Mommy says its time for an update

Sorry about the lack of updates, I got sick on chirstmas eve and have been feeling a bit out of sorts since :(. Being a sick exchange student really makes your host mom worry, which in turn meant that instead of just working on getting better I had to work on looking not so sick so my host mom wouldn´t worry at the same time as getting better :). She kept wanting to take me to the doctor, or give me lots of strange fizzy disolve in water (like most of their things here) medicines (even IB profen, etc come in fizzy water versions!). When I was still sick with a bad sounding cough a few days ago I agreed that we shoudl call the doctor line for my health insurance, they were able to reassure her a bit and give me a recomendation for more random fizzy things to take and to steam tent with special minty extract stuff from the pharmacy.

Christmas eve here consisted of a 4 course dinner at home with everyone all dressed up. It was quite fun :), and even though santa clause doesn´t really come here, we each got a box of chocolates and sweets from ´him´that I (because I´m the youngest) got to bring in durring dinner and say that santa left them in the other room lol. Christmas morning consisted of washing dishes. Yes, Dishes! For the afternoon we went up to the rural house (hotel, family´s property, I don´t know exactly what you call it in english :) ) and had a big potluck feast with 30 members of the family. It was cool to hang out with all the cousins, and the weather was nice enough that lots of them went into the pool! I managed to get a sunburn too, ON CHRISTMAS. I think thats a first :), snow burn its possible (we sometimes go to Snowqualmie on christmas at home) but a real sunburn on christmas is definitely unheard of at home. After eating we sang christmas songs (in spanish, mostly), and one song about the canary islands (this is a link, click it to go to the youtube video :) ). (ok so this version doesn´t sound too terribly good, but it gets to the chorus quicker, click around and find the more professional ones if you want) (I´m on Tenerife for anyone who forgot :) ).
After that things calmed down a bit, especially for me because I was sick in bed for a few days! On New years (last night) we all got on very fancy clothes (like dresses, Juan with a tux, etc) and ate fried potatoes with rice and eggs (apperently their favorite new years eve food :) ). After wards we lit sparklers in the living room and waited for 11 oclock (midnight in Madrid) to eat our 12 grapes with the 12 chimes of the clock (so the grandparents could go to bed and we coudl go party :) ). At midnight I also went up on the roof with my host siblings and we watched the profesional fireworks display. It´s a nice break right now not to have tons of fireworks going off, for the past week or so everyone has been celebrating and its been LOUD. At about 12:45 we went down to the ´Casino´, a club thing, and I met up with the exchange student boy who is visiting from Madrid for the holidays with his host family and hung out with him until we both got too tired around 2:30 and came home and went to bed. Carmen Celia, Juan, and Loreto all went to different parties, and got home around 8 or 8:30 in the morning!! (After eating churros and chocolate while watching the sunrise). I hope to do that sometime durring carnival, but I really dont´know how they manage to be so alive the next day (although that may be an overstatement, Juan antonio spent about half the day in bed, and the other half on the couch half sleeping half watching TV :) ).
Well its nearly midnight, so I´m off to bed, I have to get all the way better to go hangout with friends tomorrow night,
Have a very happy 2009 everyone!
Molly
P.S. For those who want to look at PICTURES click here and view them on my facebook :)