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.
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...."
