53.

So, today I woke up with a full blown cold and haven't done much apart from sleep, upload photos and speak to my friends (which I was so happy about, I miss them a lot)

So because I haven't done much worth writing about, I thought I'd post the 'Portugal Tour play list' which is basically all the songs we listened to and now serves as a reminder of the awesome trip!

Pre-Warning; Some of these songs have very strong language/themes



































ah, such good memories! this was an experience I will definitely never forget!
Going to school tomorrow is going to be so hard
adios amigos!

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!

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!

12.

So just another day at school, nothing amazing to write about, so I thought I'd write up this little list~

Things I love about Spain

• The food
• My exchange student friends!
• The relaxed lifestyle
• The little thing outside my house which sells candy
• The Spanish bus system
• Siestas and fiestas
• The clothes shops
• My host family
• How close my school is
• The thought of sending/receiving letters
• Learning a new language
• The weather
• The buildings/city
• The American English teacher
  
• Malaga at night
• The names Mario and Alejandro
• Hiding from Elaina in gym class with Cami
• Watching anime with my host dad
• My teachers
• Upcoming Portugal trip
• Spanish ham
• The shopping centres and supermarkets
• Listening to Spanish people speak English
• The amount of ugly dogs
• Lack of bogans
• Teaching my host mum English
• The parks
• Spanish water! Soft skin and hair
• My really nice host brother who let me hang out with him and his friends and promised to take me to a disco haha!
• All the stylish ladies
• The views
• Centro
• Living in an apartment/flat

The Things I miss

• understanding what people are saying
• Noah
• Being able to go to the shops and buying something by myself
  
• My shower and having my own bathroom
• Drawing
• My friends and our stupid joking and antics
• My dvd collection (i’ve had such a craving to watch LOTR and the office)
• being able to call sam whenever and asking him to come over and watch movies
• hinely street mcdonalds/mcdonalds in general
• tatachilla
  
• meat pies and just, bakery good in general
• not having gym
• loli
• art class with friends
• rotary meetings
• being able to chat with my friends whenever without having to worry about a stupid time difference
• central heating
• driving
• having a uniform at school
  
• being able to walk around the house in socks or bare feet
• not going to uni with all my friends
• English tv and movies
  
• Going to the pantry whenever
• My room

Even though I miss all of these things, i haven’t felt homesick yet, weird. So far these lists are pretty even, but i’m really hoping the ‘love’ list will continue to grow and the ‘miss’ list get smaller.

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!

10.

Today wasn't particularly interesting or note-worthy, in school I still have no idea what's going on and in Gym we're only preparing for the peace games, so here are some currently popular songs that I've been hearing over and over again ;D

This is really popular at the moment and I've had it stuck in my head basically since I've been here! it took me a while of youtube hunting to finally track it down though.



I basically listen to this every time we're in gym and its been driving me a little crazy!

some other popular English song are;

Rhianna - Only girl in the World
Black eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)
Lady Gaga - Alejandro

And that's all for today, sorry if this has been a bit of a boring post! Hopefully I shall write about things other than school soonish!

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