Hey Hey Hey Hey Orientation

*Notes: the car I was riding in to get to the airport in Madrid to get back home on Sunday broke down/the battery died (I HAVE THE WORST LUCK WITH TRAVELING) and of course there is always more to the experience than in the video; this was just a quick recap. :] Orientation was held in Consuegra which is where Las Manchas are (aka where Done Quijote fought windmills and had many adventures!) and it was probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Loving Spain so far!

Other update apart from orientation weekend: I participated in clas today... Twice. What a win! I recognized the painting "El Tres de Mayo" by Francisco Goya and told my class that when no one else knew the painting, and I knew that Eros was the Greek god of love which no one knew again. Not to mention after school one girl said we should hang out sometime at her house. WOOP! MAKING FRIENDS! I guess I am not that weird after all if people want to hang out and text me! 

God is being interesting in my life and for sure teaching me all about patience, alone time, and what I really should be praying for (what is really, really important and/or pressing.) "Love is PATIENT" and I am now understanding this concept. Alone time is good for me, helps me figure out how to actually manage free time and I can be with God, just us. And of course, college has been a pressing issue on my mind so I am trusting God will reveal to me and guide me to the right place but also the right thing to continue pursuing in life.

~Ashlyn

To Madrid and Beyond

Let's see, where did I leave off... I guess it has been another week, hasn't it? Oh how time flies! Seriously though. It feels like I have been here much longer than a week and a half. I should probably mention that I started school. What an adventure that is... I take 9 classes: Spanish, Gallego, English, Religion, History of Art, History of Music, History of Philosophy, History of Spain, and Geography. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have school from 8:20AM-2:00PM and Tuesdays and Thursdays I have it from 8:20AM-2:50PM. Not one day during the week is the same class-wise. Lots to remember and I will for sure be like that awkward freshman who still looks at their schedule until the sixth week of school. On the bright side, I am making friends! When I showed up late today (story later) one of the girls ran up and hugged me because she thought I wasn't coming! My first day of school had a little bit of a rough start since I got home the night before at 2:00AM from Madrid.

Old "gateway" into Madrid

My host aunt (my host mom's sister) in the Central Park of Madrid

One of the banks

Kilometer 0: the place where all kilometers in the Iberian Peninsula are measured from

(And my super tourist-y picture)

Palacio Real

The Cathedral

La Plaza Mayor

My first cup of café con leche! Now I drink coffee everyday...

Hands down the BEST restaurant I have ever been to.

To say the least, Madrid was amazing. My host uncle gave me the tour with historical facts about everywhere we went. You know it has been a good day when you have to take off your shoes because your feet hurt from walking so much. I also got to meet my host sister and host dad when I went as well as a majority of his family. They are all so kind and I was told on a few occasions that I look more Spanish than my host mom's son in California! Sorry Jesús. Eloisa told me we will go back to Madrid at Christmas time so I can go to the museums and see more of it. El Prado, here I come! Due to this lovely weekend, I arrived at home quite late and got minimal sleep for the first day of school (but it was worth it.) Everyone stared at me and they didn't know I understood or could speak Spanish for the first two hours of the day. When they found out I could, both them and I were more social. 

Second late night of the week: I went to my first Rotary meeting in A Coruña last night. It started at 9:30PM and ended at, drum roll please... 1:00AM. I was super nervous because I was having dinner with some of the most prestigious people in this area of Spain. The fact that Eloisa kept telling them that I speak perfect Spanish made me too self conscious to ask someone to repeat themselves or to say that I don't understand. This came back later to bite me in the butt. When the secretary, which sat across the table from me I should add, asked me if the meeting was boring me, I didn't hear him, nor did my mind process the Spanish enough to understand, so I answered, "Sí, sí, sí." The man next to me, Carlos, started to laugh as well as the secretary and Carlos looked at me and asked, "¿Entiendes que te dijo?" To which I replied, "No." He repeated the secretary's question and, oh man... The embarrassment... Things like this happened on multiple occasions last night. After a certain point in the night, I don't understand Spanish anymore. I can speak it poorly, but there is no chance for me when listening to it. Now I understand when exchange students say that their minds are exhausted at the end of the day from translating. A Coruña is a 1 hour drive away from my home so Eloisa and I arrived home at 2:00AM. But wait, there's more! Yago had the keys to the apartment. He was asleep. He wouldn't answer his phone. He didn't hear our calls to the apartment. We tried calling him until 3:30AM. Finally, we called the police, woke up our next door neighbors to let us in and pounded on our apartment door for 5 minutes until Yago FINALLY woke up and let us in. Eloisa was just happy he was alive since it was quite odd that he didn't answer out 75 calls (that number was confirmed by Yago himself) or hear the doorbell. By the time I got to bed it was 4:00AM. ROUGH NIGHT, RIGHT?! However, Eloisa let me sleep in until 11:30 so I only had to go to school for 3 hours, but when I arrived, I found out that my last hour was cancelled. Only 2 hours of school for me today! To make things better, my Gallego teacher lived in the US for 4 months and pretty make told me I don't have to do any homework for her class.

In total, I'd say it has been a pretty good start to my second week in Spain. I am so incredibly thankful for all of those who helped make this happen. I know it might be hard sometimes, but it will be SO worth it when I return home.

"For God did not give us a Spirit of timidity, but a Spirit of power." ~2 Timothy 1:7. When I am down or feeling inadequate, I remember this verse and that God gives me strength when I call upon Him. For He makes all things possible.

~Ashlyn 

Out to the Ocean (Part Two)

What a week! I shall start from the beginning and work my way up until now:

1) My family is more than amazing. My host mom is so incredibly hospitable and makes dinner every night. Tonight, it was just me and her and even though she already ate by the time I came home, she still sat with me at the table and asked about my day (like my real mom would! :] Sorry, mama...) Yago... Well, he is a 14 year old boy: loves to watch TV, go to the skate park, not really have much to do with an older host sister, but nonetheless, he still asks me "¿Qué tal?" whenever one of us returns home.

2) I go to the beach everyday, no big deal. It is usually 75ºF, slight breeze, sunny, clear cold ocean... So pretty much it is PERFECT. It has only rained once and it was only for two hours, so I would say good weather so far! I know I will like it here mucho.

3) I have been to Ferrol twice now, and what a lovely city it was! (I will talk more about it later...)

4) I signed up for classes: yikes. School starts on Tuesday and I will be taking Spanish, English, Gallego, History of Spain, History of Music, History of Art, Religion, and Universal Literature. WHAT A LOAD. The co-director of school decided to put me in small classes so I will have about 10 kids or less in each class. At Minnetonka, I had 25-30 kids in one classroom. What a change. School goes from 8:20AM-2:50PM with two 15 minute breaks in the morning and no lunch time (that's for after school.)

5) I am now meeting people around my age and who I can hang out with! I played a card game similar to BS with about 10 other people. What's funny is their cards here go from 1 to 12, not Ace, 2-10, Jack, Queen, King. And we played this game outside of a bar because, what better place, right? But they were all very nice to me and when I saw some of them the next day, they said hi and remembered me! Perhaps school won't be so scary if everyone is this nice.

6) I have discovered that nearly EVERYONE smokes (even the kids my age.) Apparently, cigarettes are super cheap in Spain. So unfortunately it does smell frequently. On the bright side, my family doesn't smoke.

Now, for my adventure today, because today was my best day so far:

I went to the beach (as always. I do my devotionals there,) but today, I decided to release my inner child and make a sand castle. 

Who says I am too old to make a sand castle?

It's beautiful! I am so proud of it! I love the beach! I have also started running here, but today I was lazy so I took a walk along the beach instead.

Look that the water! So clear! So bright!

Footprints from other walkers.

Shall I tempt you with another picture of the ocean?

Are you jealous yet? It's five blocks away from me. I counted. I only got a mild sunburn today, which is an accomplishment! For those of you who don't know, I got terrible sunburns this summer because I hate using sunscreen. That may have to change... So my day so far has consisted of sleeping in until 10:00AM, getting to the beach by 1:00PM and while I am at the beach I made a sand castle, took a walk, did my devotional, and found more shells to add to my collection!

¡Qué bonita mi colección!

My day probably could have stopped there and I would have been incredibly happy, but it gets better. Yago told me I was going to meet Eloisa in Ferrol (one hour bus ride away) and I had to take the bus to meet her... Without him... So alone. He explained to me several times where I needed to get off, and I hoped I would get off at the right spot. I successfully navigated the system and met my host mom and the right stop! Woop woop! We then proceeded to meet a friend of her son, who is taking a gap year in California right now. Nuria, the friend, speaks really fast and honestly I really didn't understand most of what she said, but she is my age and really friendly so Eloisa left for home and Nuria and I went walking around Ferrol. I got a capo and picks for my guitar (oh, did I mention that my family had a guitar for me when I got here?! I adore it!) and then we met some of her friends, who were also very nice! And spoke really fast too. All four of us stopped to sit down and get this:

Vanilla frozen yogurt with crumbled cookie

Oh my. It was so good. It was very similar to Yogurt Lab back home, but I only got to choose one topping and flavor instead of 35. Nevertheless, it was still delicious. We all sat and talked, I just listened for a while and chimed in when I could insert something actually meaningful to the conversation or understood what they were saying. Another friend, Yago, came up and I also met him. He happened to be going back to Cedeira too so he sat next to me on the bus ride home and we talked about everything from music to TV to varying accents of English. He spoke really good English with a very unique accent (British mix Spanish mix... Some other European accent.) I got home and ate almost every snack I could find in my room because I was starving (feel free to send me some more,) but my host mom made me soup and a sandwich, which quickly put to rest my hunger. And here I am now! Writing in my blog!

It feels like I have been here more than a week and to be honest, the language is frustrating me because I forget words frequently and can't speak as quickly as I would like, but in all due time and a positive attitude will change that! My family is patient with me as well as everyone surrounding me so I am thankful for that!

God is doing wonders with me in my devotional time and I am learning to embrace my quiet time so I can spend it with Him. I have learned that God speaks best to us when we dwell in silence so we can talk to Him and we have no distractions. Almost always, God does not speak in a thunderous voice, but in a gentle whisper in the wind. Just as God told Jacob to leave to a foreign land, He guided him through it; God promises me the exact same thing in my new country.

~Ashlyn

Estoy Aquí

Oh my gosh. I actually made it, and I made it on four hours of sleep in 48 hours of traveling (this is my first full day with my host family.) I am more than thankful for the fact that Alisa (girl from Winona, MN) traveled with me and I sat next to her for the longest leg of my journey.

Minneapolis Airport

My family in the states: saying goodbye

Mi familia aquí en el aeropuerto

At the Madrid airport, Alisa´s family helped get me to my terminal (where 8 of us fit into a 7 person sized car.) They were more than helpful and I know Alisa will be so happy with them! My flights consisted of 3 hours from Minneapolis to Charlotte, NC {6 hour layover,} then 8 hours from Charlotte to Madrid {3 hour layover,} and 1.5 hours from Madrid to A Coruña where my family (pictured above) met me! My host dad works in Madrid so he was there to pick me up, but for the most part, I will only see him every few weekends. The flights were long and falling asleep was hard so when I slept last night, I slept for 10 hours with a 4 hour nap yesterday afternoon/evening. Everything is unpacked and all is good! So far, I have Skyped my family twice: once to say I made it and second to inform them what I have done on my first day so far. What have I done? Well:

Soccer tournament for elementary aged kids

IT´S A TRAIL!! LIKE AT HOME!! I CAN GO RUNNING!!

Plaza/main road where shops and restaurants are

See all my photos at my blog - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashlynkriegel/

Yago, Eloisa, and I biked around town and they showed my about half of it (I have yet to visit the beach part of town.) We also met a man with a 2 week old German Shepard puppy, ¡Qué lindo! And my Spanish you may ask? Well... It´s awful. I speak very slowly and I need to think a lot, so school did minimal help for me there. Not to mention everything with a C,S, or Z is pronounced "th." Like Cedeira (my town) is called Thedeira or sí is said thí. This makes understanding them very difficult and I maybe catch every third or fourth word they say. Their Gallego? Mixed into their Spanish so you can´t even tell they are speaking another language. Mostly just words or phrases in Gallego. However, my host family also speaks French because they lived in Brussels for a little while, so if I want to learn that, I have that option! And one of the best parts: siesta time exists. Now I have a perfectly good excuse to take a long nap every day. SCORE!

But it has been hard too. Although I have not been here for 24 hours yet, I am missing my family and people who completely understand me. It´s a little hard to go from a life where you know the majority of people around you well, to a place where you know no one and the ability to communicate is hindered by language differences. But hey, it´s the first full day here, things can only go up in my ability to understand and speak and how well I get to know my family!

Not to mention the best part: God is so incredibly good. I feel better going through my devotionals and praying and such, BUT! My family is Christian (they explicitly told me that and then asked if I was) and from what I understand, I believe there is a church nearby where we go/I can go. This is so incredibly rare in Europe to find Christians, let alone ones who have a church to call home. God is amazing. 

~Ashlyn