14.

So, today was just another day at school nothing terribly exciting happened. I think that once I start to understand/speak better Spain, I'll have a much better time at school, because I'll actually know whats going on and will have a much easier time making friends.

Today however, was my first 'proper' soccer game. Before I came to Spain, I really enjoyed watching soccer, and playing it. Now I only enjoy watching it. I'm honestly, so terrible at soccer, especally in comparison to Spanish people, espeically at school, who's 'casual playing', is in league with Australia's professional level. It is kind of sucky playing with so many amazng players considering I can't even kick the ball straight and I feel like I'm constantly letting my team down, also doesn't help that my gym teacher yells at whenever I play, even when I am playing. Oh well, hopefully I get better soon, if not, well....

Anyway, after school, Thomas, another exchange student from Quebec, (who is fluent in French, English and Spanish, I'm so jealous of him) came over for lunch. Both Thomas and Fischer leave really close to me and are good friends with my host family, so I see them more often outside of school. After lunch, Thomas invited me to go out with him and his friends, so after having a quick siesta, we both headed off to Centro.

At Centro, we met up with Thomas's friends from the other class (Thomas and Kara are in a different class to me and Camie) and we walked around Centro for awhile. I'm still not 100% sure where I am a lot of the time in Centro, a lot of it looks the same. We also visited a few churches and some people went into pray. I found that really different from something we'd do in Australia, like, I cannot imagine it happening. After walking around for awhile (when friends hang out, they tend to do A LOT of wandering before settling anywhere) we went to Burger King for dinner, which is really expensive in Spain (and just quietly, not as nice as Hungry Jacks)

After dinner, they took me to the bull ring so I could see it and we just hung around talking and laughing. A few of them spoke really, really good English, so with their English and my broken Spanish we were all able to communicate. I talked a lot about Australia and we all sang Spice Girls songs. It was a really fun night and everyone was really, really lovely! :D I hope I can do that more often!

Sorry for lack of photos, I always forget to take them! I'll try harder to take more photos more often! Adios Amigos!

13.

School today basically felt like the longest day in my life, although when I'm at school here, time seems to stop, I think its probably because I'm not doing anything yet! We did however, do some more peace games, this time we weren't really running them, more so, playing them. However, although they are fun, myself and Cami aren't really good, nor do we enjoy anything to do with gym class, so we basically spent the whole time laughing about stupid things, 'defending our space' and hiding in Elaina's house :D

After school however, I went with my host family to visit Gibralfaro, the castle at the top of the mountain which overlooks the city. Unfortunately the castle part was closed, but we'll go another day. We did however, go to Paradores, a really, really expensive restaurant but it had amazing views of Malaga, here are the photos,

Northern Side of the city

Southern side (where I live) and the bull fighting ring!

People were practicing

The Port

Paradores, the restaurant

me and my host mum Pacqui

Catherdral

The b

The big tower, Torre Monica, I live near there!

The Cathedral (close up)

So yeah, Malaga is a really amazing and beautiful place, it has a really weird mixture of old and new, but it works. I love it here, and I intend to take a lot more photos! :D

Adios Amigos!

09.

This morning I slept in (so lovely after a full week of school) and woke up around 10.30. At around 12, Thomas came over and Thomas, my host parents and myself went for a walk to the beach. Our house is really, really close to the beach, around a 5 minute walk.

Anyway, some photos! :D

Thomas and me

La Playa (the beach)

Thomas, me and my host mum Pacqui!

Torre Mónica (Monica Tower, named so because a couple of years ago a man climbed to the top of the tower and painted 'I love Monica')

After walking for around an hour, we met my host brother Javi at a small Italian restaurant nearby for lunch. I ate spaghetti bolonase and it was so ridiculous huge. The meals in Spain are also pretty cheap, it was only around 5 euros.

After this, we all headed home, but Thomas and me decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood while everyone else was sleeping/eating (it's so weird, at around 3pm, basically everything shuts down and its really, really quiet) I live near a huge park, so we walked around there for a bit and one of the parks (there are a couple) has a zoo-esque thing, so Thomas took me to see the goats. However, the goats were missing, I did however, see an emu, which was a really strange sight considering I was in Spain.

and that was basically concludes my first weekend in Spain, I really, really enjoyed it and hopefully I have many more Spanish adventures :D

Adios Amigos

08.

1 week in!

After returning home at around 4.30 Saturday morning, we all basically crashed right away. Everyone was up around 12ish and ate a pancake breakfast. We then sat around playing mario cart on the wii for a little while, until we decided we were hungry again and attempted to make lunch.

Cooking lunch was certainly an interesting experience, we wanted a chicken pasta, but the chicken wasn't defrosted, so we attempted to pour boiling water on it, yet to no avail, the chicken remained frozen. We did however, make some pasta, about enough for 10 haha, it was a ridiculously huge amount, but we did get through about half of it!

After lunch (around 5pm) we all headed to Vialia and Larios (the huge malls) because I had to buy gym clothes (the horror, the thought of doing gym again really makes me unhappy) and basically spent our time together browsing and shopping, something which I definitely want to do more of in the near future ;D

By the time we all went home it was around 8, and catching the bus home by myself was a little nerve wrecking. I nearly missed my stop too, I was looking out the window and was like ‘oh, there's my house’ luckily the bus driver was nice and let me off.

Was a good day! Now that I’m back in school again, I’ve really begun to appreciate the weekends again!

Adios Amigos!

07.

My last day of school for the week, today nothing particularly interesting happened while at school, but maths, gym and geography all in the morning, such terrible planning haha

Maths
Gym
Geography
___________
Break
___________
English
Economy
Lengua

However, that night it was Alejandro's (Mystiah's host brother) birthday party, and they had hired out a club for it (i think it was called Momo's, I can't remember) So I went to meet Cami at Centro so we could go to Mystiah's house. Before going to Centro however, I went food shopping at Correfour and oh my, it was amazing. Huge shops are definitely a trend in Spain, it was ridiculously large and they had everything. We definitely don't have supermarkets like this in Australia. To give you an idea of how big it was, the check out workers got around on roller blades, it was crazy.

Anyway, so after food shopping we headed to Mystiah's house and got ready. Although the party started at 12, I'm still going to count it as Friday night. Kara met us at the club and I got to meet Lucia, who had been in a motorcycle accident the same day, and still came! girl is a trooper. Anyway, some photos (which someone else took haha)

Mystiah, Cami & me at Mystiah's house

Not even half the crowd

Aren't I so photogenic?

Anyway, it was a really fun night, we all danced and watched a really drunk girl vomit all over the couch/floor, which was quite unpleasant haha, but it was really good and there were a lot of hilarious moments. It ended roughly around 4am, so we all went back to Mystiah's house to sleep. My first Spanish fiesta! I enjoyed it a lot :D

Adios Amigos

02.

My first, full day in Spain. I’m really glad I arrived on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, otherwise I would have been at school the next day, which would have been really quite fun, ha. Anyway, today I went with Thomas, Fisher and Javi into Centro to meet Cami, Mystiah, Kara and Alejandro, Mystiah's host brother. Centro is basically the ‘main street’ of Malaga, and is essentially the most important part. It’s basically like (for all those in Adelaide) Rundle Mall, but nicer and with better shops.

The Street

(not my picture)

However, as it was Sunday, almost everything was closed and it was really quiet, which I didn’t mind. Everyone showed me around, pointing things out and explaining things, they also took me to the Cathedral, which is really, really amazing. However because the weather was pretty terrible, I didn’t take any pictures, but will do so on a nicer day.

After wandering for awhile, we went to eat at a small Cafe. The food here is really different and really cheap. I got a 1 euro chocolate sandwich, it was really weird, but really, really good. I can totally see myself becoming veeerrrryy fat in the near future.

After eating, we walked through Malaga's equvilent of central park, I believe its called 'el parque'. Anyway, its really beautiful, really big and goes right down to the wharf/docks. We spent quite a bit of time in the parks but it was so ridiculously cold, so we decided to go back to Mystiah's and Alejandro's house to play 'apple for apple' (which i think in Spanish is Manzana por Manzana), anyway, basically its a game where a card with an emotion or 'thought' is put down, like 'perfect' or 'strange', and the players have to place down a card which they think suits that card best. For instance, when the card 'mysterious' was put down, I put down female football. Anyway, the aim of the game is too collect as many of the cards as possible. I ended up with nine in the end, which surprised me, because I couldn't read the cards 95% of the time. I think it was luck, or my cards were so ridiculous? After playing, myself, Thomas, Javi, Cami and Fisher headed back into Centro to go home. Cami took a different bus from us (and had a rather creepy experience with an odd person >: ) and I caught the good ol' number 16 back home.

Anyway, I had a fantastic first day! Everyone is so lovely and helpful, its really making a daunting experience not very daunting at all. I hope I continue to have days like this for the rest of my exchange :D

Adios Amigos.

01.

So I arrived at Malaga airport at around 3.30 in the afternoon. After collecting my (now broken) suitcase, I was met with a rather large welcoming party. I was greeted by my host father Javi, my host mum Pacqui, and my host brother, also Javi. Pacqui's sister and niece, so my host aunt and cousin, Pepe and Toni, were also there to meet me. Along with my family, some other exchange students, Campbell, Mystiah and Thomas, also came to the airport. I'm really glad they came because it was fantastic to meet them, as well as really helpful to have someone who knew English and could answer (my many) questions. Alejandro, the Malaga Rotary club president, and his wife and daughter were also there!

Anyway, this was the first thing I saw when I landed, it was so beautiful, and I was so happy/excited!

Toni, Pepe, Javi, Javi, Pacqui, Me, Campbell, Thomas, Anna (Mystiah's sister), Mystiah and Alejandro

After wards, we went back to my host families apartment where I will be living for the next couple of months. I really like it and I'll take photos later for a future blog post.

Anyway, Thomas, the French Canadian exchange student came back with us, because he lives really close and later, Fisher, another American exchange student also came over (he couldn't make it to the airport) and we all went for a walk around the neighborhood and to the beach, which is really close to my house. However, it was cold and dark, so I didn't take any pictures. By 8pm, I was ridiculously tired, so I went to bed, which was really exciting of me.

Anyway, I had a really good first day in Spain, my Host Family are really, really lovely, even if their English is not very good and my Spanish is terrible! So although communication is hard at the moment but I'm really happy to be in Spain and to be living here! Anyway, I shall write soon about all my adventures, adios amigos!