AFS Mid Year Orientation

Preface: this post seems really long, but there are a ton of pictures, and I mean a ton. Yes there is quite a bit of text to read (oh, the horror!) it but read it until the end! :)

On January 26, the three other kids living in Ponferrada and I took the train to Valladolid for our Mid Year Orientation. We traveled for about 5 hours (we had a one hour stop), and we got into the place at about 9:30. We ate dinner, waited for the other traveling students to arrive, and relaxed for the night because we weren´t allowed to go out into the city. We started early Saturday morning, and to be quite honest, the actual orientation wasn´t that fun (not these type of pre-planned activities are), but at least they didn´t have us locked up the whole day forcing us to participate in activites they know we don´t want to do. All together we  only did about 3 hours of the activites, the rest of the time was more or less free time. We took a trip to the grocery and bought mountains of food then a little later we went over to the park for a few hours. That night we walked to the mall to hang out for an hour or so. I think the volunteers figured out that we just wanted to talk to our friends that we haven´t seen in months.

Sunday was supposed to be the day to go exploring in the city of Valladolid, but the weather was terrible, so it wasn´t as fun as it was supposed to be. Although, it was nice to be able to see another Spanish City. The city is really beautiful with some ridiculously beautiful and detailed architecture, and it is a pretty big city, everything is a lot more spread out than Ponferrada. I think I prefer Ponferrada more.

Saturday morning the volunteers introduced us to this piggy bank (that was actually a winking demon holding a baby angel...) the purpose of the piggy bank was that while we are together in a group, if you say something in English, you literally had to pay for it. It cost 20 cents per word that was said. At the end of the weekend we would buy candy and share it amongst ourselves. We ended up with almost 8 euros...and only 4 people ended up having debts to be paid. Yes, I did have to put money into the jar, 2.40 euros to be exact. I´m not really sure if this is even a good excuse or not, but the only three words that I kept saying were "oh my gosh"...a bit embarrassing but, oh well.

At 2:30 the four of us said goodbye to our friends and boarded the train to Ponferrada. Honestly, the trip to and from Valladolid was way more fun than the orientation itself, and I became a lot better friends with the three others in Ponferrada. It was 4 hours each way of laughing, talking, terribly awkward silences, stupid videos, and fun pictures.

All of us wonderful AFSers. We have the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, and Turkey representing. You might notice significantly fewer students at this orientation and that is because some have changed families to different regions of Spain, some left because they were only here for the trimester, and a group from Galicia (a region of Spain) are having their own orientation in Galicia. 

Indigo from Montana and Carolin from Germany

one of a solid 20 peacocks in a park

some  of us on a bridge that moved, so that was cool.

We learn and do the most ridiculous songs and games, but I´ll probably remember them forever.

the train window. we thought this was so cool...because it is.

Uncaptionable, but that is Martha from Delaware with me.

Meg´s mom sent her a puzzle of a picture of all the girls from the first orientation for us to do at this orientation :)

This is how we did introductions Sat morning. A silhouette with a few things about ourselves. I have water for swimming, musical notes for music, a suitcase for traveling, and a book for learning

Milena (Switzerland), Martha (Delaware), Meg (Virginia), Me, Carolin (Germany), and Indigo  (Montana)

Gotta bring that ´tude and sass

Paige (Pennsylvania), Me, Martha (Delaware), Derin (Arizona)

A church

Carolin and I on the train :) <3

Ponfe crewww Carolin, Derin, Me, Emils. Love these guys

I realized I can change the size of the photos (look at me getting all tech savvy), so I went from size medium to X-Large so yea...If I decide its too big, I won´t put them so big in my next blog, but I think I kind of like it better?

So I took a math test last week and our teacher told us our grades today. I got a 7, but I´m not even sure how that is even possible because I thought I didn´t even answer enough questions to accumulate to a 7. But hey, I am not complaining. I am very proud of the 7 though, because it was one of the highest in the class and people don´t normally score that high on math tests with the teacher I have.

In other exciting news, about 2 weeks ago, Ponferrada recieved another student who will be finishing out the year with us, but she is on the semester program so that is why she is just now coming. She is super nice, and we have the same exact taste in music! Her name is Zuzanna, and she is from Slovakia. Here is a picture of when all 5 of us hung out. She didn´t go to the orientation because she had only been here for a week at the time, but she´ll be going to one in Galicia in a few weeks. 

Probably goes without saying, but she is the one between Derin and Emils.