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

Viva la Vida

Dear Devoted Readers,

I have an hour to kill before heading out for a Christmas Party, so I'll give you a little update on life in Spain.

Tonight is the Barcelona vs. Madrid futbol game, which is kind of a huge deal. Futbol is life in Spain, and nearly everyone has a say about it. Personally, I don't know who to root for. I don't live in or close to either city, and even though I really enjoy futbol, it's not very important who wins to me (sorry to all the Spaniards out there reading this who told me to root for their team!).




Who is going to win?!

The situation kind of reminds me of the ever going Cylones vs. Hawkeyes battle in Iowa. Especially in Newton, we live right between the teams, and it's pretty much a toss-up on who to cheer for (except that we know that the Hawkeyes are most likely going to win. Sorry Cyclones fans, it's just true). I think Madrid has a slight lead in favoritism, but Barcelona has the money, and pretty good skills. I'll let you guys know the results of the game in my next post, if you haven't heard already.

So I only had to go to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday last week because of national holidays, so that was definitely a plus. On Wednesday I went to the library with a few friends from class and attempted to help them study for English. It ended up being a fail because of my poor Spanish, but I enjoyed myself because I like my classmates and spending time with them - even if it's studying! While they studied for exams, I translated a few paragraphs of History notes into English.

Also on Wednesday, the new episode of Glee (Tuesday for you guys, Wednesday for me, since I have to wait for it to be uploaded online and time differences...grr) was very good. It was called "Hold on to Sixteen" or something like that and it really made me think. It's like this: we're only young for so long, so for goodness sakes, enjoy it! We'll be "grown-ups" soon enough, but right now we're young, and we're exactly where we should be in the scheme of life. On Thursday, Matt and I worked on a "Christmas in the USA" project for our Spanish class, and that went well. I think we'll get a good grade (wow, haven't said that for a while!). Paola bought me a coat and some boots as Christmas presents this afternoon and I think that I look like a total (blonde) Spaniard with them on. I'm going to a Christmas party at church with Evelyn tonight and I think we may be watching the big game afterwards too. So yeah, life is pretty good. :)