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/

Labels and Pumpkin Pie

I wore my Rotary Exchange shirt to school yesterday and was pleasantly surprised when a friend from my class asked me where I had gone on exchange. Laughing quite a bit, I replied, "um... Spain?" It took her a second, but she figured it out and we enjoyed a good laugh over it. I found it hard to believe that she didn't remember that I was on exchange from California, but was pleased that my "exchange student" label was starting to wear off. In the beginning, I felt like I had a big "Made in the USA" label stamped onto my forehead. While it was useful when I needed extra help, my obvious foreignness was a bit of a barrier between myself and the other students. My status as "extranjero" isn't gone completely, it's faded to the point where I feel as if I fit in here. My Spanish isn't superb, but I understand the teachers and can hold a good conversation. I have friends who seek me out for help and ask me to wait for them so we might walk together, who are proud of my high test scores and laugh with me when I miserably fail. The teachers generally expect me to do the homework and participate in class, though I suspect they give me a bit of slack on the exams (I don't get docked points for spelling and grammar, thank goodness!!). I'm pulling high scores in Latin, Greek, and French, improving slowly in Science and History, hopefully passing PE (learned how to do a cartwheel in class the other day!) and full out failing Philosophy (a girl can only do so much haha). These past few weeks we've had a lot of free classes do to teacher absences; they give me more time to work on my conversational skills with my peers, which I love. My friend Claudia (from Australia) and I get together most Wednesdays after school to study, which is incredibly helpful because she knows way more Spanish than I do. We've become Wednesday regulars at a local restaurant, though the guy who calls out names still can't pronounce my name correctly! Oh well, he's got seven more months to get it right!!

These past couple of days have been incredibly cold, only a little above freezing in the morning, plus high humidity and sharp winds. Most days I do my homework while curled up in my bed and drinking Nutella soy milk.

I'm realizing that I didn't post about my Thanksgiving: to sum it up, my exchange friend and I made it up, my exchange friends and I made dinner for ourselves and some local rotarians. We, the exchange students, got permission to take friday off and spent it in Gibraltar! As the only one of us who'd been there before, I attempted to tour us around (which mostly consisted of searching for monkeys). I'm proud to say we made it all the way around and a ways up the rock without becoming helplessly loss!

Besides that, life here is pretty normal! My new yoga class is awesome, I really need to do some laundry, and I think I may be getting a cold (bring on the mandarins, kiwis, and orange juice!). I'm missing home quite a bit since it's the holidays, but I'm looking forward to spending Christmas in England!!

I hope everyone at home had a wonderful Thanksgiving <3 I'm thankful for all of you and your support!

Love from Marbella,
Shonabell

 it's not Thanksgiving without lots and lots of Pumpkin Pie!!

 Las Chicas!

 Dinner :)

 YUM

 Just so cool in Gibraltar

 Mis Amigos at the castle in Gibraltar

FInally got to see the monkeys! This guy just chilled with us while we took lots of photos and videos :)

Little Sister

Dear Callie,
I've never had a big sister, let alone an older sibling, which means I've never really known the responsibilities of my job: do I buy you lots of presents, fight with you, give you advice, lend you my clothes, ignore you, laugh with you? These three months away have given me a long time to think about what it means to be your older sister. It means that I love you unconditionally. It means that we can talk about anything, and that I always have someone to hug when I'm feeling sad. Most of all, it means I miss you so much that the thought of being away for seven more months is almost unbearable. I miss tiptoeing into and out of our room in the dark so as not to wake you, I miss the way you sometimes talk in your sleep, I miss the way your face lit up when I showed you a new Taylor Swift song, and the way you can talk and talk for hours. I miss seeing you dance around the house, and I miss the noise you make when you tap your feet under the counter. I miss doing your hair and makeup when you dressed up as a princess, and buying you all the silly little presents that mom never would. I miss you speaking non-stop Spanish to me even though you knew I didn't understand a word, and I miss the way you laugh and laugh at your own jokes. I miss holding your hand in parking lots and helping you play computer games. Most of all, I miss you calling me "Shawny" and the way, when you smiled at me I knew without a doubt that you loved me.

I know I'm not here for you this year, and I'm sorry for that. You have grown up so much already in the time that I've been gone! Third grade was a big year for me: I learned my times tables, my dream was to live on a ranch with my best friend with lots of horses, I earned my black belt, and (how could I forget) you were born!  I always thought of myself as a leader, but looking back I tried so hard to fit it that I almost lost myself along the way. You're already much braver than I was, and I'm so proud of your ability to stay true to yourself even when everyone else is doing something else. There are things I'd wish someone had told my eight year old self (or rather, I wish I had listened to some of the things people told me!). I may not be there for you whenever you need me this year, but here is some advice that will hopefully get you through some of those sticky situations...

It's okay to make mistakes, just make sure to learn from them.

Mom and Dad are usually right.

Telling the truth makes life a lot easier, even if it doesn't seem like it will in the moment.

Listen to whatever music YOU like, not what your friends say is cool.

Don't be afraid to sing and dance in front of people.

Always do your homework and try your best on tests, but if you occasionally get things wrong it's OKAY.

Watch Disney movies as often as possible.

Read often, but don't forget to go out and live in the real world too.

Smile at people even if they're not one of your friends.

Boys are silly -- don't ever let one of them make you feel bad about yourself. You are perfect just the way you are.

Practice the splits everyday -- at least one of us kids needs to be semi-flexible!

Try new things and seize opportunities. I always wish I had been in theater and played softball, but was too scared to try!

Believe in fairies.

And always remember that your big sister loves you <3.

I miss you so much Callie-Boo.
Lots and Lots of Love from Marbella,
*Shawny* xoxo

Time Between Us

Hola everyone!

Check out my guest blog on tamarairelandstone.com (click on "blog") -- enjoy!!

Love from Marbella,
Shona Bell

Remembering Why

As I inch closer to the three month mark, my life in Marbella is becoming just that: my life. I'm settling in. School in Spanish is now just schol: no longer a foreign place full of confusion and stress; rather, school is filled with challenges I am overcoming day by day. Make friends: check. Learn more Spanish: check. Do the homework: check. Pass a test -- well, let's just say I still have a ways to go before that happens (though I've got a Latin exam on Friday that I'm feeling prepared for). I stand out less: my spanish is better than most of the tourists' and retiree population's, I dress like a Spaniard (for the most part -- still not ready to trade in my TOMS for a pair of Converse), I've finally figured out how to work the bus system, and I love my siestas (and fiestas) like the rest of them.

Still, I have my doubtful moments. Just this past weekend, I was seriously questioning my decision to go on exchange. I felt lonely, stressed, and scared. Sunday morning was characterized by my loneliness and homesickness; I was so depressed that the very thought of moving from my bed seemed impossible. Luckily, I've got a good support system behind me; at the core of which are the other exchange students here in Marbella. Knowing I was in a "funk," Vanessa and her host mom dragged me out of my room (okay, out of my bed -- yes, I know three in the afternoon is a little late to still be in my PJs) and over to their house. We made crepes (chocolate&banana and sugar&mango - yum!). The sweet smell that filled their kitchen alone was enough to cheer me up, and our easy conversations, in Spanish of course, just added to my rejuvenated spirit. Mamen, Vanessa's host mom, is one of the warmest and most caring people I've ever met; the conversation between all three of us, despite a slight language barrier, is that of old friends. Our stomachs full and spirits high, Vanessa and I tramped down a few flights of stairs to their "den," watched the Big Bang Theory (at first in Spanish, but we eventually switched the settings so we could listen to Sheldon's voice -- it's just not the same dubbed!) and enjoyed ranting back and forth about our lives. By the end of the evening, I was feeling confident once again: Vanessa and Mamen had succeeded in reminding me why I came here.

In other news, my Spanish is still improving with every passing day. I can finally say things in past tense and am understanding most of what goes on in class! Marbella is raining buckets at the moment. I usually have an umbrella, but that only makes so much of a difference when the cars drive through puddles at racing speeds, causing waves of water to splash upon me. I can't really complain though, there's something incredibly soothing about changing out of wet clothes and into warm sweats, then joining my host parents for a hot meal. On days when I'm feeling especially chilled, I make myself hot soy milk with nutella -- sounds weird, I know, but yummmm. It's ten times better than your average hot chocolate :).

A quick congrats to all of my friends at home (and abroad) who just voted for the first time!

Love from Marbella,
Shona Bell

P.S. Does anyone know a good recipe for pumpkin pie that begins with a real pumpkin? They don't sell canned pumpkin (heck, they don't sell ANYTHING pumpkin) here in Spain, and I'm craving a slice or two (or ten) or pumpkin pie.