the first week

I've been here for one week now.

That's crazy. It feels both like much less time than that, but also that I've been here forever.

I've done tons of stuff this week! I could write for hours and still not finish. I'm actually only awake right now because I took a really long nap this afternoon (unfortunately my allergies were acting up and I took a benadryl, but then of course I fell asleep). Instead for this time I'm just going to  have lots of pictures.

 Tomorrow is my first day of school, kind of. It's just the "presentation" day, I go in at 11:30 and meet my teachers and get my schedule, but that's it. Tuesday is the first real day. I'm a little nervous! But not toooo much.

at the beach

Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela

 I would like to say that this is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places I've ever been. I'm not religious, but this cathedral was so stunning. Walking inside and seeing the art and architecture from hundreds of years ago and you can practically tangibly feel the passion that the designers had for creating something to praise the Lord. It's hard to avoid a sense of wonder and calm when you are quietly gazing at centuries old art and amazing ceilings and hearing a priest read prayers in Spanish and learning about the traditions and seeing people praying in the pews even today regardless of your own religion. You can't help but somehow have a huge sense of respect toward this cathedral that has more history than the USA as a country.  I wish I had gotten any good pictures from inside because that was incredible as well. Just knowing that thousands and thousands of people have come here to worship and the pilgrims from the Camino de Santiago who walked and made so much effort to get to THIS spot is just a really cool experience. I can't even imagine what the people who make that journey must feel.

Enjoy this impressive cathedral song my Spanish teacher (even though it's in French) played once (actually he played it like 7 times because it's kind of addicting in a weird spiritual emotions jam kind of way).

it's extremely beautiful

my sister and I

another church in Santiago

ciclists in front of the naval military school which is in my town

the view from my window

and from the other window

queso tetilla (a special galician cheese, named after their shape... breasts. When my host dad put them up to his chest in the supermarket to explain I nearly died.)

at the supermarket, the weights for fruits have ALL the numbers on them, i didn't understand why not just 0-9 like in the USA.

seems legit

we went to a tower on a hill for the gorgeous views

literally two minutes later we watched the clouds roll in

approx 15,000 year old tomb from the earliest inhabitants of the area

 Chau!

ESTOY AQUI Y ME ENCANTA

I'm here!
And not just in Spain but in my host town, Marín.

most of the kids from the US in the Madrid airport

I arrived with the other kids going to Galicia by train about 8:40 Saturday night, and got to the house just before 10. The very first thing when we got to the house is my host dad had to carry my 22 kilo (48 lbs) suitcase straight up a narrow and steep spiral staircase to get to the house from the garage.

Waiting on my bed was a note from my host sister welcoming me in Galician. 

it's a little hard to see in the photo but it says "benvida a nosa familia, benvida a nosa casa, welcome home" :)

My host mom arranged for her paper to feature the Galicia kids in an article! Click here to see it.

Speaking Spanish is the weirdest thing. In Madrid it didn't really hit me that I would speak Spanish to people for months, I just sort of felt like I was just in an area of Texas with signs for spanish speakers, because that's typical.But now that I'm with my family, it's not like that anymore. I don't really know how to describe it. I actually understand more than I'd hoped I would- my family even said that they thought I would have much more trouble than I am. I'm much worse at speaking though, so far I basically repeat: "Sí, bueno, bueno, gracias" with an occasional "está bien". And my only Galician phrase, "chámome Amy" (my name is Amy). In stores they have to explain that I'm American, so the employees understand that I don't understand. My host sister and I ran into a couple of her friends from school when we were in town, and as she introduced me they asked how my Spanish was, and she told them that I understand okay, but I speak very slowly. That's about accurate. And of course I don't actually understand THAT much.

I know everyone says how nice they're family is and how beautiful their house and city is, but mine really truly is THE BEST. Seriously.
My first night we ate tortilla espanola with pimentos (basically a potato and egg omelet type thing with some grilled peppers) and it was delicious. Actually I haven't yet tasted something I didn't like (of course that's out of a grand total of 7 meals so far). Sunday, my first real day with my family, there was a big barbeque with the rest of the family, like older brothers, their children, and the grandfather who lives next door to me. Abuelo speaks very little Castellano, mostly only Galician.  My host nephews and neices are so cute! There are 4 of them between 2 and 8 years old. The little girl, Elva, knew one thing in English and it was her favorite thing to say to me "THANK YOUUU" over and over and giggle. We ate chorizo and pork ribs and criollo and cheese and everything was so good.
After the big family gathering,  my parents and my sister and I went to the beach! We went to a neighboring town called Bueu (bway-oo) about 10 minutes away. The water was pretty chilly, but it was sunny and nice anyway. They taught me names of some shells and seafood (although I have to admit I forgot most of it right away! I'll need another lesson).
This morning my dad took me and my sister to our school for part of the registration I think. We also visited the college where he teaches in Pontevedra and his clinic here in town (he's a physical therapist). From the clinic, my sister and I left him to work and we walked around town some. I needed some photos of myself and the ones I brought were passport sized and not big enough so we stopped at a photo place. Then we walked home, and it wasn't too far but had a lot of steep uphill parts so I was a little tired.
My sister and I hung out for a while and walked to a... fountain thing? for water for plants? I have no idea in English (or in any language actually since I didn't fully understand haha) but it was like a spring from the ground of water at the end of the street, near the forrest and a trail. Sorry that story is so incoherent but it was an interesting area, sometime I'll figure it out and explain more.
Then we had lunch with Abuelo and my parents and sister. Rice with sardines and "croquetas" which look like hushpuppies on the outside but inside have some kind of ham paste. And bread of course, bread is with everything. 
They grow so much of their food right at home. There are apples, pears, lemons, oranges, hazelnuts, grapes, kiwis, strawberrys, blackberrys, raspberrys, chestnuts, onions, potatoes, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, "paraguyas" like peaches (and what I've eaten for breakfast), and a few more I didn't recognize in English, and of course fresh eggs from the chickens. Honey from the neighbors. They even make their own wine from the grapes with a wine press in the cellar area! It's amazing how fresh and delicious everything is.

Oh, and apparently Amy is like the Classic American Name elsewhere. No one, from the kids from all over the world at orientations or Spanish people I've met, has had any trouble pronouncing it and a Chinese girl told me it’s literally the name that is used in all the examples in their English textbooks. I thought that was hilarious!

Okay, I think that is all for now. I have many more things to say but I'll save them for later. So far I haven't taken many pictures yet, I'm just sort of soaking everything in without my camera but my family has taken some and I'll upload some soon.

Ata logo!
 

So long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye

Hi Everyone,

Soo, if you didn't already know (and I would assume you do since you are on this page), I'm spending my Junior year abroad in Spain, and I'm really really excited! (I couldn't count how many times I've said that lately!).

I have decided to keep this blog while I'm away because it will be easier for all of you back home to hear about what's going on with me across the Atlantic, and I won't have to repeat stories quite as many times. I probably won't be on facebook as much- don't think I'm abandoning you all, I still love you very much, but it will be much better for me to integrate and adjust into Spanish life without constant contact from the USA.

So here is my goodbye post. I've made a few posts already but they are pretty boring stuff, written for other exchange students so don't judge me. From here on out, it should get much more interesting from España! I don't know how good I'll be at actually updating this regularly but I promise to try!  I'll try to have lots of pictures, because that's always the most interesting. This is what I am really considering the start of my blog.

I should explain in more detail exactly what I'm doing: I am going to spend the next 10 months  with a carefully screened host family in a small town in Northwest Spain, through the American Field Service exchange program. It does cost tuition. I speak some Spanish, took four years of it in school, but I'm nowhere near fluent. Not to mention the region in Spain I will be in also has Galician (very similar to Portuguese) as another main language. I will still graduate on time because I have taken classes to make up credits ahead of time online and over the summer. My school here in Texas does not want to accept any credits I may earn abroad, but I'll be okay anyway. My host family seems absolutely wonderful and I'm so happy they are opening their home to me this year.
Of course I'm nervous about some things (I'm voluntarily leaving behind everything and everyone I know! I can't say that's not scary),  and of course I will miss the U.S., but my excitement more than balances it out.  I know I don't really have any idea what it will be like. I can't even imagine everything I'm going to experience or how things will turn out, but I can't wait to find out for myself.

I guess I'll list just a few of the reasons I'm doing this... I'll gain skills in a foreign language (or two), discover and appreciate different culture, gain a new perspective on US culture, gain confidence and independence, be part of a world community, meet new people, and learn to really live in the moment.  (Those were taken directly from the AFS handbook so please pardon the cheesy phrasing!)

Getting to right now has been a VERY long process. All the time, and money, and effort, and papers, and signatures, and planning, and everything has gone toward right now, departure. I can't thank my family enough for supporting me through this and helping me get here and letting me go. Having this opportunity really does mean more than I can ever say.

Speaking of the challenges of applying,  I applied for my Spanish student visaAugust 2 at the Houston consulate.... and I still don't have my visa and passport back. It has been approved but I haven't received it in the mail yet, and at this point my parents will have to overnight it to me in NY or Boston unfortunately. This has been the most stressful part of the whole process. (Just last week the consulate called and said they'd mail my passport that day and I was beyond happy for about 3 minutes, until they called back again and said that was a mistake and it stilled hadn't been approved. It was traumatic.)

Today was my last day in Austin. I spent it doing last minute packing checks and visited my school and friends for the last time and had dinner with my family. Tomorrow I fly to Boston to spend a few days with family friends, then I'll go to New York for orientation with AFS (which I'm really looking forward to because many of the other kids going to Spain who will be there have gotten really close through facebook and I already know we will have a great time) then there is another orientation in Madrid before I travel by train to meet my host family. The next week and a half will be absolutely crazy, but I don't think I've ever been more excited in my life!

please email me (amyking14@yahoo.com), comment on here, or on facebook to keep in contact with me! I love y'all and I will miss you! I don't know when I'll next have internet or time to use the computer but I'm ready to start this journey.

 

 

I packed, by some miracle.

the start of packing...

segway tour of my city... i'm so cool. but isn't it pretty?

my cake at my going away party! hahaha gotta love typos "adios"

my girls since literally forever

my other darlings

if you don't look closely at my twitching eye it's me with a texas flag

I love you and I'll miss you!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

hahaha i will really miss my girl.

thanks for this beautiful drawing sofie. it's really accurate i'm sure.

aaaand a liz lemon 30 rock joke from her year abroad because tina fey is fabulous.

and a random galician folk song just for kicks.



Wow, this post turned out much longer than I'd planned. Oh well. If you stuck it out all the way to here, you're my favorite.

 

I'M OFF TO SPAIN!

 

da escola, irmás, voos na avións, e visados

(School, Sisters, Planes, and Visas)
   
          Well, first of all, I am officially enrolled in the school IES Illa de Tambo in grade 1° de bachillerato, in the Natural and Health Sciences Course for the next school year! The school is right in the center of town and about 3 km from my house. My host sister also goes there and is in my grade. We won't have classes together (she is taking different courses) but I'm still glad she'll be able to show me around. 

El instituto / my school

Also, my school's list of textbooks

         Speaking of my host sister, I've finally gotten to talk to her! For a long time, I heard nothing from her and it worried me. Finally I added her on Tuenti, the Spanish Facebook, and we got to chat! It was great, she's really nice and cool and I think we'll be good friends. She told me they actually don't have 2 dogs- they have FOUR! :D   Then, I recieved an actual letter from her! She had sent it before we chatted and I was so happy to get it! It was so sweet, and I love mail (who doesn't?). Seriously my host family has been beyond sweet in their emails, I'm SOOOO excited to meet them! 

my host sister is awesome

one of my host dogs ♥

      
Okay, time for the visa story:  
I went to the General Consulate of Spain in Houston this morning to apply for the visa! Houston is about a four hour drive, and the consulate is unusual in that it doesn't accept appointments, you just walk in.  The day started terribly because I overslept by an hour (I was supposed to be up at 4:45... didn't wake up til 5:40), and I had to rush and make a ton of copies at the last second, and we were low on gas and the car's registration was expired and I was certain we'd be stopped and everything would go wrong, but somehow we got to Houston fairly on time. Then we had to find a bank with a notary for one last form, and the first places we tried didn't have one. But we found one eventually, funnily enough in the same building as the Italian consulate... but not the Spanish one. 
At this point things started looking up, it was still pretty early, and we arrived at the consulate just fine. The lady just took my papers, she was extremely nice and thankfully I had all the papers. It ended up perfectly all right! I'm still worried about getting my passport back in time for departure- it will be pretty close, but I am going to try not to stress about it at this point. It's out of my hands and there's nothing I can do except wait and hope for the best!

probably took an entire tree for all the necessary paperwork

The Consulate building

me by the seal thing at the door... haha sorry for the bad quality

     I've booked my ticket out of Austin! I'm going to visit family friends in Boston and then take a train to New York for orientation. I'll be packed and out of here August 29th, although I won't actually be with my host family until September 8th (coincidentally that's also the holiday of the Virxe do Porto, the patron saint of my host town. That's got to be a good sign, right? and assuming the visa does arrive in time... fingers crossed!) Packing is starting to be on my mind... it's just absolutely crazy how fast time has gone. There's still a lot to do here and I really can't even imagine saying my goodbyes, even though at the same time all I do is think about Spain. I don't know how to write what I'm feeling now. It's just crazy.

I actually got this fortune cookie! Pretty decent for once.

TWENTY-FIVE DAYS IN AUSTIN 
 ¡veinte y cinco!

25.   what kind of tiny number is that?!?

Aprender Galego

(Learning Galician)

Northwest Spain, I'm in Pontevedra

                 I wanted to write about Galicia and it's language. The fact that Spain actually has four official languages and that AFS places students even in the regions where Spanish might not be the main language freaks a lot of kids out. Some might decide Latin America is a better option and some might breathe a huge sigh of relief if they are placed elsewhere in Spain. (Everyone dreams of the classic South). But for me, that was always one of the most interesting parts about Spain, it's distinctive regions. Sure, I was a little worried that it would be harder to go somewhere like Galicia or Basque or Catalonia. and I am nervous, but not more so than than anyone going on exchange to anywhere. I feel so very lucky to be placed in Galicia. I will get the chance to learn both Spanish and Galician and my year will only be even more awesome because of it.  And that's not even to mention the stunning Galician landscapes. (and rich food, historic cathedrals, cities, beaches, accents, sports, weather, and all of it. I don't know if you can tell, but I really like Galicia already).

picture of the Ría de Vigo (Vigo River) in Moaña (by my host mom)

Before I leave, I'm trying to learn at least a few basics in Galician (as well as brushing up on Spanish). I'll obviously learn the most from speaking with my family while I'm there, but I want to get just a little foundation beforehand because I'd like to be as prepared as possible!

Galician is too obscure to be taught on the mainstream language learning sites, like rosetta stone, livemocha, or busuu, but there are still resources out there. Only about 3 million people speak it! My host mom has been really helpful in sending me some links. 

My host mom is a writer and journalist in Galician. This is the book trailer for her fantasy trilogy! Someday I hope I can read her books.

some of my fancy colorful notes

Galician is a sister language to Portuguese, and both share Latin roots with Spanish. I've studied Spanish in school for four years so I can recognize some of the cognates. One difference between Spanish and Galician is the number of contractions; Galician is full of them, while in Spanish there are 2. (a + el = al, and de+el = del. ) In Galician... there are aaaaaall of the ones shown in the left picture below. I've also found listening comprehension exercises (right picture) that practice distinguishing between very similar words with different meanings. It's not easy!

(sorry the print turned out so small, i think the picture will enlarge if you click it)

I like this guy's Galician videos :)




and a few websites, just one the off chance you are reading this and want to learn some Galician:

This Site isn't language learning, just a general site about galicia, but I figured if you are bothering to look at these you will be interested in that too!   This One is from the Galician government, the Xunta, and they have some good resources.   This is an awesome interactive dictionary from my host mom.  You can learn some important basic conversation skills Here.  and Here is one that has lots of activities and grammar and stuff (like the ones I took screenshots of and posted). It seems to work better on internet explorer, for some reason.  This has great verb conjugations, Here is more grammar,  and there's more verbs Here. There are some more youtube channels for learning Galican Here and Here (the second one is harder because she doesn't teach speaking English). This has nice introduction stuff.

Galicia                                                                                              Spain

I've learned even more about Galicia but I want to save a few things to post about when I'm there. I cannot wait to be able to write from personal experience soon.  :)


I have some actual news as well, but this post is already long and cluttered so I'll put the updates in a different post.

Familias de Acollida

Host Families

       Exchange is supposed to be about the people you meet all over the world, and your host family is a huge part of your year.  I know I was incredibly lucky to find out mine so early.  It's not that easy writing to my family, though. How do you start to get to know the people who are opening their home and family to you for a year? We email in Spanish and I make lots of mistakes and use Google translate more than I'd like. For one thing, after talking to them for 4 months I learned that I should be addressing them using a different, less formal, version of "you" (as in, I was speaking to them formally the way you'd speak to a really important person, the Queen of England maybe, instead of family). A couple times I've almost told them that I was sending them some arms (I meant hugs! In Spanish the words for "hugs" (abrazos) and "arms" (brazos) are just one letter off.) Everyone wants to hear that they will be getting some body parts in the mail (Not). I definitely have stress dreams about going, despite how excited I am about it. My subconscious has gone through all the worst possible scenarios (from a nuclear crisis to leaving after a semester because no one would talk to me) in my dreams. Shut up, Brain, why are you messing with my positive attitude here?! 
           But seriously, I cannot wait to meet them in person in just 2 more months!

My host family has a beatiful garden with fruit trees and flowers. In September the apples and pears will be ready to eat, yumm!

Oh, did I mention it's practically a small farm?  These are some of the chickens, or gallinas. Fresh eggs every day!

♥ ♥ ♥

Last spring,  my parents and I decided to be a host family. It's really hard to describe how it was to be a host sister. It was just a big change to adjust to a new member of the family. I'm an only child, and there was suddenly a new teenager living with us. It was strange at first to explain things that seemed like normal daily life and sometimes miming to communicate, but by the last few months we were really close. I realized that exchanging is a new and challenging experience for the family as well as for the student. Hosting was one of the best things I could've done to get the full AFS exchange experience.  I hope it will help me empathize and connect with my own host family because I've been in similar shoes. and I think the most important thing I learned is to not be afraid to speak up when I'm there!




Here's a visual of the placements of AFS Spain students so far! Just shows that you really can be placed anywhere.



View AFS Spain Placements in a larger map

 

Hope everyone's having a great summer, and Happy Independence Day USA!

Novas xerais / General News

A quick update :)

On June 1st I recieved my travel itinerary!  Spain is usually one of the earliest countries to get that info because there are lots of kids traveling and AFS purchases the tickets as a group. So that's really exciting! I'll arrive in madrid on September 7th with the rest of the kids going to Spain, then I somehow travel the next 650 km to my host city but I don't have information on that part yet.  I can't wait to meet my family in person, although I'll be super nervous at first!

The flags of regions in Spain

Today I had my Pre-Departure Orientation as a conference call. For the most part it was fairly basic stuff going over AFS guidelines and support structure, which is good to know, and I did get some good ideas for host family gifts, but it wasn't super exciting and I may have looked like this a lot of the time (not as cute though):

adorable baby sloth yawn

One thing that stuck with me from the PDO was what the AFS coordinator said about how other countries have complained that Americans never know anything about the rest of the world, and don't care. Well, I do care, or I wouldn't be going to another country for a year.  I decided that it would be a good idea to brush up on my Spanish history though!

not my cutest pic, oh well

I'm still working on all the visa requirements. There are just so many documents to gather and notarize and apostille and translate and mail and deal with etc. I'm also in summer school taking US History to make up for the credits I'll miss in Spain.



Everything feels so much more real now that there's a date, but I still can't really believe it's actually happening.  80 more days in Austin!

Hasta luego!