Top 5 things about Spain (after one month)

As mandated by my sister's going away present (a daily calendar with wisdom, pictures, suggestions, and orders like this one), I'm making a list of my favorite things about Spain.

1. The best of both worlds: As far as Rotary country selection goes, I know myself and a lot of other kids were stymied between the cultural splendor and geographical beauty of Europe, while the warmth and openness of South American people was tempting as an exchange student. Spain has the best of both! Geographically, it's part of Europe but historically has kept very secluded. The culture of lights and love that people encounter in South America came from the Spanish settlers, so I get the best of both continents here in España.
2. The night: It's a weird answer to give, but it's usually the first one that comes to mind when someone asks me my favorite thing about Sevilla. Yes, it's pretty amazing to be able to stay out until after midnight going to restaurants or hanging out with friends, but I mean "noche" in more general terms. I love the way the city lights up at night but in some places you can still see the stars; the way I can go for a walk just after the sun sets; the way the heat fades right away to the perfect temperature; I love the breeze that comes off the Guadalquivir that's almost like a night at Pine Point.
3. People aren't as PC: Political correctness can get a little out of hand in the US, and in Spain they just have too much history to care about potentially offending someone. This extends to television as well, where swearing and nudity are not regulated HALF as much as in America (caution: this can also lead to awkward host family moments).
4. The food: It doesn't need saying. Although I do miss spicy food (when I'm warned that something will be picante, it means that there will be some black pepper in it, and doesn't even register on the American spicy-scale), Spanish food has every other flavor and most of it is homemade. I've had amazing (and stereotypical) tortilla española, paella, and gazpacho, but also some surprises like moussaka, meatballs today, macaroni, and various other "normal" food. All with a Spanish twist, off course. It should also be noted that I miss fresh bread SO MUCH, because my host family freezes any bread they buy and eat it toasted, and do crackers with meals.
5. Public transportation: Also an obvious answer, but taking the city bus to school is pretty nice, and Sevilla also boasts the best bike paths in Spain throughout the city. I bike every day to the Nautical Club, about a 25 minute ride, that does become painful after a workout. Also, drivers are weirdly polite in this city and stop for any pedestrians. This means I will probably get hit by a car the next time I'm in Boston.

There are almost certainly more things that I love about this country and could add to the list, but I'm out of time (this post wasn't on my to-do list today, Hilary). ¡Hasta luego!

♫ "Feliz seamos todos"

     On a Monday morning seventeen years ago, much like this one, my parents were in a hospital for a Cesarean section. Most people can't say that their births were scheduled, but for once in my life, I was right on time. Most people also don't spend their seventeenth birthday thousands of miles from home, but the internet means I can still talk to you all. Today is an important day for me, measuring years as well as days. I entered the world seventeen years ago today, the third child to the most loving, supportive, and ultimately selfless parents anyone could ever imagine. One month ago today, I gave them impatient hugs and left.
     My dad and I have a running tally of how people react to my exchange. From my peers, the results are mostly: "That's amazing! You're so lucky!" which I sometimes think discounts how hard I worked for this opportunity, or "Why would you want to?" which I can't answer. Before, because it seemed obvious to me and the best answer I could come up with was "Why wouldn't you?" Now, I am starting to wonder why I did want to do this. Please don't misunderstand that - I am happy here and excited for the year, but I also am gaining respect and appreciation for those who choose to remain in one place for their lives. Of the adults, a few respond with enthusiasm about my exchange, but most look my parents up and down, subtly estimating their straight-jacket measurements, before bluntly asking, "Are you insane?" Frankly, I would like to ask them the same question, but madness is clearly hereditary.
     The Spanish birthday song that I received for the first time yesterday, and presumably many more times today, is a little different than I learned in high school.

"Cumpleaños feliz,

cumpleaños feliz,

feliz seamos todos,

cumpleaños feliz."

     The third line translates to "that we all be happy," which is the message of this post. Sometimes I'm sad about the past or worried about the future, but birthday should be about the present and, most importantly, about others. Today, I celebrate seventeen blessed years with the most wonderful people literally in the world. I hope that my family, friends, pets, and everyone back in the US are happy today. I hope my Spanish family, friends, pets, and everyone are felices today. I hope that my exchange family, spread out across four continents, are all feliz, joyeux, glücklich, sretan, lykkelig, senang, ยินดี, mutlu, खुश, or however you may say it in their language. (Don't let me down, Google Translate! Sorry for the mistakes, guys... I tried).I have two homes now, and I want you all to know that I am thinking of you. Thank you to Hilary, whose gift got lost in the mail, to Nana, whose letters I am anxiously waiting to open, to my Rotary family, spread out across the globe but always there for me, to my families, friends, teachers, coaches, classmates, and to you, who are reading this.
Feliz seamos todos... cumpleaños feliz. I love you all.

Un abrazo muy fuerte,

Meg

10 things I wish someone had told me

Alternately titled: 10 things someone probably told me but I wish I had listened to
I've been in Spain for two and a half weeks now, which alternately feels like a lifetime or five minutes. I underestimated the level of stress that moving would put on me (yay getting sick) but am finally starting to adjust for real. Still, if I had to say one thing that surprised me about exchange is just how hard it is. This may sound obvious, but I got so caught up with people telling me how lucky I am and looking at pictures of Sevilla on Google Maps that I forgot about the absolutely singularly terrifying side of the experience. Well, I got bored in class today so I compiled a list of ten pieces of advice that I would give to someone starting exchange. By the time I come back to the U.S. and have the opportunity to talk to Outbounds, the memory of what it's like will have faded into one happy blur, which isn't fair to tell someone.
So here it is: 10 things I wish someone had told me about exchange

1.  Realize that you will under-pack or over-pack but never the right amount. It does not exist.
2. If you've never been homesick before, that is going to change. You're going to miss your bed, your bathroom, your fridge, your parents, and your life. For me it hasn't been overly dramatic - crying in the shower, considering going home, etc. - but rather omnipresent and subtle.
3. Exchange is uncomfortable. All of your normal routines, customs, and acquaintances have changed, and sometimes it feels like you have to work ten times harder than anyone else. Right now, I would really like to curl up in sweatpants on my couch in the U.S. and watch a movie, but instead I'm stuck in a philosophy class with a teacher who doesn't like me and thinks I don't speak Spanish.
4. Talking with your parents makes this worse. You get pulled back into that world of American-ness with all the things you miss and instead of being reassuring, phone calls can make a bad day worse.The stuff the Rotarians tell you, about cutting off contact and immersing yourself here? It's actually the best advice out there.
5. If you're feeling uncomfortable and tired (all the time) and plain homesick, do something. Anything. It's the last thing you feel like doing, but wallowing is the worst solution there is for homesickness. Go for a walk, ask your family to show you around, find a sport or activity - anything.
6. In orientations, you're told over and over that "exchange isn't a year in a life, it's a life in a year." This is not, I'm coming to see, a hokey expression designed to inspire you to live life to the fullest. It's a warning that when you arrive in your country, you will be a baby. Completely helpless, unable to express yourself, depending on the kindness of others, and possibly crying a lot. As you pass time in your country, you become the eternally curious toddler, the incompetent-independent 10 year-old ("I can do it myself!"), the overly emotional teenager, and then - I don't know. I haven't gotten there yet, but I can only assume that like life, exchange comes full circle. Maybe you're ready to move on, full of wisdom in your old age, or maybe you feel like you didn't have the time you deserved. I can't really guess yet how I'll feel, but I can tell that I'm somewhere between the stages of eternally-curious toddler and incompetent-independent 10 year-old right now. Who know how I'll feel in a week, let alone a year?
7. Two weeks after getting here, everyone will expect you to speak perfectly, or not at all. Surprisingly, few people realize that speaking slowly and clearly is the best way to communicate with an exchange student. NOT in their native language, and NOT in rapid fire host language, pausing occasionally to quiz them on what is being said.
8. If you're like me, you forgot about how hard this was going to be. With the whirlwind of packing, shopping, last minute online exams, goodbye parties, and sewing of clothes (the morning of my flight), somehow I was so occupied with what was ending that I forgot what was beginning. I carved a year from my life for the exchange, carefully wedging in my American life and classes around it, but some part of my mind definitely went sophomore year --> some fun stuff happens --> senior year. One of the most important things about exchange is to realize that this is still real life. You will be exhausted, have hard classes, have boring classes, feel uncomfortable and out of place, disagree with your host family, and wonder why you ever thought this was a good idea.
9. From your friend's pictures, maybe you thought this was going to be paradise. The truth is, the place is not nearly as important as the people, and people are only as good as the relationships you form with them.
10. Be happy. Choose to put your laptop down, go out, and do something. Practice your language. Don't be afraid to speak. Make mistakes now, rather than in May when people won't make excuses for you. Work at school; it's good to have the teacher's respect. But most of all, live. With some combination of luck, stubbornness, hard work, and passion, you were given this opportunity. Now live.

I am halfway through my second week of school, which is tough because I attend the hardest instituto (high school) in the city. I'm hoping to be able to leave my class during English to help out the younger kids, because segundo bachillerato (senior year) focuses entirely on grammar and reading/writing. My History of Art class has been fun (I got an answer right today and defended it in Spanish!) but other classes, like the History of Philosphy, are impossible even for the native speakers. In my lengua (Spanish) class on Monday, the teacher grabbed my critical analysis and read it out loud to the class, commenting and criticizing as he went. I can affirm that as an exchange student, smiling and nodding will get you through almost any situation, but that was rather overwhelming. As far as crew goes, on Monday they let me out onto the river in a two-person boat for the first time with another new remera (rower) and we managed to not fall in. My host dog has developed the amusing (at first) habit of sitting outside my door while I'm doing homework, showering, or sometimes sleeping, and crying. She misses my host brother, doing an American year, so I guess I can sympathize with that. I've managed to make a few friends here (surprise!) and we went out twice over the weekend. It's amazing to see how Spanish parents regard their teenagers going out for the night. Some kids have a curfew (typically around 1:00 a.m.) but for others, like me, the rules are simply to come home at a reasonable hour ("not at 6:00 in the morning" say my parents) and, more importantly, not to come home alone. The good news is that I've gotten to know some girls who live in my neighborhood who can usually give me a ride.

Monday night, I was invited out for my grandmother's birthday in typical Spanish style: the whole family (her seven children, with their families and spouses) gathered at the neighborhood tapas bar and spent the night drinking and talking. I almost decided not to go, because I had barely started my homework, but everyone knows that exchange students don't need sleep! Everyone knew about "the American" and a few adults wanted to test out their English on me. This is extremely difficult, because an andaluz (person from Andalusia) has a very strong accent in Spanish, and I can't tell which language they're speaking. Everyone tells me that I speak very well, but have an American accent (obviously) and I know I need to work on vocabulary. Even so, my Spanish has improved so much in these two weeks. ¡Hasta luego, amigos!

A week in paradise

Yesterday, my sister tweeted to me a list of the top ten places in Sevilla that she wants to visit if she comes to visit me. The official Sevilla Tourism account responded with this video, saying "You need to stay until you see all of these places, take a look!" From what I've seen of the city so far, the video actually captures what the streets and sights of Sevilla feel like, so it's worth watching.

I'll do a quick update on everything that's going on here. I arrived in Spain last Sunday and spent the week here before heading to Madrid for the orientation for Inbounds. It was a little more than six hours in bus to Madrid, before getting on another bus to the campamento where we spent the weekend (about an hour and a half outside of the city, in the Guadalarama mountain range). It was an amazing experience to meet and know so many students who are all in the same boat as I am, although I wish there were more international students. With the exception of a few students from Canada, one from Austria, and one from Japan, all the Inbounds in these two districts (2202 and 2203, mine) are American. Because of this, and because many kids still don't have a great handle on Spanish, the whole orientation was held in English. Saturday afternoon we hiked out to an incredible view of el Valle de los Caídos. It was built by Franco, partly using political prisoners, and he is buried there. 

By the end of the weekend, everyone was very "homesick" including me, so it's great to be back home in Sevilla. I've finally gotten comfortable here, with my bed, my family, our food, and our neighborhood. It's still very hot, but starting to get more bearable as the fall comes. I have a presentation tonight at my school, which starts for real tomorrow. My host family has been very busy (both parents are lawyers and my sister has been studying every day for her exámenes) but getting to school should help with getting out more. Also, my sister has her final exam Wednesday so I hope to spend more time with her then. ¡Hasta luego!

Regarding stereotypes

Sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason. Proof: so far in Spain, I have eaten paella, tortilla, and gazpacho. I have been here for 29 hours. However, my family also served roasted chicken and instant mashed potatoes (that I think they called pudding?). I also now understand why the siesta exists in Spain: their "lunch" is so big that you can't actually function afterwards. A note to Spanish teachers: banana and plátano are not regional words; they are different fruits. This was explained to me by my host father, who also assured me that plátanos are much better and I will never want to go back. Word of the day: picos, or little cracker things that they eat along with meals.
Now, let's talk about the weather!

Ahora voy a descansar, hasta luego!

A whole new world

They always tell you that the second you step on a plane, your "pre-exchange" life is over and you have become a new person. I never really got that, because I figure change has to happen gradually and painfully. However, 24 hours ago I had never chatted with an old Spanish lady on a plane (who spoke so quietly I couldn't understand her); I had never eaten paella while my family spoke in rapid-fire Andalusian accents around me. There's no point in being frustrated about my language ability, because I'm here to learn so all the silly mistakes I make are "learning experiences."
Sevilla is stunning (and humid) - we took the long way home from the airport to show me the city. After siesta we're going to bike to the center of the city so I can learn my way around. Tomorrow, Javier is taking me to see my school and crew starts!
Enough English for now. ¡Hasta pronto!

The Road goes ever on and on

I leave today in a few hours. Everything (hopefully) is packed, and I am completely ready to go. In less than 24 hours I will be with my host family in Sevilla, surrounded by 100% Spanish. This is somewhat terrifying, but I know that in a year I'll look back on my language skills and be amazed by how much they have improved. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me to make this journey happen and say goodbye to everyone before I leave! Hasta luego, que tengan un buen año!

"The Road goes ever on and on

 Down from the door where it began.

 Now far ahead the Road has gone,

 And I must follow, if I can, 

 Pursuing it with eager feet,

 Until it joins some larger way

 Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say." 

 ~J.R.R. Tolkien