1 month in :)

I am still alive after 1 month! (Well, 1 month in 3 days)

Howdy all!  Had a looooooong week of school this week, but it is sloooowly getting better!  I am talking more at school, in Spanish, so it is getting easier for me.  The people in my class realise that I am slowly improving at my Spanish, so they speak to me more often!  I have a project that is due sometime in June I think, and I am in a group for it, so I talk to the girls in my group :)  I have no idea what I am doing for the project though, as I can't understand the teacher, so it's a good time!  I also have a physics exam on Tuesday, and I don't understand physics in English let alone Spanish, so looking forward to getting that mark back :p


As I have mention, my Spanish is slowly getting better :)  I am able to have conversation at home in Spanish, and I do not speak much English at home anymore!  I help out my host mum with her English, because she wants to get better, but other than that I don't speak much English :)  Everything is still really good at home, I am getting along with everyone really well!  I have practised the guitar more, and I can play 'el patio de mi casa', and I can nearly play 'cumpleaños feliz', so it is a good time!  I have also finally gotten a bus card, so I can fiesta around Vigo!  I have begun helping out in the kitchen, cutting the veggies and stirring the OCTOPUS. Good times. 

My host mum is going to help me with my Spanish, giving me quick lessons on the tenses and a few things that locals say that I wouldn't have learnt at school :) It is hard only talking in the present and past tense, so I am excited to brush up on the tenses again!

Other than that, nada!  Life is pretty good, I am getting fat, going to school, going to the pool, practising guitar, practising Spanish, and getting fat again :p The food, I love it!  I have tried lots of different things, including octopus, shrimp, squid, muscles, granjera (fruit), nata con chocolate (ice cream kind of thing), white asparagus, and others that I have forgotten!

Hope everyone at home is all goods, and enjoying the Easter holidays (if they are still on) and doing what ever else you're doing!!  I have a few random photos that I thought you might enjoy, so here they are :)

At the fruit store, and I saw these MASSIVE watermelons, Vicente said these were the small ones!

This is a baby pineapple, I didn't even know that they sold them!

Had a good time today cooking some octopus, yum yum.

These are from the walk the other week, if you guys can remember it!

Moooore octopus

These are fat baby bananas, which were with the baby pineapple!

Random parts of a pig

The only sign of Vigo that I have seen, pretty snazzy

Chopping up some shroums for the lunch.

Nada más from me, so adios!

Easter Holidays part 2 :)

Happy Easter everyone!

A few things have happened since the last update, so yay!  I have photos and stories, so at least this update won't be too boring (I hope).

Primera:  I went to my host families cousins house, and we went on a weeeee walk!  The views were amazing, I could see most of Vigo from where I was!  The cousin also had a dog, so that made the walk even better!

Segundo:  Irlanda, Mario and I went to the beach with some of their friends from a summer camp, and it was pretty nice!  This beach was even better than the last one, and the sand is so fine!  I love it!  I didn't get burned (like I did last time) so that's a bonus. 

Tercero:  If you guys didn't know, my host family has a beach house just a small way out of Vigo, so we went there.  Because it hadn't been used since September, we had to mow the lawns, cut out the weeds from the pot plants, open all the windows, dust, vacuum, the whole lot!  It was going well, as well as working can be, when Maria (my host mum) was mowing the lawn, and she accidently mowed over the power cord for it!  Sadly, we couldn't finish the lawn :( But, because of this, Mario and I decided to play Monopoly.  Now, my family in NZ knows how bad I am at monopoly, but Mario had NO idea how trash I was!  Lets just say, at the end of the game, I owned 1 street (the lightbulb one) and Mario owned everything else, and had hotels on everything!  I'm pretty sure I had less than 1000 euros at the end! 

Also, if anyone has seen my photos on Facebook and Instagram, you might notice that I keep mentioning not having money!  I am not out of dinero, thank goodness, it's a reference to the monopoly game!  Just to clear up the confusion!

Ahora:  Today is Easter! I sorted out an Easter Egg Hunt for my host family, and they really enjoyed it!  Some were a bit easy to find, but I blame it on having to wait till three in the morning to hide them because we needed to finish the Harry Potter Movie!  Mario and I have decided to watch them all (in Spanish) which is a good time :) Before the Easter Egg Hunt, all of the children in Marias family (including those of her sisters) and breakfast with their grandfather, so that was yummy! Aaand then after that, we went to a friends house to have a BBQ, and it was great!  They had plenty of meat, salad, corn, crackers and CAKE!  At Easter, there is a cake called Roscón, and it is so good!  I don't know how to describe it, because I don't think we have anything like it in NZ, but I recommend trying to find one!

SOO that's all that's been going on (I think), and I also found some photos from the shopping trip I went on, so I'll leave those here too!  My Spanish has gotten better (at least I believe it is), and I am able to say a bit more, like asking for things or trying to have a conversation, so I am very happy!  Sadly, school starts back on Tuesday :( I have to do the exams this term as well... I'll just try and pass English to be honest :p

Here are the photos!

At the beach house, before Maria cut the cable :p

A small Roscón, with nuts and the orange strings are actually egg!

(Above) The view from the walk, the black squares are where they grow mussels, and I love them! They taste amazing. 

The beach we went to

Mario happy with his findings of the Easter Egg Hunt

Waiting for the food to cook at the BBQ

The walk made me a bit thirsty, and I had no water so, random dog fountain it is!

Mario and I always seem to be beating each other up...

But in a fun way!

Shopping photo! Lots of bags, even though we only bought about 3 things each :p

On our way to the beach, much style

Irlanda and I found these shoes, and they are actually horrific! I don't know if you can tell, but they are actually furry, like velvet furry! It was soo bad

This is everyone who went on the walk (above has Maria and below has Mario). 

That's all for now! Don't know how exciting this next week will be, with school and all, but we'll see!  I'm signing up to the gym on Monday I think, I have guitar lessons on Tuesdays, and I will be starting up swimming again after the Easter Holiday break :)

Hope everyone had a great Easter back home, and I hope you're not missing me too much! Adios.....

Easter Holidays part 1!

Aloha everyone!

Because I have actually done stuff this week, I decided to update early so I wouldn't bombard everyone with heaps of photos at the end of the week!  On Sunday, my host family and I went to the beach for a walk around, which was really nice because the beach was sooo nice!  The sand is really fine and there are lots of places to eat around the beach also.  We didn't actually go into the water though, so I still haven't been in the Atlantic Ocean yet :( Maybe another day this week!  Also, while driving to the beach, we stopped at the port, so I took some photos of it and some of the boats there :0

Yesterday (Monday) we went to Mario's football tournament, which was for the whole day!  I saw more football during that one day than I have ever seen before in my life.  Mario's team did really well, they made it to the quarter finals, but the teams that made the final were about 3 or 4 levels ahead of their team, so they did well to make it as far as they did!  There was also a really cute dog at the game, and I wish I could have brought it home with me!!!

And then today, (Tuesday), I went shopping with Irlanda and my host mum, and I bought some new clothes!  I didn't spend tooooo much, I hope....  But that's ok!  I can't find the photo we took at the mall, so I might put it in the next update! 

Tomorrow I'm going to the beach again, but this time for sunbathing and maybe a weeee dip into the ocean!  I think at some point we are going to Portugal, or Caruna (did not spell that right), to visit Mario's girlfriend and because it is a nice wee city! :)

Here are the photos:

My host father was explaining to me that this boat is used to pull the other boats that need to dock into the port.

Above and below: Views of the port

This is the beach, and it carries on for ages!  I had walked for about 10-15 minutes before taking this, so there is more beach behind me!

Mario's football tournament

The cute dog!! It was like a tiny bear and was cuddly (I sneaked a few pats when the owner wasn't looking).

Mario is the one with dark hair in red (not the one beside the green guy with the ball)

So goodbye for now, but maybe on Saturday or Friday I will update once again, and hopefully have a few more photos!! Hope everyone back home is doing ok and enjoying the Easter break :)

Week 2!

Howdy howdy howdy!  I have decided to do my weekly update today instead of tomorrow, because I'm not doing anything right now!  Not much has actually happened this week, just school, but next week is Easter holidays, and Mario has a football compition on Monday which we are all going to, and I think we may be going out of Vigo somewhere, so the next update will be more exciting!

School has gotten a lot better, A LOT!!  I think everyone was as nervous as I was to talk, but now everyone is talking to me a bit more, and I think my Spanish has improved, but just a little!  School is pretty difficult though, I have no idea what is going on in math, one because it is in Spanish and two because I haven't actually studied algebra before!  I have the same problem in physics, but I find biology fine because the words are very similar and I study it at home!  English is really good, it is my one break class, because I can understand everything perfectly! 

I went to a football match that Mario had, and they won!  My family says that his team is really bad, but they won against one of the best teams!  Irlanda and I were screaming our heads off when Mario's team got the ball, I think we even made a few people deaf!  We were the only supporters for his team, so all the other people there were for the other team, which was awkward!

I finallllly signed up for the swimming pool!  It is right beside school, so when I have Gallego classes, I go to the pool instead!  It is only for around 40 minutes, so not too long, but it is better than nothing!  I am signing up for the gym soon, because my host cousin, Alba, goes there and it is very cheap.  It is only around 25 euros for every month, and there are spin classes, palates, a swimming pool, two saunas, a spa, work out equipment (treadmill, pull up bars, escalator machine) and also weights and mats to do your own stretches/exercises.  There is also a very beautiful park nearby, which I went running in with Alba, and it was very peaceful so I can't wait to go again.

Nothing much else to report, hopefully there will be more exciting things next week!  It feels like I have been here longer than two weeks, as I am getting on so well with the host family and settling into the routine easily! I only have a few random photos, so here they are!

The football game, above and below

Hot dogs in jar at the supermarket!

These are all different tomatoes! They even have yellow and orange!!!

Cheese that you can buy at the supermarket

Yellow plums!

They gave me a grade card at school, even though I had done no tests! What a waste of paper :p

This is my Mario and I attacking each other with the sleeves of our jerseys

I mentioned in the last post that I went to a birthday dinner for my host mums dad, this is the photo from that! It was a great night!

Well, I hope everyone back home is doing alright, heard that it has been raining a lot, so I hope everyone is nice and dry now!  Adios for now!

Because exciting things have happened, I have decided to update everyone!

Last night, I went with my host mother to a small concert where my host sister was playing at, and it was very good!  It went for about two or so hours, and it was only three euros!  I didn't understand much of the Spanish songs, and they even sung in Gallego, their native language!  Their English singing was not very good, because they couldn't pronounce some words and got a lot of them wrong!  Even so, it was a great event and there is another one in about three weeks and I can't wait to go!  I have some photos and videos of the event, so here they are!

And today, I got up very late (around 11:30), but I wasn't the only one! Everyone decided to sleep in because we were very tired from the day before!  Around 2 in the afternoon, we went to a festival in the city centre.  The festival was to celebrate the reconquering of Vigo from the French, so there were lots of people dressed in outfits from the past, and people dressed as French soldiers.  Because we went later, we didn't get to see the parade, but I enjoyed it anyway! 

Octopus being cooked at the festival

Some spices that smelled amazing!

Lots and lots of lollies!

Yummy pastries

A random view from near the festival

My host brother, sister and I :)

I realised I didn't explain my school very well, so I will explain it here!  I have quite a few subjects; biology, anatomy, chemistry/physics, English, physical education, English, Gallego, Spanish literature, and maths.  My host mother has asked if I can move to my host sisters school, because it will be easier for me and her, as the school is closer to my house and I won't need a bus pass like the other school!  Also, the school that I go to now isn't bad but I don't think they know what to do with an exchange student!  The teachers think I don't understand Spanish, even though I said I could but I found it hard to speak it, and as the students heard this as well, they don't speak to me very much...

So hopefully I can move!  The other school has had a lot of host students, and the teachers are very nice, so fingers crossed I can go! 

It was also my host mothers dads birthday, so we went over to their house and had a small party.  There were a lot of people there, as they have a big family, and it was very loud and exciting!  I could understand what they were talking about, until they started all talking over each other!! I loved it and hope to have another get together with them soon!

That's all from me, hope everyone at home is ok and having a good time!