Wow I really need to update this

I realized I haven´t updated this in over a month and feel like I need to do this now. A lot has happened in the last month. I finished my first month of intensivo Spanish class, lost my roommate, and have traveled many places in between. So to start off with losing the roommate. At first I had a great relationship with my host mom...we both did at first...but after time my roommate and host mom started to have issues. Their personalities did not match up well and everything my roommate did my host mom would yell at her about it, but not at me if I did the same thing. It was hard adjusting to the new types of food she makes and and she is very picky about various things. This may be getting a little too far, but hey this is my blog and can say what I want I guess. My roommate was also not White, but Filipino which many people including myself could be a reason why she was treated differently than me. I say this because before I left the US I assumed that all races would be accepted here as for the most part they are in the US, and especially because Granada is so close to Morocco. I have found this is not the case and rascism is much more prevalent here than in the US. For example, going into clubs you are judged by the way you dress, act, and the people you are with. I just got back from France last week and when you cross the border into Geneva, Switzerland people from customs automatically take a car aside who has an Aftican American inside, or if the person looks at all suspicious. We have 2 Asians in our program and some people´s host mom´s have asked why is there a Chinese man here? Does he speak English? Why isn´t he in China? Or the way in which they describe people of another race such as making hand gestures to descirbe the man with the ¨Asian eyes¨. To me this has been sad to see but I have come to understand that it is all a part of the culture and I just have to accept it.

It has been hard not having a roommate, but it also has its advantages. I have my own room with extra space, my own bathroom, and I am forced to Speak Spanish all the time with my host mom. I miss having another American there to talk to, and we had a good relationship, so it is difficult not having someone to walk to school with anymore, and sometimes having to eat dinner alone. It is a growing experience and I think it is making me a stronger person.

Now onto the first month of intensivo and starting classes for the semester. The education system is definitely different here, and I really miss the mannerisms of US Professors. I had 2 intensivo professors, 2 hrs for each professor. My first professor was very upbeat, funny, and would nicely correct your mistakes when you said something wrong. She was also the professor who didn´t know the Sun was a star, and told us there are only 5 continents instead of 7, but that is another story. Apparently continents are not a universal thing people learn all around the world. Everyone has a different perspective. my second professor on the other hand was more serious. One day in class I asked her to repeat the answer to a question but she yelled at me in front of the class for not making the correct sentence, and continued to tell me ¨this is intermediate level Kendel, we form full sentences here¨but of course that was all in Spanish. Long story short, she made me feel like a complete idiot when all I needed to do was add one more word to make it right. In the US if I were to make a mistake like that I feel the professor would be a little more patient with me. I mean, I am here to learn Spanish and of course I am going to make mistakes. If I didn´t make mistakes and already mastered the language what would be the point of being here right? Anyways, I somehow made it through the intensivo finals and actually ended up doing really well in the class. However, I went to take the level test and did not advance to the advanced level, also known as Hispanicos. I really wanted to be in advanced but have realized that it is best I am in the level I am in because I don´t want to be taking classes that are too hard for me...plus in the intermediate level I am required to take a grammar class, as well as an oral class, and since my grammar is what is killing me on the tests, I guess it is a good thing I am taking it. I hope it will help me prepare for the DELE that I have to take in a few weeks, I haven´t been doing well on the practice exams for that and am trying my best to improve. Whatever happens in the end happens for a reason and I can only do the best I can do.

I went to France last week to visit an exchange student I had 4 years ago in high school, and got to meet and stay with her family for 6 days. It was a blast! Her mom only speaks Spanish and French, and since I was with her mom a lot while my friend was in school, I was forced to continue speaking Spanish even in France. She lives in Annecy, France by a huge lake. It is the cleanest lake in Europe and second cleanest in the world, therefore it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I would love to live there someday, but I guess I would eventually have to learn French to do that. I went shopping, went to bars and had tasted a cherry beer called Kriek which I really hope the US will have when I turn 21. That is another thing...coming back to the US and still having 4 months to wait until I am legal...that will be one thing I miss about Spain and Europe. There are so many things to do here, you can never be bored...in the US you have to be 21. My friend´s parents took me to see many things, including Chimborey, the first capital in France, and to the French Alps to a cheese factory where I had the best cheese ever! France definitely has better cheese than Spain, that is for sure. I was sad to leave but hope my family and I can all go back and visit her again soon! I want to go back and go to Paris, I never made it there.

Yesterday at 4:30 am I made it back from Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. That was also a lot of fun, but I realized I only had 16 hrs sleep in 4 days, so I am extremely tired. I saw where the Apostle James the Great is buried and went to the Cathedral there and saw the largest incense holder in the world be swung at a mass...what a thing to be famous for right? It was definitely interesting.

Now I am about ready to go to class so I better end this update. I hope this will make a few of you more satisfied now that I have updated it. More later this week I promise!!!