Orientations Galore and The Worst Day

Hey guys!
So this past weekend, I went to Barcelona with AFS to have our post-arrival orientation, but I will tell you about that later...
Right now, I want to tell you about last Thursday.
Unfortunately, it was awful.
I woke up in an amazing mood, so happy to have had a dream about nothing more than waking up in my bed from back in the U.S. It was so simple, and yet so joyful, until I realized that I was not in fact in the U.S. but here, in Spain. This happens pretty frequently that I dream of being home, but it does not often put me in such a towering temper as it did that day.
School was fine, no particular incident stood out, but just the general feeling of loneliness took hold of me, and for those of you who have not yet experienced this kind of loneliness, it is tough. It makes it hard to see anything good about anything, which makes it hard to feel motivated to focus in class, which in turn gives a lot of time to think, which is the downfall of happiness. So there I was, literally doing the multiplication of how many seconds there were until I could go home, stuck in a hot classroom, with people scowling at me from all direction, listening without understanding to what and unforgiving teacher was droning on about in the front of the inattentive class. OK, looking back, the room was probably cool, people were almost for sure not scowling, and the teachers are usually pretty nice, but you have to understand how hopeless it feels in the moment...
Then I got home, and normally that cheers me up right away, seeing as how I love my family here so much, but that day being in the horribly horrible mood that I was in, not even doing the laundry with my little sister could cheer me up (I realize that sounds obvious but it is normally really fun).
Anyways, I went to bed in a bad mood, which is never a good idea, but I suppose sometimes there is just no choice.
OK, now to the happier part of life.
The AFS "orientation" that took place this past weekend was good, albeit a bit boring at times. It also was not doing so much orienting, as allowing a chance to chat about stuff. Turns out, other people also find it crazy how huge the shampoo bottles are here (more on that in the next post). It was actually really hard at first, because most people's classes are a bit more open than my class here, and I felt like I was 'behind' in the making friends department... Anyways, that was instantly remedied when I met Paige, a girl from California, who was also having a bit of trouble making friends, and we easily bonded over how much that sucked. I also met Peter, a boy from Germany, who spoke very good english (with the most amazing british/german accent!) and the three of us spent lots of time chatting with each other and some returnees who came to the orientation. Hearing their various stories of success and difficulties was really helpful, and definitely one of the highlights of the orientation.
As far as organized activities go, we went over the rules of AFS ("no drugs, no driving, no hitchhiking" -every AFSer ever mutters in their sleep, seeing as how often that is drilled into our heads), we also did a lot about non-verbal communication, which was actually pretty cool. Another activity, where we were chatting about our contact frequency with home, we split into groups. Now, this is the second day, and so apparently the volunteers had seen enough of our spanish to be able to split us up into groups based on our level, and in my group, it was just me and one other girl from Serbia (who happens to know the exchange student staying with my dad in the U.S.. What a small world.) and we were with the chaperone who doesn't speak english, since apparently we both knew enough spanish to get on with out english. Let me tell you: I understand pretty well, and everyone tells me that I've learned so much and what not, but it definitely feels like I'm making 0 progress from day to day.
Anyways, near the very end of the orientation, our host families came to meet us, and we (the students) had a couple of hours to hang out with our host siblings. I was joking around and Indian wrestling (less violent than it sounds) with my host sisters and we already have a bunch of inside jokes so we were all laughing pretty hard, which made me yet again grateful about my host family placement, seeing as how many of the other students were mostly chatting with each other, instead of with their siblings.
Speaking of host siblings, a couple of nights ago, my host sister discovered PhotoBooth, and so, naturally, a full-blown photo shoot happened in my bedroom. (These are the two pictures from a BUNCH, mind you).

Ok, so we're all super cute, (in that last one I was kind of done, or maybe just fixing my hair, can't really remember, but regardless... I love my host family!!)

I also can't figure out how to put this text to the side, so I guess we like centered text, don't we (glares at you through two screens and probably the atlantic ocean depending on where you are).

But you won't have to deal with this for long, I'm about done.

Next blog post, y'all can expect an update on my visa situation, as well as a list of things that are different from the U.S. 

All righty, thanks so much for reading!!

-Fogg