It was quite a confusing Thanksgiving dinner, I can tell you that much. There were potatoes, turkey, and apples, though not in the typical fashion served mashed, sliced, and in a pie. Spain's Rotary program served a giant dinner for all the kids in the Madrid area. It was hosted in the same location that my last meeting was held, except there were so many people in attendance at this meeting we took up the entire upper floor of the building, I'd say there had to be at least 120 people there. All the exchange students were invited in the Madrid area and most brought their host families; my host mom Ana came with me, and we looked ridiculously similar in black cocktail dresses, black high heels, and black leather jackets. There were a lot of formalities, announcing how so-and-so had contributed such-and-such amount to a Polio fund in another so-and-so's name... The uninteresting, but important announcements that every organization like Rotary is bound to include. We were then served a dinner fashioned after the typical American thanksgiving meal... but didn't quite hit the mark. My plate was filled with an enormous turkey leg (think Caveman), with a delicate slice of apple covered in whipped potatoes topped with parsley... All of which was drenched in a sauce resembling gravy. None of this is said in a "complaining" manner, the food was delicious and the company was fantastic, and skyping with the family when I got home made for an all-around lovely evening. Somehow, I got nominated and pushed to the front of the crowd of exchange kids to give a speech (in Spanish) in front of the entire group, which ended up being surprisingly a lot easier than I would have thought. The Spanish is really moving right along :)

Friday night there was a surprise birthday party for Bea at one of the local restaurants in town (Vips) which she was utterly.. uh... surprised by and was a nice break for her in the monotony of the weekend. She's really cracking down on her studies now, she holed up in the house Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to prepare for two tests next week and get done a massive amount of "trabajos" or projects involving mathematics and physics as she's studying to be an Architect. Walking into her room one encounters a maze of origami sculptures and giant floor plans laid out in the tiniest of detail. She's a fantastic student, the dinner was well deserved and I'm glad we could put on that big of a surprise for her.

Saturday night I went to a concert in Madrid that I've been looking forward to for a long time. The band is called Muse, they're English but really popular in the United States. My friend Joe (who is an exchange kid from the same district in the United States but is living in Southern Spain along the Meditteranean coast in the region of Alicante) flew up to Madrid to attend the show with me. It was held in the "Palacio de Deportes", one of the many stadiums in Madrid devoted to soccer. We were pretty close to the stage and the music and performance was unreal... For the encore the entire crowd was jumping and chanting "ole ole ole" and when the show was completley over, smoke shot up from the stage and the lead singer of the band raised the Spanish flag high. It was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip thus far.

The lights have been put up for Christmas in Madrid, they hang along practically every street and adorn lampposts and giant buildings and pretty much anything else that will hold a christmas decoration. The streets are gorgeous and lit up, it makes me appreciate how fast the holiday season is approaching and how quickly it will fly by... Which is turning out to be pretty representative of my trip abroad at this point. I love Spain and everything that it has given me, I can only imagine how much more there is to see, smell, hear, and taste. There is a soccer game tonight... this is a big one, folks, Real Madrid vs. Barcelona. The biggest rivalry in Spain. I'm beyond excited. Hasta Luego Amigos Mios, Besos a Todos, Sami

The Day(s) of Giving Thanks

The dashing gentlemen shown are a few of my greatest friends here in Spain. Daniel, Javier, Adrian, and I went to a local concert on a Saturday night and spoke in intermittent English, Spanish, and a universal language that can't be given a name other than laughter and understanding. It's almost too much to ask for better friends than those that I have here in Spain... I've never been welcomed with such open arms. That is one of the main distinctions between the United States and Spain that I have noticed in terms of schooling; I can honestly tell you that I haven't encountered bullying here and I've been asking around with the other exchange kids and they all report similar experiences. A kid that would probably suffer some real torture in the U.S. because of a manner of dress or an unfortunate haircut or a lifestyle choice just is another member of the class here. I'd never realized how "cliquey" America was until I ran into a much more authentic form of acceptance halfway across the world.

This week was filled with yet more realizations, ups and downs, delicious food, and impossible happiness. One of the greatest things I've encountered in the Spanish schooling system is that when a teacher is sick or absent from school, there's no replacement or substitute. That class is considered a free period and the students can do with it whatever they like. I've found that in general kids here seem to take more responsibility for their own actions; studying is considered much more crucial than in the U.S. and if you do poorly on a test, you determine whether or not you get to go out that night-- my best friend Alicia has kept herself from going out several weekends because of a bad grade or if she just thinks that she could've done better. I never saw that sort of iniative back home, kids took advantage of whatever opportunities they were given to go out; that's not the case here. Because grades don't count for me, however, I'm finding plenty of opportunities to go out and enjoy myself in this beautiful country.

This past week proved to be fairly uneventful, a walk down to my Gran Via to get photos taken for my Residency papers or a trip to pick up postcards (to be mailed soon, by the way) were nice little breaks in the everyday, but considering the everyday is pretty ideal here, I don't really need any breaks from it :) I acknowledge that the "Rotary RollerCoaster" is a real concept, based on a whole lot of experiences. It's a curve that most exchange students follow and predicts what will be the toughest times and where you'll flourish. But the lows that every exchange student is supposed to hit don't wham me all that hard because I have a lot of support and a lot of fantastic things surrounding me to where I can usually pick myself up out of any slump pretty easily. Some of that is luck and some of that is personal initiative and growth, and for that I'm truly proud.

Friday night was spent at Adrian's house watching "The Grudge 2" (a horror film) in Spanish, which proved to be more hilarious than frightening. Alicia and I were falling all over ourselves with laughter, the whole night proved to be one that anyone would have a hard time forgetting. Sunday was my host father's birthday, so my family went to his pueblo (side note: everyone here has a "pueblo" or a small village from where their grandparents or great grandparents came or even where they themselves were raised. People that live in big cities or even more residential areas usually find their way back to their pueblos for important family gatherings as that is where a grandparent or a large majority of the family is situated). My host father's pueblo is in Albeceite which is directly to the East of Madrid about two hours. That left Bea and I home alone for the weekend. It was a little thrilling and a little scary that we each just completely did our own thing over our two days. At this point we have our own friends, just like any siblings, but we're still comfortable hanging out with each other as well. It's turning out to be a really nice balance.

During the day on Saturday I went into the city and met up with some exchange students for what turned out to be a lovely outing. We started our day by picking up Chinese food in what appeared to be a parking garage but ended up being THE place to get authentic Chinese in Madrid. We took it to go and sat by a fountain (the one I'm sitting in front of in the picture above) and ate more than should ever be allowed. My Spanish has developed more quickly than a lot of the other exchange students, so I'm often asked to go with to shops or to order things because I got lucky with that extra edge of proficiency. I went with my friend Emma to pick up her ticket for the concert we later went and saw; Andrew Bird who is an American artist, but has a really interesting and eclectic sound, building his entire concerts alone based off of playing different instruments, like the guitar, violin, or chimes, and recording the different beats and sounds and compiling them, all the while singing along. The music itself was fantastic and the crowd was great. Unfortunately, sitting behind Emma and I were two girls that epitomized the reason that some foreigners hate America. These two college-aged girls in their entirely inappropriate miniskirts and heels and drank and talked incredibly loudly through the entire concert (in English, nonetheless), completely distrupting the alternative, relaxed atmosphere. Just to top it off, their boyfriends cheered and warwhooped stupidly, wearing striped polos with their collars popped and hair entirely too gelled. By the time the show was over, that half of the club was completely empty and I was about ready to revoke my American passport and officially join the Spanish revolution. For goodness sake.

Sunday I woke up incredibly early and sprinted to the train station with my exchange friend Jesse that lives in Majadahonda to join Rotary on an excursion to Soria, a small, ancient town about 2 hours from Madrid. The bus trip proved to be a bit of a pain as some of the older Rotarians told "jokes" the entire way there and cackled into the microphone. Still I'm since in hyper-translation mode, it's difficult for me to tune any of them out and so the sleep that I'd been hoping to catch up on during the bus ride proved to be pretty fruitless. I am developing some incredible friends here in Spain, however, and the company that I kept all day long was enough to make up for just about anything. We went to an exhibition first, which was pretty interesting, though not at all what we were expecting. It encompassed Christianity and the perceptions of the religion in four "seasons" and featured a lot of really cool old statues, tapestries, and paintings. We had, however, just gotten off what proved to be a 3 hour bus ride, we were all running a little low on blood sugar, and the tour guide talked insanely quickly. Regardless, I'm thankful for the opportunity to see anything and everything. We had a delicious 3 course meal later and wandered around some small towns, concluding the night with a stop in an ancient old village (I forget the name) where we danced through the streets and could just feel the memories being made. The pictures of the sunset and at nighttime are in that small town.

We'll just have to see about Thanksgiving, or el Dia de Accion de Gracias (the day of the action of giving thanks, literally translated :). Obviously, they don't celebrate it here but I'm hopeful and thankful, as Rotary has organized a dinner and a lot of these people are really starting to feel like family to me. It's all about keepin on keepin on and when you're situated in Spain, I can't say it's all that difficult. Slip into a turkey coma for me though, will you? :)

Besitos, Sami

The symbol for Madrid is a bear standing on it's hind legs next to the Madrone tree. No one here can seem to explain to me why this is the symbol of Madrid... and internet searches have proven to be pretty fruitless. The main statue of "El Oso y El Madrono" is in la Puerta de Sol, a famous plaza in Madrid, best known as the place where the entire city gathers for New Years. Everytime I pass the statue on a walk through Madrid or see it intermingled into various parts of the city (such as in the picture, in a hole-in-the-wall tavern, apparently the oldest in all of Madrid, where I ate with some friends on Sunday) I make up a different explination for what I want that bear to be reaching for, what's really in that tree, and what I want it all to mean. I like that my reasons are always changing and I like that my thoughts here are always evoloving and I like that I probably could know but I just don't.

I'd say that encompasses pretty well how this past week has gone for me. There are some things that I still just plain old do not know. Such as various sayings or words in Spanish. Or what happens at the end of a trimester here (coming up on November 24) and why we randomly have days off schools for fiestas that no one seems to acknowledge anyways. Or how my host dad knew the famous Jimi Hendrix rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock but I had never heard of it, which seems more than a little backwards. I'm learning that for a Rotary kid, ignorance isn't necessarily bliss, but it also isn't all that bad.

Saturday night, I babysat for my host mom's best friend, a 3-year-old cutie with flourescent-orange rimmed glasses and a shock of blonde hair named Carlitos. After we got home from my grandpa's house in Las Matas (where we go to eat every Saturday), I had a few minutes of downtime and as I was preparing to walk out the door with my host mom, she looked at me and said "Where's your overnight bag?"... Apparently in Spain it's understood that if you're babysitting, it's gonna be an all night deal. I should've figured this, as the Spanish typically don't even get home until 5 am from parties, and it'd be difficult to catch a bus back home at that time of the morning. So I threw some clothes into a bag and Ana and I departed for the neighboring town of Pozuelo, where I was babysitting. The night was fairly uneventful, Carlitos had the characteristic homesickness that little kids sometimes get, and ended up sort of throwing a fit for his mom, but felt better when I let him scribble all over my hand, and we ended up to be pretty good pals by the end of the night. (As a side note, I'm aware that allowing small children to scribble on me is not the best way to problem-solve, but give me a break, it's hard to comfort a 3-year-old that's at the same level of vocabulary as I, the 18-year-old, am). For the rest of the night, I watched the battle on the soccer field between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, an incredibly famous rivalry, almost as intense of a game as those of el Futbol Club Barcelona vs. Real Madrid; something I can only put into context as the Packers vs. the Vikings times about 200. The game was fantastic, Real Madrid won 3-2, but it was well-played and a nail biter right until the end-- speaking of that, I have started picking my nails again... sorry Mom :)

I woke up Sunday and ran out the door with 30 euros in hand from babysitting to meet up directly with my friends Emma and Devon at El Rastro in Madrid. On the Metro in Madrid, there was a very eccentric, harmless, well-dressed, and tiny old man who walked past me on the Metro to get off at his stop. I'm still so accustomed to Minnesota-nice and smiling at everyone (something that no one does here in Spain) so as he nearly danced off the Metro (he was a weird little guy) and turned around to look back in, I gave him a quick smile. He enthusiastically began blowing kisses and waved goodbye to me, as the woman next to me gave me a nudge and asked if I knew him. When I replied "no" we both just sort of looked at each other and laughed. It's the little things :)

El Rastro was one of the coolest places I have been thus far in my adventures in Spain. It is basically a giant street market that takes over a pretty good part of Madrid. You can find the touristy goodies, such as giant Spanish flags or t-shirts with bull sillouhettes, or you can dig through the back streets and find treasures such as a broken-down antique clock, or leather bracelets, fake designer watches, classy canvas bags, or even, if you so choose, a spiffy pair of suspenders with the Spanish flag imprinted all over them. There is an incredible mix of tourists and natives, you can hear all sorts of languages and it really feels like more of an international market rather than specifically Spanish. It struck me as funny that I found myself saying things like, "annoying tourists" under my breath when they'd suddenly stop, disoriented, the mass of people moving forward through the streets. How quickly I forget :) I got my host sister Bea a birthday present however, because the next day, Monday, November 9, was her birthday.

Birthdays are kind of downplayed in Spain-- or maybe we just do it up big in the United States. Monday was a holiday for Madrid, but since I technically live in Majadahonda, I still had school. Bea made herself a cake... it consisted of a generic "cookie" which you soak in hot milk and stack in rows and columns, with melted chocolate in between the layers and melted chocolate spread over the entire thing, with M&M's spelling out "19", which you then put in the fridge to cool. Jacobo and I each gave her our little gifts, I bought her some bracelets the day before and I made her a giant sign which I left taped to her bathroom mirror with the bracelets. She was entirely thrilled when I got home :) Jacobo he had made her some presents as well, and we culminated the day with a very Spanish dinner of octopus soaked in olive oil, among other delicacies.

The rest of the week proved to be pretty uneventful. My mom sent me the new Season 5 of House, so that occupied the majority of my week nights. I also started running again, setting out a specific route that takes me about half an hour. It's pretty thrilling to me that I can still run in a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of November and I've missed the exercise, the whole body-and-mind well being is really important to me. It also helps to combat the scrumptious food that I'd consider a sin not to eat and the famous 15 pounds every exchangey is expected to gain... No way, Jose :)

I'm running out the door right now to go to a concert with some friends from school in Las Rozas. Pozuelo, Majadahonda, and Las Rozas are all right next to each other, a sort of famous trio of suburbs to the Northeast of Madrid. Last night I crashed at about 12... I had plans with friends that fell through because of illnesses and the need to study. It's that time of year, folks. Bea told me yesterday that she'll need to stop going out both Friday and Saturday nights-- she can't afford it anymore, she just has to study. We'll see if that holds up or not :)

Besitos Amigos, Sami

learning

I must've done something right in a past life, because this one is proving to be incredibly rewarding. I'm going to apologize in advance for my deteriorating English (especially in terms of grammar and spelling), I'm finding myself rewording things the way that they're spoken in Spanish. For example, in Spanish, the adjective comes after the noun. So if you want to say "yellow house" you say "casa amarilla" ... I'm finding myself saying things like, I want a bite of that sandwhich tasty. Uh oh :)

I suppose in some ways the language business is a good sign, I'm starting to be able to really joke around with my classmates, and since there's no personal space in Spain, my best friend Alicia basically pounced on me at school the other day and told me that I was never allowed to leave, that she'd miss me too much when I was gone. Of course, that didn't hurt my ego one little bit :) I'm getting to a point of reflection on my trip. I've been here long enough now where I'm starting to be able to actually look back on what's already happened. I have moments that I know I'll remember for a long time- turning around to look at my parents one last time before I passed through security, walking in the airport and first seeing my host mom and Bea waiting. I remember I really liked Bea's blue strappy sandals and Ana was taller than I had expected her to be; Bea was holding a sign that I still have set up in my room. The airport smelled like B.O. and exhaustion, but maybe that was just me, as I'd recently gotten off a 10 hour flight. I reread the first few emails that I sent my mom recently, realizing how much I've already grown, and how much room there is for further growth.

There are some things that I just plain old don't like doing in Spain. But there are things like that in America too. I'm guessing there are things like that in Japan and the Czech Republic and South Africa as well. When I start to think of how much better this situation would be "if only", I remind myself of where I am, what I have the privilege of doing, and how I'm not going to spend more than 2 seconds whining about anything, and even those 2 seconds are two too many. I have about one billion things to look forward too still on my adventure. I have family coming and I think I'm going to England to visit my friend John Linford in February. I have art museums and street markets and discotecas and walks through the park and my bread with olive oil in the morning. I have a family that considers me one of their own children, my host mom started tearing up at a Rotary meeting the other day when she talked about me having to go home. Speaking of Rotary meetings, I had my first this past Thursday.

It was held in a restaurant, where they meet every Thursday at 930 pm. for dinner. There were about 16 people there, a decent mix of men and women, talking over one another and chowing down on the delicious steak in mushroom sauce and fried apples, scalloped potatoes and crunchy, warm bread (my aunt Marisa here in Spain calls this bread "musical bread" which makes Jacobo laugh everytime). Of course, mostly everyone was smoking so by the end of the two hour meeting my eyes were tiny slits and red-rimmed. I'm really thankful that no one in my family smokes, I don't know if I could handle it all the time in the house... It's overwhelming enough at school and in the streets. I gave a little speech at the meeting, everyone laughed and asked me questions and it was very casual and easygoing. I got a lot of compliments on my language and I presented the President with the Rotary flag from Northfield and he gave me the flag from Majadahonda. I thought it was hilarious how the members of the club would snap at one another for talking over other people and would freely tell each other to shut up; there was even one woman who was the official "monitor" of the meeting and would tell people who got to talk next- sort of like in grade school when there was an object and you had to have it in your hands to speak. I giggled to myself at one point imagining all these older, distinguished members of the community passing around a tennis ball for the rights to talk aloud.

I went to a play on Wednesday night with my classmates and tonight I'm baking cookies with Jacobo and then babysitting for a friend of the family who is paying me 30 euros for a few hours. Yesterday was Jesse's birthday and we celebrated with dinner, brownies, and friends, both Spanish and American. Tomorrow I'm going to El Rastro, a giant street market in Madrid that's very famous, I'll be sure to take pictures :) and tomorrow night I might be going to El Prado, the biggest and best art museum in Madrid. Monday is Bea's birthday and I have four tests next week... I have a feeling time might just start flying :) Things continue on back in the United States, I had sort of a slap in the face with this when I discovered a friend of the family had recently fallen ill. I guess things didn't just get put on hold when I left, the world does not, in fact, revolve around me :) I'm continuing to talk with the ones I love, this experience teaches you who you're real friends are, as they're the ones you miss, the ones you still seek out and don't feel guilty about halfway around the world... They're the ones that I appreciate an incredible amount for their support and encouragement. Thank you to all of you who read this and continue to ask for more. In some ways I'm glad that I don't update the blog every day because I truly can't-- I don't have the time. And that's pretty exciting :) November is the month to get through my friends, I'm lovin it.

Besos Amores Mios, Samantha Roma

November

Today is November 1, my little sister Lila's birthday, and the day after Halloween. I spent last night in Madrid at a place called Ciudad Universitaria, which is a big open area where a lot of the Universities in Madrid meet up. It was jam packed with people, and the tradition of dressing up in Spain is slightly different than in the USA. Here, people genuinely try to be scary. If you go dressed up as a nurse (for example) you have red streaks smeared all over your costume and everyone has face makeup of bruises and cuts. We even saw several massacred SpongeBob's. The other boy on exchange in Majadahonda, named Jesse, and I went as Hippies because we didn't want to spend the money for costumes and we both own tye dye and Birkenstocks. It was not my normal night of carousing around neighborhoods asking for candy with the knowledge that we're far too old to do so, but I met a lot of new people, speaking both English and Spanish... a few people didn't believe me when I said I was American... they said I spoke so well they would've had no idea... I'd have to say that was the absolute highlight of my night.

Life has been routine and easygoing in Majadahonda... This past Wednesday I went into Madrid and met up with some of my exchange student friends. I still feel a little bit of guilt about doing this because it's a whole night of speaking English... I think when everyone gets more comfortable with their Spanish it will be incredible to meet up with them, because I have to say that I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. We enjoyed one Euro bocadillos at 100 Montaditos, a sort of tapa bar chain. I even translated for a few tourists that couldn't speak Spanish that were trying to order. The building on the left is the image I always see coming out of the metro stop at Puerta de Sol in Madrid, it captures a lot of the traditional architecture around the city, plus it shows behind it the gorgeous blue sky that allows the sun to shine down every day. In the nearly two months that I've been here I've only had 4 or 5 days of rain, and "cold" to the Spainards is still tropical for me, with every day in the 60s or 70s, hardly a need for a jacket.

It feels a little strange to be going into November without celebrating Lila's birthday. I've been Skyping with my family fairly regularly, once a week or so, which has worked beautifully thus far, even resulting in one session where my mom and I sort of forgot the other was on the line as she watched Judge Judy and I held up a conversation with my host sister in the background. I guess that's a real testament to being comfortable in your surroundings, when home feels like it could really be in two completely different places across the world from each other. I'm still enjoying the nights of dancing my life away at the discotecas in Madrid, though it's a pricey pastime and Spain is proving to be a bit of an expensive place to live... who knew? :) Sometimes little bouts of homesickness still hit, during the daytime yesterday it was a little rough, thinking on how this was the first holiday without the fam, but I perked myself up throughout the night... This adventure is all about self-help for me, all about learning how to be your own mediator, that some things about being an exchange kid are just plain hard, but that the incredible rewards that await at the end (and throughout each day) are testament enough to why I chose to go. I also got two packages in the mail, one was a letter from my Grandma Colleen, her familiar handwriting and kind words absolutely overwhelmed me with happiness, as if the package from the Estenson Family filled with Halloween decorations (to Jacobo's delight, as he had a little Halloween party yesterday), Reese's candies, and Kris' homemade cookies, which were not smushed but perfectly intact and absolutely delicious, wasn't enough. I played my violin a little this week, helping Jacobo along with his classical guitar as well. Bea is in her first year of University and completely consumed by studying, a little reminder of what I know I'm going to be heading into next year. She is in the Architecture course, however, so a lot of her projects are absolutely incredible, miniature models and sculptures that are meant to show perspective... Our house looks like a modern art museum :) This week I have my first official Rotary meeting on Thursday and on Wednesday I'm going to a play with my class from school. Another week ahead, I'm filled only with anticipation and excitement. Bring it on, November :)

Besitos, Sami