Yet Another Update On My Spanish

A few weeks ago, I had to take a test a test in Spanish. This was to give my school and my exchange program an indication of how my language skills were progressing. There was an hour of speaking - which was rather fun, because it consisted of playing games with another exchange student! - and then an hour of reading/writing.

Today I got the results back! I was quite pleased.

I received 85% for speaking, and 75% for writing. My Spanish teacher was particularly happy with my 'extended writing' piece, in which I was required to "write a few paragraphs describing your favourite holiday destination", because I scored 9.5/10.

So, for those interested in how my written Spanish is going - here's the product of half an hour under exam conditions, ie. no dictionary or verb conjugation tables!

(If you are curious as to what it says I recommend Google Translate - which can give you a good, if gramatically incorrect, idea.)

Isla Rottnest - conocido como 'Rotto' en mi ciudad, Perth - es una isla en el coste oeste de Australia. Es muy poco pero tan bonita, y es un destino popular para vacaciones. Me encanta Rotto.

Rotto es reservado solo para vacaciones. Nadie viviendo en la isla. Es tan popular porque es un sitio perfecto para relax. El alojamiento es poco chaletes cual alojar familias de cinco o seis personas. Todos los chaletes son con vista al mar.

Mucho de Rotto es bonito. Las playas son maravilloso, y puede nadar, tomar el sol, pescar y (muy tipica de Australia!) jugar cricket. La isla tiene un arrecife, y puede esnorkel ver peces y un naufragio! Es una isla con mucho vegetation - es muy verde.

Ademas, Rotto tiene 'quokkas', unos poco, peludos animales son no otra sitio en el mundo!

La especial cosa de Rotto es que es sin coches. Todo el mundo debemos utilizar bicicletas, o caminar. Asi, es muy seguro para niños.

Mi familia gustamos ir a Rottnest en la primavera, especialmente octubre. Gustamos pescar, nadar y especialmente comer en la famosa 'Panaderia de Rotto'!

Este año, quiero ire en bici alrededor de todo la isla con mi padre. Porque la isla es tan poco, solo necesitamos montar seis horas!

Otherwise, not too many interesting things have been happening in the past few weeks! I've spent the last few weekends just relaxing around the house during the day.

I've been to the disco a couple of times with my friends, which has been quite a lot of fun. Dancing to loud technopop in a club - I'm living the teenage dream!

Next weekend I'm off to Valencia again for two nights, on a trip organised by my exchange program. I'm looking forward to meeting some fellow exchange students - and, of course, eating more paella!

A Little Moment Of Personal Accomplishment

Today is a Tuesday.

On Tuesdays (and Thursdays, as a matter of fact), Isabel works until very late and Daniel is with his father for most of the afternoon. This means that, at 4.30pm, I pick Antonio and Maria up from school and we walk home together.

At about 3.30, I headed off to Galapagar to pick up some groceries. By 4-ish I was standing at the bus stop, waiting to catch it back to Colmenarejo, when the mother of one of Maria's friends saw me while driving past. She asked if I was heading to school and offered to give me a lift. I accepted.

And so I sat in the car of an almost-stranger who didn't know any English, for ten whole minutes. And we talked - about the weather, about what I was going to cook for dinner, about soccer, and about Australia. Pretty simple.

But - here's the exciting part of the story - I understood every word! And I was able to reply to everything she said, and asked!

I feel a bit like this at the moment -


I had a full, ten minute conversation with someone I didn't know. In Spanish! In a language that isn't my own!

If there was something that was going to make me realise how far my communuication skills had come, this was it. Sure, my grammar is still far from perfect and tenses still make my head spin. But I can communicate. I can talk to people!

:D

Oh Valencia-ah-ah!

So - here's my attempt at a bit of a video blog, or 'vlog' for those of you who keep tabs on your internet lingo.

I gave it a go because it was going to be a little difficult to summarise my week away succinctly in written form. I had a wonderful time.

I'm not going to put it up here, because my computer crashed the last two times I tried. So -

Just click here to be linked to YouTube, folks!

(I like jump cuts. They hide my long 'ums'.)

HAPPY BELATED EASTER AND ANZAC DAY TO ALL! <3

I'm Not Soria Bout The Amazing Weekend I Had!

So, I spent this weekend in the city of Soria with my host family. Don’t know where Soria is? Never fear – I’ve encircled it in green for your convenience.

We were heading up there to celebrate my host grandfather’s birthday!

Day One

The drive was a couple of hours long, though with some nice views of the Spanish countryside along the way.

We met up with Isabel’s parents in a town called Morón. (Yes, I did have a giggle at the name.) We stopped off to have a look at the town square, which was absolutely beautiful...

...and to have some tapas at the local bar. Mmmm, pork crackling.

We eventually got to Soria, and – after dropping our bags at a hotel – headed straight off to check out a local monastery. This was especially exciting, because Isabel’s great-grandfather made the monastery gates! Here they are.

The monastery was amazing. It’s no longer used, and so is open to the public. It was built over some caves, and so quite a lot of the monastery actually has cave instead of wall!

There were some incredible religious paintings and portraits of monks inside, but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. There was also the most amazing chapel, with brilliantly painted walls and ceilings, and a huge circular window with gorgeous view of the river, but again – no photos. Sigh.

After our visit to the monastery, we took a walk along the banks of the Rio Duero. This included walking along this bridge.

You can’t really see them too well in this picture, but there were hundreds of padlocks fastened to the rails along the bridge. After my inquiring, my host grandmother took it upon herself to tell me about this particular tradition in Soria. I’ll summarise.

How To Ensure You And Your Travelling Companions Are ‘Eternally Bonded’:

1. Buy a padlock.

2. Engrave the names of those you wish to be ‘eternally bonded’ with into said padlock.

3. Lock padlock onto bridge railings.

4. Throw the key into the Rio Duero.

This resulted in hundreds of locks like so:

My host grandparents even showed us a lock that they put there together, over forty years previously! Naw.

Our stroll along the river was interesting. There are lots of sculptures, climbing frames, plaques, and monuments. We had some fun pushing around a giant water mill, which was originally designed for horses. We also climbed on a large sculpture.

As we walked, it became night. We headed into the city, for my first real taste of nightlife in a Spanish city.

This photo was taken at about 8pm, it got a lot busier and a LOT noisier. Buskers were everywhere, shops were open, and street venders were packed with customers. My host mother, my host grandmother and I did some window shopping in some boutiques while the others looked inside a giant toy shop!

When it hit about 10pm, it was time for dinner. We visited the most extravagant buffet I have ever experienced. The restaurant was three floors high, and you gradually wormed your way down – the top floor for entrees, the second floor for main meal, and the ground floor for dessert and payment.

It is somewhere I will never take my family, for fear we’d never leave.

Day Two

We headed out to a town called Tajahuerce. Tajahuerce is an ancient town of about fifty residents, situated about half an hour out of Soria. At this time of year, the town is completely abandoned by its residents, who choose to vacate it for warmer houses on the coast.

So, basically, we were visiting an abandoned – though architecturally stunning – little village.

What then, I’m sure you’re wondering, was the attraction? Well, ‘Tajahuerce’ is the last name of my host family!

Many novelty pictures, such as the above, were taken with signs. There was also quite a large playground that we had some fun on.

At this point in the day, my camera battery ran out. Which is unfortunate, because close by to Tajahuerce is a ruined castle. We spent the afternoon exploring the ruins on our own, and that night we took a (rather spooky) night tour!

Day 3

Was today, Monday, and so we had to head home. We did stop off in a little pub for brunch before we left. The pub food was nothing compared to a good ol’ chicken parma, but the pub did have a large flying fox on offer!

Aaaand I was back in Colmenarejo in time for a few periods of school. Ugh.

Doing A John Denver

I am, in fact, “leaving on a jet plane”. An Airbus Industrie 330 Jet, to be specific, in a matter of hours.

Last night was a night of very little sleep, which I think was a combination of nerves and the full moon shining right through my window.

Long story short; I’m packed –

- I’m pumped, I’m terrified and I’m very ready to escape this heat!

And We're Off!

Well, just when I thought the trip couldn't be postponed anymore, they've hit me with the now-totally-unexpected action of bringing the trip forward. My visa has been sent to me via express post, which apparently means I can leave on Thursday.

I thought I had until Saturday at the earliest!

AAAHHH! I'd better get cleaning!

I'm super excited though :)