Un Mes!

So it's official- I have friends.

Real friends!!!

For a while, I knew I had people that I could hang out with during school, or follow around when I'm with my host brothers, but now I know I have friends all of my own!

On Friday after school, I met up with Marta and Laura to have lunch at their house.

Marta and Laura are twins. They are some of the sweetest girls I have ever met. These girls are my official friends.

So, along with another new friend named Paqui, we rode the bus to the station near their house. They live pretty far away from the school, so we couldn't walk the whole way.

When we got to their street (named after Picasso...so cool!) I saw many small apartment-looking buildings. Little did I know, these were houses. I was shocked to see an actual house in Spain, because I thought that 99.9% of Granada lived in apartments.

It was very different to be in a house...especially one that was about 3 times larger than my apartment here. I live in a small house in California, and I have lived in a large house, but I guess I've just gotten used to apartment living.

Anyway, enough about their house (which was beautiful by the way). For lunch we had some empanada, rice, and chicken. It was delicious! Their mother is very nice and a great cook. I also learned that their father is a math teacher (like my dad!) and the principal of a school (not like my dad!).

After lunch, we played MarioKart Wii and listened to Selena Gomez.

Now I know that video games and Disney channel stars don't really go with the rest of my life in Spain...but then again, neither do Marta and Laura.

We then walked to a nearby cafe to meet up with one of their friends. She was so cute and sweet and funny...unfortunately, I totally forget her name (sorry!).

I didn't have any money and wasn't hungry, but Marta and Laura bought me a chocolate milk and pretty much forced it upon me. All in all, it was a very relaxing afternoon.

Later that evening, my host brother Samuel informed me that it was one of his friend's 18th birthday that night and I was invited to the party! I was supposed to go out with Karly and Robin to the city center, but I was a good exchange student and said "Yes!" (or rather "Si!").

Once we were finished doing a little shopping for party necesities, we went over to the birthday boy's house. Technically, it was a surprise party, but he was most definitely not surprised to see 10+ people sitting in his living room when he walked in.

The party was laid-back and super enjoyable, but I had an awful stomach ache the whole time. That sure put a damper on my festive spirit. People would tell me, "Talk, Tessa!" and "Dance, Tessa!" but it was hard with such an icky tummy.

Then, Samuel told me we were going home to eat some dinner, and then return to the fiesta. This was a godsend! I love being around my Spanish amigos and having a good time, but my health and comfort definitely comes first.

When we got home, I b-lined it for the bathroom. Sure enough, I ended up bowing down to the porcelain throne and giving it all I had...and ended up feeling much better afterwards!

However, I still didn't feel up to eating, let alone heading back to the party. So I had a glass of water and told Samuel "Adios!"as I tucked in for the night.

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Saturday morning, at around 10:30, my host mom comes into my room and wakes me up. She tells me that she and my host dad are going mushroom hunting and want to know if I'll be joining.

Now, being woken up earlier than I would've liked and being invited to squat in the forest scoping out a specific type of mushroom wasn't appealing to me in the slightest, but having no other plans for the day and being a good Rotary Youth Exchange student (it's a tough job!), I said "Yeah!".

So I put on my grungiest clothes (which are surprisingly not that grungy), and hopped in the car going who knows where. Soon enough, we drove up to nature! We met up with one of my host dad's colleagues and his family and we went hunting for 'shrooms!

All was going great, we were finding some lil shroomies, and then all of a sudden I hear my host mom screaming "Pablo! Pablo!" (my host dad's name). It turns out, she had walked right through a wasp hive!! Despite getting stung around six times, she was a trooper and insisted that we keep mushroom hunting...in a different spot, of course.

At the second spot, we found un monton of mushrooms!! The type of mushroom we were collecting are called Niscalos and have lots of skinny orange circles on the top. I found some, too!

The last picture is my (adorable) host mom with all the Niscalos we scavenged...I know, we do well.

After we got home from mushroom-ing, we all got into clean, cozy clothes and had lunch: pasta with some of the mushrooms! It was delicious, to say the least.

Then, we slept. Or at least I did. I am always sleepy here!

Later that night, my host parents went over to our mushroom-picking partner's house for a mushroom feast. They told me it was going to be very boring for me due to the fact that they have a ten year old son and most of the conversation would be about work. So they were very understanding when I opted out.

They also told me that I could invite Karly over to watch a movie or something...which I did!

Karly and I made ourselves sandwiches (A+ housewife material). Then, Samuel came home. So we talked and hung out and had a really really really good time! We watched stupid YouTube videos and tried to invent our own boardgame and ordered pizza! It felt so much like home.

A little bit later, we heard the gate buzzer. Apparently, Samuel had invited someone, too! It was his friend Javi, who is nice. The four of us hunkered down on the couches and watched Project X in Spanish. I didn't understand the movie, but Karly told me that she didn't understand it even when she watched it in English.

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Sunday: Karly and I wanted to bake cookies but all the stores were closed so we couldn't buy the ingredients and ended up getting some coffee. That is all.

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Today- Monday. Ugh.

School felt crazy long and was extra not-interesting today. The highlight of my school-day was making cootie-catchers in math class with my friend Daniel who went on exchange to Fresno last year (#CaliSwag).

Another plus: I didn't have to go to my Spanish class (I actually regret this decision because I missed out on a crucial lesson- the alphabet).

Instead of sitting through a whole lotta "Mi llamo"s and "Soy de"s, I went with my host parents to the Centro de Juventud (I think that's what it's called) in Maracena.

The Centro de Juventud is basically a Boys and Girls Club, and my host mom thought it would be great for me to volunteer or take classes there because only Spanish is spoken there...I couldn't agree with her more!

When we got there, we met up with this guy who is in Karly and Samuel's class at school named Raul. Raul is apparently very active in the Centro de Juventud and was going to help me sign up.

I couldn't sign up today because I had forgotten a necessary paper at home. However, I talked with the head-dude and got a little tour around the place. I am most interested in volunteering with the little kids and taking the cooking classes. Everyone liked the idea of me helping out with the youngsters because I could teach them some English, some American traditions and songs (we have traditions?), and because they speak much more simply than most of the people I try to speak with in Spanish.

I am very excited to start!

Later, Karly, my host mom, and I rode the bus to our Rotary meeting. At the Rotary meeting, we were planning on chatting a little, receiving our monthly allowance, and taking off. However, Rotary decided not to give us our 70 Euro at this meeting and let us sit there for an hour listening to their budget for the month before telling us we could go.

Luckily, Karly and I only have to wait until Wednesday to get our money. Along with money, we also get free food! Everything an exchange student could ever want!

That is all for now, I am off to sleep.

Muchas gracias! xo

Me llamo Tessa. Soy de California.

Recently, I enrolled in a Spanish class.

I know that just being in Spain and being around only Spanish speakers will greatly improve my Spanish, but I feel that I don't know the grammar aspect very well and won't learn that just by having conversations.

So, I am taking a class.

I took a test to see which level I would be in (basic, intermediate, advanced, etc.) last week in hopes of scoring high enough to be placed in intermediate classes so I'd have class only twice a week as opposed to the four times a week if I was placed in basic...

Unfortunately, I suck at Spanish and am now have basic Spanish classes Monday-Thursday from 4:30-6:30.

Here is a brief summary of my first two classes:

-Hola me llamo ____. Soy de _______.
-Que tal?
-uno, dos, tres...
-Yo soy, tu eres, el/ella/Usted es, etc.

Pretty groundbreaking, right?!

Yeah, it's even easier than my English class here...forrealz.

My host mom said that I should really communicate to the teacher that I understand EVERYTHING and it's super facil, so that maybe he'll move me to the intermediate classes. She also told me that since it's crazy easy and it's 2 hours a day, four days a week, that I only have to go two or three times a week.

Hopefully, it'll get better (which I'm sure it will).

Also, I have been in Spain for almost a month.

LIKE WHAT?!

So in order to celebrate this momentous occasion, Karly, Robin, and I have decided to go shopping tomorrow! After our Spanish class, Karly and I will walk to el centro to meet Robin, go shopping, eat, and go shopping.

Needless to say, my monthly allowance for October from Rotary will be greatly appreciated.

That's all, folks.

Muchas gracias! xo

Day Trippin' (part two)

So yeah, this weekend has been pretty great! If you read "Day Trippin' (part one)," you'll know that I had a fabulous Saturday in Sevilla. Now, I will tell you about my awesome Sunday in Malaga.

Today, I went with Karly and her host family to visit some friends of theirs in Malaga, which is on the coast of Spain.

I was told we were going to the beach, despite the forecast for rain. So, as any good beach-goer would do, I put on my bathing suit, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and some shorts (I ended up changing into yoga pants though), and Karly wore basically the same thing. When we got to the house of the family friends, Karly and I immediately realized we were WAY under dressed. As it turns out, we were going to walk on the path next to the beach.

Now I still don't understand what to wear when yet, but these people confused me to the max. The women were all wearing blouses and nice jeans and the men were all wearing collared shirts. Karly and I on the other hand...well, we stuck out like a sore thumb.

After walking around feeling extremely awkward and out of place for a while, we got lunch- which is always the perfect way to feel less awkward.

The family friend man ordered all the food for the entire group without looking at the menu. It was obvious he'd been to this restaurant many times before.

Since I've been in Spain, I haven't tried a food I haven't liked. Today wasn't any different, but I don't like how the majority of the food served is fried. Everything we had today except the bread was fried. Delicious, but fried. It really makes me feel bloated and not have a happy belly.

To combat the crazy amount of fried food, Karly and I took a solo walk to explore the beach a little bit.

I touched the Mediterranean Sea for the first time!!

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Okay so I started this post like 3 days ago and I totally forgot what else I was going to say... basically, Karly and I ended up getting helado (as per usual) and then went home. Malaga was very beautiful.

I will try to keep writing as often as I have, but recently I have been either very busy or very sleepy (often times both).

That is all for now, I believe.

Muchas gracias! xo

Day Trippin' (part one)

A common question I receive at school when attempting small-talk is "What did you do this weekend?"

Normally, I respond with "I went out with friends and just kinda hung out."

Tomorrow, I will be able to say I took not only one, but two road trips!

But before I sat in a car for hours at a time, I had a little night out with Karly. It was pretty much the same as before (go to the city center, get food, get ice cream, go to botellon), but this time we didn't get lost! It feels really really good to actually know where I am. At the botellon, however, it was raining and there weren't many people, so it was kind of not very fun at all.

Karly spent the night at my house that night and in the morning we got ready for our adventure...

To Sevilla!!

My host mom had a meeting in Sevilla, so it was the perfect opportunity to explore Andalucia's capital city with my host dad, Karly, and Robin.

After we picked up Robin and my host mom's coworker who was also going to the meeting, we hit the road.

The drive was about 2-3 hours long (ugh), but totally worth it.

We dropped off my host mom and her coworker at their meeting and then drove into the city center.

First stop: churros con chocolate.

Now we'd all already had breakfast, but like, hey, we're in Spain- why not have a second, more unhealthy breakfast?

No reason at all, my friends.

The cafe we went to unfortunately did not have chocolate to accompany our churros, so we ended up with cafe con leche instead.

The before:

And the after:

Lemme tell you something- yum.

This fried dough covered in sugar creation will knock your socks off. You've probably had churros at the fair or Disneyland or something, but those are no competition for traditional Spanish churros. Seriously. Sorry America, Spain does churros better. Way better.

After stuffing ourselves with caffeine and sugar, we took a walk to explore the beautiful city of Sevilla. We saw the cathedral (the biggest in Andalucia):

And of course posed in front of the cathedral:

We saw these horse-drawn carriages everywhere! I guess they're like the Spanish equivalent of gondolas in Venice.

All the while, my host dad was telling us history of Sevilla. It was super interesting...I wish I remembered it all! After walking around for a while, we went solo into the apparently famous shopping street(s). Where we came upon this...churros con chocolate!

And of course, since we hadn't gotten the full experience the first time due to the lack of chocolate, we just had to order them!

The before, round two:

And the after:

And not a single regret.

So we walked some more. And some more. And some more. Finally, it was time to meet back up with my host dad...we had tickets to see the old Muslim palace!

I couldn't even begin to explain the beauty and intricacy of the palace, so I'll just give you a few pictures:

Now keep in mind that I'm kind of a crappy photographer and that these pictures DO NOT do this place justice in the slightest.

But like...wow. This palace is crazy beautiful and intricate- and people actually lived here once?! Like what!

To make up for that last terribly written blurb trying to describe how rad this palace is, I will give you a few more mediocre pictures of the palace garden,which was equally beautiful.

So beautiful! (Lame word, I know...but give me a break- it's been a long weekend).

Not much happened post-palace. We got some lunch (which we totally didn't need because of the double churro-ing), picked up my host mom and her coworker from their meeting, and drove home. We passed the city where the Pionono was born (the pionono is a type of pastry originally made for a pope!). And we saw some flamingos.

Yes, you read that correctly. Flamingos.

These guys fly in from Africa and chill out at this lagoon. Right now there aren't many there, but still- flamingos!

Perfect for our Flamingo Domingos (keep an eye out for an upcoming #FlamingoDomingo on instagram).

So that was our Saturday!

Muchas Gracias! xo

P.S. "Day Trippin' (part two)" will be all about the second half of my weekend!

OH!

I totally forgot to include this in my last post, so here we go!

I have enrolled in a Spanish class!!

You may be thinking, "Why take a Spanish class...in Spain?"

I'm taking this class at a school down the street from mine because I really want to become as fluent as possible, as quickly as possible. Also, my host mom told me that one of their past exchange students took this class and her Spanish improved immensely and she even made new friends. 

Today, I had to take an entrance exam to see what level I'd be in (Karly was there too because she's also taking the class!). 

The test consisted of 60 multiple choice questions and a 150 word essay. There was also a small talking portion, but I don't think it was a test- they just needed some information. 

All in all, I feel like I did okay! I mean, I was super stressed and freaked out about it, but I think I'm a-okay. 

Hopefully, I will score high enough to get into the intermediate class instead of the basic classes. The intermediate classes aren't better solely for the difficulty level- they're also better because I'd only have class 2 times a week rather than 4 if I get placed in basic classes. 

The list showing who's in what class goes up on Monday...wish me luck!

Muchas gracias! xo

P.S. After I got home from my test, I was locked out! So, I took selfies!

I like to call this one "So close, yet so far"

Poco a Poco

Since my last post (which I wrote a while ago but just put up about a minute ago), everything has been pretty normal. 

Well, I'm guessing my days have been typical, but I still don't know what a "Normal Day in Spain" looks like. 

I've been going to school and talking with more people everyday and understanding more of my classes, too (barely). My host mother says I everything- whether it be Spanish, school, friends, etc.- is coming to me "poco a poco" or little by little. 

Which is totally true! I really like that phrase- poco a poco. 

Recently, I have been trying to get my American iPhone to work in Spain, but it has been a lot more difficult than I imagined (I'm not going to go into the gory details, but it's been a struggle). 

That's about it for now. The only amount of homesickness I've felt was about my school in California's homecoming. 

Homecoming is my favorite school event by far! We get to dress up for a week, build floats, have a parade, watch a fab football game (as well as powderpuff), and overall feel really excited about going to SHHS (as lame as that sounds). 

I'm not super homesick about it, but it's been the first time I'd rather be at home for a day than in Spain. 

That's really all that's been going on for me, really. Have a great day, reader. 

Muchas Gracias! xo

GO SAINTS!

Friday Funday

If you were to ask me which day out of the 15 and a half days I've been in Spain has been the best, I'd have to say Friday, September 20th (yesterday). 

Along with marking one month until my 17th birthday (am I really gonna be 17?!), Friday was the last day of my first week if school in Spain. 

I know that surviving a week of school doesn't sound like a reason to celebrate, but when you had a week like mine, it sure as hell is.

School was actually kind of good on Friday! Besides having my economics class (I literally understand nothing), I enjoyed myself. I'm actually a little excited for some of my classes this year!

Something amazing happened to me at recreo- a girl came up to me and said that her and some other girls wanted to be my friend! It was so crazy!! So I went over and talked to them in my broken Spanish (they also practiced their English with me a little) and I think I made real friends...like, by myself (usually I'm introduced to people by others, like my host brothers). We exchanged numbers and talked about having lunch together sometime! I couldn't stop smiling. 

After school, I walked home with Karly (Samuel didn't come to school because he had a big fat English test outside of school that day). I forget what we had for lunch at home, but I remember I liked it (on account of that I like everything that I've eaten so far). 

When we finished our comida, I finished The Catcher in the Rye. I don't think I completely understand the story, but I liked it a whole awful lot. 

When you finish a book, it kinda feels like your life has no meaning. So, I texted Karly. I went over to her house and we used this fancy exfoliator that smells like apricots that we bought at the pharmacy. 

With our faces feeling fresh, we just hung out in her room for a couple hours. We oogled over IOS 7 (the new iPhone update), showed eachother pictures of our friends from America, and made plans for our night out.

We were a little nervous about going out to the city center that night because this time, instead of having my host brothers with us, we'd be going alone. 

Having almost zero idea as to where we were going except knowing which bus gets us there and back, we embarked on our adventure. 

At about 9 o'clock, we walked to the bus stop in our cutest outfits and waited for the 22 bus. 

AKA the wrong bus. 

Little did we know, we got on the bus that takes us back home, not the bus that gets us into the city center. 

After taking a massive detour and getting off somewhere we didn't recognize (we would've stayed on longer until we were deeper in the city center, but it was the end of the bus' line). 

So, we walked. And walked. And walked.

To be completely honest, we were very lost.  

Eventually, we found a free wifi hub and could Google Map us to the nearest pharmacy (Karly was getting mad blisters and needed some bandaids). 

On our way to the pharmacy, we saw a sign spelling out "Centro" with a big arrow pointing left. Thank God!

While following the arrow left, after we stopped at the pharmacy and picked up some Disney character bandaids, we ran into what at first looked like a concert. 

Once we got closer and swam a little way through the massive crowd, we saw something that completely mystified us. 

It wasn't a concert, it wasn't rally, it wasn't a wedding, and it wasn't a funeral.

It was this. Don't ask me what "this" is, because I'm not sure, even after further explanation. 

And it wasn't just in one area, there was a full procession. 

My pictures are awful, but at least you can kind of tell that there were a ton of people and that the evenf was Catholic. 

And let me remind you that Karly and I still had no idea where we were or even where we were going. 

This morning, when talking with my host mom, she told me that in Catholic countries (like Spain), people are very devotional to the Virgin Mary. She also told me that the procession I saw was a celebration of the Virgin of _________ (I forget), which is very special to Granada. 

Anyway, Karly and I finally find the city center where we've been before. We were so relieved to actually know where we were! 

Next stop: food. By now, we were starving and in need of some tapas. 

Of course we couldn't decide where to go and ended up wandering around for another hour. But it's okay because we had even more adventures! Like passing by a guy writing poems on a typewriter and giving them out for free. I haven't translated mine yet, but it's beautiful all the same. We also walked through the Moroccan alleyway. (The picture isn't from last night, but I wanted to include an image of the place anyway.)

One of the vendors saw me looking at a pair of cool flowy hammer-pants type pants and started talking to us rapidly and shoving the pants into our arms and saying to buy them and how great they were. At first, I thought he said the pants were €2, and I was ecstatic! But then I heard "doce" (€12) instead of the initial "dos" and changed my mind. Even though we said "no, gracias" countless times, he still was pushing for those pants (even lowering the price to €10). Still, we said "no, gracias" and finally got away. 

After walking for another 20 minutes, we finally decided on a place to eat. We ordered our drinks (sparkling water for me, diet Coke for Karly), and looked at the tapas menu. 

All of a sudden, I hear the most annoying ringtone! Then, I realize it's me and my brick of a móvil. 

On the other side of the call is my host mom, telling me that Samuel's friends are going to the botellon (the place where it's not illegal to drink in the streets) and that I should meet them there. 

Of course that sounded great, except for the fact that I had no idea where the botellon was in relation to where we were eating. My host mom told me to ask someone where Hipercor was because not many older people know about the botellon. 

After I hung up, we ordered our tapas. Along with the chicken wings and french fry dish that came with our drinks, I ordered the paella and Karly ordered the garlic chicken. Both were delicious. 

And you can't just skip dessert, right? Right! So we got yummy ice cream cones. We asked the man working at the ice cream place where Hipercor was, and he told us to take a left then take a right. 

Well, he told us "Go down for a while and then take a right...no, left. Then walk a little and go right."

The precision and detail of his instructions were mindblowing. 

What do you think happened next?

If you guessed that we'd get horribly, miserably lost for another hour, you'd be right!

Geez, it was bad! We were so exhausted and stressed out. 

Karly kept telling me to call Javi (one of Samuel's friends) to help us get there, but I didn't know what to tell him as to where we were! She ended up asking some guy who told us to follow the crowd of people...and whaddaya know, we got there! 

We were so relieved! Luckily, we saw Javi almost immediately and got with the group of people that I knew...or at least recognized. 

FINALLY!

It was a little strange not having my host brothers with me, but it was so much fun that I forgot all about it. 

We met these two girls who were so nice and funny and they ended up introducing us to so many people! It was crazy fun. 

At about 2:50 AM, Javi told us we were going home (which was good because it was starting to get real cold). 

Friday was by far my favorite day in Spain so far. I don't know how to end this post. 

Oh! The moon was gorgeous! 

  

(Yes, I know they're awful.)