Vacaciones: Christmas Break

I love my life. I just love it, so much. I've heard so many times that Christmas is the lowest part of an exchanger's year, but for me, that was not so at all. In fact, I'd have to say that Christmas vacation is the best part of my exchange so far. I got to hang out with my "cousin" Rafa, I went out with friends a bunch, and I'm pretty sure my Spanish skills doubled or something like that.

New Years Eve was a blast. It was the first time I went to a New Years party after midnight. Here, you celebrate actual New Years (at midnight) with your family, and then everyone goes out. So, I went to my Aunt Lola's house for dinner with my family, a family friend, and another family. Here in Spain, it's traditional to eat 12 grapes, one at each gong of a clock, at midnight for good luck. Please imagine this. Yeah... it's hilarious watching people do this. Everyone's mouths are full of grapes and the clock is going and it's just great. I have no idea how, but I actually did all 12 grapes to the gongs of the clock! That means I'll have good luck all year! As you can see below, everyone had a fun time.

Me, Rafa, and Adri (a family friend)

My "Marroqui Uncle", Abuelo, and Adri's Dad

Everyone except for my Marroqui Uncle

After dinner and grapes at Lola's, I went to a New Year's Eve party with a bunch of friends from school. We rented this big room in San Pedro with a split level, and danced the night away, literally -- the party started at 1 a.m. and I got home at 8:00 in the morning! So at 1 am Iowa time I was still going, even with the time difference! I find this humorous. Man do I wish I could experience New Years again! Such a fun night. No one from my class was at the party; it was mainly people from the other two classes of Primero Bachillerato (equal to 11th grade) at my school, but I love these guys. They make up most of my closest friends here. I feel like I have finally reached the point where I have friends. Like, friends friends who I can really see myself becoming close to throughout the year.

Spain celebrates El Dia de los Reyes, or The of the Kings. This holiday takes place on January 6th and from what I've gathered, it's basically a separate day from Christmas to give gifts, that way you can focus on Christ's birth on actual Christmas day. However, many people (especially families with little kids) open presents anyways on Christmas day. On El Dia de los Reyes, the Reyes -- Kings -- "bring you gifts" if you've been good for the year. I got a little dog charm to put on a necklace or bracelet to remember our dog, Reina! Other than that, I didn't really do much else. My family and I, as well as probably every other Spanish family, ate this delicious cake called Rosca de Reyes. Inside the cake are two "surprises" (little toys) that supposedly give good luck to the people who find them! My piece of cake had one of the surprises. I think it's a bean of some sort, but I'm not really sure... Paola found the other surprise, some kind of little bulldog magnet, and let me keep it!

Rosca de Reyes

We get quite the Christmas vacation here because of The Day of the Kings! Break was from December 23rd (that's including the day that everyone in Bachillerato skips) to January 8th! Please enjoy these random photos that fill in some few gaps I've left out.

Celebrating Niki's 16th birthday at the bowling alley!

Hannah, me, and Molly spending a day in Marbella!

Ice skating in Marbella with friends from school! 

I think the only main photos I'm missing are from a day with Molly, Matthew, and an exchange student from Canada living in Madrd, Olivia, who was vacationing in Marbella with her host family. We had quite a fun day that included Olivia and I doubling up on a bike so we could get to the beach! I don't think I have any of all of us together :( Also, I hung out with Rafa and his friends a few times, but I don't have any pictures. Oops.

Christmas break was exactly what I needed. It not only was a break from school, but a chance to get out, and really experience Spain more.

¡Feliz Navidad!

I'm a few days late, but Merry Christmas everyone! Can you believe that there are only 2 1/2 days left of 2011?! Then it's the big "2012." :D Most of the past week has been Christmas break. Last Thursday I got my report card for the first trimester of school. I failed all my classes except for P.E., English, and "Proyecto Integrado" which I'm not even sure what class that's for. Lengua maybe? I'm not too bummed -- I know I'll do better next trimester. Poco a poco. Check it out.

If you get 5+ it's passing; 0-4 is failing . . . I think. But THERE IS 0, and as you can see, I have no 0's. I did get 10 in English: perfecto!

I know I keep saying this, but I WILL write a blog post about Spanish school soon.

As it turns out, there was school last Friday but no one in Bachillerato goes. Score. Good thing, because on Thursday night I went to a Christmas party for the Rotary Club of Estepona. Aren't we all pretty?

Saturday was Christmas Eve, which is celebrated in basically the same as Christmas day is here: food and drinks, family, gifts, and.... yeah, that's about it! Pretty good, right? On Christmas Eve I went to my Aunt Lola's house with Paola, Abuelo, my "cousin" Rafa (who is staying with us for Christmas break), another family, and a family friend. I think there were nine of us total. It was nice to have lots of family around, and the food was pretty good too. Being Spain though, we started dinner around 9 pm, and left the house aound... 1 am? or was it 2? I'm not sure, but it was late enough for me not to remember.

On Christmas day I went to Malaga with my Rotary counselor, Juan, and had Christmas with his family. There were so many people there, but I loved it! Lately it hasn't felt like Christmastime at all, but being with so much family made it seem a bit more real. I especially loved Juan's little niece and nephew. We played some Mario together and built race tracks and it felt so normal. The food on Christmas day was delicious, and there was so much! I'd tell myself: Okay, that was so good, but I can't do more. Then they'd tell me: oh, there's two more courses! By the end of the day, I didn't think I would ever be able to eat again.

Juan's family taught me how to cut jamon (ham)!

Juan's family at the table

Since Christmas I've mainly been hanging out with my friends, Rafa and his friends, running, and relaxing. Because Spain has the The Day of the Kings on January 6th, school doesn't start again until January 9th!! Talk about a nice break. I'll write more on The Day of the Kings (as well as some other holidays here) when it comes around, but until later, I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Lots of love,
Josie

Hello from my bed surrounded by Kleenex.

Ugh. Yes, I am sick. I don't know if it's just me, or the general bad luck of exchange students with getting sick; either way my head feels like it's about to explode and I can't breathe through my nose. It started last night and when I got up this morning I thought I was about to fall over. Just my luck to feel icky on a perfectly good Saturday. I was going to go see the Christmas play at Evelyn's church tonight too! Urg.

When I left you last, Barcelona and Madrid were about to go head-to-head in the ultimate game of futbol. Apparently, almost everyone thought that Madrid was going to take it all, but it was Barcelona who came out strong in the end, 3-1. My family was so happy, being Barcelona fans. I have officially decided that I am going to support Barcelona for futbol for two main reasons, aside from the fact that they won the match:

1. My host family is for Barcelona, so I'd rather not be rivals with the people who feed me.

2. (Molly's reasoning) Madrid has the most ridiculous uniforms that are almost completely white, and inevitably, have grass stains all over them. For this reason, I simply cannot support Madrid - a smart team would have colored uniforms, like Barcelona, to help with stain control.

Also when I left you last, I was about to head out to a Christmas party at Evelyn's church! Well it turned out to be pretty good. We played games including "Upset the Fruit Basket" (Spanish style), ate a ton of delicious food, and had a gift exchange. At first I got a bunch of Kinder chocolate, but I later traded it for a Spanish Bible! I accidentally forgot it in a friend's (Lydia's) car, but once I get it back I am going to check it out for sure! I can't wait. After the party we watched the futbol game and later went to Plaza de Libertad. I felt so at home that night. It was the kind of night I would have in the US. I loved it, but at the same time it made me miss home so much.

The past week at school was fine. It was basically "finals week" so everyone was either studying or stressing out about studying. I took almost all of the exams but I think I failed all of them. I don't study for them because I usually just study for my Spanish class. Speaking of, my teacher loved me and Matthew's poster. Whooo. Also, I got a 10 (perfect) on my latest English exam. Other than that and PE, my grades are going stink.

Also this week, I met a group of friends from Matthew's class who I really like. I could definitely see them becoming some good friends. Making friends is turning out to be more difficult than I imagined, but it'll come. I know it will. Right now I just miss having those close friends from home who I can always go to about anything and who I can talk for hours with about nothing. Sure I have friends here, but not close ones -- yet. It'll come.

I have school all next week -- I'm not really sure why. All the finals are done, and Christmas Eve is Saturday. I can already see half my class not showing up next week, which is completely understandable. But ohmygoodness - Christmas is in a week!! It doesn't feel like Christmastime :( I'm still excited for Christmas here, but I really do miss home. All last week was good with homesickness - they wasn't any, I was feeling good, and I felt like I was beginning to make a home in Spain. Then last night it began to hit me hard that I don't have my family from Iowa here and how much I really do miss them, especially now at Christmastime. Everything is so strange and different than what I'm used to - it's not bad, it's just unfamiliar. Sometimes I miss the familiar, but I know I am going to gain so many experiences in the times to come.

Until later,
Josie

Some things will just have to come in time.

Happy two months to me, wooo! Well, I guess technically today is two months since leaving Iowa and tomorrow is two months in Spain, but still. The past week hasn't been very eventful. I finally went to McDonald's here on Friday. I got the usual - a chicken nuggets Happy Meal. It tasted almost the same as in the US! On Saturday I went shopping with Molly at La Cañada, a HUGE mall in Marbella. I found two cardigans and two scarves (along with some sweats for P.E.), so I'd say it was a successful day. This week, I don't have school tomorrow or Thursday because of holidays, which I find kind of strange. Why not just take the whole week off instead of going every other day? Ah, oh well. I'm happy to have the two days off.

Anyways, remember when I wrote about the openness of Spain? If not, well the people here are pretty close to each other emotionally and physically. This is still true, but I feel like there's more to it. You see, I've been here for two months now, and I can't help but notice that my classmates are still kind of distant to me. I understand that I'm the new girl and that friendships only come in time, but it's difficult nevertheless.

I'm hoping that this is just one of those things that will work out in time. I've heard it said time after time by previous exchangers that the second half of exchange is usually better than the first, not only because you have a much better grasp on the language, but because you also have closer friends. I want to make close friends here. I have too much of an opportunity to make lifetime friends here to not try. I'll continue to be friendly to my classmates, I'll try to get to know them better; hopefully they will do the same in return. :)

The past month has been pretty hard for me with stress and homesickness and just general frustration. I think a big part of that has been the "distant" feeling I just explained. It's so easy to say to myself Ugh, I have this problem here in Spain, but if I were in the U.S. I'd be just fine. I never have these problems at home. And those thoughts of frustration lead to homesickness. That is why it is so important for me to stay positive mentally, and stay busy/distracted. When I'm busy, I'm immersed in Spain, and that's exactly how it should be.

On a good side note, Paola and I just put up the Christmas tree!

Getting Ron into the Christmas Spirit.



It sure doesn't feel like Christmas is in three weeks. No snow, no mittens (except for the ones that Molly bought! haha that's another story), and a strange lack of Christmas music. I have been listening to some Christmas music online lately, but often it makes me miss home and I end up listening to something else. Some have said that Christmas is the lowest point in an exchanger's year, but I'm determined to make it one of the best times! I have the opportunity to have Christmas in another country with different traditions and different people, and I'm going to make the most of it!  I know that I will probably be very homesick at times, but I will be gaining new experiences and celebrating Christ's birth in a whole new way. If that's not cool, than what is? :D

Well, that's about all I've got for now! I'm going to try to write a post about school here soon, so be sure to check back every now and then. Love you guys!

Muchos besos,
Josie