Acción de Gracias

Hiya, it's only second hour (which is history on Fridays) but I certainly have a lot of things to talk about, don't I?
Yesterday was Thanksgiving.........
What a clash of cultures.
I met Olivia's parents and brother at el fuente de Cristo around 10:30 in the morning. Porriño was dead as a door nail and I felt a little strange and out-of-place walking around while everyone else was in school.
But how was I supposed to feel.....as an American on Thanksgiving in a little town in Galicia?
We squeezed out of the minuscule parking garage and drove the rental car to the bar under Olivia's apartment, which her host parents own. Olivia came down shortly, and we had a long, relaxing breakfast with a lovely abundance of English. I remember first meeting Olivia's mom...she immediately started speaking lots of English words and it just sounded to strange to me.
After breakfast, we threw our coats and stuff into Olivia's little red room and got busy right away in the kitchen.
We started with the pie crusts.
We bought tart pans at the "everything" store the day before. They will shallow, but proved to be successful.
Chicho (Olivia's host dad) had a recipe for pie crust made virtually just from cookies and butter that we used. Olivia and I trotted back and forth between Tibi's kitchen and Sita's (Olivia's host grandmother) kitchen across the hall checking the crusts in the oven. There was only one oven rack in the oven...........this proved to be a bit of a problem, but we somehow wiggled around it.
We ended up making two pecan pies and two pumpkin.
After this, we ordered pizza from Pizza Plus (plooooos). We ordered some type of barbecue pizza and it seriously rocked my socks off.
Olivia's 13-year-old brother was a great little asset. Towering above me at 6'2", we ended up with an awful lot of inside jokes. I taught him a bunch of Spanish and he was really great at speaking with and helping Tibi with her English.
After lunch, we started on the casseroles.
We made a corn soufflé thing (yes, we had a family from Alabama on our hands) and sweet potatoes. We cut up apples and super fresh chestnuts (that literally just fell from the tree outside) and ripped gluten-free bread for the stuffing.
Everything was gluten-free because Xandra, sister of Olivia, is celiac.
At this point, with the casseroles steaming in the tiny little oven, we took a break. Olivia's mom, Dylan, Olivia, and I all headed over to the BiCafé to meet all of our friends. Adrián, Paula, Bianca, and Davíd, the usual crew, were waiting for us excitedly. Even my favorite waiter was working that day.
Lotsssssssss of freakin' translating.
The weather was freezing, the kind of cold that is biting and cuts to your bones. Liv and I are totally accustomed to this by now, but our visiting Americans just really weren't.
We left after about an hour, but by then it was already dark anyways and we had to start the turkey.
We had a bit of a fiasco about that awesome little thermometer that you poke into the turkey to see if it's done.
Olivia's dad claimed that h brought it, but we couldn't find it anywhere after searching the house and the hotel twice. We ended up calling every single supermercado within driving distance but NOBODY had this special little device. I guess these Spaniards don't really have much use for them.
Nevertheless, upon our return, Liv and I put on our pretty little dresses, tights, and boots and the pavo-preparing began.
Somewhere in the middle of pavo-preparing, Iria, Xandra, and Alina popped in from their field trip totally decked out in heels and red lipstick. It was great, I never see them dressed up. My sister looked so pretty, but she vehemently refuses all photos unless I have backup enforcements from her mother.
They had absolutely no idea what to do with themselves with all the English and strange food and big dead bird in the middle of the kitchen being fussed over, so they retreated into Xandra's room for most of the night.
More and more family members showed up around 10, I believe.
Oh yes. It wasn't normal Thanksgiving dinner timing....these people don't eat dinner until super duper late.
And then we were carrying everything downstairs; cranberry trays and stuffing and fluffy pieces of turkey.
There is some kind of common thought here about turkey cutting.
Everybody thought that we were doing it all wrong because apparently the fatherly-manly-man of the family is supposed to initiate his manliness and carve the turkey/dissect a dead bird right at the table "like in the movies".
Olivia and I decided to Americanize things a little further and make placecards to put on the looooong fancy black table in the party room in the bar. I ended up sitting by Dylan (Olivia's American brother), Pelayo (Olivia's Spanish brother), Davíd (our special guest), and Olivia. Since there were so many people, we had to skip another "movie thing" of passing everything around the table and do a buffet. It was decided that the people over 40 would go first, and the younglings followed after.
The looks on their faces.........
Can you even imagine?
They just do not eat turkey here at all.....and nothing was what they thought it was.
I don't think the younger girls really ate anything, but Davíd will eat whatever you put in front of him and many people ended up finishing their plates and getting more. Sita, the grandmother, was positively gushing about everything and begging us to translate the recipes.
Nothing was as good as Beezy's Thanksgiving (tehe), but it felt so good to taste normal food.
After we were done with the whole dinner thing, we went around the table saying what we were thankful for.....in Spanish AND English.
And I had to start.
Naturally.
Olivia and I continued our crazy translator jobs.
14 people? My Spanish?
No pressure.
When we reached Davíd, his words were almost too much to handle. He has been the sweetest and most positive person here for me and Olivia. When we feel homesick or awkward or hopeless, a lot of people tend to just make us feel worse, but never Davíd.
He has always been there to peel us off the ground.
He was talking about all of the opportunities and new things that Liv and I have brought to his life. His background story elevates the significance of this, but that's for another day. He talked about how much he is going to miss us and how he doesn't know what he'll do when he leaves.
The weight of how close that is.....is painfully heavy.
Anywho, then came the postre!
All of the supposes for the pies (minus the crust) came straight from America. The first bite of pecan pie was so shockingly familiar that I couldn't even figure out what to do with myself. Liv kept talking about how absolutely overwhelming it was to have her Spanish family an American family in one room.
Culture clashing!
Love it.
After postre, Tibi and Chicho had to bring a little Galician tradition to the table.
Okay. So there was a wooden bowl with fruit-ish-looking things and alcoholic liquids inside. Chicho lit the contents of this bowl on fire and blue flames spewed out. Somebody turned the lights off and Olivia and Tibi put on wigs. The alcoholic stuff was just like.....on fire. I kept hearing the word "bruja" (witch) and over the place, and the stuff in the pot certainly did look like a brewing potion.
Tibi began to read some kind of poem chant thing and Olivia read the English version.
Direct translations are always ridiculously comical.
It was truly great.
This fiery liquid and poem thing is apparently done to drive off witches.
Wouldn't want any brujas mulling around on Thanksgiving, would we??
I tried some of the potion afterwards but it was really strong and the fumes were suffocating; I'll probably never forget that smell....but I don't think I ever want to anyway.
By then, it was past midnight on a school night, so we had to go home. I wanted to cap off the night by talking to my daddy because all of that made me homesick, but my international SIM card absolutely would not find service. I sat on the floor in my room in my tights trying to fix that thing for a good two hours. Sigh. I couldn't seem to find sleep after that, so today I have been utterly exhausted.
I just stood there waiting for the English teacher to come open the door to my class until I awkwardly realized that everyone was already inside....and just now (currently in my last hour, Galego) in TICS, Pablo kept saying something to me about piroclastos which has something to do with volcanoes, so I bluntly said "Pablo, I don't want to talk about volcanoes, I don't understand them"
......aparcado!
Soooooooo now in informatica I really want my own computer. I know enough to be able to follow along and I just want to be able to create my own stuff because I always know how to do geeky cool things but the girl who works with me doesn't let me touch the computer and asks the guy next to us every question that I already know.....
Those stupid Americans! They have no idea how to make a web page!
Plus, I want to learn how to use these Spanish keyboards. They are very strange.
Olivia's family is gone now, which is sad. I wish I could have just talked to them more. I didn't even get to really say goodbye in all the madness.
I'm sure you can imagine how popular they were.
Happy Holidays!

The Swing

I've found my rut, my swing of things here. I've found my normal, I know what's going on most of the time. I've nearly my classes memorized too! I know where to sit in recreo, I know what classes to do my Greek homework in. I know which café will be nice and empty and quiet, which has the delicious chocolate blanca con dulce de leche, I know which café all of my friends will be at, then the one with all the "cool" boys, and the one with all my sister's friends. I even know the exact hours that my favorite waiter works on Sundays.
8am-4pm.
Okay, maybe that's just a little creepy.

I like this kind of normal.
I like my swing.
Everybody is so kind to me; everybody knows who I am but nobody has a reason to dislike me yet. Well, maybe Hugo.
I will so miss all of the holas and chaos in the halls and all of the questions about cuss words or what time my school starts.
I'm planning on enjoying my normalcy up to the last second.

Tomorrow is already Thanksgiving. How in the world did that happen? I didn't think that it could ever come; I didn't think it was possible.
It seems like it was just yesterday that Olivia said "my parents are coming in 9 days!" But nope...that was like 9 whole days ago.
A large part of me wishes that I could be with my dad and my aunt and uncle and auntie and cousins and dogs. I'll miss the food and dessert and games and conversation and craziness.
Olivia's parents and 13-year-old brother from Pennsylvania came today! They decided to come for Thanksgving. I just met them a couple hours ago and I like them a lot. They are all so tall; typical blonde Americans and I finally feel short again....ugh. Olivia's brother is hilarious, he made me spit café con leche all over myself. Her father reminds me an awful lot of my own in the way that he speaks and handles things that he knows nothing about. Her mother is great too, she is so much like Olivia.
Tomorrow I am skipping school to cook Thanksgiving dinner with the fam ALLLL day long. I'm so excited for a little Americanness.
We are preparing an enormous dinner for Chicho and Tibi and their parents, Xandra, Alina, Iria, Pelayo and his friends, and our good friend Davíd.
I can't believe it's already here.
We are already kissing November goodbye next week.

In other news, the ladrona de sueños is making her way to the edge of the scene. Yesterday, we were café-ing after afternoon school and it was windy, stormy, and freezing, but we had to sit outside with our friends who smoke (which you'd think wasn't working out too well because of the monstrous wind) and so we were all cuddled up in our hoods, coats, sweaters, and scarfs drinking warm things when Bianca suddenly said "oh hey! Samuel told Paula that he wants to tomar algo with you after school in the afternoon next Tuesday!"
It is sufficient to say that Olivia has been a little ray of sunshine ever since.
Today, she met her parents at the airport and didn't come to school, so in recreo I swear Samuel was looking up and down and all around for her.
We are just so successful!
But why with only 40 days remaining.....ugh.
Plan de Iván?
Initiation week?
I know you want to hear about it.
Well, today, my mission was the same as yesterday: Obtain the número.
Iván talked to me more than usual in TICS, and when I was walking home with Iria, he said "Morrgahn, Morrgahn, eso es tuyo?" referring to the scarf that Juan was holding and started bragging to his friends that I understand everything he says now, which led to another extra conversation that doesn't usually occur. Both opportunities, however, certainly weren't coincidentally correct. In TICS, I simply wasn't close enough to just thrust my phone into his hands and say "dame tu número" and after school, Juan was staring at me intently as I was talking to Iván and I would rather not be known as the girl who hits on everyone.... So, my good friend Paula, who is very involved with my Plan de Iván, was frustrated with me because she knows this is my week of initiation. Aisa then came up with the brilliant plan of asking him on tuenti...so I did...an guess what? That was all I ever had to do, darn it.

Terrible Tuesdays

Hi!
For a Tuesday, today was fairly bien.
Let's see....I started the day off with a lovely and very strange hour-long conversation with Muchas Cosas....who always smells significantly off all kinds of drugs, so you never want to get too close.
Thennnnn....I GOT A NINE OUT OF TEN ON MY GREEK EXAMMMMM whuddup. Who's the stupid Americana now?
Gym is always horrendous.
I was captain.....OF THE SOCCER TEAM.
Puh-lease, skater girl doesn't know nada de nada about soccer.
So, I was the worst soccer captain in the history of captains because Jota, the gym teacher, had to keep stopping the game to explain to me what was going on.
UGHHHHHH.
HOW EMBARRRRRASSING.
More embarrassing stories? Yes.
So like, you know how, like, people sometimes, like, say the word "like" a lot? Well, the Spanish form of this kind of "like" is either "osea" or "en plan". Osea is normal and kind of just flows with the sentence, but "en plan" sounds really funny to me so I have a habit of repeating it over and over again.
Welp.
This habit needs to be "ya está, aparcado" because I was walking right next to Juan, unaware, and Iria said "en plan" and I repeated it like a maniac and I heard giggling so I whipped around and Juan was flashing me his winning smile.
Chameleons have it so easy.
They can disappear WHENEVVVVVER.
Also, my plan de Iván was just not very productive today. I said ciao to him after school but he was in a conversation with someone else so he was a little surprised at my initiation.
Get with it, brother, this is my initiation week.

Olivia's parents are coming tomorrow for Thanksgiving! I'm skipping school Thursday to help cook and to celebrate because despite all these days, I am indeed still very American.
Olivia is taking the rest of the week off to be with them, so tomorrow and Friday will be lotttts of Spanish for me.

My host mother keeps saying vamos a la cama so I better go.
Goooooodnight.

43 Days

HI, I ONLY HAVE 43 DAYS LEFT SO I NEED TO LET OUT MY FEELINGS BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ALL-CAPS BUTTON.
These last forty-three days are going to be filled with much initiation and events and little things that make me smile when I go to sleep at night.
The next time I open my eyes, I am going to be on that plane home, or worse, facing my first weekend Vigo-less.
Things such as these are so bittersweet.
ANYWHO, LET'S NOT THINK ABOUT THAT AND JUST BE RIDICULOUS AND TAKE EVERYTHING MOMENT BY MOMENT.

Okay so.....we need to discuss something.
It has been clouding the skies lately.
Very much clouding is going on, actually.
There is a ladrona de sueños on the lose!!!!!
What is a ladrona de sueños?
Well, it is a female robber of dreams.
Very dangerous.
Don't get me wrong now, this is not a real phrase used in the Spanish language. It is just something that I made up with Olivia while describing HER.
Her.
La ladrona.
The robber of dreams.
Dream in which I am referring to: Samuel Losada.
The dream of Olivia.
Literally since the first day.....
The first day, people.
That is 69 days of sueñoing.
Nobody has a right to take away 69 days of sueños.

So we wrote a song about her today.
We get bored very easily in Historia. And Inglés.
Ah!
Saqué un 6 en mi examen de ciencias y un 10 en Inglés!
Qué lista soy, no?

Ugh, so today in Spanish class, I came in late and had to sit all by myself in the front of the room, which is embarrassing enough. Halfway through, the teacher realized I didn't have the freaking "apuntes" like always because how am I going to pick up the notes if nobody tells me where they are? So, Hugo, Raúl, and Sergito all sit in their little three desks and nobody else sits with them or messes with their sitios....except for Sonia, the Spanish teacher. She gestured towards them and was all like "One of you needs to sit with her, because she doesn't have the notes" and nobody moved NOBODY for like solid 20 seconds. So awkward. Then Sergito finally got up and said hola to me and sat by me.
I'M SO SORRY FOR DESTROYING YOUR SITIOS, I DIDN'T MEAN IT.

 I remember my first Monday without tics. It was shocking. And like. I still had sooooo much time.
Anywho, yes. Initiation week.
I wasn't going to let a MONDAY get in my way.
Porriño is little. Pequeño.
Not quite as little as Bedford, but bastante small.
So everybody walks in the same general direction home.
Which directly means that Iván always always walks in the same direction home as me, but I never talk to him.....
But this is initiation week!
So I struck up a convo with Pablo and Iván obviously chimed in because he knows deep down that I am irresistible. They were joking about how I apparently can't live in Spain without my sister, so I had to explain to them that I actually used to live with another family and they did all kinds of interrogating after that.
That was a little tough and difficult and uncomfortable, but in the end I got a very majo and sympathetic look from Iván.
Plan for tomorrow: "Iván, quiero quedar contigo antes que vuelva, tienes whatsapp?"
COME ON MORGS. SIMPLE AS THAT.
Gente, cross your fingers for me, por favor.

Okay tomorrow is terrible Tuesday soooo I need to sleeeeep.
I would just like to say three more things.
1. I bought floss today. How many 16-year olds do you know who make it a priority life while partying in Spain to buy FLOSS?.... Welp. I ran out of flosser thingies. I would also like some plaque-removing mouthwash, but I couldn't find any.
2. I'm going to miss texting my Spanish friends on Whatsapp in Spanish. Our schedules will be different when I return to America, and it'll just be weird because I won't be seeing them every day. How sad...
3. I went to Manoli's school today and everybody knows who I am THERE too! I'm so popular.

Lists and Normalcy and a Rant too

Fourth blog post in less then ten hours...
How annnoooyyyyinnng, sorry.
But, I can't sleep with the light on, so let me just crank out another blog post.
Today was another typical Saturday.

Typical Saturday
#1. Wake up missing typical Saturdays in America
#2. Wake up again and take a shower
#3. Eat a delicious and slightly larger than usual breakfast
#4. Head to beautiful Vigo for sister's three-hour French classes
#5. Tomar café and have deep and profound conversations with host mother
#6. Have an English conversation with host Uncle Paco
#7. Recollect Iria
#8. Go out to lunch with la mujer de Paco, Iria, and host mother
#9. Go to favorite store Stradivarius with sister
#10. Return to Porriño and live normal Porriño life.

I like that I have found a normal.
You know, that's all foreign exchange students are looking for.
Normalcy.
My host mother worries that I am bored sometimes because Iria has to study a lot.
I would love to see Santiago and the beautiful places in Spain, and I will indeed get the opportunity while I am here, but I like living normal life too.

Normal life things that I like:
Going to school
Eating lunch with my family
Talking with my host uncle and his girlfriend about the distinctions in our language and culture and hearing his English adventures
Learning about Spanish culture from my mother
Listening to my sister's favorite bands
Studying Greek
Drinking coffee and conversing in Spanish with my friends after school
Shopping with my sister
Making new friends, old or young
People-watching
Visiting other families here


I need to take more pictures here.
I'm going to make an album on my phone just for Spain and start taking pictures of every little detail so I can cry about it at home.
Seriously though.
And, my friend Adrián taught me how to take a panoramic picture with my iPhone camera.


I took my Greek test yesterday......
Everything was great, except for the freaking plural articles. UGHHHH I totally did the declinations and single articles perfectly, why do articles even exist?
Plato, can you even answer this question?
He's Greek and he can't even do it.
Hopeless mysteries of life.
Speaking of school, I'd like to rant about something else tonight.
Olivia has this problem too, with her family.
Our families have a really hard time saying anything good about the schools in America. I try not to get offended, but guys....I'm smart too.
Any of you people in my APUSH class last year who stayed up into the early morning hours at "night" and those of you who woke up at 4am to finish homework would want to scowl at the upturned-noses too, I assure you.
We have to start preparing for college our freshman year.
Freshman. Year.
If you want to do something delicious (?) with your life, you've got to get good grades, a scholarship to a great school, maintain an above-average GPA, and score high on the ACT and SAT.
Hopeless
Here, people get into the best, most highly respected universities here in Spain by maintaining a C.
 What?!
I keep hearing "oh but there's more opportunity in America"
Where?
What?
Who????
I assure you, we have to work our butts off to get a little piece of that "opportunity" you're talking about.
And there are a lot of genius people who pop out of American education.
We aren't dumb.
There are some seriously uninformed people there, but there are also some seriously sheltered people here as well.
This is my place to let out all my steam, and all I'm asking for is a little respect and a little less "my life is soooo much harder than yours will ever be".

Rolling Limes

Rolling Limes

There are these things in life
That you can't even try to explain
They come at you with a knife
And you have to run way from the pain

Because there are bigger things
There's always something else
You still walk even when it pulls at your heart strings
You still hop on a plane despite everything you felt

Sometimes you forget that the stars are there
When all you can remember is words and his awful glare
But all that fills your lungs is air
You've got one more day, and all is truly fair

Murals of memories
The art of remembering
Forgive, forget what's not pretty
What is this saying?

You can still run together
If you're on different paths
Sometimes it's better
When things don't coordinate with our plans

But there will always be the times
You'll remember
On the counter, rolling limes
In the beginning off September
When the tomatoes were still fresh
And she cried when she sliced the onions
Altogether to make the perfect dish
But you were just so young and
It fades away, like most things in life.

-my profanity of the night.
This is for the crazy people here, Olivia's poor uncle, and my mother.

Racistas

I come from a big melting pot of cultures, and so it is very weird and perhaps even offensive to me when Manoli proudly lists off how everyone in her family and her husband's family is/was/has been/will be purely and only of Galician descent every. single. day.
They ask me TONS of questions literally every single day about black people and Asians and Islamic people and Mexicans and how we all react to them, as if they all come from different planets.
"Racist" is not the right word for these people, but they would certainly gasp if they saw a girl with a thing wrapped around her head whereas I would shout hello to the girl all the same.
I have noticed that the people here are very steady and set in their ways.
The parents want to keep their children inside their little eggshells and the kids are completely okay with staying in there.
Some kids are ashamed of their heritage, if they are different, they are uncomfortable.
Watch out for anybody not Galician. They will rob your wallet or purse or life.
"We like them, we aren't racist, but are their really Asians in your school?! Would you ACTUALLY marry a black person? Iria is SO worldly, I bet she'd have a black boyfriend! The Chinese ONLY eat rice. That's it. And they don't like us because they think we will steal their stuff. ALL Romanians will steal your belongings. Unless we are friends with them."
.....
Chuckle chuckle.
I hear this stuff mostly from my friends and Manoli, but in all honesty, most of them are just really curious. They don't see people of differences. Ever. So they are basically aliens.
They also think it very strange that we eat all different kinds of food. Iria had never tried Chinese food before our Portugal adventure and she's never had any kind of Mexican food and I don't even want to ask about Mediterranean food like grape leaves and hummus.
"There are no Chinese restaurants because Galician people like to know what they're eating!"
But don't worry guys, they eat French food and Italian food too.

This is all just a classic case of sheltering.
They all learn about the rest of the world, but through history and theory.
I learn about the rest of the world through my Korean, Lebanese, Islamic, Turkish, Argentinian, Polish, and German friends.

I had to say something, this kind of thing occurs every day here.
I never know how to react. I just smile, because it actually makes me feel really awkward.
My sister literally told me I have dirty blood because I'm "half Mexican and a mixture of a bunch of European things".
Draco Malfoy himself right here!!
So normal and innocent to think this way here, but so hilarious for me to look upon these naïve souls from an American point of view.
I'm proud of my little melting-pot country.
There is nothing wrong with it.
Well.
Despite our pot of cultures...
We are ridiculously nationalistic.
Do we seriously have to learn our own history EVERY YEAR OF OUR LIVES?
I suppose that nowhere is perfect.

Well, these is my profound/controversial/confusing thoughts for the now.

National Huelga

Enough explaining crazy overwhelming changes, I just need to explode, complain, and gush about boys and life and people here.
Yesterday was a national huelga (remember the word for huelga?) and this time, everyone was striking for just...well...everything. School, government, losing/wasting money and such.
I was hoping for a nice, long, relaxing night and sleeping all day....but nooooo.
I was up all night tossing and turning because I randomly became sick as a dog.....AGAIN.
Awful headache, my entire cuerpo was hurting (even my fingers...it was torture just to breathe), my nose was full of junk, my stomach felt like someone was stabbing me, cosas así, sabes?
I definitely caught it from Manoli.
This is not a good place to be a germaphobe, and I am the germaphobiest of them all. I noticed she was sick but I couldn't just communicate with her with a stick or something, I have to be the warm and fuzzy American EVERY SINGLE SECOND, DO YOU HEAR ME? I AM BLOG-SHOUTING AT YOU. WARM AND FUZZY, PEOPLE. WARM AND FUZZY AND SMILEY.
Whatevs, I'm already feeling much better thanks to my Claritin and Motrin and nasal decongestant.
Every time I would start with the pills my family would say "there goes Morgan, drugging herself again"
Yep. We Americans love our drugs.
My family is very natural.
They don't take medicine when they are sick UNLESS prescribed by a doctor, seedless fruit is a big no-no, and lots of oil with everything instead of butter.
Different opinions, different lifestyle here.
Different.

So I ended up sleeping all day....and nada más. I woke up in time to accompany Iria to her English class, which was fun because it is pleasantly familiar to be surrounded by English, but awful because I remember I was soooooo sore.
Later, when we came home, I studied my Greek declinations (the test has been put off to who-knows-when) and noticed that Iván was on Tuenti.....Spanish Facebook.
Eeeeeeep.
So then we go into the typical frenzy..

*I should talk to him*
*I really should just say something*
*Anything*
*Think, Morgan*
*Seriously just anything, how about hello?*
*No no, they don't say hello here*
*What do they say?*
*Hola! Say hola!*
*I can't, what if he doesn't answer?*
*You're right, then you have to awkwardly face him tomorrow*
*I'll just wait till tomorrow*
*But wait*
*That doesn't solve or change anything*
*WHAT HAVE I GOT TO LOSE*
*Just close your eyes and....*

And that is the short story of how I ended up saying "hola" to Iván Losada Figueroa on Tuenti.
He did indeed answer, and we had a fantastic and lively conversation.
I messed up once........
We were talking about how Pablo sometimes says mean things to me, and I said that I could defend myself and I meant to say "nah, I can protect myself!" but I actually said "I am unable to protect myself" ughhhhh so then he went all sweet and said he would tell Pablo to stop, which was quite majo, but I couldn't have him thinking I'm a weak and helpless little female so I had to correct myself.
Plan de Iván.....still in motion!
So today, I walked into TICS and he basically attacked me with holas and que tals and continuances of our conversations last night.
He's in love with me.
He just doesn't know it yet.
But he's clearly on the verge of knowing it.

SPEAKING OF LOVERS
I have some unwelcomed lovers....
Igtor is the novio of my lovely friend Paula, and he keeps telling her that I am perfect in every way and that he wants me to live with him so he can see my smile every morning so that it will make all of his days better.
What.....?
And then Hugo is in love with me still, back off bro.
He is ridicúlo.
Like seriously a disaster con piernas.
He had his friends all talk to me yesterday and they said things like "Hugo has strange feelings, you must just understand them!"
From the very first day, he just jumped right into "I love you and want to be your Spanish boyfriend"
What.....?!
I had to help him with his English for the whole clase de inglés yesterday and it was just a gran atroz. It's to the point where everything he does or says bothers me a lot. I find something to like about everyone, but congrats Hugo, you are my only exception.
He has been texting me ALL DAY today thanking me for helping him.
.....

So in other news, today, Pedro surprised me with a video from all of my friends! I went into a weird frenzy of laughing and crying and it was all very unattractive, I'm sure. They sang and danced for me and my dad and my dog even made a guest appearance. It was the little details that I missed so much that made me explode a little.
Thank you so much Pedro.
I think that this is the most thoughtful and wonderful thing that anyone has ever done for me.
Literally. This is at the top.

Naturally, afterwards, when walking home in the rain with my coat draped over my head like a nun and a snotty nose and red eyes, who do I run into? Iván. Hola, chao, adios, don't look at me.

Magosto

Hellooooo.
I don't have much time to blog at home anymore....so I have taken to blogging in class because because I have nothing better to do with myself.
I am currently in Gallego, which is slightly disheartening me because I just came from my cozy-super-warm-sunlit Latin classroom. Today, I blew through two chapters about wolves and slaves in old Rome. I was really into it today.
Today.
Today is Tuesday. Ugh. Ew.
Literally got up at 7am so that my hermanita could shower. That is very early for me here, don't judge.
In gym today, Olivia pretended to be sick and she definitely picked a really good day to skip because apparently there was something that we had to do on a blog in Gallego and I didn't have it done along with another girl in my class sooooo we had to run....literally for a half hour.
Me duele las piernas...mucho.
And then we played baseball....Spanish-style.
There were two pitchers...one to catch the ball and one to actually throw the ball, and the whole "baseball diamond" thing was just a grand catastrophe.

Okay sooooo, Magosto.
Here's a little history for ya'll.
Apparently here in Galicia, when everyone was poor a long long time ago, they survived on chestnuts.
So today, whatever the date is, I never know anymore, they have a day to celebrate the chestnuts called Magosto.
On Tuesdays, as you know by now, we have two classes after school ends.
Today, however, we had a chestnut party.
Yes.
A chestnut party.
Most of the people in my grade didn't go. Most of the boys, but none of my girlfriends.
Sooooo I ended up hanging out with Milena, the girl from Switzerland, the entire time.
I really enjoyed talking with her. We sat outside and watched the boys play a strange game that's like volleyball but you can't use your arms to bump the ball over the net. We talked about so many things; our first days here, the weird things that people have said to us, things about home and the language and how we feel about all the changes and such.
After we had our litttle shindig on the curb behind the makeshift net thing that the boys were using, we ate some castañas and talked with Pablo, Iván, Raúl, the boy in her class who talked to me and Olivia on our very first day, Sergito, Brais, and even the little baby 17 year-old.
I really hate the castañas, they taste horrendous to me.

Portugaling

Hola!
The weekend is over and today is Monday, el Día de Inglés!
My poor host mother comes up with a new excuse to speak Castellano on English Day every single week, but her English is improving a lot.
The pronunciation bridge is so far and wide between these two languages, it is very difficult to switch back and forth.
When Manoli speaks Spanish to me and Iria is telling me something in English and they are both speaking as if there is a ticking bomb under the table, I feel so overwhelmed that I just want to explode.
But bueno.
Bueno.

Yesterday, I went Portugaling!
I really wanted another stamp in my passport, but I didn't quite know how to obtain one. Ah well.
I went with my host sister Iria and her friend/my former neighbor, Flor, and Flor's mother and father, who are from Argentina and apparently have a very thick accent. The drive was a beautifully scenic hour and a halfish, but Portugal's time zone is one hour less. We went to a gigundus shopping center in the 3rd biggest city in Portugal, Braga. It had all of my favorite stores here (Stradevarious, Zara, Blanco, etcetera) and I will miss them all dearly and require a trip to each of them in the coming years.
We went to a Chinese restaurant!
I am tragically lacking here:
Taco Bell/Mexican food
Subway
Bread from Olga's
Flavored potato chip
Beezy's tuna
GREEN asparagus...it's white here...and always cold...ew
Chinese food
Fettuccini Alfredo

So, dining Chinese-style was a rather welcomed endeavor.
Flor and Iria are really silly and fun, we had a fabulous time.

All of yesterday made me a little homesick.
I love shopping with my dad; we are a power team. It's been so long since I've been able to have a legit conversation with him. As well, right before I left, my father and I went to a super fabulous Chinese restaurant calls PF Chang and I could totally handle going there again right about now.
Going back home will be so strange.
I think about it every day.
Everything will be more or less the same, but I will be different.
I will see everything with completely different eyes.
Hopefully through different eyes as well...because I miss my lost glasses very dearly.

I've taken two tests so far today...having typical exchange student problems along the way. First hour, we had a big test with the Wicked Witch of the West. Olivia and I only had seven questions and after reading them six times through very slowly, I understood all them too well. I used to be completely obsessed with meteorology.
I could have written 3 paragraphs for each question but I was completely lost in how to explain myself sufficiently in Castellano. I ended up wasting most of my time with my nose in my little dictionary, and my answers were much too simple. How frustrating.
The teacher came up to Olivia and me with her crazy eyes and smiled sweetly and said "para practicar writing, no?"
.....
Did anyone else get chills at that?
She is very mean to the class; she whips out her shrill shrieking angry voice all the time with everyone on the class but is sugar sweet to me.
Hmm.
My other test, however, was in Spanish class.....which people who actually speak Spanish have trouble in.
I ended up leaving the entire sheet blank because I spent the whole time trying to understand the directions and the example sentences......
Hashtag, exchangestuentprobs (insert peace sign here)

Luckily, we are apparently now beginning some sort of chapter on when to use the past perfect and imperfect tense....which I effectively spent all of last year learning.
This is very exciting.
It really is.

We have a crazy English teacher too, Olga.
Today, she asked me if I consider myself a lucky person and if I could please explain to the class, in English, why.
I was a little taken aback.
I said something really slow and awkward along the lines of " Yes...I'm....lucky....because um....I have....a....sufficient....amount...of everything....I need to....need to um....live............on.."

why

After school, I tomarrrred café with Olivia because everyone is studying. She has been in love with Samuel Losada (Iván is a member of the Losada family....it is bastante to say that we love the Losada family) since the first day and we waited patiently for him to break up with his girlfriend, but now, after Olivia FINALLY had a real conversation with him.....he likes another girl.....in our class.
Bum bum bummmm.

Tomorrow there is a chestnut party!
I hate chestnuts.
I really do.
Strangest thing I've ever put in my mouth.
But hey, at least I get out of two hours of school on long, drab Tuesday.
Also tomorrow, I would like to rant about how racist the people are here.
I really need to let it out...
And this is my journal...
So heads up for that!
Adioooooos

Normal Passing Days

I love each and every one of these normal passing days. I used to go to sleep dreading my return home and wake up ridiculously homesick, but now I have learned to look at the time I have and cherish every second of it.
I haven't done much after school in these past few days because I am determined to pass my Greek exam since I got a 60% on the English exam......
Awkward situations.
I have to memorize all of the singular and plural articles and all the endings of the first and second declinations....if any of you know what that means.
School has been pretty boring. Everyone is studying for exams and I have long-since given up on trying to understand my Gallego, Filosofia, TICS, Ciencias, and Historia teachers. I'm thrilled to have Olivia to reminisce with. Yesterday we decided to get in touch with out inner Southern roots and pretended we were from Alabama and whipped out our accents from the Deep South.
......
Nobody noticed anything other than that we were laughing more than usual.
They don't understand accents very well.
Or English in general.
But, how many of you Bedfordians speak Spanish?...

Yesterday, I officially befriended the girl from Switzerland!
She came straight up to me during recreo and hugged me...and then explained it was National Hug-an-Exchange-Student Day.
Hey Iván.....it's national Hug-an-Exchange-Student Day...and guess what I am?...
Any who, Swissy's name is Milena Kundert and she is here for the whole year. She speaks perfect German, English, Spanish, and really French.
We are whatsapping now, so we are basically MAIPS.

Speaking of MAIPS, Olivia and I tomar-ed café with the MAIPS from our class: Raúl and Hugo. Sergio is our other MAIPS, but he can never make it. Ever.
Hugo is a little cray, but Raúl is one of the sweetest and cuqui-est people I've ever met and he's always so happy and silly. You know those people you just have to smile around...? That's him.
He is going to be at the top of my list of people I will miss the most, and even crazy Hugo.

This morning has been a little loca so far.....I'm in first hour writing this at the moment.
I am very set on my morning routine.
I take a shower from 7:45-7:55, dry my hair from 7:55-8:05, get dressed and maquillarme from 8:05-8:15/8:20, and eat breakfast and leave. If my sister wants to take a shower in the morning, I get up earlier so she can have at least a 20 minute shower.
My routine is very exact and static and pristine and it works for me. I'm very partial to it.
This morning, however, it was torn into little bits of chaos.
My sister took a shower from 7:30-8 and I ate a little breakfast in between to get it out of the way and then took a five minute shower and threw my life together in ten minutes all while there was banging on the bathroom door and people shouting for me to hurry.
Then my bookbag exploded and all my utensils fell out (I am utensilless today), my leggings got a hole in them (I am so very holy today), and the zipper on my boot ripped.
I suppose all of that really isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of the day, but I feel a little off balance and only half awake.
I usually feel like I'm in a dream cloud, but today I'm just lost in the fog, man.
Me and my sister have a very sisterly relationship. She is a drama queen just like yours truly and there is screaming and crying in the house daily. One minute, she is telling me she hates me and that my Spanish is horrendous and the next she is telling me how pretty I am and how she loves having me as a sister.
I really love experiencing this sibling thing. It's very crazy and beautiful.
I have learned a lot from my sister and I will always thank her for changing me into a better-rounded person.

You know how when a random stranger or a distant acquaintance does something really nice for you or helps you with something, you are just absolutely in shock?
Well, I have been in a perpetual state of shockage these past couple days and I neeeeeeed to record all of this for journal purposes, ya feel?
Story time!
So it all started out with Tuesday night....
This pesado (bother) of a boy named Adrián (everyone calls him "Orchi" for some reason of his last name but we are not on a nickname basis so I shall refer to him as Adrián) messaged me on Twitter asking me about when to correctly use a work in the English language and it turned into him saying that he and his friend Juan wanted to meet me officially (we smile and "hola" in the halls but we've never had a real convo) and then he asked if I like Juan and I said I didn't know him but he is very handsome.
All of these Spanish boys are handsome, I am floating in an ocean of dream boats (I have a feeling that only my close family will understand that phrase....)
I reckoned this to be a sensible response, but I suppose I shouldn't have said anything at all because Adrián has a very large boca and told Juan that I liked him a lot to the point of wanting a relationship....slow down there, bucko, this is not part of Plan de Iván!
This, I'm sure, scared the heck out of Juan because all of these dream boats are also very shy.
Very. Shy.
So I woke up to this news and Obama's presidency on Wednesday morning and suffered from a mini heart attack. From there, I just had one of those days where EVERYTHING was overwhelming...and lemme tell ya....there is nothing familiar here to cling to and all I wanted was to be clingy. Like a zebra mussel or something.
My life is pretty smooth here; no studying, lots of time for friends, sufficient time to sleep (a rare delicacy), and an exuberant quantity of smothering attention from friends and family, but every day seriously feels like how one might when climbing a mountain with no places to grip or securely place a foot or even a toe. It's like climbing aboard a surfboard and slowly wobbling to a balance when you're never touched a surfboard or even violent ocean waves before.
Wow, look at all these extreme sports I'm covering!
But anywho, it is sufficient to say that by informatica at the end of the day, I was read to quit and go home. The teacher skipped and I was sucked into the pool if obnoxious boys in my class. I think they forget that I'm a person sometimes. It's much easier to just laugh with them, but sometimes I just have to have a bad day. I'm always happy and posit but so many little things went wrong that day and I just wanted to sulk.
However, Pablo and Iván (feel like you know them by now, doesn't it?) brought their lovely super-popular-intimidating friend Antón and every time that I understood an English word, or worse, misunderstood a Spanish word, it was literally the funniest thing in the entire world and he would laugh two inches from my face and then say something about me to Iván as if I disappeared.
Coooool guys.
Afterwards, the end of the day was in sight, one hour left. Ciencias. The ciencias teacher is the Wicked Witch of the West alive again.
Enough said.
I left defeated and ready for a nap, but on my way home, alas, I was halted by Iván, Pablo, and Antón. They picked up right where they left off; they had wanted to see my messages with that pesado Adrián/Orchi because they saw his name in my DMs in TICS when I had my Twitter up.
Oh helllllllll no.
It's like everything came to a full circle.
Iván noticed my horror and suddenly switched to a different person and said "Pablo, está mal, está mal!" which basically meant I was the opposite of happy, so he told them all to stop and asked me why I was mal and his facial expression was so painfully nice and I got super emotional.
Sooooo I did the most sensible thing I could think of.
I grabbed Iria and ran away.
All this drama in a different language is a bit much for this little American!
After lunch that day, I walked Iria to her chiropractor (she has awful back problems.....poor thing) and while I was waiting for her, I received a message from Juan on Twitter.........

"Estás bien?" / "You okay?"

Ughhhh let's all take a collective moment to "ugh" and maybe even scream a little.
I responded as super/happy/excited peppy Morgan and asked why he asked.
Iván told him I was "casi llorando o algo así".
No, no, Juan, I am just fine.
I convinced him of my everlasting positivity and the next day when Pablo and Iván captured me hostage between class in a little cage of more popular boys I've never met, I squeaked about missing my dog and ya está, apurrcado, por fin, it's over.
Dios mío, I basically posted a Harry Potter book on here, lo siento!

Doorknobs, Failure, and Change

Dios, I need to write more. I don't want to forget one second here.
I absolutely loathe how quickly these weeks are flying by.
Everything is absolutely stellar here.
I've got a wonderful family and we learn more about each other each day and I get closer to these beautiful friends I still continue to make...

My Spanish is rapidly improving daily and it's nice to finally understand what's going on.
The problem?........CARBS.
I am drowning in a flood of carbohydrates.
There's lots of starchy and yeasty stuff here.
I eat healthy, but the food is much heavier than what I'm used to so it's not making me feel very well. I scrounge for fruits and vegetables at every meal but I kinda have to just eat what my family eats...

I'm ready for another huelga!
I've given up on all of my subjects except for Latín and Griego.
I just love learning these languages.
I finally completely understand the Greek declinations and I've got my own little English book for Latin that I'm slowly ploughing through.
We've been doing this thing in Greek where we take the Greek word for something, such as vida/life (BIOS), and find words that are used today that contain the Greek word (biografia, biologia).
How perfect for me.
Is like I'm living in a little dream cloud.

So today is Monday. Qué raro, because we haven't had school since last Wednesday. They take their Día de Los Difuntos very seriously, okay?
I've had a stupendously normal past few days.....tomar-ing cafe with Olivia and Adrián and Sarah and David and such cosas así.
People like me here, it's so crazy.
For those who don't know me.... I used to be rather timid. Here, there are times that I feel like retreating back to my shell, but nobody can look at me as "shy" here because they don't know I used to be a quiet little mouse. Thus forth, they have to give me a chance and I use my charming Spanish sarcasm and BAM we're MAIPS.
There was a grande Halloween party, but I chose to hang with my family. But a very attractive creation called Jaun that I've spoken to maybe twice in my life asked about me.....many times.
How strange, I'm famous.
It's fun to live a different life.

I went to French class with my sister on Saturday. I really want to learn French now. It's a future project.


Today I failed my English exam.
WHAT?
Yep.
I have an awful teacher named Olga who has awful grammar and an awful high pitched half-British-half-I-don't-know voice.
She thinks "alive or dead" and "a-live performance" are the same.
Number 1: IT'S 'DEAD OR ALIVE' CARIÑO, NOT 'ALIVE OR DEAD'
Number 2: the opposite of a "live performance" is not a "dead performance".
Number 3: this is how I failed my English test.....
Correct answer: the impressive big stone castle
My answer: the big impressive stone castle
Difference: impressive is apparently an opinion so it should come first but I BEG TO DIFFER.
Reason 1: big is a relative term, impressive is more of a commonly-accepted term when being used to describe a building.
Reason 2: who decided its correct put opinions first?
Reason 3: always put "big" first. It sounds better.
Reason 4: MY ENGLISH IS FINE

So this is a big deal in the school. Can't wait to face it tomorrow.
Pablo and Iván lost all of the wits they have collected in their short lives when Sergio let slip my grade.
They are both in my first hour tomorrow. I hate Tuesdays.


Also I dyed my hair.
Series of events that led to this:
1: I was at the BiCafé with Olivia. There were some rather cute strangers next to us and they were talking to us.
2: The cute waiter told the cute people that he was afraid I didn't love him. HE HAS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. NO TE PREOCUPES.
3: It was very cold
4: All of our friends are in hardcore study mode
5: We suddenly wished for a change in our regular routine
6: "Let's dye your hair" -Olivia
7: "Have you done it before?" -Me
8: "Yep" -Olivia
9: "Then let's." -Me
10: And ya está!

About the doorknobs thing.....I'm just really thrilled that I finally know how to open the freaking doors here. They all have fake doorknobs so you have to open it by turning the key. Who decided that this was okay?

Día de Los Difuntos (Nov. 1)

Welpp, it's 11:40pm, but I think I can squeeze out a witty and lista (clever) blog post before the Día de Los Difuntos is ya está.
Today we didn't have school, and tomorrow tampoco!
What a lovely opportunity to sleep my life away, which is all I ask for here sometimes......
We drove to Orense this afternoon to the cemetario that holds Iria's padre and I met her whole family and there was a big ceremony in the middle of the cemetery. I understood everythaang, score points for me....except for the Galician songs. Gallego is a combo of Spanish and Portuguese. My host mother is a teacher of Gallego. One day I will be a fluent Gallego speaker. Everybody likes to tell me that when I go home to America, I'll have a Galician accent, but I always have to tell them that nobody in America will even know if I'm speaking Spanish or French or German because I literally had friends say "Isn't Spain in Mexico?" "Do they speak Spanish in Spain?"
I also entertain the gente by singing the national anthem and saying the Pledge of Allegiance......which people tell me is really stupid.
It is a little silly, isn't it?
I hear plenty of insults about America, but I can always understand why. We do come across as rather nationalistic because nobody knows anything or wants to know anything about the rest of the world but the rest of the world knows "everything" about America.
Then again, everyone wants to have a visit.
It's really not that great, so be sure to visit somewhere like Hawaii or New York. Personally I would suggest Italy or France or Greece or something.
We're all the same people.
We just eat different things and say different words.
Some of us eat pomegranate seeds, some of us welcome each other as a response to "thanks".
Qué profundo.