Two Minor Epiphanies

I'm sorry for posting so often, but I think that what I'm about to say is important. I have had two (minor) epiphanies this week.

Epiphany 1)
I am like a baby. Everyday I'm exposed to news things. I am constantly learning language, society rules, and mannerisomes. I mostly copy what to do from my parents and siblings, and everyone around me is quick to correct if I make a mistake or if I can do something better. It's amazing that I'm absorbing information at every second of every minute of every day. The whole world, and things that more experienced members of the population find mundane, are innately fascinating for me. I can't talk very much, and sometimes it's hard to get my message across, but I just need to wait a little longer for it to get better. I know that what I am learning--right now, without even realizing it or meaning to--will prepare me for when I've been in this life for a little bit longer and I can communicate and behave as an adult. Some day soon, I will be a full-grown Spaniard.

This one isn't major enough to be a minor epiphany, but it deserves to be mentioned. The other day I was in English class, laughing my head off because my teacher can't make the hard 'x' sound. So, she'll go like: "Okey, classs. Turn to paje twee for ey-er-size A!" and I'd just crack myself up from the corner of the room. Then I realized that I can't always get the hard 'g' sound. Heh-neral probably sounds pretty funny to my English teacher, too, but no one in Spain has ever laughed at me before. Needless to say, I hung my head for the rest of the day and felt very humbled.

Epiphany 2)
The second one hit me as I was walking home from school. I'd made a routine by then--get out from colegio, walk to the main street, take my three cross-walks like clockwork, walk a bit more, arrive at home. One day, for no reason in particular, I decided to make a tiny change in my route. It was a minimal alteration: instead of walking under the cool shade of some building on the right side of the street, I decided to cross over to the left side of the street, and see what it was like to return home in the sun. I am so glad that I did. I was strolling along, looking at the path that I had obliviously taken countless times before, when I saw the faces of the buildings I had been walking next to.

There was a beautiful cathedral, just right there, just out of view. It would have been impossible for me to look up and appreciate the spectacle from my normal direction, but just from one little change I was able to see my daily life in a completely different, better way.

How does this tie in? You guessed it. Those who change their lives at a young age like mine will gain a wonderfully different view on the world. I'm learning a culture and a language--a whole culture!!! I can boast that I have friends not only from America and Spain, but from around the world with AFS. I have been connected with opportunities and outlooks that I never would have had access to if I had stayed in my small routine life in North Carolina, and I just know that somehow this will benefit me later on.

AFS has enabled me and more than 370,000 students around the world to share in this life changing experience. For that, I will forever be grateful.

15 Things I Have Been Asked Repeatedly...Since Arriving in Spain

Sorry for posting so often. I didn't think I would make this one, actually. It didn't occur to me that I would have a list of the same (ALWAYS THE SAME) questions I have been asked after I arrived in Spain, too. So, before I forget, here they are:

1) Have you been to New York? Europe sees America through the eyes of MTV, small town life, and Nueva York. They love it there. All of my friends have been, or want to go, or plan on (without doubt) living there when they are older. When I say that yes, I have in fact been to New York, they continue to ask me for how long, what did I see, what would I recommend. I swear they know the landmarks better than I do. NY isn't even our Nation's Capital, but that doesn't matter to Spain.

2) Do you watch Jersey Shore? At this question I have to resist hitting myself in the face. If you aren't familiar with it, Jersey Shore is a show on MTV that takes place on the shore of Jersey. A bunch of thirty-year-olds who are the bane of our society live together and talk about how much they party. Another big one is if life in the show Gossip Girl is anything like real life in the States. If you have ever watched the show Gossip Girl, you should be scared. I remember that I've read some sad statistic that MTV is broadcasted in more of the world than the national news. If all I knew about America was that we get pregnant at sixteen and cry if we don't get ridiculously expensive cars for our birthdays, I'd be a terrorist, too.

3) What, you're a Cheerleader! Are you in love with the Quarter Back? Can you do a flip? Were you Prom Queen? This is reality to them. No, we don't go to school to learn, we go for the football. Really, truly, all cheerleaders are beautiful and mean. I was Prom Queen (as a freshman) and the QB points to me while I'm on the top of the pyramid and then asks me to go steady with him. C'mon, America, get it right. Gosh.

4) Do you always eat and buy food on the streets? Jajaja, I've never actually been asked this one, but apparently this happens a lot to my American friends in Spain. I guess in movies Americans (usually played by Canadians) buy hamburgers from a street vender then refuse to sit down and eat like a civilized person.

5) Where are you from? "Los Estados Unidos." "While, obviously, but where in the States?" (I always get these mixed up. I'm actually really excited that people care enough to question me, but it takes a few tries for me to understand.) "Oh! Carolina del Norte." At this point they nod, like I have answered correctly. They like that I live somewhere where Spain has occupied. The only way I possibly could have answered better is to have said California or New York.

6) How long have you been here? Now I know that they're judging my Spanish. I think they get their answer from me confusing "how long WILL you be here" with the real question even after I finally say "one month."

7) How long will you be here? "A year." "Oh. No biggie. It's not that long." When I said one year in America, the person I was speaking with would grasp their heart and cross themselves. In Spain? A year? Meh.

8) Do you like Madrid? People really like asking me this in their broken English. I laugh and reply in Spanish to coax them into the other language, or, if I'm feeling generous, I'll grace them with an exaggerated Southern accent.

9) What kind of music do you like? This is important to them. I'm not sure why. Just answer "all kinds" then say yes to the bands they list so they think they have something in common with you.

These are things that I say often.

10) Where are we going? Donde Vamos? Eventually I learned to just go with it, my host family wasn't going to abduct me. "Hey, look! The Royal Palace!" "Yes, we're buying tickets." "...I knew that." I didn't. Buy, hey, the Royal Palace!

11) Where are we? "We're in a bank to pay the five dollars for your school." "...I knew that." I didn't. But, as I grew up a Girl Scout, I am always prepared with my purse to pay for my school and other random expenses. I think school is giving me a t-shirt.

12) What's your name? Quick, say your names as rapidly and slurred as you can! Okay: Garisidhwsa, Mercdhba, Johunodeuh, Quilsjs, Baniwetfo. It's okay. I wouldn't have remembered them, anyways.

13) What are we doing? This is reserved for school.

14) No, Gracias. No, Gracias. I would not like a fifth serving of pasta. No, Gracias, I do not want to smell your sandwich. No, Gracias. I don't care to decide if every boy in my grade is attractive or not.

15) Sí, Gracias. What else, really, can you say? Would you like a glass of wine with dinner?... ;)

Are you sure?

Oh, how quickly time passes! I've been here a month? Are you sure? But, when you think about it, one month isn't too long. I only have nine more.
Just want to remind everyone, I'm in Madrid, Spain as a foreign exchange student for the year with a program called AFS. Okay, good, got that down.
Some quick updates:

My Spanish is getting better. Yesterday I saw some friends of my host sister who I hadn't seen since my first few days, and they asked me if I thought my Spanish had improved. It made me realize: Well, yes. Actually, it has. I can speak with more confidence now, and I understand a lot more. I also get more of the accent, because I had been used to Spanish from South America, which is very different. Just don't count on an answer if you ask me a question. I'll probably laugh and say "Sí."

My English grammar is going down the drain. I spek...like dis..and I can't spell anymore. I'll be writing in English for no particular reason and I'll get to a word like 'surprised' or 'ticket' and I'll just stop and stare for literally a minute. What do you mean, sur-prised has an 'r' in front of the 'p?' Is it ticcet, tiket, tickit? The other day I misspelled 'chemistry' wrong about five times (I just did then, too) because in Spanish it's 'quimica' so I'm thinking that in English it's quimistry, then later than it's chememstrey. I'm scared for my grades when I get back home.

Being a foreign exchange student? Not really a big deal here. Everyone is more impressed that I'm from America than anything. Most of my friends have spent a month in England, or gone to camp in Germany or something like that. This is another of those 'maybe it's just because you're in Madrid' kind of things, because the citizens are used to foreigners on every street corner with all of the embassies and international schools. It's a pretty big city.

I can take the Metro. Alone. And walk around by myself at night. Today I walked the fifteen minutes to Sol to buy my books for school. Without the help of my parents. City Kid=Check.

Not everyone here thinks that Franco was such a bad guy. I don't really know why yet, but they seem to be in disagreement with the rest of the world's history books.

Everyone loves President Obama. I watched the first of the presidential debates on YouTube (it was on at three A.M. here,) because, yes, I know, I shouldn't be exposed to English for an hour and a half, but it's just one of those things that I had to do. I miss my campaign session TV. Until Governor Romney said in his schtick on the economy that he did not want to become as bad as Spain, no one knew who he was. Now the general public is pretty upset. All of the news papers absolutely slammed(took me four tries to spell 'absolutely' right) him in the International Section this morning. It was story after story about how much Romney messed up. If he is elected, his relationship here will not be a good one.

El Clasico was last night. For those of you who don't know, it's a soccer match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The match, on top of being very important for fans, holds a lot of political tension because Real Madrid (my favorite team) represents the government and the crown, while Barça represents the capital of Catalonia (a district of Spain) and how Catalonia wants to separate from Spain and become its individual country. This is a big deal here, and it is very controversial for all. I watched with my very enthusiastic host family and their cousins. I think a tie (2-2) was the safest result for the stability of the country.

Returning to politics, you may have seen on TV some of the crazy protests going on throughout Spain recently. I don't pretend to fully understand everything yet, and maybe I'll post on it when I do, but I know that the Izquierda (left) party is mad at the Derecha (right) government and all of the cuts that they're making to public funding. If you have seen them, you know that La Policia beats the crap out of the protestors. I had joked with some AFSers about going to one, just because it's officially (three tries) part of the Spanish culture. I mentioned this to my host brother while we were hanging out with some of his friends in a park, and suddenly we were headed to La Plaza Neptuno to see a protest.

Now, let's clear some things up. Las Manifestaciones are not violent or dangerous until really late at night, and the news channels purposefully show the bloodiest parts. If the police is going after you, it's because you were stupid enough to provoke them. It's not a full out battle-field everyday.

Something that surprised me was that they're not organized at all. It's not like the Executive Vice-President of the Committee for the Wealth of Public Education and the Security of Democracy sent out a Facebook message and was like, "Hey, everybody! Meet up at La Plaza Neptuno on the 25th of September from five to ten. Memorize this chant and don't forget to pick up your signs at the fountain!"

It's more like "We're mad. At the Government, at the world, Romney, the economy; we heard that there are some people at this place and we think we're going to go."


There are a LOT of police as you approach the Plaza. The flashing blue lights, black padded policia, guns, everything. The plaza square was packed full of people, but we stayed on the outside of the crowd where it was safer. Basically you just stand around, chant things, take pictures, maybe climb up on some windows and tie up a sign or two. I'm glad I got to experience it, and I felt super bad-ass for being a local protester in Madrid. Enjoy.

Protest

Man, do I feel bad for the tourists staying there.

Climbin' on some windows.

Hey to Perth, Australia!