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!

2 weeks

Let's pretend that I'm a diligent writer and that I didn't forget to blog for 2 weeks in a row.
That means that you already know about the end of summer school, my visit with some out-of-town family, my AMAZING trip to Iron Springs Resort on the Washington coast, and my general laziness in between all of those.
Since my last post (that being one week ago, since I keep up with writing so attentively) I have but three note-worthy things.
(These are not in chronological order.)
1. My visa arrived!!! There was little question before as to whether or not my visa would be granted, but actually seeing my passport with the sticker on it was extremely reassuring.
2. Karate has been awesome, which while not out of the ordinary does provide a good break from my mind, which is constantly in a state of stress/excitement.
3. I had a family reunion. I love my family dearly, and they were all very supportive of me leaving for a year, although I did get the classic (O_o) look from some when they heard exactly how long I will be gone.
Besides these things, steady progress is being made on things such as clothing-shopping and the collection of little gifts for my host family.
I am trying my best to take advantage of all the little moments that I still have in the U.S. and I try to not cry too much about all of the goodbyes I have made/will be making in the next couple of weeks...
Thanks for reading!

6.... oh wait, 5 weeks.

So sorry about missing Week 6, in my defense, I flew to San Francisco that day.
Once in San Francisco, my mom and I took a couple of hours to try and figure out the BART/bus system in what seemed to be a whole 'nother world from Seattle. Once to our hotel, a cute Japanese hotel right in the Japantown of San Francisco (it was also walking-distance from the consulate, which was necessary for our sanity as far as transportation goes).
The day after we arrived, we set out towards the consulate, our backpack full of important-looking documents and approximately 3,214 copies of each of them. We arrived outside the consulate about an hour before our appointment, and they prefer that you do not come in more than 10 minutes early, so we looked around and found a Mediterranean food hole-in-the-wall place. We sat down in the little shop, and I had the best breakfast EVER (incredible iced chai latte, olives, hummus, pita, babghanoush, and cake for desert!).
We entered the matchbox-sized lobby 11 minutes early, and joined the sizable (for that space) crowd of people all ready waiting anxiously. We got everything in order, and had my appointment. It went well, with just a couple things needing fixing.
Afterwards we headed home to our hotel, and we enjoyed the beautiful view out of our window.
The rest of the trip went very well, we both got cute haircuts and spent a day on the beach.

Fastforward to this week: my birthday!!
Due to my immense skills of procrastination, I was able to put off planning anything until it was almost too late. Lucky for me, a close family friend of mine was hosting a party a couple of days before and I decided to bake cupcakes (dry) for all of the end-of-july birthdays (two).
It was enough of a party for me, especially since I am almost completely booked for the rest of the summer getting ready for my departure.
The actual day of my birthday was spent with my dad and involved a delicious lunch from Panera, a nap (him), homework for summer school (me), and a slightly rushed dinner in order to get me off to karate in time.

That's about all that has happened to me, I imagine I will be busier in the coming five weeks (is it just me, or is that an altogether too short amount of time?)

Thanks for reading!

7 WEEKS!

Well.
Let's see here about the last week of my life.
Turns out, besides the daily summer school routine, the three-times-a-week karate (which I love) and the semi-constantly worrying about where I'm going in, oh gosh, 49 days, my life is really, really boring.
Amidst the large, overly warm (it's been 90 degrees more than once in the past week. Let's get it together Washington) void of boring that has been my life, one glorious day had a (small) reason to celebrate. (That last sentence may have been just a bit glorified, but what is life without a little poetic license?)
Anywho, this day to remember was simply the day that the long-awaited visa papers came from AFS and we finally had everything(ish) ready to go for the Visa Application Day, which is coming up quickly.
Turns out, the Visa paperwork was infinitely less complicated than AFS makes it out to be, although it was not a sans-stress process (see earlier posts).
Alright, well that is about it for this week.
I will post more next week and I suppose the countdown is officially on and I can finally quote Sherlock Holmes, though in this case, I won't be chasing down a criminal...
"The game's afoot!"

8 WEEKS??!?

I realize that that sounds like not a lot of time, but it seems to be creeping up on me suspiciously quickly.
I have said my good-byes to too many people, including Molly, who I recently saw at the airport (a great surprise) and Olivia, who is (*sniff* *sniff* 'oh goodness, don't cry.') going to Utah for forever. These goodbyes bring the imminency of the departure date closer and closer and before I know it, that fateful day will be upon us and I will have to wave goodbye one last time to my friends and family.
Anyway, nothing much has happened concretely since I last posted, but all of a sudden I realized that in two months exactly, I would be gone. I think I have had this idea that everything just ends as soon as my countdown ends. Now, unfortunately, this dilusion has ended, and the reality of what I will have to wear after this countdown is setting in. That's right. Packing.
Oh, dear goodness, packing. You have to understand, normally packing is a two-hours-before-I-leave kind of activity, and I almost always forget something or another. This time however, I have made a list, and I think I will do it right, choosing what is really the most important etc. etc. etc.  Let me tell ya, (yes, 'ya' is now an acceptable variation of 'you', unlike 'u'.) this is muy stressful.
Ok, that is about all for today, I will keep y'all (again, I think that that is acceptable english) posted as to what goes on, and hopefully figure out how to put pictures on here.
Thanks for reading. :)