tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76807204079398060862024-03-13T11:04:31.227-05:00Mi Estancia en EspañaAmy's Stay in SpainAmy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-89677406248034115052013-07-10T16:20:00.000-05:002013-07-10T16:20:09.795-05:00Toledo <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-51245621946608987842013-06-26T05:47:00.001-05:002013-06-26T05:47:35.346-05:00SCHOOL'S OUTMy final yearlong grades: <br />
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Contemporary Sciences: <b>6 </b><br />
Gym: <b>8</b><br />
Philosophy: <b>7</b><br />
Galcian: Exempt<br />
Spanish literature and language: <b>3 </b><br />
English: <b>10 </b><br />
Biology and Geology: <b>7</b><br />
Physics and Chemistry: <b>5 </b><br />
Math: <b>5</b><br />
Technology: <b>7</b><br />
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My main thought:<b> </b>I PASSED PHYSICS WOW.<br />
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Really, I'm super happy with what I got! Spanish lit/lengua is the only class I failed and I'm totally okay with that (I didn't even really try after about the middle of the second trimester in that class). <br />
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Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-34980114708816079902013-06-12T14:57:00.000-05:002013-06-12T14:57:01.616-05:00The Chaos <h1>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">by G. Nolst Trenité, a.k.a. "Charivarius"; 1870 - 1946 </span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> (Feel free to skip this, it's long and may annoy your brain and has nothing to do with me or Spain, I just liked it. -Amy)</span></i></span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h1>
Dearest creature in creation<br />Studying English pronunciation,<br />
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I will teach you in my verse<br />Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse
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I will keep you, Susy, busy,<br />Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
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Tear in eye your dress you'll tear,<br />So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
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Pray, console your loving poet,<br />Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
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Just compare heart, beard and heard,<br />Dies and diet, lord and word,
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Sword and sward, retain and Britain.<br />(Mind the latter, how it's written).
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Made has not the sound of bade,<br />Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
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Now I surely will not plague you<br />With such words as vague and ague,
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But be careful how you speak,<br />Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
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Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,<br />
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,<br />
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Cloven, oven, how and low,<br />Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
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Hear me say, devoid of trickery:<br />Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
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Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.<br />Exiles, similes, reviles.
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Wholly, holly, signal, signing.<br />Thames, examining, combining
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Scholar, vicar, and cigar,<br />Solar, mica, war, and far.
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From "desire": desirable--admirable from "admire."<br />Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier.
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Chatham, brougham, renown, but known.<br />Knowledge, done, but gone and tone,
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One, anemone. Balmoral.<br />Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel,
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Gertrude, German, wind, and mind.<br />Scene, Melpomene, mankind,
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Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,<br />Reading, reading, heathen, heather.
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This phonetic labyrinth<br />Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
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Billet does not end like ballet;<br />Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
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Blood and flood are not like food,<br />Nor is mould like should and would.
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Banquet is not nearly parquet,<br />Which is said to rime with "darky."
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Viscous, Viscount, load, and broad.<br />Toward, to forward, to reward.
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And your pronunciation's O.K.,<br />When you say correctly: croquet.
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Rounded, wounded, grieve, and sieve,<br />Friend and fiend, alive, and live,
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Liberty, library, heave, and heaven,<br />Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,
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We say hallowed, but allowed,<br />People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
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Mark the difference, moreover,<br />Between mover, plover, Dover,
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Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,<br />Chalice, but police, and lice.
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Camel, constable, unstable,<br />Principle, disciple, label,
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Petal, penal, and canal,<br />Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal.
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Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit,<br />Rime with "shirk it" and "beyond it."
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But it is not hard to tell,<br />Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
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Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,<br />Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
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Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, and chair,<br />Senator, spectator, mayor,
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Ivy, privy, famous, clamour<br />And enamour rime with hammer.
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Pussy, hussy, and possess,<br />Desert, but dessert, address.
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Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants.<br />Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
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River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,<br />Doll and roll and some and home.
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Stranger does not rime with anger.<br />Neither does devour with clangour.
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Soul, but foul and gaunt but aunt.<br />Font, front, won't, want, grand, and grant.
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Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger.<br />
And then: singer, ginger, linger,<br />
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Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, and gauge,<br />Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
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Query does not rime with very,<br />Nor does fury sound like bury.
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Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth;<br />Job, Job; blossom, bosom, oath.
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Though the difference seems little,<br />We say actual, but victual.
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Seat, sweat; chaste, caste.; Leigh, eight, height;<br />Put, nut; granite, and unite.
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Reefer does not rime with deafer,<br />Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
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Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,<br />Hint, pint, Senate, but sedate.
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Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,<br />Science, conscience, scientific,
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Tour, but our and succour, four,<br />Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
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Sea, idea, guinea, area,<br />Psalm, Maria, but malaria,
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Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,<br />Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
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Compare alien with Italian,<br />Dandelion with battalion.
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Sally with ally, yea, ye,<br />Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay.
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Say aver, but ever, fever.<br />Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
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Never guess--it is not safe:<br />We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph.
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Heron, granary, canary,<br />Crevice and device, and eyrie,
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Face but preface, but efface,<br />Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
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Large, but target, gin, give, verging,<br />Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging,
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Ear but earn, and wear and bear<br />Do not rime with here, but ere.
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Seven is right, but so is even,<br />
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
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Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk,<br />Asp, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
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Pronunciation--think of psyche--!<br />Is a paling, stout and spikey,
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Won't it make you lose your wits,<br />Writing "groats" and saying "grits"?
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It's a dark abyss or tunnel,<br />Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,
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Islington and Isle of Wight,<br />Housewife, verdict, and indict!
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Don't you think so, reader, rather,<br />Saying lather, bather, father?
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Finally: which rhymes with "enough"<br />Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
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Hiccough has the sound of "cup."<br />My advice is--give it up!
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-81601640790467206002013-05-27T15:23:00.002-05:002013-05-27T16:48:17.186-05:00El Camino de Santiago(If I'm not The Worst Blogger in the world, I might as well be. I've had this drafted for unfortunately <strike>a month now</strike> months, and I'm determined to get it all down and posted. So, without further delay, this is my story of the Camino.)<br />
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Through AFS I got the opportunity to do the Camino de Santiago (or "Way of Saint James" I think is the English version). Essentially what I understand is that the body of Saint James the Apostle was brought to Santiago de Compostela and lost then found again and it's been one of the most important Christian pilgrimage routes for centuries in Europe, with paths leading from all over the continent in all directions for miles and miles miles. Nowadays all kinds of people undertake the pilgrimage for many many different reasons and do it walking, on bicycle, or on horse. (please Wikipedia/research more historic details if you're interested!).<br />
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For 5 days I walked along an ancient path with some of the best people from around the world, sleeping in hostels and enduring rain and mud and horse poop, following the yellow arrows to reach to the Cathedral of Santiago. <br />
I did a 111 km stretch of the Camino on foot, starting in Sarria, Galicia, with a group of about 40 other AFS exchange students also in Spain this year and a few volunteers and some host family members. 5 days, 111 kilometers. I don't even really know how to describe it. It was filled with incredibly fun and beautiful and painful moments, from spending time with my AFSers who I love dearly and meeting more awesome people on the way, to being exhausted and soaking and lost, to finally reaching the cathedral, and everything in between that made it so indescribably challenging and amazing. I'm really not capable of explaining it properly at all, but I do feel like I learned a whole lot on that journey.<br />
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To start out, on Friday, March 22, we had a half day of school because it was the beginning of Semana Santa (basically Spanish spring break). After school let out at 11, I picked up a sleeping bag from a friend, strapped it onto my tartan backpack (borrowed from the host fam who got in in Scotland and NOT designed for much outdoorsy activities but stocked nonetheless with everything I thought I'd need and be able to carry), put on the heavy hiking boots borrowed from my host mom, and went to Vigo to catch a train with the other Galician kids going on the Camino. We made friends with some people sitting by us on the train because who doesn't love exchange students? then we met up with some AFS volunteers and went to the hostel in Sarria to stay the night before setting of the next day.<br />
Reuniting with some of the other students who had been living all over Spain and most of whom we hadn't seen in 7 months was a fantastic. We were psyched to be together again and catching up on our exchange years and hearing new accents we'd picked up and about the journey we were about to embark on. Some of us started a game of soccer in the streets (how Spanish of us) and chatted about what we expected and hoped for on this trip. Mostly we were planning on having a good time on the trail.<br />
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The next day we woke up bright and early (7, I think) and totally ready to get going! A few kids were even so dedicated they did some ab exercises and stretches on their bunks before we got going. It was a beautiful and sunny day to start the hike. At first we moved in a massive clump through Sarria but pretty quickly the group thinned out as some blazed ahead and others took our time. A whole lot of us weren't exactly athletes. I must admit I was already tired after about 5k (when we still had 16 more to go- on the FIRST day). But it wasn't too hot nor too cold and there was no rush, and I spent the day trekking along with Ryan and Paige for the most part.<br />
Finally we made it to the day's stop around 3 pm I think. It was a beautiful sight arriving in little Portomarin for the evening.This town is actually almost entirely new because it was flooded when they damned the lake- but they salvaged the old church and moved it stone by stone to higher ground and rebuilt everything else. We stayed in a hostel, everyone in pretty much one big room with bunk beds and other pilgrims who stopped there for the night as well. Most of us AFS students went and explored the village a little, some crazy ones jumped in the lake, and met more people doing the Camino from all over the world. It was really interesting talking to the other pilgrims about their reasons for this and where they were from and everything. Everyone we met, either pilgrims or locals, was nice (the funniest was being asked on a "date" to evening Mass with a group of Irish boys on the Camino for a school trip). I don't actually remember any part on the Camino meeting someone less than friendly the entire trip. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjor3BlMwTP87A7271UOC5RKdfoVL9Ehp8YX8MmubtoS8au-0PWj3acZKpWVkfIyePiLKy9cQjMjZw9UCKB9gf4mCANnFWEfKztbTHAnFVJvYJg2Mm-SRUleVwNL1JKu3G2ggkcsXr17IfJ/s1600/484113_10200451203136472_1572026448_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjor3BlMwTP87A7271UOC5RKdfoVL9Ehp8YX8MmubtoS8au-0PWj3acZKpWVkfIyePiLKy9cQjMjZw9UCKB9gf4mCANnFWEfKztbTHAnFVJvYJg2Mm-SRUleVwNL1JKu3G2ggkcsXr17IfJ/s640/484113_10200451203136472_1572026448_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">paige, erinn, and our dog friends </span></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggRawvJQb2jRxjvkFYMItRr-uqoyF5oTu48Ggg0tcFDJ2kX6ZYOJWruCAFcoEQeChiK6XSl2ftgD_B8PBbcTmJgD6oEDqJFP0X8ZO7E4_a78fw9ct8m1Jp4Y_XOqMW4JTJ1H8xaJ3WnQV9/s1600/883069_4908881085905_524599077_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggRawvJQb2jRxjvkFYMItRr-uqoyF5oTu48Ggg0tcFDJ2kX6ZYOJWruCAFcoEQeChiK6XSl2ftgD_B8PBbcTmJgD6oEDqJFP0X8ZO7E4_a78fw9ct8m1Jp4Y_XOqMW4JTJ1H8xaJ3WnQV9/s640/883069_4908881085905_524599077_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">if you're an exchange student hiking, when you spot an old cage thing the obvious thing to do is take a picture in it</span> </td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqHCSuMwtJQf9KPVfYWb5I1BGSGeOTiI-LY7VjctIu5xbH963kMYXI7w5lw6TN6U40bm3DSqltXZZsgnCZ2ZGNEZkkPhGUJ6LADPLtVyULfQmbcedzxQLW9ixmP58o5j9D71z1jGiIKPp/s1600/892128_4908915006753_1545463924_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqHCSuMwtJQf9KPVfYWb5I1BGSGeOTiI-LY7VjctIu5xbH963kMYXI7w5lw6TN6U40bm3DSqltXZZsgnCZ2ZGNEZkkPhGUJ6LADPLtVyULfQmbcedzxQLW9ixmP58o5j9D71z1jGiIKPp/s640/892128_4908915006753_1545463924_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">23 km from Sarria where we began!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QuuDtK2hTb8SWPKQ2TlTnoVrLDrvKtYBw00wD2AwjWoDndqtUVs3Tf-mc4i32TewDwSpFX1AaUO4WI4OPjno8YCJ2IaxiZY0qn4K7pPM5hCq19OFXlee9P9NgEttatZbqctU8HddnOM9/s1600/575812_630797626936778_1941017950_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3QuuDtK2hTb8SWPKQ2TlTnoVrLDrvKtYBw00wD2AwjWoDndqtUVs3Tf-mc4i32TewDwSpFX1AaUO4WI4OPjno8YCJ2IaxiZY0qn4K7pPM5hCq19OFXlee9P9NgEttatZbqctU8HddnOM9/s640/575812_630797626936778_1941017950_n.jpg" width="640" /></a> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fD0SbZ21nDpeG0k1UDtc9sE6SmDVQFF32HfxxL1_l7_kXcJ0iZecl88aFQ9HAylWJYn_q2pkL6McTK-vyCo_XAORugUfx3bbRwmuTJ-NWlIv7kzcSnZflrdH2w_emYfGw9ibwi6Tzm_c/s1600/8382_630797623603445_685384172_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fD0SbZ21nDpeG0k1UDtc9sE6SmDVQFF32HfxxL1_l7_kXcJ0iZecl88aFQ9HAylWJYn_q2pkL6McTK-vyCo_XAORugUfx3bbRwmuTJ-NWlIv7kzcSnZflrdH2w_emYfGw9ibwi6Tzm_c/s640/8382_630797623603445_685384172_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK99Jf2UY8arRSyOvaccSXVwaFpOUXT4UoqSmxcJAY5gL08afqANZjZXG0qz1muIzem9yRamDLgsU10r1M0oO2iCzt772N8hfOfYkoz0csa270KEWYqid881nn5wGbYyejh9hqQPcDil4u/s1600/2790902832_f51e03ca3e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK99Jf2UY8arRSyOvaccSXVwaFpOUXT4UoqSmxcJAY5gL08afqANZjZXG0qz1muIzem9yRamDLgsU10r1M0oO2iCzt772N8hfOfYkoz0csa270KEWYqid881nn5wGbYyejh9hqQPcDil4u/s640/2790902832_f51e03ca3e.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Portomarin, a sight for sore legs</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
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Sunday: The day the rain arrived. I have experienced very few things more unpleasant than getting my feet soaked through hiking boots within an hour of walking in pretty steady rain, and knowing you aren't even close to halfway done for the day. I didn't think I was ever going to be fully dry after that. In the morning those of us without decent ponchos grabbed trash bags to cover up and ziplocks for our feet in hopes the socks wouldn't get soaked quite as fast (to little success). <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRqqBHecUSr5zHLsc7btekgW3qELNzbRnUej9SEhEXNeVoYK-WUAkmb0gsFGvDp8Whv8AhngjLszTVC4V5I4JwcNylgoJVcsOcOXu8z409lGzLmccIoeXS9aQF57n0eAPqL8T6ICa9h0EZ/s1600/892069_4908887446064_262463326_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRqqBHecUSr5zHLsc7btekgW3qELNzbRnUej9SEhEXNeVoYK-WUAkmb0gsFGvDp8Whv8AhngjLszTVC4V5I4JwcNylgoJVcsOcOXu8z409lGzLmccIoeXS9aQF57n0eAPqL8T6ICa9h0EZ/s640/892069_4908887446064_262463326_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">these weren't taken Sunday, it doesn't look rainy enough.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiood206aMQtjf2pf3WaSpps5vmC4d41KWnIa1Gjb4HS0fPcxqLcryk1y10i3iT0t-laQNVzUK_PavD_5Vi69fd8rqyYtjziusa1JuBja-Dk_jh8nSqy1os1VRQDahPmHcwSm5kGv-AfA9f/s1600/884983_4908759362862_565549883_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiood206aMQtjf2pf3WaSpps5vmC4d41KWnIa1Gjb4HS0fPcxqLcryk1y10i3iT0t-laQNVzUK_PavD_5Vi69fd8rqyYtjziusa1JuBja-Dk_jh8nSqy1os1VRQDahPmHcwSm5kGv-AfA9f/s640/884983_4908759362862_565549883_o.jpg" width="640" /></a> <br />
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Monday: The day we did 30 whole kilometers. Which is a lot. The day started like the previous ones, a slow wake up around dawn, breakfast of toast, and a quick muscle warm up before starting to walk. While walking we passed the time talking and some of us singing, going through pretty much every song we could think of and knew enough words to. I was definitely dragging my feet at this point, tired and sore from the previous days and facing the longest day ahead. It was still pretty rainy and unpleasant weather, although while walking it wasn't cold. That evening after finally arriving at the hostel a couple friends and I grabbed a bunk in front of a radiator, stripped off the wettest clothes, and didn't move for hours. We were too tired to do absolutely anything except make ourselves laugh like crazy, and beg the brave athletic ones who could still walk and make a supermarket trip to bring us back cookies and chips (which they did, those kind souls. Some of the best tasting snacks I've had in my entire life). Later after dinner we were supposed to join the group to discuss the day but some of us snuck (sneaked?) away to go straight to sleep (which we got in trouble for but were far too tired to care). That was the first day I no longer managed to shower while on my feet- instead I sat on the floor because I was just too sore (and I was not the only one!)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA2Z0s3wxIYsarPfLc5NdXiLztJUFazIah7kxeMqEVKQkUJweNvGzJ7XRG6qFPgeaReVkT6wCB1Ftm1o1Yo5__lTRWewxY9PZHFIfwXZXB2Rtxt_jvxfhhUBtufjkn30sVZoMLFQwXQTl_/s1600/558504_10200467289418619_1852126564_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA2Z0s3wxIYsarPfLc5NdXiLztJUFazIah7kxeMqEVKQkUJweNvGzJ7XRG6qFPgeaReVkT6wCB1Ftm1o1Yo5__lTRWewxY9PZHFIfwXZXB2Rtxt_jvxfhhUBtufjkn30sVZoMLFQwXQTl_/s640/558504_10200467289418619_1852126564_n.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">being as glamorous as possible under the circumstances.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW_7FM_109da78sLr2Yy4ASVRP1-kvA39tABxO7bdKuBSxXWajxQPKZPI3I7yFm0SWwi1Sy3vcAaapHUcNjefCLeEjvqTcajpg7sQKLzTWZC4aMocjxDejcmpH7mcjct1OJ_JjAqT_O1ZK/s1600/893767_555521221135796_1604067030_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW_7FM_109da78sLr2Yy4ASVRP1-kvA39tABxO7bdKuBSxXWajxQPKZPI3I7yFm0SWwi1Sy3vcAaapHUcNjefCLeEjvqTcajpg7sQKLzTWZC4aMocjxDejcmpH7mcjct1OJ_JjAqT_O1ZK/s640/893767_555521221135796_1604067030_o.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83ykK0iFGhLpwXUeT5TRKDsO51AYaniw-z6acSFHaWitQOEdIM1Q_3T21tcMn4EcLk5qfbSqgVLMH5irhRJdT9yU-Um-LSae1LzV4kmzM4iRiyJL8qNGbuMWF-nPNGSKPrj9Dq0Pur5vt/s1600/883463_555521574469094_960491649_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83ykK0iFGhLpwXUeT5TRKDsO51AYaniw-z6acSFHaWitQOEdIM1Q_3T21tcMn4EcLk5qfbSqgVLMH5irhRJdT9yU-Um-LSae1LzV4kmzM4iRiyJL8qNGbuMWF-nPNGSKPrj9Dq0Pur5vt/s640/883463_555521574469094_960491649_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfnpBLnrYmbjM9CjngY286eRujseenewNQcvs0A9bv0GvOi5Kh1ijbo8nPJVzOQy4OKUZULB0-P8nndDKFHOsqG7iTGsP5CSqFYyrFTBOAkiCch4OG5t0XFHJ8EyOQK3JZhfwsTQ0h8de_/s1600/734026_630797866936754_818340042_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfnpBLnrYmbjM9CjngY286eRujseenewNQcvs0A9bv0GvOi5Kh1ijbo8nPJVzOQy4OKUZULB0-P8nndDKFHOsqG7iTGsP5CSqFYyrFTBOAkiCch4OG5t0XFHJ8EyOQK3JZhfwsTQ0h8de_/s640/734026_630797866936754_818340042_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemr67Kb4pYQsirVGfEPsrE-35R6m6wJkXJWiKvUHg_kIgLvQi1wnY-BJ1YZ5iyDhhu8q1h1gvqP26dquSv_ZrH4Vs5FUPlYLD_LxVmuiMBZm3q7QiPp-9ThDj44XOX2xZPwzdRd4lrHHI/s1600/543493_630797930270081_1271300009_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemr67Kb4pYQsirVGfEPsrE-35R6m6wJkXJWiKvUHg_kIgLvQi1wnY-BJ1YZ5iyDhhu8q1h1gvqP26dquSv_ZrH4Vs5FUPlYLD_LxVmuiMBZm3q7QiPp-9ThDj44XOX2xZPwzdRd4lrHHI/s640/543493_630797930270081_1271300009_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzaJy7y1ABdSwW8BvqhvOHfOXyGCa-w3gpJMdnBrpMvg9R5qu9P23tUxPKHu9LXNskOfUs69NUbSQ3LALxEWtBogDD3UQ5Q-HN-Ce9_jS-WsHctWX9v0vokWHO7XvSE4bGUuGNXeWYOEfe/s1600/903476_4908931887175_892889613_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzaJy7y1ABdSwW8BvqhvOHfOXyGCa-w3gpJMdnBrpMvg9R5qu9P23tUxPKHu9LXNskOfUs69NUbSQ3LALxEWtBogDD3UQ5Q-HN-Ce9_jS-WsHctWX9v0vokWHO7XvSE4bGUuGNXeWYOEfe/s640/903476_4908931887175_892889613_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjHWREbWoiOUd5gVQvN-8tGKV-1LdgPKNazK_h2niiUTuFsAZoYtcAuTHbnSLV7W5kqJibQBExSaJf__W5KHn9uyUF-8Afe-R_cuWoR04cJ5zQJ1cNich0EGW_pRO9EIPCfqKkjY9AXHVr/s1600/882628_4909057890325_1619555121_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjHWREbWoiOUd5gVQvN-8tGKV-1LdgPKNazK_h2niiUTuFsAZoYtcAuTHbnSLV7W5kqJibQBExSaJf__W5KHn9uyUF-8Afe-R_cuWoR04cJ5zQJ1cNich0EGW_pRO9EIPCfqKkjY9AXHVr/s640/882628_4909057890325_1619555121_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">From "the lads". because Glenn never leaves Ireland without a flag in his pocket (that's a direct quote). </span></td></tr></tbody></table> Tuesday was by far my most difficult day. It was only about 21 km, a nice break compared to the day before, so it shouldn't have been so bad... but I accidentally got separated from the group. On the trail everyone goes at their own pace, and we tended to split into various groups of faster or slower speeds, and somehow I fell in between, alone in the middle for a while. I kept expecting to either catch up with those in front of me (they couldn't be that far ahead) or fall back with those behind (they couldn't be so far either!) or to reach the cafeteria place we'd all agreed to find for a lunch stop (we were around the halfway mark, it had to be close as well). But as I kept on going I ran into no one. And I kept going... and going... totally alone. I knew I was still on the path from the trusty yellow arrows, I just didn't know where anyone else was.<br />
Finally, about 4 km after the halfway mark and a good long time without seeing AFSers, I got out my cell phone and called a volunteer. Turned out that everyone was in the lunch spot and I, somehow, had walked right past. I knew I didn't have enough energy to backtrack kilometers to meet up with them again, and it would also be a waste of time to just sit still and wait for them to catch up to me... so I decided to just push through to the end. I was doing alright, just mechanically moving my feet and getting on by myself. I ended up entertaining myself by singing the entire Lion King soundtrack to myself because what else can you do for so many hours? Eventually you want a break with just your own thoughts for company, even if the peace and time to reflect isn't bad. But then around km 19 I spotted a small memorial placed by someone doing the Camino in honor of a family member who had died, and it brought a tear to my eye... and then I couldn't stop. All my exhaustion and stress and every little thing set me off and it was just a relief to let it out. So I ended up walking the last 3 km crying and completely alone. In this town our hostel was not directly on the trail, and you had to leave the path to search for it way at the edge of town, and I was so afraid I had missed it. But I found it and of course this set of a fresh flood of tears of extreme relief. I had done it. I was lonely and exhausted and a mess but I had finished that stretch, and now there was just one more day to go.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQ7A8MWaF6PdheB8_qTyA2kqjYBfZxUK0cZ4l_LudBA5pIcJ6OnsiF5fd-Brh33LBVvoPykL5qUlm5xGOPb-qXX2JxBWWJmzuGguASSVGRXQCsswvDaKP5fbcPp1P8oHzIFRo-PGGO9LO/s1600/885087_4454644246121_768017196_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQ7A8MWaF6PdheB8_qTyA2kqjYBfZxUK0cZ4l_LudBA5pIcJ6OnsiF5fd-Brh33LBVvoPykL5qUlm5xGOPb-qXX2JxBWWJmzuGguASSVGRXQCsswvDaKP5fbcPp1P8oHzIFRo-PGGO9LO/s640/885087_4454644246121_768017196_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-wSqUccrWHt0B55m16tkTcBePI63G3UkgFAF8XibN7HMOvrr8hdWWbNV2x_58ZlZZ9kr8fBc1YfMOmA-4oZTJsdIT0i9OuwAg7IUF2u67M8jZlEjSJHFm64Md53QxruoHw-JQ9meOt1h/s1600/901708_4454697767459_1496043071_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-wSqUccrWHt0B55m16tkTcBePI63G3UkgFAF8XibN7HMOvrr8hdWWbNV2x_58ZlZZ9kr8fBc1YfMOmA-4oZTJsdIT0i9OuwAg7IUF2u67M8jZlEjSJHFm64Md53QxruoHw-JQ9meOt1h/s640/901708_4454697767459_1496043071_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Way will not give you what you're looking for, but what you need- don't view the path as the goal but a school to get to know yourself.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgToYEqOG5Nbi4mXjSd0Wt-q4B-hZ91emvQhkvwJBBcUVlfEA6bM5T8Ta1zMr_bWBVwBR3hD_-81w36JGDUlRbZSe6nYBSM1FBekBY0HA1Vn1iRbadcr-EkSftXXhWZJQ3L-X9g4dwrQG/s1600/903678_4454671166794_1218508939_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgToYEqOG5Nbi4mXjSd0Wt-q4B-hZ91emvQhkvwJBBcUVlfEA6bM5T8Ta1zMr_bWBVwBR3hD_-81w36JGDUlRbZSe6nYBSM1FBekBY0HA1Vn1iRbadcr-EkSftXXhWZJQ3L-X9g4dwrQG/s640/903678_4454671166794_1218508939_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This was from the first day (100 km from Santiago). These would appear every half kilometer (more or less- some seemed to be missing) and in varying degrees of graffiti-d. Some of the graffiti on these mile markers was really neat. My personal favorites included some from a "Kris Mullington" who "has never molested a cheeseburger" and various other funny things that made me laugh as I followed his signs for several kilometers. Some were truly beautiful though; on the last day, I saw "Jill, I just wanted to say before we get there, ever step has been better with you. I love you." which actually brought a tear to my eye. (possibly it was just a pretty emotional week, but in the moment it was a really special thing even if it doesn't seem very poetic as I write it here, it really felt like I understood what the person who loved Jill was trying to say).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
Wednesday: the last day! only a mere 19 or so km to make it. The goal was to get there in time for the 12:00 mass so we all got up at 5:45AM (although being the slow large group of teens we were, we actually left around 7). Today I was definitely not planning on going off on my own again, I was determined to find someone else around my pace to stick tight to. So I set out with Meg, and we were soon joined by Jonah, but we weren't seeing anyone else from our group, and also <i>no yellow arrows</i>. <br />
We must have gone at least a kilometer and a half, on the highway, without any signs for the Camino. Megg and I were sure we'd lost the trail so we called a volunteer, who told we should have taken a different turn leaving earlier and we'd have to turn around. This was disappointing, to say the least, since we were already tired and this meant we'd be losing about an hour, and we hadn't even really started. Jonah, however, was convinced we'd followed the right arrow the first time and would eventually get back on track anyway. Meg and I decided to backtrack and start over, and it was a little unnerving to leave him behind and watching him limp away down some sketchy path that we were sure would get him lost. But we trusted that he had his phone and wouldn't get into any actual trouble and decided for ourselves to better go back to where we felt certain of ourselves. (Actually, Meg thought we were going to give up and walk back only to where the volunteer with the emergency car would come pick us up, but I thought we were going all the way back on the trail. By the time we realized we had a miscommunication, we were back in the woods following the yellow arrows and decided to just push through and make it to the end).<br />
At this point we knew we were coming in last, but it wasn't a race. We just kept trekking. At least it wasn't raining, although the clouds looked like they'd open at any moment. 12 km away, the mile markers vanished, leaving us without any sense of how much further we had to go. We were unable to push ourselves past a snails pace and the volunteers caught up with us, where they informed us Jonah had, in fact, found the trail and had arrived an hour ago at the Cathedral with the rest of the group. That made us regret not believing him but we were quite glad he was safe. Eventually we left the volunteers behind and starting picking up a bit more speed. We ran into a couple of our Irish friends (technically one Irish and one German on exchange in Ireland) who walked much faster but it helped motivate us and make up some time.<br />
Finally, we reached the top of a hill and we could see the city! That got us excited but we soon realized that although Santiago was in sight we still had "an hour left" at normal person speed, which would be at least two more at our rate. Eventually we were actually walking IN the city, heading for the cathedral. It was odd to be back in "civilization", an actual city and not a tiny town just passing through. In any other place we would have looked strange, with our turtle backpacks and messy appearances, but in Santiago pilgrims are just daily part of the city. At one point our group called to check on us and we told them we were in Santiago, just a bit longer, we were almost there! but they just said they were taking the group photo than. That didn't make us very happy but we focused on just getting there. We lost track of the yellow arrows shortly into the city, which left it up to me, being somewhat familiar with Santiago, to get us to the main part of the city and the Cathedral. Somehow I didn't get us too lost and we, around 2 in the afternoon and several hours too late for the midday mass, arrived at the Cathedral. I insisted that Meg not turn and look at it until I took her to the very center of the plaza, so she could appreciate it all at once. Of course right then it started to rain, so after our celebration and hugs we ducked under an awning to wait for someone to come get us. It was pretty emotional, we were all so happy to have arrived!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL5O5sQir_VMt2RcVeAmYEg2e7QP3Ep7joSrvzGA7wkFixcpz6PIm7Aip-p-hzKjfSHbqUZKNUi8lV7aS3T9teRhdF48LP1R-L5fJ1JkQRJHEivGwLcn_WiUZ1CZklmGvA3ytONTSqwqK-/s1600/539073_10200467306579048_1737353574_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL5O5sQir_VMt2RcVeAmYEg2e7QP3Ep7joSrvzGA7wkFixcpz6PIm7Aip-p-hzKjfSHbqUZKNUi8lV7aS3T9teRhdF48LP1R-L5fJ1JkQRJHEivGwLcn_WiUZ1CZklmGvA3ytONTSqwqK-/s640/539073_10200467306579048_1737353574_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">People had stuck crosses from sticks in a fence about 5 kilometers from Santiago</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyD7wVWeVB5uyGokPjcpRDIzAlEP_H7cve7TXvKFhQ6qIUvSmPJtqZFcb_DC25AWw6FLGuNBRz9A72SOmfjtSn5w85cuRJJ10GDjkOddHb85P3FnCEDicQi8RCnMwXJPdmnnzaXtac4_3/s1600/884566_4454689887262_175762743_o%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOzWLaStKeLkBe_u49GptZvb08mfUUlr04dkClsZFx_fHI8M8ZJu-A80QJC6wQAZRBooSVuvzmBkZc_Rr7GiKokJDamEjLTZ2zzsh6G5jZ7SLG2xVqYJGt7rvdbuTl5suYAcR9vCDcumr/s1600/18014_10200467307339067_2096099777_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOzWLaStKeLkBe_u49GptZvb08mfUUlr04dkClsZFx_fHI8M8ZJu-A80QJC6wQAZRBooSVuvzmBkZc_Rr7GiKokJDamEjLTZ2zzsh6G5jZ7SLG2xVqYJGt7rvdbuTl5suYAcR9vCDcumr/s640/18014_10200467307339067_2096099777_n.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Entering the city at last!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXs9D3pxtUZVAs0zCoj39ulekVWC1oXhCeCfhVBW6Cnm6O6b98ASynvkNxozwPap7rAxTApgctRHUUj6pfugzt6AUq9ZaaX_3gS_nkeNrBYi-toWZ9GN-nrZ6RpqMMDU5mPTTAU2v9sbx/s1600/544936_10200467310379143_1879190935_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXs9D3pxtUZVAs0zCoj39ulekVWC1oXhCeCfhVBW6Cnm6O6b98ASynvkNxozwPap7rAxTApgctRHUUj6pfugzt6AUq9ZaaX_3gS_nkeNrBYi-toWZ9GN-nrZ6RpqMMDU5mPTTAU2v9sbx/s640/544936_10200467310379143_1879190935_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">this is actually the only photo I got of me after getting to the cathedral. I did bring my camera but didn't take it out of my bag (at the time just getting it out seeming exhausting and everyone else was clicking away constantly so I didn't worry about it) and these pictures are all taken by my friends. There were many many more moments documented and this blog post really doesn't do the adventure justice, but it's the best I can do. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
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I am so very proud of all of my fellow AFSers and pilgrims, and myself. It was an unforgettable experience. I think I would do it all over again, and maybe I will someday. In many ways it was a short intense version of what us exchange students are going through this whole year- independence, what is really important to carry with you, the Cup Song, endurance, friendship, how to keep sandwiches and sleeping bags dry, and self confidence. Blisters heal (I'm still grateful my boots were solid and I didn't have any, because some of the others were truly bad) and clothes dry and we return to showering standing up but at least for me a part of me will always be a Peregrina. The rain let up right after we finished, of course. In the two months since then (I don't know how it's been that long!!!) I've been to a few other cities in Spain that are stops in the Camino from other routes (Salamanca, for example, coming from the South) and every time I spot a yellow arrow or a conch shell on the street I just feel a little reminder that I'm following my own path.<br />
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Buen Camino!<br />
<br />
<br />
Love,<br />
Amy <br />
<br />
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<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2BoAzib4s06poaQ9UdChMfQxxZDsC6JrWA3GLvGEbMXuM4TEGDFb2wxe6W8k27BrMa8jdM2OXdPjStttAa1yIki_fErldt-uFabbZJZW7ER4LJ6qDVnh6iWUJELx9Y7lO53EC_OasC1f/s640/blogger-image--1511522978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2BoAzib4s06poaQ9UdChMfQxxZDsC6JrWA3GLvGEbMXuM4TEGDFb2wxe6W8k27BrMa8jdM2OXdPjStttAa1yIki_fErldt-uFabbZJZW7ER4LJ6qDVnh6iWUJELx9Y7lO53EC_OasC1f/s640/blogger-image--1511522978.jpg" /></a></div>Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-28417907488979681282013-04-08T14:25:00.002-05:002013-04-08T14:25:15.785-05:00Camino de Santiago (part 1): a video<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pEzxtGNxEsQ" width="420"></iframe><br />
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This a video my friend Lani made about the trip, and it sums it up pretty greatly.<br />
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My own version in word post format is still lacking some more photos and edits but it will be up soon too!<br />
Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-72327050262483734052013-04-02T10:32:00.004-05:002013-04-02T10:32:55.731-05:00TRIMESTER 2My grades:<br />
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(out of 10, 5 is passing)<br />
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Contemporary Sciences: <b>7 </b>(up 2 points from last grading period)<br />
Gym: <b>6 </b>(same)<br />
Philosophy: <b>7 </b>(up 4 points)<br />
Galcian: Exempt<br />
Spanish literature and language: <b>3 </b>(same)<br />
English: <b>10 </b>(same)<br />
Educational Attention: Not Applicable<br />
Biology and Geology: <b>7 </b>(up 2 points)<br />
Physics and Chemistry: <b>5 </b>(up 2 points)<br />
Math: <b>4 </b>(down 1)<br />
Technology: <b>4 </b>(down 3)<br />
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I'm most proud of my biology, philosophy, and physics grades. Technology is just embarrassing. My math teacher failed me by <b>.1</b> point. Otherwise I'm pleased with the results and I'll just keep working for my last trimester in Spain, which started today after Semana Santa (spring/Easter break), and I am currently writing more posts about what I did during those vacations.<br />
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-28230072136619913122013-03-20T19:13:00.000-05:002013-03-20T19:13:06.651-05:00many apologiesI somehow seemed to skip february. It went by in such a blur. I think I'm in denial of just how fast time is going- it's pretty well past the halfway mark and nearly 7 months. I am adjusted more and more all the time to being here. So adjusted I have absolutely no idea what to post. For the first half of the stay I was so proud of myself for relatively not falling behind in posts and not neglecting to update too much, I was sure I'd make it through, but I didn't. I hope you can forgive me, (or at least remember me?)<br />
Everything is going just fine, the language gets better every day.
Evidently I just need to work on balancing more time into updating for
home. If I'm being completely accurate January was the hardest month for
me in terms of homesickness, and I think I sort of accidentally tried
to separate myself even more to avoid that again. (or something. we just
finished studying Freud in philosophy so I'm extra aware of the
sub-conscious haha). I miss y'all a lot, but it can't be helped and I'll do much better at keeping track of time.<br />
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In the last few weeks, there was Spanish Carnaval (a few pictures below!), a brief
trip to Madrid (parents had some work stuff there so we all went), a whole lot of the normal routine of school and studying,
and a few impromptu games of pool and rugby (never would have though I'd
say that!). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB0gauy3aLwPwC0ag2P5Jx0UBZ7RmT5SGBEsNzJwbOaXqlgjFp2MHrH0qHJKkgla7zKLK1bJ0BFmqJyJGe3B4u5GR6Csqyw8FMTLV-48NNyTtk-QQutrR-9U0AqdnbtRvHJYwJfDwX-MWi/s1600/DSCN4681.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB0gauy3aLwPwC0ag2P5Jx0UBZ7RmT5SGBEsNzJwbOaXqlgjFp2MHrH0qHJKkgla7zKLK1bJ0BFmqJyJGe3B4u5GR6Csqyw8FMTLV-48NNyTtk-QQutrR-9U0AqdnbtRvHJYwJfDwX-MWi/s400/DSCN4681.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My sister and I in our costumes, I was a dark angel along with my host mom (we had wings but they don't show up in the photo) and my sister was a military person. </td></tr>
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At this moment, my host sister is in Paris, I've finally finished my exams, my host mom has recently learned that her novels will become movies, within 2 days I'll be backpacking on a pilgrimage with some great AFS people, and then afterwards the host family is going to Salamanca for Semana Santa. I'll take tons of pictures and put them on here, I promise!<br />
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Love,<br />
Amy<br />
<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-10300455475712139482013-03-18T17:31:00.000-05:002013-03-18T17:31:53.331-05:00Still hereI promise to get some posts up very soon, so so so sorry for losing track for a while, I'm still here and doing fine!<br />
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<3 AmyAmy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-1131536498267330852013-01-19T09:31:00.001-06:002013-01-27T12:36:48.065-06:00December 21-January 13: the update<br />
Well I guess I'll just jump right in. To start off, the first afternoon of the break I hung out in
Pontevedra with one of my best friends Jonah, another AFSer here from
around Chicago, shopping for Christmas presents and eating frozen
yogurt (yes, in December!). That was the first time I caught the bus all
by myself! (Pontevedra is the bigger city about 15 minutes away from
Marin and I am now officially capable of making the trip solo, so that was fun. )<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKWlO5CJWFPapzJUBvU0Sru7qk5dligzReoejER-0Bff0zm3CETarFRey3wZtf0UQ9JDD3ydGxqi5GCcYxJT2FAqluwj9F-QMa_vt-KbkDNvyqfgaWlQfXX7OIG4DRv4VC0m11erc0BSWr/s1600/jonah.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKWlO5CJWFPapzJUBvU0Sru7qk5dligzReoejER-0Bff0zm3CETarFRey3wZtf0UQ9JDD3ydGxqi5GCcYxJT2FAqluwj9F-QMa_vt-KbkDNvyqfgaWlQfXX7OIG4DRv4VC0m11erc0BSWr/s400/jonah.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Neither of us took a good picture that day hahaha but the tree was festive</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Christmas eve came around, which here
in Spain means dinner with the family and we ate lots of seafood,
shrimp and lobster and things in shells, it was tasty but pretty different from home! The stores have been stocked for weeks with Turron (basically Spanish peanut brittle) and various candies just for Navidad.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3SJ0WA0J6ZCPRt1ClrM_TnhhweUPRtfr4Ipe0clyTSvxoNZx-y-3P5JqXbmuXV06zb3aSfZDLNtV7Xxbn2ODRqPcy2Op0CVnZSE4ysDjFqqNzmta1f66c1tnIBs-W-qTP_p9utXXgWqD/s1600/IMG_0711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3SJ0WA0J6ZCPRt1ClrM_TnhhweUPRtfr4Ipe0clyTSvxoNZx-y-3P5JqXbmuXV06zb3aSfZDLNtV7Xxbn2ODRqPcy2Op0CVnZSE4ysDjFqqNzmta1f66c1tnIBs-W-qTP_p9utXXgWqD/s400/IMG_0711.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yummy. Also the shells are a traditional musical instrument here. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ntRoWj8pgpmmG6Njs5FRNRcuIk-IPcvT2ukcMEpsjCJLkCEcJGzb7tJ-MVLCecPkDIUYESI9pnImgcrxXGTe8jCz9vlZB0oNwx4ZdvN2qGCpzMtvBJXaWsO3ZS8Hk4UmytbGjTYH0_8h/s1600/shrimp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ntRoWj8pgpmmG6Njs5FRNRcuIk-IPcvT2ukcMEpsjCJLkCEcJGzb7tJ-MVLCecPkDIUYESI9pnImgcrxXGTe8jCz9vlZB0oNwx4ZdvN2qGCpzMtvBJXaWsO3ZS8Hk4UmytbGjTYH0_8h/s400/shrimp.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
Then Christmas Day- we
went to visit my host mom's parents in Ourense. I had never met them before, and it
turned out that this was the year I got one single pair of socks as my
Christmas present. (hahaha but not really of course because I later
opened the wonderful package from home, and anyways here the 24th isn't the day
for presents and celebrating.... that will wait until the Epiphany, aka
three kings day, aka January 6th, aka my birthday). That day I also met
yet another host brother I hadn't known before, and was reminded of the
dangers of zoning out during conversations in a foreign language because
when I tune back in I can find myself staring at raccoon photos without
any idea what is happening... But all in all just a nice quiet Christmas
day.<br />
<br />
Next exciting thing that happened was going to
Madrid! We were there about 4 days I think, in time for New Years. It
was so exciting to be in the capitol of Spain for the New Year and get
to see some of the city.<br />
The weather happened to be a little foggy those days, I
don't think I saw the sun once the whole time we were there and it gave
the streets a slightly claustrophobic feel sometimes, but other than
that I loved it! <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjhM2NOquU0B1RaEcqqt_BG1-8Sf5fUwS4kxlnwjcXv6-mcwamrdIOj0KLIkI6nAHXRCAyjv4eA85SpuCvTlMt-LuxOkXMt5S2OtPE99FDpYYsiouTQmr2yeQ-yXgYSyoYhnhLrn30SIZ/s1600/7.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjhM2NOquU0B1RaEcqqt_BG1-8Sf5fUwS4kxlnwjcXv6-mcwamrdIOj0KLIkI6nAHXRCAyjv4eA85SpuCvTlMt-LuxOkXMt5S2OtPE99FDpYYsiouTQmr2yeQ-yXgYSyoYhnhLrn30SIZ/s640/7.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">colorful markets</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3phH6BpqdFDWIU-6RdkSe2T-rIRSpTteVfnxOB70SeWm9aWocJDlY__SUa8urcyfAt_Te7tWHVTG8SNFsAsK2tpAGAgr-EH-OzoTJ3_DBjgNXBncNJyk1QnJ4s6WIfkPKf_xKmIFGOT6p/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3phH6BpqdFDWIU-6RdkSe2T-rIRSpTteVfnxOB70SeWm9aWocJDlY__SUa8urcyfAt_Te7tWHVTG8SNFsAsK2tpAGAgr-EH-OzoTJ3_DBjgNXBncNJyk1QnJ4s6WIfkPKf_xKmIFGOT6p/s640/9.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">not of anything in particular but it's got all four of us</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixm95rqR7eDnDsFb53rkOAEb5hZ-DhgkcyLC6KOJiXIAFDegNEMsTwjR1VczKPMIotWIkAdT5KcJvW436bVkw_wlWEcEWGYtR5NOH8cYvOcDvej6Nq264gCrGbKD6CjBhu9VjvWt5eGJHx/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixm95rqR7eDnDsFb53rkOAEb5hZ-DhgkcyLC6KOJiXIAFDegNEMsTwjR1VczKPMIotWIkAdT5KcJvW436bVkw_wlWEcEWGYtR5NOH8cYvOcDvej6Nq264gCrGbKD6CjBhu9VjvWt5eGJHx/s640/2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Antia and I in front of the royal palace</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-w3I2O2alsm14afj6Fp7BQiPVtbtQEXCXgY27PM0HaIsB3TFz9dirFKQ06NfqH_1uRJRndaKyzSWT3sT3tW3ebwT0IV8CFguRWIngx3FACs6rZ9N0hYovd75OwlrrQYA0srofLTtI3y6/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-w3I2O2alsm14afj6Fp7BQiPVtbtQEXCXgY27PM0HaIsB3TFz9dirFKQ06NfqH_1uRJRndaKyzSWT3sT3tW3ebwT0IV8CFguRWIngx3FACs6rZ9N0hYovd75OwlrrQYA0srofLTtI3y6/s640/5.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The giant Christmas tree in the center of Madrid (but you can't spin under it or anything, I missed the Trail of Lights)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaB8pQRUBHaSUo436FXGtTjO-UfuREe-pKE-4XiEQVu1gcLMnqEZLnPDYaZQsTRtYKocRP-ekTMRidW1Dzf_bJo29W5fm_pcty0JriLCPVcfh0_iTT2bQYnGl6-MJIOTdJzM6C5UZUmXAW/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaB8pQRUBHaSUo436FXGtTjO-UfuREe-pKE-4XiEQVu1gcLMnqEZLnPDYaZQsTRtYKocRP-ekTMRidW1Dzf_bJo29W5fm_pcty0JriLCPVcfh0_iTT2bQYnGl6-MJIOTdJzM6C5UZUmXAW/s640/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's an Egyptian Temple that was moved to Spain for safekeeping from flooding on the Nile.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivH3Qpl4eGTsnWpep_Hh7LcSv992FnNBJfHZIUufKwZhXEZ0DWZ6d-wXvbcMxNP9hXdtN0M2tTI6JQUk3b745dofVMPBSlI730OOOZs6-WMRiDYQPyMboVxxIiH9h1Z8dTCYBu9aXx1lU5/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivH3Qpl4eGTsnWpep_Hh7LcSv992FnNBJfHZIUufKwZhXEZ0DWZ6d-wXvbcMxNP9hXdtN0M2tTI6JQUk3b745dofVMPBSlI730OOOZs6-WMRiDYQPyMboVxxIiH9h1Z8dTCYBu9aXx1lU5/s640/3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Palace</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
We went to see the Cirque du Soleil and also The Lion
King broadway version (in Spanish of course) and they were so much fun!
It was fascinating see the translation of the Lion King, for example if
any of you know the part where Timon dances the hula? In Spain he dances
the Flamenco.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKrnGrAJMDtRutbT3c0Pv9D0fgcnExQsQ0ACLpcbVDPDQUI5M14-Gc0oj7948KPcDB6O5-JssO8lnzEVPyYrkXf2s-Gm4vfs2xo25mu95llhhDVW_IpEkmeUEOYITCm7EkuZfTtfJUtPe/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKrnGrAJMDtRutbT3c0Pv9D0fgcnExQsQ0ACLpcbVDPDQUI5M14-Gc0oj7948KPcDB6O5-JssO8lnzEVPyYrkXf2s-Gm4vfs2xo25mu95llhhDVW_IpEkmeUEOYITCm7EkuZfTtfJUtPe/s640/6.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYbHdnUciVZLhH_4rPtSxrO3H5XNY-SRskSb8c0aeaczPhmUXtGf8xAUXFnhb0wLSeDY8dEI6AQR43FFHeLizbpQsXweyMdwfNtAwKV9ucrP-b6yAa-D425t2LOBKv6Mj7kujAR93flEbv/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYbHdnUciVZLhH_4rPtSxrO3H5XNY-SRskSb8c0aeaczPhmUXtGf8xAUXFnhb0wLSeDY8dEI6AQR43FFHeLizbpQsXweyMdwfNtAwKV9ucrP-b6yAa-D425t2LOBKv6Mj7kujAR93flEbv/s640/4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pretty streets</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Fh6fq5jucvjijSuh8TEgo3Gc9O9BQ0Gmu6WPDpBi-7P_vXh6jeIaLLTI2TtbBCF_wiImrVHxhKgp6JEIr4v4Rr2LTGDrgio5CnGBsGSka-rUAk-QK4fEwIhDtJ44R5Ex8uN93xiSzJcf/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Fh6fq5jucvjijSuh8TEgo3Gc9O9BQ0Gmu6WPDpBi-7P_vXh6jeIaLLTI2TtbBCF_wiImrVHxhKgp6JEIr4v4Rr2LTGDrgio5CnGBsGSka-rUAk-QK4fEwIhDtJ44R5Ex8uN93xiSzJcf/s640/10.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parque Retiro </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
New Years Eve- First we watched a bit of the San Silvestre, which is the race that takes place all over the country in different cities as the last run of the year. There were a lot of people and it was cool to see! I didn't actually run it, though. Then for the big countdown we went to the Puerta de Sol, which is
where the giant clock counts down, like Times Square for Spain, but it
was a little rainy and there were TONS of people so we ended up ducking
into a restaurant/bar right around the corner for the actual countdown.
Here as the clock strikes 12, you have to eat a grape for every ring.
12 seconds, 12 grapes, 12 months of luck. I did it, although it was
surprisingly hard! (Another tradition here is to wear red underwear on
New Years Eve. Of course as an exchange student I have to try
out all the local customs, even when it means stopping in the streets of
Madrid to buy red panties with my whole family). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgwDU2dBXFihcp5iT8uNA6ec9zSkuNnsrjSDPcF1O0Te7tqhemgNXQSUIC9MguhfPh82U8ZXb0awbvbVXQpcuPb1p7a3g5ShN4kIEB8rTqBVBNndQffHrVj9LvDOTvnFH0hPFCdZpI07O/s1600/12.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgwDU2dBXFihcp5iT8uNA6ec9zSkuNnsrjSDPcF1O0Te7tqhemgNXQSUIC9MguhfPh82U8ZXb0awbvbVXQpcuPb1p7a3g5ShN4kIEB8rTqBVBNndQffHrVj9LvDOTvnFH0hPFCdZpI07O/s640/12.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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And then we said goodbye to Madrid and started heading home on New Years Day On the way home we stopped in a ski resort and played in the snow for a while (not actually skiing):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv-VsOrrj8-Uh8c0uxjiugXfSVVIu8zSTnpWjmylLW1QjAYWkvhXAbMiN4u1ZS_GcyfWx-Ljchi22KvB3StIbuuQubY4bkQEAD7MhBuaP2ZprlA6qu3liTbpFeSegE2p2TO_iQc3C6xvTI/s1600/14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv-VsOrrj8-Uh8c0uxjiugXfSVVIu8zSTnpWjmylLW1QjAYWkvhXAbMiN4u1ZS_GcyfWx-Ljchi22KvB3StIbuuQubY4bkQEAD7MhBuaP2ZprlA6qu3liTbpFeSegE2p2TO_iQc3C6xvTI/s640/14.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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And then we drove a few more hours and stopped for lunch and a little touring in the fantastic Segovia (and I got bored of the usual photos so please excuse the unusual poses):<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmm cochinillo... roast baby pig. Vegetarians look away.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can't get enough historically amazing places</td></tr>
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And then we got home and had a couple days of rest and so on. Then came the "real" Christmas day here. The night before, January 5, there is the Cabalgata, a giant parade (or at least pretty big for Marin) in which the Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar (the three wise men who visit baby Jesus) arrive! Everyone is very festive and the little kids are so excited, because the Three Kings are their Santa Claus. The Wise Men all arrive to a living Nativity scene and the kids get to meet them. Then you go home and put your shoes out so they will leave presents. My family got me a new purse, watch, t-shirts, and my lovely koala pijamas in the other post, they were so sweet! Then we had lunch, and then cake for my birthday. It was great to hear from all of you who sent a message or posted, love you all!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Since the family is big including several little kids, the final pile of presents got pretty large!</td></tr>
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Sometime in that last week of vacations I started to dream in Spanish! This was really exciting to me (even though no, it doesn't mean I'm fluent, just that the other language has gotten to my unconscious brain). I'm actually not entirely sure what it means to dream in another language though- most of the things that happen in my dreams aren't thought in terms of words in a specific language, it just happens. Like if there is a red wall, I'm not looking at it and describing in my head "oh look a red wall" in whichever language, it's just there being a wall and I see it. If that makes any sense... anyways so for me dreaming in Spanish means speaking Spanish during the dream. And that happens when I am having a conversation with someone I always speak Spanish with. So if my host family or friends here are in the dream, it'll be in Spanish. I don't know, weird brain things. <br />
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So that was vacations. We started back to school on the 8th. Then, my AFSers in Galicia wanted to get together on Saturday the 12 in Santiago, and I almost didn't go because I had a birthday party for a Spanish friend to go to that afternoon and since I see the AFSers more I would have picked the other girl that day... but luckily, my parents "let" me arrange it so I could get to both, and it turns out the AFSers had planned a birthday surprise for me and Milena (from Switzerland whose birthday is a couple days after mine)! When we got to the restaurant for lunch they brought out a cake and presents, and it was so sweet of them. (Also this makes the second year in a row I have nearly skipped my own surprise party which were both in Italian restaurants.... hahaha).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">love y'all!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iceland, China, USA, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Finland = my best friends</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the birthday girls!</td></tr>
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And that is how I spent my winter holidays in Spain! Thanks for sticking with me through that long post. You made it to the end. Love y'all!Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-2304150655209215552013-01-18T10:21:00.000-06:002013-01-18T12:55:49.260-06:00 Cheira Bem, Cheira a Lisboa<br />
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Hey everyone! I'm determined to catch up on posting soo... <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">rewind to the weekend of December 6th- that is a four day weekend in Spain because that Thursday was Constitution Da</span>y, a national holiday, (and if Thursday is a holiday so of course Friday too of course). SO, having some extra days, my host family and I went to Lisbon, Portugal! We left around 8:30 and got there for lunch, I love how close everything is in Europe. It was absolutely beautiful. And it was the first European big city I've really been in, since the arrival in Madrid can't really count because I didn't see any of the city (although I have now visited since then but that's for another post).<br />
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It was so much fun. Seeing monuments, being touristy, visiting ancient castles, seeing monuments and paintings and architecture and graffiti, eating, listening to traditional Fados, people watching, eavesdropping on Portuguese, and fighting an overwhelming urge to shout "I SPEAK ENGLISH TOO OMG I LOVE YOU" every time I overheard snippets from British or American tourists. That is what you get when you're isolated too long from your native language, at least in my case. We squeezed in a ton of things in those few days and it was insanely hard choosing just a few photos and not uploading all of them. But here they are. They are also all credited to Antia because my camera died 5 minutes after we got there and these are hers. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the first things I saw were the long seemingly-endless streets. Living in a little town these days it was almost a shock.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A main plaza </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">the adorable classic street trolleys! we rode in one and it was fun.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a former hotel that is now <span style="font-size: small;">the t</span>rain station. I adored the architecture, up close the details are fantastic</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">the padres and I in front of the Hieronymites Monastery (so are the next 2 pictures, it was stunnning)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">View of the city</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The padres and I at the Lisbon Arc de Triomphe</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We found<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>a giant map of the world and I stood on my two homes!<br /><br />The next 2 pictures below are at the Tower of Belen:</span> (this morning was super foggy but normally there is great water views from here... it felt so isolated not seeing anything at all)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Looking over the city! No, it's not San Fransico, it's definitely Lisbon. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is the giant Jesus looking over Lisbon from across the water, like the one in Brazil. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjBjSfmmgu2eBzS129bhtyIu3W-kYCgLj8p2L-IlJPFGXlH9Los5yI4vlVnqVncX5uNhOQPqIs8UF8Pbc-GeQ4V__aQA9t1HEA7kMa9ZwCT36omXccK4qrqA_WbdV21_wpPKvIkkpHrJr/s1600/PC078473.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMjBjSfmmgu2eBzS129bhtyIu3W-kYCgLj8p2L-IlJPFGXlH9Los5yI4vlVnqVncX5uNhOQPqIs8UF8Pbc-GeQ4V__aQA9t1HEA7kMa9ZwCT36omXccK4qrqA_WbdV21_wpPKvIkkpHrJr/s640/PC078473.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="short_text" id="result_box" lang="pt"><span class="hps">Sorria, você está</span> <span class="hps">em Lisboa</span></span></span></td></tr>
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It was truly a beautiful city and I'm so glad I got the chance to visit. <br />
<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-22469533421873881852013-01-07T13:21:00.002-06:002013-01-07T13:30:22.179-06:00New Year, New Blog PostSo it's a brand new year. 2012 was absolutely amazing, and I have no doubt 2013 will be too. In just the past month that I have neglectfully not blogged about (yet!) I have visited 2 stunning European capitals (Lisbon and Madrid), finished a trimester of school in Spain, survived the holidays away from home, turned 17, dreamt in Spanish, went to the beach, went to snow, caught a bus on my own, decided I like coffee (at least Spanish cafe con leche...), avoided blogging, etc....<br />
<br />
A few goals:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Keep studying Spanish like crazy.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Raise my grades here in Spain.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Send postcards/messages/packages to family back home finally (so if
you're reading this, just know there will be something on it's way
soon!) </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Try not to get too behind in blogging.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Probably most importantly, learn all the words to the Macarena.</li>
</ul>
<br />
I have some more posts and pictures from vacations to put up, but they'll have to wait until next weekend. School starts up again tomorrow... Here's to a great start of the rest of the year!<br />
<br />
What does being 17 feel like without a new pair of red-and-white striped koala pajamas? Luckily, I don't know. Buckets of love from Spain to all of you back home. <span class="st">❤ </span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT4Udy288L5hG5VzPrMWJd7d3N8cyALT90_xaIlp0kK9aGlQFa2ptpZF8Pe3ZBGxey_OTZXsar_1pPOzvgH3mLjWesCF1g-uGjCfsAflbcp63ouK-02UXV3TsWoiNAnGHSP4LpFAXhadXl/s1600/koalapijamasspain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT4Udy288L5hG5VzPrMWJd7d3N8cyALT90_xaIlp0kK9aGlQFa2ptpZF8Pe3ZBGxey_OTZXsar_1pPOzvgH3mLjWesCF1g-uGjCfsAflbcp63ouK-02UXV3TsWoiNAnGHSP4LpFAXhadXl/s640/koalapijamasspain.jpg" width="515" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I realize this blog makes me look a little obsessed with koalas... oh well.</td></tr>
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-29290180556589955012012-12-26T18:00:00.000-06:002012-12-26T18:00:01.442-06:00Allariz(pretend this was posted December 1, 2012. It's catch-up post day today)<br />
<br />
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). <br />
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<br />
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. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the skies were a little grey that morning</td></tr>
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Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-41140717674777097002012-12-26T06:10:00.000-06:002012-12-26T06:10:26.035-06:0014N<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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November 14, 2012<br />
FOLGA XERAL/HUELGA GENERAL/GENERAL STRIKE<br />
<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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). <br />
<br />
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.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6mSk0T-F3sFy8QqhgJF4InW740gsm414wIzJbrzJsbAo9Z148xPRSGI4IPeHBj1IKsCrCwJ7sdqiN0Mcfg6-6KHwFs9HLIQBVXNTubtcHBj8wDJuf8GaSq6iNYl24nu9ajw5QDREImMjO/s1600/IMG_0444.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6mSk0T-F3sFy8QqhgJF4InW740gsm414wIzJbrzJsbAo9Z148xPRSGI4IPeHBj1IKsCrCwJ7sdqiN0Mcfg6-6KHwFs9HLIQBVXNTubtcHBj8wDJuf8GaSq6iNYl24nu9ajw5QDREImMjO/s640/IMG_0444.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">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. </td></tr>
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-13265660051137155332012-12-24T17:50:00.001-06:002012-12-24T17:53:36.593-06:00Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Bo NadalLots and lots and lots of love to everyone back home from me (and from my most handsome host niece and nephew)!<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvLZvJSoJuUpUaLqS3RxAuocP1EmOoyc43XyDnvKn1sujfZ73IASkhsuys55sfmVj-mOHybsct9oi2-4Lbx9uIo_F3S3DL4TXlJz_Kiqjxy_IZS0MJTXU3tleF9d0lpinznCcY7JqUDNWV/s640/blogger-image--1086491588.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvLZvJSoJuUpUaLqS3RxAuocP1EmOoyc43XyDnvKn1sujfZ73IASkhsuys55sfmVj-mOHybsct9oi2-4Lbx9uIo_F3S3DL4TXlJz_Kiqjxy_IZS0MJTXU3tleF9d0lpinznCcY7JqUDNWV/s640/blogger-image--1086491588.jpg" /></a></div>Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-78111996129112642882012-12-20T15:02:00.000-06:002012-12-20T15:02:54.278-06:00TRIMESTER 1Today's post is to just to briefly celebrate the fact that I have almost completed one whole trimester in Spain!<br />
<br />
Tomorrow is the last day before winter vacations and we get out at 11. <br />
<br />
Possibly the most beautiful moment of the day was my whole class clapping for me after our teacher read out my final grades. <br />
<br />
Contemporary Sciences: <b>5</b><br />
Gym: <b>6</b><br />
Philosophy: <b>3</b><br />
Galcian: Exempt<br />
Spanish literature and language: <b>3</b><br />
English: <b>10</b><br />
Educational Attention: Not Applicable<br />
Biology and Geology: <b>6</b><br />
Physics and Chemistry: <b>3</b><br />
Math: <b>5</b><br />
Technology: <b>7</b><br />
<br />
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 <b>.</b>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). <br />
<br />
Enough about grades! Instead here are some of my favorite new Spanish words:<br />
<ul>
<li>burburjeante (bubbly)</li>
<li>cosquillas (tickles)</li>
<li>murciélago (bat)</li>
<li>estrafalario (bizarre)</li>
</ul>
<br />
And finally, the world isn't ending and there are beautiful rainbows to be seen over Marín! <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMRP3zl6w-Aif8WAI98zUNEKzv8s5R9B8lGLhCbvBpEz7cBKypmo9aksSespsxdC3-kZPTR-ndLFjUGP0nncUNYCdH9pGdg2_MUC9NjmA6yY7VaGfW_GZA2NPiE4mHhyphenhyphenyUnClEytxiZjWh/s1600/arcoiris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMRP3zl6w-Aif8WAI98zUNEKzv8s5R9B8lGLhCbvBpEz7cBKypmo9aksSespsxdC3-kZPTR-ndLFjUGP0nncUNYCdH9pGdg2_MUC9NjmA6yY7VaGfW_GZA2NPiE4mHhyphenhyphenyUnClEytxiZjWh/s640/arcoiris.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit to Jorge, who took this a few days ago. How awesome is that?</td></tr>
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-11889081599969492062012-12-12T12:40:00.000-06:002012-12-12T13:33:35.517-06:00o día doceSo 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. <br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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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 <i>where did the time go</i>.)<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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!)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhxEz7lfM2yvEW8Z939DCBqks9kXhpsGPcP32nD_sBVGBP3q9_qWWFvakLjtdnoYpNwnsZ8kJCHMYX5QR5qIUpb0yMLz4RzIpN8pFe2_m5bQK_p_mMjyXyPUaclH9_-u-BcYbmlgJXZJGc/s1600/eimiguatasurprise.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhxEz7lfM2yvEW8Z939DCBqks9kXhpsGPcP32nD_sBVGBP3q9_qWWFvakLjtdnoYpNwnsZ8kJCHMYX5QR5qIUpb0yMLz4RzIpN8pFe2_m5bQK_p_mMjyXyPUaclH9_-u-BcYbmlgJXZJGc/s400/eimiguatasurprise.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">translation: Amy! What a surprise! We love you, not since forever, but yes forever. 2012-infinity</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
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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. <br />
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Hope you all have a super sweet day!<br />
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xoxo,<br />
gossip girl<br />
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(just kidding it´s me Amy)<br />
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(good one)<br />
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Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-16344269716464661292012-11-29T10:32:00.000-06:002012-12-12T12:46:43.814-06:00ThanksgivingSo 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. <br />
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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.<br />
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I cannot believe it's almost December... time is going way too fast. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimLqUccjZmYv9-4AND___xRPy_dL04OKwD88tvsKCqB07JDkZoc_R8ooDihTWFOxR-LcNYTRq94HfZ33igFfrNSyTPYaCEfmozAD06G7DGNHoFUEKDhHQl7e00VX0t2h0Y50fJjCe8Fg30/s1600/thanksgivinginspain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimLqUccjZmYv9-4AND___xRPy_dL04OKwD88tvsKCqB07JDkZoc_R8ooDihTWFOxR-LcNYTRq94HfZ33igFfrNSyTPYaCEfmozAD06G7DGNHoFUEKDhHQl7e00VX0t2h0Y50fJjCe8Fg30/s400/thanksgivinginspain.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">el pavo</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0DsQpC6izmy0B5XIcMSyLbcppW_xJe1Meb0tFOPbCVWlMcw8ofB6EQCM1nhWg2S1nDdnbcK9BkhpBFxrIggNPnwJK3UwoMBvZhT_oG7VFucZNtJAbu7HSzVyrt6hUNiMxdC2TDJ1y5te/s1600/turkeydinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0DsQpC6izmy0B5XIcMSyLbcppW_xJe1Meb0tFOPbCVWlMcw8ofB6EQCM1nhWg2S1nDdnbcK9BkhpBFxrIggNPnwJK3UwoMBvZhT_oG7VFucZNtJAbu7HSzVyrt6hUNiMxdC2TDJ1y5te/s400/turkeydinner.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbPFDMihhfo0Plz2L3vR8vp7IVqOANkk8CDfMXAcXzaKszav92FjlJrvq8yOzgT-Lew3Mw2XLInRIzt-YJjwUx-LD8PVd0Uw_sVHd_sJ85Vdr3Ngo9QJD9mvjejF_8bpq8IfU9-3kfFi9_/s1600/chocolatechipcookies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbPFDMihhfo0Plz2L3vR8vp7IVqOANkk8CDfMXAcXzaKszav92FjlJrvq8yOzgT-Lew3Mw2XLInRIzt-YJjwUx-LD8PVd0Uw_sVHd_sJ85Vdr3Ngo9QJD9mvjejF_8bpq8IfU9-3kfFi9_/s400/chocolatechipcookies.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the cookies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwoGfnMaQd2LBsSo4v9npfy4BVPa3g5BV7CSx8rH3U66J4RUnxOCtrLW-cBUUnbF5dliU1DjYsRC2H1xethoEgavGalAFWexFml_bDUHmekiOOtj7w_9SzJkk0Hxff8pNR_cmekqWf5BW/s1600/spanishbedroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwoGfnMaQd2LBsSo4v9npfy4BVPa3g5BV7CSx8rH3U66J4RUnxOCtrLW-cBUUnbF5dliU1DjYsRC2H1xethoEgavGalAFWexFml_bDUHmekiOOtj7w_9SzJkk0Hxff8pNR_cmekqWf5BW/s640/spanishbedroom.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a panoramic of my room just because</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPy-R_sTFRPXf-bnNIUd5-Prlb7pTLjqJ5FigtI9M2Wtlev0cSqNYeJ3sHKs1uwQJirZpGWWIetgCFpIeSQZcrrxj0afuggJXXHPtfBybOxU9oQgK1loGOcXSPd_WmKb6AJcWQpI9BL2L/s1600/sunsetingaliciapuestadelsolspain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPy-R_sTFRPXf-bnNIUd5-Prlb7pTLjqJ5FigtI9M2Wtlev0cSqNYeJ3sHKs1uwQJirZpGWWIetgCFpIeSQZcrrxj0afuggJXXHPtfBybOxU9oQgK1loGOcXSPd_WmKb6AJcWQpI9BL2L/s640/sunsetingaliciapuestadelsolspain.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And to end, please enjoy this stunning sunset I witnessed.</td></tr>
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-37789326858496992322012-11-21T14:28:00.001-06:002012-12-12T12:48:43.824-06:00Thank YouIt'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.<br />
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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. <br />
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I'm thankful for gorgeous days on the beach (in November, no less!).<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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I'm thankful for Sunday afternoons spent with my host dad, wandering around Galicia and sightseeing.<br />
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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).<br />
I'm thankful my host mom is funny and that we are close enough to make jokes like that.<br />
This is a marmot: <br />
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<a href="http://www.wildlifephotogallery.net/photocatalog/freeranginmamals/marmots/0001thru0020/marmot0018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://www.wildlifephotogallery.net/photocatalog/freeranginmamals/marmots/0001thru0020/marmot0018.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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). <br />
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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. <br />
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<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-71775349937072817402012-11-20T15:14:00.002-06:002012-12-12T12:49:52.487-06:00Sí (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 <span style="font-size: small;">any <span style="font-size: small;">awkward phrasing,<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">self indulgent <span style="font-size: small;">rambling, and </span></span></span></span></span>the lack of pictures/update. )<br />
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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. <br />
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(my new friend in class complaining about not getting a date): "I'm going to be lonely forever"<br />
me: "yeah"<br />
her: "well thanks...."<br />
(don't worry though she's still my friend somehow)<br />
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People started calling me out on it pretty quick though.<br />
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"You never say anything but yes!"<br />
Me: "Yes..."<br />
<br />
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. <br />
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. <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent">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. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
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). <br />
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:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-size: small;"> "t</span>o
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<span style="font-size: small;">," and a<span style="font-size: small;"> bunch o<span style="font-size: small;">f <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">body </span>parts.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent">I<span style="font-size: small;"> feel a littl<span style="font-size: small;">e<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> para<span style="font-size: small;">noid</span></span> afterwards. Or maybe like a doctor. I think I could never be a doctor bec<span style="font-size: small;">ause I would self diagnose mys<span style="font-size: small;">elf with <span style="font-size: small;">terrible <span style="font-size: small;">diseases</span></span> all the time</span>. And blood is gross. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;">Anyways <span style="font-size: small;">the first time my <span style="font-size: small;">mom spoke <span style="font-size: small;">d<span style="font-size: small;">irectly with me only in <span style="font-size: small;">Galician and I understood the entir<span style="font-size: small;">e time was a very <span style="font-size: small;">exciting moment. <span style="font-size: small;">My Galician teacher al<span style="font-size: small;">so <span style="font-size: small;">speaks to me <span style="font-size: small;">in Galician<span style="font-size: small;">. I <span style="font-size: small;">always re<span style="font-size: small;">ply in S<span style="font-size: small;">panish though,<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>at so<span style="font-size: small;">me point in t<span style="font-size: small;">he fu<span style="font-size: small;">ture (January?) I'll be speaking<span style="font-size: small;">. I feel <span style="font-size: small;">too</span> self <span style="font-size: small;">conscious now<span style="font-size: small;"> but that<span style="font-size: small;">'s how y<span style="font-size: small;">ou <span style="font-size: small;">have to learn.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">But </span>I adore Spanish.<br />
<br />
I love how white caps on
the ocean are called by the word for fluffy white lambs (lamb? plural
baby sheep?) (borregos).<br />
I think it's interesting that the word for "wives" and "handcuffs" are one and the same (esposas).<br />
I like that "paloma" is a name and usually means "dove" which is
beautiful but also "pigeon" which would be an unfortunate name.<br />
I think it's cute that even in Spain parents pretend the spoon is a plane (avion) to feed babies.<br />
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.<br />
I like the little random
etiquette things, like that Spanish teenagers don't use periods if you
are chatting or texting. <br />
"Hey how are you?"<br />
"good, just finished the biology homework." (except in Spanish obviously)<br />
That seems really formal and serious to kids here. I've been asked if I'm upset<br />
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.
<br />
I think it´s awesome in math the variables (x, y, etc) are called incógnitos which make them sound like secret agents. <br />
And a million other lovely things about this language. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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. <br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
Besides, only one language for the entire world? I can't imagine anything more boring. <br />
<br />
(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10VqPn9FB4c" target="_blank">video about basically everything I just talked about </a> by a British woman who knows what she's talking about much more than I do).<br />
<br />
(<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all" target="_blank"> extremely fascinating article</a> on how language affects our thoughts. I seriously recommend checking it out.) <br />
<br />
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. <br />
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. <br />
<br />
<br />
(<a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/94828" target="_blank">Some cool not English words</a>)<br />
<br />
<br />
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"?<br />
Anyone who comments and reminds me will be greatly appreciated. I´m serious, please tell me. <br />
<br />
<br />
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.)<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZwxRx2JhhdB-CWaycwpNYn21jostqS0-V9DXPi-Lgsi1RgKenOtU9gJjVMg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" id="il_fi" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZwxRx2JhhdB-CWaycwpNYn21jostqS0-V9DXPi-Lgsi1RgKenOtU9gJjVMg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 30px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
"Sí" you later! <br />
<br />
<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-82590683559878127192012-11-16T10:20:00.000-06:002012-11-16T10:23:06.497-06:00Portugal, fascinating theories, and failed burritosThe first Saturday in November my Spanish dad was like, "Let's go to Portugal!" So we went to Portugal.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUm1i9SA1Db-v5fhPybAL0Z5jNpj0fIMFO7ZzZh3y8ATQFIkxCz4G642-3QokBNKFoGGmsV869BZnUvCiPhXtkI8VctxQCpnKINok6QJ-46FQcuE9A41h5PZFln4gIh8mwxstbci9WBlwY/s1600/IMG_0354.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUm1i9SA1Db-v5fhPybAL0Z5jNpj0fIMFO7ZzZh3y8ATQFIkxCz4G642-3QokBNKFoGGmsV869BZnUvCiPhXtkI8VctxQCpnKINok6QJ-46FQcuE9A41h5PZFln4gIh8mwxstbci9WBlwY/s400/IMG_0354.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglp9fb0NOt9Dm2h_jZIp1AtnvLp4BfXPSe-KcyWnm9tBvkRiVyNb0q3fJUV3Aa8oWVxdiB0vsrcSAhC0qofbyL2U2G1iiz10Szuc8fK0J1pAYwhXynFcvxQqSg6UNSQ5_p-htMTUPyuBuf/s1600/IMG_0359.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglp9fb0NOt9Dm2h_jZIp1AtnvLp4BfXPSe-KcyWnm9tBvkRiVyNb0q3fJUV3Aa8oWVxdiB0vsrcSAhC0qofbyL2U2G1iiz10Szuc8fK0J1pAYwhXynFcvxQqSg6UNSQ5_p-htMTUPyuBuf/s640/IMG_0359.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiecnChaVcguSnw3E4aUshzSqVGUXGar2qe2Ex0uHgTICvXn87YhtsBm3H12CVp3fORsR_Cv6NnDpGDbcRYjU8kudVWecsL2OtmxuyIm0NGKwKt2l1q2UGbenmrxpWbiivGX8zF1HzlVgni/s1600/IMG_0369.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiecnChaVcguSnw3E4aUshzSqVGUXGar2qe2Ex0uHgTICvXn87YhtsBm3H12CVp3fORsR_Cv6NnDpGDbcRYjU8kudVWecsL2OtmxuyIm0NGKwKt2l1q2UGbenmrxpWbiivGX8zF1HzlVgni/s640/IMG_0369.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">stone streets</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_mh3o04t8Cw1zIjY-F1-rcZYxT8plR0BMNP34QpqoWv47tqVDC36QWs5zVXKJ8QkVv8YahItp8VRBbMWcYBHOPvDX1_iIbR3ph5ikc3-mC9eWQxmDlPW4pYwqfAsUK7OX6aFTpdWJBD-K/s1600/IMG_0363.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_mh3o04t8Cw1zIjY-F1-rcZYxT8plR0BMNP34QpqoWv47tqVDC36QWs5zVXKJ8QkVv8YahItp8VRBbMWcYBHOPvDX1_iIbR3ph5ikc3-mC9eWQxmDlPW4pYwqfAsUK7OX6aFTpdWJBD-K/s640/IMG_0363.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">haha accidental mirror picture, and the ancient wall</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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<br />
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 <b>Cristobal Colón.</b>) 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. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_ASUVEVFwzo81nI6bfRWboPKnqlwmHXV6EU9U4FfzcFVS0Wk-oEAfeSSAnPzS5ry8RPz1_HuCK8iWZJ8_Q-Ynh7wr49B3wJUMgTU5v1a-JlVwE9eaepIPzDtLJA-30eohWHc8viMAZ_U/s1600/IMG_0386.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_ASUVEVFwzo81nI6bfRWboPKnqlwmHXV6EU9U4FfzcFVS0Wk-oEAfeSSAnPzS5ry8RPz1_HuCK8iWZJ8_Q-Ynh7wr49B3wJUMgTU5v1a-JlVwE9eaepIPzDtLJA-30eohWHc8viMAZ_U/s320/IMG_0386.JPG" width="263" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWVfSe-FIEFcYImuBe6kfm4Us3xY-0M5c3q7gmCmOmQi_Bvd_6rtG7Rt3gXTip2oRF5lXm0HR0cJw6uBX28VlhHv9-M4-DQPPEEFaK3UD12PXCmdLptQbBsh4uuuEwJ82qu9uxZP9J7BS/s1600/IMG_0404.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWVfSe-FIEFcYImuBe6kfm4Us3xY-0M5c3q7gmCmOmQi_Bvd_6rtG7Rt3gXTip2oRF5lXm0HR0cJw6uBX28VlhHv9-M4-DQPPEEFaK3UD12PXCmdLptQbBsh4uuuEwJ82qu9uxZP9J7BS/s320/IMG_0404.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I told y'all it's fall.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-30488787083332159152012-11-13T08:30:00.000-06:002012-11-15T13:13:12.503-06:00Halloween and All Saint's DayJust 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. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fuNOIpavm-yYHy375SQc4_DYNad21v4hKQwXZ0ytUYWK1QKeaG_9HLrEhPSBajHlY7I4CoEdyfqR9aEqW4xadav6TSrIyGfV_foNN0aAIqXfB8_4yhyphenhypheniXLLzf2BuOaAVeEfoxfNKfN5n/s1600/DSCN4522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fuNOIpavm-yYHy375SQc4_DYNad21v4hKQwXZ0ytUYWK1QKeaG_9HLrEhPSBajHlY7I4CoEdyfqR9aEqW4xadav6TSrIyGfV_foNN0aAIqXfB8_4yhyphenhypheniXLLzf2BuOaAVeEfoxfNKfN5n/s640/DSCN4522.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Antía, me, the jackolantern with eyebrows, and Elena</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLSJO6QWQX8mCh3UyPSzemGwKJ6Z18cwZebXScJt-UmylSwPQx92NwmD3uvpncbCRz5JpYrHCrR7BN6V7uuztQOsAt6FkqXKX12aakSSsE2DXnGukDXyGaVn38hJvRyOPAsZbqygRPboz/s1600/DSCN4509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLSJO6QWQX8mCh3UyPSzemGwKJ6Z18cwZebXScJt-UmylSwPQx92NwmD3uvpncbCRz5JpYrHCrR7BN6V7uuztQOsAt6FkqXKX12aakSSsE2DXnGukDXyGaVn38hJvRyOPAsZbqygRPboz/s640/DSCN4509.JPG" width="483" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hahaha Lois</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3o1qLSgGfFSxceH3q3sJhIrT7yiEr-Itx8h3EYCPuDK_ewSEVtTLMJARx9SywRFNduPKKr9ABDHOTyco1N04DjCJYG8Uq4Nl9R5ljmHtPHxYg-ZmVWZ9MREAqzwQcaXj3pGiWyHDe-Fe/s1600/DSCN4511.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3o1qLSgGfFSxceH3q3sJhIrT7yiEr-Itx8h3EYCPuDK_ewSEVtTLMJARx9SywRFNduPKKr9ABDHOTyco1N04DjCJYG8Uq4Nl9R5ljmHtPHxYg-ZmVWZ9MREAqzwQcaXj3pGiWyHDe-Fe/s640/DSCN4511.JPG" width="572" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Babi and I looking good in the flash</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivneSuM4UPGC-Fl9Y1tne8xbj6lSvQEguLakf09AXJn_pGp9Z2LDejyZl7CIGbTDJt5GYIQVhMQQr8zxnaZzms6kb4Tdri65BlGqrQ_Bywo9HqSa9XFbrP9_yyy0hH28ZFQrFxdFXhvOQr/s1600/DSCN4512.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivneSuM4UPGC-Fl9Y1tne8xbj6lSvQEguLakf09AXJn_pGp9Z2LDejyZl7CIGbTDJt5GYIQVhMQQr8zxnaZzms6kb4Tdri65BlGqrQ_Bywo9HqSa9XFbrP9_yyy0hH28ZFQrFxdFXhvOQr/s640/DSCN4512.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the dog doesn't make a good photographer (but the pink slippers are a nice touch, no?)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsYly2Z_iS-xZN64tr9fxvfCxEXUzuuGoNYqwPJGubQcv9UUeTgKXn1_83cF2dPUI_j3s0lDNo2uRuw0zwmf0H53PfaaSclsw6zbMg7nGUiW0M3XW2t3IClBWW0mNFtaeDJ3edLyM5bIv/s1600/halloweeninspain.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsYly2Z_iS-xZN64tr9fxvfCxEXUzuuGoNYqwPJGubQcv9UUeTgKXn1_83cF2dPUI_j3s0lDNo2uRuw0zwmf0H53PfaaSclsw6zbMg7nGUiW0M3XW2t3IClBWW0mNFtaeDJ3edLyM5bIv/s400/halloweeninspain.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Witch and Assassin (and jackolantern)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6onVXQHC87kWYLR2YKHs0szm5VpReKSrow3HsnaBNpGwke3W960NOHIzxjwqzig3Ziwed4vt7mYbZWGLSSjNfZMfHjDxIHOGjDqky_UBqY20munD5_nquHyVQAK8c3ARJNcniwQn68zY/s1600/IMG_0326.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6onVXQHC87kWYLR2YKHs0szm5VpReKSrow3HsnaBNpGwke3W960NOHIzxjwqzig3Ziwed4vt7mYbZWGLSSjNfZMfHjDxIHOGjDqky_UBqY20munD5_nquHyVQAK8c3ARJNcniwQn68zY/s640/IMG_0326.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">chopping up a chocolate bar for chocolate chips</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwXqGpRaJAjuHjdVJVem6gXDcYiyOaDUtIcBT8UJDvrLvXx_C2kIEiUXfio6quJQ5-gee8H5yktJdW_33GCwPnQ8SUS1xBfwabO9GvlsrSBrphS29WUdPs8kGNqPrZt7dGVWxxA9Hnv5g/s1600/IMG_0334.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwXqGpRaJAjuHjdVJVem6gXDcYiyOaDUtIcBT8UJDvrLvXx_C2kIEiUXfio6quJQ5-gee8H5yktJdW_33GCwPnQ8SUS1xBfwabO9GvlsrSBrphS29WUdPs8kGNqPrZt7dGVWxxA9Hnv5g/s400/IMG_0334.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxnRE2LMhyphenhyphenKRzl9jWDPyZWbkTETtKCcU3yzkVCLGUb5EvlhZ4gnCGFM45wOqZrg8r-zkFkUbrLKQwHURTTmXUcRw1l9I91EL3LK12vWJRlrNLl7dggzSyZOaT4sb6ssigu80wLwsS2dav/s1600/IMG_0054.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxnRE2LMhyphenhyphenKRzl9jWDPyZWbkTETtKCcU3yzkVCLGUb5EvlhZ4gnCGFM45wOqZrg8r-zkFkUbrLKQwHURTTmXUcRw1l9I91EL3LK12vWJRlrNLl7dggzSyZOaT4sb6ssigu80wLwsS2dav/s640/IMG_0054.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">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.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
That was the first half of that weekend, part 2 coming soon. <br />
<br />
<br />Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-30128235053560519042012-11-11T05:30:00.000-06:002012-12-12T12:52:09.485-06:00October OrientationOctober was great. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNAjeftsh-hUmQAlxZUC5Z4YSQE4lc2ZdyldHtjP9jtSfcceYL2IXIinDNaCGzC0Mthi1Hj1aNW88hb1G9pV_5Yd9WJ7IeQmJhyda5ggTdqQFdj13xwg76qk0fzKMT3AiGVt_hMZYEQDt/s1600/IMG_0103.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNAjeftsh-hUmQAlxZUC5Z4YSQE4lc2ZdyldHtjP9jtSfcceYL2IXIinDNaCGzC0Mthi1Hj1aNW88hb1G9pV_5Yd9WJ7IeQmJhyda5ggTdqQFdj13xwg76qk0fzKMT3AiGVt_hMZYEQDt/s400/IMG_0103.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the way I stopped by the Cathedral in Santiago again</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
(the rest aren't my pictures but thanks to the other AFSers)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO_jKdzk8l7kYus1xUEhDt_PqIt-VVBBT2IoThHcH5viGzu-x257Fg9wrb_wBbCgEhXi0pMDu-COD23vhJPsAAbLW3OPK9-hkfL8FPp16BzemvrMqvvIjqVFyPXtBU2zamJKj0T4V7oj6r/s1600/galegos.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO_jKdzk8l7kYus1xUEhDt_PqIt-VVBBT2IoThHcH5viGzu-x257Fg9wrb_wBbCgEhXi0pMDu-COD23vhJPsAAbLW3OPK9-hkfL8FPp16BzemvrMqvvIjqVFyPXtBU2zamJKj0T4V7oj6r/s640/galegos.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The southern Galicia kids, mis amores.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Gy12dxoEKcPFmUpWnOIXF7FPnTtQz2dPRH5O4Sh73yAW4n-183WmFp_e-5NODsTkhez4S3CCXuaJtiF1Cs0vuF99oaxM9i0DD3eoi2USgicoFILLzEn-n2lXxjwChZ-6-NaTqVtwzIuw/s1600/Capture.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Gy12dxoEKcPFmUpWnOIXF7FPnTtQz2dPRH5O4Sh73yAW4n-183WmFp_e-5NODsTkhez4S3CCXuaJtiF1Cs0vuF99oaxM9i0DD3eoi2USgicoFILLzEn-n2lXxjwChZ-6-NaTqVtwzIuw/s640/Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">almost all the AFSers placed in Galicia, Castilla y Leon, and Asturias from all over the world </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4GWAzWgRWT0TAziCEMeFgk_SIItM_wy9_tWtZSYqvSY6zkpKMtrio8SZnrS9OSFvWQFqVprLyxIy48q2tV7DS38xMGlwZmjF4crpJ3iC6dGkptJ91HMvLuJSttfrdmktq2IfM7GXuLgV/s1600/group.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4GWAzWgRWT0TAziCEMeFgk_SIItM_wy9_tWtZSYqvSY6zkpKMtrio8SZnrS9OSFvWQFqVprLyxIy48q2tV7DS38xMGlwZmjF4crpJ3iC6dGkptJ91HMvLuJSttfrdmktq2IfM7GXuLgV/s640/group.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">best friends </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr align="left"><td><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-63303216720659854292012-11-04T13:47:00.001-06:002012-11-09T11:33:56.731-06:00Catching upOkay, 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.<br />
<br />
<b>Lugo</b><br />
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. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0cp-ua9WDZhrXZqrM60qwu345GMvnaXla8IMvbmsV4ErkFX_K5cKjz6618tvdrRK-S4moccOD0BsEl-9R-1TIG9jd6nycKnfno9ltTB6JYjt7kpG-MpeU1JcoOdXnVfw5sJbNCq1Z7rQ/s1600/DSCN4418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0cp-ua9WDZhrXZqrM60qwu345GMvnaXla8IMvbmsV4ErkFX_K5cKjz6618tvdrRK-S4moccOD0BsEl-9R-1TIG9jd6nycKnfno9ltTB6JYjt7kpG-MpeU1JcoOdXnVfw5sJbNCq1Z7rQ/s400/DSCN4418.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">on road to Lugo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYg32iEcEhoshlxl9-U0CRBEPzOZBxJcQILXxd4SaxAvwnQCYbfCEr50kHOpvqkm0Gc_YuQ6vOYO9DOg6MJqXyN7nGjFoMLGBnfz2wlf4llkwFGW1Cjbq1ds3x8alXNjBJK2C9M5fUVYY/s1600/DSCN4421.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYg32iEcEhoshlxl9-U0CRBEPzOZBxJcQILXxd4SaxAvwnQCYbfCEr50kHOpvqkm0Gc_YuQ6vOYO9DOg6MJqXyN7nGjFoMLGBnfz2wlf4llkwFGW1Cjbq1ds3x8alXNjBJK2C9M5fUVYY/s400/DSCN4421.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"O castineiro" is the chestnut roasting train in the back. And I love the man's face.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip3CTZF3sClgJAccHpqVxPFnNa4aXOSQpuf29VQxdoDH-U3qcV9Pf7x7YhVIsdLb0BJHI274YMXQQOPsRbppZq4XYPZM_fxOclxUrfqSLuqMhDZNZB7obVb4zTvWWxYvJS-EJUcQNKGkSr/s1600/DSCN4422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip3CTZF3sClgJAccHpqVxPFnNa4aXOSQpuf29VQxdoDH-U3qcV9Pf7x7YhVIsdLb0BJHI274YMXQQOPsRbppZq4XYPZM_fxOclxUrfqSLuqMhDZNZB7obVb4zTvWWxYvJS-EJUcQNKGkSr/s400/DSCN4422.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">awful picture... but it's traditional dancing.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUd8eVeVbQUL1xChlQNB8yrG2-BQfrX-eGFT1zBxE4q5Pqa9dmEvYV6TNJwH9QEtSRm9YiW8ev4tqYRgDXnRyQlIP2C_z_1YOqFfR1dUSwC59oG0D5U8mHvxPHZZj6MppwC9TbAczyQeTD/s1600/DSCN4424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUd8eVeVbQUL1xChlQNB8yrG2-BQfrX-eGFT1zBxE4q5Pqa9dmEvYV6TNJwH9QEtSRm9YiW8ev4tqYRgDXnRyQlIP2C_z_1YOqFfR1dUSwC59oG0D5U8mHvxPHZZj6MppwC9TbAczyQeTD/s400/DSCN4424.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">part of the city seen from an ancient Roman wall.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgFJqBa5bh0BKdokR3Y5p-KaTLwACV-6VRhpsiCnAkiK5GfMR6htg735iIbW6_AG1ny14VnZFT7AaFlFIcgc6x0ihRfRbcgyqcRpFzporQ4yCA4OafIN2JHMQDEbQBvJze5YOoYzU73lA/s1600/DSCN4427.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgFJqBa5bh0BKdokR3Y5p-KaTLwACV-6VRhpsiCnAkiK5GfMR6htg735iIbW6_AG1ny14VnZFT7AaFlFIcgc6x0ihRfRbcgyqcRpFzporQ4yCA4OafIN2JHMQDEbQBvJze5YOoYzU73lA/s400/DSCN4427.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">lots and lots of people for the festival</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_clkZCdp3f5XOF9oAGRgjrocCcEk5-AQowHTP9usCjuUlKd-HOkXy2IIq_vYVg08yNyCQWwxBayBQZQKAeao7M2UdUx0kDGYqei7Gize9xHQAJogAgqGVhNJyccgTEKhXPKhiM-rYOjOT/s1600/DSCN4428.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_clkZCdp3f5XOF9oAGRgjrocCcEk5-AQowHTP9usCjuUlKd-HOkXy2IIq_vYVg08yNyCQWwxBayBQZQKAeao7M2UdUx0kDGYqei7Gize9xHQAJogAgqGVhNJyccgTEKhXPKhiM-rYOjOT/s400/DSCN4428.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZabak7uVaxk-dXJcK2vjoHvmPwu9ubeTYY4kR-EhbMpoSs1Syqdet93ZqzUKTyoVvPs5Rwt5YFM0OSogjKVmszmoc3W0ZyicAak8QtwwgHIf7WYz0_ZPqHO4_Uc3j4GgwWXTVaSzR-pCZ/s1600/DSCN4433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZabak7uVaxk-dXJcK2vjoHvmPwu9ubeTYY4kR-EhbMpoSs1Syqdet93ZqzUKTyoVvPs5Rwt5YFM0OSogjKVmszmoc3W0ZyicAak8QtwwgHIf7WYz0_ZPqHO4_Uc3j4GgwWXTVaSzR-pCZ/s400/DSCN4433.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"gaiteros" or bagpipers are in the lights</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBfj9P8Yzu19D_mTu_bWPsZ1zN83bgiNhrhtnr-nQ64uQYISF2bZOKlp4PTyS_HW5mYdQPf18ruEXL35fyqxmpK8pWTYUqsNliAXkO5IQ5RO9Z_yAcf5m33ad5TAuXINUkaoT1jh7mSNn/s1600/DSCN4437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBfj9P8Yzu19D_mTu_bWPsZ1zN83bgiNhrhtnr-nQ64uQYISF2bZOKlp4PTyS_HW5mYdQPf18ruEXL35fyqxmpK8pWTYUqsNliAXkO5IQ5RO9Z_yAcf5m33ad5TAuXINUkaoT1jh7mSNn/s400/DSCN4437.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">puplo / octopus</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixfleEWffX-FxrKL3VRGMMc3q6LoWkDPav3EKZIlITT6Bqebaj1BW_9x3TgwtkzBsHiGmiUcdST_WR-3RJoX2ki6CAy8w_Gp0Wy8uTk8AB2PRgdxT-ILVFi5eqd8LLLOGVC9tbi3v6dcjG/s1600/DSCN4439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixfleEWffX-FxrKL3VRGMMc3q6LoWkDPav3EKZIlITT6Bqebaj1BW_9x3TgwtkzBsHiGmiUcdST_WR-3RJoX2ki6CAy8w_Gp0Wy8uTk8AB2PRgdxT-ILVFi5eqd8LLLOGVC9tbi3v6dcjG/s400/DSCN4439.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cooking it</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjITD2JzvyQnoDwOfppYSx86L3rOEffjI-2uBKoJI9ZogAK7fW6uViH7qnCpI4m-t4PO84pI5RYX7VGfzH32oLXvGllHdNecaD9D7t82bLSH4EJd0vP7rmjfJH6E4ETVR32A8veAq2oxeJ1/s1600/DSCN4442.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjITD2JzvyQnoDwOfppYSx86L3rOEffjI-2uBKoJI9ZogAK7fW6uViH7qnCpI4m-t4PO84pI5RYX7VGfzH32oLXvGllHdNecaD9D7t82bLSH4EJd0vP7rmjfJH6E4ETVR32A8veAq2oxeJ1/s400/DSCN4442.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">again terrible picture, but it's the Roman wall.</td></tr>
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<br />
Okay, moving on. These next photos are not in an particular order, some are more recent than others.<br />
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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.<br />
"Park of the Senses- finca de briz<br />
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." <br />
(more or less the translation).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxlXBP-31ZVE_J2mvj3V8T-ow4_U-0gLG-xRZFH57CxU-T_51AcPN6vgGnzQ5dsKPBv-2vqgDuZgCNlXs6bXDx8vheEfKwZv3Lv5Qune3TtSBnUmSjTxdogYJ_l-I63ztOjaLYvOwV2Y2/s1600/IMG_0053.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxlXBP-31ZVE_J2mvj3V8T-ow4_U-0gLG-xRZFH57CxU-T_51AcPN6vgGnzQ5dsKPBv-2vqgDuZgCNlXs6bXDx8vheEfKwZv3Lv5Qune3TtSBnUmSjTxdogYJ_l-I63ztOjaLYvOwV2Y2/s400/IMG_0053.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">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)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyHipqsIo_nDXy-UdZfMy8hfuSIyDahwxIefYnSCime9KH7WmG3tkqDSSgnCPnAkURu-bBWL01gmlxfHfawjBi5cg_FyCme8ynICFUqIn1EOtlokyo-B35tBcQfm2wykfGlIMZQv1BpLM/s1600/IMG_0116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyHipqsIo_nDXy-UdZfMy8hfuSIyDahwxIefYnSCime9KH7WmG3tkqDSSgnCPnAkURu-bBWL01gmlxfHfawjBi5cg_FyCme8ynICFUqIn1EOtlokyo-B35tBcQfm2wykfGlIMZQv1BpLM/s400/IMG_0116.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Public transportation = boat from my mom's work to Vigo for Julia's birthday october 22</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkN7N7hAyKvYWXFqIhRXfacaQn5stIPUheoI-44VjLGb4MTnsVtJPQty4v34dCihU58X7MeKW1hqn-Uk18alRqVj5yiVdvb3SquOYyXWVpy6AOLrUTEO61tL1fXZMUjh9TBQm40Xi2Am5o/s1600/IMG_0139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkN7N7hAyKvYWXFqIhRXfacaQn5stIPUheoI-44VjLGb4MTnsVtJPQty4v34dCihU58X7MeKW1hqn-Uk18alRqVj5yiVdvb3SquOYyXWVpy6AOLrUTEO61tL1fXZMUjh9TBQm40Xi2Am5o/s400/IMG_0139.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marin by night</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8CUXMaxyhqSXJZDwrLTMoYVki2FeeRXYwOb_BjaoaQYoFtUdZPwVaWKeKjoF-n-gDB2Y9jxeajxoLMXpBcDfrKZDHNH6zEE_TmJwoZdCHpdGP0Mk1BCoXmqeTsLA0heNLiMoIKwmRorgG/s1600/IMG_0150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8CUXMaxyhqSXJZDwrLTMoYVki2FeeRXYwOb_BjaoaQYoFtUdZPwVaWKeKjoF-n-gDB2Y9jxeajxoLMXpBcDfrKZDHNH6zEE_TmJwoZdCHpdGP0Mk1BCoXmqeTsLA0heNLiMoIKwmRorgG/s400/IMG_0150.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">wild horses on a mountain</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGICvdBCIdI1GkJZOK9o5kz9AQ4ihP8S6MxwkptRj0Aowt803dkjvwy1BePcd-6nieUNlWYTmqRloXbmvYLPkHq-4jDQpXDLdz2ZRE9fjeghzVftuxbUaeZu671sCi0Gl5wMkEojfC5Un/s1600/IMG_0154.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGICvdBCIdI1GkJZOK9o5kz9AQ4ihP8S6MxwkptRj0Aowt803dkjvwy1BePcd-6nieUNlWYTmqRloXbmvYLPkHq-4jDQpXDLdz2ZRE9fjeghzVftuxbUaeZu671sCi0Gl5wMkEojfC5Un/s400/IMG_0154.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of Vigo (i'll never get tired of the lanscapes here)</td></tr>
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Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-78699658430170407592012-10-17T07:59:00.000-05:002012-10-18T13:11:04.151-05:00How do you know when it's fall in Spain?(First of all i'm able to post this in the middle of a Wednesday because we stayed home from school today because there was a strike. My town is too small for a manifestation where people actually hold signs and shout and stuff, the closest was in Vigo I think, but my sister and I just caught up on sleep and hung out at home. I must admit I don't fully understand how my sleeping in will help education reform, but okay.)<br />
<br />
Also this title should really be "How do you know when it's fall in Marín?/in Amy's host family's house" but the more general Spain sounded better.<br />
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Being away from home when seasons change is a weird feeling.<br />
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The official start of autumn may have been back on September 22, but there wasn't a visible change other than on the calendar. However, by now I'm starting to notice some differences from the past couple weeks. <br />
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1) My window fogs up in the mornings (and I draw hearts on it). (I only notice on weekends though, since on school days it's still dark when I get up). <br />
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2) The naval academy uniforms switch to black. This one is very specific to Marin. I don't know if I've said this, but the Spanish Naval Military School is situated here. This means that when walking around town you're likely to see small groups of uniformed men and some women out and about. Earlier, they always wore white, but now with cooler weather they wear a (presumably warmer ) black uniform. I haven't gotten any pictures though so these are from online.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://milicianaval.galeon.com/fotos/sefocuma/0032aperitivo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="402" src="http://milicianaval.galeon.com/fotos/sefocuma/0032aperitivo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">not my photo, but this is the summer look</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gacetamarinera.com.ar/archivos/notas_imgs/2952_foto-2-gran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="500" src="http://www.gacetamarinera.com.ar/archivos/notas_imgs/2952_foto-2-gran.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">again not my photo and but these are the black uniforms. or dark blue maybe.</td></tr>
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3) The scarves come out. Yay winter clothes shopping!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFNN68MZjAIMhq2UgqEEJenvaUvla-15tf-itd_F7r_VyIAUyloicZEkJ-59RHHQ1SqAM4mSMOWZlfCu_Rzmu1xxJe9vW-VIxBFIw-SQepMBj3kHUjddsFnjgJ18Oi0Z3EKaPfnNottCT/s1600/DSCN4495.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFNN68MZjAIMhq2UgqEEJenvaUvla-15tf-itd_F7r_VyIAUyloicZEkJ-59RHHQ1SqAM4mSMOWZlfCu_Rzmu1xxJe9vW-VIxBFIw-SQepMBj3kHUjddsFnjgJ18Oi0Z3EKaPfnNottCT/s640/DSCN4495.JPG" width="531" /></a></div>
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4) Hedgehogs also also appear. apparently the dog food bowl is a warm and provides tasty meal (seems reasonable if you like dog food). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX3DCkeyfFnE11g4GE3kHc1s2CfEWpyWfjIiqB54WzBoODot9nQAVI2sSOi82rae0RZPndRJUtxPLagGPI-Fr5mD0DKW8mAlKwIb4LUIVU-r25o7GyebMM0FLCt9pgVQs1tsoPyCpiLYMK/s1600/DSCN4445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="523" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX3DCkeyfFnE11g4GE3kHc1s2CfEWpyWfjIiqB54WzBoODot9nQAVI2sSOi82rae0RZPndRJUtxPLagGPI-Fr5mD0DKW8mAlKwIb4LUIVU-r25o7GyebMM0FLCt9pgVQs1tsoPyCpiLYMK/s640/DSCN4445.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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5) It's voting season here, too. Just a couple differences I've seen is how the candidates advertise themselves. I'm not sure why but instead of one big poster of their face and name, they fill up the same size with lots of little faces. And there are cars with speakers on top that just drive around announcing political news like voting dates or promoting a candidate. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqxDA-qP2KnJsmeqtSYdD2sb18Rvs7NIWKm8zQ-AxZUqCwbLe6oyn0Hgf0A4SOiI210GSsZ4v7Xn0MdKUuKDZh-a_iRjI8SPo4lAHv_cnEUFa6xj4MxivIBj_dY_qDgM3q6jWPhHmSPSC/s1600/IMG_0049.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqxDA-qP2KnJsmeqtSYdD2sb18Rvs7NIWKm8zQ-AxZUqCwbLe6oyn0Hgf0A4SOiI210GSsZ4v7Xn0MdKUuKDZh-a_iRjI8SPo4lAHv_cnEUFa6xj4MxivIBj_dY_qDgM3q6jWPhHmSPSC/s640/IMG_0049.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sorry for the poor quality, but you can see what i'm talking about</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">again poor quality but see the speakers on top? this was just driving past my house, so the big gate bars were blocking the view. </td></tr>
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6) The weather changes. More rain- maybe 40% of the time (I just made that statistic up). There are still sunny days though, and often it will drizzle in the morning and clear up by afternoon. This might seem like a negative to some people, but I like rain. Probably because from Texas it still seems like a drought is miraculously being cured whenever I see rain even though here one obviously doesn't exist. And it's just so peaceful and soothing <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-AGo6kszPNIHzb-WwUg7_aFUiz7hsoqIGa3xfBGyKatFJFgVppV9bKN30jnDbQxD_vwQLLKqkmjkxNSBKN59_lKwbOHA1sqc1wbiv2DG_oqIxj_VYYBNY18zcTU9UuH11IbmuNH622WI/s1600/fog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-AGo6kszPNIHzb-WwUg7_aFUiz7hsoqIGa3xfBGyKatFJFgVppV9bKN30jnDbQxD_vwQLLKqkmjkxNSBKN59_lKwbOHA1sqc1wbiv2DG_oqIxj_VYYBNY18zcTU9UuH11IbmuNH622WI/s640/fog.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fog fills up the valley so I can barely see the town and none of the river or mountains beyond. It's a strange feeling, like the house is being wrapped in a (somewhat chilly) blanket. One of my favorite things is watching clouds float down to eye level from my window since I'm on the hill. Oh yeah have I mentioned it's really hilly here? Well it is.</td></tr>
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7) The water bottle doesn't go in the fridge. It's the details that count right? We keep a big water bottle to pour water from in the fridge- or we did in the summer. Now it's cooler and water is fine at room temperature so it can stay on the counter. No picture for this one (since it would just be a water bottle... on a counter. yay.)<br />
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[Edit: maybe I was too hasty in assuming a picture of a water bottle on a counter would be boring. You can decide for yourself. <br />
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8) Halloween. Just like at home, the supermarkets here fill up with costumes and jack-o-lanterns. Well, it's just half an aisle, but it's still a lot considering they don't even really celebrate it. This j, but here the real holiday is Samhain or All Saints Day which I don't know how is celebrated (yet).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDv10syusIVBBVfz7SidhotDcI08ENsJbIYvFML2iFVNN0lxhEOLSShHo7CYeSLxWolEUk930JDVurnwoZ9Mo81-jQhyY50iopJqD-GLyLewibkM-meOX7e4nASSJSom3Y-WyT3TxHPeO-/s1600/halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDv10syusIVBBVfz7SidhotDcI08ENsJbIYvFML2iFVNN0lxhEOLSShHo7CYeSLxWolEUk930JDVurnwoZ9Mo81-jQhyY50iopJqD-GLyLewibkM-meOX7e4nASSJSom3Y-WyT3TxHPeO-/s640/halloween.jpg" width="526" /> </a></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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This coming weekend I'm going to Ponferrada for an AFS orientation and I'm really excited! It'll be great to see kids in some of the other cities and catch up since Madrid and I know it's going to be super fun. Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7680720407939806086.post-21289054309312941712012-10-14T15:07:00.002-05:002012-10-15T11:40:57.566-05:00Wish I Had a Better Title But It's About School<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Hello my chummly wummlies,<br />
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(don't question why I'm adressing you all as infants in Great Britain. or why that is how I assume infants in Great Britain are adressed. All of them, even the ones in Wales).<br />
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Anyways. This is just getting embarrassing and I haven't even written the actual post. Today I'm going to talk about School in Spain. Yippee.<br />
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To start on a semi-logical note, the first day of school was exactly 4 weeks ago. <span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">That day we only went for about an half hour to get our schedule and meet our class. I was in the wrong class for 25 out of the 30 minutes we were there, finally a teacher realized i was in the wrong place and spoke some spanish and sent me somewhere else, where I copied my schedule off a board, all in spanish/galician abbreviations and written fast so I had know idea what it meant. I was in the right class in the last two minutes, just enough time for everyone to stare at me and the teacher to make them say Hola to their new American compañera and then leave. Talk about a good start. </span></span><br />
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</span></span><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">So for the next two days I went another class and started to settle in a bit. I explained to all my teachers that I don't speak much spanish and I'm from Texas USA and so on. The only problem was that I was in a technical drawing class, meaning I wasn't in the biology track like I wanted, I was in the engineering track which I most definitely did not want. So my host dad came inside the second morning to talk to the secretary and get me where I should have been. Turns out, that first class from the first day that I had to switch from? That was the right class all along. And the worst part of school is when you're the new kid and don't know anyone and also even if you wanted to you don't know the language so that's not very fun, and I got to do that twice. Right as I was learning the names of my class and finding someone to copy notes from I switched and had to start all over. (Also the school secretary was definitely really annoyed with me because I literally had to talk to him about some problem every single day that first week. Where was I supposed to go?, Can you put in the other class?, Where is that?, Oops I lost the important paper that says I switched classes can you give me another?, What class is starting now? It was bad). </span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwqkVEz3eyQpBNqV1nQtbjr_vBIzY6e5iE6UkgtTGyJZdsDNp4XLnW0Dta7WHVZatXPTGl4XAZPh8iZBWHg0F7pc-fJhBp483qxtU3UglXhyt18PQ06NexnyCxZHbZGduG_HkHyuCCaJQ/s1600/DSCN4288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwqkVEz3eyQpBNqV1nQtbjr_vBIzY6e5iE6UkgtTGyJZdsDNp4XLnW0Dta7WHVZatXPTGl4XAZPh8iZBWHg0F7pc-fJhBp483qxtU3UglXhyt18PQ06NexnyCxZHbZGduG_HkHyuCCaJQ/s400/DSCN4288.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what I scribbled of my schedule that first day. I had NO CLUE what any of it meant.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzeEeVASnB2e_emYw2Wt6cozJHy3VYcYmwLVZeUKh34DdACu2YsnovoslR15ERv80ZlYpXpNTsrjCn8C3gNGxs2VsXT1WaQ7UMsz1_EixXPFSmRf3ip7aRtQGAVkr-ArlQPBcVLXof9Kh_/s1600/ET.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzeEeVASnB2e_emYw2Wt6cozJHy3VYcYmwLVZeUKh34DdACu2YsnovoslR15ERv80ZlYpXpNTsrjCn8C3gNGxs2VsXT1WaQ7UMsz1_EixXPFSmRf3ip7aRtQGAVkr-ArlQPBcVLXof9Kh_/s400/ET.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">me that first day....</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPiMa6uWkXpiVGM8Dm32N8st-7HWsp7S_UoH6HXuQMDja68fGU3MO4odnKa0ckXNMAjOaSZvBjYv9KTvXS10GQN2tKS2T-lceLX6KK91Cvi1UWuo9l5LHFRDluXpdFHld4QXhUHD6jZ8bE/s1600/sufficientlyawkward.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPiMa6uWkXpiVGM8Dm32N8st-7HWsp7S_UoH6HXuQMDja68fGU3MO4odnKa0ckXNMAjOaSZvBjYv9KTvXS10GQN2tKS2T-lceLX6KK91Cvi1UWuo9l5LHFRDluXpdFHld4QXhUHD6jZ8bE/s400/sufficientlyawkward.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hahahaha</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
Anyways, some of my normal routine: I wake up at 7:30. My dad drives me and my sister to school at 8:15, it starts at 8:30. and we get out at 3 mondays and wednesdays and at 2 tuesday, thursdays, and fridays. My schedule varies every day- some classes I have 4 times a week, others twice. They're only 45 minutes long (that's something good about block schedule- having sat through 1.5 hours per class last year makes even really boring classes i can't understand seem to go pretty quickly).<br />
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<b>Matematicas </b>(math): It's not that bad, so far we are doing things I learned in Algebra 2 so I can keep up. However, math is NOT the universal language. Long division is done differently here and the symbols in an equation are different and decimal points and apostrophes are switched and it makes things quite confusing. (i.e. "<span class="st"> 1,000 <span class="st">÷ 4.5 </span></span>" is written "1.000 : 4'5 " ). Not to mention I don't know how to say "take the cube root of one ninth and subtract it from both sides" in Spanish. The thing I most dislike about this class is that I start my day with it 4 out of 5 mornings.<br />
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<b>Lengua y Literatura </b>(Castellano, aka Spanish): It's like English class, but in Spanish. (my describing skills are just top notch, aren't they?) <br />
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<b>Atencion Educativa </b>(literally educative attention): it's like a study hall. you sit in class and work on homework or study or just sit there etc.<br />
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<b>Ingles </b>(English): I'm so good at this class. Except not really because apparently Great Britain has some weird grammar issues they should immediately deal with. For example you would not say, "I live in Example Street, USA." it is "I live on Example Street, USA." right?! wrong according to everyone here. and I really don't think "unuseful" is a real word (blogger's spell check feature agrees with me). However my classmates still enjoy my capabilities as a human dictionary (and the fact that I bring my handy-dandy spanish-english dictionary to all my classes and am allowed to use it). My teacher is a little crazy in that he goes off on long random weird tangents (probably just to use more english words), but he's nice.<br />
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<b>TIC</b><span class="st"> (technology and information communication) : It's like a computer class but we've only used them once. The teacher reads us lectures about hardware and software and binary code and morse code and types of printers. </span><br />
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</span><span class="st"><b>Fisica y Quimica </b>(physics and chemistry) : This is pretty much my least favorite class. The teacher talks in a really different manner, so even the rest of the kids have trouble following, let alone me. I had a test in this last Thursday and I'm pretty sure I got about a 1 (out of 10). </span><br />
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<span class="st"> <b>Bioloxia e Xeoloxia </b>(bioloy and geology) : This class is taught in Galician (hence the X's). So far we've been learning about more geology, tectonic plates and stuff, and personally I really enjoy biology so I'm excited for when we move into that. Also, because I've studied this before and anyways since it's science a lot of the English words share latin roots with the romance languages and because my teacher doesn't have a bizarre accent and because I'm understanding more and more Galician, I understand more of this class than I do in Fisica which is taught in Spanish. </span><br />
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<span class="st"><b>Lingua e Literatura </b>(Galician) :It´s like English... but in Galician.</span><br />
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</span><span class="st"><b>Ciencias para o mundo contemporáneo </b>: Literally "sciences for a contemporary world" but so far I can't really tell the difference between this and biology/geology. We only have it twice a week. (I suspect we have it as a school-wide requirement, so that the students who aren't taking the biology option like me still learn science). </span><br />
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</span><span class="st"><b>Educacion Fisica </b>: Physical education aka gym. The first couple of weeks of classes my teacher didn't realize I was an exchange student, she thought my parents had gotten jobs and moved here so she was kind of grumpy about that since with the Crisis jobs are scarce. That was awkward but finally I realized she hadn't understood my original introduction and now she likes me. In fact she likes me so much she tries to set me up with "guapos chicos" to be my boyfriend (including her son). Also because all Americans are experts on Baseball she made me explain the game to the class.... on the very first day. I knew relatively no Spanish and being quite nervous promptly forgot the few words I did know as well as all baseball facts that I do know from (hi Dad) my childhood. I think the most I managed was drawing the field on the board (the kids in class thought there were 5 bases, how silly of them) and saying "the ball... the person runs.... goal..." (in spanish) with some strategic pointing. On a similar topic to gym, I joined a volleyball team here. We'll see how that goes...</span><br />
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</span><span class="st"><b>Filosofia</b> : Umm I don't really have much to say about this class, so far it's about like how philosophy started and that sort of thing. </span><br />
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</span><span class="st">And that's all my classes! I have 6 per day, with one 30 minute break in the middle 3 days a week and the other 2 days I have 7, with the 30 minute break and another 15 minute one. Here, you stay with one group of kids (who all chose the same option as you- either focusing on health sciences [me], tech sciences, or some social sciences options) and in one room for all your subjects, while the teachers move. This isn't hard to get used to except for the fact that the classroom is so boring since the teachers don't personalize it individually. No motivational posters or calendars or books or clocks or flags or anything at all. Also, they don't have a computer and projector so no powerpoints or videos. Every single class is lecture style. And frankly that's not fun in English let alone a different language.</span>And textbooks are really small and you buy them yourself and take notes in them. <span class="st"> I definitely have realized how much I took for granted having interactive classes with activities and worksheets and powerpoints and all that stuff back in Austin. </span>Oh, and substitutes don't exist, no teacher = no class. Grades are from 0-10 (or is it 1-10? I don't know) and below 5 is failing but 10 is impossible. Also asking to go to the bathroom during class isn't really a thing. I did once and I think everyone thought it must have been an emergency because they just don't. I imagine it's because the bathrooms are tiny and you better bring tissues because there probably won't be toilet paper, so it's a less than ideal place to be at any time.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8MDxQNp12FpMFllIBwtZ7H161j7L13GXBzvAk5IApIK0exdkk2KrD9tPo6_D-rTqTeZkVHjxo6g_IqApZf82O2D_Wyq8bQmiyIYN_Ss8yDRm_buo5hgZ5vjkEBT6LffYzV2iles0oB4T/s1600/DSCN4402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8MDxQNp12FpMFllIBwtZ7H161j7L13GXBzvAk5IApIK0exdkk2KrD9tPo6_D-rTqTeZkVHjxo6g_IqApZf82O2D_Wyq8bQmiyIYN_Ss8yDRm_buo5hgZ5vjkEBT6LffYzV2iles0oB4T/s400/DSCN4402.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I really truly don't know why my Galician textbook begins with a Harry Potter picture... but I like it. </td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjor2_qzH3MPhL0QsuCJHS89WwgpvmsnuBC78ZKu_ZmXGdeMyfTCGVHK8sxdLOSm1Bbrf53m28fTsmdwjphOxcfdjnqjOsYUIVx9bpFkP3izbUYFeRUNMUG74ROGS5bRj3vL9loSTr4s66a/s1600/DSCN4470.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjor2_qzH3MPhL0QsuCJHS89WwgpvmsnuBC78ZKu_ZmXGdeMyfTCGVHK8sxdLOSm1Bbrf53m28fTsmdwjphOxcfdjnqjOsYUIVx9bpFkP3izbUYFeRUNMUG74ROGS5bRj3vL9loSTr4s66a/s400/DSCN4470.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">my books</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjCLjWu_y89e0gELYL_sa_Y-RFHk_SdPIMtIeuIyCeYuH9Gd5w_49A37P8kKzMELGWS4nfvPf_h1bFwlDTOepFtGXk77goAZQNC61qvqVLhZvqD_jSPgbWhS5BSZFCtUqj4LqLeFZJCDC/s1600/DSCN4471.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjCLjWu_y89e0gELYL_sa_Y-RFHk_SdPIMtIeuIyCeYuH9Gd5w_49A37P8kKzMELGWS4nfvPf_h1bFwlDTOepFtGXk77goAZQNC61qvqVLhZvqD_jSPgbWhS5BSZFCtUqj4LqLeFZJCDC/s400/DSCN4471.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">so skinny! they all together total the size of maybe one and a half of a US textbook </td></tr></tbody></table><br />
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Well I think that about does it for everything about school for me this year. Hope my sentences made at least a little sense today. I'm still just doing really well over here. :) More posts will come eventually, they just seem to get stuck in the drafts folder.<br />
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OH and there is a boy who is on exchange from my school IN AUSTIN this year! (technically it's Round Rock but still, it's pretty cool).<br />
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Amy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194061834050833170noreply@blogger.com0