Sailing Get Together

Today we went out to some kind of party in Torre Vieja (I think). Basically, Pep's old sailing partner and the rest of their circle of sailing friends get together once a year. That once-a-year happened to fall on today.

We drove for awhile to get out the the farm/ranch/hacienda. There were a TON of people, none of whom I recognized. Basically they talked and ate and that was about it. It was interesting. There had a paella "competition." Paella is a traditional Spanish dish with rice and veggies and meat. We had some in Madrid at the orientation, but everyone says that doesn't count as real paella because the coastal zone is where the best paella is. There were 4 groups that made paellas and one that made gazpacho (a type of soup/stew). They also had a potluck dessert, which I think was a "competition" too. After everyone ate, at the end of the day, they gave out awards for the desserts and the paellas.

I got a little bored, mainly because I didn't know anyone and I felt a little out of place, since everyone else knew each other already. And since I don't know anything about sailing, a lot of the conversation didn't really make any sense to me, as such, didn't interest me. But it was still kinda fun.

The lobster one group was using to make their paella. It was still moving. I didn't take them up on their offer to hold it.

Cooking the paella (with the lobster cut up and put in).

The completed paella. Usually the rice is mixed in with the rest.

Another group and their paella.

A girl, Luis, Elena, another girl, and me. They know the girls from sailing, but since I only met them once I don't remember their names (I'm still bad with names here...lol).

Currently listening to:
Song: Do No Wrong
Artist: Thirteen Senses
Album: The Invitation

A Weekend with Joaquin

This weekend, Elena had a conference in Madrid, and Pep went with her, so Joaquin Solbes, one of my Rotary contacts, invited me to spend the weekend at his house. Which worked nicely since Friday I went to the first meeting of the Rotaract club of Alicante. It worked nicely because his daughter, Carmen, has been setting the meeting up and getting everything ready.
We went to the meeting together . The meeting was kinda dull, but then it was mostly technical stuff: when will we meet, what day, what time, what kinds of events do we want to do, etc. Sofia, my friend, had expressed an interest in joining the group and participating in the volunteer projects, so I invited her too. It was a little weird, because the rest of the group is made up of college students, and Sofia and I are the only two (that I know of) that are still in high school that joined. After the meeting, Sofia said she was planning on going to see Twilight, and invited me along. I still don't understand what all the fuss about Twilight is.

Anyway, when I got back to Joaquin's house and we were talking about everyone's plans for the next day, I found out that they fence! Both Joaquin and his son fence, although they haven't done it in years. The country club was starting a new fencing club and Joaquin was going to go. I told him about how I used to fence, so he invited me along. It was an interesting experience. In fencing, there are three types of swords: foil, epée, and saber. Each one has a different style, different scoring area, different rules, etc. Here in Spain, epée is the popular one. I learned foil. In foil, the target is the torso. In epée, it's the entire body. It'll be interesting to get used to that. Joaquin signed up two people for the course, so he'll either take me or his son, depending on who can go. I'm looking forward to it.

After fencing, we cleaned up and went to the grandparents' house for lunch, where I finally had paella, real paella. We had some at the orientation in Madrid, but everyone says that doesn't count. It was good. The paella here, not in Madrid.

The rest of the weekend, what little remained, was kinda slow. Joaquin, the son, and I played pool and some Xbox. Sunday afternoon after lunch, Joaquin took me back to my house and I got ready for another week of school.
But now I have Rotaract and fencing to look forward to.


Currently listening to:
Song: Courage Is...
Artist: The Strange Familiar
Album: You Can't Look Back

Huelga = No School!

That's because "huelga" is Spanish for strike. I'm not exactly sure why they're striking though. Lots of schools are striking because the government wants to create a citizenship class for the equivalent of 8th grade that would be taught in English. The fact that it would be taught in English is one problem people have with it, but also because it would deal with topics like abortion, homosexuality, etc. I've heard varied things on this: some people don't want the school/government explaining those things to kids, thinking the parents should do it, while other people just don't think it should be taught. Anyways, that is one reason some students and schools are striking. But they passed out a sheet that explained why we were striking at our school. I didn't quite understand it, so I put it through a translator, and this is what it said:

1."In the last years there has been a gradual privatization of the public education; the investment has been reduced while it has increased the dedicated money to the private-arranged education."

2. "The Bolonia plans mean the privatization of the university affirming that they compare to us with Europe, with the mentioned plans the present diplomaturas and degrees to transform them into graduates and postgraduates that besides consisting of an own test of access can arrive at 3.500€ of cost; the scholarships will not get to cover those amounts. They want to replace the scholarships by bank loans, that they will have to return when it is begun to work.

3. "The new selectividad (basically their ACT/SAT) introduces an oral test of foreign language and hardens the access to the more demanded university careers than they will enter more than the own baccalaureate."

So it's one or the other. Or maybe a combination of the two. Whichever it was, I didn't have to go to school. And since I won't be here next year for any of the changes to affect me, the fact that I didn't have to go to school is what mattered the most to me. =)

Update 12/18/2008: Yesterday we were supposed to have another strike, but the radio that morning said the strike was called off because they would not be having the citizenship class. So i went to school, where it appeared I was the only one. I finally got in touch with Sofia (who was still sleeping), who explained that the strike had only been canceled for the teachers. I saw the paper today that said that the Community of Valencia had voted to not instate the citizenship class. And since we still had a strike, I'm thinking the other three reasons are why we are striking.

Currently listening to:
Song: Change
Artist: 3 Doors Down
Album: Away From the Sun

Altea - A Weekend in English!

This weekend Maddy invited Cassie and I to come visit her in her host town of Altea. For those that don't remember, Cassie is living in Alcoy, to the northwest and inland of Alicante, and Maddy is living in Altea, north of Alicante along the coast.

The preceding days were spent exchanging Facebook messages and then phone calls until it was all settled. Friday afternoon, I met Cassie at the bus station in Alicante, where her host parents had dropped her off, and we went and bought our tickets to Benidorm, the bus station nearest Altea. We spent the bus ride catching up and enjoying the opportunity to speak English. After about an hour, we arrived in Benidorm.

Maddy, her host mom, and her host brother, Andrés, met us at the station and we went to Altea. We wandered around the town with Maddy as our guide, but unfortunately, the sun had already set, so we couldn't really enjoy the beach. But we made the most of it. We played on the toys that are on the beach, that technically are for children; but we're exchange students, so what's the difference? We ate dinner with Ana, Maddy's 13 year old host sister, Ana's 17 year old boyfriend Kay (who doesn't look 17...), and a friend of theirs. After that we wandered a little more. On our travels, we bumped into another group of youngsters. Some of them knew Kay and Ana, and one of the boys began to chase Kay. Kay ending up hiding behind our group and the boy asked me, in Spanish of course, to go block Kay so he couldn't get away. Not wanting to get in the middle of it, I told him in English I didn't know what he was asking me to do. His response was the repeat his request, but this time in English with a British accent! It was hilarious. Eventually we tired out and went to Maddy's house where we watched a movie in English before going to bed.

Saturday, we slept in a little bit, before going to met Maddy's host club's president, who was also Maddy's tutor. It's a small club. He had invited us to grab a quick bite to eat before lunch (a typical Spanish thing apparently). Maddy, her host mom, Cassie, and I met him and his wife at a cafe and we talked a little about how our exchanges were going, but mainly Maddy's host mom and the president talked about ideas for things Rotary could do. She had to go eventually, and the rest of us continued to another place and ate some tapas. Since the president and his wife were Austrian, they knew German as well as Spanish, but they also knew English, so our conversation switched between Spanish and English with the occasional German comment between themselves. We went home for lunch, and decided to rest after lunch and watch a movie before going to the beach. But by the time the movie had finished, it was night again! So we went out around town and did some shopping, they wanted some scarves and we all bought some things for our Rotary jackets.

The street with the shops, the are slightly aimed at the tourists.


The Spanish flags we bought for our jackets.

The next day, Maddy's host mom asked if we wanted to go pick mandarins, another typical Spanish activity, but when we got to the fincha (plot of land) where we were going to pick them, we found out that they weren't ripe yet. They had a bunch from another area, which we bought two crates of, but none ready to pick. Since we really had wanted to pick them though, we figured something out:

"Picking" mandarins.

After that, we went to the trail to hike out to the lighthouse. It was 2km, which is a little over a mile. The views along the way were amazing.

We stopped at one spot, overlooking the Mediterranean, instead of the bay (in the above photo, it's the bay, not the Mediterranean). There was a sign that said "Out of route," but there were some paths and we saw people out there, so we jumped the rail fence and explored a little. It was breathtaking. We found an overhang, and stopped to have lunch, overlooking the Mediterranean. It's still one of the best memories.

Having lunch, overlooking the Mediterranean.

We continued on to the lighthouse, but the gate was locked and there was a sign saying "End of Route." However, Maddy says no one respects the sign, and the last time she went there with some friends from school, they went up to the lighthouse and there were people there. So we continued up to the lighthouse.

"Jumping" the fence to continue to the lighthouse.

After looking around at the lighthouse, we headed back and then went down to the beach. From there, we followed the beach back to Altea. It was about a 30 minute walk along the beach, which with all the walking to and from the lighthouse, plus down to the beach, made for quite a bit of travel. The beach was interesting though, because it is a pebble beach, not sand. I collected a stone, that now adorns my jacket. Once we got back to Maddy's house, we lounged around waiting for her host parents to return and take Cassie and me to the bus station so we could go home. Cassie's host parents picked her up at the bus station and I walked to the bus stop to go home. It was a great weekend.

Currently listening to:
Song: Lose Yourself
Artist: Eminem
Album: 8 Mile Soundtrack

Zaragoza

I finally got to met the rest of the family, mostly.

One night, we headed over to Elche, about 20 minutes away, and I met Pep's mother and a couple other relatives. One uncle is a history teacher and we had a very interesting discussion about the European mindset of superiority from being colonizers and the US saving Europe during WWII. It was very interesting and I'm looking forward to the next time we go to Elche.

Anyway, this weekend, we went to Zaragoza and I got to met Elena's family. All of her family. Her family is from Zaragoza, and with the exception of her, the all are still there.
Brother Ignacio, his wife Marichu, and kids, Juan and Ana.
Brother Alberto, his wife Rosa, and their kids, Paula and Daniel.
Sister Sylvia, her husband Alfonso, and their kids, Ines and Andrea.
I don't really know the ages of the kids, but I think Dani is 5, Ana is 5 or 6, Andrea is 15, I think, but those are the only ages I know.
Luis, Pep, and Elena were staying with her parents, but that filled all the extra beds, so I spent the weekend around the corner in Ignacio's flat.

I got a tour of a little bit of Zaragoza. We went to the Cathedral of Pilar, which is an important landmark and church in Zaragoza. We also passed through a few other parts of the city. We went into the church, but they don't allow pictures inside, so I didn't get any, but it was amazing. I found a map that detailed a few points of interest within the cathedral and noticed that there was an elevator in one of the towers that allowed people to see a panoramic view of Zaragoza. I asked Elena if we could go up there in the elevator and she asked me what elevator? Seeing as how see grew up here, that made me laugh (later, she asked her parents and siblilngs, and she had been up there, awhile ago, but she didn't remember it). The view was amazing!

The roof of the cathedral.

We went out to tapas again (which we did in Elche), which is something I really enjoy. Tapas are small types of food, that can be specific to the town, the region, or maybe even the restaurant. Usually tapas are a slice of bread with some kind of topping, like cheese, meat, and a pepper. Or it can be something like a stuffed baked potato. Whatever it is, every type of tapas I tried, I loved! Unfortunately, according to Pep and Elena, Alicante is one of the few regions that doesn't do tapas very well. After that, the parents went to a movie, while Andrea, Luis, and I went around town. We rented bikes, which was really cool. There were these sites all over the city. I'd never seen them before, but Elena says they're pretty common in Europe.

The bike rental rack. Just swipe the bike rental card (it's almost like having a bus card) in front of the scanner on the end.

Luis and I on our bikes. The cathedral is in the background.

After riding around for awhile, we went to see something in theater in Zaragoza. It turned out to be a reading of "Don Juan," I believe. But it was very hard to follow. Because each character had a reader at a stand with the name on the stand. But there were usually two stands for character and sometimes even two people at the same stand. The only way of knowing who was talking was by finding the person whose mouth was moving, which was easier said then done!

The next day, we had lunch at a Turkish restaurant with the entire family. Turkish and Chinese restaurants are about as common here as Mexican and Chinese restaurants in the US. Anyways, I like Turkish food. I think Dani and I really hit it off, because Dani was asking if we really had to leave and if they could come back next weekend...and bring Erik. It was a nice weekend.

Currently listening to:
Song: The Middle
Artist: Jimmy Eat World
Album: Bleed American

Petrer

This weekend, Alvaro (a friend of mine, who was a Rotary Exchange student to the US last year) invited me to go out partying with him (that's what the kids my age do on the weekends), and then spend the night at his house. The next day, we were going to go to a festival.

The party was fun, I guess. We started out as a group of about 5 guys, but then we met up with another group along the way, making it about 8 guys and 4 girls, or something like that. We bar-hopped, as is the norm. Bars here are a mix between what we would think of as a bar and a club. One had a karaoke room, one was more of a club, one was more of a bar. Basically the night consisted of drinking, smoking, and dancing. And since I don't drink or smoke, and I can't really dance (at least how they "dance" in the clubs), I did more watching than participating. Nobody got drunk, because we didn't go to a botellon, which is the other popular thing for youth to do. Botellones basically consist of a group of people getting together somewhere, usually outside (not in a restaurant or a bar) and getting drunk. That's all there is to it. It's only become popular recently among the most recent generation. Anyway, we did not go to a botellon. Once things started winding down, we went to Alvaro's house to sleep, what little we could, since we didn't get there until sometime after 3AM.

The next day, we both slept in and then passed the morning lounging about not doing much of anything. Once Alvaro's parents returned home, we went to Petrer. Petrer is a small inland town, where Alvaro's mother's family is from. We ate at his grandparents' house. One of the things we ate for lunch was whole shrimp. Legs, eyes, antenna, everything. Well, we didn't eat everything, but the shrimp were still whole and they taught me how to take it apart and what to eat. It was an interesting experience. I still am not used to seafood, and still don't really like it.
On a sidenote, my host parents find this story hilarious and tell it occasionally. About the whole shrimp, with legs and eyes and everything! Looking back, I suppose it makes sense that whole shrimp would have legs and eyes and all that, but for me, it was something new.

After lunch and the siesta, we headed out to see the festival. What it was for, I never really found out. But what the people do is dress up in all kinds of weird costumes and cover their faces with handkerchiefs. Then they change their voice and try to see if people recognize them. And it's perfectly normal for guys to dress up as girls and vice versa. There was some kind of band as well, that sounded cool. All in all, it was a very interesting parade, if it could even be called that. Not long after that, we headed home to Alicante.

Currently listening to:
Song: Believe
Artist: Yellowcard
Album: Ocean Avenue

School #2 - Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Alicante

The Official Language School in Alicante...I don't really know what to say about it...

It's been an interesting challenge...

Before I even left the States, Elena had pre-enrolled me in Spanish for Foreigners: 2nd Basic Level. Apparently, the language schools are very popular and there's always an extremely large number of people who want to enroll. Because of this, it's necessary to pre-enroll, and find out what date to return and actually enroll in the school. September 30th was my date. I had school that day, but Elena said she didn't need me to come along, so she went by herself to enroll me. And later, I felt bad about letting go through that process alone.

I felt bad because she spent 3 hours in lines trying to complete my enrollment and from what she said, they kept sending to her a different line to resolve the issue. The issue she had was that they wouldn't let me enroll in 2nd Basic. Why? Because I hadn't taken the "prueba de nivel," which is basically a skill test to see how good (or bad) my Spanish is and which class I should be in. This test was in September, but when Elena had pre-inscribed me in July, they hadn't said a single thing about it. Unfortunately, they remained firm, and I ended up in 1st Basic Spanish for Foreigners. Along with probably being too easy, there were some other problems with 1st Basic. One, they enrolled me in the 9AM class, which I obviously can't do, since I have regular school. Two, the other class I could attend was Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6. This was a problem because I don't get out of school until 2 o'clock, leaving me barely enough time to get home from school, grab a snack, and then head out to catch the bus, but not enough time to eat an actual lunch.

So I went ahead an attended 1st Basic. Which was ridiculous, for me, and I don't feel bad about saying that. First off, there were no other people my age (which is not the ridiculous part, actually...I had just been expecting to see some other youth in the class). The ridiculous part is what we did the first day of class. Seated more or less in a circle, we took turns asking the person next to us three questions: ¿Cómo te llamas?, ¿De dónde eres?, and ¿Dónde vives? (What's your name?, Where are you from?, and Where do you live?). All of which I already know how to say, what they mean, how to conjugate each verb, and everything...things the other members of the class struggled with at times. After a short break 30 minutes later, we returned and then proceeded to learn the alphabet - letter by letter. Again, something I already know. The next class wasn't much better. While I didn't necessarily know every occupation on the worksheet, I knew the majority. And in 1st Basic, I have no problem following the class. I understand everything that everyone says, including the teacher.

So I decided to talk to teacher, who once again talked about the skill test in September. The only helpful thing I learned was that there is another test in February. To wait for that test would be a waste of time, I don't have however.

Luckily, Luis had an idea. He had attended a class at the language school last year. He said, in the beginning, things are still a little unorganized and the teachers don't have lists, and he said there were many people who came in and said it was their class. However, once the lists came out, several of these people weren't on the lists...but they still attended the class for the whole year!

With that in mind, I have begun to attend the 2nd Basic classes. While they're still not a challenge, it's not easy. Some of the stuff I already know, like irregularities with verbs, and some I don't, like colloquial Spanish expressions. And I still have to work to follow the class and the professor. There still aren't lists and I'm hoping once the lists come out, if I'm not on it, it won't be a problem. If it is though, this professor seems much more understanding than the other. Another thing I learned was that if a student has a problem (with a class, professor, or whatever), they are advised to talk to their professor, which didn't work for me. If that doesn't work, they are advised to talk to the department head, who happens to be the professor for 2nd Basic! So if my professor of 2nd Basic asks me what's going on, it's perfect to talk with him, because he's also the department head!

So I'm attending 2nd Basic on Tuesday and Thursday, from 6:10-8:00, a much better time slot. I'm looking forward to learning more in this class, but we'll have to see!

The Official Language School

Until next time,
Erik

Currently listening to:
Song: Overkill
Artist: Colin Hay
Album: Scrubs Soundtrack

School #1 -IES Cabo de la Huerta

As returning readers will know, I am attending a "colegio" here in Spain, which is their version of high school. The thing is though, that here, "colegios" have 6 years of class, instead of 4 like in the US. Basically, if Turner was combined with the high school, putting 7th through 12th grades in the same building, it would be a "colegio." There are 4 levels of E.S.O. (Enseñaza Secundario Obligatorio = Obligatory Secondary Education) and 2 levels of Bachillerato. The second bachillerato is when the students prepare for the "selectividad." The score on the "selectividad" plus the grades from the two levels are bachillerato are averaged to get a combined score, and that is the score that determines where the student can attend for college.

I'm in the second bachillerato, but it's not that bad because I don't actually have to prepare for the "selectividad." One, because I've already graduated from high school, so it doesn't matter what grades and scores I get, although I am going to try to do well in the classes. Two, because I am an exchange student, who will not be here next year and will not be attending a university, so the score doesn't mean anything for me. Third, the combination of the first two is why I don't have to take it, and the stress of being an exchange student, making friends, learning the culture, and learning the language are enough stress for me to deal with this year.

My classes are going well. I still don't understand much, but I feel like I understand a little more each day. It's hard to judge because I can't tell if I'm understanding more, or what the teachers are saying that day, I just happen to understand better than what they said the day before! For the first week or so, I didn't even have two of my classes: Philosophy and Sociology. The teacher was sick and they didn't have a substitute, so we just didn't have class that period. But we have a teacher now, so no more napping during my free period! English is really boring, simply because it is a very basic level, so for me, it's incredibly easy! Spanish class is interesting, learning the grammatical rules and functions and everything. Geography is okay. History of Spain and history of art are both good classes, and the teacher is really nice and fun too. Wednesday in class, Victorino (the history teacher) was talking about something and he began to talk about Egypt, but I don't know why. Anyway, he said that Egypt is split in half by the Nile river and the sun rises, is born, in the east and sets, or dies, in the west. Because of this the Egyptians built all the temples and whatnot on the eastern side of the river to celebrate the living and all their tombs on the western side, where the sun dies. I found that very interesting because I have never heard that before. Then I was even more surprise, because I said to myself, "hey, hold on a minute...you actually understand 95% of that...wow!" Needless to say, I was quite proud of myself for having actually understood a complete story/idea/thought in school. I also have math class, which I hate. Not only does it require a lot of effort, because I have to translate the words to figure out what the problem is (which sometimes is very easy to do and sometimes not), and then I have to translate the problem to figure out how to solve it. The other problem with this math class is that it's a bit over my head. We just finished up a unit on the Gauss method to solve a system of multiple equations. I was talking to my family later that week, and my brother told me that in his Calculus 2 class in college they said he should have learned it in Calculus, which he hadn't. And neither did I. So it's even harder because I actually don't already know some of the lessons in class. But we'll see how it goes.

I'm on the third floor. Many of the other students in my group switch rooms during the day, but with the classes I have, I'm in the same room all day. During the breaks, I usually go down to the courtyard and talk with Alvaro and sometimes Andres, or I go to the cantina with Sofia and her friends. The cantina is nice. It has candy, drinks, sandwiches, pastries, and other things to eat during breaks, for a small price. I can usually get a pastry or sandwich and a drink for 1,40€. It's not bad, but I can't do it every day, so I do like a lot of the other students and I bring a couple snacks or some fruit to school with me. The cantina is kind of ridiculous though. The small bar is always crowded by students pushing to get to the counter, and let me tell you, you have to fight to get to the front, or if you manage to slide up to the counter through a gap, like I do, you have to fight to keep your spot. And even if you're not at the counter, it's still okay to yell our your order and hope they serve you. The two workers seem a bit pressed to me, so I always wait until they ask me what I want, and they seem to appreciate that. Actually, I know they appreciate it, because the third or fourth time I was waiting to order something, a kid came up next to me and started yelling his order. The one lunch lady went ahead and got his order, but she then told him that he should be more "prudente" like this kid and pointed to me. "Prudente" means formal. That day I learned that good manners and being a gentleman is something universal.

My classroom.

The view of the courtyard from my classroom.

The courtyard.

The cantina -with students.

The cantina - vacant and calm.

Currently listening to:
Song: How Far We've Come
Artist: Matchbox 20
Album: Exile on Mainstream

P.S. Soon to come - "School #2 - EOI = Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Alicante"

Spanish Theater

Today, we went to see Luis in a play. The play was about the absurdities of life, but I only got that from the program. I didn't understand much of the play. Parts I did, parts I did, and parts I didn't need to know what they were saying. But it was interesting and fun. I have a picture with Elena and Luis out in front of the theater after, but I still have to get it from Elena. Afterwards, Luis invited me to dinner with the theater group. Elena said that was okay and then went to met Pep to eat tapas, like we had been planing on doing. The theater kids were pretty cool, especially Amin. I thought he did a really good job in the play. He spoke some English, so we talked quite a bit and we switched back and forth between Spanish and English. Once everyone was ready, we went to a Turkish restaurant, which was really good! Afterwards, 6 of us went to a bar, which here are half bars and half clubs. The music was ridiculously loud. I swear I could feel my jeans vibrating from the music! We didn't stay long because there weren't many people there. It was kinda fun, but the whole clubbing/dancing/loud music thing isn't really my scene. Luis says it isn't his either, and he only goes out to the bars about once a week, if that.

Which is something I'm really happy about, if you'll pardon the sidetrack. My host family is very low key. I don't know how to describe it exactly. My host father loves to listen to music and both my host parents love movies (so much so that when Luis and Miguel were little, they would take turns going to see movies, so they could both see them!). And Luis isn't a nightlife kind of guy. It's reminds me of family, a little, I guess. For dinner, we watch TV while we eat (we even watched "Bones" recently...that was great...but it made me miss doing the same thing at home...), and sometimes we watch movies (usually, non-school nights). I couldn't have gotten put with a better family.

Anyway, at 1AM, Luis and I left the bar and went to the bus station. We talked about videogames while we waited, and I learned that he and Miguel are big fans, and would play against each other a lot. Another plus for me! Finally, we caught the bus home and got in at 2:30AM. It was a long night, but it was fun.

The theater - outside.

The theater - inside.

Currently listening to:
Song: Times Like These
Artist: Foo Fighters
Album: One by One

Orientation in Madrid!

What a weekend! I don't know where to begin...

I would suppose from the beginning would be best though.

Friday, I "skipped" school because I still needed to pack for the weekend. Also, the train was leaving at 12, so in order to have time to return home from school, pick up my things, walk to the bus station, take the bus downtown, and then walk to the train station from the bus stop, I would have only been in school for one period, if that. So I stayed home and packed.

At the train station, I met Maddy and Cassie. I knew that I would be taking the train with them to Madrid, but I had no idea what they looked like, so I didn't know how I was going to find them. I shouldn't have been worried though. Maddy had her Rotary jacket on so I spotted them as soon as I get into the terminal. Cassie is living in Alcoy, about 30 minutes inland from Alicante, and Maddy is living in Altea, up the coast, but still close, to Alicante. The train ride was almost 4 hours long, but it wasn't bad. Cassie, Maddy, and I got to know each other pretty well. It was such a relief to be able to speak English! They also showed "The Spiderwick Chronicles" on the train, but it was in Spanish, so it was kinda hard to follow. But most of the ride was spent sharing our experiences so far in Spain.

When we got to Madrid and left the terminal, we met Gonzalo, a Rotex (for those of you who don't know, Rotex is the group for ex-exchange students) and another girl, who I can't remember where in Spain she is at. Our swiftly increasing band then went to the high speed train terminals to collect the students from Barcelona.

The group in the Madrid train station. (Cassie is the fifth in from the left and then it's Maddy and then me)

Once the Barcelona kids had been collected, we all went outside and then attempted to find the bus. Eventually, we found it. The next hour or so was spent traveling around Madrid, gathering other students. Finally, we went to a university about 30 minutes away from Madrid. It was still part of Madrid, but it wasn't Madrid proper. At the university, the rest of the students that lived nearby showed up. It was nice to meet the other students finally. Sadly, there is only one girl from Brazil, one from Sweden, and I think 4 from Canada. The rest are good ole Americans. Not that that is a problem, but I was hoping for something similar to this last year of Rotary weekends, where there were students from all over and a lot of diversity. But this isn't a problem. Two students have really interesting assignments. One girl is living in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, and one guy is living in Melilla, which, as he says, is Spanish North Africa. Friday night, there wasn't a lot going on. Early on, there was a barefoot soccer game, which was fun, except for the wet/mud patch and the patch of goatshead (which hurts like crazy when you run through it!!! And when you pull the burrs out of your feet, they get stuck in your fingers!!!). After that, a small group of us retired to someone's room to just hang out and talk. Josh has a friend from India and he had brought some real henna his friend had given him, so we did henna and talked the night away.

Saturday we got down to business. Tommaso and Eduardo went the rules, the 4 D's and everything else we could and couldn't do. One thing we learned that wasn't really a surprise, but I just hadn't really thought about it was how restricted our travel is. We have to have permission from our host family and the Rotary club, and if the trip means missing school, permission from the school principal and we're not allowed to travel alone. So that officially means going to visit Danielle in Madrid, or Josh in Malaga, or whoever else it pretty much out of the question. Luckily, Maddy and Cassie live close enough that I can visit easily on my own with a 3€ bus ticket. Then there were a few videos: one about Madrid and one made by Rotary concerning the 4 D's. Then we went through a checklist of things: have you met your Youth Exchange officer and do you have their contact info, do you have your proof of insurance (although for some, like me, we received our CIGNA cards at this point), etc. and so forth.

Most of us after all the official business was taken care of.

Saturday afternoon, we went on a "bus tour" of Madrid. Originally, we were going to simply drive around Madrid and have an actual bus tour: on your left you'll see this building and ahead on the right is that statue and whatnot. What we ended up doing was stopping at a couple select locations. We stopped at the Palacio Real and walked around a little of that area, and then we proceeded onto the Plaza Mayor, where we walked around more. Most of us went to the churro restaurant. Molly , Maddy, and I shared an order of churros con chocolate, which were good, but not what I was expecting. The churros themselves were just fried dough without the sugar I thought would be there, and the chocolate was more bitter than sweet. They were still good though!

Maddy and me in front of the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace).

La Plaza Mayor.

Random artistic shot getting back on the bus in Madrid.

After the bus tour, we returned to the university for a few more presentations and a paella lunch. It was interesting, to say the least. The paella had whole shrimp, cooked, but still in the shell, mussels, and who knows what else, and it was certainly interesting to try. Saturday night, there was a crazy party, but I was hanging out with a small group of people in one of the rooms, just talking about whatever came up. Then we went outside to the party, and later, another slightly different small group of us went to a different room and talked, but it wasn't just chit-chat, it was some really interesting, personal, and deep stuff. Sunday morning, was more or less the opposite of Friday afternoon, driving around Madrid dropping people off, finally ending with the same group from Friday returning to the station. Maddy, Cassie, and I only had to wait about an hour for our train, but the group from Barcelona had to wait almost 6 hours for theirs! Once we got back to Alicante (having slept most of the ride back, to make up for the sleep we lost over the weekend, as happens at any Rotary weekend), Cassie's host mom met us at the station to take her home. Maddy and I then walked to the bus station, had a snack, and saw her off, back to Altea. All by my lonesome, I walked down to the bus stop, and caught the bus back home.

It was a long weekend, but it was definitely worth every minute of sleep that was sacrificed.
Come again soon,
Erik

P.S. I have posted more pictures on Flickr. The link is under "My Photo Albums" on the left. Once you click the link and chose the set of pictures you want to see, choose "detail" to see all the pictures with their captions.

Currently listening to:
Song: Extreme Ways
Artist: Moby
Album: The Bourne Identity Soundtrack

School and Rotary

I had several interesting experiences today.

First, today was the first real day (at least considering what the first day of school like is in Jacksonville) of school. Victorino is the history teacher, teaching both history of art and history of Spain. He´s really nice and pretty cool. I think his classes would be my favorites and I would love them, if I only knew what was going on. I still have problems with understanding and many times have to ask people to repeat, but little by little, I am understanding and picking up more and already at times, I find myself inside my head like usual, but it´s in Spanish! Which is a good sign. Geography was okay, once again mainly due to the lack of understanding and math, well it´s math. I understood what the problem was asking, I just couldn´t think. It´s going to be an interesting year.

The other interesting experience I had at school today was trying to figure out how to get out of valenciano. It´s a dialect of catalan spoken here in Alicante and is part of the schedule of 2nd Bachillerato for everyone. But since I´m an exchange struggling with two languages, I was told I wouldn´t have to take valenciano. Trying to figure out what exactly needed to be done to get me out of that class was interesting, but we finally figured things out. Now I just need to figure out what school supplies I need and how to get them. Paper here is more like 8.5 by 12, not the normal 8.5 by 11, and by normal, I mean what I´m used to.

Today, I also attended my first Rotary meeting (pictures once I get them). It was long and boring, much like Rotary at home. But I´m just kidding. Although it did seem to drag on, but when you don´t have any idea what people are saying that tends to happen. It was interesting. The Rotary club meets in the Sidi Hotel, which is a luxury hotel, and let me tell you...it was nice! We were in a conference hall that looked out over the ocean and there were tables with nuts, chips, and olives to snack on and drinks (alcoholic and non...I had a Coke) to enjoy while waiting for the meeting to begin. Luis Ramos, the YEO for the club, took me today because today the ¨oespa¨ (no one´s really been able to translate it exactly, but I think it´s like ¨bishop¨) was attending the meeting. I was introduced to him and many other members of the club. There were also two Frenchmen attending, who were very nice.

Anyway, we finally sat down at the long central table, and we sat down to a 4 course meal. There were three sets of forks and knives, used from the outside in with each plate. The first plate was hor d'oeuvres. I didn´t really eat any because I wasn´t sure we were supposed to start, and I had only tried one thing off the plate before a server took it. I tried something which is from Alicante, according to Luis, which was a date wrapped in bacon. It was good, but different. I didn´t particularly like it, but it wasn´t bad. The second plate was a salad, I think. There was lettuce, corn, some pineapple, shrimp, caviar (I think), and some other veggies. I didn´t like it very much. The shrimp was very strong and I didn´t even try the caviar (I don´t think I´d like fish eggs...and it´d didn´t look particularly appetizing to me). The third, main course was some kind of wrap-thing with a small piece of potato and two dates. It was some kind of bread shell with sesame seeds filled with what I later found out was lamb and I think a couple pieces of asparagus. The lamb and the shell were okay, but it was different. After that, dessert was served which was some kind of pastry with fruit and a scoop of ice cream. The cake had a weird flavor and I didn´t like it. There were also two glasses, one for water and the other for wine, and the server was going around filling everyone´s glasses and almost filled mine. Before the server got there though, Luis Ramos asked how old I was and said since I was 18 I could drink, but then I reminded him that Rotary prohibits drinking on the exchange and he said, ¨Ah, sí, si.¨ So I just had water.

The ¨obespa¨ was the main event of the meeting, but near the beginning Luis introduced me to the club and I said where I was from. Later on, there was an exchanging of banners. The obespa was presented with a banner and a plaque, I exchanged banners with the club, as did the two Frenchmen. Next time I go, the sergeant-at-arms is going to give me another, so I have two. One has to go to my sponsor club in Jacksonville, to show they had a student here, but the other one I want to sew onto the back of my jacket with one of my sponsor club´s banners. All in all, it was quite a day.

Hasta el próximo vez,
Erik

Currently listening to:
Song: May It Be
Artist: Enya
Album: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack

Mi casa...

es bonita.

My house is beautiful. But the video tour of it I made isn´t uploading (I can try to send it to you via e-mail, if you want. All you have to do is send me an e-mail asking for it.), so here are some pictures.

The dining room and living room.


Panorama of the kitchen...the laundry area is out the door...



Spanish light switches.













My room.

Pictures

View from the hilltop

First half of panorama

Second half of panorama

The hilltop

The hill from the roundabout at the end of the road


Me on the beach

It´s hard to believe I left 4 days ago...

The group in Madrid (Olivia, me, Danielle, Dan, Josh, and Stephen).

And the last four days have been very interesting ones.

For starters, my flights to Spain began on September 11th at 5PM from St. Louis . For those of you that don´t know, I have never been out of the country (except to Canada, which isn´t quite the same as going to one of the other countries) and I haven´t flown in many years or post-9/11. Despite that, security at the airport was very smooth, simple, and easy to handle. I had spent the preceding nights having nightmares about being detained because of some, what I saw as harmless, item. Thankfully, all went well. After landing in Detroit, I met the other exchange students I would be flying with all the way to Madrid. Olivia (going to Madrid) and Dan (going to Pamplona), I had met at Grand Rapids earlier this summer, and I met Josh from North Carolina (Malaga) and Stephen from Ohio (Madrid). We played cards and talked for a few hours waiting for our overnight flight to Amsterdam.

One interesting thing is that at each airport, we always met interesting people and swapped stories about where we were going, even though most times, we never exchanged names.

Anyway, the flight to Amsterdam left at 9:40PM and was scheduled to take 7.5 hours. The only problem was that we were flying AGAINST the time change, so the flight, according to the clock, took almost 14 hours. Landing in Amsterdam at 11:15AM, I was exhausted having spent much of the flight watching movies because I couldn´t get comfortable enough to sleep. In Amsterdam, we met Danielle from Idaho (Madrid) and we all became fast friends, as only Rotary Exchange students can. After flying from Amsterdam to Madrid, Olivia, Danielle, and Stephen left to meet their host families and go to their homes for the next year. Josh, Dan, and I wandered around trying to figure out many things, such as what exactly was the situation with our checked bags (we were a little hazy on what was supposed to happen to them in Madrid), which bus would take us to the right terminal, where customs was and would we need to go through it, etc. We finally sorted everything out and then it was time to wait. We had arrived in Madrid at 4 and we each had a flight to our host city, Josh at 8:10, Dan at 9:25, and me at 9:40. So we waited. And waited. And waited. The gates weren´t posted for flights until about 45-50 prior to takeoff, which was about 10-15 minutes prior to boarding.

After finally catching my flight, I landed in Alicante at about 10:45 local time and finally met my host family. I was greeted by Elena, Jose, and Luis, as well as Luis Ramos, the Youth Exchange officer, and his two kids. Even after that short meeting, I can see what my two biggest problems are going to be. First, I´m going to be terrible with names. Usually, I have to ask people to repeat their names, and sometimes even then I don´t know exactly what their name is. The bigger and more important problem is my understanding of the language. I´ve been complimented on how strong my Spanish is, but that is me speaking the language. When other people speak, there are issues. It´s all part of learning the language, which I´m going to do, but right now, a lot of things go right over my head the first time they are said.

My host family: Jose (Pep/Pepe), Miguel (in the US), Elena, and my host brother, Luis.

Christina, Guillermo, and Luis Ramos, Elena, me, Luis, and Pep.

The closest word I can find in English for where my host family lives is a gated community or condominium complex. I think there are 30 some odd of the similar type small house/apartment/condo in this urbanization, as they call it. There is a locked gate leading into the complex and then a gate into our unit. There is a pool in the complex, but Luis says it´s only clean during the summer, but I can use it whenever. The following two items are a panorama of the pool area and a video tour of my house. I don´t know how many pictures I could upload and I didn´t know how to best take pictures of my home that would show it the best, so I made a short video, which wouldn´t upload, so I´m going to post some pictures in a different blog. If you´d like to see the video, send me an e-mail asking for it and I can probably send it to you.

Aside from realizing how completely inept I am at Spanish, the other big surprise of arriving in Spain was my school. From the e-mails I received from Elena, I thought I was attending the university in town because there had been problems getting me enrolled at the high school. Actually, Elena had been very smart, because she had a friend who works at the university sign off on my host guarantee form, so that it could be sent to the US and I could get my visa (the host guarantee is a necessary part of the visa application because it shows where you will live and attend school). Rotary doesn´t like students to go to college through this program, so I eventually was enrolled in a high school here in town.Yesterday, I met Alvaro (a Rotary exchange student to Vermont last year) and Andres (an exchange student to Tampa, FL last year) who answered some of my questions arising from my knowledge that I no idea what to expect from a high school in Spain. Later that night, I met Elena, who lives in the same complex as me, attends the same school, and I think is in the same section of the bachillerato as me.

Here in Spain, there are 6 years of what we would probably call elementary school and 6 years of high school. I´m in the last year, where the students are preparing for the big selection test to attend universities. Bachilleratos have different sections of study, such as humanities, sciences, and technical tracks. In Alicante, there is a dialect of catalan called valenciano that is studied in schools, but I´m not taking that, Greek, or Latin at the school, because I´m going to have enough problems with Spanish as it is. Today, Elena and I walked to school and along the way met up with a few other students. It took about 20-30 mintues to walk to school. Once there, we found our names on the lists saying who was in what class and went to the classroom. In the classroom, they took role, passed out agendas, and then read of the schedule, which was a little confusing. But after that, which took maybe 45 minutes, my first day of school ended. The confusing thing about the schedules is that a lot of periods finds the class split between sociology and Latin, or geography and French. Here is what my schedule is, I think:

----------------Monday------Tuesday-------Wednesday----Thursday------Friday
8:00-8:50----castellano*----arte+-----------castellano*---------x------------math
8:55-9:45----history~-------history~--------geography------math-----------geography
9:50-10:40---English--------math-----------philosophy-----philosophy-----philosophy
11:05-11:55--math----------sociology------sociology-------castellano*-----sociology
12:00-12:50--arte+----------geography-----English----------English---------arte+
13:15-14:05--geography---x(valenciano)-arte+-------------sociology-------history~
14:10-15:00--x (valenciano)--x-------------x------------------x--------x(valenciano)

*castellano = Spanish class, I think, which should be like an English class in America, I think
+arte = history of art, once again, I think
~ history = history of Spain, I think, but this one I´m pretty sure about

On the 30th, we have to go the the Official Language School in Alicante to enroll. Elena actually didn´t enroll me in the school, she had put on what I can best describe as a wait-list. It should be twice a week in the afternoon and I should be in the 2nd level Spanish class.

In Spain, 24 hour time is used all over the place. Also, lunch is the big, important meal of the day, where the family gets together, sits down, and eats. Dinner is not so formal or important. Last night, I had a small pizza, my host mother had some fruit and yogurt and we ate on the couch in front of the TV. The other thing about meals is the times are different. In Spain, lunch is somewhere between 2-4 (so there is no lunch at school, only two breaks during the day to snack, from what Andres and Alvaro told me), and dinner is around 9 or 10.

The weather here in Alicante is beautiful. Elena says September is her favorite month, and I can see why. During the day it gets up in the 80s, which is warm, but there is always some kind of breeze or wind from the sea, so it doesn´t feel quite like 80. It´s very sunny, which also makes it feel warm, but once again, the sea breeze cools things off. At night though, it´s the perfect temperature, where it is cool, but not to the point that a sweater is necessary. And the views. Wow! Words won´t do it justice, so here is a panorama I took after school today from the ¨calvo¨ or maybe ¨cabo,¨ I´m not exactly sure what the word is and I´m not exactly sure what it means, but it´s a rocky hilltop, up a steep street from our complex and the view is amazing.

I think that´s enough for one post. And that´s about all the major developments of the last four days.
Hasta,
Erik

P.S. I haven´t really been homesick much, although I do miss everyone. The hardest time is at night, trying to fall asleep. Laying there, my mind wanders and I think about everyone back home and how I won´t see them for a long time. It´s not that bad now, but the first night when it happened, I almost lost it. But I´m getting busy, so I´m not thinking about it as much. It´ll get better over time. I miss everyone though, don´t get me wrong! Hope all is well back home.

Currently listening to:
Song: When I´m Gone
Artist: 3 Doors Down
Album: Away From the Sun

"Some days are better than others"

"Some days are better than others," states Charlie Bartlett (in the movie Charlie Bartlett). And I have to agree with him.

2 days left before I go.

As that day draws closer, I find myself constantly dwelling on everything I'm leaving behind for a year and all the people I won't be able to see for a year. And the more I think about how I won't be able to see them for a year, the more I find myself wondering how much I really want to go.

The other exchange students have all been in their countries for quite some time. August 5th for Austria, August 13th (or around then) for Mexico, August 22nd for Bolivia, and about a week or so ago for Turkey. In an effort to be productive in my dwelling, I began thinking about why I have started feeling so strong about not wanting to go all of the sudden. I came to 2 conclusions.
#1. These feelings were to be expected as part of the exchange and are probably part of anyone's exchange, but the difference is that the earlier departure date forces the student to get over it by getting them involved in their host country. In my case, I've had more time sitting around waiting to think about it. Which leads me to,
#2. The extra time at home has made given me more time to spend with the people I'll be leaving behind and let me build those relationships up before I go, in turn making me feel more attached and making me want to leave them even less.

Now, I'm not trying to say I don't want to go. Because I do want to. It's just that I've had time to think about who I'm leaving behind where other exchange students may have been too busy getting ready and going to think about it before they left. But I'm just speculating about what the other students have been thinking and feeling.

2 days left before I go, and I'm excited. At this point, another quote from Charlie Bartlett comes to mind. "What you do in this life matters." I don't know exactly how that's relevant, but it's an interesting sentiment. I think the way I'm dealing with and plan on dealing with these feelings will matter and will have an impact and I think this exchange is going to matter and I think it's going to effect me. How I deal with that effect and what I do with my new perspective is going to matter, eventually.

Until next time,
-Erik

Currently listening to:
Song: Closing Time
Artist: Semisonic
Album: Feeling Strangely Fine (Ironic, no?)
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."