Hola!
This has probably been one of the most stressful, confusing, beautiful, full, and enriching weeks of my life. actually…it has been less than a week since I left Savannah. I never thought I’d say this, but I miss it and all of the southern accents it possesses. but above all, I miss ENGLISH. SO. MUCH.
I suppose I’d better start at the beginning.
On Thursday, September 15 at 11:51 am, my flight from Savannah to JFK took off. I will not be in Savannah again until at least June 25, 2017. I said goodbye to my family, and they made me cards, took a million photos, and made a giant poster to wish me well.
the poster before my last breakfast.
I said goodbye to my pets:
my hardest goodbye
I will always love you, Cinnamon
Loaded up my car with approximately 100lbs of luggage, and drove away.
Once at the airport, I was forced to accept the fact that I would not get to see my parents for at least 4 months, depending on whether or not they decide to visit me during Christmas.
Okay so yes, I cried. A lot. But what can I say? I’m super close with my whole family and the idea that I might not see them for such a long time hit me really hard. All the security guards noticed my tear stained face and shuddering breaths, and handed me tissues and condolences. By the time I reached my gate, the entire staff of the Savannah Hilton Head Airport had wished me well and told me that they were so excited for me to experience this.
Taking off!!
Once at the JFK airport, I had calmed down and all I felt was excitement. I suppose at this point I had put all my fears behind me and I was just so overwhelmed with what I was actually about to do that I didn’t have time to worry about missing people.
I had started a group chat about 150 days before departure with all the other CIEE kids, so it was so comforting to know that there were actually people I knew here. Or…sort of knew.
I met all of them with screams and giant hugs and laughter, for none of us could ACTUALLY believe that we were there and that what we had been talking about for 150 days was ACTUALLY happening.
Rocking our orange shirts and terrified thoughts.
all of us on our flight about 2 hours before departure…
When we got on our (delayed) flight, we thought “well, this is it. This is the last five minutes in the USA for nine months. Whoop whoop.” But no. We were delayed on the plane for 2 hours before we actually ever took off. Ugh. Luckily we made the time up in the air, so we weren’t too far behind.
Okay, so this flight was pretty bad. Let me just give you a list of reasons:
- It was delayed
- It was completely packed, meaning that there were lines for everything
- No outlets anywhere nor was there Wi-Fi
- It smelled pretty bad and there was no air conditioning
- I just hate long flights
So then started probably one of the longest flights of my life. I couldn’t for the life of me, figure out how to fall asleep, so I just watched movies that I had downloaded on this computer all. Night.
The next morning, most of us were bright eyed and bushy tailed, but I was exhausted. And we hadn’t even started orientation yet.
It is ESSENTIAL that you sleep on the plane because the jet lag is killer (6+ hours) and what comes after this plane ride is two solid days of non-stop activity and then 9 months of confusion and new everything.
So there I was, falling asleep on my feet, and we hadn’t even started orientation yet. Yay.
We met more CIEE kids that had flown in from Chicago, and together, we all stepped out into Madrid.
the main plaza in Madrid
One of the main bull fighting arenas
The day was filled with great food, CHURROS, a walking tour of the main sites in Madrid, more food, trying to speak Spanish, failing at speaking Spanish, shopping around the city center, followed by more food and great conversation. A completely full but amazing day to say the least.
Churros with hot, dark, melted chocolate. Yummmmmm!
This is one of the main palaces in Spain. It is open to the public every day, and President Obama and First Lady Michele were here about a month before us!
This is what ALL of the streets in Madrid look like: narrow and full of life!
A rose garden for a princess
Yum yum yum!
The next day was filled with a bike tour through El Parque del Retiro and going through all rules and safety and important information at the CIEE study center (they warned us that Spaniards kiss upon meeting, but the amount of people who have kissed me since I got here is honestly ridiculous).
Then, the day came when we had to leave Madrid and go home with our host families. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life. On the train ride from Madrid to Sevilla, which is approximately 2.5 hours long, my whole body was shaking and I lost the ability to breathe. Half the students were crying, taking a million selfies with their new friends and talking about everything under the sun, avoiding the idea that they were actually meeting their family, and the other half were gathered close together, practicing Spanish or looking over Spanish phrases and tenses in the hopes that this short review would make a difference (spoiler: it didn’t).
Upon arrival, no one actually wanted to get off the train. We knew that our host families were waiting right beyond the gate, and even though we had all been in contact with them for weeks or months prior, nothing could prepare us for this moment. We walked slowly, counting our breaths and saying goodbye to one another. Raquel, our coordinator, started calling us our alphabetically, and one by one we left to meet our families. My sister found me first, and we left soon after.
I have taken Spanish since I was in kindergarten. But even after 11 years of language learning, I could barely hold a conversation in Spanish class (come on USA! That’s pathetic!!). However, all my knowledge of subjunctive, imperfect, and everything else in Spanish disappeared the moment I met my family. I could not understand anything. At all. I felt like a young child, pointing and grunting at things in order to get my message across, and using one word answers that usually consisted of either “sí” or “qué.” However, they were so understanding that I wasn’t afraid to attempt to say something in Spanish, though I almost always failed.
My host sister and I on the day I arrived! Isn’t she so cute?!
My room!
The gorgeous town of Triana, located about 15 minutes walking away from me.
FYI: Spaniards LOVE churches. They are so beautiful here and everyone is constantly walking in and out of them. It seems like there are almost as many churches as people!
That night, I walked around Sevilla with my sister, Mary Paz, her boyfriend, Jesus, and her best friend, Maria. Then we went home at about 10:00 pm, had dinner, and went to bed. The next morning, I had my first. Day. Of. School. In. over. 4. Months.
My school is in the middle of the city, and because I live in a suburb called “Los Remedios,” I have to walk 40 minutes to school every morning. This sounds like a lot, but it is honestly one of my favorite parts of the day, as it allows me to see the entire city in the early morning before the tourists get up.
I walked hurriedly from my house to school, running into another one of my fellow CIEE peers, Aryanna on the way there. Thank goodness for that because it made it so much easier to start if you have someone who understands what you are going through. Physics was first, and from the moment I stepped in that classroom, I knew I was doomed. If you thought Spanish immersion was hard enough, try going to classes taught entirely in Spanish by a teacher who doesn’t speak ANY English, has a Sevillian accent (which is 50000% more difficult to understand), and speaks at incredible speeds that make you think that they should be in the Olympics for speaking. Long story short, I had absolutely no idea what was going on in class. AT ALL. Physics is the only class that you move to another class for, so then we went into room 11A, where I stayed for the rest of the day. One of the main differences between Spanish and American schools is that teachers move in Spanish schools, and the students remain in the same class. I have heard that this makes the day feel longer, but in my experience this past week, it has seemed much shorter. That may be because I come from a very challenging private prep school in Savannah, and maybe nothing can really compare to that. I’m not really sure. I immediately made four friends: Carmen, Paula, Gema, and Carmen. Yes. There are many people here named Carmen. Yes, it is confusing. Yes, I don’t know anyone else’s name besides them.
Here are just a few of the million photos that I have of all these adorable people.
The way my school works is that I have 2 hours of classes, then a 30-minute break, then 2 hours of classes, then a 30-minute lunch, then 2 hours of classes, and then I get to go home.
Even though smoking is illegal in Spain under the age of 18, many kids go to the little stores around the school, buy cigarettes, and spend the entirety of the break smoking and speaking very quickly. I have resigned myself to the idea that I am going to smell like cigarette smoke for the rest of the year. However, besides that, these breaks are super helpful because the day seems a lot shorter with these spread intermittently throughout. By the end of the day, I am SO ready to go home and sleep. Another thing: siestas ARE actually a thing!! After school, from about 4-6, practically everyone in Sevilla is taking a nap. Which would be totally awesome if I didn’t have so much homework…
After my second day of school, I went to my first soccer (excuse me, fútbol game). It. Was. Awesome.
Football is no joke here. And the game that I attended was a really important one between two rivals: Sevilla and Betis. I love Sevilla and so does Mary Paz’s boyfriend, but Mary Paz loves Betis…ew. She had to leave her Betis scarf at home so she wouldn’t get beaten up at the game. That’s how serious they are. In the end, Sevilla won (!!!!!) and we made the long journey home (we never drive here so it felt like forever). We got home at 1:30, and even though I went directly to bed, I had to get up 5 hours later for school. And that started the worst day here.
To all future students: please please PLEASE do yourself a favor and sleep. Sleep as much as you POSSIBLY can. Sleep constantly. Between Jet Lag, the late night, and finally coming to terms with the fact that no one can understand me, I got home on Wednesday and had a break down. I facetimed my mom for a few hours, just crying on the phone. I almost gave up because all I wanted to do was speak English. My mom convinced me to stay and my host mom took me on a walk that really helped a lot. I went to bed early that night and the rest of the week was sooooo much better.
I think I accepted the fact that I was going to fail and that I was going to fail a lot. And that made it seem okay. And GREAT NEWS! My friends told me that they can already notice my Spanish getting better, and I’m starting to understand my teachers even through the terrible accent!!
Last night was Friday, one week since I came to Spain. After school, my host family filled up their car with food and luggage and we drove 3 hours into the countryside to a teeny tiny town near Córdoba called Nova Cerrado. We had the most Spanish night ever. To commence, I met a million new people (okay only 20 because there are only 20 people in this town), kissed all of them, ate jamón, manchego cheese, and bread, and then danced the night away to a small band that sang Spanish music. I was the first American any of them had ever met (this is like seriously a tiny town) so everyone wanted to touch my hair and called me “rubia” or “la americana.” Even though my host sister was SO embarrassed, my host mom and I danced ridiculously together. We ended the night by stargazing (it is so clear that you can see the milky way!!!) and listening to the deer make mating calls. The next morning, I slept in. Today is actually the first day that I have felt awake all week…Then, I went horseback riding in the mountains and made paella! It has been so amazing here and feels exactly like what you would expect in Spain.
I’m loving it here and can’t wait for more! Signing off now for another week of adventure and I’ll talk to y’all soon!
Peace,
~Parker Grove
P.S. Did I miss anything? Want me to talk about anything in particular? Got questions? Send me a comment or shoot me an email: parkergrove2000@gmail.com don’t forget to check out my instagram for other great photos from my year: parker_grove