"About Rotary Youth Exchange"

I stumbled upon this on a Rotary Facebook page a few days ago and it says it all.

"About RYE:
My senior year of high school I stumbled upon the chance of a lifetime with Rotary International Youth Exchange. As soon as I realized I could go abroad for an entire year and experience true immersion I was hooked. I filled out the eighteen-page application, made my six photocopies, was interviewed, and waited patiently until I received the news that I would be going to Mexico. I would not trade my time in Veracruz, Mexico for anything in the world. It is one of the hardest things I have ever done; leaving my family, friends, and anything familiar for an entire year, learning a different language, having everything I have ever known challenged every day. It is also the most rewarding experience I have ever had. In the past six months I have managed to integrate into another culture, to understand why people think a certain way, to turn being out of my comfort zone into a new comfort. I have learned what it means to truly appreciate my family and all that I have at home. Rotarians often say, 'It’s not wrong, it’s just different', a phrase that perfectly defines living in another country. Instead of convincing me of the superiority or failings of my own country, I have been given the chance to decide what I agree with and what I would change, in the United States and the world. More confident, more accepting, and overall happier. My year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student will always be a turning point for me. It is the year I realized anything worth doing is not going to be easy and I can be anything I aspire to be." --Taylor 

I don't think we're in España anymore!

Hey guys,

A lot has gone on since I last posted! Valentine's Day, or "San Valentin" was fine. It's not like I really have someone to celebrate it with, but still. What evs. I wore red anyways! Saturday (the 18th) was Carnaval in San Pedro! If you have no idea what Carnaval is, don't feel bad -- the the closest thing the US has to it is Mardi Gras, which really isn't Carnaval. Here's how Wikipedia explains it: 

"Traditionally during Lent, no parties or other celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating rich foods, such as meat, dairy, fats and sugar. The forty days of Lent, recalling the Gospel accounts of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, serve to mark an annual time of turning. In the days before Lent, all rich food and drink had to be disposed of. The consumption of this, in a giant party that involved the whole community, is thought to be the origin of Carnival."

Eventually, Italy decided they were going to have parades for this celebration, then a lot of Europe decided to copy Italy, then Latin America joined in too. Now, the most famous celebration of Carnaval is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (you know, like the movie Rio?). People dress up in costumes, have parades, and go out dancing.

In San Pedro, we had a parade in the evening (it was comparable to Newton's 4th of July parade). After that, we went to the main plaza en town for some dinner and dancing! As you can see, I went as a cabaret dancer!

Julianna, Juanfe, and me

Most of us who dressed up!
Ainoah, Ricky, Enrique, me, José, Sergio, Juan, Julianna, Alfonso, Andrea, Alejandro, and Juanfe

I'll try to post some more pictures on Facebook soon!


As some of you may know, I just got back from Ireland on Monday! My host family went there for the weekend with another family who has a 12-year-old son living there for the year to learn English. We also took along my host cousin, Maria, who is 11 and may be going to Ireland to learn English next year. We left Friday morning and after arriving in Dublin, went to the city we'd be staying in called Bray, an hour or so from the airport. In Bray, I felt like I had stepped back in time or something. The architecture somewhat reminded me of Pella (which isn't much of a surprise, since Holland is just a hop over). We were right on the ocean, and there was a little mountain right by the hotel. Everything was so cute that at times, I wondered how people actually lived their lives there. It seemed so unreal! The actual city where Pablo (the other family's son) lives is Greystones, which is only 5 miles from Bray. The truth is that Bray and Greystones mix together in my mind since they're so close, so I may be giving descriptions for one that is actually the other. Greystones had that small-town feel like Newton. I really enjoyed it. Anyways though, on Friday we spent the day exploring, eating in, and enjoying Bray and Greystones.

Bray

Juan, Me, Ana, Mami, her husband [I'm so bad with names!], and Javi in Bray

View from the hotel window

Me, Maria, and Javi in Greystones

On Saturday we went to a medieval city called Kilkenny. We visited a castle, ate in a restaurant that was once the house of a witch, and enjoyed exploring about the charming streets. I really liked Kilkenny.

Kilkenny :)

Part of the CASTLE that we toured!

"Family photo" outside of the castle

On Sunday we took the train to Dublin! It was such a pretty city. Upon arriving, we went on one of those tour buses that you can sit up on the top of and I couldn't help but feel like Amanda Bynes in What a Girl Wants. Dublin has beautiful parks, many pubs and Guinness beer (well, I guess all of Ireland has the Guinness), and many charming bridges. One can feel the history strolling through the streets and it's quite beautiful.

Maria, Javi, Pablo, and me in front of Dublin's most famous Pub, The Temple Bar

Dublin Bridges :)

In the tour bus!

SO. MUCH. GUINNESS. (I actually didn't care for the stuff.)

Did I mention all the Rugby?

Overall -- the landscape, the people, the food, more -- Ireland seemed like home (like Iowa) much more than Spain does. There were fields and pick-up trucks, and country music, and I loved it. Going to another country and seeing how different it is from the other two I already know only makes me want to visit more of the world so much more! Our mini-vacation to Ireland was awesome, but I sure wish that my real family could've been there too. Experiences like this are so amazing, but I wish they were to share it with. Lately I've been really homesick. The past two/three weeks have been a "low." I'm learning such much about myself and the world here, but I miss home. I miss my family and eating dinner with them and spending hours talking with my sister and wrestling with my brother. I miss having my best friends and having sleepovers and actually succeeding in school. I miss not having to strategize how I go about each day since I'm learning a new language! I miss the familiar and feeling like I know who I am, and being accepted as normal person into friends, family, culture, instead of as "the American." 


Some days, I have no idea what I'm doing here, but then I remind myself: You're in Spain. You are living the experience of a lifetime that no one will ever be able to take away from you. You are making friends and family that you'll have for the rest of your life. You're also learning Spanish, which will come in pretty handy in the future. You'll be able to chat with everyone at La Cabaña when you get back home -- that'll be so cool! You may not know who you are now, but you're growing up this year; the person you leave as will be stronger, smarter, and able to do anything after this challenging year. You're becoming more globally-minded, and traveling the world like you've always wanted to. Yeah this year is hard, but aren't you always asking for a challenge? Time is too short not to enjoy this. Live in the moment; make a difference.


Well, there is my pep-talk.  I've got to go for some Skype time with my mom now!


Hugs and Kisses,
Josie 

Seventeen

I would've updated sooner, but I thought it'd be cool to wait until today to do this week's post. You see, if you go all the way back to my first blog post, you'll find that it was written exactly one year ago on February 13, 2011. It's interesting to look back on. Here's a snip:


"Wow, has it been a crazy week! Last Saturday - February 5th - I found out that Spain had accepted me as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student! Talk about a good birthday present!! Monday was my birthday - Sweet 16! ...On Friday I applied for my passport! It should come in the mail in about six weeks . . ." 


That actually doesn't seem so long ago. I can remember this time last year pretty well: I was addicted to reading blogs like this, hoping to find something new about foreign exchange. I was checking my email daily, multiple times, in hopes of finding out my city or my host family or SOMETHING! Spain was always on my mind -- I mean ALWAYS on my mind. I couldn't believe that I was actually going to do this; everything seemed so unreal. In many ways, I didn't know what to expect! Now, I've been in Spain for almost four and a half months! I look back on older posts and see that I've changed, but probably for the better. Now I wonder what things will be like, one year from this time.


Back to life in Spain though. Tuesday was my 17th birthday, and it was lovely. I was hugged and kissed and sang to all day long, and I don't think I could've asked for a better day! Here in Spain, you're basically attacked with love on your birthday and it's pretty amazing. My class sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish, and then proceeded to sing to me in English, which was actually quite humerous. I love those guys. My host family gave me a new camera since my other one broke, and it's awesome! I got to choose what we had for dinner, so we went out for Chinese. Let me tell you, it was delicious. 


Four other of my friends had birthdays last week as well, so for two weeks or so we had a big party planned for Friday. Buuuut it didn't work out and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed. Overall though, my birthday was an amazing day. I received mountains of cards and letters from home, as well as a mini Pillow Pet from my mom! It means so much to me when I receive stuff from home!! I feel so incredibly blessed.


I've kind of been on what you could call an exchange "high" for a while, until Saturday. I don't know why exactly, but I was sort of depressed this weekend, as well today. I'm a bit sick, I miss home, and Spanish is... well Spanish. I Skyped with my family last night, and it was so so so so nice talking to them. I'm missing out on a year with them, and that part of exchange really makes me sad. When I get back home, I know I'll have a new appreciation for being able to live with my family. 


I started the running club last week, and I think it's going to work out pretty nice. I'm not in shape yet, but I look forward to being able to do races when I am! Also last week, I started Spanish lessons (two times a week for an hour) outside of school. I really like my tutor; she's fun and enjoys learning languages with music. So, right now we're translating/studying one of my favorite Spanish songs, "La Niña Que Llora En Tus Fiestas" by La Oreja De Van Gogh. 


Other than that, not too much is going on. I'm going to Ireland in a week and a half!! I can't wait! Also, Carnaval is soon! Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Here in Spain, if you wear a red article of clothing on Valentine's Day, that means you're in love with someone. However, I haven't found my "Fransisco" here, so I don't think I'll have any red tomorrow. 


I think that's all for now.


Talk to you soon!
Josie
xoxo


P.S. I successfully got my haircut last week (only a trim) and I'm really proud of myself for doing so because hairdressers plus miscommunication due to language barriers could be deadly. But I lived. 

"La Niña Que Llora En Tus Fiestas" by La Oreja De Van Gogh

Happy February!

Hey, exactly four months ago, I was leaving Iowa for this crazy adventure. I'm not gonna lie -- the first two months here were extremely hard. I was terribly homesick at times, I didn't have many friends, and then there's always that language-barrier lingering about. December was better, and January was really awesome, with the exception of being separated from the lovely Molly. At this rate, it seems like everything can only continue to get better, which I'm totally cool with. Things are going pretty great right now.

I changed host families last Friday, and the transition has been pretty smooth. My host dad, Juan, is a lawyer, as well as my Rotary counselor. He is very nice and loves cooking, so I've already learned how to cook a few Spanish dishes, including paella! My host mom, Ana, is a family doctor, and is always chatting with me about life: school, work, my life back in Iowa, everything really. It's really nice sometimes to just chat for a while. Juan and Ana both speak English, but they only speak to my in Spanish, which is fantastic!! In just this past week, my Spanish has improved SO MUCH, by only speaking Spanish in the house. (Remember that before, my host dad was English, and there was inevitably much more English than Spanish in the house.)

Juan and Ana have helped me find a running club, so I'll be starting that tomorrow! I'll let you know how it goes. Also, I'm in the process of finding Spanish lessons to help better my Spanish more quickly. Here's a mini-update on my Spanish: I can understand almost everything that people say when they talk slow and simple. When people talk fast, I can usually get the idea of what they're saying if the subject-matter is simple. I can speak in the present tense okay. When speaking in the past tense, I can usually get the point across. I don't know any future tense, so I use "Voy + a + infinitive verb", which is like, "I'm going to _____". I know the conditional past tense a bit, and I've almost got down past participles using the verb "haber" ("to have"). I don't know what this means to you guys, but to me, it means that my Spanish is better and I'm content for the moment. I'm on my fourth Spanish book right now -- it's 70-something pages, so I'm feeling like a boss. Chapter books baby (we're in third grade again)! Sometimes, I really beat myself up about how poor my Spanish is, compared to what I'd like it to be. However, the truth is that I know I'm improving daily and that I've got to just keep trying.

On Thursday, Juan, Ana, and I went to a city called Ronda that is up in the mountains, 750 meters (about half a mile) above sea level. May I just say that I was swept away by the beauty of this city. Although it was quite chilly up there, about 35 degrees Fahrenheit, I could've just stayed there all evening looking out to the mountains and ancient ruins that remain. It was incredible.

A bit of Ronda

Views from Ronda

Ana and me!

Ana has some family in Ronda, so I look forward to going back sometime soon! I didn't get any good pictures of the ruins, so I'll have to make sure to get some next time. Speaking of pictures, I'm 99% sure that my camera is broken for good :'( This means that I need to buy a new camera very soon, but I have no idea which to buy. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!! I'm going to Melilla in a few weeks, as well as possibly Ireland next month and Switzerland in a month or two, so I will NEED a camera!

I think I had more to tell you guys, but I can't think of much else at the moment... I'm loving life here -- I don't want to think about leaving. The thought of having to leave all the amazing people I've met here and Spain's unique culture makes me want to cry. Leaving Iowa was extremely hard, but leaving here will be so much more difficult because I have no idea when I'll be able to return. Can't all you guys in Iowa just come live here in Spain? It'd be much easier.