Rio de Los Manzanares and the Catedral de La Almudena
Cercedilla PuebloMy friend Fernando lives en Cercedilla and they got about 5" of snow, my little pueblo got about 1".
Friday, December 19, 2008
PASSWORD
Hola Everybody!
After three months of living in Spain the Spanish TV networks finally realized I was here and asked me to be on one of their TV shows. Actually out of the blue our language teacher announced that, if we wanted to, our class could be on a game show called PASSWORD.
The game show is played as follows:
There are two celebrities. Each celebrity is paired with a student from one of the schools around Madrid. The celebrity says a clue and the student guesses what the verb/noun/adjective is that the celebrity is reading off of a TV screen; if the student guesses what is on the screen then a new word appears on the screen, the student who guesses the most number of words can win up to 25,000 Euros for their school. There are three clues per word and 30 seconds per round.
There are more rules and different rounds with some slight twists but that is basically how the game is played. Our class got 2nd place because the celebrity couldn't guess a word which was, in my and the the rest of the students opinions, pretty easy. We did end up winning 2,500 Euros, but the 25,000 would have been nice :)
We arrived at the studio at ~7:50 PM and had to wait in a small trailer with 30 students until 10:30 PM. The game show was interesting, but the celebrities seemed so fake (I did get a Santa hat that says PASSWORD). The celebrities were a comedian from a TV program called Siete Vidas (Seven Lives) who was pretty funny as well as a TV anchorman. I think the host of the show is also an anchorwoman. Our teacher told us we'd get home around 10:00 PM but when we got to the studio we found out we'd probably get home after midnight. Oh well, I skipped the first two classes the next morning so that was ok.
After three months of living in Spain the Spanish TV networks finally realized I was here and asked me to be on one of their TV shows. Actually out of the blue our language teacher announced that, if we wanted to, our class could be on a game show called PASSWORD.
The game show is played as follows:
There are two celebrities. Each celebrity is paired with a student from one of the schools around Madrid. The celebrity says a clue and the student guesses what the verb/noun/adjective is that the celebrity is reading off of a TV screen; if the student guesses what is on the screen then a new word appears on the screen, the student who guesses the most number of words can win up to 25,000 Euros for their school. There are three clues per word and 30 seconds per round.
There are more rules and different rounds with some slight twists but that is basically how the game is played. Our class got 2nd place because the celebrity couldn't guess a word which was, in my and the the rest of the students opinions, pretty easy. We did end up winning 2,500 Euros, but the 25,000 would have been nice :)
We arrived at the studio at ~7:50 PM and had to wait in a small trailer with 30 students until 10:30 PM. The game show was interesting, but the celebrities seemed so fake (I did get a Santa hat that says PASSWORD). The celebrities were a comedian from a TV program called Siete Vidas (Seven Lives) who was pretty funny as well as a TV anchorman. I think the host of the show is also an anchorwoman. Our teacher told us we'd get home around 10:00 PM but when we got to the studio we found out we'd probably get home after midnight. Oh well, I skipped the first two classes the next morning so that was ok.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thanksgiving
I had Thanksgiving at the home of the pastor of my church. The pastor has been a missionary here for ~25 years and they always invite all the Americans to have Thanksgiving. It was quite different than my normal Thanksgiving. Actually not too different; just that everything was very fancy. Wine, candles, etc. The company was great as well. There was a girl who lived in Sisters last year so we had a good time talking about Central Oregon. Here are some random fun facts I learned from the group:
- Some homeless people have wi-fi under a bridge in Madrid and are quite tidy. No it's not pronounced "wy-fy", in Spanish it's "wee-fee".
- The pastor's son, Ryan, said that one time he ran away from the ticket taker on the train just to see what he would do. The ticket taker finally caught up to him a few train cars down and Ryan showed him his ticket. The guy asked/yelled, "Why did you run?" and Ryan replied, "Why did you run?"
- One time our worship leader, Kenny, was (literally) running late to catch a train and didn't have time to buy a ticket. He asked a security guard who was boarding at the same time if he could pay on the train; the man said yes. When the train's doors closed the security guard fined him for not having a ticket. After a few moments of confusion Kenny started egging the man on and finally the security guard called him a bad name. After that Kenny took down his name and information. The train company dropped the fine after Kenny wrote to them saying he felt: insulted, ashamed to ride on their trains and was going to sue.
- Last year there was a strike by the parking enforcement because sometimes people would beat them up when they got a ticket. The parking enforcement wanted a security guard accompanying them. Everybody supported the strike. It was the best two weeks of parking in Madrid.
- Some homeless people have wi-fi under a bridge in Madrid and are quite tidy. No it's not pronounced "wy-fy", in Spanish it's "wee-fee".
- The pastor's son, Ryan, said that one time he ran away from the ticket taker on the train just to see what he would do. The ticket taker finally caught up to him a few train cars down and Ryan showed him his ticket. The guy asked/yelled, "Why did you run?" and Ryan replied, "Why did you run?"
- One time our worship leader, Kenny, was (literally) running late to catch a train and didn't have time to buy a ticket. He asked a security guard who was boarding at the same time if he could pay on the train; the man said yes. When the train's doors closed the security guard fined him for not having a ticket. After a few moments of confusion Kenny started egging the man on and finally the security guard called him a bad name. After that Kenny took down his name and information. The train company dropped the fine after Kenny wrote to them saying he felt: insulted, ashamed to ride on their trains and was going to sue.
- Last year there was a strike by the parking enforcement because sometimes people would beat them up when they got a ticket. The parking enforcement wanted a security guard accompanying them. Everybody supported the strike. It was the best two weeks of parking in Madrid.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Segovia: Land of History and Funny Train Stories
A couple weekends ago some friends invited me to go to to Segovia, a city in a neighboring region. My friend Raquel and I were supposed to meet in Villalba, board the train together, and then meet up with our friend, Fernando, in another train station on the way to Segovia. However, I missed the early train and had to get on the train heading to Segovia. This wouldn't be so bad, but Segovia is about an hour away, the train only comes every hour, and my friend wasn't answering her phone...oh yeah, I also didn't have a ticket because in my little train station you can only buy tickets for the Madrid region. Fortunately we all met up fine. However, I still didn't have a ticket, I was planning to buy it in Segovia it would be morally ok or maybe pay for a different ticket that costs less because the train system fined me a different time even though I had a ticket (long story).
Fernando assured me everything would be okay; I asked what would happen if somebody came around checking tickets and he told me everything would be fine, there probably wouldn't be anybody checking tickets and even if there was it would be okay. You can probably guess what happened...yes! there did happen to be a ticket-checker lady (I have know idea what you call them) on the train. When we saw her Fernando got a little worried look in his eyes. We devised a plan where I would act like the innocent American tourist and try to communicate in very broken Spanish while my friends would explain to me in broken English what was going. In the end we were able to avoid the 15 Euro fine and were allowed to pay for the ticket on the train.
Segovia is known for it's cathedral, castle, but most importantly for it's massive aqueduct. The aqueduct was built by the Romans without using any type of cement. Everything is still intact, stretching more than 2700 ft and standing almost 100ft high. The cathedral was massive, ceilings 70 ft high...also kind of creepy. I can imagine people singing goulish hymns and a priest condemning everybody.
The temperature probably dropped below freezing and the slight wind didn't help very much. We spent a fair amount of time next to the radiators in the visitors center.
Fernando assured me everything would be okay; I asked what would happen if somebody came around checking tickets and he told me everything would be fine, there probably wouldn't be anybody checking tickets and even if there was it would be okay. You can probably guess what happened...yes! there did happen to be a ticket-checker lady (I have know idea what you call them) on the train. When we saw her Fernando got a little worried look in his eyes. We devised a plan where I would act like the innocent American tourist and try to communicate in very broken Spanish while my friends would explain to me in broken English what was going. In the end we were able to avoid the 15 Euro fine and were allowed to pay for the ticket on the train.
Segovia is known for it's cathedral, castle, but most importantly for it's massive aqueduct. The aqueduct was built by the Romans without using any type of cement. Everything is still intact, stretching more than 2700 ft and standing almost 100ft high. The cathedral was massive, ceilings 70 ft high...also kind of creepy. I can imagine people singing goulish hymns and a priest condemning everybody.
The temperature probably dropped below freezing and the slight wind didn't help very much. We spent a fair amount of time next to the radiators in the visitors center.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
What I've Done the Past Couple Weeks:
- Climbed the highest mountain in La Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Range). It actually wasn't that high (~2,400 meters) and was just an easy hike up, but it was pretty cool. I'd rate this mountain about a 0 out of 10 for solitude. There were about 40 people at the summit, not counting the people still hiking up.
- Didn't go/have many classes this past week due to a teacher not showing up, setting my alarm clock wrong, not needing to take a test, and sleeping in because I stayed up late watching the elections.
- Got invited to go to Madrid to drink and party on Halloween. I ended up teaching some friends how to make pumpkin pie and caramel apples.
- Didn't embarrass myself too much during a volleyball practice
- Ate Kebap (Turkish food) and watched a movie with some friends from church.
Interesting Things I've Noticed:
- The Spanish people are very proud of their country. Someone mentioned that the greatest bullfighter in the world is from a neighboring town. I can't think of another country where people have bullfights except maybe Mexico.
- A jar of about two cups of peanut butter costs ~$6 and Nutella is about half the price!
- Lots of people use trekking poles to hike. It's kinda funny because it seems like it'd be more of a hindrance than actually helpful for the trails I've seen people using the poles on.
- Students here care a ton about school. However, I don't think they care too much about learning, only passing the exams at the end of the year.
- Spain has the craziest billboards. One said, "They Eat Meat", and had a picture of two very fit looking people. The vegetarians are abused here.
- Music from America is way, way more popular than music from Spain.
- A friend asked me the other day what are the white things that people roast over the fire in the American movies (s'mores), nobody here knows what they are! She thought maybe it was meat.
- They don't eat peanut butter!!!
Be sure to check out my pics. The link is at the bottom of the page. (I've got a few albums so you can choose which one to look at on the left side of the page)
- Climbed the highest mountain in La Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Range). It actually wasn't that high (~2,400 meters) and was just an easy hike up, but it was pretty cool. I'd rate this mountain about a 0 out of 10 for solitude. There were about 40 people at the summit, not counting the people still hiking up.
- Didn't go/have many classes this past week due to a teacher not showing up, setting my alarm clock wrong, not needing to take a test, and sleeping in because I stayed up late watching the elections.
- Got invited to go to Madrid to drink and party on Halloween. I ended up teaching some friends how to make pumpkin pie and caramel apples.
- Didn't embarrass myself too much during a volleyball practice
- Ate Kebap (Turkish food) and watched a movie with some friends from church.
Interesting Things I've Noticed:
- The Spanish people are very proud of their country. Someone mentioned that the greatest bullfighter in the world is from a neighboring town. I can't think of another country where people have bullfights except maybe Mexico.
- A jar of about two cups of peanut butter costs ~$6 and Nutella is about half the price!
- Lots of people use trekking poles to hike. It's kinda funny because it seems like it'd be more of a hindrance than actually helpful for the trails I've seen people using the poles on.
- Students here care a ton about school. However, I don't think they care too much about learning, only passing the exams at the end of the year.
- Spain has the craziest billboards. One said, "They Eat Meat", and had a picture of two very fit looking people. The vegetarians are abused here.
- Music from America is way, way more popular than music from Spain.
- A friend asked me the other day what are the white things that people roast over the fire in the American movies (s'mores), nobody here knows what they are! She thought maybe it was meat.
- They don't eat peanut butter!!!
Be sure to check out my pics. The link is at the bottom of the page. (I've got a few albums so you can choose which one to look at on the left side of the page)
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Settling In
Where to start? The past couple weeks have gone really well. I went on a trip with the mountain club from school, joined a volleyball team, and completely bombed a chemistry test (actually I think the highest score was 3.25 and I know about 5 other students out of 30 students got a 0 like me). Actually, something kinda strange has been happening, I've been seeing people that look like people I know back home...so please say hi next time I see you!
Last weekend I went on an overnight trip to a place called La Pedriza (Pile of Rocks) with the mountain club. Friday night we stayed in a refuge built in 1916. The next morning we hiked about 10 miles up and around this mountain. The mountains are made out of giant masses of rocks. It was a little wet and the rocks were kinda slippery. One of the leaders was worried because I only had tennis shoes but I was one of the two people (out of ~25) who didn't slip and fall. My biology teacher went on the trip and I got to know him better. He's really funny and nice and is know giving me rides to school two times a week.
And yes, it's true, Ariel Wai has come out of his five year retirement and has re-entered the world of competitive volleyball. Actually I'm the worst player on the team, but it's fun and the guys are nice. The coach is letting me go to her other teams practices so I can catch up to the other players.
Today I went to the famous Prado museum. It has some of the most famous paintings in the world: "Las Meninas" by Velasquez, and works by Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, and others. Some of the paintings are incredible! There were a few by one artist that looked like photographs! I was surprised at the size of the paintings; some of them were as big as 10x30ft! However a few of the paintings were actually really really creepy. There was one of a fancy Medieval dinner with a head being served on a platter, ughhhh!
On the way to the museum we passed a group of people preparing to film a portion of a really famous Spanish soap opera. From what I could understand it's like a Spanish version of Ugly Betty, but I actually don't really know too much about Ugly Betty.
Anyway, overall everything is going well. I miss you all, but I'm making friends and feeling more at home here.
If you want to see some of the pictures I've taken you can click on the link at the bottom of the page
Last weekend I went on an overnight trip to a place called La Pedriza (Pile of Rocks) with the mountain club. Friday night we stayed in a refuge built in 1916. The next morning we hiked about 10 miles up and around this mountain. The mountains are made out of giant masses of rocks. It was a little wet and the rocks were kinda slippery. One of the leaders was worried because I only had tennis shoes but I was one of the two people (out of ~25) who didn't slip and fall. My biology teacher went on the trip and I got to know him better. He's really funny and nice and is know giving me rides to school two times a week.
And yes, it's true, Ariel Wai has come out of his five year retirement and has re-entered the world of competitive volleyball. Actually I'm the worst player on the team, but it's fun and the guys are nice. The coach is letting me go to her other teams practices so I can catch up to the other players.
Today I went to the famous Prado museum. It has some of the most famous paintings in the world: "Las Meninas" by Velasquez, and works by Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, and others. Some of the paintings are incredible! There were a few by one artist that looked like photographs! I was surprised at the size of the paintings; some of them were as big as 10x30ft! However a few of the paintings were actually really really creepy. There was one of a fancy Medieval dinner with a head being served on a platter, ughhhh!
On the way to the museum we passed a group of people preparing to film a portion of a really famous Spanish soap opera. From what I could understand it's like a Spanish version of Ugly Betty, but I actually don't really know too much about Ugly Betty.
Anyway, overall everything is going well. I miss you all, but I'm making friends and feeling more at home here.
If you want to see some of the pictures I've taken you can click on the link at the bottom of the page
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Week 3
This past weekend I was able to go with a church, Amistad Cristiana, on a retreat to Guadarrama, a region about an hour NW of Madrid. I guess Guadarrama is supposed to be beautiful but I wouldn't know because we spent the whole time inside the retreat center (the walls are really high). We spent most of the time listening to this pastor from Holland, singing, eating, playing futbol, and staying up late. The events didn't end until past 12 every night (morning) and I didn't go to bed until 2'ish. I met a lot of people and forgot a lot of names. I spent most of the time with about 10 other teenagers who are really nice and who enjoyed laughing at one of guys I was trying to teach how to breakdance.
This past week has gone by so fast. School is getting better. I'm understanding more of what the teachers are saying and people are starting to ask me hang out with them on the weekends. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to go on a trip with the "mountain club" from school. I also bought some pool passes so I'll be able to work off all of the olive oil.
Wednesday I hung out with another exchange student from Holland in a nearby town. We drank Coca Cola and ate tapas (little snacks: olives, little sandwiches, pieces of meat, etc.) outside of this little bar/restaurant. A drunk lady came by and started asking us for money so she could get food. We had no idea what to do, we offered her a little sandwich thing we had, but she wanted a real meal. Fortunately the owner of the restaurant came out and told her to leave or he'd call the cops.
We then walked around the town and did a little shopping. The Holland exchange student wanted to get a scarf so (in choppy Spanish) she asked a lady in one of the shops if they sold scarves; the lady didn't know.....she didn't work there! I thought it was hilarious, the lady did to and said "foreigners", I was like, "yep, those foreigners" and then she asked me if I was one to.....I guess my Spanish still needs practice : )
This past week has gone by so fast. School is getting better. I'm understanding more of what the teachers are saying and people are starting to ask me hang out with them on the weekends. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to go on a trip with the "mountain club" from school. I also bought some pool passes so I'll be able to work off all of the olive oil.
Wednesday I hung out with another exchange student from Holland in a nearby town. We drank Coca Cola and ate tapas (little snacks: olives, little sandwiches, pieces of meat, etc.) outside of this little bar/restaurant. A drunk lady came by and started asking us for money so she could get food. We had no idea what to do, we offered her a little sandwich thing we had, but she wanted a real meal. Fortunately the owner of the restaurant came out and told her to leave or he'd call the cops.
We then walked around the town and did a little shopping. The Holland exchange student wanted to get a scarf so (in choppy Spanish) she asked a lady in one of the shops if they sold scarves; the lady didn't know.....she didn't work there! I thought it was hilarious, the lady did to and said "foreigners", I was like, "yep, those foreigners" and then she asked me if I was one to.....I guess my Spanish still needs practice : )
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Daily Life
A typical school day starts with me waking up at 6:50am to my Spanish talking alarm clock, groaning, and then forcing myself out of bed. After a shower and breakfast I'm off to school. I take the train about 2km to Villalba where I walk another 1.5 km or so to school. The classes start at 8:30 and end at 2:00 except for Wednesdays when we end at 2:50; we also have a 30 minute break at 11:00. My class schedule changes day to day. I have history, language, biology, chemistry, psychology, philosophy, English (yes!!!), and math. All of these with the exception of one (can you guess?) are pretty difficult. All of my male teachers are quite hard to understand; my biology teacher yells (along with my language teacher), and my philosophy and history teachers are just plain hard to understand. Also, I found out that the bathrooms on the right are for the guys and the ones on the left are for the girls, but nobody seems to care, guys and girls smoke in both. One weird thing is that all of the bathrooms at school and at the train station don't have toilet seats or toilet paper?!?
After school I go home and eat a massive lunch, take a nap, study, go on a walk, excercise, watch Spanish TV, look up Spanish words, explore, eat some more, read, etc. Then it's another fairly similar day.
I'm starting to go to this church called Amistad Cristiana which is the only church in Madrid that meets in a nightclub (but in the morning). There is also a youth (17-25 year olds) group night on Tuesdays. As far as making friends, things are going as well as can be expected. I'm planning on joining a hiking/camping/mountain climbing club at school, getting a pass to the local pool so I can swim with a neighbor who is my age, and maybe taking a break dancing class in Madrid.
The food here is different. There's some good and some bad. We eat a lot of olive oil, bread, and vinegar. They put olive oil in everything, even the salads, and I don't mean a little sprinkling of oil, they actually pour it on. However, I like almost all of the stuff I've been eating.
One little note to those who know exchange students maybe from school, church, neighbors, etc: Be nice to them! If you don't....
After school I go home and eat a massive lunch, take a nap, study, go on a walk, excercise, watch Spanish TV, look up Spanish words, explore, eat some more, read, etc. Then it's another fairly similar day.
I'm starting to go to this church called Amistad Cristiana which is the only church in Madrid that meets in a nightclub (but in the morning). There is also a youth (17-25 year olds) group night on Tuesdays. As far as making friends, things are going as well as can be expected. I'm planning on joining a hiking/camping/mountain climbing club at school, getting a pass to the local pool so I can swim with a neighbor who is my age, and maybe taking a break dancing class in Madrid.
The food here is different. There's some good and some bad. We eat a lot of olive oil, bread, and vinegar. They put olive oil in everything, even the salads, and I don't mean a little sprinkling of oil, they actually pour it on. However, I like almost all of the stuff I've been eating.
One little note to those who know exchange students maybe from school, church, neighbors, etc: Be nice to them! If you don't....
Monday, September 29, 2008
My flight over to Spain was, shall we say, a bit inconvenient. I slept about 10 minutes on the 10 hour flight to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt I had a five hour layover, I didn't fall asleep...until 45 minutes before boarding and I woke up 15 minutes after the planes doors were closed. I got a hold of my parents after 30 minutes of dialing (and having the phone eat my Euros) so they could call the people picking me up in Madrid. I finally arrived at my house at around 9:30ish, showered, ate some food, and slept until 2pm the next day.
I'm staying with two ladiesin an apartment; I'm guessing one is in her 50's and the other in her early 40's. They are very nice. Yesterday the older lady, Maria, and I went on a walk through the Mediterranian forest. There are trees (only about 15 feet tall), boulders, and a pretty but contaminated river. Also there is an old Roman aquaduct, however, it's a little dilapidated.
Today was my first day of school. I have to take the train a couple kilometers to Villalba (a nearby city) and then walk or take the bus one kilometer to El Instituto Bachillerato de Jaime Ferran. After figuring out my class schedule, with the help of my host mom, the director of the school brought me to my first class. Class had already started when we walked in. There were about 20 students. The teacher asked me my name, and I replied, for some reason most of the class started laughing, maybe it was my name. However, for some reason they didn't seem mean, or maybe I didn't care. I sat next to a guy named Pablo and he helped me out the rest of the day. We are even going to go to the pool in Villalba this Saturday. After class about 1/3 of the students came up and introduced themselves and said they would help me with anything. Everybody is so nice. The rest of the school day was great, except when the teachers would ask me questions and I had no idea what they were saying; fortunately the other students would come to my "defense" and say I couldn't speak Spanish well. I met lots of friendly people and kissed more people today than I probably have in my entire life (a kiss on each cheek is the customary greeting).
One thing incredibly different is that the bathrooms at the school are for guys and girls, there are stalls, but it'll take quite awhile to adjust.
I miss you all, but everything is great.
If you want to write me you can send letters to:
Ariel Wai
Molino de La Navata bloque 4-1A
28420 La Navata (Madrid)
Spain
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Preparing For Takeoff
Hey Everybody,
Right now I'm preparing to depart for the greatest adventure of my life! I'll be leaving Friday the 26th of September to spend 9 months in Spain. I think I'm going to Madrid, but the agency I'm going through hasn't found a host family for me yet :( The past few weeks have been filled with camping, waterpolo, and oh yeah...getting ready to leave everything I know to embrace a new country, culture, people, and lifestyle. Can I say I'm excited? You bet! But at the same time a little nervous, well, ok, quite a bit nervous.
I'll be updating this blog approximately whenever I feel like. Actually more like once a month or so. I'm not supposed to contact the U.S. very much because this will increase homesickness and prolong culture shock.
My journey began two years ago. After my freshman year of public high school I switched to homeschooling/public high school/community college. During my sophomore year my Spanish 2 teacher talked about traveling abroad and I was like, "that sounds interesting." I began to search for a homestay program and finally applied to travel through Cultural Homestays International (CHI). So after a ton of paperwork, passing a GED test (high school graduation equivalent), visa application, and more paperwork I'm ready to take off.
Right now I'm preparing to depart for the greatest adventure of my life! I'll be leaving Friday the 26th of September to spend 9 months in Spain. I think I'm going to Madrid, but the agency I'm going through hasn't found a host family for me yet :( The past few weeks have been filled with camping, waterpolo, and oh yeah...getting ready to leave everything I know to embrace a new country, culture, people, and lifestyle. Can I say I'm excited? You bet! But at the same time a little nervous, well, ok, quite a bit nervous.
I'll be updating this blog approximately whenever I feel like. Actually more like once a month or so. I'm not supposed to contact the U.S. very much because this will increase homesickness and prolong culture shock.
My journey began two years ago. After my freshman year of public high school I switched to homeschooling/public high school/community college. During my sophomore year my Spanish 2 teacher talked about traveling abroad and I was like, "that sounds interesting." I began to search for a homestay program and finally applied to travel through Cultural Homestays International (CHI). So after a ton of paperwork, passing a GED test (high school graduation equivalent), visa application, and more paperwork I'm ready to take off.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
