Vivian in Spain: Spanish, School, Sports

I have been in Spain for two weeks. I don't want to count down my time here like I did for my departure, because I don't want to leave. This is one instance where the phrase "YOLO" could possibly be justifiable. Everything here has been great! I can't think of anything, really, that hasn't been fun, or interesting, or at least new. Of course, each day would be a lot better if I spoke better Spanish. My Spanish is not very good. I still have trouble with the difference between "mayor" and "mejor" and simple things like that. One day in my first week I mixed up the verb cargar "to charge," with the verb "cagar," and if you know what "cagar" means.... I ran around the house yelling "I need to cagar my phone! I need to cagar my phone!" I quickly learned the meaning of the verb. My host siblings thought it was very funny.

I know I'm strange in this, but I don't really get frustrated at my lack of language skills. Like when I'm helping my host family set the table and I can't remember the word for refrigerador, and I'm standing there going "ummm, ummmmmmm" and everyone is staring at me and the person I was just introduced to is thinking that I'm stupid and the teacher is about to call on someone else because I've been racking my brain for five minutes now, I'm not upset. I'm not embarrassed. I know some students who hate this part of exchange and are hitting themselves for not being able to do it. I don't mind. If I got frustrated every time I hit the language barrier, I would always be in a bad mood. Just imagine how hard it would be.

Everyone in Madrid speaks at least minimal English, so I have been able to get around. I feel like I'm speaking way too much English for my 'total immersion' method to work, but it's just the first couple of weeks. My host father put it a good way: we are using the swimming pool complex. You know, you throw the kid into the water, and they ether learn to swim or they die? Well that means that I'm drowning. I plan on cutting off my English life-lines at school and home this week or the next, but I can say I'm not looking forward to it.

School has been good. I wake up at seven, an hour after I would have in the states, get ready, leave the house at 8:08, lock up behind me, walk, ALONE, to school five minutes away and wait outside until it's 8:20. I feel courageously adventurous when I walk to school by myself. The first couple of days my host parents walked with me, but after that I figured it out on my own. I got minorly lost a few times, but it was fun to bravely trudge my way through the identical streets whose names I do not know. School starts at 8:30 and ends at 2:15. I like most of my classes and teachers, and all of the students are commendably helpful. I've heard that some people are having tough times in school, and I'm sorry for them, but maybe it's different in Madrid? Like, everyone stares at them and laughs and the teachers don't acknowledge that they don't speak Spanish. For me, literally everyone will offer to translate, explain, or elaborate. They say that I can study with them on the weekends, or barrow their notes if I want to. It's fantastic. They couldn't be better.

Here's my time table. The gym teacher came in on our first day of school and read through this confusing list (in Spanish) and we were supposed to copy it and figure out our classes. It was hilarious. The twenty-five kids in my class yelled at him to slow down and argued with colorful cursing. Class is a big fiasco in Spain. You call the teacher by their first names, and nothing is very formal. It's great fun. My new friends Elena and Manu helped me with figuring out what classes I had, and eventually just stole the paper from the teacher and wrote it on the board so the class could see. I was informed that this teacher is a little off his rocker.

Can I just say I love the fact that I have an actual complex schedule like in Harry Potter? It makes me feel very cool.

Here are my classes:

Mathematics: This is my main class. Try not understanding something in math class. Now try having it explained to you in Spanish. It's hard. In Spain, you choose a 'track' like math, language, or humanities, and you take set classes based on your choice. You don't get to change around like you can in America, which is different, and you have most of your classes with the same group of people. If you are a language major you may never meet the students on the math track, even if you go to school together for six years. Muy interesante. I'm on math track, class 4B. Four because I'm in 4 de ESO, B because B is more difficult than classes A, C, D, and E. (...what?)

Biology and Geology: The teacher for this class is great. He comes in then pulls his chair into the center of the room and we all crowd around him, sitting in each other's laps or on top of desks. He talks for the whole forty-five minutes of class (in America my classes were ninety minutes, and there were only four a day) and may crack open a book if we don't understand something. I really like the way he teaches because the students are engaged enough in what's going on that they are actually interested in what he has to say.

Classic Culture: I love it. How cool is it to study the Romans in a place that was influenced by them? Plus, I can actually understand what the teacher is saying! I know all of the myths from my childhood because I'm such a nerd, so I'm able to translate the words 'manzana' 'Persepóna, and 'Afrodita.'

Physics and Chemistry: I'm on math track, science focus, so this is one of the classes that I don't change rooms for, and the professor comes to us. I am so glad I chose to take Cultura Clásica instead of an additional course of deeper Physics and Chemistry. The profesora enters the class, settles down, and talks to us the whole time, very quietly and slowly. I don't understand anything. She gave us an evaluation test on the first day and I'm pretty sure I did not answer a single question. I did doodle a pretty mean looking solar system, though.

Physical Education: Jajajaja, this class is a joke. This is the teacher who's a little bit crazy, so at least the class is funny. Now, in America, the most athletic thing we do in gym class is run the mile and have free-time, so I'm not up on any high-horse. But we are a little bit better. I showed up on Thursday with my Nike gear, but everyone else was wearing tights and the clothes they would wear the rest of the day. We were sorted into groups based on skill, something that happens a lot in the first weeks of school here, and then we 'ran' around the courtyard. If you move your arms with exaggerated motions and breath heavy like you're tired, the teacher will think you are running. He is literally that crazy. The kids here totally know how to use this guy. It's impressive.

Catholic Religion: I signed up for this class because, when in Spain, you are Catholic. I didn't know that my other option would have been a free period with my friends. This class is sort of the class where you put the 'bad kids' who misbehave and fail every grade. The teacher didn't know I was American, so he started yelling at me, and there was no one to explain to him that I didn't speak Spanish because my friends had a free period, so I just stumbled along until he turned out to speak English. It's going to be hard to convince him that he should talk with me in Spanish. I know the basic information of the itinerary, but i'll have to be careful in this class. In an essay I started writing about how evil the Church was during the Inquisition, and I started justifying Luther, but then I crossed it out with pen and figured that probably wasn't a good idea here. My Religion teacher last year was a very firey Jewish man, so my view on the progression of history may be a little different...

Language: This is Spanish Grammar, same as English class in America. I don't want to talk about it. The teacher is nice, my friends can help me, but I asked my partner why I would ever need to know what an exclamative question was, and they were completely boggled. I have an exam on Halloween about a book in Spanish, so I should probably start reading it. We will not be going over the book in class. The exam is worth seventy-five percent of my grade. I do not speak Spanish.

Ethics: Philosophy. I might stay awake in this class as the profesora lectures about the true definition of past, present, and future when I understand what she is so excited about. Or when I know the meaning of life (there's a chapter in the text book about this.)

English: English! My school is technically a bilingual school, but that just means that English as a language is a required class. The students are pretty good in this class because they watch so much American TV, but the teacher is...not good. Her accent is hilarious. She sounds French with her English, her grammar ain't good, and she says "das reh" (that's right) after every student answers a question. She told me that I don't have to buy the book for the class or do the work, so I sit in the corner, far away from the others and read my Language textbook as I try not to laugh. I just have to take the tests. Tell me, what is the opposite of a quiet (person)? It was in a crossword, and it starts with C. Not loud, noisy, or even unquiet. Chatty.
...what?

Information: This is a computer class. I don't want to take it, but it was required with my track. It's on the sixth floor of my building, which is a lot of stairs, and it's all in Spanish. Luckily the class is easy, and my partner is nice.

History: Another one I don't change classes for. I'm not sure what the class is like, because the teacher has never showed up. We just hang around and talk during this time. The authorities know that we're in here without a teacher, the principle even came in once, but so far no teacher. No one knows where he is. No one cares. I don't see an immediate future.

Sports here are weird. We have a recess at school, where everyone goes outside and we eat snacks and the boys play soccer or basketball. The girls don't play. Girls only play 'soft' sports like vollyball. I actually have a friend, a girl who plays soccer for Atlética Madrid, which is amazing, but even that is just because she is so good. I can say I knew her when.

The only sport I could play with my school is vollyball, which does not interest me in the least. I may look into Flamenco classes or joining my host family's pool, but I live close to a great park that is beautiful for jogging. I'll need to run off that Foreign-Fifeteen.

Hey, guys. What does AFS stand for? No, not American Field Services. Another Fat Student! Jajajajaja.

So, to return to sports, I was at my brother's Rugby match last Saturday, which is not a regular game here either. My host father took me around and introduced me to all the Rugby-moms and Rugby-dads. There was a mom named Viviana! First off, everyone always says "que guapa!" when they meet me. They are literally calling me beautiful. It will go like this: "Hi, blah blah blah, meet Vivian!" "Ohhh, que guapa! You are so beautiful!" The first couple of days I sort of just bit my shock and nodded. Old people and my friends both. I know that they're not lying, because if they thought I was ugly they would bluntly say "Dios, you're ugly" and if they thought I was average the Spaniards wouldn't think it rude to say "Oh, you're not very pretty. I'm sure your host family was hoping for a prettier daughter." I guess they don't see blue eyes, blonde hair, or pale skin very often.

Anyways, I was at the Rugby match chatting with a mom. She pulled out her iphone and started showing me pictures of her sons who were playing at the moment. I thought this a very motherly, sweet thing to do. Another mom came over to us and exclaimed that I was just the most dazzling thing she had ever seen. "You will find a boyfriend in no time!" Seriously. They say this a lot. No one else here finds it creepy. I don't think Spain knows that I'm here as a student to learn, not to find a boyfriend.

The idea was sparked in the mom's head. Next thing I know she is taking a picture of me with her iphone. I was distracted by a Rugby-dad as I explained to him the lacross, the sport I play, is best seen in the film American Pie, so I couldn't stop her. (Once I say that they always know what I'm talking about.) She showed me a text message bearing my picture to her sons that literally, no joke, said this:

Hola! Te gusta? Ella es una chica
Americana y ella es muy linda! Quieres?

Hello! You like? She is American
and she is very pretty! You want?

Yep.

And now for photos!