16.

Today I met my extended family for the first time (well properly anyway). With my host parents and brother, we went to the 'Campo' which basically translates into country, although in Autralia, it wouldn't really be considered the 'country', per se. Anyway, we went to my mum's sister's, Pepe's, house and met my host uncle Manuel and his wife Yolanda, and my host cousins Elena, who is around 15 (and speaks English really well) and my younger host cousin Carmen, who's around 8 and the cutest thing ever! I also met my host mum's father, who's 94!

For lunch we had a rice and chicken dice, which was really, really delicious and cooked over an open fire in a huge cauldron type thing, I've never seen so much food in my entire life! There was a ridiculous amount. After we had all finished eating, we went for a walk around the 'campo' and went to a view point where you can see the majority of Malaga. I also helped Pepe and Yolanda pick some herbs which can be found on the mountain and are 'typical of Andalucia', I can't remember what they were called though.

All in all, it was a really nice and relaxed day, and my host and extended family are really, really warm and welcoming and I feel very lucky to be placed with such a wonderful family!

I also skyped with mum for the first time today, although my camera/mic wasn't working, but I got to see mum, rob and noah, which was good! :D

mum and noah (he looks so grumpy!)

(once again, I have photo's from today, but they are not on this computer, so I'll post them another day) Adios Amigos!

15.

Finally, Saturday! Being back at school again, I really start to appreciate the weekends again and being able to sleep in!

So today I went to the beach (la Playa) with my host mum and we walked to the end of a Jetty type thing and just looked out onto the ocean. We were later met by my host dad who took lots of photo (photography is a hobby of his) and then went out to lunch at a restaurant on our street (I think it belongs to my host brother's friend (Paco) dad)

Later that evening, I went to Vialia and Larios, all by myself! They're two huge shopping centers (kind of like Marion). This was kind of exciting because I'm still not 100% on the bus systems, so figuring it out made me a little proud! While shopping, I bought coats (its been so ridiculously cold, and I didn' bring many winter clothes with me, as it was summer in Australia when I left), more p.e clothes and some toiletries. I've been spending so much money lately, and its all been on essential items as well! oh well, I like shopping here, I have a feeling I will be spending a lot more money in the coming months (just a warning mum!)

Anyway, I do have some pictures of today, but not on this computer, so I shall post them another day! 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!

11.

So today was 'Dia Mundial de la paz juegos' or universal/world day of peace games, so basically, we just played fun games in the gym all day in honor of the peace. I'm still not 100% sure what its all about to be honest. So first thing we go to the gym to set up all the games, there were a total of 6,

voleibol gigante,
el laberinto,
el maniquí,
fútbolin,
cruzar el río
and some other game that I never played/don't know the name of.

Voleibol Gigante was essentially volleyball, however, they used a giant gym ball instead. It was kinda scary actually, especially when the ball went over our makeshift gym mat barriers and hit people (cami got hit on the head).

El Laberinto was basically a maze set up with hurdle type barriers and garbage bags. In the maze there were bags hidden and one had a tennis ball in it, to people would enter the maze and the first person to find the ball was the winner. It was a pretty fun game actually, but I still think it would have been cooler if the participants were blindfolded ;D

El Maniquí was basically a dress up game. There were two teams and one mannequin on each team. The people running the game would hold up a table tennis bat with an item of clothing on it and one of the team members would have to find the clothes/hat/glasses/whatever in the bag and do the 'challenge' with that item of clothes, i.e a jacket = 10 push ups, glasses = climbing for a balloon etc. This was probably the hardest game for me because I had no idea what the signs said, so I didn't know what the challenge was. Fun game though :D

Fútbolin was a human size version of the table football game or foosball,

(because I suck at explaining)

So all the players had to stand in lines holding hands and try to score a goal. I didn't personally play this game, but I heard it was hard because most of the time it ended up turning into normal football/soccer. I thought it was a really clever idea though!

Cruzar el Río, or crossing was the river, was the game I spent the most time at/running with Lorena. There were two teams and pairs would have to jump across hoops on the ground to the mat on the other side and back before the other team in order to win. If the game finished early, the whole team would attempt to go across together. It was a pretty fun game actually, I had to play sometimes if one team was short a player.

It was a really, really long day (we spent basically the whole day in the gym, apart from going to philosophy) but really fun! It was kind of like sports day back home, except much smaller, not competitive and more enjoyable (in my opinion)

Later that day, after school, I went out with my host brother and his friends again, this time we went to his friends house and played playstation and listened to music (DD). After we had stayed out awhile, Paco went and got kebabs because he was hungry, they were pretty good actually!

And that was my day, sorry for all the text! 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

05.

I'm still getting used to being at school for six hours a day after I spent so long on holidays after year 12 finished. Anyway, today I had,

Maths
Religion
Philosophy
___________
Break
___________
Economy
Geography
P.I

Wednesdays are definitely my favourite weekday, purely because I don't have gym class (I still can't believe I have it 4 times a week, this is definitely some bad karma for me). Wednesdays are also the only day I have religion, which is essentially a study period, as we all just sit and chat, and P.I, which is like a special project class? Like students will do presentations and books reports, I still don't fully understand it. Today however, we missed out on economy because we had a university lecturer come and talk to us about the art program (I think), it was kinda boring, and I accidentally fell asleep (nothing has changed too much in that respect I guess), but apparently it wasn't only just me, so thats good I guess!

After school, I went out with my host brother Javi and his friend Paco and another friend (I can't remember his name to save my life) to el Corte Ingles, which is a huge shopping centre chain (I've seen at least three so far) and are all about the same size, or bigger than marion, one is like six stories. Anyway, we were at Corte Ingles because Paco had to buy a mac, so while they were doing that I looked around for a bit, its so huge! Marion is going to look so tiny when I get home. Anyway, I had a really good time, I still haven't been able to talk to Javi much yet because my spanish is so bad, but hes really, really nice and I promised to teach him English haha!

Anyway, that is all for today, sorry the past few days have been so photo lacking, I'll try and take some more soonish so its not just text all the time!

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!