Another AFSer just completed a video that he recorded about the trip from New York to Madrid that I thought I'd share with you guys. So all credits to Jacob Spetzler. Enjoy.

My classroom, chalkboard and all.


My first trimester of school just finished, so I thought I'd share with you all how I did.

I definitely wouldn't be happy with these grades back home, but for here, for having nine classes in another language, in just the first three months, I'm pretty happy with how I did. I even failed a few, so I can cross that one off my bucket list.

The grading system here is 0 through 10, 10 being the best, and 5-10 are passing grades. But it's also different because here, for example, 7 and 8 are considered to be really good grades, because 9's and 10's a really hard to get. But in the States, a 7 would be a C, and an 8 a B, which more average than good.

I passed 6 classes, and failed 3, but I still have the chance to recuperate the failed classes with upcoming tests, or at the end of the year, so it's not set in stone quite yet.

So here are my trimester grades as they stand so far, best to worst (with a little comment):

1. English:   10 (no surprise there)
2. Physical Education:   9 (easy enough)
3. Technology:   9 (easy enough)
4. Economics:   8 (the grade I'm the most proud of)
5. Sciences of the Contemporary World:   5 (scraped by)
6. Spanish Language & Literature:   5 (thank you sympathetic teacher)
7. Mathematics:   4 (the teacher enjoys failing kids)
8. History of the Contemporary World:   4 (just barely, next trimester I'll get it)
9. Philosophy:   4 (what?! complete luck. didn't study once.)

Literally, in English, it means "The Fucking Turkey", but, it's what our Thanksgiving turkey came to be known as. Why? Because after a series of events caused our Thanksgiving dinner date to change a few times, El Puto Pavo came to be more of a liability than something to enjoy.

At first, the dinner was planned for Friday, because I didn't want to take on the challenge on a school night. But then, Thursday night, Alfonso came home with two things- the news that he'd have to travel on Friday for work, and a full chicken. We then had two birds waiting in the fridge, and the date was moved to Saturday. But that was when I dipped out.

I've been spending quite a bit of time lately with the family of Marta's sister, Paula. There's Paula, her husband Miguel, their three kids Claudia (13), Gabriela (10), and Martin (7), and they also have, more or less, and exchange student, Ben, but he's 20, and an intern at the AFS office here in Madrid. He's from Germany and he studied abroad in the San Francisco area a few years ago.

But anyways, they had to go this weekend to Valencia, a city of the eastern coast of Spain, on the Mediterranean, south of Barcelona, and I ended up going with them.

And so again, El Puto Pavo had to wait some more.

But I am so glad that I decided to go with them. Valencia is an absolutely beautiful city.


When we first arrived, the first thing that we did was drive to the beach to eat some paella. Valencia is where the famed Spanish dish originates from, so of course that's what we had to have. It also felt so good to see the ocean again, since the chance of finding a large, natural body of water in Madrid is like...nonexistant.


We ordered two types of paella, the original, and one with arroz negro (black rice), but it's actually colored with squid ink, and that was the best one.



Each pan is for four people. It's a ton of food, and it's traditionally just eaten right out of the pan, without plates, since the pan keeps it warm (I only know this because we had a tablewide argument about the "proper" way to eat paella).


Starting from the left, going around the table: Paula, Martin, Miguel, Gabriela, Claudia, Ben, Me, & Roser (Marta's oldest sister).

 After lunch, the adults and the kids went to an aquarium to watch a dolphin show, while Ben and I went out to wander around the city. At one point we found a bar to watch some soccer, and I found a nice piece of home nailed to the wall that made my night.




The next day was my favorite, though. We got up, and the sun was shining, and it was really warm (something that Madrid has been lacking for me, sufficient warmth) and we took bikes that the hotel had, and biked around the city.

Valencia has a huge park that takes up the space of where the river used to be (it's path got moved at some point), and it was incredible, with fountains, and sculptures, and jogging trails, soccer fields, rugby fields, a mountain biking course, a few skate parks, gardens, and who knows what else. It went on forever it seems like, and we didn't even ride through the whole thing.

Unfortunately though, I didn't fully understand exactly what the plan was before we left, so I left my camera back in the hotel, and don't have a single picture. On the bright side though, we're going back for Easter because Mateo's soccer team has a tournament there. I'm really excited to go back.

Finally on Monday, el Puto Pavo got the attention it deserved from me. I got home from school that day, ate lunch, and then spent the entire rest of the afternoon listening to music and cooking. I made the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, and a pumpkin pie.

I wasn't sure how I was going to get it all done, never cooking a whole Thanksgiving dinner by myself before, but surprisingly it did get done. And, if i do say so myself, it was pretty good.

But let me tell you, I have a whole new respect for everyone who's ever made a Thanksgiving dinner. It is a hell of a lot of work. It's a good thing I'm allowed to drink a glass of wine in this country, because I definitely needed it afterwards... :)

The turkey turned out good, the green bean casserole good, the pumpkin pie was square for lack of a circular dish, I didn't burn the gravy, and the mashed potatoes were..basically good.

The mashed potatoes really were the only thing that didn't turn out how I wanted, which is funny since it's like the easiest part. All I was trying to do was skip out on a little bit of manual labor (the mashing part) so I used this blender tool that Marta has. It turned the potatoes into more of a really thick soupy substance rather than light fluffiness, but whatever. They tasted the same, it was just a matter of texture.

We ate Thanksgiving with three other families, and when we sat down to eat, and everyone tried it, I was showered with compliment after compliment. I couldn't resist to joke with them, so I asked them, "so what other compliments can you give me?"

But they outsmarted me when one of them returned with, "well actually it's not that good, I mean, the stuffing did come out of a box..." But all in all it was a very enjoyable meal.

It could've been more enjoyable though, since we ate it while we watched El Clásico, the king of soccer games in Spain, Real Madrid versus Barcelona. I honestly didn't care who won (even though that's not something I let slip out, for safety reasons, you know..) I just wanted to watch a good game of soccer. And that is the last thing it was. Barcelona won 5-0. We turned it off after 4 because it was just so terrible to watch.

I think my meal made everything better though, and El Puto Pavo ended up being something very enjoyable.

First things first. I did not get the highest score on our English exam that we just got back the results of today.

But I wasn't expecting to. Just beacuse I speak/write/read/understand English perfectly doesn't mean I know what the verb "to swim" is in the pluperfect tense. Nor the future progressive, past conditional, imperative, or any other tense.

I still got the second highest score though, and my grade was basically perfect, so I don't really care about it.

It did leave me a little confused though. They're were other questions that I got "wrong" but I can't figure out why. And the way the teacher explained them to me, didn't make any sense. Plus I didn't really care to pester her about it, since my grade is basically perfect.

But can someone please tell me how the following sentences are "incorrect"??

1. The film is based on a book, but I didn't read it before I saw it.
2. When she got to the check-in desk, she realized that she forgot her passport.
3. Oh no! We missed the bus! I can see it down the road.
4. The team has won the competition three times in the past.
5. My father had four cars by the time he was 20.

Last Wednesday, November 10th, two of my neighbors, their cousin, Mateo, and I went to Real Madrid game. It was against Murcia, and Real Madrid ended up winning 5 to 1!

I had a really good time, and it was really fun, and after seeing how great it was, I think I'll have to go back for another game. About a week ago I finally wrote down my bucket list of things to do in Spain before I leave, and of course going to a game was on it.  That's one more down, and God knows how many more to go, as my list is constantly growing. But I think this is the first time in my life that I'm getting things done really quickly, but I guess it helps that they're all things I want to do really bad, so procrastination isn't an option.

The other things that I've already crossed off are to go to the Toro and the Parque de Atracciones. And other one's will get crossed off soon, like to visit Toledo, and make a dinner for my host family (Thanksgiving).

Here are some of my favorite ones I've written down so far:

• Learn to like tomato (Tomatoes have always looked so good, but I've never liked the taste, and since they're used in so many foods here, I figure I might as well try to learn to like tomato, and actually, I'm starting to enjoy it already)
• Visit every Metro station in the centro (So far I've been to 123 out of 194)
• Fail a class (What? I've never done it before, and it's sure to happen here. It's a good life experience, right?)
• Be able to use Spanish slang without sounding like a retard that's trying too hard
• Go to Barcelona
• Understand at least one entire class of Philosophy

Here are some of the pictures I took from the game:



From left to right: Me, Mary Beth, & Catherine.




Yep. It was Kanye West that did the interupting. Go figures... But at least Taylor Swift isn't alone now, right?

But no, it was definitely planned. And it was a cool surprise for all of us because no one knew that he'd be there.

After Kanye sang one song, and Thirty Seconds to Mars resumed and then finished, it was Katy Perry's turn.


She sang a bunch of her songs, but the best one by far was her performance of her new song Firework, which is the one that aired live. She's doesn't sing particularly good live, but when fireworks started going off every which direction, it made it one of the most memorable songs of the night for me.

Here's the video clip of the song from the show:


MTV saved the best for last with Linkin Park. I don't know what it is, but people here seem to be completely obsessed with Linkin Park, and when they came on the crowd went absolutely insane.

Linkin Park's performance was also the longest, lasting over an hour. It was like it was their own concert since they played so many songs. Just song after song after song.

And actually it was more than that two, because since we were waiting for so long before the concert, we actually saw their practice session and soundcheck, and it was funny since all of the artists only speak English, and the majority of the crowd doesn't really understand it, not many people knew what they were saying in between songs.

After the sound check, Linkin Park's lead singer said "Wow guys, thank you all so much. I think that's the most cheering, and the biggest crowd I've ever experienced for just a soundcheck." Mary Beth, Catherine, and I were the only ones near us that thought it was funny. And then we thought it was even funnier because that's when we realized that no one understood anything. I think it'd be so annoying to always be listening to music that you can't understand the meaning to, but that's what it's like for almost everyone here.

Linkin Park was definitely my favorite. They were the best performers live, and they're my favorite out of the four people that we got the chance to see. I'm actually surprised that I have my voice today because we definitely sang along to everything, and cheered a lot in between.




Here's the video of Linkin Park's Waiting for the End, which is the one that got aired for them:


The whole night was one of the most fun days I've had since I've been here, and definitely one of the coolest concerts I've ever been too, especially since we were so close and right in the middle of it all!

I had a lot of fun over here celebrating my seventeenth birthday over the weekend, but to be honest, I'm kind of glad that it's over (I'll get to why in a second).

Friday night I celebrated my birthday with my friends from school, almost my entire class of thirty something kids came, plus some kids from other classes, and so there must've been about forty people there. It was really fun and it was really social, and I got to talk to a lot of the kids in my class for a while and get to know them better, which is really cool because now this week I've been hanging out with a lot of them, and not just the group of kids I joined originally.

Then Saturday night, most of us in AFS in Madrid took a bus together to a little town about 45 minutes outside of Madrid named Soto del Real because that day was the birthday of a girl in AFS named Pinja from Finland. She had a party at her house, and she had some of her Spanish friends there too. We spent the whole night listening to music, and socializing, and dancing.

One of the best parts of the night was when the Spanish kids taught us the dances to Spanish songs, and we taught them the dances to some American songs, including the YMCA, the Hokie Pokie, the ChaCha Slide, Cotton-Eyed Joe, and we attempted Square Dancing, but it didn't work out too well..

Sunday, we had Marta's sister and her family, and Zeke, another AFSer from Missouri over for lunch, and then I got to Skype with my family, Rita, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Amy, Taylor, Madison, and Cameron, and I opened up the birthday present my family sent to me in front of them. I got a lot of Reese's and Peanut Butter M&Ms, which is good because neither exist here (Nor does Cherry Coke which I'm still trying to find). They also sent me Thanksgiving dinner supplies because I'm going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for my host family.

Never take American supermarkets for granted, because whenever I want to cook something here, I can never find the supplies. A couple weeks ago, I wanted to make burritos, but we couldn't find refried beans. A few days after that we ended up going to a Mexican restaurant, and they had no idea what refried beans are. Hmmm...

Finally on Monday, (November 1st is a national holiday here so I was lucky to not have school on my birthday) I woke up and carved a pumpkin with Mateo. It was a day late, but who cares. Mateo really liked it, it was the first pumpkin he'd ever carved in his life! (Halloween barely exists here).  Then Marta, Mateo, Sara, Jorge, and I went to a Japanese restaurant for my birthday lunch, that night for dinner, Laura (my host cousin) and Sara came over for dinner, and they put candles in a pan of brownies for me to blow out.


There was a slight problem with that however..


If you look at the bottom of the candles, this is what happens when you put them in right after a cake, brownies or whatever right when it gets out of the oven.

It took us a while to notice that though. They put the candles in, sang me Happy Birthday, cut it up, and then we noticed that it looked like the brownies came with a filling. Though unfortunately not of frosting..

We all just laughed about it though. The wax was easy enough to pick out, and the brownies still tasted really good.

But now here's why I'm kind of glad it's all over. This is the first time since I've been here that I've actually legitimately missed everybody. Yeah I've missed people, but not enough that it was always on my mind or whatever. Thankfully it didn't last very long, just a day or so, but it put things into perspective for me. Apparently it's not quite as easy as it had seemed to just walk away from your nice, secure, normal life and move to a new place to start all over.

Another random thing is that now, in the two days I've been at school this week so far, I've already been asked about 29384398423847 times from random people if I had to repeat a grade. Why? Because here they decide what year you start school by the calender year, not the school year. Here I'm in the class of 1994 because it's the second to last year, just like I would be in the U.S. as a Junior. So now that I'm 17, and everyone else is 15 turning 16, people think I had to repeat a grade, which is not good for my ego. :)

But I guess it's completely normal for kids to repeat grades here. Today I learned that a few of the kids in my class are actually 18, which means they had to repeat two grades. And no one feels ashamed or embarrassed by it either. It's just perfectly normal, which is weird because back home, I would be so embarrased if I had to do Junior year or whatever two or three times over.

Oh and one last note: Is it just me, or does it seem really weird that I just had my last birthday as a kid?
(Sorry if that scares anyone)

Definitely one of the more creative ways I've seen my name spelt here.

So after being here for over a month (which I still can't grasp that it's been that long already) I think it's time I finally put up a picture of host family, now that last night we finally took the first one that includes all of us.


Left to right: My host mom Marta, Me, host sister Sara, her boyfriend Jorge, host dad Alfonso, and host brother Mateo on the bottom.

Bull crossing signs are much more interesting than deer crossing. We even saw some wild bulls.

I just added pictures to old posts, so make sure you go back and look at them.

This last weekend was full of Spanish culture for me.

On Saturday, Marta insisted I go to the Museo del Prado, a museum which is really famous, and I guess it's is up there with the Louvre from what Marta told me. So I went, but it really wasn't that cool in my opinion. Marta showed me the works of the most famous Spanish painters, and their artwork was good, but I didn't enjoy it that much. I prefer museums with dinosaur bones and stuff..

But Sunday was amazing.

I got up and went to church with a family friend, Gabriella, who's from Argentina. Although many Spaniards are baptized Catholics, almost no one goes to church because they associate the Catholic Church with Francisco Franco and his authoritarian regime, which, to me it's sad that that part of Spain's history still affects people today. But anyways, I went with Gabriella, and we went to the children's mass, and it was one of the coolest masses I've ever been to.

During the mass the church had a very special atmosphere about it. All the readings were read by kids, and during the songs everyone was standing and clapping their hands to the beat, and the little kids were dancing around. During the homily, the priest held a little boy in his arms, and the homily (although I didn't understand all of it) was related to God in the kids' lives, and the priest would ask kids to raise their hands about certain aspects of God in their lives so that they were involved. And whenever the priest was standing up, little kids would sneak up and sit in his chair. It's funny because usually when you're in church and you get that one little kid that won't stop whining it's so annoying, but in this case, screaming kids was what made it so great.

After church, we took the metro to this Japanese restaurant to have lunch with part of Alfonso's side of the family. (It was soooo funny how all the waiters and waitresses spoke Spanish with Asian accents, just like they speak English with Asian accents)

But after lunch, we decided to walk home, and Las Ventas (The stadium where they do bullfighting in Madrid) was on the way home from the restaurant. Alfonso asked me if I wanted to check out the stadium, and of course I said yes, and when we got there, there happened to be a bullfight going on.

Some guy offered us tickets for 5€ each, so Marta took me in.
Going to a bullfight was something I had to do while I'm here, and I'm really glad I did it, but I'm not sure of how much I liked it.

It was fun and really intense, and it's crazy how close they get to the charging bulls so my heart was always beating really fast. And the cultural part of it was really cool, too, the costumes, and the music, and Marta told me a little bit of the history while we were there also.

But it's also kind of sad how the whole objective is to kill the bull, and they stab the bulls back and neck to a pulp. And the worst is when they finally kill it and horses drag it away leaving a trail of blood.

But hey, I got my fair share of culture this weekend. Still high on my list, though, is to go to a Real Madrid game...

Also, today, I had a pretty good day at school. I can tell that each day I understand a little bit more, and each day gets a little easier. But then came Philosophy class, which I had for the first time today.

I don't think I understood a single word.

Actually scratch that, I think he talked about the ancient Greeks once... (But who wouldn't be able to guess that?)

But at one point, the teacher randomly called on me with a question. Like I could understand a question about philosophy right now. And to answer it? Not a chance. So I just said, "Uh, I don't understand anything right now, I'm American, and I don't speak Spanish that well."

So what did he do? Repeated the question. Once, twice, three times. I don't think he got the memo about how I don't understand, because repeating the question definitely did not help. Other people in the class even tried to save me from the teacher, but he was relentless! And the whole time I was just laughing, and trying to tell him that I didn't understand. Finally, my friend mouthed the answer to me from behind his back, and I said it, and he walked away from me and continued with his lecture.

Ahhhhh. This class is going to be a BLAST!

I think it will take a miracle for me to pass it..

Since it was the first day, we really didn't do much but get our schedules, and for each class listen to the teacher talk about rules and stuff, so I don't really know how hard school will actually be for me.
I do know, though, that I understood much more than I thought I would have.

Like in tech class- the teacher talked for about 40 minutes, elaborating on all of his points, but I understood the essentials- No drinks, no food, no gum, no social networking, make sure to save your work so you don't lose anything, he gave us his email address, he asked who was in the class last year, he showed us the textbook we need for the class, and he had a small conversation with me about how I'm an exchange student. I think I did well enough.

A couple good moments from school today:

1.     The math teacher insisted my name is actually pronounced "hawk-eh" After saying "No, it's Jake" multiple times, and him still saying "hawk-eh" it was like whatever. I don't even care. Hawk-eh it is for this class.

2.     All the math teacher did was take roll call. So the rest of the class we and a few others compared the sounds animals make in English and Spanish. They thought that "cock-a-doodle-do" was the funniest thing in the world. But here are a couple in Spanish:

• Rooster- Ki Kiri Ki
• Cats- Miau Miau
• Chicks- Pio Pio Pio
• Dogs- Guau Guau
• Cows- Muuuuu
• Frog- Crua Crua

3.     In Spanish schools, unlike American schools, the teachers change classrooms, not the students. The only time we change classrooms are for tech class because we need computers, and P.E. So for tech today, no one knew where the classroom is. Also, my school is HUGE. It has multiple buildings and they're all 4 or 5 stories more or less. So my class of thirty something went up 5 floors and down 5 floors in the first building. Up 4 down 4 in the second. And again. And finally we just returned to our original classroom because we didn't find it. Ten minutes later, the teacher found us to take us to our tech class. Where was it? Next door to our regular classroom. OF COURSE!

Language

Last year in my English class we had to read and analyze a story about a Chinese family that immigrated to the United States to start a new life. Story short, the kids learn English soon after starting school, and the father at work. The stay at home mom, however, never really learns because she doesn't have to use it often. The point of the story is that people viewed the mom as dumb because she didn't talk much, but in reality, the mom wasn't dumb- her head was full of insight, it was just that she didn't have the words to express them.

Right now, that's me. I'm like the Chinese woman in the story. I understand much more than I can speak, so I listen to all these conversations, and I want to contribute, but much of the time I don't know how to express what I want to say, and you have no idea how annoying that can be.

It's true, though, that I'm doing much better than I ever would have thought. Even on day one with my family, I was appalled at how much I understood what they were saying. My biggest problem then was their accents. In school in the U.S. we learn Mexican Spanish, but here, though it's basically the same, some words are different than in Mexican Spanish, and the accent is different so some words don't sound like I previously thought they did.

Thankfully, now I'm over that problem. I'm now used to a 'z' sounding like a 'th' for example. Now it's vocabulary. My Spanish vocabulary is not very extended, so that's my biggest problem now. I'm finding myself always looking up simple words like 'cherry' or 'bowl' - words that are just so automatic in English, but in Spanish, I don't even know where to start.

Also, verb tenses. I don't know them all yet, but it's easier to get around. Sometimes I'll just say something like 'to eat, but in the future' instead of 'I will eat'.

But- everyday I understand more and more, and I'm learning new words everyday, so I'm getting along just fine. School starts on Wednesday, so that should help a lot because I'll be reading and writing and talking more. God, I can't wait for English class, though.

Life

Before I got here, I thought that life would be fairly similar to that in the United States. But no. Not. At. All.

Difference #1: Transportation. My family doesn't own a car. It was weird at first not just hopping into a car when you need to go somewhere, but actually it's not that bad. Between the city bus and the metro (subway), it's so easy to get anywhere. I prefer the metro though, because it's so easy, and so efficient- no stop lights, no pedestrians, no dumb drivers, just go. And one comes every four minutes, just boom, boom, boom. And actually, I'm kind of glad my family doesn't have a car. Drivers here are a little scary, and I don't think they understand the concept of lanes of traffic. Everyone is just in a big mush down the road half the time, and roundabouts are the worst.

Difference #2: Food. Prepackaged, manufactured, artificial flavors and colors? Ha, good luck. The only thing like that I've had since I've been here? Coke. Every day we buy fresh bread from the bread store. Fresh fruit and vegetables from the fruit and vegetable store. Fresh ham from the ham store. Fresh fish from the fish store. Etc. And the only thing we've bought from a supermarket? Coke.

Difference #3: Meals. I knew before I got here that the meal schedule is way different. More or less it's breakfast at 9, lunch at 3, and dinner at 10. But the bigger difference the formality of mealtimes. Every meal means tablecloth, setting the table with plates and glasses, and knives on the right, and forks on the left, and cloth napkins to put on your lap, and the whole family sitting down together to eat. A fend for yourself dinner? Not gonna happen. Also dinner is very social. As much as we eat lunch or dinner as just a family, we eat with friends or family or neighbors, either here or at their houses.

Difference #4: Television. First of all, they just don't watch TV much in general. The only thing I've watched on TV since I've been here is the movie United 93, which was on 9/11. My host brother, Mateo, watches a Disney Channel show here and there, and it's so weird to listen to because the voices are different. I didn't think Hannah Montana's voice could get any more annoying...
Difference #5: Computers. For the most part I've only used my computer for 3 things- sync my phone with iTunes, upload my pictures, and this- writing on my blog. We have wifi here (though they pronounce it as 'weefee') but again, it's just a lifestyle thing- it's not something they use often, except for stuff like their work. Also, my school doesn't have computers in the classrooms.

Difference #6: School. I haven't started school yet, but today I had to attend a presentation sort of event at the school for an hour, and so although I don't know all the differences yet, I know a couple. The teachers change classrooms, not the students. I have classes with the same kids everyday, and when English class ends, and Spanish class starts, the English teacher leaves, and the Spanish teacher comes in. You can have tobacco products at school. You can't smoke inside the buildings, but you can have cigarettes, and you can smoke outside. Grades are out of 10 instead of letters, and your grade counts mostly on tests and not little stuff like homework.

Difference #7: Chores. What I have to do- Make my bed, keep my room clean, help set the table, and help do dishes. That's it. We have a maid come every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and she does the rest- all the laundry, sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. This is definitely one of my favorite changes. Unfortunately, though, for those of you that know Rita's story, we don't have a Bimby.

Difference #8: The Only Difference I Can't Stand. Almost everyone smokes here. My family doesn't, and I think they're the only exception. When we landed in Madrid, and entered the airport we experienced an instantaneous smell of cigarette smoke, and one of the other AFS kids sarcastically said "Mhmmm. The smell of Spain." At first I felt claustrophobic because smoke is everywhere, but I'm starting to get used to it. I keep thinking that from this year, I might as well be a lifetime smoker. It's terrible. And I don't think I've met a single kid my age yet that doesn't smoke.

My Name

No one here can properly pronounce the 'j' sound, and therefore no one can pronounce my name very well. So the other day we were having lunch, and we had another family over, and everyone went around the table to see who could say 'Jake' the best. They were getting a little better, until it got to Mateo's friend who said 'Shrek!' I still laugh everytime that moment pops into my head.

Berta, my host sister, is in the United States right now studying abroad with AFS, so I've taken her place, like Rita has taken mine. Berta's friends have really taken me under their wings, and they've been taking me places, showing me around the city, for which I'm so appreciative. We had a mini AFS orientation yesterday, and some of the other AFS kids have been a little bored because school hasn't started yet, so they haven't really made friends. So anyway, I'm really happy they want to get to know me, and that they want to do stuff with me, they've all been really welcoming and nice to me.

So anyways, they of course can't really pronounce my name very well either, some can better than others, but still, no. Spanish is different than English in that things are either masculine or feminine, and generally, things that end in the letter 'a' are feminine, and things that end in 'o' are masculine. And since I'm taking place of Berta, they're calling me Berto (the masculine form of Berta). I think it's hilarious, and hey, at least they can pronounce it.

Other Tidbits

Other little random things that are different that I've noticed.

• I've had to I'm still trying to learn how to eat french fries with a fork.
• Pieces of paper are a longer and skinnier, not 8.5 by 11.
• Before cooking, you wash your hands in the bathroom sink, not the kitchen sink.
• Decks of cards have 40 cards, the suits are different, no ace, the jack is the same as the 8, the knight (not queen) is the same as the 9, and the king is the same as the 10.
• I don't understand money here. You can get a Denny's style breakfast with pancakes, eggs, bacon, french fries, and coke for 3€, but I haven't seen a pair of Levi's for less than 100€.
• Here, numbers are written differently. For example: 1,500.00 is written 1.500,00 - for some reason the commas and periods are switched. 
• They don't understand the word Coke. It's Coca-Cola. Diet Coke? It's called Coca-Cola Light.

The Palace

The Palace Gardens

Palace Gardens/Palace

Palace

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor