HALFWAY

I have become a person with an exceptional sense of time perspective. This may be due to the Countdown app on my phone, my day planner, the calendar on my wall, the calendar in the kitchen, ect… However, despite my impressive attempt to keep track of time, it doesn’t seem possible that my exchange is already halfway over. The time moves by painfully slow during class, but the weeks and months fly by so incredibly fast it is hard to believe. Month FIVE has included the return to school after winter break, a trip to beautiful Salamanca, teaching English twice a week, and Carnaval.

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MADRID|SALAMANCA|VALLADOLID

When on exchange, and when in Spain, one must see all that they can see of the country. That being said, I fully took advantage of a travel day by visiting 3 amazing cities with my Madrid exchange student crew.

Morning looked a little bit like this: 7am bus, 7:30am metro, 8am train. Early start but always a fun transportation adventure with Caroline in Madrid.

If you aren’t a fan of 3 hour train rides, come along with us next time because time is always well spent with this group of kids. We passed the beautiful countryside chatting about exchange life and cultural differences in Spanglish, which is a super interesting conversation that only exchange students can relate to/understand.

Upon arrival we strolled through the beautiful streets, taking in all the sights and amazing architecture of the city such as the cathedral and la Plaza Mayor, and of course it was a non-stop photo shoot.

 

Later we headed to the library and found this incredible view of the Celercía Towers:

Climbed up what felt about 500 stairs for a breath of fresh air/ many breaths after the climb, and found ourselves at the top of the towers looking over the city.

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We were breath-taken by the view/stairs while we explored the towers and the city below.

Headed back down and headed to the university where we spent a good amount of time searching for la rana (frog) on the wall pictured above. It is said that once you find the frog, you will have good luck, as long as you don’t tell anyone!

Ate lunch, and it was time for me to catch my bus to Valladolid and later back home to Aranda de Duero. In Valladolid, I passed the time waiting for my bus exploring la Plaza Mayor and surrounding area at a high speed pace to see all that I could before my bus arrived.

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CARNAVAL

To all my Spanish readers out there (hola amigos!) we don’t celebrate Carnaval in the United States, entonces gracias por hacer que la experiencia sea tan divertido :). This four day weekend was an absolute blast. Saturday night was the night of Carnaval, where we all dressed up, went out at 11pm, danced in the snow/rain in la Plaza Mayor until 5:30am. My group of friends and I dressed up as Pikachu (which unlike in the United States, Pikachu doesn’t have a bad rap in Spain and is quite popular). All the friend groups, of all ages, dress up together and spend the night in las calles. Carnaval is a Christian Holiday that is celebrated all over Spain, as well as other countries in Europe and South America. It was great to experience yet another new holiday to me and hope it won’t be the last!

After spending Sunday sleeping and recuperating, we were ready to continue the fiesta on Monday. This day was aimed a little bit more towards the teenage/young adult crowd costume wise meaning it wasn’t as extravagant as Saturday. I dressed up as an alien, which I felt to be suiting for me as a foreigner, however, word of advice, make sure you can pronounce the word for your costume to save you from tripping over your Spanish skills when trying to explain what you are. The word is extraterrestre (HARDER THAN IT LOOKS),  and I would say that after a long night of practicing, I made major improvements in my pronunciation of the word and rolling my r‘s.

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These long nights fiestaing (Spanglish) are some of the best moments for me on exchange.   With everyone out in the street, there are so many people to talk to, dance with, take pictures with and make memories that will last me a lifetime. Six more weeks until the next big fiesta, but who’s counting?

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COLEGIO|SCHOOL

The return to school after winter break was much more difficult this year. I think this is because overall, I really do not enjoy school here, and because we dove right into exams and starting this week, I will have 2+ exams every week for the next six weeks. However, things have also started to get a little bit more interesting by doing other activities than sitting in a chair taking notes like dissecting the Pulmonary and Cardiovascular system of a lamb in Anatomy, and AcroSport in P.E. These perks make the days much easier to get though in a good mood.  Also, I got to do an interview for the school newspaper which was a great way to see  my face on every double door in the whole entire building everyday!!!! Little bit of sarcasm there because it brought a little bit of embarrassment, but it has sparked lots of new conversations with new people who I didn’t know before!

Acrosport is very common in school here in Spain, and at first I was very uncomfortable with the idea of it, but now I look forward to Wednesdays and Thursdays because I always have a lot of fun with my group. Only going to share 2 pictures because they are from the very early stages of the process and look forward to showing you guys the final performance next month!

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CLASE DE INGLES | ENGLISH CLASS

Twice a week for an hour and a half, I teach 8 year-old Marta English! This has been a super fun experience because I have been able to work on my Spanish a lot, because I have to explain everything in Spanish, and because Marta is so excited about learning English it makes my day every Tuesday and Thursday. 

 

 

 

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¿Qué tal tu vida en general Anne? | How’s life in general Anne? 

One of the things I want to share is that exchange is not blog-perfect nor is it easy. There are days that are the kind of days that you fail your exam/exams/all of your exams/ all of your classes. There are days when you don’t want to do anything but lay in bed and do nothing, and days when even though your Spanish has improved drastically, that you still just don’t want to put for the effort to speak it. Homesickness can sneak up on you at any moment and knock you down. But you have friends there to pick you back up, no matter where they are in the world. Coffee and siestas can help you push through anything. Dissection and Acrosport bring a lot of laughter to the school days. And then there are days like Carnaval and trips to Salamanca that make all of your down-moments become incredibly insignificant and helps you remember that this is exactly where you need/want to be.

So no, I am not exploring the streets of Salamanca every day nor am I fiestaing every night of my life, and the majority of my time here is not “Picture perfect” or “Instagram-worthy”, but everyday is a new experience with new opportunities that I will only get to experience for the next 5 months. This is my prep-talk I give myself when the numbers on my countdown app seem too many and too large to wait for my return home. At the same time it is scary to think that my exchange is already half-way over. There are moments when I want the next five months to pass as quickly as possible and other moments in that I wish they would last a lifetime.

So Anne, ¿Qué tal life?, well bien. Todo va bien through the ups and downs and all the hard parts and amazing parts are all about what exchange is about. (And I would say I’m fluent in 3 languages now: English, Spanish and Spanglish)

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