Thank You

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

How 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.)

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.

Being away from home when seasons change is a weird feeling.

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. 

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).

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.

not my photo, but this is the summer look

again not my photo and but these are the black uniforms. or dark blue maybe.

3) The scarves come out.  Yay winter clothes shopping!

4) Hedgehogs also also appear. apparently the dog food bowl is a warm and provides tasty meal (seems reasonable if you like dog food).

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.

sorry for the poor quality, but you can see what i'm talking about

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.

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

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.

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.)

[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.

 

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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).

 

 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.