The Joneses...

I hopped on the train, ticket in my hand and heart racing (I'd reached the platform just seconds before the train was due to leave). Scanning the nearly empty train and taking  a seat, I leaned back and looked out the window. Though it was mostly dark, I could still make out the English scenery as it passed me by. I shut my eyes for a moment and thought through my day: hot mulled wine, a walk through a London street fair, Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace. I felt like I'd seen it all, though I knew there was so much I had missed. It'd been a whirlwind couple of days (final exams, catching a flight from Malaga to Southampton, staying with a family I'd never met, etc.) and I was exhausted but excited to see some "family."

Stepping off at what I hoped was the right station, I was greeted by Audrey and Rebecca's beautiful smiling faces, hugs, and a warm cup of hot chocolate. It was the first occasion that I'd be with them without the rest of my family. Though we were technically unrelated, I'd spent enough time with the Jones family to think of them as my own. As we caught each other up on recent events, I found myself smiling uncontrollably; I could feel my happiness (or was it the warmth from the hot chocolate?) spreading throughout my body. We drove to their hotel, where Audrey handed me a small synthetic Christmas tree. Apparently they'd spent Christmas in a hotel before and had learned to bring their own Christmas decorations. Rebecca, Clara and I set to the task of putting up the tree and wrapping it with tinsel (by the next morning we had some other decorations as well, but how we got them is another story all together!).

That night, I enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner at a restaurant with with their extended family. As always, every second with them was fun and entertaining: from ordering drinks to suspicious trips downstairs to the bathroom, I was a ball of laughter the whole night through. The girls (Rebecca, Clara, and I) shared a hotel room, and we talked late into the night about typical teenager things (much to Clara's dismay) and caught up on each other's social lives.

Bright and early (okay, eight o'clock might not seem so early to some of you, but when you're on Spanish time it's way, way too early) the next morning we walked around the corner to Marks&Spencers, where we shopped for breakfast food to take back into the hotel. In typical Jones family vacation style, the kids were handed baskets and told to get something that they wanted: we ended up with many, many chocolate brioches and croissants, as well as a good portion of fruit (yum!).

After our breakfast we made our way to Hampton Court Palace (home of King Henry VIII and his many, many wives), where we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and took a spin on a very fast carousel. Eventually, it grew too cold and dreary for even the Scots I was with, so we made our way to a movie theater and treated ourselves to Nativity 2: danger in the manger (starring David Tennant).

Sadly, my time with the Joneses was running out; they took me to the train station (where we batted our eyelashes at the manager to let the whole family come see me off on the platform) and set me off on my train back to Andover. As I got comfortable in my seat, I noticed a strange commotion from the corner of my eye. Much to my surprise (and glee) the whole family was standing outside the train window, shouting and jumping and waving. As I pulled out my camera to catch a photo of their craziness, the whole cabin's attention turned to me, the strange young American girl with lunatic (yet loving) relatives.  As they chased the train down the platform, I felt like the luckiest and most loved girl in the world.

Merry Christmas everyone :) I had a fantastic time in England, and may even post another story from my week there! It feels strange to come home to Spain instead of California, but I'm excited for the New Year and all the wonderful things it will bring.

As always,
Love From Marbella,
ShonaBell

1/3 Check-in

I'm one third of the way though my exchange year! How crazy is that!?

These last few days school have been practically non-existant. I didn't even go today because only 5 other students showed up on Wednesday, and only one of them was planning to go today. Officially, there is school tomorrow, but most of the "instituto" (upperclassmen) students ditch. Either way, I'm catching a four o'clock flight to England *big smile* so I'm not going to school. As much as I enjoy missing school (like any normal teenager), a surprisingly large part of me is sad when I don't go to school. I love getting to see my friends everyday and having something to do with my time. This past trimester my improvement socially and academically was tremendous. I started off as the weird, blonde exchange student who barely knew any Spanish, and now I'm more or less just one of the class. We received our grades today and I did a lot better than I'd originally thought I'd do:
Physical Education - 7
Spanish Literature - 4
Science - 5
Philosophy - 1
English - 10
History - 4
Latin - 10
Greek - 9
French - 9
Group Project - 7
Keep in mind that a 5 is good (all the grades are out of 10) and anything about a 7 is exceptionally rare. Considering that I'd expected to pass Latin, English, and PE, I'm pretty pleased with my "notas."

I found out today that I'm going to be living with +Vanessa LUSA's host family come January. I'm not for sure what my moving date will be, but it should be somewhere around the 6th or 15th. More news on this to follow :)

As for my "viaje" to England, I'm going to be staying with my Rotary counselor Nina's family in Winchester. I get to spend a night in London with my friends the Jones family (major "yay" on this one). I'm planning to post something while I'm there, so keep an eye out for my post.

That's all for now, I hope everyone has a very, very Merry Christmas!!
Love From Marbella,
Shonabell

P.S. my conscience is slowly loosing its ability to spell in English -- I had to go back through this so many times to fix my spelling! Yikes!!

I can see

I gave a presentation to my English class today. Though I spoke in English (as asked for by my teacher), pictures are worth a thousand words in every language, so I think my classmates understood most of what I was saying. I showed them what my life is like back home: my school, family, home, friends, everything that I used to associate with being me. I'm not generally a shy person, and I enjoy speaking in front of large groups, so the feeling of vulnerability that struck me at the end of my presentation was a bit of a shock. I'd just told these people my life story. One hour, that's all it took to show them my world. The thoughts hit me like a hurricane, and for the first time I truly realized how big the world was. Just as my Spanish classmates couldn't fully comprehend my life in California (is your school private? it's HUGE!...so you're library is the size of a church?...you really have cliques?...Pajama Day -- Cool!), neither will the people in California truly understand the life here in Spain. The privilege of living two lives has opened my eyes to how small we are in this big, big world. And in those moments as I walked down the long flights of stairs, my friends laughing by my side, I was terrified and fascinated by everything around me. It was a wonderful, intimidating feeling. I could see the world, its vastness, and I wanted to explore every bit of it.

Love from Marbella,
Shonabell

my presentation: http://prezi.com/sdtoo_gvkb60/california-livin/