okay so what has been happening....

Friday I went with some friends and went sightseeing! Then we spoke spanglish and ate in some little bar. It was basically just being shown around.

Saturday I went to a Melendi concert. He is apparently a pretty famous Spanish pop artist. I hung out with my friend Jasmin during the day and then we met up with some other kids I know at the show. Jasmin is a German exchange student, who goes to a different school than I. She speaks near perfect English, and her Spanish mother is the sister of my Spanish mother, so we're currently honorary cousins, I suppose. The concert was lots of fun.

Sunday I went out to eat with my family and then hung out in this internet cafe near my house. By internet cafe I mean a bar that happens to have coffee and internet. Which is what most places are like here. On every block there's maybe two or three bars/cafes with tapas, drinks, coffee, and places to sit and chill out. I happen to live near to two that also have free wifi, so I'm pretty much becoming a regular.

Monday I went to school. Then afterwards I went with Jasmin to get a bus pass. We met up with two other German exchange students we know, Johanna, and Mila (I think her name is...)

But I didn't go Tuesday or Wednesday, because I've been sick. Instead I just watched the first half of season two of Lost. It was pretty cool, especially since one of the new charecters is one of the main girls in Resident Evil, and I just saw that movie for the first time a few days ago. It was really awesome. Hopefully I'll go to school tomorrow? Because I hate being sick.

Speaking of sick I have now become incredibly homesick. jdskfljdsfkdjls

something everyone needs to know

the word here for lollipop is chupachups, which translates directly to suckysuck. yummy?

everytime someone says that(which is surprisingly often because they have these awesome candy stores called kioskos like every block) i laugh hysterically.

yo comprendo mas y mas...pero paso a paso!

also: found a chinese food restaurant yesterday! scoreeeeee

First (full) day in Salamanca!

So. There is no peanut butter in Spain.
Hay es una problema.

Everyone keeps on patting under my chin, like we do with babies.

People keep on telling me ‘tranquila!’ again and again. I’m assuming this essentially means ‘chill out, yo’ due to context and the definition of the word ‘tranquil’ in English. I suppose they think I’m freaked out (I am). My mother and my area advisor say it all the time. They also say it like, ‘ah, this is so peaceful and nice.’ And my mother used it to describe her house.

My parents smoke in the house. People smoke in restaurants. Everything smells like cigarettes.

There is a separate fruit market. Which has bread as well. I know some people do that in America too, but I think it is odd.

We don’t have internet. (update now that I’m posting this…the library and this coffee place really nearby both have internet so I’m good)

They peel pears. They peel all fruit, instead of washing it.

They say ‘Vale!’ all the time. About every other sentence.

The mullet is an extremely popular haircut.

My mother’s name is Manoli (sounds like canoli), which is a nickname for Manuela.

My father’s name is Imad. He is from Kuwait.

Yesterday I read the majority of The Sirens of Titans.

My parents cook everything with a TON of oil.

The word for piercing is piercing.

Speaking of which in my (private) school we aren’t allowed piercings, so I’m currently wearing a piercing retainer.

I started making artist’s trading cards. Enjoying it very much.

I can understand most things, and if not then they can explain and I understand. However, I often doubt that my instincts are correct, and feel unsure if I am correctly understanding, although I am right 99% of the time.

My mother turns on the hot water by lighting a match in this odd box thing on the wall that I believe is an old fashioned water heater. Mi casa esta antigua, pero nosotros cambiamos pronto, en dos meses.

I brought way too many clothes, especially considering that I am going to be wearing a uniform to school. I’m getting my uniform at 4 pronto hoy.

My family is incredibly nice, but I am going to have to make some serious adjustments, I can tell already. And also perhaps buy some of my own food just for me. And also probably get my mommy to send me peanut butter.

And now I´m in Barcelona...

....after an excessive plane ride, I´ve arrived today, along with 16 other exchange students from CIEE and a bunch more from other countries and programs. We will be doing some touring and orientation here.

Wednesday: go to a hotel in Boston, meet a bunch of strangers and forcibly bond with them. Learn a bunch of useless non-information that was already summarized in the tiny booklet we were given. Go into the hot tub. Watch half of Pulp Fiction in my room.

Thursday: Wake up at 7 to go on a duck tour (no idea why) and then go to Harvard Square for lunch. Carry the most fatass suitcase in the universe (alias Bertha) to various buses and get on a plane at 4:30.

The Blurish Plane Bit From Thursday to Friday: Sick on the plane, terrible gossip magazines centered around celebrity twitter updates, scrabble on my itouch, listening to Why?, crying and panicking about what the hell I have gotten myself into partially due to pure unadulterated exhaustion, excessive amounts of carbs, more sick on the plane, no sleep, maybe a little sleep, Germany, cookie dip packs with nutella, why no coffee??, and then suddenly...

Friday: Staying in a Youth Hostel, its like sleepaway camp. Just arrived in Barcelona, and my jet lag is a little weird, but not too bad. And now we will soon go on a bus tour.

Also: read No Exit (Sartre play) and it was completely fabulous, loved it, fitting to my mood too ("Hell is...other people") beautifully written, fabulously funny, and thought provoking.

I miss people already.

Bye Bye Long Island

Yesterday and the day before I went to school. I gathered my textbooks, talked to my teachers, and worked out what I'm going to do about my math class(and all my other classes) and how I'm going to make up the work. So many essays! And when I get back, so much work! My classes seem fantastic, I'm really sad to leave them behind, and miss so much. It seems like if I hadn't been doing this trip then they would be easy, as well. I signed up for art club and jillion other things, and I'm sad to miss all of those.

But mostly I'm just glad to be out of there. Two days was more than enough. I am going to miss Meg like an insane puppy though Others from school as well, but I'm particularly reminded of her because she just left after coming over my house to say goodbye. We listened to music and danced and tried on a bunch of my clothes. It was fun, but it was weird to watch her close the front door and know that I wouldn't see her face in person until January, and this is one of my very best friends.

HEY MEG I WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH

And others. but I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to so many people. its a little odd. how quickly things disappear.

I packed today. Watched the first four Lost episodes too, but mostly packed. Especially important considering that I hadn't really packed at all until today. I have so many things, and I'm so oddly attached to them. Piles and piles of objects that I find I can't spend 4.5 months without. And I get so frantic about which I will bring. And really they don't matter.

Its so odd how much I will miss my things. Just having access to all my books, and music, and LiLi(my lion pillow, its too big to bring) and all of my clothes, and my magazines, and my incense, and my penny collection, and my grandma knitted love blankets, and all of my jewelry that I never use anyway and my hair products and my lullabye CDs and my sweaters and all of my shoes and all my old notebooks and my art supplies and infinite amount of the lotion that I like and all the foods I like. that sentence didn't work so well. But having that access is comforting, even though I won't need all that stuff.

My room is maybe clean.

Long island may be lame, but I'll miss the beaches, I'll miss my room, I'll miss my friends, I'll miss my family,and I'll just miss being at home. Because that is what it is, that I'll miss most. Home. The whole vibe that word encompasses. Let it sink in.

Good-bye.

A poem about a friend

with curls like a dream
and spurs like a girl
with purrs and with growls
this creature she howls
and laughs up her nose
every note echoed in prose
in halls painted blue
and she kicked off her shoes
to the mantlepiece, mantlepiece, mantlepiece, mantlepiece, mantlepiece, mantlepiece what a whistling brew

Sharp Teeth

My teeth
My teeth are sharp
my tongue against my teeth
I feel it
I feel it
taste buds
taste my teeth
taste my sharp teeth
taste chinese food
my tummy hurts
hurts
hurts
hurts with my sharp teeth that hurt
that hurt who
hurt who deserved it
(they didn't know it)
(I didn't know it)
Sharp though

Packing part 1

I had to bring about 4 or 5 bags of clothes and books from my dad's to my mom's because apparently I keep all my cool clothes at my dad's house. Beginning to pack! Eight days....

First Post

Okay so I searched 'Start A Blog' on google. This was the first reasonable looking link. I clicked it, and realized I already had a blog here. With no posts. And extremely odd formating. Fixed it up, and I here I have a blog.

For the most part I'll be posting whatever, whenever I feel like it. But I promise to post updates on what is going on in Spain at least once a week. That is about 18 promised posts (not difficult). I'm hoping by the end I'll be speaking fluent Spanish.

Something uncomfortable I have realized: Everyone I will know for the next 4.5 months I haven't met yet. The people I will live with I know nothing about. Anyone I hug, am friends with, date, kiss.....haven't met or even heard of them yet. It's an odd feeling. whenever I think about it I essentially implode with nerves. I feel like I constantly have a vibrating ball of electricity tightly floating right below my ribcage.

In school I will wear a uniform. I almost feel glad, because although I am a big fan of clothes and dressing up, I honestly have no idea what the social view on my clothing would be. In the USA, I know what is normal and actively choose to ignore it. However, in Spain, I don't, and therefore would never know if what I'm wearing is cool or odd or what, which leaves me in an uncomfortable place of vulnerability about my wardrobe. So I'm glad about uniforms...but I do have to fit everything I'll have for the next 4.5 months in two suitcases and a carry-on, which doesn't feel like enough to me, eternal packrat. Also: all the American books I'll have I have to pack. FUCK! I'm buying all the Vonneguts I haven't read yet and bringing them. I suppose I'll just try and read in Spanish?

I'm scared about making friends.

This is a blank slate, I suppose. And that is a frightening thing. But also, a beautiful thing, full of infinite possibility. At this point, nervousness and excitement have become indistinguishable.