So far I've had one amazing experience! I've been to Toledo one of the most beautiful towns I've ever seen, filled with so much Spanish history and legendary architecture; I've been shopping at Bvlgari in Madrid; hiking in the Spanish mountains north of Madrid; and lived for two months as a 'normal Spanish teenager'.
Everything here is starting to feel really routine to me especially school. I really love my school here. It's so different from America in every way possible, but really great. A major difference from American high-school is that you stay in one class room for all you classes, and your with the same students for every class all year. This year I'm majoring in languages: Latin and Greek, and I absolutely love it. Having two years of Latin first definitely helped me to understand more. I'm also managing pretty well in Greek, and have really grown to love the class. Apart from my majoring classes, I'm also taking lenuga (language arts), historia (history), filosofia (philosophy), ciencia (science: neuro science), application Ingles, and English... All of the mandatory classes for students in my grade.
My Spanish has come so far already, and I'm constantly amazing myself with words (in Spanish) that just pop out of my mouth. My friends, family, and teachers, have been telling me how much I'm improving and I'm so glad. My previous two years of Latin really helped me alot along with my Rosetta Stone, but I know I would have been so much better off if I had completely applied myself to learning Spanish 100% last year. Although it is what it is, and you never can really imagine how much more difficult it will be until you're in the situation yourself.
I've built some really great relationships with people here now. Not only with my family but also with many different people from school and outside of school. My participation in activities after school has really helped me a whole lot during my exchange.
Right now, I have a very busy schedule. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I take dance classes for one hour. It's so fun and I absolutely love my instructor. Having danced practically my whole life, I am so happy to be taking up this opportunity to continue one of my favorite pastimes from America but in a new Spanish way. The nice thing is when I'm dancing in the studio with all the other dancers, and we're moving in sync, (in those moments, for that hour) I just forget about the language barrier, the cultural differences, the daily confusions, and I can just focus on me and the music. I love it! My other school activity teaching English at Daniel's Centre, an academy for learning English. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach and co-teach classes for the little ones (about 6-9 years old) for four hours. I stumbled upon this wonderful opportunity one day when I was talking to my Rotary counselor. I had told her that I was considering one day being a language teacher myself because I love teaching and languages both. After learning this about me, my counselor offered me the opportunity to work with the little one's whenever I wanted! After my first class with the little ones I completely fell in love with the students and made going to Daniel's Centre part of my regular schedule. I've also made so many friends from Daniel's Centre (and not just the other teachers). Sometimes after the classes with the little kids I'll go visit the classes of the older kids and help them out too which is also fun. Today they were all dressed up in their scary Halloween outfits and we carved pumpkins! It was a blast, and the perfect example of why I love going there!
I can't believe how the time is beginning to fly, and I know my exchange will be up before I know it. For now I can just be present in all the great moments I'm living, carpe diem, take pictures, and write in my journal. I'm also going to make an effort to be much better with my blog, although it's been difficult since the internet here is very inconsistent, but no excuses... You'll be hearing from me more often. A special thanks to everyone for reading my blog! Un besito de España!
Xoxo Hana
No comments:
Post a Comment