Oh, Valencia!

Slightly on-topic fact; "Oh, Valencia!" By the Decemberists is a fantastic song. It infact has nothing to do with the area in Spain, and is leaned more towards the stoy of a gang killing with a Romeo and Juliet related backround story.

I did, however, go to Valencia this past weekend. It was great to get out of Madrid for a little while, and I haven't really had an opportunity to do much traveling so far. I went with a friend, and we road-tripped it to his uncle's house in Elche (Valencia, but almost in Alicante). Of course, we got lost for 2 hours on the way, but when its a 4 hour trip already, and you have a car full of CD's and cookies, its not too bad.

We actually passed through La Mancha, which is where probably the most famous Spanish work of literature was based in; "Don Quijote." I read the book in english class last year, so that was kind of cool. There are actually a lot of windmills in La Mancha, but they are the big, creepy, modern, white ones, which I'm willing to bet were not the ones Don Quijote was mistaking for dragons; more like those tripods from War of the Worlds. If you are familiar with the book, you may also remember the "princess" Dulcinea. It turns out one of the most famous brothels in Spain is named Dulcinea, conveniently located also in La Mancha as well. Interesting use of a literature reference.

Since we arrived in Elche kind of late, it was too dark to see anything, but as soon as I looked out the window the next morning, I fell in love! The city is made up of forrests of palmtrees, and orchards or oranges, pomegranites, lemons, etc. I hadn't been thinking of California lately, considering that the Madrid weather isn't even close to what you may call pelasant, but the warm sun, beach, and palmtrees was a very sudden reminder of what I had left behind.

My friend's family were the nicest people ever, and took us all around Elche, which is impossible to navigate unless you have lived there your entire life. It is really nothing like Madrid, with its crowded apartments, unavoidable shopping centers, and millions of people. In Elche, there are some appartment buildings, but a lot of people leave in "casas de campo," basically, ranch-style houses on large plots of land, many with plenty of orchard space. Most of the houses are hundreds of years old, and have only dirt or gravel roads to enter by. I loved it!

On Saturday night, we met with the AFS volunteers, and a coupld of students, in the Valencia area. Everyone was super nice! We had a great time comparing our different exchange experiences, and talking about AFS politics. About 15 of us met at a cafe in the afternoon, and got along so well that we all ended up all going out to dinner together, and hanging out until it got too cold at 1am to keep walking around.

On Sunday we went to the beach, which I so desperately needed after not seeing an ocean since I went to Galicia 6 months ago. It was too cold to go in the water, but the sun was nice and we had typical Spanish calamari and "patatas bravas" (largely cut potatoes, fried, and with a white sauce) at a cafe on the beach.  

It was a great trip, and I will put up pictures as soon as I can steal them off of other people's cameras.

Today, I fell down the stairs at my school and fractured/sprained my foot! Everyone kept asking me if I was pushed or someone ran into me...but no, I tripped on absoloutly nothing alone on the stairs. My host dad had to come pick me up and take me to the hospital, where they put on a cast and gave the usual prescription of ice and ibruprofen.  It couldn't have hurt that bad because while I was crying in the hospital, I was still embarassed about the doctor having to see my nasty feet haha. My foot doesn't hurt so much anymore, but the fact that I'm stuck home on a 3 day weekend, and the first nice weather we have had since October, is really bumming me out. I'm working on a mental fast recovery...as in "maybe if I ignore it, the problem will go away!" That method always seems to work for broken electronics and appliances, so this shouldn't be too different. 


Love,
Chloe

March is not Spring

I think I have been spoiled, I always assumed that the month or March meant spring.
APPARENTLY NOT!

This past weekend we had an AFS Madrid Reunion Camp in the Sierra mountains. It was really great, even with the foot of snow! Actually, especially because of the foot of snow, at least for the California girl. We are down to 10 students in the Madrid area, 6 Americans, 2 Austrians, Elina from Finland, and Yuya from Japan. Our numbers have been so greatly decreased becaue many students only came for a trimester, or 6 months. We are the last ones standing! It is kind of nice this way though, we have all gotten pretty close. We may not all be best friends, but a weekend together with a couple of AFS volunteers, and without our host families, can be a really nice break.

Saturday we took the bus to the youth hostel in the morning, and spent the majority of the day pelting eachother in the face with snow and playing group activities in a little cabin AFS had rented out. We also did a rock climbing wall while it was snowing HARD. It wasnt difficult because it was slippery and wet, your  fingers only freeze offa little bit, and it was fun.  

As for school and things, everything is fine. A bunch of my school friends went on a week long exchange to France, which leaves me with only a handful of kids, but its ok. This weekend I am going to Valencia with a friend, so I will write about that soon. Love, Chloe

Ok Ok Ok! HERE IT IS!

After much pressure instituted by family and friends alike, here is a blog update.

Everything has been going well, which is one of the reasons why I have not gotten around to updating this in...about 2 months. Obviously, a lot has happened, so I will sum up what I can remember.

Christmas was ok, but probably one of the low points in my trip. Of course, being away from everyone I know, while my family all gets together in the US without me was not easy. There were many family gatherings with my host family over the break, but after 6 or 7 days straight of family dinners and lunches, I was about at wits end. So, not to much to say about Christmas, it was stressful. Also, ona  cultural notes, in Spain, they give presents on Three Kings Day (Jan 6), not Christmas.

During the break, I went on a day trip with my host family to El Escorial, a small, but well known, town about 45 north of Madrid. El Escorial refers to the town, as well as the actual "Escorial" which began construction in 1559, and has served as a monastary, royal palace, and school. The town is in the mountains, and was very cute...and cold. Of course, Since this was only in December, I had yet to find out what "cold" was.

Laura, Me, & my host Mom in the El Escorial Courtyard

Also, nativity scenes are a serious deal here. Never underestimate the ammount of money and effort people here will invest in Nativity scenes. With my host family we toured around a couple of expositions, including one where the scene was life sized! it took up an entire plaza. We also saw table-mounted ones with running water, hand-crafted figurines, and electric lights.

Laura and I in a Life-Size Nativity Scene

For the first time in my life, I have been living in a place where it snows! It was fun up until the first time I had to walk to school in it. Luckily,  it has only REALLY snowed 3 or 4 times, but that is a record for my part of Madrid. Madrid is about as prepared for 6 inches of snow as San Diego is, in other words; mass mayhem and city-wide panic. I don't have an actual number, but judging by the fact that they couldn't even clear off the main freeway, I would say there are probably about 3 snowplows in Madrid. The night that it snowed the hardest, we were having dinner at my host grandma's house, about 45 minutes away from mine. It took us 3 hours to drive home because the freeway was completely covered. We had to ditch the car on the off-ramp to my town because it was slipping backwards. The walk to my house was not that far, but it was definitely an experience. My host sister and I took the opportunity to go sledding down the middle of the street.

The first day that it snowed on a school-day, most of the students in the school showed up, and about 8 of the teachers.  The reason for the lack of teachers was because most of them live in other towns, and have to take the metro ligero (similar to a trolley) or the bus to get to our school. Both of this systems were either shut down, or only comming every hour or so. Of course, there was no class, and it turned into a 3-story snowball war. After about an hour of being hit in the face by snowballs being thrown into the third-story window from the ground floor (no idea how they managed that) we all decided we might as well go home. At first, the teachers let the students in Baccilerato (Juniors and Seniors) leave, but then the principal said we couldn't leave without a call from our parents. Naturally, none of our parents could get through because all of the phone lines were busy with hundreds of parents calling to bail their kids out. Eventually, half of my class climbed out the window, and my host mom came trekking in the snow to personally pick me up. Needless to say, everytime it snows now, nobody goes to school.

My birthday went well, and thanks to all the family who sent me cards and presents! My friends at school had a small suprise party for me during recess, which almost made me cry. The fact that I haven't known them for very long, and have had limited communication, made it all the more special that they really cared. I also went out to dinner with my host family, and celebrated with Mariah and a couple of friends during the weekend as well.  

This past weekend was Carnaval (as well as Valentine's Day and Chinese New Years) and Mariah and I went with my host family to our "pueblo" (vacation house) in Las Navas. THAT was the deciding point where I came to the conclusion that I am never living anywhere cold EVER. It was freezing, and our costumes were not exactly designed for cold weather. Carnaval is sort of like the equivelant of Halloween in the sense that everyone dresses up. Mariah and I went as tigers, which we thought would be cute...but mainly just because they were the only animal ears that they sold at the 99 cents store next to my house. We managed this very economically by buying tiger fabric, having my host grandma make us skirts, and just wearing black tights and shirts. Make that 4 pairs of tights, and no one was going to see our shirts anyway, unless they can see through 3 sweaters, a fleece, and a coat. I had a lot of fun doing our make-up though!

Laura as Cat Woman, and Mariah and I as Tigers

As far as important events, those are the basic things that stick out in my mind at the moment. As for everything else, school is going much better, and I am making a lot of progress in my Spanish speaking.  When comming backt o school after Christmas break, almost everyone I knew told me that my Spanish had improved dramatically, I noticed this as well. I also just passed  my first real academic test! It was in ciencias, and I got a 4.6 out of 10. Ok, so I needed .4 to pass, but the teacher was so impressed by how well I did, she agreed to give me an extra assignment to make my grade a 5 for the trimester! Yay! I still failed Historia with a 2.6, but that is much better than the 0.22 I got on the last exam! I have my Filosofia exam this Friday, let's see how well I can summarize the roles of ethics and rights pertaining to the state throughout history in spanish.

Love,

Chloe