Spain - Week One

June 6-7

I don't like to have flights in the afternoon, it's way to hot, and parking is impossible to find. My mom was very stressed, and I wasn't that surprised. I was a bit stressed, but not because of the trip. I was more afraid of how I was feeling. It didn't feel like a normal plane ride. Normally, I love flying, but this time I didn't. I felt sick and bored. The plane ride to New York was very rough. There was a lot of turbulence, and I got air sick.

I don't remember much about the lay over time. It was very short. I wasn't seated near anyone I knew, so, of course, I talked to someone I didn't know. There was a woman next to me named June. She was a professor of Cinematography at a University in New York (that wasn't NYU). This, I must say, was exciting. I never get to talk to anyone who knows that much about film, and I actually learned some very important things (such as three-point lighting). I talked to her about my personal project and hip-hop, also, which see seemed to listen to with interest. However, once we were allowed to move, I moved next to Sammi to watch X-Men on my laptop. The rest of the flight, I was asleep, and I found that I enjoyed the flight much more when it is night time. When I woke up, my eyes were bloodshot and it looked like I hadn't slept in days.

I love that feeling; that groggy feeling where you have to limp because your legs won't work. I'm not being sarcastic at all, I like to pretend I've been shot or something. It was one of those things I related to in Catcher in the Rye.

When we arrived in Málaga, it was the morning, and although I was tired, I did everything I could to avoid jet lag. It worked, and I slept very easily. At the airport, we were all greeted by our exchange students. I was actually fairly surprised at how quickly I picked up on Spanish. Even if I couldn't speak well. I could communicate nearly everything. I couldn't explain what Melatonin or circadian rhythms are though. I can't even do that in English.

Speaking of English, after we replaced my ancient European transformer, we went to an English class. I will say that it was a very strange experience. The teacher, didn't seem to be able to speak English, or understand how to teach it. She swore a lot in both languages, and then the students asked me to teach them English swear words, and teacher encouraged it. So I did... and I enjoyed it. After this, I spent two hours at my exchange students basketball practice, I was, admittedly, fairly bored. For the rest of my time, I tried getting Skype to work, which didn't work until right before I went to sleep.

June 8 - 9

This was my first day of school in Spain. I enjoyed all the attention I got, and I never got bored. The school uniforms are atrocious, and their PE kits look like the yellow jumpsuits from X-Men First Class. The English class, once again, was not very good, and the students were always very loud and disruptive, but seeing as it's not my school, I couldn't really object. Math and Science were fairly easy actually, and I found that physics was easier to understand in Spanish than in English.

After school, I went to the beach with the rest of the exchange students. Málaga is a beautiful place, and its beaches are no exception. I think many of the people in Málaga take it for granted. Then again, they've lived with it all their lives. It must be like someone freaking out over grass. When I'm at the beach, I wish I could be alone. If we had a beach in Atlanta, it would be the best place to think, but I felt like it would be rude to ignore everyone (I told you I have manners). I enjoy the view from the roof of the house a lot. I spend a lot of time looking out across Málaga with a pair of binoculars.

The moon is especially beautiful, I can see individual craters with the binoculars. At the beach, I began to socialize for the first time since I had arrived. I say pretty much the same things I say in America. I say a lot of weird things like, "I AM GOING TO KILL A PIGEON." The kind of thing that seems normal to me until I say it out loud. I was happy to find that people treat it just the same.

The next day, I went to school again, and it was basically the same. All the boys here fight, and they are nowhere near as strict with behavior as in America. If there were fights like this in our school, they would be punished very quickly.

After school, to avoid going to another basketball practice, I went with Helen and her exchange student to the shopping center in Málaga. I don't think I need to say much more about me shopping. ;)

June 10

On Friday, we went to Isla Mágica in Seville. It's a theme park of medium size, and I was actually surprised at some of the rides. I was expecting it to be like the theme park I went to in Shang Hai, where all the rides are HUGE. The rides here were actually pretty small, but none of the students thought so. Amusement parks were never really my thing.

I really enjoyed the bus ride. I showed them my music, and they loved it. There was much talk about it. On my Tuenti, which is kind of like a Spanish Facebook, I got a lot of posts about my music, which was both flattering and a bit uncomfortable, as always. I'm still not completely sure what to say when someone says they like my music.

June 11-12

On Saturday, I didn't do anything during the day, but in the evening I went to the graduation party for the school I'm attending here in Spain. After the formal dinner, there was a much less formal dance. I used to enjoy this kind of party; dance parties. Now, not so much. I've found that, for me, you need a certain amount of talent to function at dance parties. For me, it's mostly that I can't dance normally. Also I didn't enjoy the kind of attention I had. It was a bit over-expectant. Anyway, this one wasn't the most exciting party, because I fell asleep on someone.

Notes on Spain - First Impressions

-The culture here seems to be very similar to the US. I had a cheese burger with fries yesterday.

-The students have to decide what they want to do as a career from a young age and they can't change from there.

-The boys in my class all call each other gay. I thought this was an American thing.

-I get the feeling the Nuns in the catholic school practice a secret martial art.

-THERE ARE SO MANY BIRDS D-:<

-I thought people in America were obsessed with there appearance. Here, it's crazy. No matter what I do, they do not like the pictures of themselves. It's like "I'm-so-fat" to the max.

-Finally, a place where people eat as slowly as I do... almost.