Translate

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Allariz

(pretend this was posted December 1, 2012. It's catch-up post day today)

My parents and I went to a little town called Allariz a few hours inland for the weekend for a presentation of my host mom's books. It was a really cute little town but pretty cold!  Probably my favorite part was the bookshop because there was a ladder (so obviously I pretended I was Belle from Beauty and The Beast).



There were also lots of cool tree reflections in the river that I tried to get pictures of because they seemed so autumn-y. I don't know.



the skies were a little grey that morning

14N

November 14, 2012
FOLGA XERAL/HUELGA GENERAL/GENERAL STRIKE


So there was a general strike here and I went to the protest manifestation in Pontevedra... over a month ago. (Better late than never, right? ....right?) Spain is in fact in an economic crisis and has been for several years now, as you (I hope) probably know already. I definitely won't try to explain politics or economics in this blog (not that I could do it well enough even if I wanted to).  But the point is a lot of people here would like a change.

My host sister didn't feel like going to the manifestation- we were missing school and she wanted to use the time to study. My host dad told her, "there's more to life than making perfect grades. You have to get out there in the world and make your voice heard. When things aren't quite right, you have to go and do something about it. If the government is making the wrong choices and it'll leave the students without a future, staying at home won't do much good." (And it was actually much more inspirational than what I've written because I translated if from Galician to English and I wasn't actually involved in the conversation so I could easily have missed parts and also it was a month ago and I didn't write it down, it's just as close as I remember, so I'm sorry if it's lost some meaning). 

This just struck me as a pretty "American" attitude. Taking a stand and fighting for a change. I did end up in a family not too affected by the Crisis, but I can still see perfectly well life isn't easy for everyone here. And what makes me the most sad (is saddest a word?) is that I don't know what can possibly be done to make things better because there are problems everywhere in the world that seem solution-less. But I hope things will get better with all my heart.  And I wish hoping would be enough.

The sign says "Din que chove pero mexan por nós." which means "they said it's raining (having hard times) but it's disaster for us" (I'm pretty sure). There were some really neat signs but I didn't get any pictures.









Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Bo Nadal

Lots and lots and lots of love to everyone back home from me (and from my most handsome host niece and nephew)!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

TRIMESTER 1

Today's post is to just to briefly celebrate the fact that I have almost completed one whole trimester in Spain!

Tomorrow is the last day before winter vacations and we get out at 11.

Possibly the most beautiful moment of the day was my whole class clapping for me after our teacher read out my final grades.

Contemporary Sciences: 5
Gym: 6
Philosophy: 3
Galcian: Exempt
Spanish literature and language: 3
English: 10
Educational Attention: Not Applicable
Biology and Geology: 6
Physics and Chemistry: 3
Math: 5
Technology: 7

Above 5 is passing, 6 is good, 7-8 is notable, 9-10 is basically perfect. So I only failed 3 classes in total, which is actually fewer than I´d expected! My goal is to improve them all to passing for the next trimester. I'm most surprised by the technology grade, my teacher must have given me more credit for doing the applied exercises in the computer lab than I thought because we only took one test and I got about a .5 /10.  And in English my teacher didn't make me take the tests so I didn't exactly earn it besides writing a couple summaries for novels in Spanish I read during class (which I prefer a whole lot to just about any class). Gym should probably be higher, but that's never been my strong point (hah literally because I'm not strong get it?). My teacher is cool if somewhat crazy (but I'm pretty sure that's a general trait for PE teachers anyways usually). 

Enough about grades! Instead here are some of my favorite new Spanish words:
  • burburjeante  (bubbly)
  • cosquillas  (tickles)
  • murciélago  (bat)
  • estrafalario  (bizarre)

And finally, the world isn't ending and there are beautiful rainbows to be seen over Marín!

Credit to Jorge, who took this a few days ago. How awesome is that?

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

o día doce

So today is a pretty neat date, 12/12/12.  In Spanish, el doce de diciembre. In Galician, o doce de decembro. It´s extra cool in Galician, because doce means sweet as well as 12.

My Christmas package from home arrived! I arranged the shockingly-well-wrapped-for-an-Atlantic-crossing gifts in my window along with some Santa themed window stickers and it really does feel cozy and Christmas-y!




Otherwise I really don´t have too much to update, just living life over here across the pond. I´ve been trying to learn the subjunctive mood in Spanish lately, fun stuff. And not exactly interesting material to blog about, so I better leave it here for today. Not to mention I should be studying for my last exam of the year, yay! Just physics in my way until no more tests until the next trimester in 2013. (Oh my God, it´s almost 2013 where did the time go.)

As soon as I get the pictures from my sister (my camera died so they´re all on hers) I´ll post about my weekend in Portugal!

In the meantime, here is a sweet note my Spanish friends put in my backpack. It´s Spanglish to the Xtreme, hahahaha. (Love you Lara and Iria if you see this!)

translation: Amy! What a surprise! We love you, not since forever, but yes forever. 2012-infinity



 In conclusion today I will not be leaving you all with a gorgeous lanscape/ sunset, I like to avoid predictability at all costs. So here is an ugly tree to change it up.




Hope you all have a super sweet day!

xoxo,
gossip girl

(just kidding it´s me Amy)

(good one)

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Thanksgiving

So I hadn't planned on doing anything to celebrate Thanksgiving here, but my host mom decided we should do something so she surprised me with a turkey!  I really thought it was going to be a disaster when we were sticking a frozen turkey in the microwave at 9:00 Thursday night, but somehow it ended up working and although we ate dinner at midnight it was a pretty good Thanksgiving meal.

The next day I tried again at chocolate chip cookies and they looked a little odd but tasted fine. They were eaten at an AFS gathering at my house the next day.

I cannot believe it's almost December... time is going way too fast.


el pavo
the cookies
a panoramic of my room just because



And to end, please enjoy this stunning sunset I witnessed.











Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thank You

It's Thanksgiving, and even though I can't spend it with my family eating delicious food and having a great time in the good ol' USA, I still want to take a moment and give thanks.


I'm thankful for my parents. Dad, Sue, I truly can't express how much it means to me to know that you love me enough to let me follow this dream of mine. Thank you so so so much for helping me through the whole process of getting here and supporting me the entire way. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. I'll probably never be able to say it enough but just know I really do appreciate everything you do for me and have done for me my whole life. Next year I'll be able to give y'all a big hug on this holiday.


I'm thankful for gorgeous days on the beach (in November, no less!).


 I'm thankful for this absolutely stunning country I get to experience for a year. It constantly has surprises in store for me. I'll never get tired of all the amazing views and history and food and just all of it. These two and a half months have been beyond incredible and I can't wait to see what the rest will bring. I'm so beyond grateful to have this opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime chance, and I won't waste a second of it.






I'm thankful for my host family. I really am part of this family now, and I'm so grateful they opened their home and hearts to this crazy American exchange student.

 I'm thankful for Sunday afternoons spent with my host dad, wandering around Galicia and sightseeing.



I'm thankful that I sleep so much my host mom calls me Amy Marmot. (Marmots are animals that hibernate up to 9 months a year).
I'm thankful my host mom is funny and that we are close enough to make jokes like that.
This is a marmot: 


I'm thankful for my wonderful sister.  She is seriously the only reason I found my way around anywhere the first few weeks and is without a doubt my best friend here. Only for her would I post such an embarrassing photo of myself.



I'm thankful that I'm no longer a picky eater, because everything is just so delicious and I'm not afraid to try anything. Even filloas (crepes) made with tuna fish, tomato sauce, and peas for a midnight dinner with your host sister. And even a bite of tomato wasn't so bad. And rice with squid ink. And lots of other wonderful dishes. Including a whole fish, head and all.


I'm thankful for everyone I love- The Burke family (I'd name you all but... there's rather a lot of you. I seriously love my "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" book, it is great to have here. I love you Grandma!), Lynn and Annabel and Bruce (you all are forever my family), the Shoopmans, all my friends back home (I want to give individual shout outs but I'm afraid I'd leave someone out, just know you're all fabulous), my AFS family (what would I do without you here in Spain with me?), my Spanish friends who have been so great to the American these months, and everyone else I'm probably just forgetting at this moment but I know there are just tons and tons of people who have been there for me and supported me all the time, and my dog (hi Robin).


I honestly feel like I am the luckiest person on earth. I just feel so humble thinking of everything I have. I may not show it nearly often enough, but I am so grateful for everything and I don't take a second of this life for granted.  I'm so lucky just to have basics like food every day, a home, health, and an education, let alone to be blessed with so many opportunities and surrounded by people who love me. I will be so happy to get home and hug my family again, but I know they're waiting for me at the end of my 10 months and I have a new Spanish family to hug in the meantime. And that is far more than enough.


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

             (In which I share my un-asked for thoughts on English, Spanish, Galician, and learning languages in general after 2.5 months in Spain. Please forgive any awkward phrasing, self indulgent rambling, and the lack of pictures/update. )



This post is titled Sí in honor of the word I say the most these days. All day, everyday, Sí, Sí, Sí.  AFS always says to never say no, and I took it to heart. Maybe a little too much so. Basically every question the first month was answered with "yes". So I will now confirm, that's not actually the best strategy.

(my new friend in class complaining about not getting a date): "I'm going to be lonely forever"
me: "yeah"
her: "well thanks...."
(don't worry though she's still my friend somehow)
  
People started calling me out on it pretty quick though.

"You never say anything but yes!"
Me: "Yes..."

My family is by now good at translating my "yes" into what I really mean in most situations: "no", "maybe", "what on earth are you talking about?", "are you really talking to me?", "is that even a question?", "I have nothing to add so this is easiest", or "I have a lot to say but I don't have the skills in Spanish so I'll just stay quiet".  The problem is sometimes I say yes because I understand but I have nothing more to add to the conversation but people think it's my "I don't get it" yes. Or if I say yes because I understood the general gist of the topic but then someone asks for one specific difficult word translated to English and I have no idea so it looks like I didn't understand anything even though I really got almost all of it.
           I am picking up on so many things I missed in the first weeks. Like the fact that my Lengua teacher isn't very nice, but my Philosophy teacher is super sweet (people start getting personalities miraculously with language acquisition). Or jokes like when my host mom will tell me a pan with hole in the bottom is for cooking eggs, and I don't know any better so I'm like "Okay, I guess if you know how'". But then she just laughs because you can't cook eggs in pans with holes in them.

     

My decision to want to learn Spanish was a long process. I've always wanted to learn more languages, and I'd heard all my life that the only way to learn a language is to live it (I don't know why I'd heard that but it stuck with me so that I always had studying abroad in the back of my mind). I tried with a friend to study Spanish back in 3rd/4th grade (I think we got about as far as learning "queso"= cheese. To be fair, I haven't forgotten it since so it wasn't a complete failure I suppose). Next in 5th grade or so we tried some German (I remember nothing). 6th grade I loved French (and I'd still love to study more). Thanks to my Sri Lankan best friend I've also "studied" Sinhalese a little (by a little I mean I know how to say family relationships and "underwear" and "studied" means reading her mom's coffee mug with the Sinhalese alphabet). But anyways, after lots of pointless detours and dabbling in other languages for anecdotal purposes, I ended up taking Spanish in high school, and really liked it. So, (among many other reasons), I ended up here in Spain.

  OH and wait, I'm not just learning Spanish. I suppose I could have titled this "Learning Galician, Part 2". I should talk about it more because really not many people know anything about it. Even google thinks it's misspelled because it doesn't recognize the word Galician. It's a Latin romance language and it's even older than Spanish, in it's Galaico-Portuguese form. Portuguese and Galician used to be basically the same language, but a while ago (about 7 centuries ago if I'm not mistaken and I might be) they split and morphed into their own. Galician is really fairly similar to Spanish. There are a lot of cognates between the languages. So it does look pretty similar to Spanish, but they are truly different languages at the heart of it. It's pronounced a little different, a little different grammar, vocabulary, conjugations, connotations... so it's actually very different. But not too much so. I like it. As I've been told, it's more "cariñoso" (loving, affectionate, sweet).
        I really do understand a good amount of Galician. Always at the very least the general topic of what I'm hearing for sure, and often most of what happens in the conversation. I'm really really good at biological terms which is hilarious. It's because my biology class is taught in Galician, and I already know a lot from AP last year so I don't have to worry about the concepts just the vocabulary and even that isn't so much because the English terms are often Latin based like Galician is, and the fact that my Galician teacher makes me photocopies of her Galician/Spanish/English Health Dictionary. So for example the other day I was studying these words:

    "to poison oneself, to vaccinate, to hang oneself, to operate on, to be delirious, to wound oneself, to hurt, to suffer, to sweat, to sneeze, to perspire, to spit, to sount (apparently that's the word for listening to a heartbeat), to vomit, to bleed, to become infected, to fall, to be delirious, to swallow, to be drowned, to die, to fall ill, to catch a cold," and a bunch of body parts.

I feel a little paranoid afterwards. Or maybe like a doctor. I think I could never be a doctor because I would self diagnose myself with terrible diseases all the time. And blood is gross.
            Anyways the first time my mom spoke directly with me only in Galician and I understood the entire time was a very exciting moment. My Galician teacher also speaks to me in Galician. I always reply in Spanish though, at some point in the future (January?) I'll be speaking. I feel too self conscious now but that's how you have to learn.
 
I don't know how to describe my level of Spanish except to say that when people ask if I speak Spanish, I've progressed from saying "No", to  "A little", to  "More or less",  to "Well... basically" to "Yes", meaning the natives can proceed talking to me and I'll most likely be able to formulate a coherent answer but I'm still learning. I confuse the words for "jungle" and "forest" and it makes my sister laugh. I freeze up talking to strangers or people I haven't talked to much. (I don't order for myself at restaurants. A very proud moment was when I had a conversation with a woman at a bus stop.) A lot of the times I have to ask what people said, but because I didn't hear or wasn't listening not because I can't understand.

           To be totally honest, I think I've hit a bit of a plateau language-learning-wise. Upon arrival I was pleasantly surprised with my level of understanding and since have gotten somewhat complacent about studying the language(s) vigorously like I should be. It's too easy to forget that just because I'm used to the sound of it, I don't necessarily understand (sounds obvious but it's not), and too easy to forget that just because my parents don't speak English at all and none of my friends do with me so I'm truly immersed it's still a learning process to work at.  I haven't yet had a dream in Spanish, and I find myself stressing a little that I'm not, which I know is ridiculous and I shouldn't compare myself to any other exchangers and it'll happen on it's own time and half my brain is learning Galician anyway and everything, but I can't help it. At this point I'm having dreams in which I start talking to someone then think "WAIT SPANISH" and mumble some gibberish "hola, sí, kjgrlakdgjaslda" and then wake up. So that doesn't exactly count. But I'm just going to continue trying and resume studying as much as I can.

But I adore Spanish.

          I love how white caps on the ocean are called by the word for fluffy white lambs (lamb? plural baby sheep?) (borregos).
         I think it's interesting that the word for "wives" and "handcuffs" are one and the same (esposas).
           I like that "paloma" is a name and usually means "dove" which is beautiful but also "pigeon" which would be an unfortunate name.
          I think it's cute that even in Spain parents pretend the spoon is a plane (avion) to feed babies.
         Songs aren't censored. The first time I heard the uncut version of "Forget You" (Cee Lo Green) just casually played on the grocery store loudspeaker I was pretty surprised. Although I'm not entirely sure if this is truly due to less sensitivity to profanity or if it's because it's in English.
        I like the little random etiquette things,  like that Spanish teenagers don't use periods if you are chatting or texting.
            "Hey how are you?"
            "good, just finished the biology homework."  (except in Spanish obviously)
That seems really formal and serious to kids here. I've been asked if I'm upset
several times because I put the period out of habit but I'm not! So now I find myself accustomed to that and now when I'm talking with my US friends I've caught myself wondering if they were mad after they used a period.    
          I think it´s awesome in math the variables (x, y, etc) are called incógnitos which make them sound like secret agents.
        And a million other lovely things about this language.



      Something I've come to realize from living in a different language is that English is a difficult language to learn and to teach.  (as if there is such a thing as an easy one). Until I came here and spent time in a class for learning English, I didn't realize how many things there are in this language that are tricky. First of all pronunciation is so random, every letter can have a different sound depending on the word. So it's really hard to read and know how to say things for foreigners. I have been asked how I learned how to read and I don't have any idea.
     And there's so many phrasal verbs. That's verbs that are made of a pair of words. For example, "Look." Pretty simple verb. but just by adding any number of words to it changes the meaning completely. Look up to (admire), Look down on (feel superior to), Look over (review), look for (search for a thing), look up (search for information), look up (literally look upwards), look after (take care of), look into (investigate), look out (be careful), and probably a few more as well. As a native English speaker I don't even think about these little variations and automatically get it, but for non-native speakers it's a challenge to figure out each individual phrase and it's context.
       I've tried helping my classmates in class, but I'm really not much good. I'm terrible at explaining when to use "already" versus when to use "yet". I don't know the present perfect continuous first person conjugation of "to be" (just made that up but you get the idea), well I know it but I don't have a name for it. Rarely when speaking/listening to Spanish do I translate everything literally, there isn't time, and it's simpler to just understand the gist of things, but that's not what the English teacher wants on his tests. I'm not even that good at vocabulary because I don't know the Spanish equivalent always.

           It's also interesting to read the texts in Galician class (even though I can't really participate beyond that). A lot of time is spent learning about minority languages and why it's important to conserve them. Hundreds of languages are dying out all the time. We lose so much when we lose a language because we lose an entire way of thinking and dealing with the world. A lot of people don't understand and just ask "why can't everyone just speak English it would be so much easier!" Even the Bible teaches monolingualism with the story of the Tower of Babel, in which many languages are forced on the world as a punishment.  Yes, international communication is extremely important, but forcing one language (English) on everyone isn't the best answer. For one thing, English is not perfect. There are situations like when English speakers can't figure out the data of a science experiment but a German speaker immediately can, because it was dealing with an animal's genes and German doesn't differentiate between front legs and back legs and neither did the gene, so the English speakers didn't realize what happened. Basically my point is diversity is awesome.
           Besides, only one language for the entire world? I can't imagine anything more boring.

 (video about basically everything I just talked about  by a British woman who knows what she's talking about much more than I do).

( extremely fascinating article on how language affects our thoughts. I seriously recommend checking it out.)

          I also think about what fluency really means. At what point does a language more than knowing some words, some vocabulary, a few verb conjugations, and become the way you communicate and express your own thoughts and emotions with other humans? It's also strange to fully realize that other people think in words different from your own. Like, of course they do, they speak another language. But I didn't really full GET IT until I came here and lived it, weird as it may sound. I'm not living with people who are really really good at Spanish whose brains are conducting themselves in English underneath. It's all entirely Spanish all the way through (well, or Galician).  I'm not sure why but it's a pretty amazing realization to really get how incredible it is that in every country people really think differently. And not in a "think differently" where you think red looks prettier than blue, but that at the core the fundamental ideas are expressed using totally distinct methods and words. If I'm making any sense at all.
 But I find myself wondering, does anyone really truly speak the same language? Every language has accents and dialects in varying regions, and within each we express ourselves in our thinking just a tiny bit differently than anyone else. And really how much does anyone communicate with others? How many of your thoughts could you not possibly put into words to be understood by anyone else, isn't that really a kind of private language? I personally for example have found myself describing something in my head as "kind of blurmby" but I would never say that to anyone else.


 (Some cool not English words)

     
           I'm definitely forgetting English. Spelling is so hard. I've spent so long trying to remember these words I made sure to write them down: attention; decomposition; and splash.  And isn´t there a word for when in basketball you shot from farther back and it´s worth three points? Is that a triple? I don´t think so but I just can´t think of what it´s called. Is squid plural? Is it "an European" or "a European"? What are some slang terms for "police" besides "po-po"?
Anyone who comments and reminds me will be greatly appreciated. I´m serious, please tell me.


And finally, a shout-out to whoever got to my blog searching for "cool koalas". This one's for you. And for everyone who read all this way, you rock. (that's a thing to say in English, right? you rock? I don't know. But you're my favorites. Not that I have favorites. There is no prize but my love.)



"Sí" you later!


Friday, November 16, 2012

Portugal, fascinating theories, and failed burritos

The first Saturday in November my Spanish dad was like, "Let's go to Portugal!" So we went to Portugal.


We went to a town called Valença which is just barely over the border of Galicia and walked around a medieval castle-city area, with fortified walls and cannons and a moat. It was really pretty and interesting. Now it's basically entirely little tourist shops inside the walls. And the old city is really small but there were at least 3 different ancient churches within the walls.  I love that it's no big deal to just head to another country for a few hours. There's not a border beyond a sign that says "Portugal". (I do sort of wish that my passport would get stamped though). I did hear some Portuguese spoken, and it was so strange! Written, it looks fairly similar to Spanish and Galician, but spoken... the pronunciation is crazy. At least that's how it was to my ear. It seemed mostly like Galician spoken in the back of the throat. It was very cool.


stone streets

haha accidental mirror picture, and the ancient wall


And some more news on my cooking adventures... We bought a box burrito kit to try so I could "share some Texan culture". It didn't go great. Actually they were okay and perfectly edible, so I guess I can't really call them a failure, but they weren't exactly authentically delicious tex-mex burritos. Oh well.



The next day my dad took me to the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.  No, we didn't go to Italy... he was born in Galicia. (Also his name is actually Cristobal Colón.) At least according to a fairly well based theory here. (some evidence like the fact that every place he named in the new world coincide with similar Galician areas, he wouldn't have told the truth about being Gallego because the Spanish crown wouldn't have given funding if he had, he never spoke Italian, and several more things as well that support this idea). I'm buying it, although I'm not sure that having him born here is necessarily something to be extremely proud of considering he wasn't all that much of a hero in the end... But still, history is cool.




I told y'all it's fall.


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Halloween and All Saint's Day

Just a bit late on this... Halloween was a very average day here in Spain. However, in the evening my sister and I found a little pumpkin at the grocery store and my host dad carved a jackolantern. Then my whole family put on weird black clothes and had a photo shoot. (My sister and I ended up using up 3 1/2 camera batteries and never did get any good photos, but it was really fun). These are the ones that came out sort of decent.


Antía, me, the jackolantern with eyebrows, and Elena


hahaha Lois



Babi and I looking good in the flash

the dog doesn't make a good photographer (but the pink slippers are a nice touch, no?)



Witch and Assassin (and jackolantern)

The day after Halloween is All Saint's Day. In the morning I made attempted to make chocolate chip cookies. In a few weeks there is an AFS get together and the students are supposed to bring a dessert from their country, so of course I picked on of my favorites that I've made tons of times.   ....They were disgusting. I don't know if it was a weird butter or flour or brown sugar or vanilla or what but they tasted weird, and it didn't help that they were also slightly burned and ran together. My mom seemed to like them anyway though... she ate 4 (I could barely manage 1) and kept saying "están buenos!" (they're good!). She just doesn't know how much better they can be.

chopping up a chocolate bar for chocolate chips




 All Saint's Day is about remembering and honoring the dead, so we went to the family cemetery with flowers and candles and greeted everyone else in town (because everyone goes to the cemetery that day) and listened to a short mass at the church while standing under umbrellas in the rain. Cemeteries are very different here in that the graves are above ground more like family tombs. Only the oldest graves (several centuries old) are in the ground.

For dinner that night, all the family came over to eat a special traditional meal with bacalao (a type of fish) and potatoes, and at the end, chestnuts. And that night it's a custom to not clear the table- you leave everything overnight for any hungry spirits.

This is a different but similar cemetery from the one in Marin. Sorry the picture is weirdly tilted, I took it by accident and it happened to show up better than the ones I took normally. But you can see the above ground tombs.


 That was the first half of that weekend, part 2 coming soon.


Sunday, November 11, 2012

October Orientation

October was great.

 We had an AFS orientation in Ponferrada a few weeks ago, which meant a while traveling on trains and buses but it was definitely worth it. So much fun and I love all the other kids here so much. We stayed in a campsite with cabins and stayed up late and had lots of activities with the volunteers about how our adjustments were going, and general AFS experience things. We discussed a lot about cultural differences, and some of the volunteers explained some of the reasons to Spain's quirks (for example, people can be pushy about eating lots at meals because most people have older relatives who went hungry during the Civil War, so food has become sort of extra important). It was just so nice to talk with people we'd missed since New York and Madrid. And there were patriotic moments, Megg and Paige and I gave a wonderful (loud) rendition of the Star Spangled Banner for everyone. The train ride back from Santiago to Pontevedra with Solveig, Julia, Milena, and Yinqui was so much fun, I'm so glad the Galicia kids are awesome and I love them.

On the way I stopped by the Cathedral in Santiago again
(the rest aren't my pictures but thanks to the other AFSers)
The southern Galicia kids, mis amores.

almost all the AFSers placed in Galicia, Castilla y Leon, and Asturias from all over the world
best friends






Sunday, November 4, 2012

Catching up

Okay, I have a lot to catch up on here, but I don't want to make a giant long post with a thousand pictures so I'll be posting again soon with more updates.

Lugo
Several weeks ago, my family and I went on a trip to Lugo, Galicia for a festival (San Froilan). I don't actually remember the date, but I think it was back at the end of September. Whoops.

on road to Lugo.

"O castineiro" is the chestnut roasting train in the back. And I love the man's face.

awful picture... but it's traditional dancing.

part of the city seen from an ancient Roman wall.

lots and lots of people for the festival



"gaiteros" or bagpipers are in the lights

puplo / octopus

cooking it

again terrible picture, but it's the Roman wall.



Okay, moving on. These next photos are not in an particular order, some are more recent than others.


This is carved in stone at the entrance to "one of the best places in Marin" (according to my sister and most people). It's sort of a playland of cool effects outside. Like the fence is an instrument and makes music when the wind blows. It's fascinating and I'd love to go back because we only say a little bit.
"Park of the Senses- finca de briz
I closed my eyes and imagined a magical place where I was transported by soft waves of my land, where the trees spokes of the smiles of chiles, the waters whisered love stories, and the stones hide the pulse of a people. I opened my eyes, and began to work on this dream. I invite you to enter and enjoy it with me."
(more or less the translation).

Lifelike Portrait of Amy by Elba, age 5 (my niece and nephews aren't shy around me any more, which is really helps me feel like part of the family)

Public transportation = boat from my mom's work to Vigo for Julia's birthday october 22

Marin by night

wild horses on a mountain

View of Vigo (i'll never get tired of the lanscapes here)