Nathan’s blog

Ok so...this past weekend I had an orientation for AFS in Sevilla. I got there Friday night and met up with Hillary Miranda (living in a town called La Victoria outside of Cordoba and she is from Florida), Maha Sounbel (living in Badajoz and is only here for 3 months and is Austrian), Petra Krizco (living near Malaga and is from Austria), Lisa Unger (who i forgot where she lives but is she is from Germany), Phillip Pfleger (living near Malaga and is from Austria), Christopher Orr (living near Granada and is from Texas), Helmi Liikenen (lives somewhere in North Africa and is from Finland), and last but CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, Birita Poulsen (a.k.a muy guapa) (living near Cadíz and lives in the Faroe Islands (which is a part of Denmark though they have a different language and there are only 80,000 people living in the islands)). The first night we spoke almost entirely in Spanish we went for a walk into Sevilla and saw an amazing church. (During this im going to put randomly in hilarious quotes when they are in my mind...almost all of them by Chris Orr. During that night Chris sat on a bench and tried to say ´´I like sitting´´ in Spanish (me gusta sentantando) but instead said ´´me gusta sientiendo´´ (I like feeling) and another one was ´´¿tiene un movíl?´´ (do you have a cellphone?)...´´no, no tengo un novio´´ (no i dont have a boyfriend). We stayed up till about 3 that morning just talking and hanging out....the next day (Saturday) we talked in Spanglish and Danglish (german and english mix) and we did typical AFS activities and we talked about problems. That night we went out to dinner at a local bar and we stayed there for maybe 2 hours and just talked. Some interesting things we learned Saturday night was that everyone in the world had Pokémon (and still likes it) that we all love disney movies and know them all by heart......everyone know the song you dance the waltz to. Everyone knows the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees, and toes (in english cause thats helps them learn english). I learned that only my family calls our dog dog-face occasionally. That conversation was over the table.....´´Hillary! do you ever call your dog dog-face?´´ ´´Do I ever call my dog what!´´ ´´you know like dog-face....like come here dog-face or hey dog-face.´´ ´´No! why would you ever call your dog dog-face?´´ ´´you know just like a nickname´´ ´´no thats ridiculous´´ ´´hmmm hey chris...´´ (turns out only my family) so that was hilarious. Everyone can speak english to some extent...which makes it very sad that the large majority of americans go through life without ever learning 5 sentences in another language....the truth is we should all be at least bilingual if not more. Everyone there could speak their own language, spanish, english (some fluent, others good enough to say what the need to say and have a conversation) We stayed up till 5 in the morning then forgot to change our clocks so we got up and raced to breakfast cause it was about to close (but actually it was just opening). Today we just hung out and talked more...there are only 9 kids in Andalucia which I think is great because it prevents us from forming cliques and splitting into our separate groups. It was amazing how all of us around the age of 16 could communicate in a language that only a few years ago none of us had known. It was so much fun....especially all the Spanglish like ´´so ahora´´ ´´mi also´´ and just talking in spanish and when we got into a rough spot we would just switch to english for a few sentences. The whole time there would always be one person talking in Spanish talking with a person speaking English (normally the americans always in spanish and the others in spanglish). I can´t even describe to you how much fun it is when we all know the same things such as Pokémon or when somehow someone starts up head, shoulders, knees, and toes, or the song we dance the waltz to, or the super mario theme.....and everyone starts singing it....or what it´s like to sing time after time with a girl from the faroe islands who sings better in english then I could ever dream of. Or how we all know the same you tube videos such as matrix ping pong, or that guy who sings both parts of a whole new world and its incredible even though we live on other sides of the world. Or just simply talking in a language that if foreign to the both of us yet still we are communicating out thoughts and feelings and getting to know each other. It´s amazing how the world fits together....and i cant wait till we have our next orientation.

It´s the 17th already! October is almost over! I don´t have any interesting stories to tell yet, but im sure they are on their way. So in school we now have a regular schedule...and apparently my technology teacher had a heart attack or something so he has not been at school, so that means the hour is ours so we usually play cards. There are no sports with the schools here, which means im not used to doing this little excersise. Back in the states every morning my friends and I would walk laps saying hi to people and what not, and at least that was something, here it is go to your classroom and sit there till recreation. One thing thats different is that there are all age groups at the school, but only ´´Juniors and Seniors´´ on the third floor (there is three floors at the school). We don´t have any assemblies or any school related functions. However they do have trips with the school here, there will be one to Barcelona for I think a week in February and one to Lisbon, Portugal. However I´m not sure if im going on the Portugal trip because it might just be for the biology kids (but I´m going to fight for it). The first week in October I was sick and missed 2 days of school, and on one of those days they gave out information to go to Germany for a week...but I wasn´t there for the information, and it´s now too late to do anything about...which is a bummer. In my English class my teacher asked me why we capitalize the letter I when we use it, I had no idea. English class is easy, obviously but the teacher talks very slowly and it kind of drives me crazy. Speaking of driving me crazy, my host brother, oh man, I don´t even know what to say......he never stops talking, and is always hanging all over me....driving me crazy! I´m also twice his size (actually more than twice his size...and he is 13) so I´m holding back the urge to hold im down and poke his chest till he says Soy un mujer. (My family knows what I´m talking about.) Know I can understand and respond to something if I know the subject of what they are talking about....and now I know enough Spanish that if I don´t know I word they can explain it to me in Spanish and I can understand. I now know the word dude in Huelvan (iyo) and they use it exactly the same way we do and just as often jaja. Here everything has fallen into place....every night we watch el hormiguero (the anthill) and after words I usually go to bed unless flashforward is on, almost everynight the garbage-man wakes me up (he has a loud truck) and every morning the church bells wake me up about 5 minutes before 7....and every Friday I go out with friends. Next weekend I´m going to Sevilla for an AFS orientation for all the kids in Andalucia (which is not that many) but it will be fun, and I will blog about the experience. So hasta luego. (and I know my spelling isn´t very good...but thats what happens when you text...are learning a different language....and learning a different language in a different language.) 

Today........was amazing. I don´t know what happened but I woke up today and I could understand practically everything people were saying when they talked at normal speed. (Dont get me wrong i still have a lot to learn). Today a teacher made me read a page out of one of our text books....It wasn´t impressive, but it was good for me and it was good for me to make everyone laugh when i said 1917 in english and when I had to read 13000 years ago (in spanish) I said many years ago (in spansih). Here when the teachers get sick or cant come to school for some reason there are no substitutes and nobody covers for them, we just get the hour to ourselves. Today i invited myself to hang out with some people this weekend (which im not sure what will happen since I dont know my house phone number and i have not boughten a cell phone yet). Right now in Huelva there are 5 Irish girls who are here with their teacher for a school trip for the week. Today they were at my school and I got to talk in english with teenagers. They said at first they thought I was a Spaniard trying to put on an American accent haha. So that was really cool, and there were these 2 teachers at my school who are from the U.S. (Philly and Virginia) and a spanish teacher said does anyone have any questions...in english....of course, (in spanish). I asked where are you from, and the 2 American women had a priceless look on their face and one said, That accent! Where are you from! so that was pretty cool. All in all today people got to listen to me attempt to read in Spanish (jajajaja (thats how you laugh in spanish)) and listened to me talk in english which was great for me. At this point it pretty much feels like home. Hasta luego.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04q2n4QMT_0

So I feel like I have pretty muched settled in. I wake up....eat.....go to school......eat......do homework........sleep......do something (soccer 3 nights a week)........eat.....sleep and do it again. School isn´t too hard, math and technology are mainly numbers so thats easy, chemistry i already know, english too, P.E.is once a week and I can just watch and learn, 1 class is either our hour or there is no teacher (Im not sure which), Philosophy is a fun class, its hard for me to understand but the teacher is awesome and I can understand enough to know that if I could understand it all I would love it, but spanish literature and french class are very draining on me since I have to concentrate as hard as I can just to figure out the general idea of what they are talking about (probably gonna fail literature). Soccer is pretty fun since they pretty much are playing just for fun, but they are all really good (if they were organised and disciplined they could prolly beat Bend High). Some fun facts for Mrs. Brown are they do say perrito caliente for hot dog, and they say bacon. I have yet to see an American Tortilla (a tortilla here is eggs and potatoes). Today at school I asked Jon (whose mother is English) if he could transalate the spanish swear words so I could understand (problem was he translated them into British english). The main things that I miss are that there will be no snow, there is almost no grass here, LaCrosse, snowboarding, and the food. Everyday for breakfast I usually have toast with chocolate milk......no eggs, no cinnamon rolls, no french toast, no bacon. Oh and I have definitley forgotten the taste of real milk, an American hamburger, and burritos. I have tried a lot of new things here like eggplant, garbanzo beans, and some other thing they use to make a delicious soup (and im pretty sure cow tongue). However they always eat bread with their meals and I always have a peach for dessert after lunch. (Desserts here are usually fruit). Last weekend we went to Cordoba and I saw the mosque (which I will go inside of later this year) It was very impressive, and Cordoba is the typical stereo type of a Spanish city, all the houses were white and there were cobblestone streets that I could stretch my arms out and touch the walls of the houses alongside the street. (i will try and put pictures up later). I met the family of my host father and I like the uncle he naturally speaks slowly and he is very patient. In Cordoba we played darts at a bar (me, Antonio, and...uncle) and I accidently knocked an ashtray off a table. (first time in a bar and I didn´t have anything to drink.....and I broke something.) We also went go-kart racing......and started in 4th and made my way to 1st however I got cocky trying to lap someone and spun out (putting me in 3rd). It is very weird now hearing english.....it is definitley engraved into my mind. Well i can´t think of anything more to right so until next time.

Well I have been in Spain for 10 and a half days. I was pretty homesick the first week but yesterday I kind of had an epiphany. I didn´t like all the differences at first because it took my so far out of my comfort zone. Now I accept that there are differences in everything and thats the real reason why I wanted to be an exchange student. Yesterday I had a legit conversation in Spanish with my host father (like I actually understood so fast I interuppted him a few times). However usually I just say ´´sí, no, and como´´. I can have a conversation if we I am talking one on one with someone but usually im in a group and im trying to talk to someone while some other people are having their own conversation and then I can only say yes or no. At this point im pretty used to hearing the language so I don´t get language exaughstion as intense as the first few days. Today was my first day of school, but, all they did was put us in what I think was homerooms but im not sure, and they called role, and I think explained the rules of the school and the schedule of the day. Im not completely sure since the teacher was talking faster than my understanding pace and it was a classroom full of teenagers so of course the teacher was not the only one talking. The only thing I understood was don´t use your cell phone and no smoking in the school. That all took about an hour and then I just hung out with some peope in Huelva and we went to a hamburger stand (it was kind of a hamburger version of the taco stand in Bend....so yeah it was delicious). A lot of thing are different here for example, there is a city, the beach is a few miles away, there is trash everywhere, the streets are smaller, the license plates are different, they don´t shower with the water running, it´s hot, school starts at 9:30, and ends at 3:30, they eat a light breakfast, the main meal is around 2, and dinner is light and around 10:30. All the soccer fields here are either turf or concrete, the milk is powdered, there is practically no rules of the road, all the trees are different, the beaches are clothing optional (oh and I have not seen one speedo), In the U.S. we think that all the kids here (in Europe) drink some sort of alcohol with their meals, but in this part of Spain they don´t, I asked my host family why and they said we don´t in Spain (but some of the other exchange students here said they do in their families) they then said we thought that since your American you would drink a lot of soda but all you want is water. So that was interesting. Well thats all i can think of to say, oh and I have my first soccer practice or game or something tonight, and everyone here is way better than I am. Bring it on.

I have another blog right now its the same as this one but i might end up using it if i like it better you can check it out at http://nathantheoregonian.blogspot.com

So im in Spain.........FINALLY! I left my Bend at 4:00 on the 1st and stayed in Portland for the night. On the 2nd I left Portland and flew to New York at 6:30 in the morning (the flight was 6 hours). I arrived in New York around 3 and met up with the other AFS kids. We ended up in a hotel where we were not allowed to leave. On the way to the hotel I was looking out the window of the bus and I thought it was weird that there were so many New York license plates. (Till i realized I was in New York). There were about 100 exchange students headed to France, Spain, Russia, Austria, and South Africa. We stayed overnight at the hotel and left on the 3rd for Zurich, Swizerland at 8:30 at night. The flight was 8 hours and none of us slept. We got to Zurich and transferred flights, since we were all American, we were loud, and everyone in the airport staired at us. I don´t remember when we left for Madrid (sometime on the 4th). Once in Madrid we stayed in a hostal which is like a smaller version of dorm rooms with more people. In the hostal were about 70 exchange students from all over the world, so yeah it was pretty awesome. On the 5th we all split up on buses. Most of the kids headed to the north of Spain which is Basque country, (HAHAHAHA! suckers, Basque is one of the hardest languages to learn). A smaller group went on a bus to the south of Spain and some people went on planes. The rest of us who were staying in Madrid waited for our families to pick us up. I´m living about 6 hours away from Madrid. However since my family is awesome they left at 4:00 in the morning to pick me up. I got to my house at about 9:00 at night. My family is very patient with my idiotness. I can´t understand very much but they are very happy to help me. At this point they know the extent of my Spanish so they know what word to use and what not to use yet. Its a little overwhelming but I am picking up the language faster than I thought. (Mrs. Brown must be a good teacher). The weather here is very hot I can´t wait till winter. While I am typing this im having some of the Spanish words randomly popping into my head. It´s overwhelming, until next time. Un abrazo a todos.

Got back from Yosemite National Park in California, It was pretty amazing. Definitley one of the places everyone should see before they die. I have 12 days left, so that means I am getting incredibly excited and I have been hanging with friends almost everyday since I have been back from Yosemite. I have been talking on Facebook to some other kids around the world who are going to Spain next year. I will be flying from Portland to New York with a few of them and then from New York to Switzerland to Madrid with more. All the exchange students going to Spain will meet in Madrid on the 4th of September. Through out the year next year there will be two weekend retreats. The first will be with about half of the exchange students going to Spain (with the other half having another weekend retreat somewhere else in Spain). Then about half way through the year we will all meet up again for a weekend. I have not thought about packing yet.....but hey I got 12 days.

So a week ago i turned 16 and got my driver's license, yesterday i got my visa, and i got my itinerary. On September 2nd I fly non stop from Portland to New York, then on the 3rd I fly from New York to Zurich, Switzerland, then later that day i fly to Madrid, and then after that im not really sure what happens, Im sure it will be fun. But for now im just enjoying the summer and getting ready to go to Yosemite for a week. I will probably put up another post before I leave.