Life in Two Thousand and Nine

Well, the last couple weeks...

Where to even begin?!

New Years was amazing. We went to our family friends house for dinner, we took breaks between courses of dinner to play guitar hero. As midnight neared we prepared our 12 grapes, turned on the TV for the countdown and tucked our feet under our legs. Sitting on chairs its tradition to keep your feet off the ground, all the bad luck, at midnight, is passing under the chairs across the floor and out the door, you don't want to have your feet down on the ground or else you catch the bad luck. Along with this, every chime of the bell before midnight, you eat a grape and make a wish. This is 12 chimes, 12 grapes, and a little more than 12 seconds. It is still difficult for a lot of people. Once the last bell chimed, my cousin and mom rushed to the kitchen to spit out the 12 built up grapes in their mouths. You can check out what the scene looked like on my video on youtube. There's a link on the side of my blog. After this we toasted and kissed cheeks with everyone in the room and watched the fireworks. There were noisemakers, streamers, and wigs, can't forget the wigs. The wigs we had bought the week before in Sol came into good use, fun pictures were taken with the whole family. (you can see them in my post before this). Afterwards, we continued onto the discoteca to dance in the new year. 

The next couple days were spent with Beate. My host dad took us to the Imax and Planetarium in Madrid. We shopped, hung out at the local, went dancing... It was so nice to have her with me. I don't think I realized how weird my sleep patterns are until Beate came here. She had some adjusting to do the first couple days. Now that i look back our normal sleeping hours were somewhere around 4am-4pm... different amounts of hours between that time period. It was hard to adjust back to school time. But we had many more celebrations before that was up. Our friend Kike's birthday was on the 3rd. We went to his friends house in Madrid. It was the meeting of his old friend group and his new friend group. Although I am one of the newest members of his new group of friends, there was no problem fitting in. And i was assured throughout the night, I am now a part of the local. I am one of the friends. It was the first time it was said to me like that, I have a group of amazing, loving, hilarious friends here in Spain, and it is so comforting to know that. 

They say that the holidays will be the hardest time in a foreign exchange. I have to disagree, at least in my case. I felt more a part of my family and friends throughout the holidays, I became closer to them all, and it was hard to find time to miss home. It made me realize that in about a month I will be halfway done with my exchange and it doesn't feel like it's gone this fast. I just get so excited thinking about this though, I have been here for 4 months and look at the life i'm living. My family and friends couldn't be better here, i have amazing relationships with them all, and this is with me hardly knowing any spanish. I still have 6 months here! And I will only be having more and more conversations with these people. I can't imagine how hard its going to be to leave them. But my host family and friends are convinced I won't be able to make it a year without visiting. =D I hope this is true as well. Let's hope for some good financial aid for college! I hope that gives you an idea of how truly happy I am here in Spain. 

"Los Reyes Magos"...The Three Kings...Spain's Christmas. The day before: Me and some exchange friends went to the HUGE parade in Madrid. HUGE...we retired a little early into the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. I'll need to go back to buy the overpriced, but necessary t-shirt some other time. Beate and I headed out to meet up at the local. That night was spent dancing, it seems to be pretty standard, the Eve of a holiday....you dance it in. Very Spanish. The next morning Beate and I found presents outside our door. I got perfume and a watch and Beate got a necklace. My brothers got guitar hero, and it said to share with their sisters on the package. I think I lucked out with the best presents ;) Then we drove Beate to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye, but my friends at the local, my family and I all want her to return in May. It could happen...haha. We went back home and had a Sunday-style lunch. Rico y Grande. Delicious and Big. 

The days since the holidays have been spent readjusting to school, trying to not get sick, and saying hello to returning friends. Vin came back from being in the Canary Islands for a month, it's nice to have him home. And Emily came back from her week long skiing trip in the Pyrenees Mountains. We were back to normal, then the sickness hit. Now we have been battling flu like symptoms for weeks. I haven't been bad, but taking it easy. It is now 8 days until my 19th birthday, I need to rest up for this celebration... 

My teachers and friends have all noticed my improvement in the Spanish language. Its the best encouragement to learn more, hearing that you are improving. I am now able to understand almost everything that comes up in a normal day. This excludes certain conversations in their entirety, due to some vocabulary. But for now vocab is what i need to work on for understanding more and grammar for my speech. The grammar doesn't contribute much to my comprehension of the language when someone is talking, as long as i can piece together the words I am good to go. It kills me now that I know exactly what everyone is talking about, and it's just hard for me to chime in sometimes. I can get by with my speech, but yes, still, at 4 months I am not fluent. It feels discouraging sometimes, but I can get along, and I am learning immense amounts. So I am confident of where I'm at now. And I'm surrounded by tons of teachers. My brothers, especially Cristian and mine's car talks, everyone at the local, they are so willing to have conversations with me even when they are somewhat dull. =D my exchange friends  and my parents. Yeah my teachers at school are alright too, but its really the interaction of an actual conversation that i learn from. I am excited for the time I can declare myself fluent, the achievement of understanding happened suddenly, maybe fluency will be the same. I feel on the brink.

And just to warn you all my English is getting worse and worse. Typing, Speaking, translating. All downhill. The other day I said that a piece of water had hit me...when a drop of rain had fallen on me. And I also just mix up words, type a word that sounds the same as the one I'm trying to write. Just my instinct with the english language is becoming blurred. Its very trippy. Not exactly what I expected, but I guess its a good thing. It means I'm concentrating more on Spanish I guess. 

My brother Nikko is moving to England in February. I'm going to miss him a lot but I'm sure he'll come to visit a couple times before I leave. I'm leaving for Italy on March 16th, for a little over a week! I'm VERY excited for that. Uhmm what else, I'm trying to just think of randoms that don't fit in an exact area. OH! I'm going to go to Western Washington University next year, after living in Madrid for a year a decided to pass up the possibility of UW and Seattle, and go for the more laid back, green, safe Bellingham. It seems like the better fit for me at this point. So I'm very excited to try out life there when I return. The pictures above and below this go along with different parts of the blog. 

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

People in Spain wear lots of bracelets, just little things on their wrists..... And just sitting in Starbucks with Vin Kelly and Emily, we've noticed that a significant amount of people here have crutches or walking aids. Like, a lot more than while people watching in the states...... We also think that there are more I <3>

Thanks for reading! And yet again, comment if you have anything on your mind! 

Un besito

Ciao 

Maddy