Letters from Abroad

Dear Patch,

I’d been told over and over that exchange was going to be a rollercoaster of emotions, but so far, it’s been a pretty tame rollercoaster for me. I’m really grateful how smooth everything has been so far. The one bad thing about this, though, is that I was afraid I wouldn’t have as much to write about. Turns out, I still had a lot to say, but since it’s more about how I’ve been doing and the differences I’ve encountered as opposed to places I’ve been or things I’ve done, there aren’t too many pictures.

This month, I will start with my favorite subject, food! My host mom made patatas bravas [picture 1] for the first time, because I said I wanted to try the typical Spanish dish. And guess what? They were amazing. Not only did they taste delicious, they were also very aesthetically pleasing.

Another first for me this month was attending a pro-basketball game [2]. My host mom got tickets from her company to attend a basketball game between Baskonia (the local team) and Barcelona. We had a suite just for the four of us, and I really enjoyed watching the game. The score was close the entire game, and most of the time, Baskonia was down by just a few points. In the last couple of seconds, Baskonia was able to tie up the score, and then went on to win in overtime.

At the beginning of the month, I got to visit San Sebastian, my host dad’s hometown. It’s about an hour and a half drive from my house, right on the Atlantic coast, almost on the border between Spain and France. The city was so beautiful, I took about 400 photos throughout the day but here I’ll only show some of them [3-14]. We parked the car in the morning and walked through the city, two of the three beaches, and took the funicular to the top of the over-looking hill. From there, we had an amazing view of the city, and we got see a tower built in 1778 [15]. While we were enjoying the view, my host dad pointed out a town along the coast and asked me if I could see the far-away buildings. When I said yes, he told me “That’s France.” Even though I knew we were near the border, it still amazes me that I can be in one country and just see another. I guess I’m still not used to how small and close together European countries are. Later, we walked through the city to go on a short hike on the hill on the other side of the small bay and we walked through an old castle that was used to defend the city.

Other than its beauty, San Sebastian is also well know for its pitxo bars [16]. Pintxos (pronounced Pin-chos) are like tapas, little portions of Spanish food, kind of like appetizers. Everything in the city is expensive, but at least the food is always good!

This past week, I got to go to San Sebastian again, but this time with my class to watch a TV show being filmed. I thought that we were going to be shown maybe a set and how they film and edit. It turns out we were the audience for a game show they were filming, so we’ll be in the background of three episodes, which air in December!

Other than going on field trips to watch TV, one big difference between school here and in the U.S. is the grading system and the exams. In the States, we normally have quizzes or tests for each chapter and then we have finals twice a year, at the end of each semester. The grades we see on our report cards are a combination of participation in class, homework, projects, tests and quizzes, and the final. In Bachillerato (optional school for students ages 16-18 here in Spain), they try to get you ready for college, so most classes just have exams at the end of each trimester. They are graded on a scale of 1 to 10, five being the lowest passing grade. Unlike the United States, people here seem to be more concerned with passing than getting a “good grade.” Of course, it’s better to get a higher score, but getting a passing grade is the most important thing. People being happy with a 5 or 6 has taken some getting used to, especially since it would be considered an F or a D in the U.S. Except for Basque, I am taking the same classes as the other students here, which also meant I had to take the same exams. Of the 10 classes I take, I passed 8 of them, which I am happy about, especially since I’m still learning the language. Although of course I’d like to get my grades up over the course of the school year.

Another difference I’ve noticed over these past few weeks has caused me to think to myself, “Wow, I’m such a Californian,” meaning “Wow, I’m so used to good weather.” November in Pleasanton pretty much means that I can start wearing long pants, boots, and scarves because they’re cute and it’s finally cold enough not to overheat wearing them. Here, long pants, boots, jackets and scarves are necessary, as it’s constantly dipping in to single-digit temperatures (Of course, I’m referring to degrees Celsius). It’s even dropped to -1ºC a few times. It definitely rains a lot more here, and when it’s cold enough, hail. Apparently, it also snowed once in Legutio early in the morning but not enough stuck for me to see it when I woke up. One day before school, I had to wait for my host dad to pour water on the windshield and doorhandles to defrost them, which was a new experience for me [17-18].

Concerning my language skills: they continue to improve everyday, and I find myself having conversations without really having to think too hard about what I want to say. Obviously, I don’t consider myself fluent, and my friends or family members still have to correct me sometimes, but when people ask me how many languages I speak, I’ve started saying three instead of two.

Another good indicator of my improvement is how other people perceive me when I first meet them. After finding out I’m from California, more than one person here has asked me how many years I’ve been living here or how long ago I moved, which makes me really happy when explain that I’m an exchange student and I’ve only been here for 3 months. I’ve also been asked directions while walking in Vitoria, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t get lost.

One thing about language that I’ve heard so many times but am really starting to experience, is that if you don’t practice, you’ll lose it. When I facetime with my family, we talk in Japanese, just like we would if I was home. Even in the States, the only place I use my Japanese is at home, so now that I don’t talk to my family everyday, I’m using it even less. On more than one occasion, I couldn’t come up with a word in Japanese and had the Spanish word come out instead. I then had to come up with a different way of saying it in Japanese. And although it’s a lot less common, I’ve had this experience for English too. For example, when writing this article, I came up with the word “conjunto” and had to think for a few minutes before coming up with the word “combination.”

Hopefully my English still makes sense by the time I get back!

Until next time,

Nagisa

P.S. I didn’t have any Rotary events this month, and I didn’t gain any new pins, so my blazer looks the same as it did last month [19].