Vlogs, Strikes, and Nuts

Without further ado I give you my first video blog.  There were some technical errors that lead to a late posting, but it should all be running smoothly now.  I will be posting a vlog every Thursday from now until the end of my exchange starting with this one.  If you have any questions about my exchange or suggestions on how to make my vlogs better please let me know in the comments down below.  Thanks for watching!!

Jaen Part 2: Quiero estar aqui siempre

I gave up on the catchy three things in a title, cant do it with this.  Anyway chicos, fasten your seeatbelts and don't close this tab because the second half of my great weekend starts right now.

My day(like the day before it) started with what has become a fabulous rarity while here in Spain, I did not hit my head on anything when I got up.  My bed here is something that must be smaller than a twin, and a bunk bed with an unfortunately placed ladder, which means that every morning I probably wake the whole house with a bang.  After another delicious breakfast and some packing up we ventured to out to the countryside.  Which, in this part of Spain means one of my absolute favorite things, the mountains.  As we were climbing up the mountain my aunt pointed to one of the little purple flowers I had been secretly admiring and said, "Do you know these are?"

I had to say no, but the first thing that popped into my head was, a flower, not sure if that's because of my limited vocabulary or if even in Spain my natural powers of stating the obvious occasionally come through.

Its saffron, I never knew spices could be so pretty.  Everything about this day was beautiful, and nothing I can tell you would do it justice.  We continued our march up the mountain, and once we had all settled in and were enjoying the view my aunt asked if I liked mountains, my Dad who loves to use really obvious sarcasm in situations like this replied, "Noooo, she hates them," we all had a really good laugh.  After I turned to my mom and said, "Yeah this is horrible, because its so wonderful here I am never going to want to go home."

My uncle, emulating the
spirit of the Corps of discovery 

After our hike down we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the ruins of castle, then went to a nearby town to enjoy a cup of coffee, and headed home back to the land of school and civilization.





Jaen Part 1: La Ciudad, Historia, y mas de mi familia excelente

My mom and Carlos in the Palace/Church

On our valiant quest to visit all 13 of my parents brothers and sisters, we travelled this past weekend to see Maria Jesus and Pepe, my mother's sister and brother-in-law(he did his post doc at MIT no big deal.) They, along with there two sons, live in Jaen, the capital city of another province in Andalucia with the same name. 

On Saturday we travelled around the city of Jaen, and got to know a little of its history.  There are a lot of really obvious Moorish influences in this part of Spain, and the architecture of Jaen is no exception, an Arabic bath, palace repurposed as a church, and countless other things were constant reminders that for hundreds of years this was part of a totally different world.  Sightseeing here in Spain is a little different than typical US sightseeing though so before I go any further let me give you a blow by blow of my day.



The inside of the Cathedral
(I think pics werent allowed but I didn't
understand the receptionist sooo)

Since we arrived on Friday night and stayed up until one, we all slept in till 10ish, after I managed to stumble through the shower and into the kitchen my wonderful Aunt laid before me churros with chocolate(side note: here in Spain churros are not rolled in sugar or filled, and are instead served for breakfast with a mug of some kind of thick chocolaty goodness, which is for dipping/drinking/eating with a spoon), fresh pressed orange juice, and coffee. 

After we leisurely finished getting ready we left the house promptly at noon, or 12:30.  First we saw a church that was once an Arabic palace, the courtyard was really beautiful.  We walked around the city a little and then toured the Cathedral, which was gorgeous, they were doing some kind of restoration as well, which we got to see. 

Then as all good Spaniards must do we took a break at 2:30 for lunch which was among other things, Paella(for those of you who have not ever experienced this gift God gave to man it is seafood and/ or beef, chicken, etc. with jasmine rice which makes indescribable goodness), then a couple of hours later we finished lunch with a cup of coffee and went to watch Alvaro's soccer game, which his team won. 

Upon returning to the house we looked at pictures of when my uncle and aunt lived in Boston and when my mom and dad came to visit them while we ate fruit for Merienda (afternoon snack).
Sometime around 8 we traveled up the mountain that Jaen resides on to the huge Moorish castle to watch the sun set.

We were starving after having gone almost 4 hours without eating and so for dinner at the request of my cousin Pepe we went to an eerily authentic 50s diner and my father was appropriately shocked when I did not have a cheeseburger(I could figure out why he gave me the look he did when I ordered, until later when I was talking with my sister)

Because we knew we had to get up early the next morning we crawled into bed early as well, around 1 am.

More on Jaen later right now I have to partake of more Spanish traditions, the Madrid/ Barc. soccer match.

Ventas, Ronda, y mi Familia Fantastica

After one of the hardest school weeks of my life I am back to enjoying my exchange.  As any rebound without amnesia will tell you the first week of school is one of the most exhausting, confusing, and exciting experiences imaginable.  I came home for the first few days and couldn't think straight because I was focusing so hard.  It was totally worth it though, it has been fantastic for my Spanish and starting to make some friends.  More to come on that later though.


On Saturday my mother, sister, and I drove up in the mountains to have lunch in a venta with my grandmother and maternal aunts (restaurants located in the mountains, ones seaside are called chiringuitos.)  It was fantastic, I kinda feel like I've been part of this family for along time even in the short period of time I have been here.  Lunch took three hours, we started with a course of salad and something like tempura zucchini with local honey, then a course of local favorites from chorizo and a food kinda like rice made from bread crumbs, finally for desert I had chocolate mousse, and I don't regret a thing.

The view from the Venta

My Spanish family

Then on Sunday we took a trip to Ronda, to meet my dad's sister and see some of the historic city.  In ronda you can find one of Spains oldest and most famous bull fighting rinks, one of Ernest Hemingways houses, and famous river gorges and valleys; not to mention the historic buildings, winding roads and Spanish guitar that can be found all over Spain.  The other thing that can be found in Ronda is more great food, lunch on Sunday took an unprecidented four hours and four courses.  I thought we where going to have a light lunch of appetizers however after course one when they started to bring out a lot more food I started to realized how wrong I was.  First up was Tortilla Espanola, cheese, crackers, and olives.  Next we enjoyed one of the largest steaks I have yet dared to eat, salad, homeade frenchfries, and fresh baked bread(thats right my uncle is a baker.)  After that a course of chocolate, and just when I thought I couldnt eat any more a course of coffee and a light cake.   It was delicous, also making them some of the most wonderful people in the world my aunt and uncle gave to me a jar of peanut butter making me the luckiest and most enviable exchange student in the district.

Malaga, Marbella, y Madrid

Had a really great week meeting exchange students, seeing more of Spain, and generally checking off exchange student must dos. I spent the early part of last week primarily at the beach in Malaga taking in the sun, the view, and the people.

 On Wednesday I travelled to Marbella to stay with my Rotary counselor Nina and meet my host club.  Marbella is very close to Gibraltar along La Costa del Sol, and there I also met Shona and Charissa two other exchange students from the US.  Shona and I stayed at Nina's house and had a really good time talking about being exchange students.  In the morning we went and saw beautiful Marbella walking along the promenade and all through downtown and historic Marbella.  Then we went to the Rotary meeting and Charissa and I were introduced to the club. 

 Shona and I

That afternoon I took the bus back to Malaga to pack for Madrid in the morning Shona, Charissa and I as well as the other two exchange students in our area CJ and Vanessa. After going to the three day orientation Shona, CJ, Charissa, and I walked around Madrid with some of the other exchange students past and present. Right now in Spain the Prime Minister and other branches of Parliament are raising taxes and reducing the pensions of state employees. In Madrid there was a large protest of this which we were there for. We also saw the Prado, the Plaza Mayor, and ate Tapas typical of Spain. After almost losing Charissa in the crowd and almost missing our train we were on our way back to la Costa del Sol.

The Protests

La Plaza Mayor

Estoy en Màlaga!

 

I am in Màlaga with my host family.  I had a pretty uneventful trip over.  It was very long but the only difficult part was navigating the Charles de Gualle airport, it was very different than all other airports I have ever been to before.  My family was very welcoming and nicer than I could have asked for and everyone I have met has been extremely nice and very accommodating. 

 

My sister plays the Piano extremely well and is a very accommodating person.  My parents are very thoughtful and are teaching me Spanish culture.  Today I think we are to go to the beach, and if so I will take many pictures.

 

I hope everything is well in the US, Saludos.

Preparations to leave

Note: I know that its been awhile since my last post, admittedly this one was mostly written a couple weeks ago but a certain anonymous member of my family derailed the final touches and posting of it.  I received my visa just before this was supposed to post, and my travel arrangements soon followed.


My latest exchange adventure started when I went to Chicago for my visa application appointment.  It was the first time I had spent an appreciable time in the city so I was pretty excited.  In preparation for this app.  my family had compiled countless official documents and the designated number of copies.  I was nervous about my app. thinking I was about to be grilled by an official that was going to decide whether or not I was fit to be an exchange student.  This was not the case the entire Visa process culminated in one five minute encounter with an unbelievably nice girl sitting behind what looked like a teller window.  Leaving the office I wasn't sure that I had really applied for my visa, I had a very strange "that seemed to easy" feeling.

The rest of the day my parents and I toured Chicago walking from the embassy to the Cloud Gate in Millennium Park to Buckingham Fountain to the Shed Aquarium and finally to the Sears (Willis) Tower.  We actually travelled up to the 103rd floor and had a great view of all of Chicago.

Currently I am finishing up my packing and organizing all my music onto my new phone and computer.  I said goodbye to many of my family and friends already, now I am just waiting and doing some housekeeping before my flight tommorow at noon.  After a few layovers and a jaunt through Francis de Gaulle in Paris I should arrive in Malaga Thursday, Sept. 6th at 1 pm local time.