TOMANDO LA CALLE! TAKING THE STREET

Sunday

Today my friends and I thought it would be fun to go to the Revolution in Santa Cruz. Basically a big parade of people who are unhappy with the government and how the rich get richer and poor get poorer. Well, that´s how my friends explained it to me.
Anyways a whole bunch of us went, although none of us really cared much about the cause, it was fun to sing, yell, and dance through all the streets in the city. Also I even got to hold a banner at the front of the parade so I will probably be featured in one of Tenerife´s newspaper today.
I was shocked how many people went, I had never seen that many tenerifians in one sport since carnival.
After we went to McDonalds for icecream and water. My throat was dead from all the singing and yelling.
All in all it was a very eventful day cant say i have ever been a part of a parade like that, nor a spanish one.
To be honest it was good spanish practice catching onto the songs and singing them.

Sabado en la noche

Today we all went out to the bars to celebrate the end of the PAU
Just about everyone was out, it was a crazy night. And before when i would go out my friends would constantly being saying hi and hugs and kisses and i would just stand there but now I actually know people and can speak Spanish so im no longer the weird kid standing in the corner! Wohoo progress

Next stop, Porto Portugal!

As we land I am looking at the city like what the hell are we doing here, this is dumb. When we finally got to the city and started walking around we were like wow this is the best city ever. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, the people who ran it were amazing, they were half the fun! One of the first things we did was get familiar with the town, we literally walked almost the entire river length to the ocean, yes it is very far. We were dying of thirst so we got drinks for just 1euro! By the time we got back it was luch time and we were starving. We went to a restaurant called casal´s, perhaps some of the best food i have ever eaten and for dirt cheap. We walk in and he asks us how many, for some reason i understood so I said para dos(for 2), he gives us our menus, and hey look there in portugese, crap he thought we were portugese. We try to read them, no luck trying to do that so we waited for him to come back so he could give us English menus ahah!

 We got a drink, salad, and our main meal was chicken and vegetables wrapped in a thin crust dough, it was amazing, then we had desert, of course i had chocolate cake. If you know me you know that chocolate is basically my favourite food group. Aha All that and it only cost us 9 euros each, cheapest and best meal I have had in Europe so far.
We walked around the cute town, it was different from anything I had ever seen, and for that I think I liked it even more because it was just so different to what I see every day. It had a huge river running through it with coloured houses and boats along the side. For dinner we went to a spaghetti restaurant we found in a mall, we got ravioli it was pretty good, they also gave us bread sticks and olives for free! We ordered as an appetizer these mushrooms with sauce, they were really good, and it only cost us like 9 euros each again!

The next day we decided to go all tourist. We woke up ate our free breakfast which was yogurt, yogurt drinks, fruit and toast with jam, which was perfectly fine with me, I tried making coffee but that was a  disaster and didn’t know what to do so I just bought one when we were buying our tickets for the tour and waiting for the bus. It was actually one of the best, cheapest mochas of all time, and it was from McDonalds, they have like an expresso shop now, so weird. We bought tickets for 19 euros that would take us all around the city and gave us a free wine tasting and boat ride which was 10 euros normally. For a small city, Porto had a lot of things to see and a lot of tourists!

The bus only ran until 5 so then we had some relax time, we had to stop at a grocery store after Barcelona because we didn’t have toothpaste or shampoo because we used Dana´s friends stuff because we flew with Ryanair and you can only have your bag weigh so much. So for now on every time we went to a new country had to buy shampoo because they always made us throw it out on the plane. Anyways we bought some chips for a euro and water for 10 cents, the toothpaste was the most expensive out of everything. The store was chaotic and we couldn’t speak portugese so i was just speaking Spanish hoping that they would understand me, if i had to compare poretugese to another language it would probably be german. Before my trip to Portugal I probably would hear a portugese person speaking and think they were from germany. That surprised me. Anyways the lady at the desk didn’t know what she was doing, and she was the only lady on cash, she was super stressed out we couldn’t speak portugese and she was just in a bad mood. She messed it up so was already frustrated, Dana was waiting in line because it was huge while I went and got chips because were chubby exchange students, all of a sudden it sped up and I ran over to the counter with the stuff, Dana didn’t understand anything, the lady was trying to tell him to put the chips he had in his hand on the counter so she could ring them threw. She almost let him go through without paying, through all the craziness we leave the store, I have a water bottle and shampoo in my hand because they didn’t have bags at the store so we had to carry everything. When we got back to the apartment we realize that we never paid for the shampoo or 10 cent water bottle, I felt so bad because I had stolen it accidently. I was going to go back to the store but Dana said, you can´t speak portugese and you will just get in more trouble. So we left it, it also was only like worth 1 euro, although I still felt terrible because that was the first time that i had ever stolen anything, although it was by accident. Dana teased me basically the rest of the trip about this.

After that adventure we went to go get some lunch, a bit late but whatever. We walk around the city and couldn´t find anything that was cheaper then casal´s nor looked as good, after 30 minutes of walking around we went back to the same restaurant, they had a new menu of the day everyday so we looked at what it was and we were set. We walked by like 3 times because I was so embarrassed that the same people were working from the day before, that was the first time i had ever been to a restaurant twice, two days in a row. We finally got up the courage to go again, I walked in with sunglasses so they wouldn’t recognize me, they did immediately because they gave us English menus. We got the menu of the day again which was a really light fish with a salad, it was so good. Gave my dad´s fish a run for its money. And of course a desert, yes I got chocolate cake again, but a different one! End of day two at casals.

We walked around more until night time then were dead of exhaustion and our feet were pulging so we stayed in for the night. The couple that owned the bed and breakfast asked us if we wanted to eat dinner with them and another couple that was staying in the b and b too. We had chicken, rice and potato chips, they told us it was a typical portugese meal. We got to meet a girl from South Africa but moved to California and now lives in Switzerland and speaks French with a guy who is portugese but lives in Switzerland and speaks French but also knows Spanish. So i spoke with him in Spanish, good practise since i hadn’t spoken much Spanish for a few days. I tried throughout the whole trip to get dana to speak to me in Spanish but he would always just respond in English so that didn’t work out. It was really fun and we got to meet people from all over the world, although the best part of it all was we didn’t even have to pay! Officially the best bed and breakfast ever, also the lady even offered to do our laundry for us too, chaching!

Next day we were up early again for our lady day in Portugal, we managed to see everything in 3 days, although he couldn’t do the wine tasting tour because it was closed when we got there, but we did the cruise boat which was cool to see all the houses and everything from the water. Also porto has a lot of really cool bridges, another thing about me, i love bridges. I think I even got dana having a little obsession with them by the end of the trip.
For lunch today we went to a different restaurant although Dana wanted to go to the same restaurant again, i refused and said no we have to try something new. We can´t eat all our meals in the same place, so we went to a different one. We had the menu there too. They gave us crab with crackers and olives. Our meal was a salad and chicken and fries I believe. Dana´s chicken was undercooked, but after Casal´s nothing could compare. And they tricked us and we had to pay 3 euros for the dumb crab although he put it on our table and everything. JERK!we headed to bed early because we had to wake up at like 4 the next day because our plan was at 6am. We get up, shower, and a cab that the people called the night before was waiting for us. Best cab driver ever, drove so fast to the airport it was great. We were so excited to go to London we got through security and were waiting for our plane, as we finally get to the man who checks the tickets he tells us we had to get a stamp from the ryanair desk on the other side of security. Dana and I begin to freak out because well probably miss our flight now. I go in Catherine mode and start running like a crazy person with my 10kilo backpack. The security guy in customs lets us go through the opposite way as well as security check and we run to the desk and get the dumb stamp then run all the way back. I look back to see where dana is and he´s super far behind, I continued running because one of us had to get there to stop the plane. If i had stopped and waited for him trailing along we would have missed our flight for sure. We got really shitty seats because we were like the last ones on, most uncomfortable sleep of life! Finally landed in England and it was super green! WOHOO we´re still alive.

EUROPEAN INVASION

May 22

Arrival in Barcelona, as I exit the gates and am looking for Dana to be waiting for me, he is nowhere to be seen. So I don’t begin to worry yet, i just go stand by the railing and walk around the area.
A man walks out and starts talking to me, I don’t really know if it was in English or Spanish. I think Spanish, and was asking me if i was from Mallora, a Spanish island beside Barcelona. I said no Tenerife, and he just kept say no impossible you are from Mallora, you look just like it. He was like well you go travelling around Barcelona and have a good time, i was like ya and he finally left. Then i wait a few moments and see in the mirror in front of me a man approach behind me, its him again. He begins talking to me again, i keep my distance because im like what the hell! Hes like don’t be afraid i just want to talk. Then his friends come over and introduce themselves and shake my hands, the crazy man shoves his ID card in my face, i think to prove he wasn’t trying to kill me then to greet me he tries to wrap his arms around me and kiss me. I literally ran away. I had been in Barcelona for a whole 10 minutes, great impression.
I go to the washroom, walk around, Dana still isn’t there. Hes like 25 minutes late now, so i think maybe hes dumb enough to go to the salidas instead of arrivals. What do you know, there he is walking around like hes a chicken with his head cut off. I waited to see how long it would take for him to realize i was infront of him, finally had to say his name and catch his attention.
We get off the train to meet his friends, Olivia, Catarina, and Nicola in the train station. We had to wait for one other girl who is living in spain on rotary too. She was later then she said, note I hadn’t ate since I left Tenerife. So i ate breakfast around 7 and now there was an hour time change and it was now 530pm. I was almost passed out on the floor. Finally arrived in the apartment which was nice, had a kitchen, laundry machine, everything. We went for lunch after before i died, we had sangria and tortilla española. First taste of catellan, already not a fan.

We went to the grocery store to get food for breakfast and dinner and then played Spanish cards for the rest of the night.

May 23 and onwards
Down to being a tourist.

Figured out the metro and went to sangrada familia church. Its still being built and is MASSIVE, strangest church i have ever seen, and i have seen A LOT of churches in my day. I think that this one was my favourite though.

Other cool things we saw in Barcelona
gaudi is one of the most famous men for Barcelona, all the architecture and building are built in his style. He built some really strange things, including designing the Sagrada familia church, and multiple strange buildings i have posted on the side of my blog. He really like colours and tiles, most of the buildings are made out of tiny coloured tiles. He also has a huge park that has an amazing look out to the city, look for a picture of that too.

How i met my brother from my spanish mother

Got home from my too long of a trip on Friday at like 1:30 in the morning, everyone was sleeping, so i didn’t get to greet anymore till the morning. Woke up rather early the next morning and had a shower. I greet Diana in a towel, and Merci and her think it would be funny for us to meet each other as i get out of the shower. Thankfully she didn’t, we met when i was fully dressed.
Walk into the office room in Merci and Marcos´ bedroom and greet him with 2 kisses. I can officially say that all the Cabrera children tower over me by about a foot, including Diana the youngest and she is only 15. I am the runt of the family you could put it

I have been forgetting now that Daniel is home that he notices if i am wearing his clothes, before no one really noticed because there weren´t there´s, but now that he´s home i keep slipping up. I walk down to the the tv room, he´s on the computer. I´m sitting there a little on the couch when he looks at me and says, is that my shirt, yes or no i don’t know for sure. I respond, yes it´s your shirt. He responds, well i wasn´t sure i had a shirt of that colour but i guess so. Note: its bright yellow.
I tell him if he wants he can wear my clothes if he wants, even my bras and everything. He didn’t know how to respond, just laughs and says no no no! It was a joke, i laughed pretty hard.

All year Diana and Adrian would tease me and ask if that was Daniels, sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn´t. Usually it was because all my gym or exercise clothes are his. Don´t worry i only wear his shirts, i brought shorts and everything else.

SE ACABO LA PAU Y VERANO PARA TODOS POR FIN! PAU IS OVER AND FINALLY SUMMER FOR EVERYONE!

Today at 9am was the last exam of the Pau, the Pau is like the University entrance exams, i guess you could compare them to the SATS, they need to get a certain mark to enter certain careers. Although the is their final exams, they take 8 classes all year but only have to write 6 exams, and get to choose which ones they want to write of the 8! Ya i know, Sweet eh!
My friends were teasing me that I should try writing the Pau for kicks, that´s it´s so easy that i would probably pass, and considering I had already passed Math, English, Fundamentos (stock brooking) and almost Biology during the school year if I got 3 of 10 or 30 percent on all my exams I would pass ! crazy eh!

Anyways so we decided to go to the beach after their exam to celebrate. This was the first white sand beach i had been to, sand brought from the Sahara desert, so if it´s windy you basically die because it chokes you out. Anyways a friends dad and friend that the Terresitas was nice today, no wind and hot. So after we waited for all the late Spanish kids to arrive, i usually arrive late because I have learnt the Spanish way, but today i decided to be on time. Well no one else really thought the same, after about 45 minutes we all go down to the beach in guagua (bus), we had to catch two because the beach is on like the farthest north point of the island, even past the last town.
We finally got there, applied SPF 50 and started tanning, almost immediately we had to go into the water, it was cold at first but nice. Spent the day talking, eating and swimming also had a sand fight that was pretty intense, I can officially say that i probably had more sand in my hair then on the beach. Even after washing my hair 3 times, I still can scratch my head and find sand, at least it´s not black like usual because that really makes a mess because it appears on everything!
Also  i bought a steal of a sandwich since there was no bread in our house this morning to make a sandwich for the beach, amazing chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes and everything for 2.70 euros! It was sooo good too!

By the end of the day after multiple applications of SPF 50 we were all still burnt, and guess what the foreign girl wasn´t even the most burnt. All year Ive been teased for always being read when in reality I was the least burnt! Way to go my skin, guess i have finally adapted to the Spanish sun, more of less anyways.

We were planning to go out to party tonight but we were all burnt and sore and tired from the beach. So we are all going out tomorrow, since la pau, university and high school finished today EVERYONE is partying this weekend!
Since we didn’t go to party we went to a restaurant that I found with exchange students when i was in Malaga called Montaditos which serves these little sandwiches for 1 euro each and all drink for 1 euro too, when i was in Malaga we went there 3 times. On Wednesday everything on the menu is 1 euro so literally EVERYONE goes there because its dirt cheap. I loved this restaurant so much I look a souvenir from there, pictures, napkins, etc. Yes I´m pathetic, exchange students tend to hoard a lot of stuff that is really unnecessary and stupid. Anyways while in La Laguna with a friend who failed and has to write the pau in September we found the restaurant, of course we went there for a cold drink because its 1 euro. I was freaking out in the restaurant, like OH MY GOD I CANT BELIEVE TENERIFE HAS ONE, THAT IS AMAZING, HOW DID I LIVE ALL YEAR WITHOUT KNOWING ABOUT THIS! Note everything i refer to in speech is all in Spanish, im just translating it for you.
Anyways there is another one of these restaurants in Santa Cruz so we went there for some 1 euro sandwiches, and plan on going back on Wednesday this week for everything to be 1 euro! Already so excited, 1 euro hotdogs are the best! After our little snack we passed a revolution protest, so we stopped in on that for a bit, made some noise, saw what was happening then headed for home. Complete day i would say!

TRAVELLING AWAITS ME!

This weekend I will be travelling to my 7th Canarian Island, or 6th that are big enough to be considered islands. It is the one the same longitud to La Palma, the one I was at for Semana Santa, it´s called El Hierro which is the second smallest canary island.
I am going with my rotary counsellor and his wife by boat, so i will probably get a little sea sick since it will be the longest I wil have been on a boat for. Im thinking like 6 hours, give or take 2.. Oh well, I have to see all the islands I can, after this weekend I will only be missing La Gomera! While Dana, the other exchange student has been to none XD

My travelling continues, after my excursion to El Hierro, on the 22nd of May I fly off to Barcelona to meet Danad the other exchange student from PEI and his family and friends. After a week there Dana and I will fly off to Porto, Portugal where we will stay for 3 days, then to London England where we will stay 5 days! I am sooo excited for London, I can hardly wait! After London we fly to my grandma´s house in Malaga till the 10th of June then take the train up to Seville where we catch out flight back to Tenerife. I cannot wait for this trip, Dana is currently on a cruise with his family, and has left me to plan all our activities. I have 11 days left and am in the same place I was a week ago.. guess I should really get on that eh!

ps. i give you permission to be jealous of my life! MUAHAHA
VIVA ESPAÑA!

ADVENTURES WITH BONNIE JEAN WHELAN

Met up with Bonnie , one of my good friends mothers who I basically was her second daughter because I was at her house so often and ate all her food.
Anyways she was on a cruise and they stopped in Tenerife for the day so we met up. MErci and I took her to all the pretty look outs of Santa Cruz and La Laguna, and went for a walk through La Laguna, where I live.

So we begin by going to the Taracetas, a beach made out of white sand from the Sahara Desert, it is the only white sand because in the north. Only white beaches are in the south where are the tourists, and Dana are.. Anyways Merci took her up to the viewing point, well Bonnie was literally going to the washroom in her pants, and cringing and almost crying in the back seat. She´s like I can´t go any farther, it´s too high. I was like we’re almost there, we weren´t, just decided not to translate that she wanted to stop to Merci. So up we went, never seen someone so happy to get out of the car. We get out to take pictures, she taking pictures probably 5 metres away from the guard rail. I go hop the rail because I didn’t want the telephone wire in the picture. Bonnie flips and grabs my arm. Not even steep there.

Next stop, La Laguna. Merci and bonnie had to go to the washroom. So we found one, Bonnie went in and was taking a long time. It was one of those bathrooms where´s there only one toilet but 2 doors. One for the washroom and one for where the sink is in front. So I see bonnie, thinking she´s washing her hands I see her standing there with her yellow underwear on. I say, Bonnie what on earth are you doing! She´s like there was no toilet paper so I have to use paper towel. I begin howling, I told her restaurants and schools never have toilet paper, it costs too much. She´s like then what do you do! I´m like either you come prepared or shake and go.. She didn’t seem to like that much. I was actually shocked there was paper towel.

Also walking down the street, than finally realized how much we probably stuck out. Blonde blondie with blue eyes, and my friends call me a guiri! As I am explaining how much she sticks out, a man walks by and says, que bonita! Merci and I began laughing, howling. Bonnie answers what, did he call me a foreigner. I´m like no he said, how beautiful because she was something new to look at. No one I know has blonde hair like Bon Bon! She was a real treat for Tenerife on Monday, Tenerife got some real foreign culture in the North. Thing is, if she were to go to the South, no one would have said anything because that is the norm.

When we finally get to my house for Lunch, Bonnie needs to use the washroom again, asks me so do they have toilet paper here. I´m like of course, it´s only in public places!
She couldn’t believe how different my house was. It was funny to see how accustomed to my new life I have become compared to my first weeks, although I have always been someone who adapts rather quickly to new situations. Anyways Bonnie took a picture of like everything in my house, the washroom, my room, my closet, she just loved it. Couldn´t believe that we have walls around our house and you can´t just go waltzing onto the neighbours property.

It was so great to have someone from where I am from experience everything I have. Except I didn’t have anyone to give me pointers or warn me about anything, luckily bonnie did, or else i don’t think she would have lasted the day.

MY GRADUATION!

In Spain graduation is called Orla and takes place in May. It begins at the school, VIERA Y CLAVIJO. All the girls wear dresses and high-heels, boys wear suits or jackets with a nice shirt. We were sitting according to the class photo we had taken earlier in the year. Strange thing about class photos, only Segundo bachiller gets a photo of everyone somewhat individually. In all the other grades they just have everyone stand together and take a photo, like elementary school. But in Segundo you take a picture with 2 other people. There´s three of you. I went with two girls, Tania and Paula. Paula is in my main class and Tania is in another class. They made me sit in the middle, and surprise the middle person has to put their arms around the others. So funny, I love it. Look on the side for a picture of it! Anyways we sat in the order you took the photo. It began and still a lot of people were missing, they showed up late, some extremely late. Guess being late is a Spanish thing, which i am going to MISS A LOT! Also most people were standing because the room isn’t very big, the teachers sitting in the front and the principals sitting on the stage. A math teacher I had never seen before did a good 1 hour speech about how math is important in daily life. Everyone wanted to die it was so long, it was a power point, even more exciting! Round of applauds was given when she finished, mainly due to the fact that she was FINALLY FINISHED! After there was a slideshow of pictures for the whole year, I was in it a few times, and everyone´s individual picture from photo day. It was nice, kind of sad that my year is almost over. After they announced everyone´s name in the line, my name was pronounced flawlessly and as Spanish as it could possibly be said, ¨Caterina Hiles¨. Well the whole class just got a hoot out of that since I have been drilling into people´s brain that in English you pronounce G as a G not an H. After announcing all the names, everyone stood up and walked up onto the stage to get the class photo, the cd presentation of the class photos, and a book of the amazing math presentation given early and a book mark. After about 2 hours it was hours, and we all headed over to the restaurant bar thing where the dinner and party was going to be, it was in the north of Tenerife.
Dinner, worst food ever prepared in life!
first course, thin slice of torilla español, served cold with 4 very small crockettas, cold as well and some guacameole on the side

Main dish: cheese lasagna, hot yet saugy and just horrible tasting, I couldn’t even force myself to eat it. Along with the delicious lasagne was a half piece of meat, probably the best part of the meal with some sort of sauce.

Desert: you would think that the desert would for sure have to be good. Nope, just as bad as the rest of the food. A piece of dry, chocolate cake with cherry sauce. It was so cry and had a strange taste of cherries.
I think the best part of the meal was the Fanta pop and bun at the beginning of the meal.. sad huh, tootle-lou 15 euros..

After dinner they took down the tables and prepared for the dance. The dance was super fun, so it made up for the dinner. Dance ended around 530 and got home around 6. Slept for 4 hours then was on my way to the south for another day of the rotary conference, but at least today we got to go to SIAM park for free and get a all you can eat lunch from their outrageously expensive cafeterias.

A Monday

Today I woke up around 7:30am, washed my face, got dressed, went down stairs to my fresh cut fruit (kiwi, banana, orange, and apple), cup of warm milk, and toast with strawberry jam. Yes, I eat a feist every morning which would probably explain my drastic weight gain.
Got to school and saw my friend. She had to go do something for the Orla (graduation) so I went with her because I didn´t feel like going to Philosophy straight away. They had to go count money, the principal saw me standing in the doorway and asks me, why are you watching, are you in 2^nd bachillerato. I answered yes, shes like then you can help count this money. Didn´t even know I was foreign, woohoo aha
So I spend most of the class rolling money for our graduation.

Another funny story. I went to my favourite coffee shop with a few friends, order my usual expresso and hot chocolate. When I go to pay the man asks me if I am Italian, guess he could tell I wasn’t from Tenerife. I told him no I´m from Canada

Today I was typing Canadian while writing my status on facebook, well I must have officially converted because I wrote Canarian and didn´t even notice.

Final Rotary Presentation in the South

Went to the South with Marcos in the morning because I had to present my final presentation for Rotary at the meeting that night. So I decided to go visit Dana during the day and go to his school because firstly I didn’t feel like going on the bus alone for 1 hour, and I also didn’t want to pay 5 euros. Dana and i went to Geography, French and then to Antonio who is like Dana´s private tutour because there are a lot of people that can´t speak Spanish in the south, so he gets private classes every week for an hour. I am rather jealous because I actually learnt new things after 1 hour with him. After school we went home and hung out, ate lunch then chilled out and practised our presentations a little bit. Funny thing, we skyped my parents, and David who is on an exchange in Niagara on the Lake was over at my house in Canada for Easter, and I was at his house visiting Dana who lives in his house. What a coincidence, soooo strange!

Anyways, Dana begged to go first in the presentations and I was super nervous and stressed so I was happy about that. Right before we leave for the meeting, he says he´s not going first anymore and asks Marcos if he can go second. So, I was now 11 times more nervous and was also going first. Also Dana had already practised in front of an audience for his greek class that morning before I came. After their meeting we were up, I had typed up notes to look down at in case i got really nervous or forgot how to say something because it was 15 minutes speaking in Spanish.

Anyways I started my presentation a little nervous then all of a sudden I was just rambling about the photos in Spanish without looking at my papers once. I don´t even remember what I said, but I was just talking without thinking in Spanish for a good 20 minutes. It felt so good when i was done, everyone clapped, and a man even asked how long I´ve been here for, that must mean that my Spanish is somewhat good.

LA PALMA

Semana Santa en La Palma

La Palma (Palm Tree) is the island farthest from Africa, and furthest in the ocean. It´s in a line with another island called El Hierro (Iron). I went on Wednesday of Semana Santa, a week of holiday for Easter. I went with went with Marcos, Merci, Diana, and 2 of their friends named, Ricardo and Carmela who had a house in the forrest there. La Palma reminded me of up north, in Muskoka and cottage country because it is literally COVERED in trees. It was weird, it is known as La Isla Bonita, The beautiful Island which is true it probably is the most beautiful because it´s totally green, lots of plants, trees, flowers, etc. It´s probably my second favourite canary island after Tenerife. I love the Canary Islands, they actually have terrain of all sorts. Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are beaches and extra hot, Gran Canaria is like Tenerife but smaller and crappier, La Palma is like forest and rivers, and Tenerife is like all of them combined. You can be at the beach then drive 30 minutes and see snow. It´s a perfect mix of everything, it really is the continental island.

Santa Cruz de La Palma

Yes, they copied Tenerife. So we went from Santa Cruz Tenerife, La Laguna Airport to Santa Cruz de La Palma. While Marcos went to the swimming pool to train we went to the city. While walking down the street Merci said look a cappuccino. So I´m looking in all around looking for a coffee, not exactly sure why she wants to show me it or is so interested in it. Well she didn’t say cappuccino she said capuchito which is a hooded costume with the hood in a point shape.

I see a character in a white robe with a red hood in a point shape, as we begin walking closer I hear chanting and I see them swaying back and forth also. OMG THE KKK IS IN LA PALMA AND IS BLOCKADING AND PROTESTING IN THE STREET! Merci is like come on Catherine let´s go see it, i thinking to myself, UH are you kidding, do you know what those people do, I´m not going any closer. She persisted that I go look, so I went to the stairway from where they were coming from. They were carrying a statue of Jesus. Ok, that´s weird for the KKK. I see all the people waiting on the streets, oh this must be a easter parade. I thought it was a pretty funny mix up.

Also I am now only missing 2 islands of the 7 canary islands. And the 2 are the smallest islands of the canarias, la gomera is like 30 minutes away in ferry so I probably will get there eventually before I head home, I hope! then i will only be missing 1! and thats pretty good. Also as of trip to la palma I have officially been on 12 planes this year alone. I guess you could say that this is my year of planes ahah

I Will attach a bunch of photos on the side bar, less boring to look at pictures and read captions then for me to ramble on about it !

En Español y Ingles

If you know spanish, you´ll be able to understand this. If not, I will do a translation beneath. If you want to practise your spanish, try reading the spanish part first then the bottom after :) good luck!

WOO HOOO ultima dia de clase antes semana santa. Ahora tengo una semana, pues nueve días para ir a la playa y sale con mis amigos! Que divertido, me encanta los vacaciones de España. Carnaval, una semana, semana santa, otro semana. Tenemos vacaciones siempre, es buenísima!

Pues, mañana me voy a una playa, se llama Weymar. Voy con Nerea, María y Hector (broccoli) en guagua! Estoy super emocionada porque me encanta la playa! Tambien, quiero conseguir morena porque todavía estoy muy blanca y vivo en una isla sub-tropical, y estoy llevando vaqueros y un suéter a escuela todavía… lo sé, el tiempo aquí es bipolar, de verdad!

El miércoles me voy en vacasiones con mi familia, falta Adrian porque necesita mirar el perro entonces queda en casa.  Vamos a La Palma, una de las siete Islas Canarias. Nunca fui allí entonces deseando que llegue! Ahora solo falta dos islas de los siete, el hierro, y la gomera. El principio de mi experiencia intercambio y antes que me comencé instituto en el viera, fui con Marcos y Merci a Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Gomera (demasiado pequeña, entonces no está considerada una de las siete islas) por un competición de natación. No participé porque en eso tiempo no podría nadar por mucho tiempo y nunca entrenar.  Por mi cumpleaños, fui a Gran Canaria, la isla muy grande isla a través La Laguna.  Y yo vivo en Tenerife, entonces igual a 5! Espero que puedo ir a todos pero veremos..

Mi presentación de Rotary es el 26 de abril, que significa que mi año es casi termine.. L no quiero volver a Canadá, me encanta Tenerife; mi familia, mis amigos, mi escuela, la playa, comida, todo!

Lo sé que la mayoría de las personas que leen mi blog no saben nada de español pero querría escribir en español porque está buena por practicar. Seguro que he hecho muchas faltas, pero de igual xd

Translation

WOO HOO last day of clases before semana santa. Now I have 1 week, well 9 days to go to the beach and go out with my friends! So much fun, I love all the Spanish vacations. One week for carnical, another for easter. We have vacations all the time!

Tomorrow Im going to the beach, called Weymar with my friends Nerea, Maria and hector by bus. I am very excited because I love the beach! Also, I want to get tanned because I am still very white and I live on a sub-tropical island and am still wearing jeans and a sweater to school. I know, the temperature here is bipolar.
On Wednesday Im going on vacation with my family, except Adrian because he needs to watch the dog so he is staying at home. We´re going to La Palma, one of the seven canary islands. Ive never been there so I am looking forward to it. Now I only have to go to two more islands, (El Hierro and La Gomera) of the seven and then ive seen them all! At the beginning of my exchange and before I started school in Viera y Clavijo I went with Marcos and Merci to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Gomera(which is too small so it isn´t counted as one of the seven islands) for a swimming competition. I didn´t participate because at that time I couldn´t swim very far because I never trained. For my birthday, I went to gran Canaria, the big island thats across the ocean from La Laguna. And I live on Tenerife, so that iguals 5. I hope that I can go to all of the island, but we´ll see...

My Rotary presentation is on the 25^th of April, that means that my year is almost finished L I don’t want to go back to Canada. I love Tenerife; my family, my friends, my school, the beach, food, everything!
I know that most of the people that read my blog don´t know any Spanish but I wanted to write in Spanish because its good practise. I am sure I have made a lot of mistakes, but oh well xd

Typical Monday

Had a very rough time getting up this morning, all the kids and Marcos looked at all the photos from Marcos and Merci´s travels to the United States and Canada. That took a good hour, so I didnt go to bed till like 12:30am. So my alarm that was set for 7, turned into 7:10, then I had turned off both of my alarm clocks and resorted to my ipod alarm. Set that one for 7:20. Well, I decided I would lay down for a few more minutes before I got up, thinking I wouldn´t fall back asleep again. This is an everyday occurance basically, yet I still havent learned. When my brain finally woke up and realized, CRAP what time is it. It was 7:30.. So I got dressed and ready in about 11 seconds, and scarfed down my breakfast.
ps. love spanish breakfast, fresh fruit, bananas, kiwi, apples, oranges, warm milk, and toast with ham and cheese. yumm. Not your typical cereal in the morning, Canadian style breakfast. Merci even told me that most kids dont even eat breakfast. I think I would die.

Anyways I was actually really early, even caught my one friend Joel who I always walk to school with. Yes, he has a english name, everyone says its rare here too because its pronounced like Joel, not jol like english, when the J is not pronounced in spanish. Anyways I walk with him that is, if I leave the house by 7:49 or 7:50, he´s always frantic that he will be late because he has stricter teachers. I however.. usually arrive a bit after 8 and we wait another 5 minutes for the teacher to come.

First class was historia, always a blast in that class... then biologia, then filosofia. RECREO where i eat my delishous half sandwich Merci prepares for Diana and I in the morning and drink water from my white water bottle. Which everyone makes fun of me for and says I´m super foreign. Funny thing is, people in Canada usually didn´t take a gym water bottle to school either. But thats okay, I am not cocerned with how goofy I look. anyother super loser thing I did was took a big huge red tupperwear container with a tiny sandwich in it because I couldn´t find the tin foil, my host siblings laughed at me when they saw it in the refrigerator for about half an hour. It was kind of funny infact ahah

After recreo (recess) I had english, my teacher didn´t show up. Has not come all last week, and today. One of the weirdest things I find about Spain and European schooling. If the teacher doesn´t come, you don´t have class. Kind of wish this was the case is Canada, because everyone just tries to sneak out of the class or says they´re going to the washroom to the sub and just peace out for the rest of the class to the caf or something. Don´t worry, I was not one of these students! So basically an hour where we walk, eat and play games. Pretty nice class indeed.

After I had geografia, and last class was Frances. Which I officially changed today. Fundamentals was really boring and was extremely complicated to understand in a different language, also french helps me learn more words in spanish too. Although I leave the class spinning because I have to translate french to spanish then spainsh to english. We did an exercise where we had to dictate the expressions, you could say it has been a LONG time since I have read any french. Although it started coming back to me!

Walked home, did some studying then went to the gym with my 2 friends. Did my big gym routine then went home and studied some more verbs and spanish grammar. My absolute favourite! :)

Now I´m  updating my Ipod, writing my blog, and doing some more studying.

Typical day in the Spanish life of Catherine :)

Babbel and funny stories

Murphy at X-Mas dinner table

Murphy snuggling a pillow

Dogs being a Man´s best friend, doesn´t really apply in Spain. I think dogs are more used for protection of the house then cuddling acquaintances.
Some differences; my dogs are not allowed in the house, they either stay in the garage or outside at all time. They are not allowed to enter the house at any time during the day, not even a paw in the door. They don’t really as much love, for instance my princess dog Murphy.  And don’t even think about being allowed on the couch or bed..

Houses: Spain is all about security, I don´t think robberies happen often but they don’t take precautions never the less. All houses have 2 doors, one to enter the yard and the other to enter the actual house. So if you forget your key, your screwed maximumly. Which infact I have done... twice. Don´t worry though we have nice neighbours. The time I had forgotten it, it was one of the first days I went to basketball practise so I got home in the pitch black, ring my entrance bell because usually theyre home. NOPE, so I go to the neighbours and am like do you have my key (llave), this was the beginning and I didn´t know very much so I said rain (lluvia), they are still rather close. Don´t worry I know the difference now. I think my neighbour thought I was a crazy person, till she realized it was me, let me in, and I watched Chuck Norris on her tv, which I had literally NEVER EVER watched before in my life. Mines well in Spanish.

Speaking of the whole lluvia, llaves ordeal. When I got home from Switzerland I had forgotten how to speak Spanish, literally. I could not remember how to said rain, after 2 tries I got it and my family laughed and said after 2 weeks you already forget jokingly. By the end of the first night I had remembered, THANK GOD!

PLAYA EN AVRIL - BEACH IN APRIL

When I should have been in a log sleeve shirt, pants and probably a raincoat and rubber duckies in Canada, I was at a beach soaking up the sun! This was the third time this year I went to the beach in Tenerife, and the first one doesn’t really count because Marcos and I just went for a quick dip while on an adventure of showing me the island. The first real time was with Dana, the other Canadian exchange student on Rotary. We went to a beach in the South so we weren’t even the whitest people on the beach. Mind, Dana is part Indian and lives the real tropical island life so he´s basically black here...I got super burnt because I didn’t put on cream, i didn’t think i had to since we only went for like 2 hours. My mistake.. The second time was today, I went with my friends from school. We went to a black volcanic beach in Puerto de la Cruz, north part of the island. We got there at like 1130 and stayed it around 730. After the time change it doesn’t get dark here until like 9 which is really weird and has messed with my sleeping schedule. Anyways I put on some SPF 15 I found in my house, Nerea one of my friends, put some 50 on me while I was lying down. She made it her mission to make sure no one got cancer. Thanks mommy. Anyways we packed some chicken sandwiches we bought from a bakery bread shop and ate those for lunch. We play soccer and Frisbee on the beach as well. The waves were also the biggest I had ever seen in my life. They literally swept me away a few times, a bit dangerous. Probably the reason it was marked a red flag beach... It was a great experience. I told Dana by email that the real Spanish kids only go to black sand beaches in the north because all the kids at Dana´s school are from other countries and only go to white sand beaches aha. I don´t think I will ever be able to get the black sand out of my scalp. The giant waves have cemented it to my head.. So thanks to Nerea I didn´t get burnt, but everyone else did, including her. Everyone always teases me that I´m foreign so I burn really easy, which is usually the case. But today, I was the least burnt and everyone put sun lotion on multiple times and were super red. I am only a little red on my back and face and that´s it. Pretty impressive, who’s the GUIRI NOW!
We drove back to one of my friend´s house and ate some snacks, watched a movie with subtitles for me so I could read the Spanish because they talk really fast during movies, then ate hamburgers. BIGGEST HAMBURGER EVER! I don’t think these exist in North America. It had: hamburger patty, bun, chicken, egg, lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, ketchup, and French fries. I literally thought my stomach was going to explode; I couldn’t even finish the whole thing although I was exceedingly close.
As a whole, it was a terrific day! I LOVE THE BEACH

Flight and Returning to my Canarian Island Lifestyle

Zurich to Madrid, wait 5 hours, then Madrid to Tenerife.

A nice 10 hour adventure..
I woke up at 7am had a shower and ate breakfast for the last time with the Boog family. Linus and i ate nutella and croissants, per usual. One thing I miss greatly about Switzerland, chocolate and Nespresso cafe in the morning. We headed to the train station and said our goodbyes, got on the 9am train to Zurich airport that took about an hour and arrived around 10. My flight was at 1130am so I found my gate and checked my bag and waited. Of course my flight was late so I had to wait even longer. Lucky when I got on the flight no one was sitting in any of the 3 seats beside me so I literally had a nice little bed. Saw the snow covered Alps while flying over Switzerland back to Madrid, it was so beautiful. Got to Madrid 3.5 hours later and then waited about 6 hours to board my plane to Tenerife. It was weird to hear Spanish again but at least I could converse unlike in Switzerland where I was oblivious. And trust me, waiting by yourself in an airport for 6 hours is not fun. When I finally got on the plane I was sitting in the middle of a weight lifting team that had just won some competition in the peninsula and they were super loud. And the plane took about an hour more than it should have to take off. Luckily I managed to sleep a little but once in the air I was wide awake. 3 hours later I landed in Tenerife at 11 and was greeted by my entire Spanish family. I really could have passed out right then and there at the bag pick up. But they told me that we were going for dinner with some people from their swimming team. So we went to a restaurant called a Guanchinchi which is a restaurant that makes their own wine. This restaurant was more like a house that they built inside a hole in the mountain. It was really cool, and they did karaoke the whole night. We had all the typical Canarian food such as chickpeas with salsa, bread, octopus in red sauce, chuleta (slab of meat on a bone), papas (potatoes). After this meal I knew for sure I was in Canaries once again. By the time I got home it was 2 my time and I went to sleep immediately because the next day we were going on a tour of the island with an old Canadian exchange student that lived in the South and her mother. Didn´t know about the time change that occurred the next day, so what should have been 10am, was actually 9am. We went to pick them up from the bus station in Santa Cruz, but they weren’t there. They didn’t know about the time change. So we had to go back later and pick them up. We went to a viewing point in the mountains where you could see all of Santa Cruz. I attached some pictures of the side if you would like to see them. We went back to the house after our little adventure, Merci had prepared food. We had a traditional Canarian meal, rabbit, potatoes, mojo picon (sauce), bread, and salad with banana, olives, tuna, corn, tomatoes, peaches. This is the only type of salad made in the Canary Islands, adios Caesar Salad. Then we were on our way to the Esperanza which is close to El Teide (giant volcano in the center of Tenerife). THERE WAS SNOW! Pictures of me holding snow on my tropical island! Who would have thought! No longer can say I didn’t see snow all year, because I did. El Teide didn’t have as much snow on it from when I took a picture on my way to Switzerland but it had a little still. Then we went through the mountains to the south and dropped them off. I was dead by then and went to bed at like 9 that night, Marcos did too ahah.

SUIZA – Switzerland, land of cheese, chocolate, roulette, and Boog´s and geniuses

Switzerland was amazing, I actually had a blast there and had soo much fun with Linus. Linus was an exchange student from Switzerland in district 7090 last year, he lived with my family and was basically at my house everyday if you don´t remeber him. I literally had the time of my life, so much so that I hope I can return at the end of my exchange for another visit. I made so many friends there in so little time, it was unreal. I hope I will get the chance to go back in July before I head back to Canada, I’ve been working on my Dad.

I made a slideshow, I am going to try and load it onto my blog if not you can ask my dad for it. Pictures don’t load very well onto my blog so i decided a slideshow would probably be better for explanation and so on..

I saw all the attractions that are a must for Switzerland. Although Linus didn’t have much planned at the beginning, I made some friends and they were willing to take me places! It was great because Linus had school. Although I did make a few people skip school, but it was only once so that’s okay ahaha. I saw the famous Luzern bridge, Lion memorial, Alpes, Berne, Zurich, etc!

When I first arrived it literally felt like I was starting my exchange all over again, and remanded to feel that way for most of the trip. The feeling when you would be standing with a group of people, they were all speaking the other language and you were just standing there in oblivion, not understand anything. Well, that is how I felt and there was no way I could try and converse with people that didn’t know English or Spanish. It was kind of scary, but thank God I wasn’t starting my exchange again, learning 2 languages in 1 year would kill someone! But now I am back in Spain and don’t feel like the new exchange kid who is fishing all day. Fishing is a slang word the Spanish kids use when you’re spaced out and are in your own little word. And don´t forget the culture shock all over again, not really shock. But when you get excited over the silliest thing, for example the BIGGEST BANANAS ever. In Canarias we have smaller bananas, but they are sweeter, these bananas were like the size of my forearm and I couldn´t get over it. Although baby colourful hamburgers, more parking for bikes then for cars which I loved because I love riding bikes and I can´t really do that in Tenerife firstly because it either up hill or down hill, which up hill you will die, and down hill you will get killed by a car. It was like living a nice 2 week exchange. Right when I began to adjust I had to leave :(

Swiss names, right when i thought i was getting a hang of names. I got to Switzerland and literally can’t remember any of the names because they are all so weird. Actually probably closer to English then Spanish, but i have grown accustom to Spanish names so that is the norm for me now.
Anyways, I put in a little extra effort and remembered everyone´s name. Although Swiss people are from all different parts so they vary. Some Swiss names of people I met: Linus, Silvan, Filipe, Luca, Elias, Cristopher, Hannes, Jon, Valentin, Emilio, Morris, Eleonora, Nora, Rosa, Salome, Serena, Vennilian, Jael.

Funny Story, my amazing language skills. On the first weekend, Linus , Rosa and I went to their Scout´s weekend. Sounds lame, but it was actually so much fun. It was a weekend where the Scout counsellors got a house for themselves and got to hang out for the weekend. I met so many new people, they were all so funny and nice and could all speak English fairly well. Some better than others. On the Saturday morning Linus asked his friend in Swiss German, hey what do you want to do today. I always trying to imitate them because I don’t have a cent of German language in my body just ranted out something I made up on the spot. Linus responded again in Swiss German, okay sounds good or something. Then him and his friends looked at each other and were like OH MY GOD did she just responded in Swiss German. Apparently I told Linus that I just wanted to chill out and relax for the day then go home tomorrow. Literally had no idea that’s what I said, but if I had responded to that question then that would have been my response. HOW WEIRD IS THAT! It was my story for the week, I was rather impressed.

Swiss school is like university, super nice, super clean. It was 10 times nicer then my school in Canada, and 50 times nicer then my school in Spain. Super nice desks with cool chairs, 5 gyms, a giant library with brand new fancy computers, I can’t even go on it made me so jealous. Also Linus is in a class where they have some classes that are English and some in High German. Half the class did exchanges the year before so they all can speak perfectly, and the remainder of the class is just a bunch of geniuses. Swiss German isn’t a written language it’s like a dialect that people from Germany don’t understand which is pretty cool I think. The language doesn’t even have a dictionary, so all their classes and books are in High German. So everyone already knows 2 languages. On top of that they all know English, although they will say there English is crap, there all liars. They can all understand and speak way better than I ever could in German. Most of them also know another language on top of that. Usually they know Swiss German, High German, English, and French or Spanish. So I was able to converse in Spanish with 3 people in his class that were taking Spanish. It was very good, but I was impressed that they could speak so well from only taking classes and not going there.

Swiss Food. I had Roqlette 3 times while in Switzerland. My first time ever as my first meal on Thursday, second time at the Scout´s camp on the weekend, and the third time on the following Wednesday. It a slab on cheese that you melt under a heater and you can put different things in it. Such as; pineapple, onion, roqlette spice, asparagus, nuts, olives, basically anything you want. The cheese melts with all the items in it and you let it slide off the tray onto your plate. Its soo good! Thats the one

thing I don´t understand about the Swiss, they eat enormous amounts of chocolate and cheese and yet are ALL skinny. Like really skinny, I think I saw one fat person the entire time I was there. If you want to lose weight or remain more or less the same weight on your exchange, I suggest you go to Switzerland. Although you will gain some initial weight from all the chocolate you consume, you will eventually start losing weight.

I LOVE SWITZERLAND

CARNAVAL!!

Basically one gigantic party for 10 days. So far I have gone out Friday, Saturday, Monday, Friday and tonight I will go out again for the last night L I am rather sad, because this will probably be my last carnaval for a long time, because I won´t be able to just skip off university next year.

Still in my opinion the best day was the first Friday, I dressed up as an Indian. I wish i could post a picture of all my costumes, but brining a camera is rather dangerous due to the crazy stealing morrocans.
Saturday – Guiri is what the habitants of the island call the foreigner or tourist´s since there is a lot because it´s hot compared to the main land.

Monday – tigre or tiger I have lots of pictures of this day and was also interviewed for the canary television station. My one friend saw the television crew and thought it would be funny to tell them that I am from Canada, so rushing over to me came the camera crew shoving the camera in my face. They asked me questions like where I was from, how long i have been here for, where I go to school, if this is my first carnaval, if I like it. Etc. Wo hoo I am famous.. not

Friday – cocinero or cook, this was yesterday, and I would have had photos but my camera and cell phone were stolen out of the zipper and snap purse by some professional stealing Moroccan. Apparently they come from Africa for carnival because a bunch of people got their stuff stolen.

Saturday – Wally or Where is Waldo.  This costume is super easy, just a striped white and red shirt, glasses, and jeans. My one good friend who had hurt her ankle the week before got to go out for the last night so I was really happy. We kept loosing people, and i didn’t have a phone so it was a bit more difficult than the previous days. But it was still really fun.

There is a song that I had to learn before carnival. Well I didn´t really have to learn it because it played so many times during the night that your brain automatically memorizes it immediately. Chicharerro means like person that lives in Tenerife and is a song just for carnival. Here the link if you want to listen to it, it is in fact very catchy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e-B1yDxujw

I love carnival it was amazing, I honestly don’t know how they allow it every year because the streets and city literally look like a garbage dump. Everyone peeing on the streets, bottles and intoxicated people everywhere. And somehow the streets and entire city are totally clean by like 10 in the morning the next day and the festivities finish at like 7.

MY SPANISH DREAM

Although this happened a long time ago, I just remembered it and thought it was a funny story. Anyways it occurred in some school gymnasium with my life-long friends Meghan T. Do note she knows zero Spanish. I was having a conversation with her and telling her a story of something all in Spanish. Then when I was finished my super long rant I realized, hey she probably didn’t understand any of that. When I first got here my dreams didn’t make any sense because my body didn’t know where they should take place or something. So they were all in really weird places that didn’t really make any remote sense or they just didn’t have a location. Usually it would be in Spain with people from Canada at first, but now its people from Spain in locations I don’t even know. I thought it was funny that I was talking to one of my best friends in Spanish in a gym on the bleachers, how weird is that..

Cake everywhere but in your mouth

Went to a surprise birthday party, which seems to be the typical thing to do here. I’ve been to so many surprise birthday parties. Anyways it was in my friend’s house in a big garage type thing in the country. We danced and chatted, then when we sang to the birthday boy, his best friend thought it would be funny to try and shove it in his face. Next thing you know, cake was planted on the ground and a full out cake fight began. There was cake in my hair, clothes, face, walls, floor, outside, EVERYWHERE! It was the first birthday party i went to where i got cake on me and it wasn’t my birthday. Yes my friends succeeded when they tried to shove cake in my face in past birthdays; also Moose Winooski´s doesn’t help either.

Nombres Espanol y Apellidos (Spanish Names and Last Names)

I think that when i return to Canada I will meet a new person and be like what a weird name since I am so use to the names here. Now, when I meet someone and they tell me there name, my brain automatically desifers if it is a hard or easy name. Which I usually will state, and the person thinks i am a bit crazy. Never the less.

The only names you could possibly come across in canada that ive heard so far are: Kevin, erik, Claudia, Alexandra, Samuel (shorten to sam), Sara, Laura, Cathy, Cristina, Ana, Daniel, Brian, Sandra, Melisa, Cris, Adrian, Victoria, Joel, Jenni (Henni- silent h), Julia (Hulia) . Hey thats a lot more than I expected.
Popular girl names:
Maria, Miriam, Marta, Sofia, Tania, Tamara, Paula, Sara, Cristina, Sandra, Laura, Raquel, Eva and Adriana

Popular boy names:
Eduardo, Fernando, Juan, Jorge, Francisco, Jose, Samuel, Adrian, Julio, Rafael, Hector, Edgar, Javier, Sergio, David, Pablo, Carlos and of course Alejandro

Odd Spanish names that will turn your brain to mush trying to pronounce:

Note: in spanish the j makes an h sound, h itself is not pronounced, z is pronounced as an s, and v is pronounced like a b, and double ll makes a y sound. ENJOY!
Jey, Juanvi, Maurizio, Yolanda, Aranza, Miguel, Nauzaret, Arianda, Anita, Yasmin, Leticia, Montse,  Nauzet, Keyser, Roman, Dario, Migua, Ainhoa, Andreita, Juanfer, Emillio, Kenia, Oscar, German, Joao, Judit, Rober, Kenia, Leandro, Irina, Garoe, Santiago, Ubay, Noel, Yeray, Pepe, Natichi

I still have yet to meet someone with the name of Sanchez, I am rather upset

Fun fact about last names: In spain everyone’s last name consists of both your mother and father last names. People constantly are asking me what my second last name is, which me being the rare character I am, i do indeed possess. Although my mother’s name is technically my middle name..
Also just about everyone in Tenerife has the last name Cabrera or Gonzalez strangely enough, my host father has both. Also Diaz and Pena are very popular as well.

Now regarding my name, apparently it is almost impossible to pronounce. At first I would correct, but now I am just use to no one being able to say my name. And don’t even get my started on my last name. Caserin Nicol Building Hiles is what most people call me when they hear my name, in canarias they don’t pronounce ‘th’ and it comes out more of an s. If you know my full name you will understand where they’re getting this from.  Also most people spell it Catherin, which i am actually impressed with because they got the ‘th’ in there.
Also when people ask me my name I respond, and directly after the word ‘como’ is followed, which means how? Some people I met didn’t believe I was English so they asked me my name and their respond was, como, casper? Best name I’ve heard thus far, I got QUITE a kick out of that.

FELIZ ANO NUEVO - HAPPY NEW YEAR

New years in Canada is not a big deal compared to the Fin de Ano in Spain.
Firsty there are many customs they follow.
1.) Red Underwear to give good luck
Although Santa Clause or Papa Noel doesn't really exist in Spain, he paid the Cabrera household a visit on Noche Bueno (December 24th). He gave us presents that we were to use on New Years. I recieved a purse (bolsito), tights (panties), and red underwear! If you read the post about Christmas you will read the story.

We began the night after spending most of the day setting up the house, and preparing the food
Around 7 we started getting ready in our fancy clothes. When i say fancy, I dont mean just a simple dress, I mean like a dress you would wear to a wedding or prom/semi. If you dont believe me look at my fotos. Having difficulties downloading them onto the blog, but if you have me on facebook, take a look. If you dont have me on facebook, feel free to add me.
My family is big on having a lot of people over at the house for dinners and parties, so we had about 20 people over at our house for new years. Mainly friends and family of Merci and Marcos.
We all sat down and had an ENORMOUS fiest (one of the things spain is known for). A plus to my family always having parties is that everyone brings pastries/cakes, but thanks to that and the enormous amounts of food they force me to consume, I am now super chubby.
After our meal and chatting, we moved all the tables and created a dance floor. We danced until it got close to midnight, then we gathered around the kitched table and watched the new years countdown in la laguna.

2.) When the clock struck Midnight, another spanish tradition to bring luck is to eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds. Luckily mine had about half a million seeds in them, so it was a lovely experience to crunch on 12 grapes with seeds. Chocking, suffocation and death were all a possibility. Being a newbie at the whole idea, I struggled, as everyone else had been gobbling grapes there entire lives. But, I can now saw I can fit almost 12 grapes in my mouth at the same time, I know how talented am I! I must say this is rather entertaining and I will be continuing this tradition even when i go back to canada. Mom Dad Pedro and Murphy, start preparing.
After the grape gobbling extravaganza we all went onto the street and blew our horns and went mental, when we went back inside we had a toast. Which Diana(my host sister) and I celebrated with Fanta and not champagne. Remebering the 4D's.

After kissing everyone a feliz ano, we split paths. I went with my friends to a GIANT new years party with 4 thousand people. We danced, talked and had a ball. Perhaps a smaller lower key party probably would have been better because I would have been able to hear what people were saying aja, but it was super fun never the less.
en fin, mi feliz ano nuevo pasado muy bien!
My new years was very good!
In conclusion New Years is a lot bigger of a deal then in Canada!

GEMELOS (twins)

FINDING MY SPANISH FAMILY TWINS
Rafael came down to Tenerife to his 5 story house in Santa Cruz. We walked around and went to see a movie, he wanted air conditioning because he was complaining of the heat, while i was freezing my buns off.
We went for a greek wrap which was delicious, and did a bit of shopping. He finally gave me an extra phone he had. Which took all Christmas break to figure out how to get it working. SUCCESS it now works. Thank you RAF

I also went to the nautic club with him and his family the day before school started back up again, we were not impressed with school coming up. It was exactly like the yauht club in Toronto, made me feel right at home. Not to mention, I found my Spanish family.
I had met rafaels father and mother before, but with the whole family there it just became so much clearer to me.
His father is a big fellow, can mean business when he wants to, and nothing gets passed him. He’s quiet but I can tell he can get angry and has the ability to act like a child. Hello Alan, meet Rafael(the Dad).

His mother is loud, and crazy just like Carol. Perfect example: for anyone who knows my mother, you will love this. When in Madrid, we couldn’t find the place where Rafael was going for a polo practise. We drove around for more then an hour asking everyone we saw on the streets, no one was very helpful or knew where it was. Finally, Altagracia had had enough, stopped the car at the side of the road, got out and started stopping cars asking each one if they knew where it was. The police even drove by and didn’t say anything. Rafael was humiliated but I loved every minute of it. Carol meet Altagracia.

His Grandma, this was the toper. Uncanny resemblance. His grandma was dressed in all purple, all dressed up nice. This is a hard one to explain because most of the people reading this probably don’t know my grandma lucy. Dad and Mom you will understand this. She insisted on paying for the bill, and was inviting me to come stay with her if I ever go to Santa cruz. I told her she reminded me of my grandma, and she just fell in love with me. Shes like really does she have white hair like me, I said no. She asked if she dies it, I say yes. I said her style was like my grandmas, she loved it.

After I had officially discovered that this was my family in Spanish format, i told Rafael. His response, “I told you so.” Maybe one day they’ll meet, and it will be utter chaos.

When (Californiavacation) Dana came to the Arctic and loved every minute of it

Dana is another exchange student that lives in the south, where it is always sunny and warm and where all the old English and german people go to turn into lobsters as a lovely vacation. Note, the entire island is not like this. I live in La Laguna which is farther up the mountain and on the skinny part(tail) of the island. If you look at a picture you will understand. It is located about in the middle of the skinny part. So im not very close to the water, about a 2 hour walk or 5 minute car drive. However, I can see the ocean from my house. Which i still find incredible.
Dana is from Canada too, but from PEI. So the whole idea of living on a island is not a big deal for him. For me on the other hand, sometimes im just like WOW I live on an island in the middle of the ocean near africa, that is so weird.
Anyways, California vacation came up to the artic to visit me during the 3 week Christmas vacation. When asking me what he should bring for clothing I said, PANTS SWEATER AND PERHAPS A PARKA. He laughed thinking I was joking. When he arrived with a thin sweater and jeans, I laughed thinking to myself, should have listened to me!
I was already feeling a bit under the weather because my room is an ice box, not exactly sure why. I have had 3 blankets on it for about 3 months now, and could always use some more.  Also I now wear pants and long sleeve pajamas to bed because if my mountain of blankets don’t cover ever centimetre of me, I get strep throat for about a week. Take a guess what comes next. Note: this marks the 4^th time occurance. Oh ya, that happened to I woke up to Dana calling my name hovering over my bed to wake up. Trying to respond, I could not. My throat was dead. I sounded more like a gremlin then anything, hes like oh ya i feel sick too. PARDON!

One thing lead to another and after a 2 hour excursion to La Laguna, the city part, we were both dying of a cold. We are still unsure if his sickness was due to his allergies or the humidity. Mind was due to my idiocy and not wearing a t-shirt to bed.

Anyways what could have potentially been a crazy exciting 3 days turned into watching a lot of Spanish tv, playing wii and complaining about how sick we are. If you know me, you will know that I tend to make any situation enjoyable, not trying to brag aHA. Anyways despite being on the pedistol of death dana and I still had a steller time. Also the fact that the Christmas package my mother sent was full entirely of chocolate: reeses, licorish, more chocolate, and hot chocolate. We both gained 11 pounds each.
A day after leaving, he back back again, but this time for Christmas. We discovered the mystery of his sickness, ALLERGIES. So he cant stay in my house for long periods of time, this happens to his host brother as well.

MY SPANISH CHRISTMAS and the Catherine Cardboard Cut-out

Firstly, Christmas or Navidad is celebrated on noche bueno = good night which is Canada is Christmas Eve.  Merci my host-mother prepared a GIGANTIC meal for our family and the Grandparents. I literally ate so much I could not breathe when we finished.
I didn’t take pictures of everything but I tried.
We had homemade chicken soup, an avocado shrimp dip thing, keesh, fish, chicken, potatoes, then desert, torro, sourbert, chocolates, etc. You can look at the pictures of some of the dishes we had. Merci is an amazing cook, makes EVERYTHING from scratch, by hand. I still have 3 more dinners where I can show you some of my Spanish chef mothers excellent cooking, and you can see some of the different Spanish Christmas dishes!

My favourite moment, when everyone opened the presents I got for them. Which was one of the most difficult tasks ever, so when they all liked what I got them, or lied and said they liked it. I lit right up! Usually presents are given on the Day of the Three Kings which is January 6^th, and Christmas Eve is when Santa comes.  Santa or Papa Noel only became popular in the last few years I have been told. It is nothing like Canada’s Christmas. Marcos and Merci put 3 little gifts under our tree from Santa, so I just assumed like that would be a good time to give them my presents. After i heard marcos say that they never do presents like that on Noche Bueno, but it was from the Canadian Santa Claus and he comes the 24^th! Funniest present ever, I open a small red box and oh look there’s a red thong. I begin houling in laughter, Merci says in Spanish. For Fin de Ano/New Year’s Eve you have to wear something that is red. So the entire family got red underwear. I found this hilarious! I also got some sweet patterned tights for fin de ano as well as a cute little purse.
Probably one of the best Christmas’ in my life and I wasn’t even with my real family. Well honestly, it feels like they are my real family now. I feel totally comfortable with them all the time, and that alone, the fact that they treat me like one of their children makes me the happiest person around. I think this is the main reason I didn’t feel homesick. When the lady at the church was asking Marcos if I missed my family today, I replied no. She was surprised I could understand and responded by saying oh your learning Spanish so quickly because she was asking Marcos thinking I could not understand what she was saying. Although I sound heartless that I didn’t miss my family, I still got to talk to them over skype. Although I was about to die because it was way past my bedtime, I managed to stay up until Santa in Canada came. Christmas with the entire family was at my house this year, so communication was difficult considering everyone wanted to speak to the person who was thousands of miles away. I’m so flattered ahaha. Although it would have been nice to be with my real family, but the whole point of exchange is to experience life in a different country, with a different language, a different family, and different traditions. For that, I would not rather be anywhere other them with the Cabrera’s in Tenerife for Christmas. I had a smile on my face the entire day, it will definitely be a Christmas I will never ever forget!
Also on skype Merci, my host mother finally discovered how insane my family actually way. I continue to tell people that my family is insane but i don’t think they believe me. Last night my lovely father clarified this for her with his numerous skits and multiple hats oh and the singing bull...Thank you Alan!
My family didn’t need to miss me much, since 2-dimensionally I was there. Lauren one of my cousins thought up the idea to glue a photo of my head to a stick. Pretty clever, it even was double sided and also made my self-esteem shoot through the roof since i was super skinny, which I cannot say I am in the slightest now. Spain has taken a toll on me, thank god I have access to a gym!

Added a bit of Canadian crazy into my Spanish fam, Marcos insisted we get a photo to send in a slideshow to my family in Canada. Well I insisted that the entire family wear reindeer ears as my mother of Canada had sent some. Also insisted on a funny picture, you can tell when you look at the photo that I am by far the most experienced with face making, well have to give credit to Granny Cabrera her face is priceless in the photo. I shall post it. My Spanish fam!

Another excellent moment, Diana (my host sister) had never seen a candy cane before and asked me if it was a caramel. She loved them, good thing I have a whole box in my room. I would classify that as almost as good as someone seeing snow for the first time, which i still have yet to see.

VISITING MY CANADIAN PRIMO IN THE SOUTH and excursion with Lauren (I won't mention what island she is from because that will cause immense controversy)

before you get confused you should know that Primo=cousin

On Wednesday I set off to the South with Marcos and MErci to visit my Canadian cousin, Dana! Marcos goes to the south twice a week to his office there so I went along with him. I will explain how he is my cousin before I go any further. I live with Marcos, who is a Cabrera, and Dana who is from P.E.I, Canada lives with Marcos’ brother Mateo. That was the first time in a long time I have spoken English, it was rather weird, and I realized that not only is my Spanish bad, but so is my English! OH NO!
Dana showed me around Los Cristianos, which is the tourist area of the island, super close to the ocean and beaches. I am from la Laguna, which is further up in the mountains, so I am use to the cold. I wore jeans and a sweater to his house, BIG MISTAKE. I was sweating as we walked along the beach. Never seen so many English people since I’ve been in Spain. It was soooo weird, where I live I am the only foreign person. While Dana has more people from other countries such as France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Sweden, Finland, etc. He told me he only has 7 Spanish people in his class. While I on the contrary, everyone in my class is super Spanish, which makes me stick out like a sore thumb. Although it must not be that bad because Spanish people have asked me for directions before! WOO HOO I fit in

We walked like 10 towns on the boardwalk along the beach; probably walked a good 10km. We relaxed for a little, ate lunch, and took a short water break and went out walking again later in the night. We went to the beach and stood in the water, the first wave came in and I literally screamed it was so cold. The British lady beside us thought it was so worm and was in here bikini thinking she was getting a tan as the sun was setting... crazy brits! I am officially a Canarian because I find 20-23 degree weather cold. Seriously do not know what I am going to do when I go back to Canada. Although when I went to Los Cristianos I was regretting my jeans selection. I was not used to 28+ which Dana experiencing all the time. Now that is just too hot for me!
He showed me his super nice school, which was so clean. I was jealous. We finally went back for dinner, after dinner Javier, Dana’s house brother, who is 10 and has an infinite amount of energy was told I play soccer. So the family headed outside to the front yard, and the partido (game) began. It was Dana and I, vs. Javier and Mateo. Dana is not coordinated what so ever, so the 10 year old had a bit more energy, the 20 km walk didn’t help us either. Dana gave up eventually, we were exhausted. But,  apparently Dana was keeping score and said that the score was close... but i am not to sure.. ahaha! After the 1 ½ soccer game, we decided to change it up and play basketball. That me and Dana definitely won, Javier was super jealous! I don’t I could handle all that every day, i am just not 10 years old anymore! I am still tired from all that excitement. I had my second Spanish sleepover in Los Cristianos. In the morning we set off to Santa Cruz to meet up with Lauren, a girl from Illinois that lives in Gran Canaria and came to Tenerife for Christmas. Yesterday Dana and I, realized that pay phones are SUPER EXPENSIVE. I had to spend 8 euros on a pay phone. For one euro it was like 14 seconds... crap!
Anyways we finally met up with her, and I showed them around Santa Cruz, another 10km walking for Dana and I. We went to the Meridano for lunch, we had kebabs they were really good. Then we went walking again. Then we decided we were too tired and went to go to the movies. This was my very first Spanish movies and the theatres. We decided to go see MEGAMIND because we figured since it was a cartoon it would be easier to understand. I am so happy, I actually understood a lot of it! When I walked Lauren back to where she had to meet her family, and Dana to the bus station I was also dead. After a day of English, my Spanish sucked when I went to the gym that night. It’s a good thing I don’t see them every day or I don’t think i would know any Spanish!

Beach, swimming and my Birthday all in December? Pardon me...

MY 18^th BIRTHDAY, IN SPAIN! – FELICIDADES CATHERINE

I didn’t really think much about my birthday, since Merci and Marcos had a swimming competition on the 2^nd largest island in The Canary islands called Gran Canaria. It is in the shape of a circle, and is located rather close to Tenerife. Every day when I walk to school I can sometimes see Gran Canaria from the bridge above the highway. Anyways, i had a feeling I would feel homesick on my birthday for some reason, since I haven’t been home sick yet. Knock on wood.
We set off on our swimming adventures rather early in the morning, around 8. I guess it was decent because I didn’t have to go to school on Friday! Anyways, we get on the plane after I did 5 suduko puzzles out of the Spanish newspaper and Marcos did the crosswords. The fly attendant announces on the microphone that the flight will take 25 minutes to get to Gran Canaria and were up. We get our complementary sweet or salty nuts and glass of water that only planes flying between islands are provided with. Lucky ducks, I know!  After about 7 minutes in the air I see huge mountains, and as an exchange student start talking 9 million pictures. I say to Marcos (my host dad) who is seated beside me, WOW that was fast, were there already! Hes says, uhhhh no thats still Tenerife. I go... ohh as my IQ drops above 7 points. I will post an album on facebook because i don’t think i am able to post an album on the blog. So if you have me on facebook you can access them, if not add me. Catherine Giles (if you didn’t know that already). You should really check it out, looking down on the mountains is unbelievable, it seriously looks fact. Like how on earth can that be real. You’ll get the idea, because I took about 100...  A few minutes after my brain malfunction we are over the ocean and NOW headed to Gran Canaria. When we finally get close to the island, I couldn’t see much as I was seated on the opposite side of the plane, so couldn’t really get any pictures of the island until the ride home, which lucky me I was still on the bad side and only could get shots of Los Palmas which is the capital city of Gran Canaria, its basically where everyone lives and everyone works..
We land, I finish my Sudoko’s and we eat the delicious sandwiches and juice boxes Merci had prepared for us. We rent a car and head to our first destination. We drove up into the mountains for some sweet views of Los Palmas and to see Gran Canaria’s famous rock. It’s a straight rectangular rock that is just sitting awkwardly upright on the top of a mountain, its called __________. Marcos told me every island has some sort of thing it is famous for. Tenerife is known for El Teide, the giant volcano located on the opposite side of the island to where i live. Gran Canaria has the rock, Fuerteventura has wicked beaches, etc. Later that night while walking around the city of Los Palmas with 2 other of the swimming mates, Marcos backs into a poll in the parking garage and crushes the back of the rental car... WHOOPS

Also I went to the beach on Saturday in the morning, yes the day before my birthday, December 11^th I was at the beach. If you don’t believe me you can look at the photo!
Later that day Merci and Marcos had their super long swimming competition which ended around 10 and started at 3:30... After the swim meet we went out for dinner with the team. Definitely THE LATEST I have ever eaten dinner, which i told everyone. And to my surprise it was also there latest dinner as well. We didn’t start eating our meals until probably 11:30-12ish. When we ordered deserts I choose Chocolate Mousse, YUMM!!! I will tell you now, I am oblivious... Marcos got up and started whispering to the other swimming members at the table, and Merci was like NO MARCOS NO, WHERE ARE YOU GOING, NO! Next thing I know Marcos makes an announcement, it has been someone’s birthday for 30 minutes, and the entire swimming team begins singing happy birthday to me in Spanish.
If you didn’t know the lyrics they go like this:

Cumpleanos feliz,

Cumpleanos feliz,

Te deseamos (name)

Cumpleanos feliz!

My chocolate mousse finally comes, and oh look it has a candle in it. Now I understand what Merci was flipping at Marcos about, and the Spanish courtett begins again. Cumpleanos Feliz... and i blow out my candle. We finish dinner probably around 3 and walk back to the hotel, I pass out instantly.

The next morning we are up early to fly back to Tenerife. On the plane Merci points out El Teide, which HAS SNOW!!! Imagine a white kid with light brown hair walking around the plane and saying NIEVE, NIEVE, NIEVE!!!! Which means snow snow snow. Pretty sure the entire plane thought I was crazy, considering only the tip of El Teide had snow. I officially cannot say i did not see snow all year, because I have. And yes I have pictures to prove it!

After the 25 minute flight, Adrian my host brother picks us up from the airport. We arrive home and I kind of notice people are acting a bit strange. But i don’t think anything of it, and I begin walking upstairs. I then hear voices saying pssst, pssst. Adrian and Marcos are awkwardly standing at the television door hovering behind me. I look into the tv room and see one of my good friends Sofia, then I look and all my friends are sitting on the coaches. They made fun of my facial expression for about a week, I am VERY VERY surprised. I literally had no idea.
They all commence into song and give me hugs and kisses, the Spanish greeting. Marcos orders pizza and we play Wii. After pizza Merci brings out a chocolate cake, my favourite and the singing begins again!  I was so happy, my Spanish family is amazing. They care about me and gave me a suprise party. I was so happy! It was a birthday I will NEVER EVER forget!

THANK YOU MARCOS, MERCI, ADRIAN, DIANE and all of my friends for organizing one of the best birthday’s in probably in entire life!