This is Way Overdue

Hello to everyone (if I even still have followers after ditching my blog for over 6 months! Sorry guys!) Okay, so basically I didn't update since January and now that I look back on it, i completely regret it, but it isn't the worst thing because I kept a journal of what happened while I was in Spain, so I have memories to look back on. Vale, so I'm just gonna give a quick rundown of each month starting with February FEBRUARY: Well my birthday was the 11th and it was super weird not spending it with my family or doing anything super special. I had a Spanish friend who was born a few days before me so we combined our birthdays and our friend group from school and his friend group from swim club all went!

The other big event from February was Carnaval!!! In Spain, it is a hugely celebrated holiday complete with days off school, dressing up, parades and parties. What more could you ask for? I would consider it almost like Halloween because EVERYONE dresses up, so that of course is always fun. Here's some pictures!

MARCH & APRIL: Nothing too excited happened in the beginning of March (well that I can remember anyways). Two of my friends celebrated their birthdays together and we all had dinner together at one of their houses and then a la fiesta!

During the middle of March, we had an AFS Orientation with the kids the Ponferrada because thee Galician group was only 3! Then add the 3 from Ponferrada and hala you have our all american orientation group. This time they came to Galicia and we stayed at a youth hostel in Santiago de Compostela. Even though I would have never in a million years chage my location during my stay in Spain, having an orientation group of all americans was kinda laaame (no offense guys, I love you all!). Of course, there were the benefits of getting close to each person and knowing their story. Our group was like a third family

And at the very end of March, Lorenzo and I went on the Camino de Santiago until April 4th. This trip was organized by AFS and we were about 30 of us, either foreign exchange students or the siblings of them. I absolutely loved the walk, I was able to make so many new friends and become closer with the ones I already knew.

The end of April was Festival Do Norte, which was a Spanish Indie music festival at one of the nearby fairgrounds. Most of the artists aren't really known, but Love of Lesbian, Lori Meyers, Pollock and La Casa Azul were a few of the bands that came. Looking back, it was really cool to be able to listen to that music and say you saw that song in concert. MAY: Mmm May...My host parents and younger brother went to Ireland for 5 days because my host mom's brother-in-law was there doing an English course for three months. Lorenzo and I almost went but it overlapped with Santa Rita, which was the 22nd of May. We had days off and we stayed with Lorenzo's grandparents. During Santa Rita, it's pretty much beach party and next to the beach they have rides and people selling things, such as purses, bracelets, shoes and clothes, in booths. Along with Santa Rita, two of my friends, Bea and Alicia, got confirmed! We went to the church service and then went to Alicia's summer home to have dinner before we went out to Santa Rita. Finally, we went on this rather interesting economy field trip. So basically, it was a joke but we had to pretend to take it seriously so the teacher wouldn't make us do a test. We went to the farmer's market, the local radio station that interviewed us during a segment on their show (I WAS ON A SPANISH RADIO STATIONS!) and finally to one of the canning factories, where we tried a ton of different canned seafood. So yummy! JUNE: This was my final month but one of the busiest. First of all, I had to go to a final AFS orientation in Madrid instead of Ponferrada. The one for Ponferrada was in May during Santa Rita, so I just skipped and joined the one in Madrid. I had a lot of friends in the Madrid area so it was nice to see them before the final orientation when we'd all be depressed and bawling our eyes out. It was the first time i took a plane by myself in a foreign country! It was a short flight from Santiago de Compostela to Madrid but rather eventful. The volunteer who was picking me up forgot about me for about an hour (The Spanish are so punctual :P). Anyways, we went for a little walk through the mountains that led up to this really pretty look out over Madrid (we weren't in the city, we went out to Cercedilla.

School ended the 22nd of June, then that night, we had Lorenzo's birthday at his grandparents summer home. It's tiny but there were about 15 of us who slept over where ever we could find places. We had dinner and went down to the beach at midnight and went swimming. The next morning, we cleaned up, went to the beach for a while and then went back to our house to get ready for San Juan, the beach bonfire party. Everyone makes their own little bonfire and then at the top of the beach, there is a HUGE one. The tradition is to run and jump over the fire you make with your friends. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chusnartallo/7430779282/

Then the 25th of June (5 days before I was going to leave) we went to a gorgeous island called Ons Island. It is very rural, only tent camping allowed, no fires, only one truck on the whole island (it brings your equipment up to the top of the hill where all the camp sites are). It is right along the cost of huge rock cliffs. If you walk further in the other direction, there are two beaches that are beautiful as well. We spent three days there and arrived back in Vilagarcia de Arousa the 28th in the afternoon and fortunately I had packed almost everything before I had left to go to Ons. I had to be at the airport at 3 PM so once my host parents got home, we ate super fast and headed off. My host aunt came over and before lunch, all my friends came over to say bye and gave me the greatest photo album with pictures from the whole year. It was one of the hardest things I had to do in my life; say goodbye to my friends. I never though I'd cry so much but the tears just kept flooding out!

Okay, that was a redicioulsy long post. I promise not to wait so long in between them anymore, even if they're just quick updates, I'll try to get them up! Gracias por leer! Chao