Letters from Abroad

Dear Patch,

Half a year! Woo hoo! February seemed to go by really fast and really slow for me. I can’t believe it’s already March, but at the same time, things I did at the beginning of the February seem like forever ago.

But first I’d like to share is a picture of the sky I took last night from my window [picture 1]. Supposedly, a beautiful sunset is a sign that the weather will be really nice the next day, but in my case it wasn’t true. The sunset was gorgeous but the sky today is very overcast and it has been raining on and off.

Anyways, at the beginning of the month, I finished the second round of exams, and I was really happy to find out that I passed all of my classes this trimester. I ended with a B average and my counselor even called my host parents to tell them that all my teachers are really happy with my progress. I spent a lot of January studying for tests and doing homework, but this month, I feel like I got to have more fun.

The first weekend, another exchange student from my district came to visit me for the weekend of Carnivales. During the day, we went to Salburua Park [2], which is a wetland habitat on the outskirts of Vitoria. I took a bunch of pictures [3-8], and we got to see some wildlife and my host dad even gifted us exchange students with new pins (one of two this month) for our blazers [9]. That night, we dressed up in costumes and went out with other girls from my class. The only thing that I didn’t like about that night was that it started raining around midnight and as Spanish fiestas are in the streets, moving between different bars and “discotecas,” we all got pretty wet.

That same week, I went to a Rotary meeting [10] to present a little about how I had been doing during the first half of my exchange. A lot of the Rotarians had not seen me since September, so they were pleasantly surprised to see how much my Spanish had improved. I was able to put together a powerpoint with just pictures and talk, as opposed to writing a speech and memorizing it.

The following weekend I went to Madrid again with my family. I saw lots of paintings in the Prado Museum, and took a picture of the first Starbucks I have seen in 6 months.

In the last two weeks, it has snowed a few times, and I hiked up Gorbea with my host dad to see Basque Country covered in snow. At the top and at the bottom there wasn’t very much snow, but in some parts, there was snow up to my knees. I’ve seen snow (a lot of people think it doesn’t exist in California) and gone skiing before, but I had never gone hiking in it, so it was a fun (and tiring) new experience for me. And the view from the top was definitely worth it [11-14].

Last week my class went to a career fair, where I got a matching pin [15] with one of my friends from a booth that offered a study abroad program. This weekend I went out to dinner and to party with friends, and in terms of soccer, we won our game for the second week in a row, which was really nice.

This month, I have two things to share about my favorite topic. The first is that I had my first milkshake in Spain, and it was amazing. The second is that my friend took me to a new bar (new for me) called “100 Montaditos.” It has a menu of 100 different little bokatas (sandwiches) and you write down the numbers of the bokatas you want to order [16]. What’s even better is that they’re all small and only cost €1, €1.2, or €1.5 (depending on which one you get), so you can try lots of different flavors [17].

And for those of you wondering when I'm coming back, my return flight is scheduled for the last weekend of June. I can't believe that's only four months away! Maybe there's a way to pack Spain into my suitcase?

Until next time,

Nagisa