Something from Albania

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Cheryl

CherylI really can’t imagine what Kathryn is going through. What impresses me, and I think this may be a life lesson for all of us, is that though I’m certain she is experiencing a great deal of stress and uncertainty, she has decided to focus on the humorous, the interesting, and the positive. That’s a big deal: I think if you’re going to go big in life, you’d better figure out what glasses to put on first…

K's avatarWildKat Formation

Well, here I am.

I’m not going to give you a play-by-play of last week because, well, it would be tedious for me as the writer and you as the reader. Suffice it to say that I am safe and sound in Librazhd, Elbasan, Albania. The fact that I didn’t miss a flight, lose a bag, or pass out due to jetlag is a miracle.

Yesterday the other PCVs and I met our host families. We stay with them for ten weeks during the notoriously intensive Pre-Service Training, then we get placed elsewhere in Albania for two years. My sector (TEFL—Teaching English as a Foreign Language) is in Librazhd, a small-ish town on a river (I can’t remember the name) surrounded by beautiful mountains. There are rows of brightly painted houses staggered up the hillside arranged around haphazard cobblestone alleys, and cafes and shops line the main roads. I live…

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Excursion numero dos!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Ethan

EthanToday was the second day-long excursion! This time, we traveled to Salemanca to visit the University of Salemanca and explore the city. On the bus this morning, I sat in the back with some friends. I noticed that about 5 different Spanish chicas were in nearby seats. For the first half of the ride I was just listening to music and sitting by myself, when apparently my friend Charmagne was talking with dem Spaniards about MEEE D: and other things lol. Eventually Charmagne told me to take out my earbuds and greet all these chicas. She also whispered to me that one of the chicas (the pretty one) thinks I´m cute, and that I should totally talk to her. So, me being the kind of guy I am, went for it. I started up a conversation with her in Spanish with a hint of flirt in it. Within 15 minutes we ended up sitting next to each other. Hey she´s nice, pretty, and easy to talk to what can I say? And soooo this girl Laura and I ended having this little romance together in Salemanca, I´ll admit.

The University of Salemanca is the oldest university in the world. It´s soooooo pretty too! On every building there are these little detailic statues and .. things, y´know? There´s a picture attatched of a column you´ll see. What´s really weird, is there is a hidden Astronaut in one of these column things, and I found it! There´s also a frog in a different one. And turns out, if you can see the frog it gives you good luck in your studies and in schooling. Yes!

Along with that chica Laura, I made some more friends! They were pretty much just her friends although, but I kept making them laugh a lot so that´s good. This group friends included Laura, 4 other chicas, this Colombian dude, and a little Pakistani dude who speaks 4 languages! He was pretty cool. We had 3 hours to explore Salemanca and then meet back for the long ride home. So first, we ate at Burger King. Screw fast food! I ate the turkey sandwhich that my host mom gave me. And then we really just walked around and did nothing! I guess we did stay in H&M for quite a while. We walked into a few stores, nothing really significant. But it was raining pretty hard today too.

Back at Ivan´s hosue, we played Modern Warfare 3!! Ivan is so good at this game, I´m not.

Happy Birfday Dad! What are you, 27 years old now? 27 is a great age man. I hope you had a really fun birfday; I´ll see if I can get you a present up here. But ya anyway not much to report from today!

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Rock of Ages

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Aaron

Elder SnowSo I totally finished the Book of Mormon, and it was before Conference… so I am a champ! I don’t know if the Book of Mormon challenge was a world wide thing, but it was something that President Monson challenged us to do. That is all I know. Other than that, I have read the Book of Mormon once in English, and am in the book of Enos in Spanish!! DAAA the Book of Mormon is awesome. I love reading it.

I went on divisions this week to a village called Santa Ana to help them find new investigators and get some more references. It worked out! But on top of that, this village has a beautiful forest, and so I took advantage of it, and took a pic. Enjoy!!

So I saw this church as we were walking along the road to an appointment. It says ”la roca de los siglos” or Rock of Ages. I couldn’t help but think of Def Leppard’s hit ROCK OF AGES as I passed by. It was pretty awesome. I hope you all have heard that song.

Elder Sacul went home! His VISA came in, so we had to take a taxi at 8pm at night and drive to Xela, drop him off at a hotel, and then drive back. So we are back in the original duo of the Mexican and the Gring-snow. Were rockin it!!

I love the mission. It is super tough… but I absolutely love it. I am grateful for the age change so that many others can have this wonderful experience. I hope you all take advantage of the opportunities that a mission offers. I certainly am not the same Elder Snow. I have been blessed so much. I hope you all have a great week. You are loved! Have fun!

-Elder Aaron Jacob Snow

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Processions

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Ethan

EthanToday was a pretty relaxed day. In the morning Ivan and I walked downtown to meet up with the guys again. We’ve been noticing lots of signs and advertisements of a Gypsy market coming to Leon, and we all really want to go! But first, a Spaniard, Adrien, had a basketball game. So we all showed up to watch him and then run over to the market afterwards. Adrien´s team lost, but he played well. Once we exited the gym we noticed that it had started raining. Adrien made a few phone calls and found out that the Gypsy Market has been closed. Boo 😦 With nothing to do, we just made our way over to the mall and tried to find something to do. Well, every single store in the mall was closed, so we walked over to this candy shop and bought some candy. The candy here is good at least! There were pickles and olives in that store thought, what the heck?

I forgot a very important event last night during the party thing. When Adrien and that other chicas were trying to find someplace to go, I met another American exchange student! The chicas were introducing other chicas to me, and we ended up both speaking English. She gave me this giant hug because I´m American, haha. Her name was Marie, and she´s a legit exchange student. She´s been in Leon learning Spanish for about 6 months, and has yet 6 more months to go. Impressive! She´s also apparently from Salt Lake City, so I asked her if she was Mormon, and this is what she said,¨NO! Thank goodness I´m not Mormon I HATE them!¨ when I revealed to her my secret identity as a Mormon she slapped me. I´m not kidding! And it hurt! She then apologized and said she was a little drunk… I tried avoiding her until I met up with the other group. She was pretty annoying too: whenever she spoke Spanish, she still spoke with an American accent. It was like someone in Spanish 1 speaking fluently. Gosh… I hope she´s doing well though, hahaha

I had the most delicious desert I have ever had in my entire life. And that is saying something. They´re called Canelas. These are these beautiful rectangular, cream-filled, little biscuits. They are pure heaven, I was literally flipping out when I tried them, and my host family just thought I was tired but no it was overwhelmingly amazing!! Thank goodness for amazing desserts and naps afterwards.. mmm.

Ivan woke me up and told me that we´re going to processions tonight! yay! Processions is a Catholic celebration of Semana Santa, it´s pretty much a week-long Easter. Tonight was the first procession of Semana Santa. The center of city is where the Cathedral is located, and also lots of shops, pubs, bars, etc. It´s fun-mania for Leon. So what happened tonight in the Center, is this giant Catholic parade walked through the streets. This parade featured some guys that look like the Ku Klux Klan (Papones), a High School Band class, a Choir and a Priest. It was actually, really really cool. Lots of the Ku Klux Klan people were carrying this giant balcony with a statue of Jesus carrying his own cross. Others were either carrying big lanterns or flags or walking with these giant robes on them; I want to do that someday! We got lucky and found a spot where I could get an up close picture of the parade. Throughout Semana Santa, these parades just get bigger and better up until Good Friday. Can’t wait! After the parade, it´s tradition to go bar hopping and drink various juices and eat various fried foods. But man it was soooo crowded, but yet nice to spend some real family time with Ivan´s family. So, today was a pretty laid back day. Tomorrow is another full-day excursion… bleh.

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Heeere weeee goooo!

Posted on March 24, 2013 by K

Mish-18I am at the sketchiest internet cafe in all of Europe. My sweet host family took me here because they want me to get in touch with you. They know NO English at all. It has been a struggle to say the least. One day I will actually be able to talk to them instead of my mom just gesturing to her crotch to ask if I need to go to the bathroom!

Anyway, I can get on facebook here (obviously) but gmail and twitter are no-gos because they don’t have a “certificate” which I’m assuming means “this corner of the Balkans is too shady for Google.” So I am sitting on Skype right now casually hoping that one of you will get online, but I have no way of alerting you that I’m online and no way of calling you from Skype because I need money on my account and all my cards are at home because my host mother rushed me out the door with my nephew saying only “Artemio” (nephew) and “internet” so I didn’t really know what I was in for. Hee hee. Artemio keeps looking over at me expecting me to be talking to some white people on headphones but doesn’t look like that will happen because you’re in church now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad! Are you 50? That’s old. I told my host dad that you are a politician because that’s the easiest word I could find in the dictionary and he freaked out. I think he assumes I am Obama’s daughter now. When I first got in I shared my gifts with them. Metrie (mama) loves the potholder and Naime (baba) spent all night looking at the Las Vegas book. They have the keychains on their house keys now. And I’m super happy I brought the dream catcher because Albanians are very superstitious and I told them it meant good luck, “paq fat.” Naime has picked out a bunch of pictures I have of the family and has placed them all over the house. He asks about you all the time, any way he can.

The paper told me I was supposed to have a host brother but he is studying abroad in Greece. I really wish he was here so he could translate a little. The children are all older, and one of the daughters is married with kids (Artemio included) and her family has been so sweet to me. They’re the ones who took me here. Metrie would be very meddlesome and goofy by American standards but that’s normal for Schip mothers. I genuinely like her though, and she reminds me of someone in the States but I don’t know who. I am in extremely good hands, in case you were worried. Even through the language barrier I can tell they love and care about me. It makes me really miss you though.

Metrie is a cook professionally so her food is fantastic. She stuffs me full, though. I’ve had to say “U ngopa” or “I’m full” like 500x. It’s just culture. I’m finally unpacked and settled in to the house and I start training tomorrow. Every PCV says that the next 10 weeks are the hardest part of service, so, as the Joker says, “heeere weee gooo!”

I’m trying to think of what else to tell you. Librazhd (my training site) is a beautiful town along the river, nestled in the mountains. People in the US would drive around and judge it as “ghetto” but the homes and shops inside are immaculate and modern. It’s the opposite of the US where people buy gigantic, fancy homes but they look terrible inside. Metrie is very particular with how she keeps house, and again, that’s typical. I have designated room slippers vs shower sandals vs balcony slippers. I cannot be barefoot indoors, I have to wear socks. You were right about the wetroom thing, Mom–the shower is just a spout in the ceiling with a big drain in the center and the toilet and bidet around it. I have my own room, as per PC qualifications, with a lock on it so I get privacy when I want it. It’s interesting because only one room in the house is heated, and mine definitely isn’t at night, so I’m super happy with those REI wool socks you got me.

Today some PC pals texted me to meet them at the town square. The process of a) telling Metrie what I was doing, b) convincing her I was not going to meet an Albanian man, and c) asking for directions to the square took about 20 minutes, and I’m not convinced I accomplished goal B because her daughter (Artemio’s mom) immediately asked me, “Ku eshte djalle?!” when she came in tonight. “Who is the boy?!” Ugh. Anyway, I met up with my friends Erin and Miranda and their host sisters and their friends, a few of whom spoke perfect English. They were a lot of fun and were very sweet to us. (I have yet to meet a rude Albanian!)

Looks like I’m getting the signal that it’s time to leave. I will talk to you later. When, I don’t know. You can call me on Skype after 5pm Tirana time or text me whenever. I can’t call you unfortunately, until I can get some money on my account. I love you!!! Have a good Sunday and give Dad a kiss for me, then complain about his stubbly face and pat his head.

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Awe inspiring nature!

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Cheryl

EthanIf I could chose a prefect day to bring a camera, it would be today. and I forgot my camera. GAAAHHH!!!! Omg today was amazing!!! Ivan´s family, Anxo´s family, and Diego´s family (and their Americans) all went out for an adventure today. We drove way up north for about an hour to go play in the snow! I started noticing all the snow and unzipped my backpack for my camera and it wasn’t there 😦 I left it in my room apparently. So! I´m sure my writing skills can be put to use although. We drove up to this small town in the mountains where lots of hills blanketed in snow are. The mountains in Spain are so majestic, more than any mountains I’ve ever seen really! It felt like a scene from The Lord of the Rings could have been filmed there. These mountains were rocky and jagged too, not just any mountains.

Playing in the snow was really fun, Ivan had a badminton competition that morning, so he couldn´t go until later. So it was me, Elijah, and Sean (the Americans) and Anxo, and Diego (the Spainards) in an epic snowball fight!! Elijah, Sean, and I built this sorta-fort on a hill and got super into the battle. We had pre-made snowballs, strategies, and everything… but the stupid Spainards still won anyway. They have such accuracy!

Afterwards we all piled into our cars again and drove up more mountains for about another hour. During that hour, and really whenever Sean, Elijah, and I were in the car we had philosophical discussions! They included, the importance of education, the deceival of pleasure and power, religion, racism, and the corruption of the industry and the worth of money in the world today. Turns out we were driving to a CAVE! A legit cave! This cave is probably the most awing aspect of nature I´ve ever seen. I found a picture of it google images, but you might as well just look it up on google images yourself. This cave is hands down MASSIVE with Stalagtites and Stalagmites EVERYWHERE. Oh! And still pools, and rivers, and waterfalls. Imagine every corner of your eyesight filled with the view of cave. It´s like the rock-encrusted inside of a dome. It was soooo cool man!

Once I calmed down from the coolness of the cave, we drove down into some other town to eat lunch. It had such a family feel; eating with everyone and all their families. It´s making me realize how similar cultures are through human interaction, in that we all have family and friends. I´ve really bonded with some good people here. At the restaurant, we ordered a meat and cheese platter as an appetizer, a giant steak as the main course, and then this like, fruit and ice cream and flan mixed giant blob of amazingess for dessert. People eat way too much here… goodness, it was hard to walk back over to the car.

Our last activity of the family adventure was driving over to see this abandoned mine and a pretty forest. When we were just starting to hike down this hall to the start of the trail, this GIANT. DOG. just walks up over the hill and kinda scared the crap outta me! I quote Elijah on his reaction,¨That´s not a dog, that´s a frickin oso!¨ Oso translates to Bear. This dog was just a regular golden retriever, but yet the size of a great dane. It had a collar, and there was a cabin nearby so it probably belongs to whomever lives there. This dog was super nice though! He didn´t bark or anything. We decided to call him ¨Amigoso¨ since amigo is friend, oso is bear, and amigoso means friendly. Kinda perfect right? After about 5 minutes on the trail it started raining, so we went back to leon.

Both Elijah and Sean are guitar majors, and they´ve been wanting to play the guitar in Spain for quite some time now. It just so happens that word about Ivan´s sisters´ guitar has broken out. There was a dispute about if Elijah was going to come over or whatever, but the guitar was in the trunk of the car the entire time! Dah! So the adults all decided to chill out in this nearby cafe, while the rest of us youth chill out in this lobby thing. The three of us guitar players each took about a few minutes with the guitar and passed it around between us, pretty cool, until Elijah just hogged it for like an hour… I hate it when guitar majors do that.

When we got back Ivan´s Dad told me I have a half hour to get ready for another PAARRTTAAYYY!! I put on my fancy new green shoes and shirt that I just bought was ready for anything. Ivan and I met up with the guys and we later met up with some chicas! Chicas that aren´t in our group!! Delia´s in our group, although, but she introduced me to all the other chicas. I discovered that all of Leon´s youth and all of the reaaaally pretty girls are all nocturnal. They only come out at night and on the weekends! Makes sense, right? We started walking around trying to figure out where to go, and we ended up just waiting for like a half hour in the square, all confused. I was pretty mad and in a bad mood, because Spanish guys are really immature and annoying too. Adrian (a Spainard) told me that the group is actually at this other place, so he asked if I want to go with him or to the other place, aaand I said the other place with the rest of the group. So I finally found everyone chilling out in this bar, no alcohol though don´t worry. This party was yet another ¨talking to some girl and not actualling partying¨, again. My Spanish friend Patri was told by her crush that he doesn´t like her anymore, and she was a-bawlin. So I comforted her throughout the night. Pretty full day today! Amazing that it´s already been a week.

I found the pictures off of Google images, they are of the Cueva de Valporquero and of the Cantabrian Mountains.

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Bleh

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Ethan

EthanToday, everyone had to wake up at 6am in the morning for an all-day excursion to an Archeological site where the oldest remains of early humans in Europe lie! Sounds pretty cool, right? Nope. Complete waste of a day, in my opinion. But this day was rather used for more human interaction, and I’ve actually made a turning point in my Spanish speaking too.

Ivan´s entire grade was scheduled to take this trip, so Troche (our Spanish teacher) thought the Americans could tag along. The bus ride was about 3 hours long, but it was mostly just sleeping. So, we get there, and it´s like this big kinda… crevice thing. Like y´know the canyon of the crescent moon in Indiana Jones 3? It was like that but with vegetation and rocks, like idk how to describe it. Oh wait, I took pictures! hahahaaa, we had to wear hard hats because it was a crevice, and something could fall on us. My friend Elijah has dreads, so he had to wear his hard hat as if it were just resting peacefully atop his head. There were these caves cut out from this crevice where they found all the fossils and what not, and they built these giant pipe buildings around them to move up and down. It was cool seeing a legit excavation site! The tour guide spoke English, and was really pretty too. She took us to 3 different caves, explained the kind of species of pre-human (I guess) they found, and how they dig, etc. I´d say the coolest part was the underground cave we went into to uhh… watch a video. haha!

Once it was finally done, we piled back into the bus to drive to the city of Burgos, where the special museum is located that´s connected with the excavation site. In other words, they find stuff at the site and display it in the museum. But before we went to the museum, we had 4 hours to do whatever we wanted in the city. So me, Savannah, Sebastian, and Lindsey went Cafe hopping. We only went to two cafes although, it still counts! We spent about 2 hours in each just eating and talking. We just got some drinks and food and really just.. chilled. We talked about anything and everything, and really bonded as some great friends. They´re all seniors, and I´m the only sophomore so I´m cool I guess!

The 4 hours finally passed and we walked over to the museum. The museum was totally legit! I saw legit like, millions of years old skulls and bones. That was probably the coolest. I also hung out with my favorite little Spaniard Patri, and she´s so much fun so it was good hanging with her.

The reason I say I totally made a turning point in my Spanish speaking is because I totally met some Spanish girls outside of the group, and got their Facebooks, and maybe flirted a little too. In Spanish!!! I felt so proud of myself, because one of them was at least an 8 on the Ritcher scale. They told me I speak Spanish very well and all, and I also got there names for Facebook.  I feel just, more open and confident with Spanish now. It´s about time!

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I’m here!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by K

Blog shots-50The “internet” is “working” so I thought I’d send you guys a note.

The past five days have been, hands down, the strangest and most
intense of my entire life (so far). I got sick Sunday night–not the
usual, “mehh, I had Thai food, I can’t work at Heritage today”
sick, but, like, fever so bad that when I took a shower the water
stung on my back as if I had a sunburn. My throat was so sore that it
hurt to eat and talk and I lost my voice for a few hours. So I went
down to the market in Philly and stocked up on Motrin, NyQuil, and
Ricola drops and muscled through the day. It was a great experience
because I tried not to let how I was feeling affect my mood and I
think I pulled it off. ADAPTING already!!!

The people in my training class are AWESOME. I’m with a great bunch.
All sorts of people from different areas of the country and different
backgrounds and ages and such. There are a few weirdos but nobody that
I’m super alarmed about. 😉 I’ve made friends with a lot of people
already. And apparently the Peace Corps exclusively employs awesome
people because our staging coordinators were great too! I really wish
I hadn’t felt so miserable because I would’ve enjoyed my time in
Philly a lot more. Note to Dad: I had a Philly cheese steak but it
wasn’t that good, the ones at Capriotti’s are better!

The flights went perfectly. I guess the curse is broken! As we
descended into Tiranë we flew over the Adriatic and I was absolutely
breathless. It is BEAUTIFUL here. Do you understand? Let me tell you
again: IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I had no idea there could be so much beauty in
one place. I am smitten.

We took a 2.5-hour drive from the capital to Elbasan, where our
training is. There are lots of sheep and farms and ditches and TONS of
Albanian flags everywhere. They are a very proud people. I see more
Albanian flags here than US flags in the US. As soon as we got to our
hotel they wouldn’t let us sleep so we could get adjusted to the jet
lag. We took a walking tour of Elbasan. I was hoping we would blend in
so I could start “integrating” but we literally turned the corner and
a bunch of kids started following us yelling, “HELLO, HELLO!” And the
adults just stared at us. I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t want
to seem like a tourist, but I can’t send them anyway because my
electronic equipment is packed away somewhere under the hotel and I
won’t get to it until Saturday. Boo. Anyway, the traffic and drivers
are crazy and the streets aren’t good quality but everyone has really
nice cars. There are coffee houses EVERYWHERE. The people are
generally very well-dressed and friendly. Lots of kids and dogs
everywhere, and GOATS in the more rural areas (!!!) There is a castle
(which is actually my FB cover photo) and also some Roman ruins being
excavated by the EU where Paul preached!

We meet our host families on Saturday afternoon and spend the weekend
with them. I am nervous and excited. The rest of training I spend
living with them and bussing to and from Hub Day trainings in Elbasan
on Tuesday and Friday. I miss you. I miss American food, even though
the food here is good. I miss waking up to my crappy phone’s alarm and
not to roosters and dogs at 2am.

Love you all!!! Talk to you soon! LUBS [goat scream]

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You can´t say you know someone well until you see them suck at bowling

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Ethan

EthanIvan´s first hour was Spanish today; most of the Americans hate that class since the teacher is kinda mean and it´s like English class in America. So, no Americans showed up except me. In that class, poetry was being studied. I’ve studied some Spanish poetry in the past aaaand I wasn’t too fond of it. The teacher was calling out to the class to read some of the poetry, and no one wanted to. So, she slowly just.. trotted over to my desk and asked me what my name was. I told her, and she asked if I could read. I was expecting it anyway. So, I read it aloud in class. Usually when I read or present something aloud in class, I get way into it. So I emphasized the necessary parts and read with emotion! It was a pretty depressing poem too. Once I finished everyone told me good job, even the teacher! After she explained it she moved on to the next poem, and no one volunteered to read that one either, so she had me read that one too. What´s ironic is the 2nd poem I read was about being bored, and I read it like a theater major. Everyone clapped when I finished.

The group walked downtown again to City Hall to meet the mayor of Leon! How awesome is that? Just before we arrived, this chick Erin got sick; her stomach wasn’t feeling well or something. Dude, everyone is getting sick now. Ms. Kelly got sick this morning, Savanah, Phoebe, and now Erin. Explanation? Culture Shock. Note the immediate differences of living in Las Vegas to Spain: different weather, the inability to communicate, frustration with communicating/language, not knowing what the heck is going on, etc. Ms. Kelly doesn’t speak a word of Spanish, and most of those other people either don´t speak it very well or aren’t practicing it. But! Another even scarier theory that my friend Shannon had of the sickness: it’s a curse. When we were at San Marcos, some of the girls put their bright orange scarf around an old statue, and took a picture of it, and when Shannon told her host family, they joked saying that now they´re cursed… THEN THEY ALL GOT SICK D:

So anyway! We gathered into the fancy meeting room in City Hall, and this guy in a suit and who had a mustache came to front and started speaking to us. The mayor is great, he explained in the beginning that he was going to speak slowly and clearly for us. What a nice guy. He just welcomed us, wished us luck, the usual. Once it was over we all took a big group picture near the steps in front of City Hall, and the mayor wanted one American girl and one American boy to stand next to him, and he chose me and Shannon! Totally nuts! The mayor told one of his goons to take us on a tour of the historical sites of Leon. These included various old churches but especially, Roman structures from 2000 years ago! Leon is a pretty legit city apparently. What bothered me is he took us places we´ve already seen a million times in the past 3 days here, haha. But it was still some great sightseeing.

Ivan and I walked home and took glorious naps, man were they glorious. Paco (Ivan´s Dad) drove us down to another old church/museum: it was the best old church I’ve seen yet! Because! It had TONS of SUPER old artifacts, like, from the year 1068 old. There was this giant gold chest in that museum! And also lots of Spanish royalty is buried there, and there was this room with tons of SUPER old books and scriptures and everything! And we couldn´t take pictures. How FANTASTIC. The last part of that super old church was the chapel itself, where people go to actually pray. So everyone who wanted to go in (I was first to go in since I´m so religious) needed to be completely silent. It was really cool man, people apparently sit in that chapel for hours.

Half of the group stayed to walk down to the place to go BOOWWLLIINNGGGA! This place was super cool, there was like an arcade and pool tables and air hockey, etc. Me, this dude Elijah, and two Spaniards, Laura and Javier, totally and epically competed in a game of pool. It got so epic to the point where there was a croud around us. It was neck and neck the entire game, and at one point the Spaniards had sunken all of their striped balls, and had only the 8 ball to sink. Laura posed calmy to tap the queue ball and send the 8 ball home.. drops of sweat ran down everyone´s faces in suspense.. Laura shoots, it hits the 8 ball and… IT JUST BARELY DIDN’T GO IN!!! Elijah and I ran around the table in excitement and yelling things the Spaniards could never understand. Laura and Javier ended up winning anyway, I just thought that was a great moment.

Bowling was actually pretty fun despite my hate for it! We played 2 games, and the first I didn´t really get a groove in or really care because I know I suck at it anyway, but my friend Shannon encouraged me to keep trying. So I tried remembering what Dad told me about my form, and then I started doing better. I lost the 1st game, then totally killed everyone in the 2nd game. Now… Ivan. This was his first time bowling. But bowling is apparently how he releases his inner anger, I swear. When he bowls, he swings the ball in the most amazing way possible like, diagonally across his back, and then SLAMS it down on the wood! I just, can´t describe it. It went into the gutter within the first foot about 82% of the time. I hate to say but I have.. never cried because of over-laughter. I probably have abs that could grade cheese now because I laughed so hard… I feel bad, but Ivan was cool with it, promise. I mean I didn’t really want to give him advice or anything it was just a stupid game of bowling. And I am TERRIBLE at bowling. I will end with a quote from Shannon, ¨You can´t say you know someone well until you see them suck at bowling.¨

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The routine

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Ethan

EthanI’m starting to get into the rhythm and routine of things here in Spain; everything isn’t so awkward anymore. Every day seems like a week too. So, this week (day lol) I went to school in the morning as usual. Ivan and I got there a little early, but there were still a few kids hanging out in the class. I sat down in the back by myself in a chair, and these Spaniards hanging out in the corner were like, ¨hey! come over here.¨ holy snap. I asked them like what they wanted and they said they just saw me alone, and thought I could come hang out with them. Dude! How cool is that?? They asked me about Las Vegas and what not, and it totally went smoothly. Lots of the Spaniards who aren’t even in the group are starting to say hi to me.

Ivan’s first hour was math class, and it was totally easy. It was about probability, so us Americans said the answers when the Spaniards didn’t, pretty funny. There’s been talk going around about an apparent Sexology class, and it´s only taught twice a year. Us Americans got lucky! jk. But so of course a few of us Americans crowded into that class to see what Sex Ed is like in Spanish and… it´s pretty much just the same. It was more about contraceptives than anything. It got pretty boring at one point, actually. Then the Americans met with Troche in the lobby to go to the mall! Again! Yay!

I’m noticing that Spanish is even harder than just in a classroom. I mean, when my Spanish teacher is telling us about whatever or talking I perfectly understand her, but probably and only because she´s a Spanish teacher and speaks so clearly all the time. There´s waaayyy more within a language and culture than people would expect. Man…

The group met at San Marcos, the place that Ivan showed me yesterday, it´s a famous hotel in Europe now. I actually think it´s prettier than the Cathedral we saw! San Marcos has a museum of old church stuff, and this beautiful garden. Afterwards, most of the group split up to go home and prepare for the FIESTAAA that was to happen tonight. The rest of us (mostly guys since we didn’t have to change or put on makeup) just waited at the meeting place. Then after like an hour, Pablo and the rest of the group showed up, and like every girl was totally decked out in dresses, skirts, fancy makeup, heels, everything. Then us guys wore like, track suits haha. That´s actually what most guys where in Spain, workout clothes. And they always wear something Adidas. The party was actually pretty lame, it was in this underground club thing. There were tables, fancy chairs, a bar, private bed things, but no dance floor. Pablo (he´s one of the group leaders btw) kept encouraging us to dance but like… there wasn’t anywhere to dance?! There was loud music too but we couldn’t do anything about it. Instead the party was mostly me talking to my friends Lindsey and Savannah, I maybe really danced and headbanged a little to like 2 songs but that´s it. I think human interaction is better than dancing in the long run anyway. Then Ivan and I walked home and that was my day! Pretty sweet stuff.

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