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

06.

Another day at school, whooo! haha, week days are pretty boring to write about. I've been watching a lot of soccer/fútbol at break time because we all sit out in the court yard, and I still can't get over how good everyone is, I really can't wait until I can start playing and embarrass myself, greatly .___. anyway, today I had,

Gym
Geography
Maths
___________
Break
___________
Economy
History
English

Also, because nothing particularly interesting happened after school today, I shall give you all a fun school fact. So, the school toilets are pretty terrible, the doors don't lock, theres no toilet paper or soap and it smells rather bad. When Cami first told me about the lack of locks and toilet paper, I thought she was joking. She wasn't. It still weirds me out a little and I try to avoid the toilets at school if possible. I regret taking the tatachilla toilets for granted, actually, I took tatachilla as a whole for granted basically. Education and facility wise, it is so much better, not saying that its terrible here, I just think I've gained a better appreciation for my education by being here. Mum would be proud haha.

Anyway, tomorrow is the weekend, So I'm sure I'll have lots of interesting things to write about (and hopefully some pictures)

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

04.

Today was my second day at school, and like the first, I still had no clue what was going on most of the time. As I'm not actually doing any work in classes at the moment, I usually just translate words and try and memorize them. Gym is really the only class I do work in. At the moment we're preparing for 'Dia Mundial de la paz juegos' which basically translates nto universal day of the peace games. At the moment we're making posters, Cami and myself are making one for 'voleibol gigante' or giant volleyball. Anyway, today's classes.

Economy
History
Geography
___________
Break
___________
Philosophy
Lengua
Gym

After dinner, I went with my host dad to a huge shopping center/the train station called Vialia. I had to buy a backpack for school, as I didn't have one. We also looked around a bit at the shops, because I also need to buy some more clothes (there was very few winter-y clothes available in Australia, I also didnt bring any gym clothes), although I didn't actually buy anything because I've already organised t go shopping with Cami, Mystiah and Kara on the weekend, I did however have a good look at the shops, and I can say I will very much enjoy European shopping and expect to return to Australia really, really poor ;D

adios amigos~

03.

So today was my first day at school, which is called I.E.S Litoral, (website for anyone who's interested, http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/ieslitoral/libreta/centro/general/centro.php ) or affectionately named in Spanish, 'el Instituto', (which I personally found a little ironic considering it looks similar to a hospital, or a prison... I will take some pictures eventually) Anyway, because my host dad Javi is the economy teacher, I went with him. Luckily the school is literally a 3 minute walk from the house, which means I can sleep in a little later, Huzzah! I was put in Cami's classes, which is really, really good, because 99% of the time I have absolutely no clue whats going on and its nice having a friend in class, especially one who speaks English! So on Monday's here's my timetable,

Begin at 8.15

Gym (monday morning pe, haaaate it)
History
Lengua (Spanish)
___________
Break
___________
Philosophy
Maths
English

Finish at 2.45

Unsurprisingly, English is my favourite subject so far and gym being my least favourite, ugh. All my teachers are really, really nice though (although my gym teacher scares me, a lot). I'm not really doing anything, work wise, in school just yet, my Spanish is way to bad for that. I don't really mind school, its a little boring at the moment because I'm just kinda sitting there for 5 hours, but I'm sure it will get better, eventually, and I'm really happy to have Cami in my classes!

I haven't really talked to anyone else at school yet apart from a few hello's and 'I'm from Australia', its difficult because my Spanish is really, really bad and no one really speaks that much English. Hopefully when I get a bit better, I'll make some more friends.

Also, at lunch time we watched people playing soccer out in the court yard, EVERYONE IS SO GOOD. Its really, really impressive but scary and intimidating at the same time haha.

After school, we ate dinner, at around 3 o'clock, it weirded me out a little, because I'm not used to eating meals that big at such an early time. After having a siesta (yes, I have siesta's, and yes, they are amazing) my host parents and myself went for a short walk around the parks, although we weren't out very long because it was so cold and dark, apparently I arrived at a really horrible time, weather wise.

Anyway, so my first day at school was a little over whelming and blurry, but I enjoyed it and can't wait until my Spanish gets better! :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!