Setting Goals

Hello Blogger World. To know why the above plank is so awesome, you will need to read on.

On Thursday I got a care package and it made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside! There were letters and jam and cake balls involved - enough said? Thank you Mommy! Also on Thursday, I made smores with Paula and Abuelo! Although we had to use cookies instead of graham crackers and the chocolate wasn't Hershey's, the smores were still VERY GOOD! They were almost the same as in the U.S. Since we didn't do a Thanksging meal, the smores definitely made up for it!

I think it's safe to say that Abuelo likes smores - he had three of them, plus one plain marshmallow!

I went to Malaga (again) on Friday. With a bit more luck than Tuesday, I was able to everything squared off with my visa. Now the police station is working on my ID and I can pick it up in January. Yay for not being a tourist anymore! I feel lucky to have such a good Rotary Counselor - he took me Malaga both times last week and is so nice!

I went to Tarifa last weekend, and it was just as charming as before. This time I went with Paola, her two friends that own the house in Tarifa, and Molly! We went to some great restaurants, explored a Roman city, and got to wander the lovely Tarifa streets. The plank you saw at the opening of this post is on original Roman Roads, built in the 2nd Century (around 200 AD). OHMYGOODNESS, HISTORYNEVERREALLYAMAZEDMEUNTILICAMETOEUROPE. Oh and we had churros for breakfast two days in a row, so it was obviously a good weekend.
 

Us at one of the best Pizzarias EVER.

  

Me and Molly at the Roman Ruins (Baelo Claudia) with some Coca-Cola.





Me and Paola at the Roman Ruins.



I truly love Tarifa, and I can't wait to go back.

Last night I Skyped my Mom and siblings for a while!  It was only the second time I have used Skype with my family while on exchange, so it was definitely nice to talk to them! The only thing is that Skype really does bring everything to life. You see, in Spain it is very easy to forget that a whole other world is going without me in Iowa. I live my life here, and I know that everything is going in Iowa, but it just sits in the back of my mind. With Skype -- the voices, faces, conversations -- I am reminded that I really am away from my home in Iowa. (It's strange because when I first got here, I had reverse feelings, such as Wow, a whole other world [Spain] has been going and I've been in my own little bubble in Newton. It was very eye-opening at the moment.) Hence, today was a little rough. I miss you guys, and sometimes I just wish I could just hug ya'll back in Iowa. That's one thing Spain sure needs to work on - hugs. Yes, they have the two kisses when greeting/departing, but they don't hug enough, and when they do hug, it's never quite long or tight enough. So when I get back next summer, please don't be surprised when I hug you ALL OF THE TIME.

Today I decided that to keep myself busy I am going to set goals for myself, little and big, throughout my exchange. I want to have goals to work on throughout the coming months, but I also want to have little goals for myself each day. Tomorrow my goal can be to find an awesome song in Spanish. If you have an idea for a daily goal for me, let me know!

Here are some bigger goals that I've set for my self so far:

-Read The Chronicles of Narnia in Spanish by the end of my exchange.

-Walk or run around my community every day.

-Read at least half an hour of Spanish every day.

-Learn how to cook paella and Spanish omelets.

Well I have many random things I've been meaning to post, but I'm going to sleep now. Hopefully I'll get them up soon.

Here's a big virtual hug!

Josie

No Regrets

One year ago today, the night of the Annual Christmas Parade in Newton, I began to fill out an application for Rotary Youth Exchange 2011-2012. The chance of a lifetime layed before me, and I knew that if I didn't pursue such an oppurtunity, I would regret it forever. I had nothing to lose! Now, friends, I am in Spain. I'm learning about myself, experiencing the amazing culture of Spain, and seeing the world in new ways. They weren't lying when they said exchange is a roller coaster - there have already been some downs - but in the end, I am going to come out stronger and maybe even a little smarter. I am so glad that I took the oppurtunity I did one year ago. I can't imagine myself anywhere else than Spain right now.

Drink some apple cider at the parade for me tonight! I love you guys :)

Besos,
Josie

Español

Hola! Que tal? (What's up?)

So I have been in Spain for a little over a month and half now (ish?), and my Spanish has already improved immensly. I know that I have a long ways to go until I'm fluent, but I am content because I know that my Spanish is improving each day. The more I speak, read, and hear in Spanish, the better. Right now I'm taking four hours of Spanish class a week at my school, and it's going well. Matthew and this other boy who moved here from Hungary (he's 12) are also in the class, so we help each other out. My current Spanish status is something like this: When I concentrate I can usually understand the topic people are talking about and maybe even some details. When talking in Spanish, I can usually get my point across but my grammar/sentence structure sucks. People understand what I want to say, even though it's not grammatically correct. Learning Spanish isn't the number one reason I came to Spain, but I wouldn't consider my exchange a success if I came back not fluent. I have made some observations about learning Spanish over the past few weeks, so here they are.

1. More English isn't going to make your Spanish better.

What I mean by this is that when people talk to me in English, or when I talk in English, it doesn't help my Spanish at all. I am trying very hard to only speak Spanish, which is gradually becoming pretty easy. The more I use new Spanish words and phrases, the quicker they stick. When I speak English, it's difficult to get my mind back into the "Spanish groove." As far as other people, I am at the point where I usually become frustrated when people speak to me in English. I NEED TO LEARN SPANISH! If I don't know what a word is, then yes, it's helpful for someone to give me the translation. However, sometimes it's more helpful for people to simply explain themselves with different (more simple), Spanish words. I understand that sometimes it can be a hassle for someone to get their point across to me, but it helps me so much more than just conversing in English. To everyone in Spain who is patient enough with me to chat in Spanish: muchas gracias! :)

2. Some things get lost in translation.

For example, phrases like "I'm just pulling your leg" or "I'm hot on your heels" or "Por la cara" don't make sense when they're translated. For this reason, I either have to be spoken to in a very literal way, or be taught these figurative sayings.

3. One must learn how to learn another language.

After one studies a second language, it is much easier to learn other languages. For example, I have many exchange student friends who studied Spanish in high school and now they are learning a different language in their host country. I have heard many of them say that studying Spanish has helped them immensly. They know about conjugating verbs and the structures of language (other than English). They know how to learn a language.

In America though, we don't begin to study a second language until high school. Here, my classmates have been studying English since they were 9 or 10. Now, they all just began learning French, and some of them also just began learning Greek and Latin as well. However they know how to learn a language, so these other languages aren't as difficult. For Matt and me, we've only studied Spanish so we are 1. still learning new aspects of language and 2. simultaneoulsy using  that information to actually learn the language, in our case, Spanish.

I think that the U.S. needs to start teaching foreign language MUCH EARLIER. Spanish especially is becoming more and more commonly spoken in America. If we began learning Spanish in 3rd or 4th grade, we could easily learn other languages later on. Many may argue that we don't need to learn other languages because we know English, a valuable language everywhere in the world. However another language is something that no one can take away from someone else - another language is always valuable, especially as other languages are becoming more and more important to the US such as Chinese and, again, Spanish.

Back on topic though.

4. Even with steroids, you still have to work.

One has to make an effort to learn a language. I have to concentrate while listening to Spanish - it doesn't just come. While watching movies, or even having conversations, I have to make sure I pay close attention, and don't let my mind go off in la-la-land. I see being immersed into Spain as steroids for learning Spanish - I get a huge advantage because I am surrounded by Spanish everywhere, but I can only learn if I put in work.

5. Andalucia isn't the best place to learn Spanish.

Andalucia (the region in Spain that I live in), has some very distinct differences in their Spanish than many other places in the world. Many -- most -- of the 's's are usually dropped when talking, and replaced with a "th" sound. Example: Hasta luego may sound like "Hatha luego." Sometimes 'z's and 'c's are dropped too, and at times I think people decide to drop random consanants when they feel like it. I think that it's common for 'r's to be replaced with 'l's, but honestly I'm not even sure. The accent here is really thick and sometimes it is very difficult to understand people. Chances are that I'm eventually going to pick up on the accent and come back with an Andaluz accent and you all are going to make fun of it, but I'm cool with that.

6. You have to think in Spanish.

I have become pretty accustomed to speaking in Spanish, but thinking in Spanish is the real challenge. It's a day-long battle and I have to continually remind myself not to think in English. If I think in English, it's that much more difficult to improve on my Spanish. When I think in Spanish, speaking and understanding Spanish is much easier afterwards. It's about "living" in Spanish - completely immersing myself.

7. Spanglish is an English word.

Spanish is an English word. English is an English word.

8. My Spanish will improve, only at the expense of my English.

As I learn more Spanish, my English is slowly falling away. Sometimes I can't think of English words. Sometimes I don't know how to phrase something in English. It's such a strange feeling - the language you've known all your life, becoming more and more unfamiliar. I'm determined to learn Spanish though, so if it means having bad English for a while, I'll deal with it.

Well, there you have it. A peak into my mind that is attempting to think in Spanish. I'll continue to let you all know how my Spanish is going throughout future posts. Until later, I hope all is going well wherever you may  be reading this.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
Josie

Maybe I should just live at the zoo. Hmm. . . .

Hi everyone :)

I would like to begin by saying "thanks" to everyone who left encouraging comments on my blog post from last week. I feel so blessed to have family and friends who speak life into me! I love you all so much.

I think that my "November Blues" have lightened up a bit. I'm trying to stay positive and stay busy, whether it's by exploring the community or just throwing myself into a hardcore Spanish study session (alliteraton - aw yeah!). Molly and I were going to take Flamenco classes together, but they're all either full or too late at night. Boo. So now I'm looking into some art classes. I want to really immerse myself into the culture here, but it has been so difficult to find things to do! I wish that activities were just done through the school like in the US - all the sports, clubs, theater, etc. Actually, I think that my school might be doing a Christmas play, but I'm not really sure. Either way I signed up to act so I guess we'll see where that goes!

This past week hasn't been too terribly busy, but it sure feels like it's been. Here are the highlights...

On Wednesday evening, a friend of Paola's came over and brought her 10-year-old daughter, Clara. Clara was so sweet, and she is sort of like a little sister to me now. I wish I had host siblings so bad! Anyways, we ended up making a video together. Check it out! (It's mostly in Spanish, but that's the fun part!) --->

Good times! xD

On Thursday I read aloud in class from my Economia book, in Spanish of course, and my class clapped for me! Little things like this make me want to dance! It was about three paragraphs and I'm not exactly sure what I read, but I still feel good. The only downer on this incident was afterwards when my class asked me, "Que pasa?" (what's up/what's wrong) because apparently my face and neck got really red as I was reading! Urgh! I explained to them that sometimes I get flushed when I get nervous, and they found this very funny. Oh well. I've been getting compliments on my Spanish improvements lately, and again, it gives me that dancy feeling inside!

On Saturday I explored Marbella and San Pedro with Molly and Gabriel, an exchange student from Canada that currently lives in Fuengirola (a city not too far from Marbella). Yay exchange students! It rained basically the entire day, but we tried to make the most of it. Later in the day Matthew joined us and we all headed over to Nina's (a Rotarian) house for the night. Nina and her husband were so nice! I felt so at home with them. We had an amazing dinner, watched a movie, and went to sleep exaughsted from the chilly, wet day. On Sunday we went to the zoo in  Fuengirola! Yes, I know, my second zoo in one month. It was rainy again, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Molly and I saw a white tiger poop! Okay, maybe you didn't want to know that, but we did. Last weekend sort of reminded me of Rotary weekends back in Iowa, but in a smaller, Spain version.

Matthew, Gabriel, Molly, and me at the zoo!

Today I went to Malaga City with my Rotary Counselor to get my student visa. Well, as it turns out, the police station -- or wherever we were at -- was having problems with the computer today, becuase for some reason or another they couldn't access such and such file and now I have to go back on Friday, hoping that we'll simply have better luck. Okay. I did get to see a little bit of Malaga today though! I saw the cathedral, The Roman theater of Málaga, and I even went to Picasso's house! Well sort of - you see Picasso was born in Malaga and lived there until he was about 10. Now, the home where he grew up in is open to the public and you can see his house, as well as some art pieces by him. It was very cool!

Malaga has so much interesting history, being one of the oldest cities in the world. It is about 2,800 years old! I have touched on this briefely before, but I need to tell you again - I love the history here [in Europe]. Much of what I saw today is older than the U.S. all together. It is one thing to read about history in books, but to see it, to walk in it, to feel it as you pass by is completely different. The kids in Malaga go on field trips to Picasso's house for goodness sakes! Don't get me wrong, I like the pumpkin patch and all, but it can't really compare with Picasso and 400-year-old cathedrals.

Roman theater of Málaga

"Still life with spoon" by Pablo Ruiz Picasso. As soon as I saw a spoon, I knew I had to take a picture for Shelby. Love you, Shelbaby *Hose B!

Part of the Málaga Cathedral. I have found that it is difficult to photograph cathedrals because they're so big!

I was planning on making a Thanksgiving meal for my host family and the other exchange students next weekend, but instead I'm just going to help with Christmas dinner and throw some American food in there. I absolutely love Thanksgiving, and  it makes me sad when I think about not spending it like normal with my family and a big meal and the parade and afternoon napping. Okay well I guess I'll have a siesta, but you get the point.

I think that's all for now. I love and miss you all! If I don't post before Thursday, have a fun and safe Thanksgiving - eat some extra food for me, okay? :)

Love,
Josie

xoxo

Learning Spanish

PSYCH! Okay, so I was about to write a blog post about how my Spanish is coming along, but I've been trying to watch an episode of Glee for a week now, so you will just have to wait. I'm going to try to get a post up soon about the past week and stuff either tonight or tomorrow.

I'm still alive,
Josie

P.S. I went to Picasso's house today.

Sometimes, I don't know what I think.

Hello. The following message is brought to you by a siesta.

Really though. I had a great siesta today and it continues to energize me! Even though it's 10:30 at night -- later than my usual time to blog it up -- I HAVE THE POWER!

As usual, my sense of time is nearly non-exsistent. Some hours feel like days, but some days only feel like hours. Then there's the "I've almost been here for six weeks" fact. Say what? My friend Hannah (Oregon -->Spain) wrote something in her blog the other day about how when your mind is full of other things, you lose your sense of time perception. I don't know if that's scientifically proven, but if not, exchange students would be living proof. We're surrounded by new culture, language, people, everything - it's kind of a lot to take in. So while we're processing all those things, time somehow gets thrown out of the mix. I still have about eight and a half more months of exchange, but I don't quite know what to think of that. One one hand, I'm thinking: Only eight and half more months?!?! I've only been here for, like, a month and week, so that's like repeating what I've done . . . sevenish more times? However on the other hand, I'm thinking, I'm here for HOW LONG? I could almost have a baby in that time! I miss you so, Iowa!! I hope you're getting what I'm trying to say here. If you don't, that's fine, because I don't think I do!

Remember what I was saying about avoiding the "November Blues" last blog post? Well, they hit me. Sometimes it's homesickness, sometime it's a "there's no hope for me at school" feeling, and sometimes it's just wanting to bite everyone's head off. I have found that the root of these "blues" (sadness, frustration, irritability) is usually somehow linked to Spanish. For example, I might be at school one day and I want to tell my friends a cool story. I start to tell the story in Spanish, but I don't know an essential word.  I improvise with charades and Spanglish, and move on with the story. I end up stopping half-way through because there are too many words I can't think of and trying to share my story has turned out to be far too much work than it's worth, and my class must be thinking how random and strange Americans are. From there, my thought process usually goes something like this: I wish I knew more Spanish. If only my Spanish was as good as my English. I miss just casually talking in English with friends in the U.S. and not have to rethink every word I say. I miss my friends. I miss high school. I miss my family and Iowa and corn and why does my life stink?!?!

I know my life doesn't stink, but do you see how my thoughts led to that? I know I'm in Spain, living up the chance of a lifetime. But sometimes, it's difficult. And sometimes, all I feel like doing is curling up in a ball and drinking hot coco.

Fortunately the hot coco here, Cola Cao, is delicious.

I'm not depressed, but sometimes I have bad days. Even in beautiful Spain, people have bad days. Not all bad though :) As I told you guys last week, Evelyn invited me to her church last weekend! Apparently there is church every day, but I think most people only go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I went on Friday night, and it turned out pretty cool! We sung some praise and worship songs (in Spanish of course), then everyone introduced themselves with their name and nationality. There were about 30 people, and almost everyone was from Paraguay! After that, a message was given and then we had a meal of pizza and coke and goodness. I really enjoyed myself and I'm hoping to go back this weekend. Apparently they're doing a Christmas play, and I think it'd be really cool to get in on that! Note: Christmas is less than a month and half away! That sounds so crazy!!

Well I'm going to try and catch some Z's now. I love and miss you all!

P.S. It was great chatting with you tonight, Mom! :)

Surprise!

Hey, Devoted Readers!

I hope November is treating everyone well. Apparently many exchange students go though "November Blues", a period of blah-ness in November marking the 2 or 3 month mark of being in one's host country. I haven't quite been hit by them, but I'm thinking that I may get some December Blues, being a month late and all. It has been getting chilly though, here in the Costa Del Sol. *tear. However, I can't really complain when I compare the weather here to other places - it was about 64* F this afternoon, but it sure felt colder! Spain has taught me the art of the scarf though - it keeps you warm and, come'on, completes any outfit.

This past week has been pretty fun! Last Monday was Halloween and I ended up chilling with Jaime and some friends from his school, as a pirate! Most of us were dressed up, so we went trick-or-treating for a little while! Later that night we watched a half-hour long scary movie and then a Christmas movie, and the whole thing was quite strange. Nevertheless, I had a good time! I miss just chilling with friends, watching movies, playing with plastic machetes . . .

 November 1st was All Saints' Day, so no school! This is week five of Spanish school for me, and out of those five weeks, three have had holidays where there's no school. I like how Spain thinks.

On Thursday I had my Iowa Presentation for the Estepona Rotary Club. It went fine - I gave it in bad Spanish/Spanglish, but I think everyone appreciated my efforts. Also, I found out that I was going to Granada on Saturday with the other RYE students in Andalucia! I love good surprises.

Saturday ended up being a lot of meetings, but the RYE kiddies got to explore the city during most of them. We were only able to walk around for an hour and a half or so by the end of the day, but Granada was still beautiful. I do want to go back sometime though and really get to see the city. The group of exchange students that I spent the day with was so different than my exchange group in Iowa last year. In Granada, there were about 11 of us, all American girls except for Molly (being from Australia) and Matthew. I think it's pretty cool that I live in Marbella with the two different people in the group. Apparently there were supposed to be a couple more people in Granada on Saturday, but I don't know where they were . . .

Most of the group in Granada! I blinked :(

Molly and me at the Granada Cathedral!



As we walked around, I felt -- and definitely saw -- Granada's unique history.



Granada was great except for when I had a "stupid-exchange-student" moment and walked into the men's restroom at the hotel - oops. But honestly, I think the "man" on the door was a little misleading . . .

Don't tell me that at a glance, you wouldn't mistake Him for a woman.

Not much else has been going on. My Spanish is slowly progressing, school is fine, and I continue to make friends. The other day, I was going through a one of my classmate's music on her iPod, and I found "Hosanna" by Hillsong! I excitedly told her that I love Hillsong, and after chatting (err, passing notes) for a while, I found out she's Evangelical too! She invited me to her church this weekend, so that should be cool. I can't wait to see how church is here!

Well if anything blog-worthy happens in the next week or two, you'll know about it!

Hasta luego,

Josie

"Closed"

Hello Blogosphere. Good evening, or whatever time of the day it may be that this post finds you in. Spain has opened my eyes to so many new things during the past few weeks -- nearly month! -- and I'd like to share a little bit with you.

Before I came to Spain, I had read and been told many times that Spain has a very different sense of closeness than the U.S. does. However, I still didn't quite know what to expect! When I arrived in Malaga and met Paola and Abuelo for the first time, I was immediately presented with Spain's closeness in a physical sense, with kisses (as everyone in Spain greets each other with kisses). On my first day of school, I couldn't help but notice everyone hugging, leaning, and just generally being really close to one another. At first I thought that some people were merely being flirty with each other, but within a few days I began to realize that the way my classmates were acting was the norm. So this must have been what they meant by having a different sense of closeness, I thought to myself. Well, not completely.

Yes, I have found the people of Spain to be much closer to each other physically, but it wasn't until a week or two ago that I realized how emotionally close to each other they are. Everyone has everyone's back, and it's awesome. During my first few days of school, I couldn't identify "groups" or cliques of students like one can in the U.S.  I thought to myself after a while I'll figure out the groups here. Except, it never happened -- not really. Everyone is friends with everyone more or less. Sure, people break off into different loose groups of friends during the two recesses and outside of school, but that's expected (can you imagine an entire school , k-12, just chillin' together in a gigantic group?). The entire atmosphere here, both inside and outside of school, is so much more open than it is in the U.S.

When I show people my NHS yearbook here, they usually 1. Are in awe that cheerleaders (and yearbooks for that matter) are real and not just something in movies and 2. Ask if there really are "jocks" and "nerds" (cliques) etc. At first, I answered them with something like, "Kind of. There are definitely 'groups' of students, but my class is pretty tight with each other." Now, I would tell them, "Absolutely, and it's ridiculous." Maybe I need to back up a little. I had an epiphany last week as I was talking with a friend, Adri, at school. He was telling me about a friend of his that is living/has lived (?) in Miami for two years (the conversation was in Spanglish). I was shocked when he told me that his friend didn't like Miami! The beach, the sun . . . MIAMI! I asked him why and he told me, "My friend says that the people are . . . 'closed,'" making a closing gesture with his hands.

The more I thought about what Adri said, the more I realized how true it was. The atmosphere at home (meaning Iowa; America), especially at school, is so "closed" -- I don't know how to explain it much better than that! But I would have never thought so before coming to Spain. Before coming here, I would've said that I'm an extremely open person; open to new things, people, places. Now I realize how untrue that statement would've been, compared to the openness of Spain! Even being a teenage girl that is: thousands of miles away from home, living in a foreign land called Spain, learning a mysterious language called Spanish, I have a box. All too often, I live in my own little world, my box, and am ignorant of the wondrous world around me and those in it.

At school here, my class works together all day, helping each other figure out the work. If somebody doesn't understand something, there is always someone that will help them get it -- no big deal. All my classmates chat with all my classmates, about anything and everything - school, family, friends, ladadada. Last week, I had a classmate confide in me about a really personal topic, and I was quite surprised that they would share something like they did with me, being the new, foreign girl. I feel like I've almost become a part of a big family at school, and with Spain in general. When I come back to The States, I definitely want to bring this openness that Spain has about it. I feel like my classmates here have something figured out that for some reason, American High Schoolers can't get because of barriers put up with another such as cliques, and pride, and self-consciousness. I can't really put my finger on it, but it's like they know that we're all supposed to be here for each other, and that we should all be able to depend on one another. They make the way high schoolers in America treat one another seem so immature.

I wish I could put my thoughts into better words. I am finding this concept difficult to explain. All I know is that it's there, and when I come back to America, I am going to be such a different person than the one who left just one month ago. Being here, in Spain, is giving me a chance to "see" what kind of person I was in America, and what kind of person I want to be.


"Now I’m thinking freely.
I’m going to open my mind to all these
New found exciting possibilities."

-"And Run" by He is We