Nieve! Neu! Snow!

Just as the last weekend of vacation was nearing; those last few days of complete freedom before going back to reality, school...the god's had a surprise in store for me. Snow! I hadn't taken the weather report very seriously when my host dad and I were watching the news Friday morning, although it had warned and advised the residents of Tarrega and surrounding pueblos of the massive storm that was moving north. I spent the day in my regular winter break routine: eat, read some poetry or travel novel, possibly skype or facebook, get out my ipod and go for a walk...I went out with friends for a little circle around town. We ate some churros and drank cafe, but by this time there was definitly a bite to the air and I could tell the temperature was dropping low, looking up into the dark sky I had my fingers crossed for some glorious white flakes to fall. It was about 8 or 9pm when I walked home from Pati and what do you know? It begins to snow. So it had snowed earlier in the month of December, but melted very quickly. I knew right away when I was surrounded by swirling white that it was here to stay. When I got home everyone was super excited and smiling, they couldn't really contain the feeling the snow gives you. It's almost as if you're transformed back to a little kid! Sure enough half and inch turned into one, one turned into two...when I went to bed it seemed like there was probably about 5 inches accumulated. Sabina and I decided to have a little pre bedtime adventure and went to the lower floor on our deck and made the first snow-woman of the year! She stood at about 12inches or so tall, had an authentic carrot nose, black buttons and big, flirty eyes! To top it off she had an Espanol scarf around her neck. Never have I been so proud. We named her La Perica de Nieve. Which is basically the female fan for team Espanol from the snow :) Another late night to hit bed, so I didn't exactly wake up relatively early. My brother and sister jumped on my bed at around 11 yelling "Alaska! Alaska! Como Alaska!" Sure enough, I pulled up my blinds and there was that beautiful, white powder adorning every brick house and palm tree in my sight.

Literally slurping down some yogurt and granola, I threw on some clothes - improvised with lots of layers, haha, borrowed some ski pants from my host mom and went out to meet with some friends!! In total we probably had about 1ft, maybe a little more, which in my reality isn't that much, but I'm living in Tarrega, and Tarrega was chaotic. Cars were slidding around the roads, shops closed down, the train was stopped in front of the station. It was like time had been paused and everyone was watching the wonder. My friends Sonia, Marta and I walked up to Sant Eloi Park which is a little higher in elevation and apparently had some killer sledding hills so I was stoked. When I curiously asked where were the sleds Marta pointed to her clear plastic bag in hand. Of course! This was going to be fun. I think about every child, teen and university student was in Sant Eloi...boys playing soccer? snowball fights, snow angels! Everyone was so happy! We found some killer sledding hills and spent the whole day out playing! It was exactly as if I was home for a day; there's something magical about what snow does to you. Almost as if all your problems can melt away!

Today is Sunday which means I have school tomorrow morning. Bummer. I'm not sure how I feel about that, I guess just like every other highschooler in the world. My winter vacation has been filled with some really great, unforgettable times...with even more to come! The most important thing that happened over break was getting a personal tutor for my Catalan and Castellano. Meeting with her 3 times a week really helped my actual pronunciation, I'm pretty much learning how to gain a lisp. Which is a little strange to think about...Just another thing to add onto my Spanish agenda. It looks like for my second trimester Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have cross country, Tuesdays I have lessons after school then I have my classes that I teach in the evening. My english classes that is! Good way to make and an extra Euro or two, and meet some really great people. Thursdays I also have lessons after school with Lissa and let's not forget my homework! Whew! It's starting to look a little frightening, but everything that I'm doing is something I feel passionate about, so I'm sure it will all work out fine! Well I've got to help out with some homemade paella tonight :) I've definitly become quite the cocinera espanola since I've been here, if I do say so! Not a bad thing to pick up while on exchange! So tomorrow is back to the daily grind, wish me luck! Sending some winter spirit everyone's way

La Navidad y El Feliz Ano Nuevo

Now things have finally slowed down a little bit after the holiday season. It almost dosen't feel like it was Christmas and that were into 2010...Buena noche or Christmas Eve isn't very significant here in Catalunya it's more the day of the 25 and then the 26th, so I felt like there wasen't much build up for Christmas day. Everyone in my family slept in, and naturally my inner child had me wake up at 7am which is early by all means in Spain! Kind of meandered around the kitchen, sunbathed in the living room, took a shower...and then at around 10 my parents woke up. I had bought gifts for the day so as a secret Santa Claus hid them under the tree. Our 2ft, artificial tree. Being born and raised in Alaska it was almost a sin, haha, but I understand there aren't exactly Blue Spruce trees in our garden! I guess this was one of the aspects that made this Christmas feel so different, no falling flakes outside my window, snow angels to be made, dark stary sky...I'm living in Spain and this is it. We had a family lunch at 12 in my aunt's house so we had to wake the siblings up to open presents so they could have the time to shower as well. I thought it was a lot of fun to open up presents - although mine were pretty smallish. I can't lie. Spain has hit the bank account hard, haha. All those weekend trips to Barcelona, and window shopping turned into just trying on that sweater, turned into going to the cash register! New years resolution: SPEND LESS. We were running late, as always. The past time of Espana, but we made it to Lleida and had a lovely gourmet lunch. The meal was more of a modern Catalunya dish, the first plate had different things varying from vegetables, rice pilaf, salmon rolls:) lots of flavor, that's basically what's most important. For the second plate I was served a whole fish. It looked like a capper, but honestly I have no idea what it was! It tasted good though! And of course for postres (desserts) we had Turon's, which are like very dense cakes that are very typical of Catalunya. They are intensely sweet and rich, I can only bring myself to have several bites. So after eating my body weight, sipping a nice warm tea and having good conversation at the table, my aunt got out the 'Tio'. El Tio is simply the Catalunya version of Santa Claus with some minor differences...those being: it's a stump of wood with 4 legs and a face, a blanket is tossed over it and the children sing a special song that makes it give, or in the more graphic and real words give presents in the form of going to the bathroom - the verb cagar in Castellano. It was fun to see my cousins who are younger sing the song and tap the magical tio, then quickly run to the back room and wait for their gifts! Coloring books, money, clothing, chocolate, El Tio :) The next day was another filled with incredible amounts of food, but this time in Alcoletge which is the town of my grandparents. This time the comida was more traditional. A soup followed with a typical dish of all sorts of meat imaginable. I still haven't brought myself to eat the blood sausage, don't know if I can pull that one of this exchange! But my brother and I did cap off some bottles of homemade sangria from my grandpa! A second day of el tio, laughing, good cheer and family time. It really showed me how important the true aspects of Christmas are; love and peace. Finding that through which ever way comes to you.

After recovering for uhh let's see her, 4 days it was New Year's Eve and my good, close knit group of friends and I had a big dinner planned out for the evening. We all dressed up, girls in dresses and boys in nice shirts and all pitched in a dish of food! It was really impressive how the young population takes traditions and fiestas very seriously and with a great amount of responsibility. We had the house to ourselves and let me say it wasen't exactly in the best state after the final countdown, however everyone helped out and it ended up being pretty clean! The New Year's thing to do in Spain is at the countdown from 11:59am stick a grape in your mouth every second...so that was interesting. Unfortunately I don't have photos because we were a little preoccupied, however just seeing everyones faces will be enough in my memory! I think I held myself pretty well, haha, it was a fun thing to do! After cleaning and dancing, eating and celebrating we walked to the main plaza in Tarrega where a dj had a set up in a huge tent for the public. It was the place to be for the night so I got to see all my friends and basically everyone I know. The music was a hilarious mix of 80's, Grease Soundtrack, meet's Black Eyed Pea's :S but I had a great time. Everyone was dancing and I couldn't believe it when I looked at my phone and it was 6am! Time fly's by here because no one really cares about it. Living in the moment, living it to the fullest. My feet were killing me by now. I made the unwise choice of wearing some hot stiletto's and when I was walking home felt the pain, but then I decided why not just take them off? You're in Spain Kayla. Living, learning, loving...what really matters? So I took off my shoes and had a wonderful walk home, hardly believing it was the new year and I'm here in this amazing country.

So today is the 3rd of January and I'm off on another adventure to Manresa this afternoon via autobus to see my best friends Patrick (USA) and Gunnar (Iceland). Coolest guys ever. Pretty stoked to see them, and spend some time exploring. Monday were off to a surprise party for another friend who's turning the big 18! It's looking like it's gonna be a great couple of days. I start my second trimester of school next Monday which seems to be looming nearer and nearer...but for now taking it each day by day, as I have learned life should. As for the weather things have raised back up to a normal temperature. It's crazy how much it changes here. Tarrega is a basin for the fighting god's of the skies.

Well I'm off to pack! I hope everyone had a great holiday filled with love, peace and happiness. Being here has helped me realize even more to keep those you cherish close to your hearts and remember that they will always be there for you. No matter the distance. No matter the hardships. Warm wishes

Things have definiltly cooled down on my side of the planet! The most drastic change that's happened since my last post has been the drop in temperature. At about -7 celcius for the mornings and 0 for the day on average? It's proven to keep my rapidly walking every morning to and from school, as well as run extra fast at cross in the afternoons to keep my body temp up. School here is broken into trimestres, so in two days now, tomorrow being monday and then tuesday I will officially be done with my first trimestre in my private catholic spanish school! In turn with the end of a trimestre you have final exams. Whoa. Now that could have quite possibly been the most stressful week of my life for various reasons, but mainly just the hours of studying and translating -- then coming to school to study for 2 more hours in the morning, one 2 hour final after break, then have our lunch and come back to another 2 hour final. All week long. It was honestly a miracle surviving. Most of my finals were in Catalan; however the understanding teachers gave me finals in Castellano. Completely drained I got through in one piece, and enjoyed the two days break we had this week. I know my scores weren't exactly compelling...having that switch of not seeing a good grade on a paper can take some getting used too.

Had a lovely day yesterday in Barcelona with other AFSer's, on an unofficial orientation for a intercultural merienda. Everyone had to bring a typical dish of their native country or state; I decided to make a halibut ceviche, for the reasons a.) being the dish had to be served cold and b.) it was relatively easy to buy the fresh ingrediants. Turns out my point b wasen't exactly very truthful! Using a cookbook from AK all the measurements were in cups and so I had to guesstamate roughly by taste and look. A little bit iffy about my final product because of the unbelievable smell of citrus, I couldn't bare to taste it. Just wait for the surprise and take the hit if it ended up being terrible. So the next day embarked off to Barcelona at 7am and enjoyed a beautiful market - the bustling people, blazing colors, and powerful aroma's. Then a promotional AFS walk including baloons in las ramblas. This involved my dear friend claire and me meeting a wonderful artist named Rafael, successfully sparking interest in exchange while speaking in very broken Catalan, and a good lunch of paella. Man I can never get enough paella. Next we met at a nice flat where we had our merienda, which is the typical snakc time at 6pm. And it turned out everyone loved the ceviche. Score! or as I would now say here !Toma! It's always a great time to see the other exchangers. I love all of them so much :) So now just to get through the next day and half of school, then it's break time for me! I hope you all enjoy the magical wonders of this holiday season...and remember the most important aspects of peace and love! Bon Nadal!

Snapshot

Here's some miscellaneous pictures my parents back home insisted I put it up.

So...although it's pretty late coming here's Pilar, Jaume, Sabina, Perico (Sabina's Cumple Regalo) and me! Were missing Ramon though! What a great photographer :)

Some creations of Sabina in the kitchen - I marvel her amazing ways of judgement in the realm of cooking, something I lack. I'll be lucky to learn a thing or two this year!

Paella lunch in Barcelona with Julien's family! Julien is a great friend from Belgium! He even shares his chocolate his parents send from home!

And finally some photos of Poblet! A beautiful monastery about 30min from Tarrega. Although our tour was in rapid Castellano, I think I picked up a thing or two. The deep history here in Spain is really mind boggling and I can't wait to explore more of it.

Windy November Blues

Leaves are falling, trees becoming bare - the wind sings with each gust. Yes, its that time of year. Fall in Spain. Living in the more central plateau has proved to live up to it's extreme temperatures. It seems like several weeks ago I was walking around in sundresses, shorts and tanks. Just last night I was with my friends in Pati with my nepali knit gloves, patagonia jacket, sweatshirt and jeans freezing to the bone! How everyone makes fun of the unprepared, cold Alaskan! I keep insisting that where I live the temperature is rather mild and the same as here, but they don't believe me. Goes to show what a rap Alaska gets. Life seems to mold into one day here with school and cross during the week and then my weekends free for fiestas. Halloween is a HUGE deal here in Spain. I saw decorations up at least a good two months before, and theres deep, rooted tradition in making panuets, which are small cakes covered in pinenuts and powdered sugar, and then buying castanyadas! Roasted chestnuts! Anually theres a competition in Sant Josep for making panuets, and my brother, his friends and I decided to give it a go. Hours in the kitchen adding flour, eggs, sugar - from a sticky, thick consistency to almost liquid...we finally came out with something presentable. The Spanish love rich, flavorful food so naturally they are splendid cooks. Since I've been here helping in the kitchen we haven't once used a recipe and everything has been beyond delicious. My body seeing the affects of this...lots of meat (sausage, pork, jamon) and fresh vegetables. More specifically lots of vibrant peppers! One of our kitchen counters usually has a boxful scattered in an array of yellow, red and green.
Although everyday is a new adventure my most memorable escapade has been my first outing to an official discoteca. Big Ben is supposedly the largest in Catalunya and lucky for me is only about 15min from Tarrega. I had missed going out with my friends from school the previous weekend because I had an AFS orientation in Barcelona, so I was pretty pumped to finally get to go. Especially on halloween! I got ready with a girl from my class Sandra who lives in small village about 5min away and met up with some other kids when we got there. The whole evening was just so different from anything I had ever really experienced before...getting past the bouncers (thank goodness for being blonde and american..I hate to say it! But it's really what got me in since I had forgotten my identification :O) crazy light shows, revolving tables, open bar (don't worry, no drinks were consumed) go go dancers dressed in costumes and walking around on stilts through the crowd! The theme of heaven and hell was pretty evident with the women in etherial angel costumes and the men in bright red. There were 3 different rooms packed with people, dancing the night away. I had an awesome time and can't wait till I go again after exams! Till then the normal routine of sipping cafe with some friends, reading every article of english that comes my way, early morning walks to school with Sabina, late night music and singing sessions with Jaume...I can hardly believe that its already settling into mid November. Here are some whimsical photos from my orientation in Barcelona. All I can say is that I love these people so incredibly much. It's amazing how close you can come to someone when you go through something like this where you really only have each other to fall back on. They definitly carry my heart, lovely characters that can always bring a smile to my face. Which really isn't that hard. Everyone here in Spain has classified me as the girl that is always smiling! My teachers, friends, family! I guess that's really all I can do. And when you look back on it why not?

vino, jamon y mas vino!

It's obvious that futbol rules above all here in Spain. It can pretty much consume people's lives - presidence over work, family obligations even food and drinks! But alas I decided to join my town's running team, which consists of a lot of younger children and a couple older kids like myself. We meet three times a week here in Tarrega and then on Friday's I go to the atletismo and track in Lleida where I train with another group. The people that I train with in Lleida are extremely talented, kind individuals who I really love to be around. Most of them are older then me..well actually all of them are! One girl is currently ranked number one in Spain in the 400m for her age of 23 and then another girl who is 17 is second in the 200m. In my workouts I run with a group of guys who range in age from 16-23 and they are extremely fit and fast! It's been very challenging but I feel that I'm up for that challenge and I enjoy the workouts so it's good. Keeps me in shape and so far has been keeping off the weight I should be gaining because of all the olive oil, bread and chocolate I've been consuming here!! So today was my first official race in Spain! It was a 7km road race in Mollerussa, which is a town about 20km away from Tarrega. Unlike before most races today I was very calm and really had no worries about how I would do, place or anything. I had stayed out the night before with friends and was looking forward to a nice run the next day! It was a gorgeous, brisk morning! The sky was clear but the sun was shining so brightly...I went through the usual routine: warming up, stretching, granola for breakfast and for some reason wasen't really bothered by the 300people that were running around me! Although more then half were running the half marathon. The gun went off, loud music blaring and 300 runners all in spandex (did I mention all runners here in Spain have an obsession with spandex? I think I was the only runner, for real, in actual shorts) took off. I felt really good, kept a good pace and when the 7km runners peeled away from the half marathoners I felt like I was in a good position, but honestly wasen't really worried at all about the actual race! Just on finishing! I ended up finishing with a time of 35min which I was super excited about and also surprised - even more surprised when Sabina told me I was the 4th woman! I was the youngest woman entrant so I really had no idea what to expect so my morning was blissful. When I ran through the shoot and received my 'goody bag' I also got a bottle of wine which I thought was just so Spanish and fantastic! Then when they had awards I got even more wine! 3 aged bottles from around the country to be more specific! The winner got a haunch of ham and then the others got more wine. What awesome prizes, right? I thought so! To top of an already amazing day my family and I went to another Espanyol futbol game in Barcelona and Espanyol won! My first time to see our team score a goal and boy, the energy in that stadium was just pulsating! I spilt my water when we scored because I even jumped up right away to wave my scarf!! A great Sunday here in Spain..too bad tomorrow I have escuela :(

Barca!

Last weekend was my first time officially traveling alone and independantly here in Spain! I managed to finally get the okay to go to Barcelona for the weekend from my parents to celebrate fiesta Merce with my friends! I was pretty much left on my own from the get go - right after school packing my messenger bag, then walking across town to buy my train ticket and (hopefully) catch a bus to Barcelona. The bus station and ride itself was pretty informal. I probably could have just not paid the 15 Euros for my ticket, hopped on, and just hitched a ride into the city; but that would have brought some bad traveling karma for sure, so I'm glad I didn't. Driving into the city at night was probably one of my highlights of the whole weekend. It was magical to just appear downtown with all the lights and colors, watching people whizz by on bikes, roller blades. It was great to see that there was a designated lane for pedestrians. Something I wish we had more in the U.S! Not exactly sure where to get off, but hoping that the bus had a destination stop of Barca Nord (where mi amiga Claire was said to pick me up) I sat nervously by the window, absorbed into the city. Soon enough I looked around and noticed there was probably only 4 people left onboard. In my bad Spanish I asked if the autobus was heading to the station, and received a friendly reply of "Si". I like to think that I'm becoming more and more confident with my speaking skills, it certainly helps when your in situations where you're forced to speak the language. Finally pulling into the station was a relief and then seeing Claire's face even more. It seemed like the bus had been winding down side streets for ages and I was beginning to think that if it indeed wasen't going to Barca Nord I would be in for a big adventure. Claire already had some good plans for the nigh and I was alreay jazzed up to start seeing the city. Right away we went down to the metro. I can't really describe my love for the metro systems of Barcelona. It definitly runs deep. Theres something about the feeling of joining hundreds of other people for a brief minute on your seperate paths and journeys of the day. Sometimes, well most of the time, you can start up a conversation with almost anyone especially if they are younger and it's the weekend. Claire and I met some really nice chicas on our way to the Forum and it was just incredible how happy they were to meet us. Sharing drinks, inviting us to go with them - not caring at all how horrible our Spanish was! So we ended up spending most of the night with them. The forum is a huge outdoor music/art center or something of that sort. It has 2 big stages, one of which was hosting and MTV event that night, and the other was some rock band. Then there was a smaller dj booth with some dancing music. There were literally thousands of young people walking around, dancing, sitting with their friends, just simply enjoying the evening. That was an awesome time - the pulsating MTV beats were running through my head even on the subway back home. The next day we met up with another afs'er who lives outside of Barcelona in the suburb of Terassa. We took the subway to las ramblas where Andrew was going to meet us for some lovely lunch! After some great pastries and cafe we decided to mosy through some amazing small streets of the city. Not having an itinerary for the day was probably the best plan - it let us stumble upon some unknown places and even hit the beach up! That evening was correfocs, so I guess we did have some sort of a plan. It's a huge event celebrating el diablo. Some people dress in red and carry pitch forks that are on fire, and others have tall sparklers and dragons that spit out sparks! The spectators dress up in layers of clothing and then run through the fire! So Claire and I really wanted to participate. My first weekend in Barca and with something like this going on it would be ridiculous to not do! However; we didnt really have the right attire. We were both wearing skirts and tanks, luckily our good friend Ricard who is lucky enough to live in Barcelona lent us some pretty badass jeans and sweatshirts. Muchos gracias Ricard :) So with our new outfits we got to dance under some fire in the barcelona starlight. The next day was definitly a lazy Sunday. Claire and I went on a nice morning walk around her neighborhood. I had my first smoothie in over 4 weeks! A great way to cap of the weekend. The plan for my return back to Tarrega was pretty darn vague from my family. They had really only told me to meet them at the Espanyol futbol stadium at 7pm. It hadn't really occured to me that I needed to find my way to the stadium, alone, with my bags until about 5:30 when I madly thew some of my clothes together and grabbed what was in visible sight, quickly gave Claire two kisses and ran to the subway, map in hand. Again, Ricard saved my butt by giving me some subway directions so I had a vague idea of where I was going but it was looking like I would have to switch lines a couple of times and ultimately I didn't even know the name of my final stop. Thankfully everyone that I asked for directions from was super friendly, and eventually after running through about every station I was on the bigger train heading outside the city in the direction of the stadium. Although I was on the right train, going the right direction, I had no idea which stop was mine and get this, my mobile's battery had died the day before so I really had no way to call my family, Ricard or Claire. I had also asked everyone in my car where the stadium was and no one had a clue. Clearly all were Barca fans and could really care less about team Espanyol. It wasen't untill a lovely older gentleman walked onboard that I finally found out I had gone one stop passed! So I got off, and ended up just running to the stadium instead of waiting the 14min for the next train. I had about that time to get to the stadium. So here I am running again, through the streets asking random people for directions as I'm looking at my ipod every minute to check the time. The suspense was almost to much to handle :) I ended up making it to the stadium only 7 minutes late, completely winded and looking like a wreck, but I met my family and suddenly none of that mattered. I was so proud of myself for my first real, independant adventure in Spain. All I can say is I defintly slept well that night! What a great weekend it was!