Monday, November 16, 2009

3 weeks

So the past 3 week have been pretty good. 3 weekends ago I went to Cordoba for the weekend, and walked around Cordoba alot on my own, which was good for me just to get a break from my host family and to do some thinking. I stayed out till it got dark to see the Mosque and the city at night, which was pretty fun. I also happened to see another little ´´parade´´ which they do carrying like a float, of a saint, from the church to somewhere else and back. This one was way bigger than the one I saw in Sevilla. That following week of school was incredibly easy since 2 of my teachers were in Germany so I didn´t have their classes, that monday was a holiday because of halloween, and we went to the movies instead of going to school on one of the days. Here they don´t celebrate halloween like we do, here it is just an excuse to dress up and drink, (however I was in Cordoba so I didn´t get to do that) and the movie i watched was Agora which is not in the U.S., that I know of but, it´s about a Philosopher in Alexandria, when the Christians desrtoy the Library of Alexandria. 2 weekends ago I went out with my friends friday night, we went out to a bar for dinner, and one of my friends yelled at some lady, ´´Hey we´re missing 2 sandwhiches.´´ Her response, ´´I´m not a waitress.´´ That was hilarious, we then went to Botellon which we always do, this is an interesting thing, It is a site in the city where practically all the teenagers go to drink till about 4 in the morning. I´m responsible, and I am not allowed to get drunk so I have been careful, but every Friday everyone is there, and the police block of the street so cars can´t drive through, and the police just like supervise even though the majority of people are under age and drinking. The next morning I went to Portugal and saw a castle, the food there was amazing! but the accent was really hard for me to understand...but i could understand it. Then that Saturday night I went to a discoteca which is where teenagers go to dance, and It was really fun, I went with some friends from my soccer team, and afterwards we went to eat turkish food at 3 in the morning, I got home at about 4 in the morning.....(not a problem). Last weekend was the GREATEST. We had an optional orientation in Granada. So Friday night I went to Cordoba with my family, and I got up Saturday morning has churros for breakfast with my host father, then I left at about 10 in the morning for Granada (alone) by bus. The funny thing was there were 10 Americans on that bus, me and 9 college kids who were studying in Madrid. Sadly they were Californian and one of them was our lovely stereo-type, ´´OMG you did not hook up with him! EWW!!! he was like so gross!´´ good thing I had my Ipod to drown that out for 3 hours. On the way to Granada I passed 4 towns and 3 of them had castles (don´t get to see that in the U.S.). I got to Granada and met up with Chris and Lisa in the bus station, we then waited for Petra, Philipp, Birita, and our AFS volunteer Stephanie (who is American and has been living in spain for 12 years). We got everyone together, gave oue kisses on the cheeks and went to the hostel. That night we walked around Granada, but since the AFS volunteer from Granada got suddenly sick, (he has holes in his lungs so every once in awhile he can´t breath.....) our guide was a tourist map and ´´MAN SENSE.´´ That night we walked for at least 45 straight minutes to get to the top of this hill that gave us a view of the sunsetting over the city to the right, and to the left was the Alhombra (a Fotress/Palace) sitting in front of the mountians, It was beautiful. We stayed there for hours, hanging out, taking pictures, (sadly I left my camara in the hostel) eating roasted chestnuts, and listening to the gypsies play music. After awhile we met Yitka (I have no idea how to spell her name but it sounds like that.) another AFS volunteer who is Chzeck (if thats how you spell it haha) and we went to go watch a flamenco dance. The theater had glass walls behind the dancers so we could see the lit up Alhombra in the background. (That is a good thing about living in Huelva, every city looks amazing compared to it, especially Granada, which is the prettiest city I have ever seen and i can´t wait to go back.) We got back to the hostel at 2 in the morning, but Chris, Philipp, and I stayed up. We watched as another group in the hostel would all be out in the hallway and when their supervisor came out to yell at them they would scurry back in to their rooms right as he opened the door, so he didn´t see anyone, and as soon as his door closed they all came back out....it was hilarious. at 5 in the morning we decided to go to bed. While laying in bed we talked some more (and about the really hot spanish girls we saw earlier but failed to find). At about 5:20 we heard some people outside are room, so I said, rather loudly, ´´Hotties come in here!´´ The voice outside said, ´´Come to the hallway please.´´ (in Spanish), and I thought OH NO we are in trouble. Turned out to be some rather drunk 19ish year olds who were just getting in, and their room was right next to ours. We talked awhile but they had to catch a plane with in the hour so they left (not before offering us a bottle of vodka......we didn´t take it.....Europe.....). The next day we went to a Picnic and 3 of the host families came, The best quote was ´´Chris, I think the U.S. has the best food.´´ Philipp, ´´What did you say!? No Austria has the best food!´´ ´´You ever been to the U.S.?´´ ´´You ever been to Austria.....?´´ So that was funny. We also learned that in Faroese they say somethings while breathing in.....which we agreed was the only language we knew of that did that. (that was the funniest thing of the entire weekend trying to talk like that, and with Chris saying Scooby-dooby-doo and me laughing while breathing in) Unless you count when I asked, ´´How do you say I want a beer in faroese.´´ and Birita misunderstood and told me how to say ´´I want to be here.´´ She thought it was hilarious imagining me saying that in a bar. (I now know how to say I want a beer in Spanish, French, German, Danish, English and Faroese. How to say, ´´Do you speak english, do you speak spanish (in spanish) do you speak german (in german) do you speak danish (in danish) do you speak french (in french) do you speak chzeck (in chzeck) and do you speak faroese (in faroese) after awhile we headed home, Birita and I went with Stephanie in her car back to Sevilla, where she took the train and my host parents picked me up on their way back from Cordoba. During the trip we stopped at a gas station, I asked, ´´where are the bathrooms?´´ to the guy working there, he said, ´´gentleman over there ladies over there,´´ (and handed Birita a key to the bathroom) I asked, ´´do i need a key?´´ He responded, ´´No, está open.´´ He said something in english to me.......even though the entire time i was speaking spanish. That is the second time that has happened to me, the other was in burger king when the cashier asked If my order was ´´for here or to go´´ (in english, though I was speaking spanish). This is because, I don´t really look spanish, and I have an accent therefore there is no way Im spanish. Just a bit interesting. Today I had school after getting 2 hours of sleep Saturday night, It was hard, and I realized that real life sucks and the AFS weekends are way better (and every AFS kid agrees with me haha). One odd thing about Granada was that now that our Spanish is better, we talked in English the entire weekend, I probably said 5 sentences in Spanish to my friends. Right now Philipp from Austria is my best friend in Spain, and I´m petty sure that he will remain a great friend when all of this is over. Chris, Philipp, and I talked so much that weekend about everything from hooking up in the U.S. compared to Austria, and how to survive a zombie apocolypse. All in all our group is the perfect balance, Philipp and I have a lot in common and Chris.......Chris is a character, I can´t describe him just because he is so different (weird and very random) but it works. We talked about how many different ways there are to say have sex in english (we got 9) (and 3 for hooking up). The truth is there is so much I want to say to express how it feels hanging out with all these people from around the world, but the only way to know is for you to do the same. At this point in my life I don´t know if I will learn any more languages, but it seems wrong not too when I´m friends with Philipp for examle and he speaks English though I don´t speak German. But for now, I just have to survive school, keep working on my spanish till I can chime in when i want in groups, and just wait till the next wonderful AFS weekend (only one more month!).

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