I Know I've Been Slacking...

Hola!

So I've been in Spain for a little over a month and haven't written anything on my blog. I actually just realized I haven't written anything since August! Ahhh I know it's so bad and I'll admit it, I've been slacking. But I have some pretty good excuses. How often do you get to go to a beautiful country for a year to study? Yeah, not very often. So I've been enjoying my time here. I'll give you a quick recap of what's been going on the past month.

I started school 3 weeks ago and it is really different from my school in De Pere. First, there are 3 different buildings and during the day, we are normally in one classroom and the teachers change rooms. We only have to go to a different room for music and gym. Another thing that is different is there are no lockers at the school, so we carry our backpacks, which I don't mind at all. I'm sure if any DPHS kids are reading this, they are probably a tiny bit jealous since we got that privliage taken away last year. Anyways, my classes. Oh my god. I knew it would be difficult to understand but I had no idea it was going to be THIS difficult. I have 3 classes in Galego, the regional language of Galicia. It's like a hybrid of Spanish and Portugees. I don't even understand Spanish yet and I feel like some of the teachers expect me to understand when they speak to me in Galego. "Well I don't understand so you can speak as slowly and loudly as you'd like but I won't get it!" Is what I feel like saying sometimes.

My classes are as follows:

GYM: I hate this class. We actually sweat and have to play sports and run. This is not a Mrs.Vbergh gym class. The teacher likes to make an example of me and how I can't strech properly. Thanks bud.

Lengua: It's like English grammar class, but for Spanish. This class isn't bad, I think it will be actually really helpful, I'll be able to see how some of the Spanish words are formed and their origen.

History: Not bad, we are studying world history, which I learned about last year so I don't feel too lost when Lorenzo explains the important points from the lecture. The only bad part to this class is it's taught in Galego, other than that it's all good.

Philosphy: No idea what is going on in this class. Legit, first of all it's in Galego. The teacher makes all these weird random hand motions and walks around with his arms up in the air. And then he will randomly get quite, stare at us and continue on with his lecture. I honestly don't think I'm missing anything.

Galego: Obviously taught in Galego so this is one of the classes I kinda zone out in. The teacher is really nice but refuses to speak Spanish. Sometimes she asks me questions and I'm like What? and she repeats in Galego and I just give her a blank look because honestly I don't what she's saying, so I'll just nod my head and say "si". Somehow, Lorenzo convinced the school director to allow me to be exempt from taking the exams in that class. I don't have to do the homework either, so I'm just suppost to show up. Easy enough.

English: My favorite class for obvious reasons. It's the one time in the day that I don't feel completly lost. I'm able to do the homework really quickly but it's different here because they learn British English instead of American English. It's basically the same, except for a few words but I'm used to it since my stepdad is from England. I have to laugh sometimes because the teacher does NOT speak very good English and to reassure herself, she'll ask me to explain things to the other kids. For example, she's like "Erika, explain to everyone what present simple is." In school in America, we don't go to class everyday with the teacher greeting us at the door saying "Today we are studying the present simple" we just know what sounds good.

Ecomony: Good heavens, this class is almost as bad as philosphy. The teacher is hillarious but she can't explain anything. At all. We get these random assignments that she expects us to be able to do and none of us have any idea what the heck is going on. She also gets side-tracked really easily. So we start talking about the economy in Spain and the next thing you know we are talking about how someone lives in Madrid and then she wants to take a class field trip to Madrid. She also says "Si o No" after pretty much everything she says. There's a girl in my class who counts the number of times she says it everyday. The record is 30 times in a 50 minute period. Her other phrase is "Me entendeis?" (do you all understand me).

Music: This class is a joke. Some days we watch movies about how music effects water and other days we listen to conciertos and have to sleep to get a feel for the music. Yes, you read that right. The teacher talks really slow, not just because I'm in the class but just it's how she talks. I can actually understand her, yay. We also have to play the recorder, which I have no idea how to and I told her and she's like oh okay, just go home and practice.

Math: I thought this would be one of my easier classes but I was wrong. In Spain, they do all kinds of math every year. Algerbra, geometry, advanced algerbra, calculus. They also go into further detail with these different subjects. I don't remember much algebra from 2 years and I feel so stupid. The poor teacher and Lorenzo have to explain and explain and explain things to me and then I'll kinda understand. I'm not good at math to begin with but then try teaching me new things in Spanish, yeah not gonna happen.

Sorry for such a late update, I'll try to make the next one within the next week.

Adios!