Crossing boarders

Hola a todos!

I am actually updating around an hour earlier than usual, because the time zone is different here.  If you couldn´t tell from the title, I have crossed over some boarders today!  I am actually in England right now, in Birmingham!  I am here because Vicente needs to buy some car parts, so I decided to tag along!

It was a bit nerve racking trying to get onto the plane, because we went to the airport in Portugal first to catch the plane to England.  But, when we were getting our passports and tickets scanned right before the plane, the lady asked to see my visa.  And of course, I don´t actually have one because I am not staying longer than three months, so she was like ´no you can´t enter´ and we were all worried, but then it was all goods cause she asked a superior and bam I was allowed on the plane!

Hearing everyone talking in English after 2 moths of basically nothing is so different! I don't know how I am going to survive when I go back to NZ, because I am so used to Spanish, and driving on the opposite side of the road! When we got into the car, I got into the drivers side on accident!!  I find it really weird talking in English now as well, writing is fine but when I hear my own voice, it sounds so ... different!

I am now officially a member of the club ´Real club Nautico de Vigo´, a swimming club.  There was a race meet on this weekend, but unfortunately  I was too late to enter!  But there is another one on Sunday this week, so I am going to go!!  They say my times are pretty good, but with only a bit of training I guess we will see what happens!

I also went out on Friday to buy some gifts and look at a Navy ship, because it was the day of the armed forces, but sadly it closed before we got there!  Instead, we found a random bike museum, watched a big cruise ship leaving the port, biked around with a blindfold, and ate some ice cream. 

There are so many exams I need to do now, I have already done philosophy, anatomy and biology, and I still have to do a Spanish speech, more biology next week, a cultural science project and I don't even know what else!  I do actually study, because it helps with my vocabulary in Spanish, but it is still pretty hard.

I helped cook a tortilla this week, and I also made some crepes with Mario, a few were burned in the beginning but we figured it out pretty quickly after that!  There was also a bit of a storm on Friday, and there was a huge amount of lighting and thunder, and my host uncle got a photo which I will put here of it! 

Nothing much else has happened (I don't think), so I will put my photos here for you guys to enjoy :)

Standing to attention, the Navy ship is the one in the background

Don't really know what we are doing in this, but here ya go.

In the background are small houses, and they used to be used in the past.  So this is how the Celtics lived here in Vigo, in these small huts.

This is the lightning from the storm on Friday

Me biking around blind! They have made a new bike so blind people can bike with another person, and it is actually pretty scary biking around and having no idea where you are!

Giant watermelon Vicente bought the other day

I think ate most of this...

Clearer photo of the Navy ship

This statue is called 'El sireno' and is one of the most iconic statues in Vigo, but to be honest I find it a lil ugly :p

Random escalators

The big cruise ship is in the background

Tortilla I helped make, which is probably why it is a bit burnt

At the bike museum, some random photos.

The crepes Mario and I made

Buinsimo

Random place to buy oysters

Small video of the swimming competition, what they say instead of 'take your marks', and the yellow buckets beside the blocks are to splash yourself with water before you race :p

That's all from me, hope everyone at home is looking forward to seeing me, because I basically have only three weeks!  Have a good week and I'm sure I'll have plenty to talk about in my next update on Sunday :)

Hasta luegooooooo

Only a month to go.....

I have only just realised that I basically only have a month left here in Spain :(

To be honest, I don't want to go!  I am loving it here so much, my family is really fun and nice, and school has actually gotten better (surprisingly), so all is good and well.  Of course I miss everyone back home, but it feels like I have been here forever!

Anyways, I have had a pretty eventful week this week!  I finally managed to make it to Portugal!! On Wednesday we went, and it didn't even take 30 minutes to get there!  We just drove for a bit, crossed a bridge, and the Vicente told me 'we are now in another country' and I was like seriously!!!  Pretty cool, as there was a fair going on, so I bought quite a lot... But everything was very cheap which was amazing :0.  Maria wants to go back on a Saturday, because there is another market but in a different part of Portugal which is a bit further in than where we went (Valenca).  There is also a small town in Valenca, inside a big stone wall!  It is honestly so amazing, and I saw 5 different cats around, so I really want to live there now!  Not many people live inside, but there are a lot of stores with common things of Portugal, and many restaurants as well.

I went skating again yesterday, and I have gotten a bit better! I can't remember if I talked about the lats time I went skating, but I basically died.  I couldn't let go of the bar, and I fell over quite a bit :(  Maria enjoyed filming and taking photos of my failures, but I guess it is pretty funny for them when literally everyone here can skate!  A small girl, probably only 6 or 7 years old, was trying to teach me how to skate!  She couldn't understand why someone as old as me was unable to skate, and I explained to her that I lived in a country very far away and we don't have roller skates like the ones here, and she was so shocked!  She said everyone should know how to skate, it's just like walking!

Maria, Irlanda and I also went shopping this week, and I ended up buying quite a few things, so goodbye dinero!  Maria also found a store where everything is really cheap and nice, it is kinda like Kmart but bigger and better ( I know it seems impossible, but it is true!).

I also had a biology exam, which was a great time.  I understood the questions and everything, and I answered them, but I am not sure if I answered them with the right answers (ya know all the special terms and stuff), so I don't know if I will have scored more than 0, but we can hope!  I have another exam tomorrow sadly, of anatomy! It is also two topics in one exam, both at least 4 pages each of things I need to know, so rip me.  I didn't think I was going to need to do it, but my teacher told me on FRIDAY that I had to do the exam on MONDAY, so I had TWO days to try and prepare for the exam... which is not enough time when it is in a different language and about stuff you haven't learnt in English!!  Pretty sad :(

Side note, while I was in Portugal, I had this MAAAASsibe burger, two patties with everything inside, for only 5 euros!  Much better than Macas, and it came with a drink as well!  I could barley move after eating it, so I think after that I gained about 3 kilos, but oh well!

Now, here are all my photos from this weeeeek/last week for the first skating.

My skaaates

This is at the market in Portugal, there was heaps of food, and you could even buy dogs and cats!

This is my MONSTER burger, it may not look like much but it nearly killed me.

Making some friends in Portugal

Found some cats in the village inside the wall, and I think we are no friends

If you can see the bridge in the background, that is what we crossed to get to Portugal! Spain is on the other side.

This may look weird, but it is in all of the supermarkets! You pick your bread, put it in and the machine cuts it up for you.  I found it pretty amazing.

This is inside the village in the wall

Me dying trying to skate

This makes it easier to understand, inside this wall behind Mario and I is a small town!

My first attempts at skating

Well that is allll for this week, hope everyone is well and not too cold, I heard that it was pretty cold at the moment, something to do with a storm from antárctica, but I am not sure!  Anyways, not long till I see everyone, so I look forward to seeing you all soon :)

Until next week,

CHOOOOOW

rainy days

Rain rain go away and come again another day.

Hola everyone, and you can probably guess that is has been a rainy week for me here in Vigo!  Even though it is Spring time, it was really storming these past few days!  But, even though it has been raining, I have managed to accomplish a few things :)

Firstly;  I bought a Ukulele!! It was pretty cheap, and my instructor says that he is surprised it was how much it was, for how good it is made and stuff.  I can play some nursery rhyme, like 'I'm a little tea pot" and "marry had a little lamb', and I am learning to play 'I'm yours'.

In the last post, I mentioned that I was going to go roller skating, but sadly due to all of the storms, all of the skating rinks were wet so we couldn't :( One day I will go, so keep an eye out for a video!

I have been shopping a few times, and bought presents for people (finally), so that was good!  Sadly I haven't been able to find any post cards!  All they have are baby cards in the stores, not sure why :( So sadly you guys won't find any Spanish post cards anytime soon, but hopefully I'll be able to find some!

School has definitely gotten better, ever since I answered the question in physics, the people around me have realised that I can understand and kinda speak Spanish, so yay!  A girl in my biology class came up to me, and turns out she is a competitive swimmer!  She trains in a place close to my home, and I have been allowed to join :)  I can only go 3-4 times a week, but it is better than going alone!  Everyone in the club is really nice, and they were all asking me questions about NZ and what life was like, so I ended up talking quite a bit.  The training times are very different, usually around 8-10, so I was a bit tired the first time I went!  They also have drag shorts for the girls, which you wear over your normal togs to make training harder, so next time I go I am going to buy a pair!

All day Saturday we were at another roller skating competition, and Irlanda did pretty well!  It was pretty fun to watch, but after 8 ish hours of skating, I was pretty tired!  We went out to have food again, and we had something that tasted like KFC, but more healthy.    And then, today (Sunday),  Mario had a football match!  So we watched that, but his team did pretty bad.... 9-0 to the other team!  Mario played really well though, it was like everyone else were in dream land, the goalkeeper just stood there and watched 2 goals go right past him!

Also today, Mario and I (plus a friend called Iban), went to see guardians of the galaxy 2!  I could actually understand most of it, and I found it pretty funny!  I really enjoyed it, so I recommend you guys to watch it!  I haven't seen the first one, but I could still understand what was going on so that was good.  I bought the over priced popcorn and drink combo, just to really get the full experience of a Spanish Movie Theatre!!

It was also Vicente's birthday (my host dad), so we had a cake (that was so good I could eat it for the rest of my life) and gave him his presents!  He enjoyed them, so that was good! 

So that's all that has been happening this week, but the weather is supposed to be better next week so more things can happen!  Wednesday is a public holiday, so if it is nice weather we can go somewhere or go roller skating, which we are all excited for :)

Well, here are my photos for the week, I don't have many but :)

This is my ukulele, and I honestly love it so much :p

Above and below is a local police car, which I actually quite like.  I like the colours of it, but I haven't seen one actually driving around yet.

When I was walking around shopping, this was randomly in the street! Not sure why, and not sure what they were doing but, here it is.

Remember that physics exam I drew pictures for? These are my picture,  I think they are pretty good.

This is me at the movies today, large popcorn, large Fanta de naranja, so I was pretty happy.

This is a cookie store which I went to earlier in the week, and it is local biscuits from Galicia.  I didn't end up buying any, but they have small boxes that are really cheap, so I think I will be able to bring some back home with me!

This is another police car, and the driver looked at me really confused after I took a photo of him. 

These are all the shells/rocks I have collected so far, and the one on top of the cats head is actually the body (without legs) of a small crab!  There are no guts or anything in it, so it is pretty cool to look at.

Well that is all from me, so I hope that everyone has been enjoying their week back in Christchurch.  Mother's day was today for you guys, so I hope everyone bought presents for their moms and that they had a gooood day!!

Until next time, cool bean out

El día de la Madre :)

Hoy es el día de la madre aquí en España!!

Translation:  Today is Mothers day here in Spain :)

After speaking with my fam in NZ, I realised that mothers day in NZ is on the second Sunday of May, where here it is on the first!  I gave my mum here a present, and she was very happy with it!  Irlanda and Mario had 'forgotten' to give her a present, so she was a bit angry :p  But then, tonight, they gave her the presents they had saved!

Life has been pretty good here, been eating lots so I'm a bit fat :p  And I have been trying lots of different foods!  This week I have eaten: The stomach lining of the cow, pigs ears, chilis with salt....
All of these were actually really good, I recommend! The pigs ears did have hair on the which was a tad rank, but they tasted like bacon, but meatier, so trrrrry them!

All of the statues here in Spain (there are heaps), are wearing something to do with the Galician football team, because they made the World Championship or European Championship, I can't remember which, and it is the first time! The first match they had was against Madrid, but I'm pretty sure they lost.....

I bought some roller skates!! Finally spending my money :p  I have a photo, and on Friday I am going to go skating with my family, so they will take a video which I will put here!  I recommend watching it, because I will probably be really bad and die.  I am going to buy a Ukelele tomorrow, because I realised that I can't take the guitar back home with me as I would have to pay for another bag, but a Ukelele I can bring with me on the plane and have a good time!  Also, tomorrow I am going with mu cousin Alba to a new store called 'Tiger', and it's meant to have lots of souvenir type things, so presents for everyone I will find!!

Today, we went to a place called Baino, where a statue called 'Virgen de la roca" is.  The story behind this small place is actually quite interesting!  A man called Pinzón came back their voyage  to tell Spain that Christopher Columbus had discovered America, the first place he went to was Baino!  So the statue is of Virgen Mary holding a boat in her right hand, and they have replicas of the boats that Christopher Columbus used to cross the sea to America in the small port.  There is also a castle there, which has been made into a hotel!  In the summer, there is a race of some sort, I think to do with yachts, and the King of Spain competes, and stays in the hotel in the castle!

So yes, I have done things!  I have lots of photos, so I hope you enjoy them :)

One of the statues with the t-shirt of the football team, 'el sireno' (this statue is really weird!)

These are the chillies that I ate, they are really good!  Because it is early in the month, they are not really spicy, but in a few weeks they will be!

Any guesses on what this is?  Hopefully you guessed that the red/pink things are pigs ears :p  They are really ugly, but really nice :)

This is Mario and I (con el gato) with las islas de Cies in the background.

As always, Mario and I are eating, this time waffles with jam (Mario) and with nata (me).

Stopping for a drink as it was really hot today! Around 25!!

This is the small port ish thing, and if you can see the brown boat near the very back, that is one of the replicas.

Having a good time, the gato joins in as well

Lemon smiles

The face of the Virgen Mary statue with me :)

More photos of us, all smiles even though Mario only got 4 hours of sleep :0

Me at the top of the Virgen Mary statue, standing in the boat that She holds in her right hand!  I am still pretty pale :(

Boom Boom Boom

Spanish Train

Can you spot the hidden kiwi?

And to finish off, cows stomach soup!

Hope everyone has had a good week, and I don't need to wish a happy mothers day as that is next week!  I will try and send post cards to you guys, (Georgia and Klaudia, my fam, and Wharenui swim club), so hopefully I can find some post cards as I can't find any!! Adios and hasta luego!