to madrid!

I love Spain. I think that's the simplest way to say how I'm feeling about everything that's going on here. I wake up at around 12 or 1 (which doesn't make me a lazy bum... it's what my host sister does as well) and eat a bowl of cereal and have coffee with Bea. We then head down to the pool that is in the center of this apartment complex or we just sort of relax until we eat again at about 3 (lunch) while watching our favorite show "Fisica o Quimica", a sort of teenage soap opera of sorts that's on every day. My host parents come home around 4 from work and eat, while Bea and I make plans for whatever we're going to do that night. We then meet up with some of Bea's friends, usually her two best friends Maria (who we call Mai, pronounced Mah-eee) and Rocio (which is pronounced Row-thee-o because the "c" and the "z" in Spain are said with almost a lisp, they make the "th" sound). We walk around Majadahonda, or we go into Madrid and explore (surprisingly, Bea really doesn't know a whole lot about Madrid, she's told me that everything she ever needed was right here in Majadahonda so there hasn't really been a need to get to know Madrid very well), or we just find out what's going on around here and end up there. We eat at around 10, wherever we happen to be, and then get back to her house at about 12 which is when everyone falls asleep for the most part in Majadahonda.

My host father, Javi, is going this weekend to Alicante (on the Meditteranean Coast) to pick up my host brother Jacobo and bring him home, so I'll meet him this Sunday. There was another mix up in the papers and I actually start school on Wednesday now; I'm a little nervous, very excited, and also very aware of the difficulty of my schooling. Bea explained to me that the year of school that I'm enrolled in (called Segundo Bachillerato) is all one giant preparation for a series of tests that they take at the end of the year called "La Selectividad" which basically determines the outcome of your entire future. Seriously. It's incredibly important that you do well, because it determines what University you'll get into (if you get into one at all) and even can have an effect on your job later in life. That means that the studying and coursework are very intense and grueling and difficult. Meaning I'll be lost x10. But as my dear friend Samuel reminded me, everything that happens this year is all just an experience, my grades don't have an effect on anything. The Type A personality that I am, however, I WANT to do incredibly well, I WANT to be at the top, I think it's gonna be good for me to not be for once.

I'm also learning that it's ok to be uncomfortable. It's ok to feel a little out of place or a little confused because it's bound to happen somewhere, at some point, and it's just silly to not prepare yourself for the ups and downs. It's pretty fantastic how comfortable I feel already, however, it's really starting to sink in that I'm in Spain, that I'm just living here, all I'm supposed to do is live and learn, and breathe a little Spanish air. So that's what I'm going to do. Thanks to all, a Uds. les amo (I love you all), Sam