Wednesday, March 26, 2008

So... Spain

I forget what I said last time so I might end up repeating myself. Maybe not, it doesn´t really matter.

So... School is awesome, been going for about two weeks, and despite there being a max of 400 or so people in the whole school, it´s pretty decent. They have that whole "subject strain" thing here, so I chose Bio/Chem/Maths (as opposed to options of Maths/Chem/Physics, or some random ones which involved dodge subjects such as Geography, Art History [Not even the good part of Art], and Languages. ). I also had to choose some add on subject, so I decided to go with Pschology, which is hands down, the best damn subject ever.

Being a small town school, the administration is a little, uh, unprofessional. To give you an example, they gave me a bus pass, but seeing as I aint a real student, they gave me a fake address and fake birth date. So I´m actually 18 according to my bus pass (which is awesome, cos it doubles as fake photo ID).

My town of Eurovillas (pronounced Euroviyas cos of screwed up Spanish) is something similiar to the North Shore... In that there aren´t any tall buildings, and all the shops are more like small botiques than mega stores. The difference lies in that the city isn´t a 20 minute train ride away, and it isn´t all that green. So, I´ll be dead honest, it kinda sucks. However, there is the awesome fact that there is one bar/club that everyone in the town goes too, meaning you´re pretty much guaranteed to meet everyone who´s your age in this place.

It´s also fucking cold, I rarely leave the house with any less than three layers of clothing, and it even snowed two days ago. That´s weird cos it´s Spring... I keep on forgetting all the weird things about this place...

I do remember it being hillarious that I see the word "negro" everywhere, not to mention stuff named after Jesus, like a hair salon in the middle of Madrid. Everyone smokes. Everyone. You´d be lucky to find a non-smoking bar, and chances are, if you do, it´s because it´s actually a restaurant. No-one orders Pizza as a snack. It´s a full blown meal, as a consequence, it´s a whole lot nicer. There´s no such thing as a Vegetarian meal. I don´t think I´ve had one since I got here. As a result, I´ve had to break the halal thing (I´m muslim, just incase you randomly came across this thing and don´t actually know me).

Oh yeah, I left out the whole language thing. No-one speaks English, bar this guy I met who grew up in Germany (a legend by the way, even if he looks like a leb). Hell, the English teacher speaks pretty terrible English. Fashions that seem to be incredibly popular = Mullets or Indie hair, Nike´s or Converse, Sideward caps, chains, black clothing, and a whoooole load of piercings. It´s a weird split, but I´ve yet to meet a douche bag, cos everyone is a legend and goddamn nice.

Oh, and embarassing moments = Not understanding I had to pay for a bus trip + not understanding I have to tell the bus guy where the hell I want to go. Asking every single bus guy whether this is "Ruta 4". Every single sentence I say gets laughed at for being gramatically incorrect (but, to be fair, I openly laugh at their English in return). And lastly, pretending I understand something and saying "Yes" only for them to point out to me what they said was an offhand comment, and wasn´t a yes or no question.

Well that was massive, I better go before I get ousted for using the net.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Hola People

So I finally got here in Spain town, and to be purely honest, it´s bloody fantastic.

I got a permanent family pretty much as I was leaving Australia, and they´re absolutely great (I got half my ideal situation, if ya know what I mean). I start school on Monday, and so far I´ve made a whole bunch of embarrasing mistakes, none worth mentioning though, if not only because it won´t transfer well into text.

So, I´ll post again when I have something hillarious to say, but just thought I´d keep this thing up to date.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Still... Counting Down

So... I'm not in Spain yet. I was in fact delayed a week (though not everyone knows about that, though they probably would've figured it out by now), and have been delayed again, by 3 days (no-one knows about that one so far). So, if, stuff goes well and according to plan, I should be leaving in 5 days, on the Thursday.

However, it seems it aint all bad, as I've got a fellow Student Exchange student who was also held back (rumours tell me it's one of those 'women' creatures).

As for details on where I'm living it up in Spain, I have been enlightened somewhat. It seems I have a temporary family in Madrid! Oh yeah, the father and I hit it off immediately. You see, I was uh, forcefully convinced to call them last night on the pretence 'that they've GOT TO speak English, I mean, they're a modern family and my friend who is Spanish etc etc etc.'. Needless to say I was dubious, and when he answered the phone our conversation went something along the lines of:

'Hola?' (Hello?)
'Hola!'
'Spanish, spanish, spanish, spanish'
'Nombre est Hasan, Yasan' (My name is Hasan)
'Spanish, spanish, spanish, spanish?'
'Uh, me no intiendo castellano' (I don't understand Spanish)
'Me not intiendo inglese' (I don't understand English)
'Uh, this is bad'
'Si, spanish, spanish, spanish, spanish'

And then, thankfully, he hung up or the line got cut or something. So there was my first ever conversation with the man of the family. How awesome is that? I'm looking forward to meeting the guy now, I'm expecting mutterred whisperings along the lines of 'Is that the bloody retarded kid?' followed by an exaggerated hug, an arm numbing handshake and a fake grin.

Still, I guess I have 5 months to convince them I'm not that 'retarded kid' and instead become 'the boy that never lived here, it was your imagination'. Anyway, thought I'd keep y'all up to date on whats going down. It seems I don't need Spain to provide those 'embarrasing-for-me' times I mentioned earlier.

I can do it all on my own.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Counting Down

Well, I probably should give a quick run down on what the hell is going on:

- I'm going to Spain for some hot and steamy Student Exchange action.
- I'm leaving in 2 weeks.
- I still have no idea where the hell in Spain I'm going, and whether I'm stuck with a crazy ass family who may want to sacrifice me for being a heathen indian-australian, or whether I end up with some rich bastards who have incredibly, uh, forward twin daughters who also happen to be my age, beautiful, and love me to such an extent I gain half of the inheritance.
- This thing is gonna be about telling you what I'll be doing over in the Spanish land of awesomeness. (And, all the consequent side effects).

So prepare for some funny-for-you, tragically-embarrasing-for-me times ahead. Right now I'm just ridiculously excited, and as a result, quite wide awake at 3:20 am...

I'll leave you there for the moment.