And.... Scene! That's a wrap, everyone!

Scene 1-- The Good Kind of Teacher:

Them on the first day of school: Hi! Do you understand very much catalan?

Me: Very little, but don't let that deter you, I will just catch what I can.

Them: OK, perfect, I will make sure to pronounce things fully, and speak clearly, etc.

Me: Thanks! That's perfect!

Them: *actually does what they said they were going to do*

Me: *understands a good part of what is going on in class* *is very happy that the teacher isn't making the whole class wait on me.*

Scene 2 -- The Less Good Ones:

Them on the first day of school: Hi! Do you understand very much catalan?

Me: Very little, but don't let that deter you, I will just catch what I can.

Them: OK, perfect, I will make sure to pronounce things fully, and speak clearly, etc.

Me: Thanks! That's perfect!

Them: *pronounces things clearly, etc., but checks in with me after every sentence, no matter how insignificant*

Me: *smiles apologetically at the rest of the class, because we have now spent 6 hours trying to get me to understand something I would have figured out on my own five minutes later* 

Me: *leaves class slightly exasperated about how slow that was, while still understanding that the teacher was, actually, trying to help*

Scene 3 -- That One Teacher:

Her on the first day of school: Hi!.....

Her: *waits for a couple of seconds to make sure I fully understood* 

Her: How

Her: *waits for a couple of seconds to make sure I fully understood* 

Her: Are

Her: *waits for a couple of seconds to make sure I fully understood* 

Her: you? (Continues in this manner)

Me: *can hardly understand her because it is actually difficult to understand someone when they talk 7.344 times slower than a snail moves.*

Her as soon as her back is turned to write something on the board: huble shomotalfid ancu hitlando.

Me: *can understand even less because it is actually difficult to understand someone when they talk at 7.344 times the speed of light.*

Me: *leaves class frustrated because I not only didn't learn anything whatsoever, but because it was not at all apparent she was even trying*

Scene 4 -- The Music Lessons :

(Note: this scene has two parts : Pt. I : the Flute Lesson; and Pt. II : the Piano Lesson.)

Part I: the Flute Lesson

My host sister: This is the American girl who is staying with us, she's taking flute lessons, and Castillan Spanish is best for the moment.

Me: *grateful that she had shown me where to go, and introduced me exactly as we had discussed* Thanks! And hello! I would like to let you know that I don't know very many music terms in Spanish.

Flute Teacher: that's ok, we will figure it out fine!

Me: Awesome!

*after lesson*

Teacher: see you next week!

Me: yup.

Me: *thinks the teacher is great, but remembers why I quit flute in the first place*

Part 2: the Piano Lesson

Me: Hi, I am the American girl staying with Neus's family, I am taking piano lessons, and for now, Castillan Spanish is best. 

Piano Teacher: great! I here you already play piano a bit.

Me: *explains my piano history*

Me: *plays the one song I know still*

Teacher: oh! You still know how to play! I kind of figured a break would have meant you didn't know any songs!

Me: *glad I exceed expectations, as opposed to falling short of them*

*after class*

Teacher: have a nice week!

Me: *absolutely loves the class, and can't quite remember why in the world I quit piano in the first place, seeing as it is amazing!*

Scene 5 -- The Home-Coming

(If looking for a realistic interpretation of the play, insert a version of this after every day of school and music lesson and other excursion)

Me: Hello! I'm back from ------!

Whoever is home at the time: how was it?

Me: exhausting, but great! The people were really nice, and I managed to say "--------" without messing up!

Them: well, it's normal to be exhausted, and I'm glad people were nice.

The family: *laughs hysterically at whatever the latest event of the house is*

Me: *happy to be at the house, because it is starting to feel like home, and everything is familiar*

Scene 6 -- the Night Time Conversation with Life

(Note: I am not, in fact, crazy. I simply needed to format internal thoughts to the play, without the use of asterics, because I am sick of them)

Life: how's this whole 'abroad' thing going?

Me: good, though very lonely at times...

Life: you were warned it would be.

Me: I'm well aware, but the last couple of days, I have been finding a good routine, with which I am really happy.

Life: that's good!

Me: yeah, yeah it is... I also get a lot of hope from other people's blog posts from when they were abroad... Most of them say that at about 5 months in, everything starts to feel normal, and gets easier.

Life: oh, you have got plenty of time gurl, you've only been here two weeks!

Me: I know... I am going to be fine :)

Me *already regretting the use of asterics* *drifts off to sleep contentedly, knowing that I have a lot of time to make friends, learn the language, and other wise immerse myself in the culture*

THE END

The Best Day

I know that this blog post is uncharacteristicly soon after the last, but several blog-worthy things have happened of late. So before I get to this posts namesake (please leave comments about whether that was the correct use of the word "namesake") I will tell about the last two days. 

The night of the last blogpost, I went with my host family on a picnic. Having little understanding of the language, I made out simply that we were walking and that it was a very short walk (if you have read the last blog post, you know, as I do, that this could actually mean that the walk is quite a long one). So we set off (just the kids, the parents drove with the food) and as we walked to the other side of the village, I told my host sisters (both of whom are currently applying to go abroad next year, one to the U.S., one to Denmark) about the application process. I was so focused on the conversation and trying to use my limited vocabulary to convey fairly complicated ideas, that I did not notice that we had abruptly come out of the town, and into the farmlands. It was getting to be dark, but we walked without much problem in the dusk, our laughter ringing out over the fields, filling the cool night's air with happiness. I understand how pretentious that sentence was, but it was one of those moments that made me appreciate life. Another of those moments came a bit later, when it was truly dark, and we were looking for a way to get light without wearing the glaring head lamps that we had brought for the walk. Instead we were putting them in plastic cups, which created fun, colorful, not-to-harsh lights. My five year old host brother's "lamp" glowed particularly well, and then we realized that that was because he still had water in it. We managed to salvage the battery, and got a good laugh out of it as well. 

I will skip the next day, that is to say, yesterday, because it was a hard day, and I have decided that this will be a positive post only.

Today, I woke up to the joyful sounds of my two youngest host siblings yelling at each other downstairs. When I went downstairs to inspect, I found them squabbling in the kitchen over whether to have the TV volume at one level or the other (the volumes in question being less than audibly different). 

Soon, both of my host parents were also in the kitchen, and a nice conversation about the cartoon characters of the household's favorite show was in full swing. I managed to contribute a bit, something I was very proud of, considering the infrequency with which I do that these days. 

After sneaking some extra Nutella, my youngest host brother and I played a game, where one person draws on a white board and the other guesses what it is. The upside to this game: does not require a huge vocabulary. The downside: neither of us are very good artists. After much laughter over how silly my drawing of a bee was, I settled down on the patio with a Harry Potter book, (my main source of comfort here in this strange land). 

Midday passed lazily, with my grandmother's beautiful piano playing in the background, and a simple lunch of cheese, tomatoes, salad, and hummus. 

At six-o'clock, I tried yoga for the first time ever. The teacher was very nice, and while I had no idea what she was saying for the most part, I watched what others did, and recognized the words for "right" and "left". It was surpringly difficult, but more than that, it was a good excuse to relax and not talk for a bit.

At dinner, my host sisters and I laughed so hard we couldn't breathe at several incidents that have occurred since I arrived (only some of which had to do with me). 

To wrap up the evening, we sat in the living room and laughed at a cheesy TV show for about half an hour before heading to bed.

Today, was the best day of my exchange so far, and I wanted to share it with you all!

Thanks for reading!!

Finally a moment to think

This moment feels like the first moment I have had to myself (long enough to form a coherent thought about my experiences) in a week.

The start of the insanity was last Wednesday, the day I finally had to say goodbye.

We awoke at some way-too-early time and drove to the airport where we were met by some of our closest family friends. We sat down to coffee and chatted for a bit, until it was time for me to go through security. I was far too excited and tired for many tears, and everything had not yet sunk in. I went through security, waved one last time to my parents, and headed off to my gate, and then to New York. 

Once at JFK, finding AFS was not too difficult, and I met the other eager-eyed AFSers with whom I would travel across seas. 

The next three days were a blur of rules, security lines, airplanes, trains, and  a fair amount of waiting around. 

*Fast forward to Saturday, when I finally met my host family, after so many emails, and soooooo much time waiting. *

Honestly, the first thing I noticed about my family was that they were somehow shorter than I pictured, but they are so very nice.

The car ride from Barcelona to the very small village passed without too much awkwardness, since I managed to keep a semi-constant very-stumbling conversation going with my host sisters.

When we arrived in the town, the European-ness of it registered the most in my overwhelmed mind. Complete with narrow cobblestone streets and people talking everywhere, I don't think I could imagine a better place to be immersed in a European culture.

Their house is BEAUTIFUL and so full of life that I am never bored. With five host siblings, and a constant stream of other people (family, friends or others) there are always people in the house. 

On the second day with my host family, I skyped with my parents. I am not too ashamed to admit that I cried like a baby the whole time. The length of time that I will have to go, and the difficulty of trying to connect with people who don't speak my language caught up to me upon seeing their faces and my house. I am constantly reminded that this emotion is normal, but that does little to make it easier :)

Since then, I have met my class, though not yet started school, and met countless  other people who live in this town.

This reminds me. The first full day I was hear, I got an invitation from my host parents to come with them for a short hike with a few friends. Apparently "short" is 2 and a half hours and "few" is about thirty. However, it was amazing! We hike up to the very top of a small mountain, where a small church was nestled into the rock. We took a picture with all of the participants of the hike, and everyone sang a Catalunian song as a flag of Catalunia was flown.

Apparently, this was something that people were doing all over the Catalunia in order to show their support for Catalunian freedom. It was intimidating and awesome all at the same time.

At this point, I am very nervous for school to start, because I think this will be by far the hardest year of school in my life so far. 

I will try to blog more regularly as my life here (hopefully) settles down. 

Thank you all for bearing with me through  the process up until now, I can't believe I finally made it!