I have been with my host family for two weeks now. I left
Nevada City on Tuesday but I didn’t reach my family until late Saturday night.
Instead of Extremadura as I thought, I am in Galicia. The family that they had
arranged for me in Don Benito didn’t work out, so here I am in Galicia, which I
like very much. The weather is rainy, and everything is green. It’s very famous for its seafood,
which is strange for me because we’ve been eating a lot of it. I never ate seafood
in California, but now I’m starting to get used to it, and even like most of
it. The two strangest things I have eaten here are octopus and fua, which is
duck liver. I can't get past the texture of the octopus, but I love the fua.
I live in a suburb called Teo, in the province of A Coruna.
Its live more in the countryside than in a suburb. Across the street from my
house is a corn field, and the nextdoor neighbors have horses, cows, sheep, and
chickens. About a twenty minute drive
away is Sanitago, the capitol of Galicia (pronounced Galithia). Santiago is
beautiful. There are two parts of town: the old town and the new town. I prefer
the old town. The streets there are made of the same stones as many of the
buildings, and are narrow like alleys, and filled with people (but not uncomfortably
crowded). There are many squares with fountains in the center, in seemingly
random places. They are easy to stumble upon but hard to find if you are
looking for a specific square. The old town surrounds the cathedral of
Santiago, which is an intimidating, ancient, and beautiful building.
I live with a family of four: Mother, Father, 13 year old
daughter, and 7 year old son. I feel really lucky to be with them. I like them
very much and they have some very interesting ideas. I don’t think I could have been placed with a
better family.
Tomorrow is my first day of school. The high school has four
hundred kids, so its small compared to Nevada Union. I know I will have many
problems, but I think it will all work out. I went on Friday to a sort of
school presentation with all the students, and people were very nice and
helpful. I was taken under the wing of a few students who showed me around and
introduced me to their friends. Most of
my problems will be due to the language, which should only be a temporary
problem.
I think I am one of the very lucky exchange students. A
close friend of my host mother also has an exchange student from Brazil, so I
have been able to spend time with her, and have socialization with a person my
own age. This week we went on a tour of Galicia together, which was great. Its really nice to already have a friend
before school has started.
My host mother is very into travel, so its possible I will
get to see a bit of Europe over the school vacations. I really hope so. While going to other countries
isn’t certain, we will definitely travel some around Spain.
Right now I need to go get ready to go to Santiago. I will write again in a few weeks. I hope all
is well.
( I will put up pictures but my card reader isn’t working
with my computer so I have to first figure out how.)
-addie
Recent Comments