Monday, January 28, 2013
Another Home
There's a dart board on the righthand wall, three green and three red darts stuck nicely in place, holes on the surrounding wall memories of games long over. I'm curled up on a blue, green, and yellow checkered futon, a fuzzy blanket wrapped around my legs and toes. The room is just warm enough that I don't need to get up and turn on the heater that is nicely placed in the center of the room; I can imagine the whirring of it's fan, the heat radiating in my direction, and the slight blinking of the red light that would constantly catch my eye. My school books are stacked (mostly) neatly in the corner, and my head aches just the tiniest bit as I think of my science exam this Friday. I wonder if I can hear the quiet footsteps of my host dad coming through the door; it is him, he shouts "Hola" down the stairs and turns back out the door to take the dog for a walk. "Ding" goes my laptop, signaling a Facebook message and causing me to grin involuntarily. A cootie catcher sits on a shelf to my left, surrounded by CDs, DVDs, cords, pens, and other nicknacks; it reminds me of Callie and the countless times she's asked me to "pick a color" (or a number, or an animal, etc.). I miss California, but I already feel at home in my new family. It feels fantastic to be welcomed here with such open arms, not just by my host parents but also by the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I'm looking forward to the wonderful months to come, and am, quite simply, happy.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Moving Day
We lunched on (can I say that? or is that not a phrase? sorry, my English is deteriorating at an incredibly alarming rate!) a delicious spaghetti bolognese, lettuce with cheese dressing, followed by a pear and some ice cream cake (sorry mom, totally forgot to take photos! next time I promise to remember). After lunch, my host dad helped me set up the internet on my electronic devices, and I made my way down to the den to get some homework done (and write this blog). I already feel quite comfortable here, which is a wonderful feeling. My new host parents are wonderful and I can't wait to become part of their family!
kitchen
kitchen
my bedroom
neatly stacked books and random belongings
the "den"
no matter where I am... there's always homework to do
Shonabell
Sunday, January 13, 2013
A Jumbling of Thoughts
There are so many things running through my head that it's hard enough to keep them straight without trying to coordinate them into coherent phrases. Not to mention that spelling in English has become obnoxiously difficult (I just spelt coherent as "coherant" and obnoxiously as "abnoxiously" -- thank goodness for spellcheck).
My room is a mess, clothes strewn all over the couch, a half-packed suitcase and unused boxes covering the floor. In the corner a pile of boxes sit, leaning precariously to one side waiting for the right breeze to blow them all over. It won't be my room for much longer, but by then I will have erased my presence from every wall, every shelf, every corner. I wonder if my host brother will, when he comes home, be able to feel any remnants of my five month stay here. Most likely I will never know.
The blue Rotary blazer hangs on my door, decorated in pins and dripping with keychains. A constant reminder that this year is more than just a year of my life, each time I see my jacket I feel the need to go out, experience more, and make the most of this every-so-quickly fleeting year.
I never would have thought I could go this long without a haircut; my hair falls down in it's usual not-quite-straight, not-quite-curly fashion, and I can't wait for summer to turn me blonde once more.
Marbella is beautiful and sunny, and my host dad keeps complaining that winter seems to have already passed us by. Myself, I'm fully enjoying the sunshine and looking forward to wearing shorts again. That, and being able to go and lie out on the beach :).
Things seem to be moving forward: I've made more friends recently, which should help my Spanish improve. My teachers are expecting more of me this trimester than they did in the last one; I'm glad they think my Spanish is improving, but I very much enjoyed the relaxing aspect of these past four months. Looking back at the beginning of the year, when I had to use google translate to understand the textbook, I'm incredibly proud of how far my Spanish has come. I may not even have to try much harder and my grades will still continue improving (one of the pros of being an exchange student).
For those of you waiting to hear more news about the mysterious blue-eyed boy, I'm sorry to disappoint but my life has taken a turn in a different (but still very cliché-movie-moment-esque) direction.
I'm finding it very hard not to laugh in my Spanish Literature class at the moment: my teacher has taken to using a microphone in class. No one is exactly sure why she does it, but she's a bit frightening so we're all to afraid to ask. She also wants me to start writing essays for her, but in English. Though I've tried to explain to her that I'd rather do it in Spanish and receive no scores for her class (I don't need credit for the course), either I'm not doing a good job getting my point across or she's just ignoring what I'm saying. I've talked to some of the other teachers about it, and they said they would talk to her for me.
Just the other day I sent in my confirmation for Spain's Rotary Trip; we get to travel through southern Spain, go to the world conference in Lisbon, and then make our way up through Portugal. I'm sure you'll hear much more about it as I get closer to the trip, which is in June.
Well folks, that's pretty much all the stuff bouncing around in my brain at the moment. I switch host families on Friday, so look for a post about that in a week or so. I hope everyone at home is doing well and enjoying being back to school.
I miss you all!
Love from Marbella,
Shonabell
For those of you waiting to hear more news about the mysterious blue-eyed boy, I'm sorry to disappoint but my life has taken a turn in a different (but still very cliché-movie-moment-esque) direction.
I'm finding it very hard not to laugh in my Spanish Literature class at the moment: my teacher has taken to using a microphone in class. No one is exactly sure why she does it, but she's a bit frightening so we're all to afraid to ask. She also wants me to start writing essays for her, but in English. Though I've tried to explain to her that I'd rather do it in Spanish and receive no scores for her class (I don't need credit for the course), either I'm not doing a good job getting my point across or she's just ignoring what I'm saying. I've talked to some of the other teachers about it, and they said they would talk to her for me.
Just the other day I sent in my confirmation for Spain's Rotary Trip; we get to travel through southern Spain, go to the world conference in Lisbon, and then make our way up through Portugal. I'm sure you'll hear much more about it as I get closer to the trip, which is in June.
Well folks, that's pretty much all the stuff bouncing around in my brain at the moment. I switch host families on Friday, so look for a post about that in a week or so. I hope everyone at home is doing well and enjoying being back to school.
I miss you all!
Love from Marbella,
Shonabell
Saturday, January 5, 2013
The Magic of A Pink Unicorn Balloon
Children run through Marbella's streets, plastic bags flying behind them like parachutes. The sound of their laughter is mixed with the slip-slap of wind as it catches the bags. I can sense the excitement in the air. A group of four children grab hands and twirl together; one girl looses her bag and her friends scramble after it, the excitement in their eyes shining brighter than any of the twinkle lights that adorn the trees and street lamps.
A grandfather bends down across the street from me and takes the hand of a young boy, whom I presume to be his grandson. They exchange secret smiles and lean their heads into the street, both straining for a glimpse of the oncoming parade. There's a tenderness in his gesture that seems to emanate through the throngs of people that line Marbella's streets. Everyone has come out for this important day: the old, the young, even the I'm-too-cool-teenagers have managed to show up. My eyes meander through the people and I notice the typical Spanish tradition of stoppin and talking to everyone you know. One woman, in her elderly years, walks down the street with what I assume is her family. Every few feet, she stops to greet someone: a child, an adult, a girl, a boy. Each person she calls out to smiles at her approach and greets her as an old friend; a kiss on each cheek and a catch up on life.
My attention drifts to the balloons that every other child seems to cling to. I see their mothers glance worryingly upwards every few seconds, as if nervous that the balloon will disappear and their child's special day will be ruined. I feel a sudden urge to buy a balloon, wishing that it would lift me off the ground and take me back to my childhood. There's a part of me that aches terribly to laugh freely like these children that run around me, to have their freedom of thought and their honest trust in the magic of the world.
Suddenly, a quiet hush comes over the street. I can hear it, just barely, the magical whisper that has begun to fill the air, "vienen ya." The words echo through the crowd, bringing smiles to their faces and causing the children to rush to their parents sides, plastic bags open and at the ready. Anticipation is building, the thrum of drums is coming from some place not so far away.
A cheer! Children rush gleefully to see the floats pass by, tugging their parents along behind them. As if reminiscing the days of their youth, the grandparents seem to glance amongst each other knowingly. My camera goes "click click" as I snap photos of the beautiful parade; I take a deep breath and let all my inhibitions go.
Los Reyes are here, and I am smiling.
A grandfather bends down across the street from me and takes the hand of a young boy, whom I presume to be his grandson. They exchange secret smiles and lean their heads into the street, both straining for a glimpse of the oncoming parade. There's a tenderness in his gesture that seems to emanate through the throngs of people that line Marbella's streets. Everyone has come out for this important day: the old, the young, even the I'm-too-cool-teenagers have managed to show up. My eyes meander through the people and I notice the typical Spanish tradition of stoppin and talking to everyone you know. One woman, in her elderly years, walks down the street with what I assume is her family. Every few feet, she stops to greet someone: a child, an adult, a girl, a boy. Each person she calls out to smiles at her approach and greets her as an old friend; a kiss on each cheek and a catch up on life.
My attention drifts to the balloons that every other child seems to cling to. I see their mothers glance worryingly upwards every few seconds, as if nervous that the balloon will disappear and their child's special day will be ruined. I feel a sudden urge to buy a balloon, wishing that it would lift me off the ground and take me back to my childhood. There's a part of me that aches terribly to laugh freely like these children that run around me, to have their freedom of thought and their honest trust in the magic of the world.
Suddenly, a quiet hush comes over the street. I can hear it, just barely, the magical whisper that has begun to fill the air, "vienen ya." The words echo through the crowd, bringing smiles to their faces and causing the children to rush to their parents sides, plastic bags open and at the ready. Anticipation is building, the thrum of drums is coming from some place not so far away.
A cheer! Children rush gleefully to see the floats pass by, tugging their parents along behind them. As if reminiscing the days of their youth, the grandparents seem to glance amongst each other knowingly. My camera goes "click click" as I snap photos of the beautiful parade; I take a deep breath and let all my inhibitions go.
Los Reyes are here, and I am smiling.
Friday, December 28, 2012
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
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!).
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).
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
Thursday, December 20, 2012
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!!
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!!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
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/
Love from Marbella,
Shonabell
my presentation: http://prezi.com/sdtoo_gvkb60/california-livin/
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