A Gratitude Realization

This week made me really grateful for the life I was born in and to have the family that I have. For instance the housekeeper, Liz, is from Nicaragua. You know what she's doing? She came here to Spain to work and save money so that her two daughters can go to school and have a better future. She's working for 3 years and won't be able to see her family till then. It makes me want to cry for her. It's such an insane sacrifice that I almost can't even comprehend it. And she still laughs and makes jokes and seems really nice and friendly. I say seems because I can't really talk to her seeing as she only speaks Spanish. I just love her and think she's a really impressive person. 

Then you have my host family. Every week the parents go to Madrid for work for a whole day sometimes a couple and the kids don't see them. They have me but I'm not their parent. I'm not the same kind of comfort.  And when the parents do get back it's practically absolute chaos because they want their parents to do everything for them because they missed them. 

Just from these two experiences it makes me really grateful that I have a mom who has stayed at home and taken care of us kids instead of choosing to work. And I'm thankful that my dad is willing to work so hard to support all of us crazies. But I'm also glad that I get to see him everyday after work. Not now of course but when I was at home. I don't know I'm just really grateful for my family and how we've been able to be together my whole life. This week just made me really realize that. 

 Anyway this week a saw several cruise ships come in and out of port. So that was pretty cool.

 I hung out on the beach with an American Au Pair that I met at the language school. And speaking of language school I went to my first class yesterday. Only there wasn't a class because the teacher didn't show up, but I did meet some of my other classmates. They're all a lot older than me. Of course. But they're all super nice.

 Since there was no class I decided to go for a walk.

 And then I stopped here and read Anne of Green Gables. I'm pretty sure it'll always be one of my favorite books.

 This was from today. I went to a grocery store that sold baking soda. It was a 20 minute walk but I really want cookies. So it's totes worth it.

 I also thought that you would like to know that they don't refrigerate their milk.

Or their eggs. I'm kind of scared to eat their dairy products. Is that bad to say?

Anyway this week has been pretty good. The same as last week schedule wise. It's Saturday as I write this so I haven't done any super fun things yet. But I have plans to! I'm going to get hamburgers and ice cream tonight with my Australian friend Linda, my Spanish friend Sofia, and my new American friend Lauren. I'm pretty excited. Plus tomorrow is church so I get to see all those friendly people. And as soon as I'm done writing this post I get to make homemade cookies! or at least try to. Hopefully they turn out. The family went out of town again this weekend so I get the house to myself. Woo! Dance party! Anyway I'm ready to go make cookies so I'm gonna call this blog post done. Till next week!

Guys! I Met People!

Now I've done a crap load of things this week but I'm just going to cover that briefly and talk mostly about being social. Or more like just talk about the weekend and what feels like thousands of people I've met. You'll see. Also I know it's not Monday. Oh my gosh! How scandalous! I've discovered recently that I'm quite busy during the week and on Sunday I have to go to bed fairly early since I have to take the kids to school early in the morning. So I've pretty much decided to blog whenever I have the time. Which will most likely be Saturday. Or Sunday. Who knows.

This is just a cool building I saw in the city. No significance. Sorry. I'm going to sum up my week days really quick for you. Ready? Yeah? Good.

So I wake up every morning at about 7:45. Now that may not be early to all you folks. But gosh I hate waking up. SO FREAKING MUCH! Anyway I help give the kids breakfast, get them ready for school, and then walk them to school which is like 15 minutes away. Then I usually go grocery shopping with Soledad. We get home and then I have like a half hour of free time. Then I pick up Teo from school. We play at the park, go home, eat lunch, and then I put him down for a nap. I have another half hour to myself before I have to pick up the two other kids from school. Then I play with the kids until dinner time. We've gone to the park a couple times or we've played Clue A.K.A. Cluedo. It depends on the day. Then we go home (if we go to the park), I give them a bath, they eat dinner, and then they go to bed. And then repeat. For five days.

I've discovered while out here that I love coke. I actually usually really hate coke but I think since it's the same wherever you go it appeases my slight tinge of homesickness. So I like it now. It's weird.

I had lunch at this little cafe on Monday. I had fried fish and carne. It was pretty good. So far I haven't disliked any of the food I've eaten. I do wish it had more flavor though. It's all just kind of bland. There's not really a usage of spices. Not even salt and pepper. As much as the food is good I personally think it can be better. Oh well watcha gonna do. And they don't even have salt and pepper on the tables. So I can't even add it if I want! It sucks. Monday was the last day that the French grandparents were in town. As much as the most I could communicate with them was "good morning" and "bonjour" I kind of love them. They would always give me the European cheek kiss thing when they saw me and buy me dessert when they got the kids dessert. It was the small gestures that made me like them. I don't know they were just cute.

View from the play ground. Again no relevance I just think the buildings here are cool.

After school with Teo. I swear we were on this teeter totter for a good hour. It's weird how kids can be so hard yet so easy to please.

Fun reflection picture with Matilda and Diego after school. It was raining. So I don't know why we stopped. Cause I'm fun. Obviously. No but guys seriously the weather here is crazy. It's so erratic and spontaneous that it's just a good idea to always bring a coat and an umbrella with you.

This is the children's school. It's quite large but still looks like a prison inside. I may be biased but all schools in my opinion look like a poorly decorated prison. Now seeing schools in two different countries this confirms my beliefs.

Fun graffiti. Guys the graffiti here makes me laugh so hard. You get the stuff in Spanish, which I have no idea what it says, but then you get the stuff in English and it's gold. Like obviously hooligans. But I've also found noobs, skate, and punks. Like what? Why those words? It just makes me laugh.

Now for the fun part! You guys should be really grateful for all the pictures you get. I'm the worst at photo documentation. I think it's the main thing that sets me apart from other teenagers. But I'm especially bad when I'm having a fun time. I just don't think about it. You can blame my parents for my poor upbringing. Anyway ready for the social stuff that's oh so exciting? Here we go!

 Friday after I dropped Teo and the other wee ones off at school I went and had "coffee" with two German girls who are also Au Pairs. I had never met either of them before but I was like, "I need to meet people so let's do it!" I had chocolate a la taza in this fancy cafe called pandolinos. It felt kind of awkward as I felt like they wanted to speak German to each other but were being nice and speaking English because I was there. I don't know I'll probably hang with them again but it wasn't like an instant friendship. It's going to take some work. But that's to be expected.

Anyway then I picked the youngins from school. Took them home and got them ready for the beach and sent them off with their parentals for their weekend at their beach apartment. I went with them last weekend and as much as it would've been cool to go with them I wanted to go to church and do other fun things here in Coruna. So after they left I took a short nap and then I left to hang out with my Australian friend who at this point I had never met before. We met at pandolinos and this time I had a milkshake. Which was more like a smoothie with milk in it. It was interesting. Two other girls were there too. Sophia and another girl who's name I can't remember. That's really bad of me. I've met so many people this weekend though that it's amazing I remember anyone's name. Sophia and Linda are flipping awesome though. Sophia is Spanish but all she wants to do is practice her English. And MAN is she active doing it. She talks so fast. Anyway it was a really fun little "coffee" I had with them and I'll probably hang with all of them again. After the "coffee" me and Linda went and had tapas at a bar with her husband and their friends. And while they all had their beers I had my cola. Cola all the way man! It's a little weird that everyone expects me to drink. Especially since it's legal at the age 18. We had Spanish tortilla, Russian salad, and fish and chips. A Spanish tortilla is pretty much a gooey omelette with potatoes and Russian salad is pretty much a potatoes salad. They're both pretty good.

After the tapas we went to the concert of this Spanish guy named Alex Copper who apparently was in a famous band in the 80's. His music was very obviously late 70's early 80's. It was very happy music and it was fun seeing all these Spanish people belting it out. It was great. Halfway through I went with Linda outside by the ocean and we just chatted. Guys I can't express to you how beautiful the ocean is. It's just gorgeous. I love it. I saw Torres de Hercules in action so that was also pretty amazing. The concert went till 1 in the morning so I didn't get home till 1:30 but that's okay. The people I met Friday night were all amazing and I can't wait to hang with them again. Especially Linda. I just love her and her funny little Australian accent. Btw the picture above all this crazy writing is from the concert.

Saturday was quite a lengthy day but really fun. I had a YSA activity with all the YSA in the Galician region. I woke up at 9. Which isn't that early but when you stay up till 2:30 it can be. I was picked up by a girl named Andrea. She's super nice and likes to laugh but she doesn't speak much English. I like her anyway. There were 3 classes. One about getting married and finding a husband, one about finding a job and being self reliant, and one about serving a mission. I feel like the usual topics but they were all good classes. I had an elderly missionary couple who are from New Mexico translate some of the classes and then my new friend Vicky who I may have mentioned earlier translate the first class for me. She served her mission in England so that's how she knows English. I was weirdly worried that I would get to church and I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone. Luckily there are at least 5 people just in my ward that speak English. It may not seem like a lot but it's better than none.

After all the classes we had a dance. Which pretty much consisted of line dances. The dance turned into Karaoke. It was interesting but really fun. Every time an American song came on they'd rush over and be like, "Marley! Marley! Marley!" It was great. I ended up singing a lot of Justin Beiber. I made a lot of friends from all over the place. I'm kind of the baby here though. Everyone is like 24+. For instance I made friends with this girl named Luisanna who is studying for her masters in history at Santiago and she's 30. Good thing I know how to be friends with people of all ages! I made friends with another girl named Vimar who is going to BYU in January. Another girl who worked in Canada for a year named Bela. Both of them are from Vigo. And a girl named Kati who lived in the states for like 7 years or something and she lives here in La Coruna. So I had a lot of fun with a good chunk of English speakers. I met a lot of other people as well and I feel bad for not remembering their names. But again I'm amazed at the names I do remember.

This is the view from inside the church. There's chickens sometimes in the yard and it makes me weirdly happy.

After the activity I got dropped off and decided to go on a small adventure. I went to Zara and bought a really comfy slightly weird looking hoodie and then I went to a bakery and bought cookies for dinner. 'cause I'm just so healthy.

Today was similar to yesterday. In a sense. I woke up at 8:30 and got ready for church. Andrea picked me up again and I had a small conversation with her. We talked about yesterday and how it was fun. I sat next to Kati during Sacrament and she translated for me. The Patriarch and his wife were visiting from Madrid and talked about the blessings of tithing and fulfilling your calling. It was pretty cool hearing how the patriarch travels all over Spain to give blessings. There was a YSA Sunday school that I went to. They talked about the signs of Jesus coming again and how it's similar to the signs when Jesus came to the Americas. Relief Society is the same no matter where you go. Like exactly the same. The lesson was on honesty and they asked the sisters in the class if they had any personal experiences. Can you guess what their personal experiences were? "oh yeah this man at the store gave me to much change so I gave it back." etc. etc. I bet if I were to go to America and have the same lesson they would give an example like that. It makes me laugh. So yeah that was church!

I met so many people in the last three days. It's been amazing but I always feel bad. This is why. It turns out when I greet people for the first time I have an extremely bad habit of shaking peoples hands instead of doing the double kiss thing. This proves to be really awkward almost every time I meet a new person. Sometimes I remember to do the kiss thing but for the most part I forget. It's okay though I think for the most part people are understanding.

Anyway after church I came home and took a nap. Because what else do you do after church?! I then went out of the house for a while and took a stroll around La Coruna with Linda and two of her friends. One was from South Africa and the other was either from Australia or England. I forgot to ask and her accent was somewhere in there. They were pretty nice and I had a fun time meeting them.

Here I feel like a baby. I'm 18 right and everyone here is at least 23 usually older. The German Au Pairs were 19 but still. Everyone's all like, "Oh I thought you were at least 21." It's because I'm so tall or something. Or maybe I'm just super mature.  

So that was my week! Now to face another one filled with mystery and adventure. Till next week!

First Week!

Okay guys! I'm going to be honest with you. This week has been really fun and amazing but really hard. Like so hard! I cried a couple times. Just going to say it. The reason it was so hard I think is because I've gone through so much change in such a short amount of time. As I go through this post you'll see what I mean.

So my whole family went to the airport to drop me off. There was tears amongst us all. Except for not really dad. That was really shocking. At least to me.

My dearest Cho-Chan was being an alligator or something. She kept saying "chomp chomp" while gnashing her teeth. It made me realize how much I'm going to miss her. I feel like I've put the most effort into this kid so it was really sad to think I won't see her for a couple months.

Goodbye Virginia! I left Tuesday and got to A Coruna Wednesday. I got a window seat from Virginia to Philly. So that was nice even though it was my shortest flight. I had a 2 hour layover in Philly. I talked to some old grandmas who were going together on a trip down the Rhine. Mom when you're old be adventurous like that. But take me with you instead of some old lady friend. Anyway I then had a 7 hour flight to Heathrow. Luckily had an aisle seat. I would have hated being in the middle.  Heathrow airport is freaking huge! Like so big. I had to take a bus to one terminal to the other. I've also decided that people at that airport are extremely helpful and kind. They kept making sure I knew where I was going and my destination. No offence US but your airport customer service is lacking. I had to go through security again after I got off the plane. That was a little weird but not to big of a hassle. Then I waited and waited. I took a small nap. Or at least tried to. Dude everything is so cheap in Europe! I got lunch for like 5 bucks. A sandwich, yogurt, and fresh orange juice. Why can't everything always be cheap like that. My plane to A Coruna was delayed and made me kind of worried. It all worked out though. I wanted a window seat for that flight but I got stuck in the middle. So that sucked. When I got there the passport guy didn't speak very good English and gave me some trouble and when I went to pick up my luggage they had lost my suitcase! YAY! That part kind of stressed me out. Plus I was super tired. It was a long journey. But I made it and now I have my suitcase! Hallelujah!

Look everyone! I live in a magazine! That's seriously what I feel like anyway. Appearance here is taken very seriously. Houses are all prim and proper and everyone matches. Even their swimming suits are the same color! I'm lucky if my siblings are wearing clothes. And on the streets they're all so fashionable, which made me feel so ghetto because I just had a couple t-shirts and jeans in my carry on. Oh well. At least I had clothes. I got in at like 9 and they had waited to have dinner with me. Honestly I just wanted to sleep. That's okay though. We had lasagna. It wasn't really saucy it was more like noodles with meat, peppers, and cheese. It was pretty good. Not what I was expecting when she said lasagna though. But that's nothing compared to what I ate on Thursday. Just you wait!

Apparently on Wednesday Olivier's parents also came into town so on Thursday we did touristy things with them just in the town. But guess what guys!? They only speak French! Well the grandma did and the grandpa knew how to say hello and hold a very very simple conversation. So the family was speaking Spanish and French pretty much the whole time. This is one of the reasons this week was hard because I had no idea what was going on. They'd be planning something in French and then they'd be like oh yeah now we're doing this and I'd just kind of follow them around like a little duckling.

Anyway my first day we just walked around A Coruna. This is pretty much what the common streets in the old part of the city look like. Pretty darn amazing!

Like a ton of buildings have flowers hanging from the windows and it's amazing. I love it anyway.

And look what I had for my lunch that first day! You take off the heads and then eat the rest. It just tasted like fish but the look of it was really horrifying. But I ate it! I also ate calamari. That was  difficult. But again I did it! I also had these little roasted peppers that luckily weren't spicy. I still didn't like them that much though. Oh and I also had a Spanish Tortilla, who's name is very misleading to my uncultured Americaness. It's pretty much an omelette with potatoes in it.

Maria Pita as posted about earlier in my blog.

The beautiful blue ocean. But HOLY FREAKING CRAP it's FREEEEEEEEZING. I don't understand how people swim in it.

I found cool tide pools with sea urchins and other sea creatures. That was fun. Totally the highlight of my week.

Torres de Hercules. Also posted about early on my blog. Eventually I'll go up and visit it up close.

I think they call this the centennial spire. I could be wrong though. I need to do more research on it but it looks cool when the sun shines through it.

A local flower shop.

You know how I was saying they make plans and don't really tell me and I just have to kind of follow along. Well Friday through Sunday was like that. Guess where I went?! Sanxenxo! I didn't even stay in A Coruna for Two whole days. Now this was really cool but also really difficult for me as I was planning on going to church and meeting people. That was supposed to be my normality! But no it was ripped away! If you couldn't tell this kind of upset me. I'm fine with it now.

Sanxenxo was really quite beautiful though. I loved it.

The beaches were fabulous.

Like look at this amazing old church. They were prepping for a wedding and someone was singing hallelujah upstairs. It was beautiful.

View from the old chapel.

By the church with Matilda and Olivier. I really like Olivier. He praises my ukulele skills and makes jokes in a fun french accent. It's great.

We had coffee at a 5 star hotel. I had Orange Juice. BTW. Coffee is like a small break between breakfast and lunch. Lunch is usually at 2. So kind of late. Especially since breakfast is at around 8 when you wake up.

The cute chicos.

We went to this beach where the sand felt like flour. That was a really odd feeling, but still pretty cool.

We had lunch at this little cafe. I had pulpo! It didn't taste like much it just had a weird texture. I also had what I think was fish fin and squid in it's own ink. So weird. The fish fin was okay but I didn't really like the squid.

We went to a cool old Monastery. This little restaurant was outside and I just thought it was cute with it's grapevines growing all over the place.

I also took a picture of a cat. 'Cause I felt like it. Sucka!

Cool windows.

Just beautiful.

And cool bell towers.

We also walked around this cute little port town that had tons of witch souvenirs. Apparently they're lucky in this part of Spain.

Another beach. Sorry if you're getting bored of them.

There was also these cool old storage buildings. Apparently they're used to store grain and they are built in a special way to keep out rats. Pretty cool stuff.

Lastly on Sunday we went to Santiago! Say hello!

Cool old buildings.

Sweet old streets.

Flipping fantastic courtyards.

Really just a beautiful old city all around. 

There also was really cool small alleys.

And street performers. There was another guy on bagpipes.

Anyway but in all seriousness I think Santiago was my favorite place that I visited this past week. It was just filled with so much history and culture. More than any other place that I've been. I don't know how to explain it to you people. It was just amazing. I also went to a Catholic mass at the St. James Cathedral there in Santiago. It was definitely a new experience but really cool. I felt the spirit too. It kind of confirmed that what I was doing was the right thing for me and even though it was hard it would all be worth it. It kind of made up for me not being able to go to church. After the mass we went to a restaurant. I had a hamburger. Which still wasn't a hamburger. At least it didn't taste like one. I don't know it was weird. I'll say though that my most favorite thing that I've eaten so far is the Galician Crepe. So delicious. It's kind of like the crepes I usually have at home only they're smaller and taste kind of lemony. And they sometimes have different fillings. I had one just with whip cream but then I had another one with some pear filling with whip cream and chocolate. My Fav! We'll see if it's my fav after the next couple weeks. But after having a bunch of weird food that I've never had before it was nice having something that was similar to what I've had at home but still tasted flipping delicious and full of flavor. I don't know, I feel like the food is kind of bland here. That could just be me though. I might be to used to extreme quantities of salt and sugar in my diet. Anyway Sunday night we got home. I was able to call my family after practically no Internet connection to call them with. (I'm using whatsapp) I cried and people made fun of me but whatev's. I can't help that I'm close with them.

Well I think that's all I have to say for now. I'm kind of exhausted. Guys I did all of this in not even a week. I got here Wednesday. It's Monday. Can you see why I might have been a little weepy from exhaustion and so much change? Anyway I'm adjusting and already feel less homesick! Till next week!