Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
After I arrived to Madrid, I was greeted by some AFS volunteers who were really nice. All the AFSers stayed at the Hotel Auditorium, which is the largest hotel in Europe. Unfortunately, I was one of the latest people to arrive so I didn't get to go swimming. But I did get to meet a lot of other people and made friends with a lot of them. It was cool to meet people from all over the world, from USA, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Japan, Holland, China, Italy and more.
Hotel Auditorium
The next day, the AFSers that were going to Galicia had to wake up at 6 in the morning to take a train ride to Santiago de Compostela. After we arrived, we met our host families and then had lunch with everybody. My host family was very nice and I was nervous but excited when I met them. One of my brotherswas shy and would not talk to anyone. At lunch, they served fish, mashed potatoes, salad, and other stuff. After lunch, we went on a tour around the cathedral, a UNESCO heritage site. We saw people with backpacks who probably went on the Camino a Santiago de Compostela.
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AFS Galicia |
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| Praza do Obradoiro |
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| Catedral |
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| Restaurante |
After we said goodbye to the AFSers and their host families, we went on a one hour drive to Ponteareas or Puenteareas(galego), the city I would be staying for a year. My family had big house. They have a swimming pool, a small soccer( futbol) court, and a huge yard. This was like the cleanest house I've been to! The first day I was there, I didn't sleep very well probably because of the jet lag. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning because of a rooster and because of the construction that sounded like a war zone.
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| Mi casa! |
The next few days were kind of boring because the kids went to school and I didn't have to start school until September 17th. Everyday, I went around the city and the supermarket and just toured around the city. Although the population is only around 20.000 inhabitants the city can get pretty crowded at times and it kind of reminds me of Hong Kong. The first time I tried walking home, I got lost because most of the streets looked identical. It really sucked because it was really hot that day and I was really hungry. At around 3 or 4 o clock, all the shops close and the streets look really deserted. On Sunday, the streets look really deserted as well and all the shops are closed. My host dad has three shops. The first one was a huge shop for pets and gardening called Agro Canis. Then I went to the clinic which is pretty cool because I saw my host dad treating a dog with a broken leg. The other clinic is in Porrino, a town 10 minutes away. I met some of my host brothers's friends and went swimming with them. I didn't really talk too much because I didn't understand what they were saying. After we played soccer with them. During the weekdays I didn't really do much. I watched TV with my host parents at night and was surprised that most of the popular TV shows in Spain were American TV shows translated into Spanish. I expected Spanish people to watch a lot of shows like Isabel or Aguila Roja. Their radio also had a lot of english content. It is half spanish music, half english, and some french songs as well.
I went to a Spanish fiesta for the first time in my life. There were people of different ages, old people, teenagers, adults, kids. The old people were mostly drinking and smoking, the kids were playing on the playground or biking, adults and teenagers were dancing near the front. Whenever there is a fiesta in Ponteareas, they have people perform. Surprisingly, the song Gangnam style was still popular!
My first day of school (Val Do Tea) was very exciting. When I walked in the halls in the first day people were staring at me because I was the only asian in the school. At first I was very nervous and didn't really talk to anyone. I even went to primero bachillerato orientation by accident but I didn't feel embarrassed at all. I was lucky because I made some friends that day. I was introduced to different people in my grade( segundo bachillerato) and told them that I was from Canada. I greeted some girls with two kisses on the cheek and some with handshakes. In Val Do Tea, there are only 3 classes in the grade, and you don't change classes. You are either in the science class or liberal arts class. Instead of changing classes, the teachers come to your classroom which can be kind of boring to stay in the same class for the whole day. On the first day of school I didn't do anything but receive my schedule and go home. I was really tired that day and was the first time I had an actual "siesta".
My first day of school (Val Do Tea) was very exciting. When I walked in the halls in the first day people were staring at me because I was the only asian in the school. At first I was very nervous and didn't really talk to anyone. I even went to primero bachillerato orientation by accident but I didn't feel embarrassed at all. I was lucky because I made some friends that day. I was introduced to different people in my grade( segundo bachillerato) and told them that I was from Canada. I greeted some girls with two kisses on the cheek and some with handshakes. In Val Do Tea, there are only 3 classes in the grade, and you don't change classes. You are either in the science class or liberal arts class. Instead of changing classes, the teachers come to your classroom which can be kind of boring to stay in the same class for the whole day. On the first day of school I didn't do anything but receive my schedule and go home. I was really tired that day and was the first time I had an actual "siesta".
The school schedule is quite different from Canada. We go to school at 8:45 and get off at 2:25. On mondays, I have to go back to school from 4:20 to 6:00. We get two 20 min breaks called "recreo" and we don't get lunch because in Spain, people eat lunch at around 3 or 4 o clock. Also instead of having just 4 or 5 classes, I have 10 classes which is a little bit stressful. I am currently taking, Castellano literatura, Galego, Ingles, Frances, Matematicas, Historia, Economia, Geografia, and Filosofia. The way they pick their courses is kind of weird. You either get to do sciences or liberal arts. I picked liberal arts and wasn't allowed to take any type of science.
On my second day of school, which is the first day I actually had my classes, was exciting as well. My first class was Geografia and I was so tired that I almost fell asleep! In Val Do Tea almost all my classes are in Galego and I barely understand what they are saying. Galego is basically a mix of Spanish and Portuguese. Some notable differences are that the "j"s and "g's" are changed into x and pronounced as "sh". Worst, I didn't understand anything in French class because I don't speak french and also because the teacher teaches french in Castellano. Everybody in school had trouble pronouncing my name. Even the English teacher couldn't say it properly.They either pronounced it Jetro, Jackfro, Yuk, or Lee. To this day, my French and history teachers still think my name is Lee. For the first week of school, everyone laughed whenever the teacher read my name off the attendance list. I found it a little bit unusual at first, but in Spain you call the teacher by their first name or "profe". It took me a couple days to remember the names of some of my friends and I still don't know the names of others. Luckily, my friends and teachers were really nice. because I didn't understand galego an wasn't too fluent in spanish, the teachers put their effort by trying to help me. My English teacher just taught me Spanish instead of English.
In school, I saw a lot of people kiss each other, so at first I thought that lots of people were dating. Turns out, it is normal for friends to kiss each other multiple times on the cheek. At first, I was shocked that this girl was getting kissed by multiple guys, but I guess it is normal in Spain. They are also very touchy because they always sit in each others laps. My friends kind of swear a lot. I don't know if it is considered taboo in Spain because whenever people hear little kids swear, people treat it as if nothing happened. I guess it is not too much of a big deal in Spain as it is in North America. Even some of the teachers say words like "joder" or "puto", or me cago en tu puto cajones" and people treat it as if nothing happened.
In Spain, there is no homecoming or prom. They don't have sports teams in school either, those are extracurricular activities. The only thing they have is coro( choir). The problem is, they only practice for 20 minutes every week. The classrooms have no decorations at all except for the Celta de Vigo poster that my friend put up. All they have is a drawer with some dictionaries in it, a desk for the teacher, and a blackboard. None of the boards have whiteboards because they all still use chalk.
http://www.edu.xunta.es/centros/iesvaldotea/
I don't think I've seen one person raise their hands when they have a question. They just shout it out.
Frances
I don't understand anything in this class. Whenever we have to share stories of our life in French I never say anything because I don't speak any french except for some words and numbers. In this class, we always have to read aloud and I sound really stupid doing it. A lot of people have cool french accents which I cannot do at all.
Historia
In Historia, my teacher's name is Enrique. He looks like the old man from "Up". This is probably the most boring class. I don't understand anything he says. All he does is talk and talk. I sometimes distract him with questions so he won't talk in front of the class. In this class, I mostly just read my textbook and use my dictionary to translate words I don't know.
Geografia
The teacher in this class is very helpful. She always emails me modified assignments that I need to do. I had my first test in the class in which I had to remember the comunidades autonomas of Espana. There was one part I didn't know we had to study so she let me retake the test again. This class is a little bit more interactive as the teacher shows videos and uses a projector to show us notes. Sometimes I have to do presentations about the climate and geography of Vancouver in front of my class.
Matematicas
Out of all my classes, this is the worst. I do not understand anything. ANYTHING! The bad part about this class is that there are no textbooks so I just copy long equations on the board( which is very hard to read) and listen to him talk.
Ingles
This is probably my favorite class out of everything. English class in Spain is a joke. In two months We've done like three assignments. Sometimes they read a paragraph and then answer questions. Sometimes we do listening exercises. Because this stuff is easy for me, I mostly just help people in class. My teacher makes me translate paragraphs into Spanish and answer questions in Spanish.. A lot of my friends say that they have been learning english for more than 7 or 8 years but they say they aren't very good. They say that the level of English is really low in Spain. My host brothers are 11 and 9 and their English is a little better. Probably because they go to a private school and probably because their English classes are actually in English. In my class, the teacher teaches in Spanish with a couple of English words once in a while. It doesn't really matter because she is everyone's favorite teacher and is treated like a friend more than a teacher. I sometimes have to talk about my life in front of the class in Spanish which is fun. I did two presentations in front of Primero ESO classes. Because they were only 11 to 12 years old, they didn't behave really well, and the teacher had to send some of them out of the class. I was presenting in English but I accidentally got mixed up with a couple of Spanish words. This one girl asked me "Do you like the beaches in Spain", and I burst out laughing cause it sounded like she said bitches.
In Spain, there is no homecoming or prom. They don't have sports teams in school either, those are extracurricular activities. The only thing they have is coro( choir). The problem is, they only practice for 20 minutes every week. The classrooms have no decorations at all except for the Celta de Vigo poster that my friend put up. All they have is a drawer with some dictionaries in it, a desk for the teacher, and a blackboard. None of the boards have whiteboards because they all still use chalk.
http://www.edu.xunta.es/centros/iesvaldotea/
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| Todas de mis clases estan aqui |
I don't think I've seen one person raise their hands when they have a question. They just shout it out.
Frances
I don't understand anything in this class. Whenever we have to share stories of our life in French I never say anything because I don't speak any french except for some words and numbers. In this class, we always have to read aloud and I sound really stupid doing it. A lot of people have cool french accents which I cannot do at all.
Historia
In Historia, my teacher's name is Enrique. He looks like the old man from "Up". This is probably the most boring class. I don't understand anything he says. All he does is talk and talk. I sometimes distract him with questions so he won't talk in front of the class. In this class, I mostly just read my textbook and use my dictionary to translate words I don't know.
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| An exam that I didn't have to do. Jajaja! |
Geografia
The teacher in this class is very helpful. She always emails me modified assignments that I need to do. I had my first test in the class in which I had to remember the comunidades autonomas of Espana. There was one part I didn't know we had to study so she let me retake the test again. This class is a little bit more interactive as the teacher shows videos and uses a projector to show us notes. Sometimes I have to do presentations about the climate and geography of Vancouver in front of my class.
Matematicas
Out of all my classes, this is the worst. I do not understand anything. ANYTHING! The bad part about this class is that there are no textbooks so I just copy long equations on the board( which is very hard to read) and listen to him talk.
Ingles
This is probably my favorite class out of everything. English class in Spain is a joke. In two months We've done like three assignments. Sometimes they read a paragraph and then answer questions. Sometimes we do listening exercises. Because this stuff is easy for me, I mostly just help people in class. My teacher makes me translate paragraphs into Spanish and answer questions in Spanish.. A lot of my friends say that they have been learning english for more than 7 or 8 years but they say they aren't very good. They say that the level of English is really low in Spain. My host brothers are 11 and 9 and their English is a little better. Probably because they go to a private school and probably because their English classes are actually in English. In my class, the teacher teaches in Spanish with a couple of English words once in a while. It doesn't really matter because she is everyone's favorite teacher and is treated like a friend more than a teacher. I sometimes have to talk about my life in front of the class in Spanish which is fun. I did two presentations in front of Primero ESO classes. Because they were only 11 to 12 years old, they didn't behave really well, and the teacher had to send some of them out of the class. I was presenting in English but I accidentally got mixed up with a couple of Spanish words. This one girl asked me "Do you like the beaches in Spain", and I burst out laughing cause it sounded like she said bitches.
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| The kind of stuff we do in clase de ingles |
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| I just sat in front of the class for no reason |
Lengua Castellano
Mi profe se llama Laura. I don't have to do the stuff other students have to do because it is way too hard for me. It is pretty much impossible. The teacher doesn't really talk much in this class; the students just do work. They mostly learn about grammar.
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| Just people doing an exam in Castellano |
Recreo
In Recreo you don't really do anything but sit there and chat. Sometimes people eat bocadillos and some people buy bocadillos de chocolate or candy. The cafeteria is also where all the teachers hang out. Normally back home, the teachers have a lounge where they drink coffee and talk. The cafeteria area is really disorganized and there is no actual lineup. A classic thing my friends like to do is throw tin foil at other people when the teachers aren't looking.
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| Bocadillo de queso y chorizo |
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| Bocadillo de Chocolate |
Lingua Galego
In this class, we study Galician culture and literature. The good part is that I am exempted from doing any exams in this class. Mi profe se chama Xulia. Sometimes I fall asleep, but I try hard not to.
Economia
This is a pretty interesting subject because they normally don't have this at my school. Everyone's textbook is in Galician while mine is in Castellano. Out of all my teachers, this teacher(Francisco) is the strictest. He's nice to me though so that's good. Some my friends say he is a "cabron" and that he is "pesado" (annoying) because he asks lots of questions. I made the wrong mistake by accidentally falling asleep in class while reading my textbook. I try hard not to be late for school because Francisco gets kind of pissed if people arrive late.
Filosofia
I think my profesor de Filosofia is a little bit crazy. She always shouts in class and I have no idea what she is talking about. All my other classmates have tons of notes in Galician while I have two textbooks about some other stuff. Currently, we are studying about Plato and Socrates. We have never had any homework in this class
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| In Spanish this is called "Chuleta |
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| It's very common for Spanish students to cheat. (trampas) If they get caught, they usually don't get into any trouble. |
Clase Libre
In this class, we can absolutely do whatever we want. Sometimes people play board games like trivial pursuit, while others study, others talk, and sometimes even play the guitar and sing in class. I barely know anything in Trivial Pursuit so I just sit and watch.
This is a picture of all my textbooks. Starting from the left: History, Geography, Philosophy, Economics, and French.
On Saturday, my younger host brother Esteban had his tenth birthday. My host family threw a birthday party and his friends came. First we went swimming in their backyard pool, we ate, and gave him presents. He was really happy because he got Skylanders (a video game), for wii. After that, we played soccer. Since they were all Spaniards, the kids were pretty good at soccer and I sucked a lot compared to them. I was only good at being goalie. After the birthday party, I went with my friends to another friend's house. It was the first time I was out on the streets this late. Unfortunately, I had to go home at 12 o clock so I couldn't see my friend's concert.
On Monday after school, I went to the bar to play futbolini( foosball) with them. They seem like they are very good at it. Instead of just shooting randomly, they do trick shots and pass to other players, which I have never seen before. It's quite expensive because it is 50 cents per game but oh well. They also have other games in the bar, such as darts and boxing. Seems like they got bars everywhere in Spain.
On Sunday, I went to the movie theaters for the first time. It's gernerally the same except the american movies are in Spanish and there are no commercials in the beginning.
October 5th, I had the second orientation of the year. I almost missed my train but it turns out that you can buy your tickets on the train which is cool. We went to Santiago de Compostela and we just played games. We basically just talked about how to solve problems with your host families and school and how adaption is not as easy as it is. I felt better because all of the AFS students had the same problems and felt that people were in the same situation as me.
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| From left to right: Germany, Holland, Denmark, USA, USA, Germany, Canada Czech Republic, Thailand, USA |
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| Twister! |
I went to Portugal with my host family for the first time. We only went to a restaurant and a supermarket called "Continente". Countries who are in the European Union don't have borders around their country so you don't have to bring a passport or wait in line to cross from Spain to Portugal. There is just a bridge near the police station that divides Spain and Portugal. Many people from Spain go to Portugal to buy groceries because it is a lot cheaper. The Portuguese people usually speak to people in Portuguese while the Spaniards answer in Spanish or Galician.
After lunch, I went to my host dad's dad's farm. He has lots of land with tons of apple trees, flowers, and this special type of yellow fruit we use to make jam. My 11 year old host brother got to drive an old tractor which was pretty cool.
In the middle of October, I went out at night for the first time. Basically, people here just hang out in the streets starting from 11 o clock until 4 o clock or even 6. I was told that going back home at 2 is way too early which was kind of shocking since most people in Spain party till 6 in the am. The thing I love most about fiestas is that you get to meet tons of new people. In Ponteareas, there are many discos but my friends's favorite disco is La Boheme. In my opinion, I feel that it is one of the crappier and smaller discos in Ponteareas, but the other discos open at like 2 and are for older people. Most people who go to La Boheme are actually high schoolers or people that have just graduated. The surprsing part about Spain is that anyone will let you buy alcohol regardless of your age. You don't have to show ID to prove that you're 18 because they won't even ask. As always, some people dance very crazy while others just sit back and watch. Some popular songs they play in the disco are "besame loca", "Scream and shout", a mix of pop songs, and even Gangnam Style, which is really outdated in other countries.
The above is a TV program about the nightlife in Ponteareas.
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| Rough Translation: In Spain, going home before 3 o clock isn't going out. It is only time for dinner. |
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| My friends say that Estrella Galicia is the "mejor cerveza en el mundo" |
On October 26, it was the third orientation of the year. It was pretty awesome to hang out with the AFSers again because we have a lot in common and also because we could share our experiences and problems. We did the same things as the last orientation but this one was completely in Spanish. We went to the same restaurant as always. After the orientation, we all went out and ate tapas which is just a bunch of Spanish snacks such as octopus, squid, chorizo, salami, pescado, and some ensalada. After that, the nine of us were divided into two teams and we had a scavenger hunt around the main parts of Santiago de Compostela. That night we stayed at a hostel which a cheaper type of hotel where everyone has to share a bathroom and sleep on bunk beds.
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| Ben Baeckermann |
On the weekend after Halloween, I went to another fiesta. This time I went to eat dinner at Diosa Atenea with my whole class. Man I love that restaurant! A huge bocadillo de pollo con patatas fritas for 3,50 Euros. After that, my friend drove us to the disco where he showed me how to drift. Spaniards here drive really crazy and fast! So apparently here, it is normal to go to fiestas and discos every weekend.
Since I'm always bored and couldn't find any activities I decided to join the local gym and swimming pool. Basically you pay every month and it includes the weight room, swimming pool, aerobic classes, extreme fit, and pilates. In Spain, it is obligatory to wear a swim cap which I hate wearing. Beside the swimming pool are two pavillones for mostly soccer or basketball. I played indoor soccer for the first time and they were really good. Most of the them were in the their twenties and could kick really hard. It was kind of embarrassing because I would lose the ball every time they passed to me.
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| Weight Room |
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| Girl's baloncesto and balonmano tournament in Porriño |
Today was Magosto which is a festival of castañas (chesnuts). It isn't a huge festival but we only had to go to four classes. After segundo recreo, there were games in the library, free roasted chesnuts, and ping pong and basketball in the gym. Kind of embarrassing, but I lost in Ping Pong. I expected myself to win because I'm asian, but oh well, I haven't played in 4 years. The primero and segundo bachillerato students had a soccer tournament which was pretty fun. It was the first time I actually played soccer with my friends and it was a lot of fun. I sucked and sat out a lot, but hey I almost scored on a penalty kick!
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