I finished school on June 7th, but today I finally got my final grades. I'm so glad to be done. The whole Spanish school thing- been there, done that, not gonna do it again. But I do have good some good memories from it. So that's good.

I passed all of my classes except for Philosophy, but I always knew I wasn't going to pass it. Long story, and that's for another time. But it's the first class I've ever failed in my life! I feel like that's a life experience I always needed, so I'm gonna take it in a good way :)

So, here are my grades (just like before, they're on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the best)

• English - 10
• Economics - 10
• Technology - 10
• P.E. - 10
• Spanish Language & Literature - 8
• Contemporary World History - 6
• Science - 5
• Math - 5
• Philosophy - 1

This is the Puerta del Sol. It's the center of Madrid, and essentially the center of Spain.

On a normal day, it's packed with tourists taking in the sights, street performers, and a handful of people dressed up as Mickey Mouse or Spongebob selling balloons and getting money for pictures.

But not recently, and not right now. For the last few weeks, Sol has been overtaken by Spaniards, unhappy with the economic situation, the unemployment rate, the government, and the outlook of their futures.

It started with a protests that marched Madrid's main streets on May 15th, and it turned in to a full out camp-out in Sol, and it's been there steadily since then.

Here's what it looks like now:





The thousands that have been in Sol over the last few weeks are protesting quite a few things: their government, which they claim isn't a "real democracy", the unemployment rate, which is now at 21.3%, and an astonishing 43.5% among the youth, and women's rights, among other things. It's made up mostly of younger people, who want change so they can live a better future, because Spain's current situation won't make the cut.

And it's not just in Madrid, either. Since the movement started on May 15th, protests and camp-outs have sprung up in over 50 other Spanish cities. And I've been able to see the two main ones- the ones in Madrid and Barcelona.

It's incredible being in Sol right now, seeing the energy, the will, and above all, the organization of the people. I never would've thought it could've been so organized. It's not just a bunch of people in tents hanging around, but it's a movement.

A good part of the plaza is tarped up, and divided into rooms, and you can find everything from recycling centers to a library, from a first-aid tent to a childcare center, and from legal help to a garden.

In almost all of the other cities, they've taken down their camps, or been forced out by the government. But Madrid's stands strong, although they have decided to leave Sol this Sunday, June 12th after one last big protest.

Here are some of the pictures I've taken of the protests in Sol:

Without a job, without a house, without a future, without fear.

List of items in need

The library. It's even organized in sections. For example French Literature, Economics, etc.

Recycling Plastics

Recycling Cans

Legal information center

Playing chess in the library. It honestly could pass for a Starbucks- comfy chairs, wifi, people on their laptops, playing chess, reading...

Do you want to stop playing with the world?

First-aid

Supplies

The garden

One of the other things that really amazed me when I was in Sol for the first time, was the amount of activities that are planned. Every day is full of activities: from classes in vegan cooking, to meditation, to an outdoor movie theater, to having a mime for the kids in the daycare center.

There are boards all over the plaza with daily schedules of all the activities. There were also boards set up with daily schedules for volunteers to pick up and collect garbage, help keep traffic flowing around the plaza, etc.

Activities board



Activities board

Entertainment for the kids

Movie theater, every day at 10:30pm



Entertainment


And my personal favorite out of all the signs I read that are posted all over the plaza:

Sex once every four years isn't a sex life. Elections every four years isn't democracy.

It does have a good point, doesn't it?

I've had a few countdowns going on lately, and I just completed one late last night when I got home from Valencia.

On Friday afternoon after school, 8 of us AFSers caught a bus to Valencia so we could have a weekend on the beach. It was nice to finally get to enjoy the nice weather to its fullest exent. It can be kind of annoying sometimes walking around Madrid when it's 80 degrees outside because walking around the city in nice weather isn't the same as relaxing on the beach in nice weather.

The host family of one of the AFSers, Mackenzie, has a beach house in Valencia, and it was less than a minute walk from the beach. It was really cool to just be able to go 8 of us friends to spend time together alone on a Mediterranean playa.

 International friends+paella valenciana+sangria+sand in between your toes+Mediterranean Sea+sunburn=Love.

And if that's not good enough, here are the 4 main countdowns I'm still working on. As of today, there are:

• 4 days until I go to Barcelona for the weekend
• 11 days left of school. (I actually have a physical countdown for this one. Everyday when I get home from school I tear off a page.)
• 19 days until I leave for Budapest and Prague for a week with my class from school.
• 35 days until the benchmark of being in Spain for 300 days.
• 40 days left in Spain. On day 40 I leave to Portugal for 3 weeks.
• 63 days until I return to the United States.

As the year is coming to a close, it's bittersweet. But I'm ready for what I still get to do, and I think I'll be ready to return when the time comes.

You gotta love English classes in a foreign country.

Better yet, you gotta love the teachers of the classes. They act like they know what they're doing, but more times than not they don't. The majority of the English teachers in my school refuse to talk to me in English. One actually knows English really well. One is American, and the one I have is just so cocky that it doesn't matter to her in her mind that she doesn't speak perfectly. Although I have to admit she does speak really well most of the time. Every once and a while, though, she says something really weird, or pronounces something wrong, and when she does this, I never understand her.

She also has a habit of asking me questions that are impossible to answer. Like for example: "Do you know the famous 18th century quote by the Frenchman by the name of _____________?" It's like...ummmmm. How the hell am I supposed to know stuff like that? And she always looks at me like I'm stupid for not knowing the answer. But whatever. I only have a few more days of seeing her...Thank god.

But other times, it can be more funny. Like the other day when she asked me one of these weird questions.

"Jake. Do you know who is the Commanding Chef in the United States?"

I honestly had no idea how to respond. I had no idea what a commanding chef is. But of course I automatically thought: restaurants. So I said, "Well, there's the chef, and then there's the sous-chef, and then..."

She looked at me (once again like I was stupid) and said "It's Obama."

"Ohhhhhhh!" I said, "You mean the Commander in Chief."

"Chief, chef, it's the same thing."

"Mhmm. Sure it is...."

I'm getting pretty close to my 8 months mark. That means I only have a little bit over 2 months left, and it's starting to scare me because I know how quickly these 2 months are going to pass. But this has also got me to do a lot of reflection on this year, what I've achieved, and what I've learned, and what I still have to or want to complete.

One of the things I thought about was how I remember one time that AFS told us about trying to become more of a global person, a world citizen- being educated in and experiencing other cultures, languages, and parts of the world, instead of being ignorant and only knowing about where you come from.

This reminded me of one time a few months ago. I was with my friend Ben, who's German, and we were watching a soccer game (of course).

I remember that at one point during the game, he started talking to a guy who was sitting on the other side of him.

Picture this: in that moment, we had a German speaking in English to a Japanese speaking in Spanish.

They're from totally different places in the world, they weren't speaking their native languages, and yet they were able to understand eachother, interact, have an enjoyable conversation, and learn about eachother and their respective cultures.

How amazing is that? I think about that moment a lot. And I think everyone could learn a lot from an experience like that. I know I did.

I just got home from the gym, where I went to take a sauna.

Recently, I've gone to do that every Sunday night because it relaxes me, and I always feel better and have more energy Monday morning to start the week on the right foot.

But tonight, I think I got more worked up than relaxed from doing that. But, that hour in the sauna was much more interesting than usual. When I got in, there were about 6 or 7 other guys, all in deep conversion. Absolutely ranking on the United States.

I spent the whole hour in there listening to them, without letting them know that I happened to be American.

Here are some of the more interesting things that they believed:

1. Apparently, Floridians don't care about the rest of the world apart from Florida. Why? Because they have the beach, the good weather, and a dozen theme parks. So, with that, they don't need the rest of the world, and therefore don't care about it.
2. They don't understand four-way stops. They couldn't believe how four people could drive up to the same intersection, and each wait their turn, and that it could function like it's supposed to. They said that in Spain, the people would show up, and just forget about turns and just go, and then a lot of people would die or get hurt. Even though we know that that does happen every once and a while in the U.S, we think of those people that don't wait their turn as assholes or idiots, but these people thought that the people who did that weren't either of those, but instead the intelligent ones.
3. They think we're stupid because the majority of our houses are made of wood, because they're easier to destroy.
4. They think our health system is the worst in the world because it's not universal. I beg to differ. I think I actually prefer our system. Why?  First of all, they pay much more taxes to be able to have universal health care, and then, you see so many people that go to the doctor's because they have a headache. I personally would not feel very good paying for other people to go to the doctor's, just because they had a headache.. Also from what I've seen about doctors here, is that you walk in, tell them your problem and they just give you a prescription of whatever medicine, and call it good. I think that in the U.S, we get what we pay for, and that here, it's not as good as it's said to be.

Even after saying all of this though, I was surprised at how many times they said they've been to the United States, and how many places they've gone, and how they want to go back, what cities and places they still want to see.

The best part, was that just before I left, I called Mary Beth so I could speak in English in front of them, and discreetly let them know I was American.

When I started speaking, they all looked at eachother with scared faces, and kept looking back and forth between me and the others. And then, I left. Without saying a word.

Maybe that will teach them a little something.

Two down, one to go. And I've improved quite a bit since the first trimester, so I'm really happy about that.

Actually, I was really scared as to how my grades for this trimester were going to turn out, because I had a really bad low point in school throughout January and February. I was just starting to get out of it when all of my tests hit. All at once. Which wasn't fun because all of a sudden I had to study for tests in nine classes, of material that took 3 months to learn, all in two weeks, knowing that the grades on the tests would become my grades in the classes. You gotta love a little stress, right?

And afterwards, I couldn't believe how I actually did, and I only failed one class. Once again, grades are given on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the highest, and 5 and up are all passing grades. So, here we go:

1. English:   10 (I love being able to not pay attention a single day, and then just ace the test)
2. Technology:   10 (fun and easy, and something I actually enjoy)
3. Economics:   9 (by far my favorite class, my goal is a 10 for next trimester)
4. Physical Education:   9 (easy enough)
5. Sciences of the Contemporary World:   6 (I just realized we haven't done a single experiment all year. What kind of science class is this? Definitely not very contemporary...)
6. Contemporary World History:   6 (reached my goal of passing this class this semester!)
7. Mathematics:   5 (so.boring. it's a struggle for me to pay attention)
8. Spanish Language & Literature:   5 (I actually earned it this time around)
9. Philosophy:   1 (haha....whatever.)

I love learning another language. It's not easy, but it's a good challenge, and it has its fun. I especially love the moments of mixups. (Why didn't I start a list of this stuff to keep track and remember?)

Today I finally started volunteering, which I've been wanting to do for a while. As of today, I'm giving English classes to elementary school kids 2 hours a week, which I'm really excited about.

It so happened that my first day was the one day that I had to leave early. I had to leave early because I wanted to be able to go to mass for Ash Wednesday. I could've just said that I had to leave early and left it at that, but no, of course I went on to explain why, and in the process I managed to mix up the words for "ash" and "ashtray" leaving me with the need to go to the "Ashtray Wednesday mass."

I think I've sucessfully invented the newest Catholic holiday. If I do say so myself, it's a pretty good one.

Going on to the mass itself, it had some good moments too.

1. I was caught off guard when, instead of drawing a cross on my forehead with ash, the priest sprinkled ash in my hair.
2. At communion, when everyone shakes hands, I, out of second nature, put my hand out to the lady next to me. She grabbed my hand, pulled me in to do the kisses on each cheek. Totally forgot I was in Spain at that moment. The next lady put her hand out to me, I shook it and went in for the kisses, and she was caught off guard by that, but did it anyways. The third person just totally backed off. I guess they didn't want them?? All of this left me confused about what you're actually supposed to do. Why can't you just shake everyone's hand, whether man, woman, old, or young, like in the States?
3. There was no wine for communion. I'm in Spain. Spain is wine. Wine is Spain. I'm lost for words on this one...

Once again, I'm left confused. Welcome to the life of an exchange student.

A little while ago, I had an epiphany.

I spend so much of my time listening to music. To and from school, every other time I'm travelling throughout the city walking, on the bus, or subway, while I'm studying, while I'm cooking, doing chores, in the shower...the list goes on.

I remembered that, two of the biggest reasons I'm here are to learn Spanish, and learn the culture, and what I realized was that I've been here 6 months, listening to music during all of these activities and many more, and I've kept to my American music. The music of the culture I already know. The music in English. Sure, a little bit is fine, the American music has definitely made it's way here anyways, and it's a good portion of what they listen to, but I shouldn't have kept to that this whole time.

With that, my iPod has undergone a transformation. In these last two weeks, I've added almost 100 songs. I've also added the lyrics to almost all of them so I can read them and listen to them at the same time and learn from it. I've added songs from Spain, South America, and Mexico. I've added songs of different genres. I'm enjoying all of it, and I'm learning a lot from it too, and I plan to continue discovering new music, and continue to gain knowledge of the Spanish language and culture from it.

Last month, my halfway mark hit. It's scary to think my year's already on the decline. I know at the end it will feel like the shortest year of my life, but then again, I feel like I say that every year...

It's crazy how quickly and dramatically your mindset changes just in a few days. Every month was "Wow it's been a month already?" "It's alright I still have 9." "Two months now?" "8 long months to go."

Those checkpoints were easy to reach. Halfway through was a "Holy shit!" moment.

With that, I reflected a lot on the first half of the year, and thought about what I wanted for the second half, and my exchange got a little bit of a makeover.

Changes in School
After Christmas, I hit a really bad low point in school. I pretty much went through a period of time where I didn't do anything really, and I hated school. I didn't pay attention, take notes, do the activities...nothing. I basically just played games and did a lot of reading (I'm reading the Harry Potter books in Spanish). There were only 3 or 4 classes out of 9 that I actually kept up with (my favorites). I'm slowly getting out of this rut, and the past two weeks of school things have improved a lot. The only thing now though is, is that I don't know what my report card for this trimester is going to look like, given that I've had to study a few months worth of material in less than a week or two for the tests. My last tests are on Monday, so we'll see how this all turns out.

Changes in After School Activities
Before, I didn't really have a consistent after school activity. I was going twice a week to free Spanish classes to help me along a little bit, but those ended with the New Year. And now, in about a week, I went from doing nothing, to my weeks being completely full.

1) I joined a gym with a friend, and we've been going at least 3 days a week together.
2) Once a week for each I go to a math class and a history/literature class because those three are my hardest classes. It's been helping a lot since it's basically one-on-one help.
3) Starting next week, I'm going to start giving the same type of classes of English to elementary schoolers. I'm really excited to start this, and I think it should be fun.

Changes in Scenery
I have officially signed up to go on el viaje del fin de curso (the end of the year trip) which is a tradition here for the kids in my grade. In June, right after school gets out, I'll be going with some of my friends and classmates for 8 days to Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest.

Changes in Departure Date
Originally my departure date with AFS was July 1st. But now, I've decided that I'm not going to go home with the program, but that I'm going to end my program here and stay a little longer. When all of the other Americans go to the airport to fly home to the States, I'll instead just hop over to Portugal, and stay in Lisbon with Rita and her family for the better part of July. Now I won't be going home until July 25th.

Changes in Appearance
Last month I got my ear pierced. I pierced my tragus, which is the flap that you usually use to close your ears. Rita keeps telling me that with that, and some of the clothes I've bought, that I'm "turning into such a Spanish boy!" Maybe I am. But that wouldn't be so bad.

Changes in Dreams
I've never really remembered my dreams very often. It actually used to be a really rare thing for me, but lately, I don't know what happened, but I've been remembering them almost every night. The coolest thing, is that they're almost always in Spanish now, and I think that's actually one of my favorite things. It's the coolest feeling waking up, and realizing that I was dreaming in Spanish. As far as the language goes, it's amazing how far I've come. I understand almost everything now, and can say pretty much everything that I want to. I'm still not fluent, and there's still a lot to learn, but I'm getting there, poco a poco.

I think that with all of this, my exchange has changed for the better, and I'm excited for what's still to come. May part two be even better than the first.