Picture Update!

This is a picture of my dear friend Francesca and some juice. But this isn't just any juice- this is two liters of straight-up juice nectar for 85 cents at the Supersol down the street from our bus stop. Francesca and I recently started teaching an English class four days a week after school, and on the way home we always stop at the Supersol and get whatever juice is on sale and either crackers, fruit, or cookies. We have to eat lunch at school and we never seem to be full after (probably because our families eat at home and we just pack a sandwich for after school), so this is a good way to tide over our hunger until dinner at nine.

The classroom that serves as our English teaching room. It's in the beauty school right below our high school (literally right below- we have to walk by it on our way to gym), and the students that we teach go to the beauty school, too. Francesca and I teach two classes two days a week, one Mondays and Wednesdays and the other Tuesdays and Thursdays. So far it has been a source of stress as the students are very unpredictable about when they show up- if they show up at all. Half the time I end up going home at 4 instead of 5 because no one showed up. But hopefully we'll get a steady flow of students in the next month and everything will be easy and all that jazz.

Though we're not even a month from Christmas, one of my favorite Navidad treats is called Mantecado (pronnounced "mahn-tay-cow") and we went into a small town about an hour and a half from Malaga to go to this special shop just to buy mantecado. That may sound a bit ridiculous, but these things are so good it was totally worth it. I don't even know how to explain what Mantecado is. It's not like anything I'd ever tasted before. It also comes in different flavors, though my favorite is chocolate with these little chocolate chips that are so good! It's kind of like a cookie but more crumbly and it has the consistency of brown sugar I guess. Maybe I'll bring some home.

After we bought mantecado we went with my host family and Isabel's mom and brother and their families to a restaurant with all these awesome old artifacts. I made Ana pose with several of them and each time she chose a seated apparition and pretended to be asleep. She cracks me up every day and is so much fun! I'm so glad I have a host sister, especially one as funny as Ana. 

Francesca and I were very sad on Halloween because we realized that there was no such thing as an American Halloween in Spain. So, we decided to create our own! We bought all the different American kinds of candy at the Supersol and dressed up as Americans (which pretty much just meant carrying around a small American flag and singing American songs). Our friends found it super entertaining and couldn't stop laughing the entire night.

The eve of Halloween- this was in the Centro at probably 11 or 12 at night. The girl on the left is Inma and the girl on the right is Patri. They're both friends from school and some of the sweetest people I have ever met. We stayed out til 2 that night, which was surprising considering it was a Monday night but we had both Monday and Tuesday off for a holiday. We like to joke that Monday was to get us prepped for partying and Tuesday was to let us recover from the partying. Either way we got a four day weekend just for Halloween. I'm not arguing with why we got it.

A little something I like to call "Language Cock Block"

So, apparently I'm not posting on Mondays or Thursdays. Or maybe I am and I just screwed this week up. Either way, I apologize for the lack of updates this week. I just know you all were sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to hear from me (that was sarcasm, by the way). I'd also like to warn you that though my mood and well-being has greatly improved since last week, I'm still a bit crabby. If you want a more detailed recollection of how I've gotten over my severe case of homesickness/bitterness, feel free to email me.
Also, I'd like to mention two very important events that are surrounding today- my One Month, which was on Tuesday, and my birthday, which is on Thursday. I will be 17 which is a big deal- it means I'm finally legal in the wizarding world! Yay, me. If you happen to have any presents or letters or cards ask my mother how to address them, as I haven't the foggiest how to do it. I know you need the address itself and then there's something to do with my host dad's name and I don't know what it is but my mom does so just ask her. Not that I expect presents or letters or cards. Honest, I don't. Though some birthday wishes would definitely be appreciated considering I'm alone in a foreign country.
Something that's been on my mind lately is how much of a language barrier there still is between me and everyone else in Spain. Before I came here I was sure I'd be able to understand everything everyone said. I was a pro at Spanish- never mind what everyone was telling me about the impossible Andalucian accent, I'd kick butt and wow all those Spaniards with my language skills.
Boy, was I wrong. Sure, my Spanish was more than adequate in the US, but in the big scheme of things I'd taken four years of language from non-native Spanish speakers in Oregon public schools and could barely pick out fragments of words in sentences spat at me my first week here. I adapted the bad habit of smiling and nodding, not knowing what I was agreeing to. It was embarrassing, to say the least. But it proved those theories stating that immersion in a Spanish speaking country was the best way to learn the language.
Now, a month later, I've drastically improved but I'm still not fluent by any means. My friends and host family still need to speak slowly and choose their words carefully in order for us to have a normal conversation. Even with that, being surrounded all day every day by people and books and signs and all that written or spoken in a completely different language is one of the most exhausting things ever. Sometimes it gets me down, and I feel like I try so hard all the time but with no success. Other times I look back on how much I've improved and I feel good about myself. It's a new feeling for sure. Language has never been a problem for me- I was always that annoying kid who looked forward to the spelling bee and corrected my teachers on their grammar. Here, my nine-year-old host sister is constantly providing me with the right word or verb conjugation or even phrase.
I've found ways to adapt to not being able to communicate, though. I am now probably the best charades player you will ever meet, and I will never again feel ridiculous about making insane gestures or word combinations in public. I've figured out that I can just get straight to the point to avoid making vague conversation (the hardest kind of conversation to make and, I've realized, the most pointless). I'm figuring out how to use my Spanish as well as I can and even communicate without words. Until I'm fluent, though, all I can really do is watch Phineas and Ferb in dubbed Spanish and write down awkward translations on top of all my tests.

Just In Case Y'all Were Wondering...

This is how I am today.

To Be Honest...

Quite often I feel like my entire life is composed of comparisons. It's like instead of seeing colors, I see only black and white- new and old. For the most part I'm excited by all the differences. I love taking the bus from the beach to the beautiful architecture of the Centro, buying two fresh baked baguettes with a 1 euro coin from my coin purse, and the sheer honesty here. I'm approaching these changes with optimism. I'm keeping my mind open.
But, as those of you who know me well know, I struggle with optimism. Recently I've had a hard time finding anything but negativity in this foreign country. I feel like a news anchor for the international news- only focusing on the bad when there is so much good in the world around me. To be honest, the mindset I'm in right now disgusts me and I force myself to smile and say I love it here. I force myself to think I'm happy when really, I'm frustrated by the slurry Spanish and the unspoken social rules that I'm just expected to know.
Remember when I mentioned how much I love the pure honesty here? Well, even in this pessimistic state of mind I still appreciate it. One of my favorite things I've heard here was said by my friend Sandra after she asked me how I was one day and I answered "good!". She said, "You don't always need to be good. You don't always need to smile. If you're having a bad day you can glare at people and not talk because it means you get to wake up in the morning with the bad mood out of your system. Just act how you feel because keeping it bottled up just makes it worse."
She's right. One part of being honest is being honest in how you feel, not just in what you're telling people. It's OK to have a bad day as long as you don't take those emotions out on others in a harmful way. It's OK to want to go home and just watch 50 First Dates with your little sister, more than you want to see a world-famous piece of architecture. It's OK to frown all through school because it isn't something you wanted to do. It's even OK to complain to your mom for nearly an hour about how much you hate your professors and how all the girls are gossiping about you as an American and you don't know why because you thought they were your friends (thank you for that, by the way). Having a bad day is OK. Pretending you're not having it is not.
I'm learning how to stop cowboying up when I don't need to, which is hard considering I've been raised on that motto. If there's one thing that's different about Spain that I can enjoy through the good and the bad, it's the honesty- it allows me to be myself. And that is something I can live with.

See life through my eyes with my mind's commentary

 The Centro- Technically called "Centro de Ciudad" but everyone just calls it "El Centro" because it's just downtown. It's always crowded, especially this main road (where no cars are allowed to go) but the architecture is incredible and I can't stop going back! My new favorite after school activity is going to the Centro and exploring the side streets.

 The Centro again- still the main street. Shops line it (including an H&M!) but most are very expensive. I'm still looking for a cute thrift store or something where I can buy my clothes for cheap. I haven't bought anything yet but I'm sure I will in the next couple weeks.

 Me in front of the bull fighting ring- the most famous landmark in Malaga. Search the city up in Google and this is what you'll find. I have yet to actually visit it, though my host family tells me we'll be going to see a bull fight while I'm here. I've heard they're a bit gruesome, but I simply have to see ONE!

 The neighborhood my school is in- called El Palo, it used to be where the old fishermen live so it's notorious for being one of the most run down parts of Malaga. Luckily I'm only here during the day so it's not scary, but there's definitely lots of graffiti and litter everywhere. Even my school is kind of run down; it adds to the character, but what a change from Summit.

 Another view of the bullfighting ring with the city and the sea in the background. I feel so lucky to be one train away from walking along the Mediterranean Sea; I'm an ocean child and it feels so good to be back living so close to the crashing waves. Not that the waves here crash so much as they weakly slap the sand (or rocks depending on where you are) but it's good enough for me.

My school IES El Palo. It's rather large though this picture doesn't accurately depict it; there are 5 stories though only 4 at a time are accessible. That doesn't make any sense but that's how it is. There's also not a parking lot because no one can drive to school- those who can drive mopeds which are super popular (and freaking awesome!) here. I have 6 classes a day but 11 classes in total, and every day I have a different schedule. Confusing but at least they're all exactly an hour and I have them all with the same group of people so we just walk around in a herd except when I go to my bilingual classes.

 This is the beach within walking distance of my house! It would take about an hour to walk but with the bus it's only 20ish minutes. It's a rock beach which I like because it doesn't have any of that dirty imported sand. There's a prettier beach (reminds me more of the Oregon coast, to get to the one that reminds me of the California coast you have to walk west) if you walk east for a bit, but this one does just fine. The water is so calm- it's almost like a lake. I've also heard that on super clear, unsmoggy days you can see Africa in the horizon.

 This is facing the east. There's a nice row of sea-facing restaurants if you follow a sketchy path that takes you nearly through the water, but it's all worth it. I went there a couple of nights ago with some girlfriends and we ended up walking all the way to Playa Virginia, a mile or more away! It's nights like those that I'm so grateful for the bus system.

 The cathedral in the center is breathtaking. I've seen it both at night and during the day, and it's on my list of things to do here to go and tour it. It's huge and I'll probably have to dedicate an entire day to it but that's part of the fun! I took this picture on an outing with some friends that included a kebob wrap and being nice to hobos. I don't think my Spanish friends understood that concept but they were pretty cool about it. That's what I love most about Spain so far- the people are incredible! Making friends is so easy because everyone is so open.

 These two above photos are from a mini procession through the Centro one evening. These are very common especially during Easter week- which here is called Semana Santa- when day long religious marches happen. They wear those hats that, in America, are associated with the KKK but here are a symbol of faith in God and Spanish tradition. My host dad told me I might get to wear one which I think would be both an incredible experience and a funny thing to take pictures of.

 My current host family has a vacation home in Marbella, a tourist city on the outskirts of Malaga. It has both a beach and a pool in addition to the house itself which can sleep up to 10! The day I went here we stayed at the pool and barbequed, but I'm hoping to go back to go to the beach. It's different than the beaches in Malaga because the sand seems cleaner- most of the beaches here are man made so it's easy for the sand to end up as dirt.

 When we went to Marbella my host sister, Ana, was in charge of showing me around. This is the pool that we spent the day at- I fell asleep in the sun, but luckily my host mom, Isabel, covered me up with a towel to avoid getting sunburnt. Ana and I swam for a bit too, but the pool was very shallow. I could touch with my knees and still breathe the whole time! 

To be entirely honest, I don't know the name of this place. I do know, however, that it's on the way from the Centro to the train station. Here everything is judged by its distance from the Centro. Buses are either entering or exiting it. It's actually very close to the center, so it proves to be a very convenient reference site!

Time Warp

I never knew time could be so fickle. I've been here ten days, though depending on the minute that time could feel closer to ten weeks, ten hours, or anything in between. The time doesn't pass by quickly here, but it sure doesn't drag on either. The days I spend in Malaga, Spain seem to wax and wane unpredictably.
Sometimes this time warp is good- like when I can't tell how long I've had my friends here because we're already so comfortable with each other. Or when I can mostly understand the teachers but they still don't make me do any work. Or when I can just hang out with my host family and I don't feel like I have to do anything extra special, but I'm still new enough that they get to ask me questions (which I like answering).
However, it can also affect me negatively- like when I think I can go to bed when everyone else goes to bed, but I can't because I'm still a bit jet lagged. Or when I hop on the bus and think I know Malaga really well but instead end up stranded 30 minutes away from my school with ten minutes to get to class. Or when my Spanish "skills" deceive me and I end up saying "yes" to something I didn't want to do.
All "good" and "bad" aside, however long the time has been that I've been here has been incredible. I think one of the reasons my hours seem like minutes and my days seem like weeks is that I have so many new things jammed inside my head. Apparently when your brain can't take anything else in, it loses its knowledge of what "time perception" means. And it makes sense that I have no room left- I am learning about culture, people, Malaga, Spanish, customs, the world, and even Greek (I am taking 5 language classes in case anyone was counting). But most importantly, I am learning about myself in relation to all of those things.
Regardless of how quickly or slowly the time passes, the time I've spent here has been time well spent. Every day I am grateful for something new, and I realize how lucky I was to have certain things back home as well. I like the contrast (proof that I am my father's daughter) and look forward to more of it in the near, or far, future.

If you'd like to know anything specific about my exchange experience, email me at hannahleahgold@gmail.com or message me on Facebook.
Keep calm and travel on.

Home Tour Malaga: First family

Featuring way too many stairs and a great display of my superb Spanish skills. Sponsored by the color orange.