Feeling Hot...In A Fever Way

This week was really eventful!
I started hip-hop classes, hung out with friends at school, and continued to explore Boadilla Del Monte.

Scratch that, that was what was supposed to happen this week. Instead, I got sick, and have been home since Tuesday. The most interesting thing that has happened to me so far since last Saturday is that after 10 hours of sleep at night, I managed to take an 8 hour nap. Being home gave me time to do some reading, practice Spanish, and hone my movie-pirating skills.Yay for being sick!

On the bright side, I am feeling better and will hopefully go back to school tommorow, where I will have my first Danza (bellydancing) lesson in Spain.

Also, after it became apparent that the "sink or swim" method is not the very best way to learn a foreign language, Cristina and I decided it would be a good idea if she spent an hour every day tutoring me in Spanish grammar and such. What luck, having a teacher as a host mom!
Fact of the Day: Swine Flu in Spain is called Grip A (pronounced greepah), and it is talked about, jokingly and seriously, in Spain, just as much as it is the U.S.

Another related fact, instead of reading anagrams as the actual letters, they are pronounced like words here. No one knew what I meant by YMCA, until someone pronounced it "yimkah."

I also finally have the pictures from the Baptism;

Happy Host Family

Infront of the Palacio de Oriente

I don't think our priest was old enough...

93, still a youngster.

Breaking News!
Literally 10 seconds ago Alejandro called me to see if I was feeling better, but then he also told me that the psycho Greek teacher ditched the school! Out of nowhere, he just left. I'm not sure whether to overjoyed or scared that we might get a real Greek teacher who makes us do stuff.

Love,
Chloe

Chloe and Mariah Are American

Once again, weekends with friends means speaking english, and taking 3 steps back in the "learning spanish" department.

On Friday, AFS hosted a kin ball game as a reunion type thing for the exchange students living in the Madrid area. I had never heard of kinball before, and to be completely honest, I thought it was another dumb AFS made-up game, that is until we got there and met two people from the National Kin Ball Association. The first thing we all noticed were the actually kin balls. They are a little bit difficult to miss.

                                           Mariah and I with a kinball

The game was covered by two Spanish news stations. I figured it would take me more than 3 weeks to end up on Spanish TV, I guess not! I have never really enjoyed playing sports, but this one was slightly more interesting than your average team game. However, I still got bored after about 10 minutes but that's just me. For an easy to understand outline of kin ball, check out this site;

www.mpeta.ca/documents/SAG/SAG%20Handouts%202006/KIN-BALL.pdf

After the game, Mariah and I set out back to her house, which only required us to take a bus, the metro, and a train. On the way, we decided that we were really hungry and needed to eat something. Somehow, we managed to find the Spain version of 31 Flavors called 31 Cheeses, which was still an ice cream shop infact. While walking through the train station, we saw a KFC and could not resist. Apparently, KFC's in Spain don't have mashed potatoes, macaroni, or cole slaw...However, they DO have chicken! We made the commute home at around midnight, eating a huge bucket of KFC chicken the entire way.

Could we have looked any more ridiculous? No.

"Ok, so maybe we miss our train...but this chicken was definitly the right idea."

We now interrupt this Spain trip for a moment of twangy American accents and fried chicken.

Yes, we did eat all of it

I spent Friday night at Mariah's house, and of course, we stayed up late talking about everything we were going through, what we miss, what is hard to get used to, and how much we hate school here. Here's our list of complaints;

The refrigerators are never cold

They only have powdered milk

EVERYTHING is fried

Where are the vegetables? Fried and cooked in an empanada don't count

No cupcakes

No clothes dryers

Busses don't stop unless you flag them down

Everything is really expensive

ICE! It is only frozen water, why hasn't Europe discovered it yet?

Doors are crazy difficult to unlock

People get mad when you use paper bills instead of coins

All the bathroom light switches are OUTSIDE the bathroom

On the bright side (no pun intended) we do approve of the light switches themselves. They are huge, and are made for people without fingers, or those who just like to punch the lights on and off.

Still in "American-mode," Mariah and I put together a shopping list and walked to the supermarket. Both of us had been missing fresh vegetables, so we picked up broccoli and coliflower, as well as cheese, cheetos, 2 kinds of cookies, ice cream bars, and chorizo. Only in Spain would they sell, not one, but TWO kinds of ham-flavored chips.

The "carts" are pulled like little dogs!

When we got back to Mariah's house, we steamed the broccoli and coliflower, and ate it will melted cheese. It was delicious! Of course, we had to eat it along with the cheetos, cookies, chorizo, and ice cream. So much for healthy.

Mariah's Backyard

Neither of us ever thought we would miss the U.S., but we were both surpised at how much we actually do. For a night and day, we were able to create out own, little, American haven, complete with a bunch of Spanish-brand snacks.

I took the train back to my house SAturday afternoon, then got ready to go to my host-cousin's baptism. The ceremony was held in a beautiful "new "cathedral in the city of Madrid, "new" being debatable considering it is a little over a hundred years old.

The Baptism itself was hilarious. As my host mom said, "This is not typical Spanish! This is a disaster!" The priest was 92 years old, the godmother arrived 15 minutes late (after the mass already started), tourists kept walking through the ceremony taking pictures of the cathedral, and the cathedral was booked for a wedding to start 20 minutes after our mass started. Throw in 4 crying babies, and you have the most entertaining religious ceremony I have ever attended. Needless to say, most everyone was lighted-hearted about the absurd situation...well, atleast I found it hilarious.

The after-party was held in one of the most famous cafe's in Madrid, directly accross from the Palacio de Oriente. The floor was clear glass, revealing the real excavated finds of an ancient city, which I thought was pretty cool.

As usual, the food was great, people were nice, and despite the "no smoking" warnings, atleast a third of the people had their cigarettes lit. After an hour or so, I decided to go for a walk, considering I didn't really know anyone at the party, and it was conveniantly located in the center of Madrid. I took my time and enjoyed walking up and down the streets filled with people, shops and cafes. A tourist came up to me and asked if I could take a picture of him infront of a fountain, which I did, but I also pretended I didn't speak english, and that I have always lived in Spain. Bwahaha! I am 99.9% sure that I fooled him.

Love,

Chloe

Up's and Down's

I officially have a routine. One that involves all the strenous activities of normal life (school, studying, chores, etc) in addition to a huge helping of "yo no intiendio."

For the most part, I no longer have something to write about everyday because the weekdays are all pretty much the same. Get up, go to school, take the metro/bus home, eat, sleep, repeat. I think this is one of the most difficult times for most of us exchange students; falling into a routine that is similar to the one at home inluding friends, family, school...but no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves, the bottom line is that it is not OUR family, OUR friends, OUR school, or OUR language. It sounds cynical, but I still think that it is an adventure worth having (I hope?). It's easy to feel like an imposter in this new life, and it just doesn't feel like it's MINE. Hopefully it will become mine eventually.

On the bright side, Cristinita gave me this adorable stuffed animal giraffe today, totaly out of the blue. It ws the cutest thing ever and it made me really happy. How did she know I love giraffes? I named her Maha, which means nice, or friendly in Castellano.

People at school are nice,and the classes are more boring than anything I have ever experienced before in my life. I'm sure they would be more interesting if I understood more than 15-20% of what the teacher was saying. Here is a complete set of Pros and Cons concerning my new school:

Pros:                                           

No homework                               

Fantastic food                                

No uniforms                                

Learning Spanish                         

Starts at 8:30 (at home 8:05)       

No math class                                

Cons:

Everything is in Spanish

PE, actually intense

I know like 10 ppl

No lunch-time

Ends at 3:10 (at home 2:05)

Latin & greek classes

I went from a valuable member of the class to the "little class pet." Everytime I say anything everyone giggles/laughs, and goes "Awww!" or "Que mono!" (meaning "how cute!"). Atleast they like me! It could be worse, they could be making fun of me.

I have never stepped foot in a latin or greek class in my life, and learning them in castellano is not easy by any means. Lucky for me, Greek is not a really a "real" class. The teacher, a sweet old man, is only semi-sane, to say the least. He runs around the class with excited wide eyes, having outbursts of  what can only be described as enthusistic yelling. This afternoon, he asked me if I understood what he was talking about, I amitted that I didn't, he then leapt into the air excitedly and joyfully screaming "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAA!!!!" I hid under my folder while the rest of the class (a whole 5 other students, all new friends of mine) burst into laughter. It is my favorite class so far just because even though I don't know what the teacher is saying, I can tell it's hilarious.

You may be confused by the "fantastic food, but no lunch-time" thing, let me explain. In Spain, lunch is eaten around 2-3pm and is the main meal of the day. In some schools it is mandatory to eat there after classes are all done, but it is optional at my school. At first I thought "School food, ew! I'll just go home," but then Alejandro invited me to eat with him at school for a day. It is NOTHING like school cafeterias, and cannot be considered school food in anything but in name. The "cafeteria' is a small, quiant, room with table settings (place mats, silverware, napkins) all set out for each student who signs up to eat everyday. All of the food is homemade by a super nice older lady, Maria. The meal is served in courses; a soup or salad first, bread, then a main course, and dessert. Needless to say, I eat at school everyday. I'm always the first one home (because I get out of school earlier than my siblings, and take the metro and bus home) so it is much nicer eating with Alejandro, than eating cereal alone at my house.

Bad news never had good timing. Yesterday I found out a friend from school (at home in CA) died unexpectedly from what was thought to be the swine flu, but now medics aren't sure. It is always the sweetheart who everyone knows and loves. 15 is too young.

You always drew beautiful wings, now you have a pair of your own. R.I.P. Geraldine <3

Love,
Chloe

                                             

Nuevo Amigos

Mexican slang, not the same as Spanish slang.

Yesterday, Saturday, my host mom decided that she wanted to call my new friend from school, Alejandro, and ask him about what books I needed for school. While on the phone with him, he told her about how he invited me out Friday, but I couldn't go (because my family threw a suprise party for Cristina). He then asked if it would be alright if I could go out that night. I think Cristina was more excited than I was, as she told him in too-fast-to-understand in Spanish I would love to go, and she would drop me off around 7.

Apparently my school is the cenetr point between where all of my new friends live, so they tend to meet up there. We met up with Ana, and Sonsoles, bought snacks, then went to Ana's house to watch movies. On the way, they told me there were certain phrases that every teenager needs to know. The ones that I remember are; "Que fuerte" (oh my god) "Que asco" (what a disaster) "Qui mono" (how cute).
Warning: All spelling and translation are not definite

I had a really great time, we watched "The Devil Wears Prada" in Spanish (we couldn't get English subtitles to work) and then they told me everything I need to know about all the popular celebrities in Spain. I was never one to care, even in the US, but a little bit of conforming won't kill me.

In the morning, Cristinita and I baked a huge brownie cake while blasting the "Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack." She's 10, its fine. I'm 16 and knew most of the words...oh boy.

Speaking of bonding, Antonio and I had a breakthrough! Much like Forrest Gump, and lots of Chinese guys, we have found solace in Ping Pong, which has provided us with a good common interest. They have a Ping Pong table in their basement, and we're actually not that terrible at it!

Apparently, they don't have clothes dryers  or fabric softener in Spain. Ouch. Clothes; once comfortable, now painfully dangerous.

Love,
Chloe

It's All Greek To Me

Every one says that first impressions are very important, and that they forshadow how events, people, or relationships will turn out. However, I don't think this is necessarily true with the first day of school. I year is a long time, and maybe the girl who bumped into you and was rude about it, will become your best friend by midterms. Before the year is over, your favorite person from the first day of school could easily become your best friend, then enemy. If the first day of school is terrible, it doesn't mean that it will be a terrible year.

Overall, my first day of school was successful in the sense that people were nice, I didn't get hopelessly lost, and I didn't eat lunch in the bathroom, alone.

Despite my protests, the head mistress put me in Greek, Latin, Philosophy, History, Religion, and whatever H.M. Com is. I have never stepped foot into a Greek class, and the only Latin I know is Mater Dei (mother of God, and conveniantly, the name of my last highschool). I'm not sure exactly how I am going to learn foreign languages being taught in a foreign language, but it's not like I could possibly understand class any less. On the bright side, I was enrolled in 2 english classes. This did not last very long, seeing as I was kicked out of my "English Application" class shortly after entering the room. The teacher arrived 10 minutes late to class, and began having a fit about how it was too full. When she found out that I was the American student, her fit grew into a tantrum as she began screaming at me to get out of her class because I already spoke english. I told her I understood, and made an attempt to escape. However, she felt it absoloutly necessary to pull me back into the classroom, and proceed to lecture me infront of the entire class how there was no point in me being there, and how dare I show up. I firmly told her that I understood, and I would leave as soon as she let go of me. Instead of "English Application" I am now enrolled in computer technology.

I did not understand what any of the teachers said throughout the rest of my classes, but I did enjoy socializing with the other kids in my classes. Everyone wanted to know what California is like, and at break I was introduced to 10 billion people who I will never remember their names. I spent most of my day with a good sized group of kids who showed me around, introduced me to people, and asked me countless questions about my favorite stars, movies, TV shows, and music. Gossip Girl is a universal conversation topic.

I was so excited when after school, some of my new friends invited me to go out with them later tonight, but unfortunately I couldn't because it was my host mom's suprise birthday party...which I had actually mis-understood as being tommorow night. I went home and took a nap, then woke up to find my host siblings and dad moving a bunch of chairs. I asked them if it was for the party tommorow night. They looked at me funny, and told me the party was tonight. Two seconds after waking up, this news can be slightly shocking. Especially after I asked how many people were comming, and they said about 50. It was then that I decided changing out of my pajamas would be a good idea.

What could be better than making small talk in another language with 50 adults you have never met. Everyone was super nice though, I love Spanish people. I REALLY love Spanish food.
                     Why I actually came to Spain

One of my host mom's friends makes jewelery, and she made matching bracelets for Cristinita, Luna (my 5 yr old host cousin) and I. I thought this was incredibly thoughtful, and was really touched when my host mom said it meant that I was "one of the girls in the family."

                 Yo, Cristinita, y Luna con nos mismo pulseras

So maybe I'm going to fail every class here, but fitting in might not be as hard as I thought.

Love,

Chloe

3 Cristina's Are Better Than 1

Today was a very relaxing day, one of those where you stay in your pajamas as long as absoloutly possible.

Once again, the date I will start school was pushed back, this time to Friday.
I WILL BE STARTING SCHOOL ON FRIDAY!
...I hope.

I was told that the seasons in Spain are very distinct, and let me say that is so true, its scary. The day they closed the pool it was still frighteningly hot outside. The next day, it was atleast 10 degrees cooler. Today, it rained most of the day and has been pretty cold by California standards. I think it is officially autumn.

This afternoon, Cristina, Antonio, Cristinita, and I went to visit Cristina's sister, Laura, and her 3 month old baby, Rodrigo. A couple days ago, I also met Cristina's mother, who is conveniantly named Cristina. Not too suprising. I was sitting at a table with Cristina, Cristina, and Cristina. Atleast I never got any of their names mixed up.

                     Cristina and I, playing with my web cam.

Love,

Chloe

School Anticipation

Today, my host brother Antonio and I rode bikes to see my new school. The building is pretty huge, and while passing I saw some sketchy looking teeangers hanging out on the stairs. Oh boy, I can't wait to go to school and meet a lot more sketchy teenagers! However, it will give me an opportunity to make some Spanish friends (so far the majority of friends I have here are from the US, Austria, Finland, and Iceland).

Contrary to my belief that I was starting school today, I am actually starting on thursday...I think.

I have so much respect for my host mom, Cristina. She works outrageously hard, and spends literally her ENTIRE day running around taking care of my host siblings and I. Demetrio is almost never home, so Cristina does almost everything. I like having a maternal figure here, and I have really grown to care about her.

So I have heard non-stop about the Spanish version of Facebook, Tuenti. Everyone here says in order to have friends, a Tuenti acount is absoloutly necessary. I figure I will make one, it will be helpful when school starts. Dad, I didn't accept your friend request on Facebook, I won't accept one on Tuenti. Love you!

Love,
Chloe

Rastro-Farian

What better way to start the day than a visit to Spain's most famous street market?

This morning, Mariah, Mateo, and I went to the Rastro. There is so easy way to describe it, and no words can do it real justice, but I will do my best. Every Sunday, multiple streets in the middle of the city are lined with hundreds of tents/booths selling everything from clothing, to pets. The majority of the stands, much to my delight, sold bohemian, gypsy-like clothing, purses, and jewelery. I had been on a mission to find myself a pair of pants I previously described as "Jasmine pants." I also have heard them being reffered to as "Harem pants," and "MC Hammer pants." Whatever they're called, I finally bought myself a pair of beautiful green ones, which I fully intend on wearing. The rest of Madrid gets to dress up like hippie harem people, why shouldn't I.
2€ scarves? Who could resist.

My Jasmine pants

Considering that Mariah, Mateo, and I were running on very very litte sleep, we kept our shopping trip fairly short, and then went to a cafe for brunch.

The rest of the day, the three of us slept, and watched Amelie in Spanish. Of course, the only subtitle options were Spanish and French. Out of nowhere is started pouring rain. Mariah and I ran as fast as we could outside! It was beautiful. Of course, it lasted for all of about 30 minutes, but we spent those 30 minutes sitting on Mariah's window sill enjoying the momentary relief from the usual heat.
The rain in Spain...

So maybe I didn't get to spend the weekend traveling around Valencia with my host family, but what is better than good friends, street markets, Spanish food, shopping, and dubbed movies?

Love,
Chloe

Viva Team Tortilla

I have officially been living in Spain for a little over a week now, however, I still have that little voice in my head that whispers ¨tourist¨everytime I pull out my camera.

This weekend, my host family went to Valencia. I was supposed to go too, but thank you AFS, we had our first mandatory orientation for kids living in Madrid today. Much to my delight, this meant that I got to spend Fri-Sun at my friend Mariah´s house. So far, this weekend has been the bext couple days I have had in Spain so far!

Mariah has the greatest host brother ever. His name is Mateo, and within the first 30 seconds of meeting him he told me he was gay, and that he was taking Mariah and I into the center of Madrid to go shopping (and to get his hair done). Together, the three of us took the bus and metro into the city. Mariah and I waited at a beautiful outdoor bar/cafe while Mateo got his hair done. Afterwards, he gave us a tour of every nice store in Madrid, as well as a walk down the ¨Street of prostitues.¨ Overall, most of the shops were pricey, but it was fun nonetheless. One of Mateo´s favorite shops was an outrageously cute, two-story, teenage-girl wonderland of only pajamas and lingerie, all with Hello Kitty, Care Bears, and Mickey Mouse on them.

I bought myself a pair of ¨Jesus sandals¨ for 7€, which was good considering a pair of Converse in Spain go for 60€, which is $87.39. In the US, they sell for $40. I´m glad I brought my pair from home.

Mariah and I stayed up really late talking, but since we had to go to our orientation fairly early the next morning, we eventually went to bed. I wasn´t too suprised when I was abruptly awaken to the sound of ¨Just Dance¨ blasting from Mateo´s room around 2am. Oh well, live and let live.

On saturday, Mariah and I went to our orientation, which was also in the middle of the city. It was only for the students living in the Madrid area, so there were only about 12 AFS students there. We spent the first couple fo hours playing games, and then the mentors took us on an amazing walking tour of Madrid. We visited Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, Plaza de Oriente, along with other old, famous, streets. We must have looked like the strangest bunch of tourists; 4 Americans, a French Canadian, 2 Austrian girls, a boy from hungary, a girl from France, a boy from Japan, and a girl from Finland. The ammount of translating being done amongst us was hilarious.
Calamar Bocadillo en Plaza Mayor

One of the activites they had us do was a scavenger hunt, where the objective was to find the name of the palace we were infront of, a theater, 2 kings of Spain, a park, and a church. My ¨Team Tortilla¨, made up of Simon from New Mexico, Sara from Austria, and I, ended up ambushing two Belgium tourists with a map. We eventually we asked them so many questions, they gave us their extra map. Unfortunately, our confidence in our imminant success let us down. We were the last ones to arrive at the finish, mainly because we stopped three times to have people take pictures of us. Oh well, Viva Team Tortilla!

Team Tortilla; map to victory

Simon, Sara, and I

Mariah and I took the train home after the orientation. Much to our dismay, a soccer game had just let out and the train was unbelievably PACKED! Literally, the doors kept beeping and wouldn´t close because there were so many people. Spain, meet deoderant. Please!

Mariah and I came to the conclusion that every town has a really crappy Chinese Buffet resturaunt. We are on a mission to find the ¨Buffet de Chino¨ in Madrid. If you have any idea were we could find such a thing, contact us.

Love,
Chloe

Art: Great Paintings & Terrible Singers

I am recounting yesterday's excursions today because it was such a full and crazy day, I fell asleep in the car on the way home.

During the summer, my host mom's kids go with her to her school (where she teaches special ed I believe) and play with all the other children of the teachers. I had been sleeping in all of this week, but my host mom invited me to come yesterday, so I went.

At 9am we arrived at the school, and I met many of the same kids who had gone to the Amusement Park with us the day before. Most of them were younger, but there were twoteenage girls who were 16 and 19. We all played, Uno, computer games, dress-up, and made crepes (well, attempted to make). I got along really, really, well with the 16 year old, Irina. She was very relaxed, fun, and not as overly glammed-up as most of the other Spanish teenagers I had seen, which I liked a lot. We bonded over our love of the TV show, Gossip Girl, and her favorite artists are Michael Jackson and Fergie. She was enthusiastic about us hanging out again sometime, as was I.

In the later afternoon, Mariah (my friend from Portland who I met on my exchange program) and I went to the Prado Museum, which is one of the most famouse museums in the world. There were works from artists such as Goya, Velazquez, Bosch, Murillo, El Greco, Rubens, Picasso. Maybe you've heard of them? The museum could have easily been re-named the Museo de Jesus. My friend Mark had warned me that it was almost all Jesus pictures, and he couldn't have been more right. Despite the fact that I don't usually enjoy museums very much, I really had a lot of fun with Mariah. Her 68yr old host father, Raymundo, came with us. Apparently he is a Spanish art enthusiast, and was eager to teach us EVERYTHING he knew about every single painting...In very hard to understand Spanish. Despite his attempts to make Mariah and I speak only Spanish, we both continued to whisper joking remarks about the paintings. I did an impression of one of the paintings by El Greco of Jesus obviously holding up a peace sign. Raymundo was not ammused.
Jesus says, "Peace out."


Mariah and I had both taken the same AP Eurpoean history class, with the same textbooks. Throughout the museum, we came accross painting we had previously studied in class. It was great! I should email my AP Euro teacher from last year; "I remembered enough of your class to recognize paintings!"


As if the day had not been eventful enough, Cristinita invited me to go to the "My Camp Rock" live finale. A mom of one of her classmates had set it up for her whole class to go. Basically, it is a TV show on Disney Channel similar to American Idol, but with kids. Apparently different countries all have their own, so all of the performers were Spanish. I was so touched that Cristinita invited me, I didn't even take a moment to consider what it might entail. Going could have easily been the worst decision I have made since I have been in Spain. Hundreds of SCREAMING kids, or rather, girls. First of all, not a single one of the performers looked a day under 30, but with hilariously teenage haircuts. If you're old enough to legally buy a case of beer, then drive home to your wife and kids, you need to get off of the Disney Channel. Not only were the songs terrible, but something went wrong with the cameras and 3 of the performers had to re-do their performances. Aye dios mio!


Oh but wait, it can get worse. In the end, they awarded the only performer who looked under 20 as the "Winner" of "My Camp Rock." When it came time for her final performance, the music started, but she turned around and shook her head to indicate that it was the wrong song. However, the music continued, WITH HER VOICE SINGING! She was obviously not singing. It was hilarious.

I'm spending the weekend at Mariah's

Love Chloe

Tengo Miedo

Once again, Spain has made me realize just how uptight the USA is about certain things.

The kids in my neighborhood spend an hour or so everyday at the pool. Taking the heat into consideration, this is a very logical thing to do. One of their favorite games is tag, played inside and around the pool. They asked me to play, and so of course I joined in. I was pretty shocked when the kids were running around the pool as fast as they could, while the lifeguard simply watched. Growing up as a kid in the USA, I have had the repeated yells of lifeguards hammered into my brain. "No running around the pool! Slow down!" None of the kids fell, and none of them got hurt.

Today I went to an a Parque De Attraciones (amusement park) with my host siblings, some of Cristinita's friends, and their moms. Needless to say, it had its differences from amusement parks in the USA. For one, most amusement parks have some sort of theme to them, whether that be western, water rides, or even television/movie characters. This park literally had all of the above! All thrown together in a jumble that was obviously one huge copywrite infringment. One moment you are drinking out of a cup with the "Loony Toons" characters on it, the next you are on a make-shift star wars ride with off colored Yoda statues. While leaving, you are bombarded by stores selling Hello Kitty merchandise next to Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals. It was fantastic!

Together, we went on bunches of rollercoasters and rides. I learned the phrase "Tengo miedo" (I am scared) because I heard it numerous times being screamed from the rollercoasters. Antonio (my host brother) and I kept getting dragged on some of the rides for really little kids because we were with six 7-10 yr old girls. One of these was a "fairytale land" ride. Antonio and I agreed that the mechanical dolls in that ride were far scarier than any rollercoaster we had ever been on.

What is this, and why is it on a childrens' ride? "Tengo Miedo!"

Something I have noticed is that a very popular fashion trend in Spain (or atleast Madrid) are these Indian, Jasmine(from-Aladdin)-like pants. They are billowy with colorful designs on them. I have seen girls and guys wearing them EVERYWHERE. Eventually I am going to get myself a pair...that is, as soon as I find out what they are called, and where to buy them.

<-Jasmine pants

Love Chloe

Un Teenager Normal?

Today I made my first attempt to assimilate into the life of a normal Spanish teenager. One of my neighbors has a 15 year old neice, and she set us up to go to the movies together. The neice (Olga) brought along a friend of hers, Barbara. The three of us went to the movie theater and watched "He's Just Not That Into You," except it was "Que Les Pasa a Los Hombres." The whole thing was dubbed in Spanish, but I think I got the jist of it (it was about cows, right? lol). The theater was BEAUTIFUL! It was huge, and had several lounges, it might as well have been a dance club the decor was so nice and comfortable. When I commented on how nice it was, Olga replied that the movie thater had two parts, and this was the less nice one. The other one must have been Hilton status.

After the movie, Olga, Barbara, and I rode the metro to another shopping center. It was my first time on the Madrid metro, very exciting. My host mom then picked me up, and told me that in time, she would show me how to take the metro to my school, mall, theater, etc. For now, I will stick to traveling with my host family and the people they set me up with. Being lost in Madrid is the last thing I need lol.

Gazpacho
n. cold, tomato, V8-like, soup
1. Really gross
2. Chloe tried eating today, once was enough.

People here eat a lot of bread. My sister Cristina was eating messily and my mom yelled at her "usar tu pan!" meaning, use your bread. This was said as opposed to the usual "Use your fork/knife/spoon!" Bread is a utensil.

On a non-Spain related note, my play "In Conclusion" was in the semi-finals for the CA Young Playwright's Competition. Unfortunately, that is as far as it is going. Screw them, I have bigger things to worry about, and I'm done crying.

Love Chloe

Technical Difficulties

Things I was not prepared for:
Farenheit to Celsius
24 Hr time
Different electrical plugs
Different cell phone company

Today my host mom and I set out to find electrical plug converters because the ones I had apparently only work in England, thanks Dad. We went to 5 electronic stores and 1 travel store. We finally found an electronic store which sold converters for England to Spain. Success! So now everytime I plug something in it looks like this below.

The rest of the day I spent with my host sister and her 10 billion neighborhood friends who were all eager to teach me Spanish in return for me teaching them English. People in Spain don't believe people in USA know what prosciutto is.

Bienvenidos Espana!

It is now my second day in Spain, and I finally have the opportunity to sit down at my computer. The past 4 days have been some of the craziest and most wonderful times I have ever experienced. After what it took to physically travel here, learning Spanish and a new culture looks like the easy part!

On Wednesday morning, around 4am, my family, Cassie, and I drove to the airport so I could catch the 6am to NY, which was where the AFS Students from the USA were to spend their first night. Unfortunately, the San Diego Airport had a minor security problem...so minor that they closed down the entire airport for a bit over an hour. I was one person away from making it through security, and being in the area with a nice Starbucks and news stand, however, I was instead sitting on the floor of the security line. Much Fun.

Upon arriving at the hotel in NY, I met the other 35 or so students traveling to Spain, as well as the 50 something going to France, Austria, Russia, and South Africa. We spent the day, night, and following day at the hotel in conferences and listening to the same rules we had heard from the first day we signed up. Don't drive, don't do drugs, don't get pregnant, etc.

The 7 hours to switzerland were great fun, considering there were 30 kids all sitting on a HUGE plane together. Needless to say, we didn't sleep at all, however, we would live to regret this. Within the first 20 min of being in the Zurich airport in Switz, half the kids had started smoking in the smoking lounge, and the other half went off to buy their first legal Hienekin beer. After 3 hours in the airport, we boarded our last flight to Madrid.

Arriving in Madrid, the majority of us had not slept for 2 days, considering we were on planes most of that time. The first thing I thought was "What country am I finally in, and what language am I supposed to be speaking?" Despite my belief that we were getting picked up by our host families that day (Fri) it turned out that we were to spend the night in a Youth Hostel in Madrid.

The hostel was the best part of the trip by far! We met up with over 100 student from everywhere in the world, all of whom were doing an exchange in Spain. Because the rooms themselves were tiny, crammed with 2 bunk beds, and one step above camping, we spent most of our time outside meeting new people. My assigned roomates were three boys, Mac from the US, Gonnar from Iceland, and Reo from Japan. I became close with Gonnar, some Austrian girls, as well as some kids from the US.

Picture Below; My new Icelandic best friend/roomate, Gunnar

The next morning (Sat) everyone traveling to host families outside of Madrid left on busses, later to travel on trains or airplanes. I, living in Madrid, stayed with about 13 other kids at the hostel awaiting our families ot pick us up. In the meantime, a few of the US kids taught the card game "BS" to a bunch of European kids with minimal understanding of english.

I was picked up by my host mother, Cristina, and taken home to meet my host siblings, Cristinita (10) and Antonio (13). They live in a very close knit community where everyone walks into eachothers homes, which is amazing. My family had a large barbeque wih the entire neighborhood for them to meet me, and visa versa. It was actually a costume party, which made it twice as interesting. Apparently dressing up as Hannah Montana and HSM characters is popular EVERYWHERE.

Picture Below; some of the neighborhood kids and my host sister. They offered me a flamenco dress for the party, which of course I wore.

Cristina (mom) is amazing, and sweet as pie! Although her english is very minimal, I can almost always understand her spanish. She has been beyond helpful, and I feel confident that I will e happy here. Cristinita is also very helpful, and I find myself spending the majority of my time with her, mostly watching disney channel (en espanol) or going to the pool (she thinks the life guard es "muy guapo"). Antonio (my brother) is very shy, but he reminds me a lot of Daniel, so I think it will be ok. Today we played Uno, which was amazing because although we didn't talk a lot, he acknowledged my existence. Demitrio (father) is also very very nice, and doesn't believe me that it gets to 105 degrees in SD, and that we have green beans (people in Spain think the USA doesn't have beans).

Love, Chloe