Christmas in Spain. Yeah, I know, that was like, three weeks ago... no judging. It was fun to experience such a celebrated holiday in a different country, and the holiday-homesickness honestly wasn't as bad as everyone said it would be! I was only a little sad on Christmas Eve. I don't miss my real family yet, being as I'm a terrible selfish person and all, but I guess the main feeling I was experiencing was: "This isn't right!" We should all go to bed early on Christmas Eve, not dance until three. My mom should be giving me and my sister matching pajamas like every year and my dad making Mexican food and we'll leave cookies and milk out for Santa and open a ton of present tomorrow morning... I was just like, "Who are these people and why are we eating so much seafood!?!" But, luckily, I was able to remind myself of the AFS modo that nothing is bad, it's just different, and I had a lot of fun with my amazing host family.
Jamón and Pan. Ham and bread. The most typical Spanish food there is.
Christmas Eve, my host mother informed me, is the biggest of the festivities. (In America is it Christmas Day?) It's normal that all of the family gets together for a ten-course meal of various seafood, drink a lot, and generally enjoy being together. Rey Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, came on the television and everyone gathered around to hear his annual talk to the people. It's like the State of the Union Address that the president makes in the United States. Rey Juan Carlos spoke to us about the Crisis, the values of the everyday person, and what we can do to establish Spain as a strong international power. I think that the king did very well, but he could have cooled it down a bit with the head-turning-to-different-camera-shots thing.
I'm afraid to tell you that the Christmas trees in Spain are all gaudy and very flashy with a bashilion strands of different colored lights and dollar-store ornaments. And, since we're in the city, most of them are about three feet high. Remember, nothing bad, just different.
My family's Belén. In Spain the standard thing to do is decorate a nativity scene. Everyone does it. The important families have gigantic and grand Beléns, but everyone has at least something. Even if you're not Catholic. I guess it's fun for the little kids to play with. I had the chance to go to the famous Plaza Mayor to see rows of stalls set up to sell Christmas gag gifts and artisan hand-crafted wooden pieces for your nativity scene. These can get pricey, but everything is super beautiful and of amazing quality.
The present we got on Christmas Day.
The Presents we got on January 6th, Día de los Reyes, King's day. Today is the day when the three wise Kings arrived to visit baby Jesus or something like that. No one really knows here, either. Día de los Reyes is awaited by children because today, not Christmas morning, is the day when the real presents come.
Later that day we went to the Grandparent's house for lunch, ate more seafood, (it was all very delicious) and played Spanish Poker, Ching Chong. Ching Chong is a town in Spain. I tried explaining why that was so strange for me, and why I didn't place the name with the country, but my host family couldn't understand. And YES, the cards here are different. Fuuuun.
The next day we took a vacation to Sevilla! The city was incredibly beautiful. I was very impressed, but I must say that I still like Madrid more. The photo above is of the Plaza de España. A scene from Starwars was filmed there! (Don't worry, I took lots of pictures.)
We spent two nights in Sevilla, then packed up and drove to Cordoba, another little city in the South of Spain. My host family took me to an authentic Flamenco show. It was--I don't know how to explain how impressive it was. It was beautiful. It was emotional. It was something that I am so lucky to have experienced. We went to the intimate show on Spain's April Fool's day, Día de los Inocentes, and, to keep up with the holiday spirit, my host parents surprised us by bringing along friends from Madrid who happened to also be vacationing in Cordoba. The above photo is of the famous Mosque/Catholic Church there.
New Year's Eve! Spain does this really well. I spent the day studying, got dressed up at about seven, skyped with my family a little, hung out with host family until about ten, ate dinner at eleven, and made it in time to gather around the living room and watch the festivities in Madrid on TV. The tradition is to eat one grape for every two seconds leading up until the stroke of midnight, the dawn of the New Year. So, it's like, ONE! Eat a grape as fast as you can. TWO! Shove another one down, even though you haven't finished the other yet. THREE! This is super hard. I'm surprised I didn't die. FOUR! Now my host brother, with his eighteen years of competitive grape eating, is making faces at me, trying to get me to laugh so I'll choke and he won't have to share a bathroom with me anymore. FIVE! It worked. I laughed. I guess I was sort of late, but I swallowed a few grapes whole so I could catch up for the others. SIX! I look around to see the serious and intent faces of everyone working to somehow ensure their year's luck with an oddly dangerous foreign ritual. SEVEN! Thank God I peeled the skin off of them first. It's so much easier. EIGHT! What if you're allergic to grapes? What do you do on New Year's Eve? NINE! Oh, that's right, you eat M'n'M's. Or what ever the heck you want, as long as it's in a quantity of twelve. TEN! Oh crap. I don't have anyone to kiss at Midnight. ELEVEN! Nah it's okay, it's not a tradition here. I'm good. TWELVE! I'm still alive! I'm still alive! We all jumped up and kissed each other, anyways, because families here are very touchy. Later, at two in the morning, my host sister drove us to Madrid and dropped me off to meet up with my friends. We went to a party, had a lot of clean, safe fun, and then my host dad came to pick me up at about 4 30. I don't think that would happen in Durham.
Those crazy kids in Sol. The tradition there is to throw glass bottles into the air at midnight, which is stupid and pointless in every way, so I did not go. And it was raining.
More Sol
The clock!
Roscón, King's Cake. We ate a lot of this. I have a baby Jesus that was found in the cake to commemorate the experience. On the eighth of January I returned to a hard week of school. It's weird to see the '2013' date on my papers as I realize that the half-way-mark of my exchange is coming up soon. I think I'm having a mid-life crisis.
Feliz Navidad! Feliz Año Nuevo! Felices Reyes! I hope everyone is doing well. Keep a look out for a post full of pictures.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Grades: First Trimester
The man on the back of my report card is apparently Mr. Fortuny, the guy who my school is named after. I'm pretty sure my principle came up to me one day, looked me straight in the eye and told me he was a scientist, but my mom thinks he's the Spanish artist. My principle and I could have been talking about bananas and I wouldn't have known. Who knows?
Here they are. My grades from the first of three trimesters in school. In the end, I only failed four, which is pretty good when you consider that these grades also reflect my level of Spanish from my first three months, which was basically "hello my name is Vivian I like to run." Also, I never got any special treatment. I took the same tests as everyone else did, even in Spanish grammar class, and the teachers didn't go easy on me. I was graded on what I did.
Now, let me explain how different the grading system here is. Your notes are based on a scale of 1-10, not A-F, and 10 is the highest. No one gets a ten. Literally, no one.
(Well, I did, but I'm fluent in English...)
If you get an 8-9 you're the happiest person in the world. It's like getting a 100 in the States. A 1-4 is failing, but failing is super common. When none of the exams are multiple choice and they count for basically 75 percent of your grade, I don't see how anyone can not fail, much less get a 10.
If you fail...you fail. There should be some things called 'recuperations' coming up, which may help you raise your grade, but at the end of the year the cumulative average is what's important. So there's still a chance for me.
Here's where the US system doesn't match up with the Spanish one. If you get a 5-7, you're happy. If I got a D or a C in the States, I would be upset. I would cry. My parents would disown me. My friend got a 6 here, jumped out of his seat, and did a victory lap around the classroom. I suppose that a 5 isn't failing, and if you're not failing...well, why strive for the near-impossible? I'm happy for a five, although of course we all prefer 10s.
Geology: 4 I might be able to pass this one in the recuperations.
History: 5 What??? I passed that??? Okay...
Greek Mythology: 7 Pretty easy for everyone.
P.E.: 7 I would like to point out that gym class here is not the case as gym class there. As my American friend pointed out, here you actually get tested on how high you can jump or how fast you can run. There's no plan to encourage improvement. If you can't do it, you fail. If you didn't understand the order you should do a handstand, cartwheel, and forward roll in, you get a 7.
Ethics: 8 This one, I think, is the product of my own cleverness. I was informed early on that you are graded on how deep and philosophical your answers are. So, for the whole trimester, I would rant about how the language barrier affected your everyday life. My teacher loved it. For example, we had an assignment to create a perfect Utopia. My Utopia was called Monotongue, and it was the law to always speak Monotonguese, because it was fair, no, it was just that every citizen was able to communicate and contribute to his community. Or, another time in a test, I forgot the three types of Liberty, so I wrote a few paragraphs about how Liberty is the ability to express what you're feeling, but how that liberty is weakened when you don't speak the language. Oh course this couldn't be applied to my specific case in that moment as I forgot the three types of Liberty, but I got the question right. (sarcasm)
Advanced Physics: technically a 0, but they can't but that on my report card, so a 1 We all saw this one coming. Girl who doesn't speak Spanish and has never taken Physics before jumps into a physics two class and tries to learn it in Spanish. Ha Ha, yeahhhh...she's gonna fail. Honestly, I worked really hard on this one. I paid a tutor 12 euros an hour, four hours a week to come to my house and try to explain Hooke to me. I studied for at least four hours everyday. It just didn't catch on. Now, I know for sure that I'm going to fail this class again. I'm done trying. I'm not giving up, I'm just prioritizing. If it means I spend hours and money on a subject that I don't like, will never use in life, and will not count for my American highschool, I'd rather study more for history or have time to go out for an icecream with my host sister instead of shutting myself in my room to try to comprehend the incomprehensible. I'll just keep doodling on my exam papers and maybe try to follow along when I'm fluent in Spanish. BY THE WAY, 'velocidad' is not 'velocity,' it's speed. That could really confuse things for you. Also, Newton's laws are a lot catchier in English.
Computer Class: 7 If you stuck me in front of a computer and asked me to make a special graph thing that we do in class, I probably couldn't do it. If you pair me up with a partner and she happens to be really nice and smart, I'll pass the class. The Spaniards who failed the final exam were mad with me because I got a 5, technically passing, even though I literally guessed on every question. Next time you have no idea what you're doing, answer all 'c' and you may just get a fifty percent. I do, however, have better powerpoint making skills. More on that later.
English: 10!!! I actually got an 8.5 on one exam, not the best in the class, but somehow I ended up with a 10. This class is so funny.
Spanish: 4 I was really close in this one. It was looking good up until the lexical graphic organizing exam, as I had previouslysacked, Spanish verb sacar, (American English) scored a 6 on a test about a book I read in Spanish, and later a 10 (a TEN!!!!) on a different book. Darn Spanish Grammar test.
Math: 1 The movie Mean Girls has lied. Math is NOT the same in every country. Math... I could go on and on about how stupid math is here, but I'll hold myself back and say that I'll probably be failing this one again, too. Just imagine not understanding something in math. You ask your teacher, you ask your friends, you get a tutor, you understand. Now don't understand it in a different language. Okay, a little more complicated, but you still ask your teacher. Your teacher doesn't help you because you don't understand. Why don't you understand? Every method, formula, and explanation is different here. Besides the fact that we're not allowed to use calculators. Ever. Better memorize the 1-20 Logs. Or, better yet, memorize the whole text book, and you may pass.
Overall, I'm pretty proud of myself. I would love to be passing everything, but that's just not reasonable. This trimester I'm prioritizing by cutting out physics and focusing a lot on studying the language. Look for better grades in three months. I'm sure they'll be better.
Gotta go study. Bye!
Here they are. My grades from the first of three trimesters in school. In the end, I only failed four, which is pretty good when you consider that these grades also reflect my level of Spanish from my first three months, which was basically "hello my name is Vivian I like to run." Also, I never got any special treatment. I took the same tests as everyone else did, even in Spanish grammar class, and the teachers didn't go easy on me. I was graded on what I did.
Now, let me explain how different the grading system here is. Your notes are based on a scale of 1-10, not A-F, and 10 is the highest. No one gets a ten. Literally, no one.
(Well, I did, but I'm fluent in English...)
If you get an 8-9 you're the happiest person in the world. It's like getting a 100 in the States. A 1-4 is failing, but failing is super common. When none of the exams are multiple choice and they count for basically 75 percent of your grade, I don't see how anyone can not fail, much less get a 10.
If you fail...you fail. There should be some things called 'recuperations' coming up, which may help you raise your grade, but at the end of the year the cumulative average is what's important. So there's still a chance for me.
Here's where the US system doesn't match up with the Spanish one. If you get a 5-7, you're happy. If I got a D or a C in the States, I would be upset. I would cry. My parents would disown me. My friend got a 6 here, jumped out of his seat, and did a victory lap around the classroom. I suppose that a 5 isn't failing, and if you're not failing...well, why strive for the near-impossible? I'm happy for a five, although of course we all prefer 10s.
Geology: 4 I might be able to pass this one in the recuperations.
History: 5 What??? I passed that??? Okay...
Greek Mythology: 7 Pretty easy for everyone.
P.E.: 7 I would like to point out that gym class here is not the case as gym class there. As my American friend pointed out, here you actually get tested on how high you can jump or how fast you can run. There's no plan to encourage improvement. If you can't do it, you fail. If you didn't understand the order you should do a handstand, cartwheel, and forward roll in, you get a 7.
Ethics: 8 This one, I think, is the product of my own cleverness. I was informed early on that you are graded on how deep and philosophical your answers are. So, for the whole trimester, I would rant about how the language barrier affected your everyday life. My teacher loved it. For example, we had an assignment to create a perfect Utopia. My Utopia was called Monotongue, and it was the law to always speak Monotonguese, because it was fair, no, it was just that every citizen was able to communicate and contribute to his community. Or, another time in a test, I forgot the three types of Liberty, so I wrote a few paragraphs about how Liberty is the ability to express what you're feeling, but how that liberty is weakened when you don't speak the language. Oh course this couldn't be applied to my specific case in that moment as I forgot the three types of Liberty, but I got the question right. (sarcasm)
Advanced Physics: technically a 0, but they can't but that on my report card, so a 1 We all saw this one coming. Girl who doesn't speak Spanish and has never taken Physics before jumps into a physics two class and tries to learn it in Spanish. Ha Ha, yeahhhh...she's gonna fail. Honestly, I worked really hard on this one. I paid a tutor 12 euros an hour, four hours a week to come to my house and try to explain Hooke to me. I studied for at least four hours everyday. It just didn't catch on. Now, I know for sure that I'm going to fail this class again. I'm done trying. I'm not giving up, I'm just prioritizing. If it means I spend hours and money on a subject that I don't like, will never use in life, and will not count for my American highschool, I'd rather study more for history or have time to go out for an icecream with my host sister instead of shutting myself in my room to try to comprehend the incomprehensible. I'll just keep doodling on my exam papers and maybe try to follow along when I'm fluent in Spanish. BY THE WAY, 'velocidad' is not 'velocity,' it's speed. That could really confuse things for you. Also, Newton's laws are a lot catchier in English.
Computer Class: 7 If you stuck me in front of a computer and asked me to make a special graph thing that we do in class, I probably couldn't do it. If you pair me up with a partner and she happens to be really nice and smart, I'll pass the class. The Spaniards who failed the final exam were mad with me because I got a 5, technically passing, even though I literally guessed on every question. Next time you have no idea what you're doing, answer all 'c' and you may just get a fifty percent. I do, however, have better powerpoint making skills. More on that later.
English: 10!!! I actually got an 8.5 on one exam, not the best in the class, but somehow I ended up with a 10. This class is so funny.
Spanish: 4 I was really close in this one. It was looking good up until the lexical graphic organizing exam, as I had previously
Math: 1 The movie Mean Girls has lied. Math is NOT the same in every country. Math... I could go on and on about how stupid math is here, but I'll hold myself back and say that I'll probably be failing this one again, too. Just imagine not understanding something in math. You ask your teacher, you ask your friends, you get a tutor, you understand. Now don't understand it in a different language. Okay, a little more complicated, but you still ask your teacher. Your teacher doesn't help you because you don't understand. Why don't you understand? Every method, formula, and explanation is different here. Besides the fact that we're not allowed to use calculators. Ever. Better memorize the 1-20 Logs. Or, better yet, memorize the whole text book, and you may pass.
Overall, I'm pretty proud of myself. I would love to be passing everything, but that's just not reasonable. This trimester I'm prioritizing by cutting out physics and focusing a lot on studying the language. Look for better grades in three months. I'm sure they'll be better.
Gotta go study. Bye!
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