PICTURES

I'm So I haven't posted in a little while, mostly because I haven't had a whole lot to write about it. It has been requested that I post some pictures of my town and life here so here goes.

Alright, from the very beginning. This is the train station in Madrid, where I was with AFS. 

These last three are from the second or third day when I hiked up a mountain with a group of friends to support Catalonian independence.

9/11 in Barcelona where they "celebrate" the anniversary of the day Catalonia lost the war against Spain. As you can see, it involves festive costumes.

Selfies with the sisters :)

Paella is as good as you've ever heard and better.

The childrens and the grandpa at a birthday. They're SO CUTE!!

The back porch.

Playmobils galore!

A neighboring town. Gorgeous!

Yay for beach days!

Panallets: sweet little candy-like treats made of sugar clouds and happiness. 

My class and I did this fundraiser where we sold baked goods and chestnuts to raise money for our end of school trip.

The beautiful Montserrat cathedral.

SAGRADA FAMILIA (aka another gorgeous cathedral)

The next pictures are some of my favorite from this (very European) town, enjoy!

So we ended with a nice sunset, ain't that sweet? 

Ok, so those were some of my favorite photos of my time here thus far, I hope you enjoyed them and I really will try to be more punctual with my blogging.

Adios!

Things Going Abroad Has Taught Me

• Flying internationally with 20ish other students with equally heavy luggage and equal clueless-ness has very few perks.
• One of those perks is that friends are made quickly under that kind of pressure.
• Shared interest helps too.
• Friends don't necessarily need to speak the same language, smiles and pointing to food is really enough to connect about.
• The Zurich airport is stunning.
• The Madrid one, not so much.
• AFS orientations are fairly the same even internationally.
• Spiral staircases are really hard to lug luggage up.
• Unpacking your clothes, toiletries, etc. makes a place feel like home pretty fast.
• Not too fast, of course.
• European plugs are a pain, or I guess just the conversion.
• Starting school in another language/country/culture is very stressful.
• People are never as bad as you think.
• Being bored for hours upon hours upon hours of classes provides a lot of time for doodling-skills improvement.
• Not enough, however, to produce any actually good artwork.
• Harry Potter rocks.
• Smells can be really reminiscent of home, and can cause a huge amount of heartache if, say, your having a bad day.
• Letters that your parents may have written WILL bring you to tears every single time you read them.
• Hot chocolate is oh-so-much better in Spain.
• The holidays in other countries, however different, are often still pretty rad.
• I can use basically any word I want (see above "rad") while speaking english, and people think I am sooooo cool.
• I do not want to learn English as a second language, its really hard.
• What having siblings is like, the good, and the really-really-oh-so-very-much-not-so-good.
• How to sit my butt in a chair, work for three hours, and get exactly no words written.
• Just because "Spain" is associated with "warmth" does not mean that it doesn't get butt-freezing cold here in the winter. It does.
• A good scarf is essential for keeping warm.
• A good scarf is also great for fashion.
• Pizza is universal.
• I like running.
• There is such thing as too much nutella.
• There is also such thing as too many 1000 year old castles, although I have not yet hit my limit.
• Sometimes, the differences between people go beyond "cultural differences", you might actually not get along with them. 
• And that's OK.
• Just don't be a jerk.
• Because then the exchange student you were a jerk to might write about you in her blog, and no one wants that. 
• Making lists is a very fun pastime for a friday night when you are dead tired and just want to eat dinner and go to bed.
• If you just want to eat dinner and go to bed, get your butt out of the chair where you are sitting writing a blog, go make dinner, and then go to bed.
• It is very important to wish your blog-readers good night before leaving them hanging with a non-captioned list.
• It is OK to break the rules occasionally.

Halloween Doesn't Exist

Dear Halloween,
     I am writing to you today to tell you that, in the course of my study abroad here in Catalonia, I have discovered that your reaches are more limited than I had previously imagined. In the stereotypically American way, I had assumed that the holiday I celebrate was somewhat universal, and have now learned that no, thank you very much, it is not. In fact, the people here are actually a little bit offended when others bring up Halloween, replying with a rather haughty, "No, it's Castanyada."
     What is Castanyada? you ask, shocked to hear that you are not quite so powerful as you would have liked to believe. Well, I'll tell you. Castanyada, for those of you who speak Catalan, is just what is sounds like: The Celebration of Castanyas (chestnuts). People eat copious amounts of these delicious, slightly musky nuts in the week coming up to Castanyada, as well as Panellets (I don't know if all these capitalizations are necessary, but I'm gonna keep on keepin' on until someone tells me I shouldn't and seeing as how I speak English better than the whole town, I don't think a lot of intervention is coming my way). Panellets are made with ground nuts, sweet potatoes, egg, water, and sugar, and are formed in to little cookies that are either spheres, mushroom-shaped, or in logs. They are then coated in whatever you want (the most typical and possibly most delicious being pine nuts) and baked in the oven to absolute cookie perfection.
     So all of that is the more traditional sense of the Castanyada, but what it means to us modern-folk is all of that, plus a huge party on the 31 of October. Now, hearing what I've heard about Spanish parties, I was a bit apprehensive about going, but I did (because EVERYONE goes) and the one thing I wasn't expecting happened: I had a lot of fun. They play a mix of English music (which is great because people just keep asking me if I understand and then look really amazed when I say I do) and Spanish music (which is great because it's spanish and great). I asked my host parents what time I should be home by, and was really, really surprised when they said 3:00am, sorry for the early curfew. But then, somehow, wandering the streets of the town, and dancing ridiculously with friends, the hours passed by quickly, and I was so surprised when 3:00 came and I was one of the first ones to leave. Anywho, (I don't know how to spell that word, but I really want to use it, sooooooooo) I had a really good time, and any anxiousness I was feeling completely dissipated.\
     Although you may be feeling a little jealous of all the attention I am giving another holiday, this is actually good for me, because it prevented me from being homesick for the lovely Halloween party that takes place at my house in the U.S. every year, even though at times I do still miss it.
Hope you had a satisfactory turn out of young-ins dressed as hooligans this year,
Love always,
Fogg

Dear School,
I GOT A 7 ON MY SPANISH TEST WOOHOO!!!!
Love/Hate (you know our relationship),
Fogg

Dear Catalonia,
Your vote for independence is coming up quickly. Although your people are divided as to whether or not you should have independence from Spain, yellow bandanas are going up all over town in support for you, all over the region.
I understand that the politics behind this all is very complicated, and that, as of the last time I checked, the vote is actually illegal, but I think it is worth a shot to try.
Also, you have a very interesting culture as far as languages go. I'm sure you already know this, but I am just learning and it is still quite surprising at times. Although the vast majority of the people here speak Catalan, if there is one person in a group who needs to speak Spanish, everyone switches. Also, if you speak to someone in Spanish, people will answer in Spanish. These are both very well and good, until you are trying to learn Catalan, and people are not very compliant... I am working out tricks to get people to speak in Catalan to me (by the way it is a beautiful language), and I am learning more and more everyday.
Thank you for hosting me,
Fogg

Dear Readers,
I cannot quite believe the statistics (I have over 1,000 page views from places like China, Germany, Russia, Canada, and Spain) but I would like to thank you all for reading my still-slightly-clusmly attempts at blogging, and for all the amazing comments that make my day(s). Be sure to check back semi-regularly (seeing as how that is the frequency with which blogposts appear)!
Love,
Fogg

Studying Abroad: Not As Bad As I Made It Out To Be

I feel like that last post needed a follow-up:

I am not actually miserable here.

OK, now that that is out of the way, I'll tell y'all a little about my orientation that I had this weekend with AFS. I do mean just a little, seeing as how they are all more or less the same.

So here are the highlights:

- laughing till we cried about the stupidest things.

- scavenger hunt through the streets of Manresa at night

- really violent games of ninja

- awkward sex-ed lesson involving a condom and a banana

- ping pong tournaments (I was one of the better players *tosses hair annoyingly*)

-and semi-edible hostel meals

So that is kind of it... It's always really fun to see my friends from Germany and

Austria, and they teach me words in German (by far the funniest being "antibabypillen" which means birth control pill).

Besides that not a lot has happened, I just didn't want to leave y'all hanging with that depressing post.

Adios!!

Welcome to Study Abroad, would you like a side of embarrassment with that depression?

So this week sucked.

The suckiness peaked on Tuesday when I sobbed hysterically in the bathroom at school for a solid half an hour, but since then it has slowly improved until earlier today, when I felt something snap and suddenly I'm unshakably happy.

So as much as I am joyous right now, let me give you an idea of what it really feels like to have a really bad day while abroad.

Imagine waking up and being disoriented because you aren't waking up in your bed. Then all at once you remember that not only are you not in your bed, you aren't in you room, or your house, or your town. You are even in the right continent. But you still somehow have to get out of bed.

Then you go downstairs and remember that these people eating in the kitchen that definitely isn't your own don't even speak your language. But you still somehow have to talk to them.

When the morning finishes you have to walk out of the house (which despite not being your own is more comforting then school) and go to a new place full of more people who don't speak your language. Then you sit through hours upon hours of classes and just try to will the minutes to slug by faster because you don't know how much more of this you can sit through. Then on a rare burst of inspiration you focus very hard on what the teacher is saying and (oh, joy) you get one word out of five. Let me tell you, when they are explaining meiosis, one out of five is just not good enough.

Then after what feels like a veritable eternity, you get to go back to the house where you feel mildly more comfortable and you get to do homework. Maybe you go for a run, just to try not to think for a little while, because you know that if you do, the pain will come back and you will do almost anything to avoid the feeling in the pit of your stomach that screams in protest at everything around you, saying that it is wrong, that you should be home. 

Then, finally, you get to go to bed, and you stare at the ceiling of the bedroom that isn't in your house, or your town, or even your continent, and you try as hard as you can to hold back the tears that threaten to explode from you, and after an infinity passes, you get to sleep.

Ok, that was all a bit dramatic, and really, days THIS bad are not frequent (though Tuesday was really bad).

I do have some favorite pastimes for classes:

1. Think of ways that I could go home without having to do any paperwork (none of which work well, because they usually involve me getting harmed in some way)

2. Making a dot on the paper for every second that goes by and try to draw something out of the dots.

3. General doodles.

4. Homework for other classes.

5. Thinking of blog post ideas.

Alright, now onto the funnier (for y'all) part of the post. Where I tell you all the embarrassing things I've said/done since I've been here. And can we appreciate that I am actually admitting to all of these things?

-When I said Texas wants to commit suicide instead of Texas wants to secede.

-When I didn't get the date of a test right, and I had to explain to my teacher that I really wasn't ready to explain meiosis IN CATALAN in front of THE WHOLE CLASS.

-When I thought that two people were dating and turns out they really aren't.

-When I (pretty loudly) mixed up the word for 'bottle' and the word for 'penis'.

So that is one very small portion of the embarrassing things I have done, but some I'm really not in the mood to relive right now... So instead I'm going to tell you about one of the things that made my day that actually happened while I was writing this post.

So my sister were in my room and we were kinda messing around, and then I said something sarcastic and Neus made this one face that everyone hates and literally without missing a beat Nuria swat her on the back of the head at the exact moment that I smacked her in the forehead. It was so perfect and little things like this make it worth.

I realize as I am rereading this that it does paint a pretty dismal picture of my time here, but I promise I am actually having a lot of fun. I definitely don't have only bad days, and slowly but surely I am making friends here and I think that I have come a long way with my Spanish, even if it sometimes feels like I'm spinning my wheels a bit...

Adios amigos!

1 Month, 7 points, and 11 things that are weird.

First, let's all celebrate for a moment that I have, in fact, survived the first month of my exchange. Yesterday marked the day that I had been IN my town for a month. Unfortunately, yesterday was also the day the marked my first illness since I got here, and I am currently sitting in a ball on the couch trying really hard not to swallow. My family is so nice about it, and I realized yet again how truly lucky I am to have this amazing of a host family.
But despite my sore throat, I am actually in very high spirits, since it feels like I have now been here for a tangible amount of time, as opposed to a fraction of a fraction of time... And it is beginning to really feel like home, although I remind myself everyday how truly amazing this is, and that I am actually doing this, that it isn't a dream.
I have received my first test back, which is pretty cool (even if it was a math test, and that is kind of universal). I got a 7 out of 10, which unlike in the U.S. is a really good note. 10s are pretty rare, no one in my class got one on this test, I think that 8 was the highest note, and seeing as how I barely understood the questions, I was very happy with this score. I also took a Spanish test, which I haven't received back, but I am not expecting to have done nearly as well... I will report back later.
That last paragraph was, by the way, the '7 points' part of the title, now to the things that are weird. (Side note: AFS doesn't love the term 'weird', but I don't love the term 'different' and it's my blog I'll call things weird if I want to.)
1. They buy Nutella in the biggest freakin' container I've ever seen.
2. They do math in pen, and use a BUNCH of white-out, instead of just using pencil.
3. They say that the times that classes start are really strict, but when people roll in 5 minutes late their totally fine.
4. The calendars have the week number, like Week 33.
5. People know me, and whenever I walk out of the house, I hear about it later, like "Oh, hey, I saw you the other day on your bike" and I just kinda look at them like "....". (please insert my face making the face of your choosing).
6. People don't really email, even for business-y things.
7. I was supposed to meet my friends at 4:00, and at 4:05 we were texting each other about where to meet.
8. The way they tell time. (8:30 is "two quarters of 9")
9. When I chatted with my parents for two hours, they were like "that's all?" and I was like "you want me to call them back?"
10. It's pretty common for people to say "Yeah, we don't really eat dessert", but then eat chocolate at basically every meal.
11. They speak spanish.

Ok, I was kind of kidding with that last one, but a couple of days ago, my brother comes in and I go "Oh, hey!" and he says, "Hola", and I literally though to myself "Oh, yeah, they speak spanish."
Ok, that about all, love you guys!!

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