Adventures in the land of Molly

New videos! I know, how exiciting! Over a month with no updates and now i´m going update crazy for you all :). Follow this link to check out the new videos I´ve posted on youtube. One is about bread baking and a lot of other ones about the food here (strange, good and home made :) ). And a video about the christmas dinner of Rotary that I went to on friday night, it was in complete formal wear so there is also a video of me and my host parents all dressed up :). The kids at the dinner are the Interact (Rotary for kids sort of ) club of Puerto de la Cruz (a city near S/C) and it was a bit weird because they all go to a british international school which is taught in english, so they spoke english really fluently, ironically I learned a ton of spanish from them because they coudl instantly translate whenever I missed something :). Go check out my videos!
And follow the link for No Knead Bread (itz on the video, I would add links..But I´m lazy), it is amazingly easy and SOOOO GOOD.

My host mom got very inspired by my video using, I´m going to help her set up a youtube account now,
Peace,
Molly

Everything can´t be perfect all the time...Even in Spain

In school my class is know as the bad class, the kids who talk a lot, etc. It´s true, in clases where teachers don´t know classroom managment the class is out of the control, and the teachers have no idea how to get it back. In addition, now they have the expectation that everything will go badly, so naturally it does. I´m pretty sure that the solution is Non Violent communication, and today I tried to explain the concept to the class and our advisor durring advisory (everyone was completley ready to listen ... The class before in Chemistry went so badly that I walked out...Which defintely caused a scene, Being strong and refusing to be treated extremely badly is not the norm here, being calm (ish) and whining about whatever behind the persons back seems to be the cultural norm). Yes I know, walking out of class is not a good idea, but I just couldn´t take it, being yelled at (not me personally, but the whole class) and having so much negative energy thrown at me (all in a FOREIGN LANGUAGE) was more than I could take. And the way the teacher was behaving today was NOT a rare occurance (sadly :( ). Before durring class I tried to talk to the teacher about other forms of communication, I know that you should wait until someone requests help because they will be more open to it, but in this situation MY need of respect is consistently not being met. The teacher blantently ignored me. For some reason the idea of relating to others in a positive peaceful form seems extremely radical. I´m pretty sure that respect for others is not a cultural thing (although how you show it is) so I don´t understand how being peaceful and respectful towards your students is so radical.
Really I think they should try to understand the concept and apply it, really whats the worst that could happen? The class is already completely beyond their control!

If anyone has any ideas on bettering the situation please please tell me!


On a happier note, the picture on the previous post is of me presenting the West Olympia Rotary flag to the Santa Cruz Rotary. I´ll try to remind them a lot of times so that by the end of the year I have a Santa Cruz Rotary club flag for the West Oly club :). It isn´t the norm in Spain (far from it really lol) but I´ve been enjoying going to the rotary club meetings at least every other week. Here the meetings are at 8pm so I don´t have to miss any school, and the tapas (small dinner like things, finger foods) are very tasty :).
This week we had a presentation from someone working on reforming the prison on the Island to be more helpful for the inmates. It was really interesting to think about what the purpose is of prison (whether to simply temporarily remove a risk from the community or try to better the person and their life when they get out, and how you decide when they are ready to get out, etc). Also, the concept that the people in prison are part of the community, and therefore what happens in the commnity effects those in the prison and what happesn in the prison effects those in the community (this one she didn´t really sell me on..but you know, new ideas :) ).

I hope everything is well at home,
Molly

P.S. Those who are learning spanish I highly suggest you watch some of Amar en tiempos revueltos I´m pretty sure if you google it the website for TVE (television española) where you can watch it will come up.

Finally an Update :)

Sorry everyone for stopping posting to my blog! The laptop at my home here stopped working and for some reason the computers at the library allow access to everything BUT my blog. Also, I´ve had a zillion and one tests and been super busy studying for them. Excuses excuses :).

There is good news though, as of right now I´m going to pass ALL of my courses! Most of the kids fluent in spanish don´t even hope for that. In my opinion its proof that studying works no matter what langauge you do it in :). Speaking of langauges I´ve progressed by leaps and bounds. Now (whenever i´m not exhausted...) I can understand whats being said to me and respond without having to think, and at about the same speed as a conversation in english.

Also, when I go out with friends now I understand enough to participate in the verabl games and messing around, even at the rediculously fast speed groups of teenagers talk (I never knew what the adults were talking about, now I defintiely do, I swear teenagers must talk about twice as fast as the normal adult!). Wow this is defintiely strange, for a long time I thougt tehre weren´t tourists here. About a minute ago a whole SWARM of them entered the library and started taking pictures, some of which were of all of us on the computers. I really wish I had a photo of that! One second I look over and there were five or six cameras pointed at me, Paparazi! Ok now everything is back to normal :).

For January 10th (or someday like that, i´m not sure exactly) I have to give a presentation in spanish about my life in the US. If anyone has any cool pics of oly, or something US or Oly like PLEASE send them to me! Also, parents, please look though our photos and find some good ones of all of us :). I´m not sure what else to post right now, and I have to go eat lunch and study (chemistry exam on friday, and technical drawing exam on tangents on monday!),

Take care everyone,Molly

Octopus, and Fish Heads

Quite the combonation eh? :). Those are the three words I would choose to sum up my last three days.
Yesterday was Day of All Saints (or somehting like that), the holiday which halloween originates (sort of). To ´Celebrate´(not actually a HAPPY holiday, but I´m not sure what word to use) we bought flowers and went up to the Rural house (hotel thing in the country the family has, which is GORGEOUS and is where Tita, and Loreto´s Mother grew up) to put flowers on Loretos mom´s grave. There actually is a whole chapel thing, that isn´t open to the guests, but I think it might be where her mom is, I didn´t quite understand, but I know she´s burried somewhere up there.
After that we (Loreto, Juan (padre), Carmen, Tita, y Abuelo Juan (grandpa)) went to a fish restaurant in the really north of the island (Juan padre´s Favorite, oh padre=dad :) ). One of the things we at was a purple octopus. When it was served it still looked just like an octopus you would see swimming in the Ocean (without the head thank goodness though...!). Loreto cut it up into pieces, while I looked on scepticly. When everyone else started digging in I figured it couldn´t be sooo bad so I went for it. Definitely not the food for me...Imagine chewing a salty piece of gum that doesn´t really chew very easily, mixed with a big chunk of beef fat....Yeah pleasent eh? Oh yeah, I forgot about the SUCKERS, they pop off of the ´meat´when you put it in your mouth and have a texture like nothig else i´ve ever eaten. And to be polite I ate more than just one little piece...Yeah I guess at least now I can say that I´ve eaten Octopus.
The fish heads thing was also a surprise. When they brought out the plates with the main course.

More Videos!

I meant to make them all into one continuos video...but I guess I ended up uploading a bunch of video shots. Same difference I suppose :), now you can click on which parts you find the most interesting. Here is one I really wants to show you all of my school


I just love the view from the windows in class, from some of the rooms you can even see the ocean :). If you go to my youtube account you can view all my other videos. If you want to see my surroundings I suggest Fountian, Driving, Greenery, Pretty Park, Cars, Flowers, Kiosko and The View (yes some of the names I wrote here are improvised, but you´ll be able to tell which videos I mean :) ).
I also suggest everyone check out my new hair cut (actually its sort of old now...I got it like a month ago, It´s about time for a trim! ). Oh and that was my outfit for one of the times we went out :).
¨Dinner¨is good if you want to see a bunch of Juan´s friends who we went to dinner with for Paula´s birthday party (there were over 20 of us!).
Feel free to click around. Any of you who have camcorders in Oly should make me some videos of what you´ve been up to! If your in the market for a little cam corder, I highly recomend the Flip Video Ultra, I got mine for about $70 on e-bay, and it´s small enough to fit in my pocket and records 30minutes of video.

Also, Nate thanks for your message! I want to write back to you, but I don´t have a current e-mail for you or Addie, give me one please!

Take care at home everyone,

Molly

Just a Quicky

Rosemary´s comment reminded me of something EXTREMELY suprising that I forgot to post :). Not only is the presidential election in the US not causing a buzz here, many kids have asked me who WON, and are shocked when they find out that it isn´t for another month! Also, everyone here is obsessed with talking about the ´Crisis´is that the same at home?

Thats all for now (I told you it´d be quick :) )
Molly

The white girl with the pretty eyes

Yes thats me lol. The two things people say here about me, ´¡Necesitas ir a la playa, estas MUY blanca!´ (you need to go to the beach, your VERY white) to which I reply ´pero esta es morena a mí jaja´(but this is tan for me :) ). The other thing I hear a lot ´Me encanta tus ojos´, o ´tus ojos son muy bonitos´(I love your eyes, or, your eyes are very beautiful). The eyes thing is because here nearly everyone has brown eyes, so my green eyes are quite the sceptical :). Rather than having people stare at me in whole like they did in Myanmar, people just stare at my eyes here (my white skin is strange, but not THAT strange).
It´s funny, I know there are a zillion things that are extremely different here, and that there have been a number of funny things that happened with the culture/language switch, but I can´t for the life of me pull up a few examples to tell a classmate who asked for some for the school newspaper!

Oh, here is one sort of funny story (that I may have already said...but I think I have a better example now). A few weeks ago I was sitting in class, intently listening, and I understood what they were saying (now a regular occurance, if I´m fully paying attention....a very difficult task for 6 hours straight, plus at home!), and my reaction was to assume ·OOOooh, I understand everything because EVERYONE who speaks english understands Spanish, DUH, because nearly every word is a cognate· (why of course, dont´you all understand spanish? :) ). Interesting logic eh? After thinking about it I figured out why though, for most words, the word is spanish is ·Near· to a word that you wouldn´t use in everyday speech, but has the same meaning. For example, the verb to breathe is Respirar, which is close to respirate in english. But you would never she she was repirating...But it made sense at the time :).

Bof, I had more ideas of what to write here but they have all left me. Time to go back to all the rediculous amounts of homework I have to do...

Molly

A day in the Life...

of ME :)!

Durring the school week my day begins at 7am, when my alarm goes off and I can´t beleive that its already time to get up again (being an exchange student is tiring, plus I´ve been actually dreaming here (I don´t usually!) and waking up not as rested, I think I´ve read that its also from processing the langauge while you sleep? I don´t know).

Then I get ready for school (just like at home :) ). But I don´t use a backpack, instead I have a big purse that I put my books in, just like all the other girls here. Also, I actually have to carry textbooks, which isn´t as tragic as it would be in the US because they are all paperback and not THAT thick (except for physics and chemistry...uuugh lol) but the weight still does add up. Then its down the stairs for breakfast (oh, another random note, I have PE two days each week and on those days I wear my nikes to school, again just like all the other kids, all the other days its flip flops, there is no dress code here so you can wear whatever you want :). Also, no PE lockers, in fact the locker room is just like a bathroom with a little empty thing attached for changing, and four showers, which we only use after the pacer (for the adults, pacer= evil thing where you run A LOT) )

Ok back to what I was saying, breakfast. Thats probably the most ´normal´ (meaning US like) meal of my day, I usually eat oatmeal, and my host mom eats cereal. After that, at about 7:35 I walk to school (22minutes, usually) then look in my planner and figure out which classroom I´m going to (different everyday). The beginning of school consists of a lot of kisssing cheeks while we´re saying hello and waiting for the teacher (who sometimes shows up like 10minutes after the period started! lol). My class schedule changes everyday, but school begins at 8am, break is from 10:45-11:15 (I always go to the same caféteria, alone, because my brain needs a break! Plus I like the consistency of having one thing the same in my constantly different days) Then three more classes from 11:15 to 2pm, when I walk home.

My subjects in school are Industrial Technology, Math, Spanish Literature, General Science, Physics and Chemistry, Philosophy, PE, Study Activities (dont´ask me what the class is for..I have no idea :) ), Tutoria (like advisory, except for better, the person is actually supposed to help you, and its good because your with the same kids all day, so if a problem between kids were to occur its good to have an adult to help sort it out), and Apollo Idiomatica (Langauge Help, like ESL, but for learning Spanish, just me and one other girl though :) ). I have some of the classes above 4times for week, others twice per week, and tutoria once per week.

When I get home at about 2:30 its time for lunch, the biggest meal of the day. Depending on when my host parents get home (and how hungry I am, meaning how long I can wait to eat) I eat with them. Usually there is some sort of a soup, either potaje (i dk how you spell it) (it´s a creamy soup that I think is cream of potatoe, with other veggies and some sort of meat, i´m not really sure :) It´s very tasty though!) or chicken noodle (with really small noodels, mostly broth, again I like it :) ). For the main dish there is usually some sort of meat, and some sort of starch. Also, they LOVE fried food here, I know, go figure :). Like probably a third of the time we have french fries with our meal. I really like the paella they make with rabbit here. Paella is flavored rice, with some veggies and rabbit (it takes like chicken, cliché i know, but true!), very spanish. Also we eat a lot of fish here. Deep fried fish, fried fish, etc :), my favorite is breaded bacalow (again I have no idea what it is in english, but some sort of light white fish). Basically everday there is also salad and desert. Oh another food that we eat here a lot of cuban rice (i don´t know what its like, rice with garlic and other things, its really good!), barley fried eggs (not high on my list...), and fried bannanas (YUM! TRY THIS RIGHT NOW :) Seriously, go grab a bannana (preferably from here because its amazing, but I guess yours will do lol) and toss it in the fry pan with a bit of olive oil. Yum Yum Yum :).

After lunch its over to the TV room to watch ´Amar en tiempos revueltos´ Love in times of revolution. It´s a spanish soap opera set durring the era when Franco was in power. My host mom loves it, and watches any eposode she misses on the internet later. About half the time I take a nap after that until about 4:15, then its studying, shopping, walking, violin, etc, general free time activities. Dinner is eat what you want, when you want, and then I usually go to bed around 10, or 10:30 (early for the Spanish, but as I mentioned being an exchange student = a lot of energy!)



One other food that I REALLY like here is Bocadillo de Tortilla Española. I usually get it when we are eating out (which is fun because it really doesn´t cost that much here, for example a hamburger at a café, or a Bocadillo, or a Sanwhich, etc costs about 2euro (3 dollars) ).

Whoops! Internet here is quite unpredecitable! I started this post on Monday ( I think...:) ) and it then the interent died part way through, I think there was more (I know, even LONGER :) ) but here´s what there is. I don´t really feel like reading through the whole thing, if there is some essential element missing let me know!

Thank you so much for your comment Rosemary! The rest of you should try it too now! Down below this there should be something that says ´Comment´ Click it, type what you want, and hit send! Hope all is well is Oly,
Molly

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Yes you read that right, I just ate PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY :D. Nummy lol.
Also, I made bagels today which is suprisingly easy! It only takes about an hour and a half total (including baking and clean up ;) ) and they are AMAZING. Especially when you can´t buy a decent bagel! (Or any at all as the case is here, the decent bagel commet is reffering to the closure of ottos in Oly :( ). Here´s the recipe I used, you really should try it! I topped some with dried garlic, basil, and oregano, others with seasame seeds, and some others with cinnamon sugar (which is turning into a love affair here with Tita, a grandma like figure, :) ). Just add the toppings after you boil and before you bake.

INGREDIENTS
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


DIRECTIONS
In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the butter, sugar, salt and egg yolk; mix well. Stir in enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Shape into 12 balls. Push thumb through centers to form a 1-in. hole. Place on a floured surface. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes; flatten. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Drop bagels, one at a time, into boiling water. When bagels float to the surface, remove with a slotted spoon and place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

And here´s the link to the original http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Bagels/Detail.aspx .

Life is very good here, I´m enjoying all the special Spanish things like cheap gummies in a zillion flavors from ´Kiosocs´(little stores with magazines, newspapers, candy, drinks and chips), Amazing CHEAP treats from bakery´s (€0.70 for a fabulous croissant, or a chocolate filled croissant like thing) which are also all over the place, probably one every two to three blocks!
The other thing I REALLY like here is the simple pleasure of goin up on the roof and looking out at all the palm trees and gorgeous water and sky and the buildings, and people, and mountains, and houses, and...the list goes on :). In one word, Gorgeous!

Things are different here...

Here is a list of things which totally tripped me up at first (but now I´ve gotten used to...mostly :) ) :
The light switches are more like buttons wGTch two directions (i´m not sure how to describe them...) In addition, they are about 6inches lower than the one in the states (i´m guessing becasue they build their houses with metric measurements). Those six inches don´t seem like they would be an issue, but when your gropping for the light switch in the dark it can be quite confusing!
The front doors here don´t have knobs like the ones on the states. Some have a huge knob in the center (that doesn´t turn) or just one of those fancy knocker things. The doors are always locked and to get in you either use a key, or press the buzzer and wait to be buzzed in or for someone to come to the door.
Lots of the streets here are TINSY, if the cars were the size of the ones in the US they would run into all the cars parked in every single spot possible besides (barely) enough room for a euro sized car to get through. Also, basically all the not main streets are one way, which is nice for walking, but must be sort of confusing for driving!
On the subject of streets, the do NOT for squares here! Streets take off from other streets at all sorts of random angles, which made me extremely confused as to where I was for the first few weeks. What an amazing feeling now though to have mastered the strange streets and be able to get wherever I want to go in this fabulous european city :).
About half the time when a TV show or movie is originally in English and dubbed in to Spanish they leave the english playing in the background, which I´m sure is fine for native Spanish speakers but it makes it so I can´t understand anything happening in either language! Actually right now, I hardly understand anything in either langauge, my mind jumps sporadically back in forth, accidently inserting words from one langauge into thoughts in the other language! It´s quite the odd sensation :). Hopefully soon (they tell me after 3 months here...) I will be able to think (and speak and understand) everything only in Spainsh.

I´m sure there are lots of other strange things that I´m forgetting, I´ll add them later. I have to go finish getting ready to go out with Carmen (host sister) and her friends tonight!

I hate Liscensing Laws!! GAH

Wow, I never realized how much I take for granted that the online services I use are just for Americans! I can´t use Pandora.com (which is a freaking sweet site for listening to music, if you havne´t tried it you really should, then you can sympathize more with me not having it for a year lol), OR netflix on demand! AAAaaaaAaaaaAaah! Sad time, I´m really glad Youtube in universal though, otherwise I don´t know what I would do!
Wow a lot of exclamation points, but you get the idea. Also, more things I realized I take for granted, it is quite difficult to get ahold of coconut milk here, and the people in the regular grocery stores just look at you like your nuts when you ask for it, the same thing with ginger and limes. Go figure, I really don´t understand the lime thing since they have lemons out the ying yang...:). Luckily there is a fruit store where I was able to get some limes and ginger root, but I didn´t feel like walking all the way over to the chinese grocery store (on the other side of town, near my high school, so perhaps i´ll pick so up tomorrow) and paying like €1.50 for a can (like 2.25$). I also can´t find curry paste! And I have yet to see any sort of asian restaurant.
I had quite the interesting adventure making a version of Grandma´s thai coconut soup thing. I ended up using one can of coconut drink, and then taking a whole coconut and grinding it with some water and squeezing it to make more coconut milk. I like how the soup turned out, but its VERY different tasting from home. All the food here is quite mild and my host mom commented that it was very strong (only about as strong as tom gah kai..wait till she tries my curry :)...if I can ever get ahold of curry paste that is! :( ).
Yes there are many food things that I love here (read MANGOES, and MANGO JUICE for really cheap, and Spanish Tortilla, and cafe con leche condensada and....the list goes on :) ) but I also am starting to miss some things from home.
Ok, thats my update for now, and the moral of this story? Don´t take your thai food for granted!


BTW Loving Parents, I would be estatic if you want to the dollar store and bought me a set of plastic measuring cups and plastic measuring spoons and sent them to me :). I think there are a couple other light things that could make it like christmas in October, but I forget them right now, I´ll let you know when I remember :) (wait to send things until I remember at least one other please :) ).

Pictures!

Finally :). The first pictures are of other kids in my class (taken at school between classes :) ).

The group picture is of all the exchange students in Spain this year from the orientation in Madrid.

I know its unreleated, but there also is a picture of me walking to the car getting ready to leave :)

(I´m sorry there so small! The internet is a bit slow here, and the program is limiting it too! eek!)

Have a Nice Chair and the Killer Fruit

Aka my first day of school. Actually the day went much better than expected, I´ve heard a lot from different people how the Spanish are slow to warm up to people but that was not my experience. Everyone in my classes was very welcoming (and entertained by my foriegnness and not understanding nearly anything lol). In my class (which I have every subject except with except for Industrial Technology, because some people have Biology and others have technical drawing) there are only 5 other girls! Although that is sort of weird (given that there are other THIRTY people in my class) it´s also nice for me because it means that all the girls stick together. In addition a lot of people are coming to this school for the first time, and its the first time that people seperate themselves out by what they are goin to study in university, so everyone isn´t already farmiliar with themselves. From what I could understand in my classes (not to terribly much lol :) ) they were mostly the same as the first day in the US. Except for last period. Oh man lol, I don´t know what the subject was supposed to be (and neither did any of the kids I asked, something like Social world living or some random thing...I don´t know) but the teacher didn´t seem to either. And I believe she said she didn´t want to be there, and she had absouletely no control over the class (becasue she had nothing interesting to say, no one would listen of course!) finally, after she attempted to start introductions and failed, a Student stood up. I don´t know his name yet, but he was very helpful and kind to me today, he was an exchange student in Michigan last year, so he was able to translate and related to my complete confusion :). So when he stood up, he walked to the front of the class room, nudged the teacher from where she was sitting, and told her to sit down. She obliged, laughing, and took his seat. He then took the roll list from her, went to the front and pretended to be the professor for the last 20minutes fo the period, and through that he actually managed to lead introductions, in addition to providing a lot of entertainment for all. I was laughing nearly all the way home :D.

After school I went shopping with Carmen. At one of the stores called ´Nice Day Nice Things´ there were shirts that said all kinds of things that didn´t really make sense in English using the word nice and lots of fish (your guess is as good as mine about why lots of shirts had fish on them! lol). There were also a lot of shirts with chairs on them that said ´Have a Nice Chair´I found it sound so amusing that I had to buy the button to add to my Rotary jacket. When I got home I organized all the school supplies that I had bought, then Juan decided to go to the Grocery store and I accomanied him. Man was it nice to by some food that seems farmiliar and that will be quick for eating (like SOY MILK :=) and cookies and juice to take as snacks for break at school, Lunch is at home at 2:30 when I get home, School is out at 2, then I have a 25min walk). There are a lot of strange new things here that I have to ask what they are, not only in the prepackaged things, but fruits and vegetables too. In the kitchen I pointed to a bowl of green fruit like things with darker green poky spots and Juan scream ¨DON´T TOUCH THOSE!¨of course I was quite confused. Then he offered me one...which added to my confusion. I accepted and he carefully stabbed it with a fork as he brough it the counter to cut. It turns out that they are not actually poisnouss, and not Killer Fruit either :). They are cactus fruit and have little thorns on them that apperently hurt a lot if they get in your finger.

I´m not sure if that made very much sense, my brain is quite exhausted from all the Spanish today, I hope you enoyed it anyway!
Peace out for now,
Molly

Bannanas Float!

Yes, its true, i just learned that on ´Brianiac´that I´m watching (in Spanish of course lol) (it´s a TV show for those of you who like my parents don´t kow that lol).
I spent this morning at the ´rural house´ patio de tita the families hotel about thiry minutes from here. It´s possitively beautiful there, with a view of the ocean and a bannana plantation to boot! (perhaps I´ll have to try the bannana expirement for myself w- one of the bannanas and the pool! lol). BTW Dad, could you type up a few of the bread recipes from the joy of cooking for me? Like one for the regular white bread and another for whole wheat bread? We´re having a get together at the rural house on Saturday and they just installed a new outside oven and I told Loreto that I´ve made bread before and she got very excited :).
Also, A few book recomendations for everyone! If you are studying Spanish I highly recomend getting the Barrons Spanish Verbs book, in addition to over 300 fully conjugated (in all tenses, there are FOURTEEN in spanish, VS 6 (I think, I know there are only three simple, and I think there are only three complex in English too) in English!). When you get it, follow what is says in the beginning and read the introduction pages where it talks about the verb forms, you won´t believe how helpful it is! It turns out that that the future tense is rediculously simple, as are most of the other ones (if you have them crealy explained!). Dad, if you get this book and study it I´ll bet that within a few months you´ll stop having problems explaining the past present and future in spanish to your guys!
Also, for anyone who likes a good romance book, you absouletely MUST read Dear John the newest book by the guy who wrote the Notebook (which I know is really poorly written, but this one is FABULOUS) I forget his name right now, but go find the book. It was published just last year, and his writing has imporved soooo much you won´t believe it. Normally I wouldn´t have bought it becuase of how bad the Notebook was, but it was the only slightly appealing book in english (there were only like 20 to choose from :O Our assumption that I can just buy english books here was SOOOO WRONG! Or perhaps I just haven´t found the right place too...but I don´t know!). I think I read Dear John faster than I´ve read any book, it gets inside your head, and leaves you constantly wondering whats going to happen next, there are twists and turns that you would never expect, and it deals with real life things. In addition, it has some stuff written from the perspective of a soldier in the Iraq war which I found extremely fascinating (and distrubing!) Nicholas Sparks really did his research this time.
Ok, thats my update for now lol. I´ll try to move the video camera more slowly next time I Vlog (If I can make it work again :O)
Take care,
Molly

Edit: It was Nicholas Sparks the wriiter, not Nick Cage the Actor who wrote Dear John and the Notebook. Thanks Lindsay :) I would be forever further confusing the adult population without you! Loves y Besos

Technical Difficulties

Hah, I have a post saved as a draft saying that I´m planning on switching all my blogging to Vlogging (video blogs) but of course, as soon as I had that written the flip video software won´t open, and everything goes slow when it does, and it takes me forever to get stuff onto here! I guess word blogging will have to do for now. I haven´t tried connecting my regular camera yet, figuring out foriegn technology is a lot of work!
Doing everything is Spanish is EXTREMELY hard. It´s quite strange for me to be the quite one in the corner, especially since I don´t even understand enough to interject (usually, there have been maybe 3 times so far when I have been able to) like the people who are actually just shy! When people speak to me, I understand maybe half of what they say (if they speak slowly). I´m studying, but it doesn´t feel like i´m making any progress! AAaaah. I know I am though, because I can at least make out words, and sometimes even figure out which part of the sentence I don´t know and look it up later and learn it, It´s tough being constantly confused though. In addition, everyone seems to be on one extreme or the other about my language ability (except for my host parents, they have been extremely wonderful about speaking slowly, repeating things, using motions, and clarifying with other words) they either think that I don´t know any Spanish at all, and are SHOCKED when I respond to the question they ask to Juan about whether I understand lol. Others decide that even though I don´t speak much, it must be because I´m shy (hah :D) so they speak just as fast as they do with everyone else, and I smile and try to follow along as best I can.
It was pretty entertaining yesterday, Juan and I were at his Grandpa´s house, and his Grandpa began showing me his house and speaking rapidily about everything, through everyroom. And I bascially understood nothing (though it was cool to see another Spanish house!), afterwards when I was just with Juan again I nearly fell over laughing because it was such a strange experience! I´ve found that Loretto´s aunt (who lives next door with Juan´s other grandpa, who is in the hospital right now because he had a retena transplant, he should be out on Monday though, and hopefully he´ll be able to see!) speaks slowly enough that I can usually understand most of what she´s saying. It works out well because she likes the attention, and I like actually being able to speak in Spanish!

That´s all for now, Take care everyone!
Molly
oooOOoo, one more side note, the dollar has incread in value...YAHOO The exchange rate was at 1.39 dollar for a euro yesterday!

First days video mix

Go here to watch my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6f2tbmT3o
Hey everyone, I´m sure there is a lot I could write here, but I´m feeling lazy so I´m just going to let you all watch the video I made :). I´ll do another long post next time I have time and internet! Hope all is well at home,

Molly

(I actually made this video, and this post a view days ago but I didn´t have time to put the two together! :) )

From the beautiful island of Tenerife

I´ve been here just over a day now and Soo much has gone through my mind. From the very tight one way streets with intense driving, to palm trees and european architecure....and oh wait SPANISH. Lots of Spanish. Last night at dinner (we ate out, it was a bit odd though, the restaurant had lots of little rooms with sometimes a few tables, and sometimes just one like the one we ate in, probably so i had some chance of understanding what my host family was saying :) ) everything in regular speed Spanish sounded like jibberish, but finally today i´m starting to be able to make out some words (although i don´t have a big enough vocabulary to understand other peoples conversations generally, just get the gist).
After the family get together today (LOTS of people all speaking extremely fast spanish...mi madre!) Carmen and I went shopping and I got my first spanish shirt from SPAIN. After shopping we hopped on the wawa (what they call there transit here, its Canarian slang) and went to a square in town near my families house (which is amazing by the way but more on that later when I have the time and brain power to figure out uploading pictures and/or videos, one thing right now though, they have a ´solarium´which is bascially just an open roof at the top of their house which is three stories high, from there you can see everything, the view literally made my jaw drop) Carmen had told me that spanish kids do not hang out at houses because its too nice, but I didn´t know how much she meant it until we got to the square. I wish I would have taken a picture or video, it was quite the site! The square was at least twice as full of teenagers as any hallway at Capital High School! We didn´t see Juan though, he must have gone somewhere else with his friends since we talked to him. Carmen spoke english with me this afternoon which was a nice break after all the constant, rapid, multiple people talking spanish. Once I have more vocabulary (like after school starts) we will speak Spanish together). Thats all for now, although this jet lag is killer! I was so tired I nearly fell asleep a lot of times earlier today, and now that its day time at home I´m hyper! Aye, well I´m sure that i´m still secretly tired so i´m going to go read and try to relax. I´m so excited, I am FULLY in love with this city, and all the people I met have been extremely gracious (and yes, everyone does hacer besos (kiss cheeks) I think i´ve touched more cheeks today than I have before in my life :) ).

Tomorrow!

The last few days have been very busy with preparations, and sad with goodbyes. However, I'm also EXTREMELY excited! In 26 hours I will be on the plane, ready to begin my journey to the Canary Islands. It is going to be quite the long haul (22 hours travel time total :O) but I'm positive it will be worth it :). I can't wait to meet my host family and get introduced to their beautiful city, island and country. I have some pretty crazy pictures of the packing adventure (technically it was re-packing! I packed once, then realized that I was 4 pounds over my ONE BAG 44 POUND limit) I'll post them as soon as I get the pictures from dads camera.

Details! :)

After looking at the livejournal of another RYE to Spain this year, I realized I should post my details on here!

I will be living with a family in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Spain. Tenerife is the largest island in the Canary Islands (located off the cost of Morocco, but technically part of Spain). My fabulous family consists of my host mother Lorreto, my host father Juan Antonio, my host brother Juan Antonio (17), and my host sister Carmen (18). I met Juan earlier this summer when he was visiting the US and we clicked instantly. I'm extremely exciting to meet these wonderful people so graciously taking me into their home and their lives for a year!
For those of you who want more of an idea of where I will be living look at some pictures of Parque Garcia Sanabria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, my home is located right near it! :)

The date is approaching quickly!

I now have less than one week left in the US. I'm beginning to get a bit nervous, and sad about leaving home, but mostly I am rediculously excited :). I just got a pair of noise canceling headphones for the flight, and the clothes I'm taking are spread out across my bed, ready for packing. Things are really start to look (and feel) like I'm about to go!!

My goodbye party w/ friends was really fun, but also quite sad, I know so many amazing people here being without them for a year will be hard. I'm sure I'll find some awesome Spaniards to hang with there though!

THE VISA HAS ARRIVED!

Wow, I am SOOO EXCITED. To be honest, I really wasn't expecting it to get here in time for a departure in the first week of September. The travel agent is working on finding me a ticket right now...Oh my goodness. Here I go!
This brings me to my next point...SO much to do. I still have to think about packing, pack, figure out banking internationally, prepare for my goodbye party next week, take a deep breath, AND spend as much time with my friends here as humanly possible before I leave (and of course a lot of time with my loving parents :) ).

To my family: Thank you all so much for the great party and your generous gifts!
To my other readers, Thanks for following my adventures, I'll keep you posted :)

Good Bye Parties Galore

My goodness, the date is looming closer and closer (assuming that the Spanish Consulate hurries up w/ my Visa...!!). Tomorrow I am going to a goodbye party w/ my family. Tuesday I'm going to my sponsering Rotary Club to say goodbye. Then on the 27th I'm having a goodbye party for all my friends. It's at 6pm, in case somehow you have this link, but didn't get an invite (life is getting pretty busy so that is possible...SORRY!). Assuming everything goes according to plan I will be hopping on the airplane on September 4th. I'm going to miss everyone here sooo much, but i'm SOOO excited :).
Thats all for now,
Molly