Christmas Break

Well school got out on the 22nd just like in Utah. The next day I finished my christmas shopping and before I knew it, it was christmas eve. We went to Pachi's mom's house to eat dinner. To be honest, I was dreading going over there because almost every member of that family smokes and I still can't handle it. I'm getting better, but I'm still not good enough to sit through 3 hours of constant smoke. So I wore some nice clothes, but ones that were a little dirty so that I had an excuse to wash them afterwards. My family got there about an hour early to help Pachi's mom with the dinner and so the room was smoke free. When people finally showed up we sat down and ate a huge meal with octopus, clams, prawns, fish, fish, and more fish. Everything was delicious, but I was so sick of fish! Then we had desert which was turrones and polvorones (typical for the holidays). That's when everyone started to smoke and I knew that I had to get out of there. So I went with Pachi, Miguel, and an aunt and uncle to midnight mass. To my surprise, it was basically the same as the other mass I went to, just it was at mignight. Oh and they had some people that were kind of acting out the manger scene. After mass, we went back to pachi's mom's house to pick of alvaro and cristina and then we left! I guess you could say I lucked out big time!
The next day was christmas, of course, and for the first time I slept in. Usually Weston bounces on my bed until I get up at 6 in the morning, but this year everyone was asleep. I ended up waking up at 11:30 and went downstairs. We ate breakfast first which was the typical spanish hot chocolate with churros and then we opened presents. Then at 2 we went to Pachi's mom's house again because pachi and cristina had to work (well I'm convinced that they didn't have to, they're just too much of workaholics to not). So we ate leftovers from the night before, and basically everything was nasty. So I excused myself at 4:30 and went home to talk to my family by bus. The rest of the day was normal and uneventful, but it was better than staying in a house that smells like smoke!
Since christmas I've been trying to study, but I'm finding it hard. I made a schedule for myself, but it isn't working. I think it's so hard because I know that I have a week and a half left to study. Ya we get an extra week of break here thanks to los reyes magos!!! Well it's time to eat so I better go. I miss everyone!

Snow!

So wednesday night it started to snow, but I didn't get my hopes up yet because it had only snowed a little bit in the past. However, all that night I couldn't sleep and I kept waking up and seeing snow falling outside my window! When I woke up thursday morning there was almost a foot on the ground! I was so so so excited! So I quickly put on my sweats (I have P.E. on thursdays) and ran downstairs. Miguel and I then went to school and we were right on time. When I walked upstairs (where my class is) there was only one other person from my grade there! Within a couple of minutes, three more people showed up but that's it! I was so shocked! Apparently it's normal to not show up to school if there's snow outside? Weird, I know! After 45 minutes we had half of our class and my teacher finally showed up.
Then the hour right before recreo we had catholic mass instead of philosophy. So the day just kept getting better and better!
During recreo the boys in my class started throwing snowballs at me saying "hit the american, hit the american! She took Cuba and the phillappines from us! Not to mention Florida!" Ya, they're still bitter about that. So the girls I eat lunch with weren't into the snow so I ditched them and got into a snowball fight with Gonzalo and Guillermo and Miguel. So much fun!!!
Then after school I got into a bigger snowball fight with Miguel, his friend Alvar, and his other friend Carlota. We were having so much fun when the boys from my class caught up to us! I really don't think I've had as much fun in the snow before! Oh and this definitely was the best day I've had here so far!

Being Sick

So while we were in Madrid we had lunch with some other friends, who happened to be smokers. So I about died after two and a half hours, plus I already wasn't feeling well. So when they invited us up to their flat I made a quick escape and went back to where we were staying. Good thing too becuase they were there for another hour and a half.
So then we got home and we had one more day without school. I stayed in bed all day and didn't eat anything. The next day was a wednesday so I had school for 7 hours instead of 6. I went for the first three, then after recreo I called Pachi and went home. Pachi and Cristina kept asking me whether I needed to go to the hospital or not and I kind of laughed. Hospital? Ha my mom wouldn't even take me to the hospital if I cracked my head open. Maybe she would take me to instacare, maybe. And all I had was a cold!
The next day I didn't go to school, but I was feeling a lot better. What I really wanted was to be home in Utah, curled up on the couch, watching cinderella rodgers and hammerstein's verson, like I always do when I'm sick, and having my mom make me hot soup.
By friday I was still feeling weak, but I went to school and that was basically the end of my sickness.

Madrid

So a lot has happened in the past week and a half so I'm going to split it up so I don't spend so much time writing, because afterall I am here to work hard in school.
So the weekend of my birthday I went to Madrid with my host family. They have some friends that came to Burgos about a month ago, so we stayed with them. Their apartment was amazing! From one of the many balconies you could see the capital building and the palace. You walk outside and there's the opera house and you walk a little more and there's the shopping street. It was in the middle of everything! So pretty!
The first day we got there we had an amazing meal and then we went to the Prado which is an art museum if you didn't know. I saw painting from el Greco, Goya, and Velazquez. Most were very disturbing, but hey they're famous. I have to say my favorite was Saturn devouring his Child. I mean what kind of sick mind creates something like that?
The next day we didn't really do anything, which was nice. We walked down to el museo de romanticismo, but the line was way too long, so we just took a little walk and then went home. On Monday we went to a violin concert in the morning, which was the best part of the trip. It was at a music school right across the street from where we were staying (surprise, surprise). Then I ended up getting sick which will be my next post, but now I have to study philosophy.

My Birthday

First of all I want to thank everyone that wished me a happy birthday! I woke up thinking it was just going to be another day, but it actually turned out to be way fun. When I went to school I found a happy birthday Madi sign above the board that made me way embarrassed! The first people that walked into the classroom after me started to say felicidades and then give me two kisses. To my delight, Juan from the other class was the third person to give me two kisses!!!! Ha that alone would have made my day! Ha and then some girls walked in and one of them started to tug on my ears. Ha apparently that´s their way of giving birthday spanks. By the end of the school day, my ears hurt. So the day went on like that, even people that I don´t know wished me happy birthday. During recreo a girl bought me some candy. What surprised me the most is what one girl two years younger than me did. She came up to me with a card that was the sweetest thing ever and then gave me a bracelet! And I barely know her! I go into her class every tuesday while my class has english! Crazy! After school I talked to my family and Karli and my host family gave me some presents and we ate cake. Then things got depressing. I watched radio because I was bored and so I naturally started to cry because that movie´s sad. Then someone rang the doorbell and when I went downstairs to see who it was I found the missionaries! They made me brownie-cake thing and an awesome card and they sang happy birthday! It was soooo cool! The missionaries are the best! Well then after dinner I started to talk to my friends but the connection was really bad because Cristina was on the phone. I got really mad when she continued to talk for an hour and a half and she knew how much I wanted to talk to my friends! I was about to kill her when she finally hung up and three-fourths of the friends that were orginally there to talk to me were gone. But I cheered up while talking to Alyssa, Carolyn, and Brittany. Overall, it was an awesome day! Now I´m in Madrid ready for a long weekend!

Three Month Mark

After my second month I never thought I would be saying this, but this past month actually went by pretty fast. Things are getting easier and easier. I stopped being so shy and I'm becoming better friends with some girls. The boys are as immature as ever, but I've gotten used to them. School has gotten to where I hardly ever notice that they are speaking in spanish. That's partly because I zone out during some classes, but still. I'm starting to really love the culture. I love how I can wake up and put some sweats on, put my hair in a bun and make it to school in only fifteen minutes. It's great! No one really cares what they look like because after all, it's only school. Everyone is also super blunt and they are not afraid to talk back to the teachers. It's real life television! The best is when my history teacher calls us all idiots and the kids burst out yelling tons of different insults while I just sit there and laugh.
Well this week my parents left for Utah. Surprisingly, I'm ok with it. Of course I miss them, but I'm not going to sit at home and cry all day long like I would have a month ago. Also, I've been keeping myself pretty busy. Tomorrow I'm going to a seminary activity in Vitoria and I'm super super excited! I'll get to see my friends from Bilboa and my american friends that are living in Logrono! It's a three hour activity, but I'm staying the whole day. It's amazing how different I feel when I get to be around mormon kids my age! So much fun! But I need to go study scripture mastery in spanish now.

New Moon/Grades

So yesterday New Moon came out here in Spain and my friends and I went to the first showing. It seems really strange that it would come out in another language before it comes out in English, but oh well. My friends were really concerned that I wouldn't be able to understand the movie, but I assured them that it didn't matter. I mean, I've seen the first movie enough times to know that what the characters say really isn't all that important. I wanted to see the movie because Taylor Lautner plays Jacob and Jacob is in the second book more than Edward! So we went to the theater and apparently one girl was sick and so she gave her ticket to a boy in my class named Alberto. Hahahaha!!! Poor boy! The only boy in a group of 9! During the movie we sat next to each other and we enjoyed watching the faces of the girls when Jacob comes out without a shirt on and with his new haircut. Wow they basically freaked out! After the movie that's all they could talk about! They all said that they are coming to America to meet Taylor Lautner. I unfortunately had to inform him that he's mine and they need to find another celebrity to like. One girl couldn't stop talking about his muscles and today when I came to school, she was still talking about it. Oh boy! Well it turns out that I understood almost the whole movie because it's not hard to understand, "Bella I need you" "Bella I will never hurt you" "No, I will not turn you into a vampire".
Well anyway today the grades came out for first term and I'm kind of upset. I mean I'm in another country and I didn't expect to get as good of grades, but I'm still disappointed. My spanish teacher failed me and I have to idea why because after every test we had he never put a grade on the top. So that was a bit of a shocker! My other grades were these... History B, Economy B-, Spanish F, Tech B, Math A- (best in the class), English A (I would have been really mad if I didn't get that grade!), Science B-, Philosophy B- (that one I'm really proud of!), PE- B (he doesn't ever give out A's). The comments from the teachers were pretty good. Most of them either said that I'm trying and there's room for improvement, or that they love having me in their class. We got our grades and then we had PE right after and that's when the fun started! One girl started yelling at the teacher because she got an 8 (B+)! He started yelling back saying that she got the best grade in the class and she shouldn't be complaining. Then she said that my friends (the rest of the girls) don't do anything and they got the same grade as her (which isn't true). It's always so much fun to watch those kinds of fights between teachers and students! So that's what's been happening around here!

Atapuerca

I have no idea how to spell it, but yesterday my class took a field trip to the oldest place in Europe, Atapuerca. It's only a few miles out of Burgos and it's the oldest part of Europe because they found the oldest human species there. While waiting for the bus to pick us up, this girl named Paula and I listened to my ipod and danced like crazy! It was so nice to be myself again! She was a little embarrassed to dance in front of everyone, but I didn't care. Then when I got on the bus I was a loner like always so the teacher told me to sit next to this girl who was also by herself. I found out her name is Lara and she's also a new student. I talked to her the whole way there and I can tell she's going to be a good friend, even if she's from the other class. When we got there the tour guide showed us the places where they discovered the bones and the tools and little ancient animals. I understood most of what was going on but I was too cold to care. It was pretty cold yesterday, but on top of that it was super windy like always! Oh and we were outside for the whole six hours! We then went to the park where we pretended to be neanderthals and we made tools out of the rock, painted on a wall with the paint that came from a certain type of rock, we made instruments out of wood and string, we hunted with different types of weapons, and then we finally got to make fire! We went into a hut to make the fire and took forever but when it finally started we all swarmed to it because we were so cold! Since the guy only used horse hair and no wood, the fire didn't last very long which made us all mad! The last part of the tour was to learn how to look for fossils and bones. It was super super boring! Then I rode home with the same girl and we got involved in a newspaper throwing fight which didn't make the teacher very happy! Overall it was a pretty fun day and it would have been tons better if I had feeling in my fingers, nose, ears, toes, etc.

End of Finals

This past week I have been swamped with tests! The finals started last thursday and tomorrow I have my last one! I've been studying like crazy and yet I don't think that I passed any of them, except english. The tests are really impossible! Each teacher has their own way of doing things but we are normally given an hour and a half to take the test. In that hour and a half we have to answer 4-5 essay questions and we also have to define some concepts. Definitions are the easy part! It's super hard for me to write an essay on the theory of Kant in philosophy, or the big bang in science! My spanish teacher didn't let me use my dictionary and so I ended up turning in a basically blank test. On friday I had the english test, the only one I didn't study for, and I still found it hard! There were frases that we had to translate from spanish to english, and different activities, one of which we had to know the difference between whom and who and I have no idea! I felt so stupid when 4 boys finished before me! Oh and then I felt even stupider when on Monday Jesus posted the results and quite a few people did better than me! I got a 9.2 which is an A- and a couple of boys got 9.8 which is amazing! In the other subjects, it's basically impossible for anyone to get close to a 9! Well tomorrow I have my math final which should be easier than the rest if my teacher lets me use my calculator!

Porto, Portugal and Santiago, Spain

Well this weekend we had two days off of school so I went on a trip with my family. We left thursday after school and drove straight to Porto. When we got there is took us three long hours to find our hotel and Weston threw up twice. Porto never really figured out how to set up a city, because it was a mess. There was freeways going in every direction and all the signs were in portuguese, pretty bad. When we finally found our hotel we went straight to bed. The next day we rode tour buses all day long. The seats were great and I got to sit on top of a double decker bus, so I'm not complaining! That night we ate seafood in a tiny little restaurant that stayed open just for us. It was pretty good and I got to try some things that I've always thought were unetable. The next day was halloween to we went to the market in the morning and got some fruit. Then we took a tour of an old stock exchange palace building, went to the san francisco church and went to the grocery store to buy lots of candy! When we got back to the hotel I watched the prince and me 2 (awful movie) on my dad's computer while my parents and brother watched scorpian king (another awful movie). Then I studied the american revolution in spanish, in another country. That was a weird feeling! For some reason I don't remember what we did on Sunday, but we ended up in Santiago, where we had more trouble finding our hotel. The hotel was great but the bed covers and curtains had roman figures on them and Weston was disturbed by the naked ladies, which he should be. Also, the sheets were balled up so we were scared we were going to get scabies, but I think we are safe. Today we saw the Santiago cathedral and ate at Doner Kabap which is the most amazing Turkish food! We then drove home and I went on a run. Now it's time to study because this week and next I have finals and they are going to kill me!

October 27

Well I'm really trying to make an effort to write in here more, the problem is I really have nothing to say. Everyday is the same, I wake up, walk to school, endure through 6 or 7 hours of Spanish, walk home, eat, go to seminary, then I study for the rest of the day. My life is pretty much the same, except now everything is in Spanish.
I had a Spanish test today that I didn't even bother studying for. There's no way I'm going to ever understand what's going on in that class! So I made a few answers up then sat there for the rest of the hour.
In economy we learned about the stock market crash of 1929 which was weird. I don't know how to explain it, but it's weird learning about american history in another country, in another language! I've already learned about the american revolution in history, which was weirder!
When my class has English on tuesdays I usually go to another class to learn more spanish. It's sad because I'm better friends with that class than my class! They are a lot nicer! Well there's this girl in that class who has a crush on the nicest boy in my class named Fernando, but they call him Trejo. He spent the year in Michigan last year and three years ago in Germany. So he knows English really well and that means I talk to him a lot! Ha so I told him and he thinks it's pretty freaky that a girl two years younger than us likes him, but I tried to explain that's normal! I guess no matter where I am, I will never be able to keep a secret!

2 Month Mark!

So I've been here for 2 months, 2 very long months! I don't feel like my spanish is getting better at all! I've already had a ton of exams in my classes which means my perfect GPA has dropped a lot! So that's what I've been doing in the past month, studying.
A couple of weeks ago I went with my parents and my grandma and weston to Salamanca and Portugal. I saw a ton of old buildings and beautiful tile (so my mom and grandma say). Weston and I had fun taking pictures in front of the tile and the doors. Overall it was a fun trip.
On Wednesday or Thursday a bunch of actors and actresses and film crew came to my host family's hotel for the week. They are filming a movie called "The Way" with Martin Sheen in it. I had no idea who he was until my sister Whitney told me that his son, who's also in Burgos, was the coach in Mighty Ducks! Now I think it's the coolest thing ever!
In my classes I've gotten a little more comfortable. The other day in P.E. I was even teaching a few girls some of my dance moves! Most spaniards get embarrased when I start dancing so I was surprised when these two girls tried to dance with me! The next free day we have I'm going to bring my ipod and we are going to dance!
Well tomorrow I have an economy test that I haven't studied for at all so I have to get to that! Yikes!

Start of October!

So it's been another crazy week! Saturday I went to Madrid to do baptisms for the dead and it was amazing! I got to see my mormon friends from Bilboa and they are awesome! They make me want to change cities! Sunday I went to church like normal, except I didn't participate like I have in the past weeks. Really, I've already said the closing prayer, and conducted the music! Monday was a pretty bad day, like all Mondays are, nothing new. Tuesday my grandma came and after seminary I got to spend the afternoon with her! I loved hearing about home! Wednesday was awful! I went to technology class thinking it was going to be a good day, and by the time I came out of that dreadful place, my mind was changed. The other problem with Wednesday is that I have seven hours of school instead of the normal six hours, and this Wednesday I didn't make a sandwitch, so I was tired and hungry! Yesterday was great! I became better friends with the girls I eat lunch with, by better friends I mean that I now know all their names! Ha and there's three Marias! Today was better than yesterday, if that's possible! I told a girl yesterday that I would show her pictures of the most attractive kids at Timpanogos, and during break time, every single girl in my grade were drooling over the pictures! They were asking a billion questions about the three boys I showed them, and I thought it was hillarious! Now they all want to come to Utah this summer to meet them! Hahaha I'm glad they have the same taste in guys! Anyway I'm going to a party right now and I'll actually be home early! OH and I'm so excited for general conference!

September 23

In the past week I've made new friends. When school first started, I was a loner and no one talked to me! It's my first time starting school in a new place, and for some reason I was more shy than usual! Maybe that has to do with me not speaking their language... Anyway, the past couple of days have been much better! I'm now able to have a conversation with someone where we both understand! I've also been invited to parties, which is a VERY big step for me!
My clases are also getting better. I'm starting to understand more, or maybe I'm just getting used to not understanding. Before this week started I printed out everything I'm learning in english, and it's helped a lot! Now that I know what I'm suposed to be learning, I see that a lot of my clases are repeats of past clases. For example, right now my economics clase is the same as human geography in ninth grade. History also relates to those two clases, and philosophy relates to economics. Knowing that, I might actually be able to pass the tests in October!
Pachi (my host dad) is driving me nuts! I really can't look at him without feeling irretated! When he talks to me he talks really loud and really slow, which is fine, except he spits in my face because he's a close talker! Both him and Cristina ask me the same questions over and over again! They're both really nice, but I avoid them as much as possible!
Well that's about all that's happening right now. Please send me an email, or a comment, or something because I miss all of you guys!

School

So since my last post I've been pretty busy! On friday I went to a party where we ended up going to los llaves, which is a place that has tons of bars. We spent the whole night going from bar to bar while dancing. I couldn't handle the smoke, so I decided not to go to the party on Satuday, which probably was a good decision considering Miguel got home at 6:30 in the morning!
There's a new convert in our branch and she's fifteen. On Sunday I got to know her a little bit, and I think we can become good friends.
School started on Monday. I spent the day craning my neck trying to understand everything the teachers were saying. I ended up with the biggest headache that's continued every day this week. The kids are helpful, but not super friendly. All the boys in my class look like they are twelve except two who look 24. There's one Carlos in my class and he has to be shorter than Kevin Fonseca! I laughed so hard when I found out he was Carlos! All the girls have the same questions for me, in the same order... "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" Do you have a boyfriend?" "Do you want a boyfriend?" I'm so sick of answering these questions! I'm also confused on why they always ask if I have a boyfriend. Who cares! There's also a boy in my class who spent last year in Texas, so I talk to him a lot! Well I have philosophy homework now that will probably take me an hour though it will take everyone else ten minutes!

Latest Activities

In the past three days I have been pretty busy. Sunday, our branch became part of a stake, so I went on a bus to Bilboa for a stake conference. It was fun, and I was surprised about how many youth there were. The best part was that I understood almost all of it because two members of the quorm of the seventy spoke in english!
On Monday there was a party at my house with Miguel and his friends. We played twister and it was a blast! While we were playing, the people not playing would bring others drinks. There are a lot of drinks that look like alcohol, but don't have any, so I thought that is what this drink was. Boy was I wrong! By the end of the night, things got really crazy and I thought it was hilarious!
Yesterday I went the school in the morning and saw everything there was to see with Jesus as my tour guide, joy. After lunch I left with Guillermo to hang out with Gonzalo. We went to the beautiful Cathedral and about 10 churches. Gonzalo and Guillermo were excellent tour guides because they both speak english amazingly well! Then Guillermo left and I met about 20 of Gonzalo's friends. It was fun, but I was tired so Gonzalo took me home. Alvaro thought it was hilarious that I left with one boy and came home with another. He loves to tease me! After dinner, I watched a movie with english subtitles with Victor, Miguel, and Andrea. It was probably one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen.
Based on my latest activities with people my own age, I've noticed that boys here are a lot different! They are gentlemen but are also very very touchy. Living here is seriously going to alter my space bubble! I guess I'm gonna have to get used to it!

I'm a little homesick!

Things are getting better and worse at the same time!
Thursday morning I hung out with Miguel, Victor, and David again. It was pretty fun. They showed me a video of them dancing last year for a party the school has every year. They also said that I had to do it this year, but based on what I saw, there is no way I would ever participate in that party! Then after lunch I walked to the church to meet some kids there for an activity, but I ended up getting lost and had to call my dad. He eventually found me and brought me to the church where we had fun eating ice cream and playing games. I'm going to like my ward a lot! After that, I walked back home (I didn't get lost!) and me, Miguel, Victor, David, and William went to the pool. The water was freezing, but it was still fun!
Yesterday night I met Andrea and Carlota. We went on a walk around the park that I live by. I was so excited because they seemed like the kind of girls that I could become very good friends with. Then I found out that Andrea is moving back to Romania on the 20th and Carlota is trying to get into a music school. Just my luck! They're the only girls (besides church friends) that don't drink or smoke that I've met! Now I only have a week to become better friends with them before school starts and I become too busy!
Today I woke up a little homesick. I started to watch pride and prejudice which always makes me feel better. After lunch, Alvaro was trying to dish up some ice cream and bent the spoon a little because the ice cream was so hard. I then remembered the time we destroyed a spoon trying to make root beer freezes and so we gave it to Brittany! That was the same night that we stole Brenna's shoes and had a pretty big raid. I was too busy thinking about that night that I didn't pay attention to anyone on my way up to my room. I miss everyone so much! It seems like I haven't heard anything from home! Please send me something!

Finally Meeting People My Age!

Well it's almost been 3 days since my last post and to be honest, nothing new has really happened! I still haven't gotten over jet lag so I've been sleeping a lot during siesta. For this reason, Monday and Tuesday I really didn't do anything! I went to the police station to get everything settled, but it turns out that we need a lot more papers. So then we went around town and I got to see the whole city, and again it's gorgeous!
Today I went to school with Miguel while he took his tests. That means that I had to talk to Jesus for an hour and a half before he left me alone on the stairs! Ah that man drives me nuts!!!! He thinks I don't know any spanish so he makes me repeat my name is Madison, I'm from the United States, I'm 16, over and over again in Spanish! Thanks for the help Jesus, but I'm pretty sure that I learned how to say that in first grade! Although I had to deal with Jesus, I really liked going to the school and seeing a lot of kids my age! I don't remember any names, but I met a lot of girls, Jesus thinks my dad won't let me talk to boys, and they seemed pretty nice. I got a yearbook from last year and it looks like all the kids are druggies. Ok maybe not all, but a lot.
Later, Miguel brought his friends over to hang out. I met Victor and David, and they seem nice even if they swear every minute and stink. We played more ping pong and then they left to go kick boxing. When they come back, we're going to walk around the city and I get to be presented, that's what they say, to more of Miguel's friends!

A Normal Sunday

Well today I had to wake up early because church was at 10. After not being able to sleep last night, this was kind of a problem but now I will be able to sleep tonight. Church was great! There's two young women, one is 13 and one is 15 and I'm so happy that I'm not the only one. There's also two young men besides Weston, one just turned 16 and the other one I have no idea how old he is but I think around 14. They want to hang out with me and Weston on thursday and they want to eat pizza! I'm excited to be involved in the church and have some friends! One of the sisters in the ward is the seminary teacher and she came to my house today and gave me a Spanish Book of Mormon and summer seminary homework. Once school starts, they meet once a week on saturdays at the church and I think I'm going to go, and also do my homestudy for Orem Seminary. It's a lot of work but I seem to have a lot of free time because my host brothers are always studying. The rest of the day I tried to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish and failed miserably! I don't know how people learn to speak that way because it was impossible for me. But when I read Spanish Harry Potter I can understand much better!
Today I also learned that there are a lot of problems between the only boys I know here. For example, Gonzalo said that Miguel and him are not friends but him and William are and William and Miguel are friends, but William said that Gonzalo and Miguel do not like William because he's not cool enough. Also, Gonzalo said that Miguel lies to his parents and lot, which might be true, but he also said that he doesn't drink, which according to Miguel is a lie. I've only been here five days and already I'm caught up in this drama! Back in Utah I believed everyone but now I'm not sure who to believe and I don't really care, so I wish they would stop bothering me about what the other person said about them!
Well it's been a long day and tomorrow I have nothing planned so it will be even longer, but it's fun to be around my family and I think my spanish is getting a little better!

Fourth Day

So today I slept in until 12:30 and took a nap at 3:30 and at 6:00. So now it's one in the morning and I'm not tired. For lunch we ate a lot of meat and I had churizzo which is like a sausage but it's orange and it has more juice. After lunch I slept and then Miguel and I went downstairs and boxed and played ping pong. I'm terrible at both! Then, I took another nap and after that we met my parents and my brother at the hotel. We then walked around the main part of town and it's gorgeous! The buildings are tall and the roads are cobblestone and it had an amazing view of the cathedral! We ate at three different bars and it was my first time that I can remember ever being in a bar. When I got home I stunk so bad that I'm airing out everything I was wearing right now. I saw Gonzalo walking around with his friends tonight and I quickly realized that he's the most attractive person my age in spain! And William is the funniest person in spain, so the two of them together are a good pair.

Third Day

Ok so I know it hasn't even been a day yet since my last post, but what can I say, I'm desperate to speak English! I've learned a lot of Spanish in the past three days to the point where I can understand everything they are saying if they slow it down a tiny bit. Like I said before, my host family is amazing! They are going to take me to the supermarket today so that I can get any kind of american cereal that I want! Cristina and Pachi know everyone in Burgos, and everyone knows them, so my dad jokes that they are part of the mafia, and I wouldn't be surprised if that turned out to be true. Everyday Cristina plans out the meals for the next day, so already I know that for lunch we are having fish. I've already tried, lomo (some kind of ham but it tastes better than sausage), brie (I don't know how to spell that but it's a soft cheese), sheep cheese, goat cheese, and a lot more delicious things! My room is really big and has its own bathroom. They only problem is that it's on the fourth floor so it's a bit hot and I have to climb a hundred stairs. The rest of the house is beautiful, filled with things from around the world. It feels a lot like my grandma's house. They have three elephant tusks and a whole display case filled with stuff made from ivory.

Right now I'm at my parents flat because my family is either studying at the library or at work, but I'll go home for siesta. This flat is amazing and all furnished and new! Alvaro and his friend drove me here and in the car we listened to Halo, which I've listened to three times since I've been here, I guess they really like that song. I can't wait for tonight because Miguel is bringing over his friends that are my age and one of them is William!

Finally Here

So I'm finally here! The flight over here was long, but the movies were pretty good. In London we had a layover and we were sitting in a place that had exactly 4 seats when my dad stood up for a second. Some random guy sat between us and started looking over my shoulder at the movie I was watching. We told him that my dad was sitting there but he just ignored us. It was very strange.
As soon as we got our luggage we met Pachi and Alvaro and they were super friendly, then we drove to Burgos. My host family is way nice and I'm extremely excited! Today we went and got me a phone and saw their hotel and my parents flat. The food is amazing and I have a feeling that I'm not going to want to leave by the end of a year. Oh and I drove on the cobblestone road!

Start of my Spain Adventure

I'm about to leave for Spain to spend a whole school year as a foreign exchange student. At first when I decided to do this I could not wait, and I also thought it was the best idea I could have possibly come up with. I mean who wouldn't want to get away from annoying people at school and start fresh? But now that I'm only four days away from leaving, I'm getting very nervous and sad to leave my family and friends.

Things around my house get more and more stressful as we get closer to leaving. About four months ago, my parents decided to get me settled for the first three months and drag my little brother along. So my mom feels like she has to pack up the house and eat every leftover in the cupboards. This trip is no longer about me going to Spain, it's about us, so whatever I thought was important to do before we leave is not important to my mom. And that is why I've been going to school for the past couple of days.

Although I don't sound that excited to go anymore, I know this will be a great experience for me. I'm excited to meet new people, become fluent in Spanish, eat new foods, and walk on the cobblestone streets!

I'll be writing on this blog pretty often, because it's the only time I'll be able to speak English freely, oh except the English class that I have to go to.