that I wouldn’t be able to sleep. But for some reason, I’m not feeling much of anything right now. Weird, huh? I feel bad- like I’m doing something wrong. Three days ago I was all but dying of anticipation and honestly didn’t think I could make it another 72 hours. Two days ago I started getting sad and kept putting my arm around my mom while we were shopping (“Paige, why are you being so clingy all of a sudden?”). And yesterday I was so scared out of my mind I was wondering why I signed up for this in the first place. Today…nothing. I think it’s because it doesn’t feel real yet. I keep telling myself, “You’re leaving for SPAIN tomorrow. This is what you’ve been dreaming about for a year!!” but it hasn’t set in yet. I’m guessing that will change tomorrow. ☺

Mucho amor to my family and friends, and, of course, a thousand thanks to Rotary. ¡Hasta luego! (Which rhymes with fuego, as my dad, who knows all of 10 Spanish words, pointed out. I was so proud).

XOXO

Paige