felicidades

Since it's become routine to write up a blog once a week at this point, by the next entry Christmas will have come and gone. In Spain, there is a much heavier focus on family than on commericalism, in comparison with the United States. Obviously, there is a whole lot of love in my family at home, there are scores of cousins running in circles around each other and aunts talking over other aunts who are simultaneously directing children and husbands who just wanna watch the football game, but A Christmas Story always inevitably gets put on. Grandma makes way too much food and the basement is always a disaster after the girls have been down there. I walk into peace and calm at Grandma Jan's house, the entire house is warm, the kitchen is full, and Dad has to roll around in a sweater to collect the dog hairs off the floor for various relatives and their allergies. My family at home is utterly irreplacable.

I'm realizing, after being here for some time now, however, that everyone has a family story like this. Everyone has something they hold on to, something that makes their Christmas, their Easter, their whatever, just a little more special to them. The house is decorated, I woke up about a week ago to Jacobo flying around with garland in one hand and the Baby Jesus in the other, huffing and puffing for me to "moooveeee sammiii!!!!" The tree is adorned with "adornos" (go figure) and my host mom made me my own little stocking just like the rest of the family has. There are Nativitiy scenes EVERYWHERE in Spain, because there is also a more prominent religious focus as it is a "Catholic" country. The Nativity scene above is in the entryway of my house, the first thing you see when you open the door. Ana (my host mom) told me that she and her sisters painted the statues themselves. There are little reminders of Christmas all over the apartment, which makes some of the brash, over the top decorations in the U.S. seem excessive and almost distasteful. Christmas is a little more subtle here, but you can definitely feel it wherever you go.

I went to Jacobo's Christmas Play at Church on Wednesday. The sanctuary was jam packed with small children and their parents and grandparents, they did a very tiny rendition of the Christmas Story (Jacobo played one of the three kings... SIDE NOTE: In Spain, the Three Kings bring you your gifts (Los Reyes Magos) and they bring them on the night of January 6. Santa also exists here, and in some houses he brings some gifts on December 24, but in most families (including mine) the gift exchanging takes place on the morning of January 7, which also happens to be my birthday, so I scored on that one :). You can see the pictures of Jacobo in the next blog, it'll be all pictures. After the Christmas Story there was a time when all the different Sunday School classes got up and sang their Christmas Carol they had prepared. Some are American Christmas Carols with the lyrics tranlsated into Spanish... We sang Feliz Navidad several times, which was particularly hilarious because, just like our pronunciation is awful in English of the "Feliz Navidad" part, the packed room of little kids couldn't for the life of them sing the English part. "I wanna weeeesh you a merry (with the r's rolled) chreestmaas from duh..bbuhba....arrt.... FELIZ NAVIDAD". I was doing my best to hold back tears in silent laughter.

Friday night was spent out with my friends from school, the same group of pals that I'm with all the time; we're getting to be really close now. We stayed in Majadahonda because none of us was feeling like braving the cold weather for the trip into Madrid, where you often have to stand outside in long lines before you can get in anywhere. We ate together at Domino's and told hilarious jokes ("How do you put a giraffe in the refridgerator?" ... "You open the door and put him in." ... "How do you put an elephant in the refidgerator?" ... "You open the door, take out the giraffe, and put the elephant in.") They mistook my lack of hilarious laughter for not understanding. I understood it all, it was just so unbelievably ridiculous :) Saturday night I went into Madrid and hung around with some of the American exchange students. We've made some really good mutual friends here in Spain, one of them named Jennifer, that always come with us whenever we go out. That's fantastic because 1.) it's one more great friend we've all made here and 2.) it takes away some of the guilt of hanging out with Americans. What I'm learning is that this trip is far too short to spend any of it wrapped up in guilt of any kind. This year is about making it into your own, not Rotary's standards, not the other exchange student's standards or your host family's. This is a time when you can be incredibly selfish and know that it's the right way to be.

The Rotary kids in my hometown of Northfield, Minnesota just found out where they are all assigned for the upcoming year. Out of the 19 applicants! all of them got accepted-- though no one is going to Spain next year, we range the rest of the globe from Taiwan to Norway to Columbia. I specifically remember the ear shattering scream that accompanied my acceptance letter and dancing ridiculously around Amber Woitalla's basement with my cell phone in hand and a deaf mother on the other end. I still have moments like that here in Spain... Life is normal, life is routine, but it's a life in Spain, and it's utterly thrilling

FELIZ NAVIDAD y Besos

Sami