An interesting week, to say the least...

What have I been up to this week? Oh, the usual...got pelted by candy thrown by children, received a scarf from the Tres Reyes, laughed at unsuspecting victims stepping in dog poop, and dealt with rude people with Calee at the oficina de extranjeros.

So, I'll start with being pelted by candy. On Monday night there was a cabalgata (parade) to celebrate los Tres Reyes Magos. 

Actually, first, let me explain (or better yet, let me let Wikipedia explain) what this holiday is. This is an important holiday that they celebrate here. It's known as El Día de los Reyes or El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos. Here's a rundown from Wikipedia:

In Spain and some Latin American countries, Epiphany day is called El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings),^[115] i.e., the day when a group of Kings or Magi, as related in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, arrived to worship and bring three gifts to the baby Jesus after following a star in the heavens. This day is sometimes known as the Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (The day of the Three Royal Magi) or La Pascua de los Negros (Holy Day of the Black men)^[116] in Chile, although the latter is rarely heard. In Spanish tradition on January 6, three of the Kings: Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Arabia, the Orient, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. Before going to bed on the eve of January 6, children polish their shoes and leave them ready for the Kings' presents to be put in them. The next morning presents will appear under their shoes, or if the children are deemed to have misbehaved during the year, coal (usually a lump of hard sugar candy dyed black, called Carbón Dulce).^[117] Most towns in Spain arrange colorful parades representing the arrival of the Reyes Magos to town so children can see them in their camels or carriages before they go to bed. The oldest of this parades is held in Alcoy, Alicante – Alacant, Valencia, which has hosted an annual parade since 1885.^[118] Sweet wine, nibbles, fruit and milk are left for the Kings and their camels. In Spain, children typically receive presents on this day, rather than on Christmas, though this tradition has changed lately, and children now receive presents on both days. In Spain the Epiphany bread/cake is known as Roscón^[119] and in Mexico as Rosca de reyes.^[120]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_%28holiday%29#Spain_and_Latin_America

Okay, anyway, at first, I was all, "Oh yay parades are fun!" But not this one...it was just dangerous. There were bands, small cars, floods of people dressed up w/ blackface make up, and the floats. 

Those floats...let me tell you something, those floats look cool from afar, but then they get up next to you, and suddenly you're being pelted with little hard candies that children are supposed to be "gently tossing." But no, they're just children so they pummel those little caramelos (lil wrapped candies), and when they hit you they feel like rocks. Here are some pictures and videos I took (with my phone so excuse the horrible quality) so you can see for yourself:

Looks pretty from afar...

People w/ their blackface make up

This float didn't have kids throwing the candy, but still...the flinging of the candy is not the safest idea.

The parade was super intense. Candy was EVERYWHERE. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the car tires that were carting around the floats. They were completely caked in candy that they had been running over. Everyone had candy stuck to the bottom of their shoes and were scraping their shoes off on the curbs, and the roads and sidewalks were just an absolute mess.

At the end, there were about seven/eight people with their balloon bundles trying to sell balloons to the masses.

Tons and tons of balloons. Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate this random girl's face in the bottom left corner of this photo?

So after the parade, Calee and I walked around el centro to look at the aftermath left behind by the parade. The parade went all through Sevilla, leaving from the University around 4pm and eventually making its way back there around 9pm. Here'a a map of their route:

When I got back home, I was in my room when Toni called me and said, "Kari, toma!" (direct translation: Kari, take! Better translation: Kari, take this!) I honestly just thought she was giving me my laundry, and I didn't really feel like putting it away so I just kinda sat there for a few seconds and silently cried on the inside...but when I stepped out of my room to receive what I thought was laundry, Toni was holding a shiny silver gift bag for me!

I obviously was surprised, and as usual when I'm caught off guard/surprised I can't form words, but I managed to stutter out, "¿Eso qué es?" (What's that?) She told me that the Reyes brought it for me. I think it's funny how everyone here, even adults, don't say, "Oh yeah, so and so gave me this gift!" they all seem to say, the Reyes brought me this gift! At least, in my experience. I can't speak for all of Sevilla or Spain. Anyway, it was a super soft scarf. I like it a lot and it's super warm! 

A few days later, I was out and about exploring a different part of Sevilla that I don't usually go to with Genisis and Isis, when Isis stepped in a really gross pile of dog poop right across from a small shop that sells things made from hemp. Genisis went inside to look around while Isis and I stood outside trying to figure out the best way to clean off her shoe. After she finished scraping her shoe on the corner of a building, we looked up to see a man step in the same pile of dog poop as Isis. We didn't even try to hold back our laughter, and we just stood there snickering for a good minute and a half. He didn't notice though since he was across the street. We're horrible people...and before we left, Isis saw one more person step in it! Poor people...why can't people just pick up after their dogs, though?

Lastly, on Friday, Calee and I had a fun time going to pick up her foreigner identity card (aka the card that acts as our visa extension). And by fun, I mean irritating. We thought we were just going to go over there, pick up her card, and waltz away with no problems. But in Spain, nothing's that easy.

****Note to readers: This is where a rant starts. If you don't feel like reading the rant, you can just skip it. No pasa nada.**** 

We got there, realized after a minute or two that we were in the wrong line, changed lines, waited for not too long, and finally got to the lady, who actually was the Spanish woman version of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation. Calee handed her the papers and told her she was there to get her card, and the lady got her card, but after looking it over, looks up at us and says, "La tarjeta ha expirado," but with the Andalusian accent it sounded more like this: "Latarjetahaehpirao." 

Neither Calee or I knew what she was saying, so when I told her I didn't understand her, she just repeated herself. Now normally, that's okay and I figure it out on the second time...but this time I still had no clue what she was saying. So when I asked her what that meant, she just looked at me, repeated herself, and got all huffy and just made frustrated noises.

What I wish I could have said to that lady...

I was thinking, "Okay excuse me, lady, for not being freaking perfect at Spanish. Let's see you go across the freaking world and communicate in a foreign language. Let's see how easy you think it is after that!" Finally, after Calee and I just stared at her, she showed us the card, pointed at the expiration date, and said, "Mira." (Look.) When I saw what she was pointing at, I said to Calee, "Ohhh, expired! The card's expired!" The rude lady then proceeded to look at us and with the most mockingly annoying tone of voice said -- in English --, "Yessss, EXPIRED!" 

oh no she didn't.

What I was thinking: Oh really?? You're going to sit here and mock us about something you couldn't even figure out how to explain to us? Seriously???

What I said: Ohh, okay, but she needs a visa extension...what do we do?

What she said: No sé. (I don't know.)

Hold up, say what?

What I was thinking: Okay, how does she *not* know?? She works there, this is her JOB, how is she going to sit there and tell us that shE DOESN'T KNOW? 

What I said: ........................................

Nothing. I said nothing.

After a few seconds of Calee and I freaking out and trying to figure out what to do since this dumb lady was of no help, she finally told us we should go talk to the police across the hall. We said thank you and left, and we actually decided to head over to the JYS office first because they were closing soon and we thought they'd be a little bit more helpful at least in terms of who we should talk to or what we should do. 

Our walk back to the office was full of questions. How is it expired? Why is it expired? We filled out the same paperwork and went on the same day to turn it all in, how did this happen? Who screwed this up? Why was that lady so rude? 

When we got there, Calee tried to explain in Spanish what had happened, but after a few minutes they switched to English so nothing important would get lost in translation. This isn't really something you want to mess up, especially since it's already messed up. Basically, they told her that she just had to go back there and try to talk to someone else since the first lady was clearly unhelpful. Then they told her that it totally wasn't her fault, and that she didn't even need to worry because luckily, her actual visa doesn't expire until March. 

So, we reluctantly walked back over to the Oficina de Extranjeros, and I explained our situation to the security guards who direct you where to go. Unfortunately, he directed us to the first lady we talked to...ugh. Our reluctance was noticeable, as he had to keep ushering us towards the line and telling us, "¡pasa, pasa!" because we kinda just stood there like, "but whyyyyy???"

When we walked up to her, she just stared at us with her unblinking cold emotionless death stare. If she could have done this, she would have:

There was a tense awkward silence until Calee broke it by explaining the situation. She just stared at Calee, so I tried elaborating a little, and then she cut me off mid-sentence to tell us that we weren't in the right place and that we needed to go to the lady who was on the other side of the room. 

So since there wasn't a line for that lady, we just walked over to her and explained the same thing. This lady was just straight up confused, and didn't seem to understand why we were even talking to her. She was like, "Yeah, the card's expired, so what?" We weren't being unclear, so I don't understand why this was so hard for her to understand. This lady asked us stupid questions like, "When did you get the card? Who gave you the card?" Then she started pretending like she knew what was going on, printed out a ticket, and told us to go in the waiting room to wait to talk to yet ANOTHER lady, who ended up being almost just as clueless. 

We waited for about 15 minutes (not too bad, not too bad), where we discovered they also got Calee's birthday wrong on the card as well. Way to go, Oficina de Extranjeros. Finally we went in and saw the 3rd Lady. This lady asked more stupid questions like, "When you got your fingerprints done for the card, did they give you a paper?" Our answer was "yes." Then she asked us where the paper was, and we told her we gave it to some lady. She asked us, "Which lady?" When I told her it was the first lady we talked to and pointed in her general direction, she just told us to hold on. Then she did some searching on her computer and was like, hm, I don't know about this stuff/I'm not in charge of this stuff...looks like you gotta talk with the police on the other side of the building. 

So, we got up so 3rd Lady could take us over there when we passed the new lady, 4th Lady, we needed to talk with. 4th Lady was the smartest and nicest of them all. We explained to her Calee's problem, and she listened, only asked like one dumb question, and then told us to wait in the hall while she went to talk with 3rd Lady. After she was done, she took us over to her desk and sat down with Calee's passport, and within 10 seconds 4th Lady was like, "Ohh, I see why it's expired. They weren't even supposed to give you this card. Your visa is a 6th month visa, so you don't need this card! I don't know who made it, but they shouldn't have. You're all good, nothing to worry about here!"

Whoa whoa whoa, not so fast 4th Lady, it is not "all good." We told 4th Lady that she still needs an extension, and she was like, "Well then she has to ask for a visa extension." So I was like, "...but you just said she didn't need a card...?" (this card serves as the visa extension -- for me and everyone else at least), and she was like, "No, she doesn't need a card, but she still has to ask for a visa extension." Then she explained to us that because Calee's visa lasts for 6th months, she doesn't need a card (still doesn't make that much sense, but whatever). Then she got up to double check what she was telling us, and when she came back I asked her what Calee would receive instead of the card...like what would the visa extension even be? 4th Lady didn't know. Then I asked her who she needs to talk to to get the extension, and she was just like, "The guy who deals with education/students." Then she told us that Calee needs to come back on the next day that she's available to go talk to the education guy for more information, because...like everyone else, this wasn't her "area" and they guy who deals with student stuff was on vacation. Then, she just reassured us that everything was okay, the card was just a mistake, Calee's not going to be in trouble with the law, etc etc. 

****If you skipped the rant, you've finally reached the take-away.****

As we walked away, we complained about how annoying this all was, but we also tried to focus on the positives. Everything happens for a reason...the first time Calee and I tried to pick up our tarjetas together, the line was out the door and we had to leave before we could get the cards because we had class. I ended up going back the next week for mine, but Calee never bothered to go back to pick hers up. However, if she would have picked up her card before it expired, the person who was giving out the cards probably wouldn't have said anything about the expiration date, Calee probably wouldn't have noticed the expiration date, and then things would be bad if she would have either noticed too late or never have noticed at all. So even though it was a really annoying day filled with lots of shuffling around to different clueless unhelpful people, this was probably a good way for it to go. Rather go through all of this than to possibly get in huge trouble for staying in Spain w/ an expired visa and expired visa extension. 

And that is my week, folks. The upcoming week is looking pretty chill. Isis and Genisis are traveling in Paris and London, and Calee is off traveling to Tenerife, and most of my Spanish friends are swamped with school and work and other responsibilities. That's okay, though. I'm an only child -- I'm used to this. Chill week it is! But...on Thursday, the new spring JYS group arrives. I haven't decided if I'll go to the office on Friday to meet them all for their first day of orientation. We'll see how I feel...on Thursday night.

Adiós 2014, Hola 2015

Where did this week go? Wait, no, where did last year go?

Not having class makes me completely lose track of the days...and now it's a whole different year? Yikes! It seems almost impossible that it's 2015.

One of the last things I did in 2014 was get a haircut. I was soo nervous for two reasons:

1. I would have to describe what I want in Spanish, and my hair salon vocab is practically non-existent (well it's better now)
2. My last haircut was horrendous and I figured since I was speaking in Spanish this time, my hair could only turn out awful due to lack of communication

Well, that was a backwards experience. Yes, the communication in the salon was kept to a minimum, but my haircut was on point. How is it that in America, where I can communicate perfectly, the hairdresser screws up my hair, but here in Spain where I had to use vocab that I Googled 30 minutes before getting to the salon, where I almost forgot out to say "layers" and had to use my hands to help get across what I was trying to say, and where I'm not even fluent in the language, my hair comes out wonderfully? I don't understand it, but I'm not going to argue with it. I'm just gonna have to find Spanish speaking hairdressers back in the States, hahaha. No but really, look at this:

That's some nice hair.

I was going to compare this haircut with my last haircut, but I just can't. The last haircut was just too bad to even put on my blog. So let's just rejoice with how not-horrible this one is.

Also, let me tell you all about my interesting New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve, my friends' host mom let them invite me to their New Year's Eve dinner. Before I begin, I want to say I really had a good time and it was super cool getting to see how they celebrate New Year's Eve in Spain...but that night was quite the patience tester.

Soo, on Wednesday, I got dressed up and moseyed my way down San Vicente de Paúl, took a left on Ronda de Triana, and about five minutes later I was waving at Isis who was going to show me up to where her and Genisis live. I had already met all of their host family except for their host dad and their host grandparents, so when I got there I greeted everyone with dos besos and made small talk (ugh) with their family. At one point, Isis and Genisis left me alone with their host grandpa, Javier, who (while very nice) has a very thick accent Andalusian accent. He was talking to me about the weather (of course, the most typical small talk known to man), but I could only catch about 75% of what he was saying. While that sounds pretty decent, the important parts of the conversation were included in the 25% that I didn't understand, such as questions he was asking me. Once I finally understood a question, I took that and ran with it. I started talking about how the weather here was different than Virginia and that lasted me until Isis and Genisis came back and saved me from the small talk nightmare.

The actual dinner wasn't too bad. Genisis made me a yummy tofu dish since her host mom had no idea what to feed me. All in all, though, the dinner was quite the learning experience.

Anyone who has known me for even five minutes knows that:

1. I am quiet.
      1.5. I am an introvert.

That being said, I didn't say much at dinner. I didn't say much because I didn't think there was anything for me to say. I'm more content listening to the conversation. In group situations, I don't typically speak up unless someone directly addresses me or unless I really feel like I have something important to share. However, lil' ol' Granny (the host dad's mom) thought I wasn't speaking because I didn't know/understand Spanish. I mean, seriously, even if they were talking in English, I still wouldn't have chimed in. The granny asked me something, and I didn't hear all of what she had said because I didn't realize she was speaking to me for the first half of the question, so when I asked her to repeat, she proceeded to turn to Isis and said, "Ohh, pobrecitaaa, ella no puede entender nada que he dicho. *clucks her tongue* Ella está sentando allí con ni idea de qué está pasando..." Translation: Ohh, poor thing, she can't understand anything that I've said. *clucks tongue* She's sitting there with no idea of what's going on." My reaction was something like this:

I do not like people assuming I do not understand them. Mostly, I don't like people talking about me when 1. I can in fact understand them and 2. When I'm right there. I literally sat right across from her. I was trying to tell her that I just didn't hear the question, but Isis and Genisis jumped in before me to explain to her that I actually do understand Spanish, but lil' ol' Granny didn't seem to listen or care. The granny ignored me for the rest of the dinner...not making eye contact with me once. She literally would look at Javier on my left, skip over me, and look at Genisis on my right. 

It's very rare when I just straight up don't like someone without getting to know them with concrete reasons to not like them, but I did not like her. I can usually get along with just about everyone. I have been told that I have a "neutral personality," but if you're going to not even give me a chance to understand you and then just ignore me for the rest of the time we're together, that's going to get on my nerves and my "neutral personality" will become a sassy personality.

And then, the whole freaking time at dinner, about 90% of the dinner table conversation was about vegetarianism and veganism and the big question of "Why do you do that????" Don't get me wrong, I really like Genisis' and Isis' host family a lot, but good lord...the ignorance and lack of respect was getting on my last nerves. I got asked several times about cheese, eggs, and other stuff. I didn't go into detail about it. I spent most of the time just listening to Isis and Genisis defending their points (they're vegetarians btw). They were being completely respectful about it, but their family was just like, "But animals are to eat. Animals taste good. I think you're wrong. I don't care if I'm eating a dead animal -- me da igual. You wan't some of my lamb or shrimp or crab??" My face during the dinner went through several levels of "unimpressed." I'll illustrate these levels with some nice hand selected gifs:

Level 1: The Unimpressed Emotionless Staredown Face

Level 2: The "Yes, please go on telling me about how you need to eat animals to survive" Face

Level 3: The "Did that tontería (nonsense) really just come out of your mouth" Face



Level 4: The "I'm listening, and I think you're wrong, but I'm not going to say anything" Face



Level 5: The "Well they're never gonna change their mind so I'll just tune out" Face




In the whole time I've been in Spain, I have never encountered someone who gave up talking to me on the first interaction. Seriously, every time I don't understand someone, they literally just repeat themselves, which is what I prefer. Sometimes I just need to hear something twice, and I expected that from the lil' granny too, but nope. She just assumed I had no idea what was going on and refused to talk to me for the rest of the time.

I also haven't encountered anyone, not just in Spain but in the States as well, so insistent that meat is so vital to life and that if you don't eat meat you'll get sick and die/if you don't eat meat then it makes you some weird freak. Not even my dad was that annoying about it, and I thought he hit like the top of the top of annoying. I think it's worse when there's just a table of 6 people all with the same opinion that meat = life -- which is quite the opposite. Meat is actually death, and eating it can contribute to a shorter lifespan...just saying.

Now don't get me wrong, I respect others' choice to eat meat. Yes, I think it's wrong, but they have the choice to do that just like I have the choice not to. It's not the fact that they're meat eaters that gets on my nerves, it's the lack of mutual respect. I don't sit there questioning why they're eating meat, throwing all kinds of facts at them about how bad meat is for them and how veggies are way better. I literally just sat there and ate my food, and somehow the existence of a vegan or vegetarian is enough to provoke the unnecessary avalanche of questions and comments. I know this is just one of the many times in my life that this will happen, so I really need to just learn to be less bothered by this kind of stuff. It's just extremely annoying that I try to be respectful of others but they don't have the same respect.

And honestly, I feel like I'm pretty good at shutting down any possibly avalanches of questions, but Genisis and Isis were more quick to explain themselves which kept the conversation fueled, while if I sense that I'm with really non-understanding people, I go straight for the, "I'm not going to discuss this with you" response. I think it's better to just not discuss that kind of stuff until I really have a good grasp of how I think the person will react, and if I think they're not going to react well, I simply avoid it.

Anyway, before I go on even more of a vegan rant, I'll move on. After dinner, we all picked out 12 grapes out and each put them on our own cute lil' baby plate to consume when the clock struck 12AM. In Spain, everyone watches the clock in Madrid on TV (or wherever they happen to be if they're not at home watching it being broadcast on the news) just like we watch the clock in NYC. However, in Spain, the clock in Madrid chimes, and with each chime, you eat a grape. You eat one grape for each month, and the grape is supposed to represent good luck. It's harder that it sounds, but I got all my grapes down (even if towards the end I slightly resembled a chipmunk). It was actually really fun. :)

This is everyone after we got all of our grapes down and were celebrating the first few minutes of 2015:



So yeah, my NYE was pretty interesting. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm so glad I went. Annoyances aside, they have a wonderful host family!

The rest of my first week of 2015? Ehhh...not too eventful.

On New Year's Day I walked all the way to Nervión with Calee to help her find the house that she's going to be tutoring at. It was really fun to catch up with Calee and to explore a part of Sevilla that we both hadn't been to before. The directions she had took us through all these little backroads and made things kinda confusing, but on our way back we just stuck with the main roads and found a much easier route. All in all it was pretty successful.

Yesterday I got to witness Aitana, my host mom's 7/8 month old (not completely sure how old she is) granddaughter, try her first yogurt. Her face was sooo adorable! I love watching babies try foods for the first time because their expressions are always so priceless. Also, Aitana seems to like me. She always smiles/giggles at me for no reason haha. Maybe she just thinks I look funny, who knows. But when she was eating her yogurt, she was watching me the whole time, and in between bites she'd kinda reach toward me and giggle, and my host mom was like, "Aww she likes Americans!" Lol, because a 7/8 month old is able to sense that I'm American.

Also, yesterday, I went to a new restaurant with Isis, Genisis, and Calee that I haven't been to yet with vegan options called Habanita. It's a cuban restaurant with lots of vegan and vegetarian options (which are clearly labeled on the menu). The food was soo good, and I think this place is my new favorite here in Sevilla. I got falafel w/ coconut sauce and it was tasty, and the falafel was nice and moist, unlike the other falafel that I've had here. It was also pretty nice to have all the JYS SBC girls spending time together.

Another random thing: I just want to comment on how nice the weather has been here lately. Look at all of that sun! I tok a walk today along the river and I had to take off my jacket at one point because I was getting pretty toasty walking in the sun.

Also these warm temperatures are niiiice. I'm not looking forward to going back to a Virginia winter next year. Good thing my host mom is knitting me a scarf ;D

Lastly, I just want to write the typical "New Year's" blah-de-blah junk. I don't really have any "New Year's Resolutions," because I feel like if you want to do something, you shouldn't wait until the new year to start. This is just going to be an eventful year, and I hope that I can continue to grow as a person as much as I have towards the end of 2014. Almost half of 2015 will be spent in Spain for me, and then the other half will be me starting my senior year at Sweet Briar. I can't believe I'm going to be a senior! It feels like everything's coming to a close and while on one hand I don't like that feeling at all, on the other hand I love knowing I still have lots of adventures lying ahead of me!

Finals and Freedom (almost)

This was my week. Finals: Where everything's made up and the points don't matter. 

This past week was a long, stressful week. And by long, I actually mean short; we had Monday off of school because of el Día de la Inmaculada Concepción...so in reality it was a three day school week (no classes on Fridays either). Anyway, I've definitely had better weeks. There's some crap going on back in the States that was/is stressing me out, and on top of that, I was trying to prepare for my finals -- it was a lot to carry around with me. But I did learn that I have support in all kinds of places, and that's really important. Anyway, here are some gifs that accurately describe my life this week, because I'm too tired to find the words:

Intensely reading Don Quijote and other notes for my classes

Seriously, what is sleep? Who needs that? Who has time for that?

This was when I hit my low point when my American life's and my Spanish life's stressors were mixing and making things 2,093,204 times more stressful than they needed to be. 

How I felt at the end of each day spent studying (or trying to study)

Me after each exam. 

And last but not least, how I felt after I turned in my last final and was officially done with the semester.

Now that finals are over, I can concentrate on FREEDOM. Okay, well, almost freedom. I still have to keep going to my internship until Friday the 19th, but that's nothing. They've already finished with their exams, so they're literally just learning Christmas carols in all of the English classes.

We're also playing games, learning about Christmas in America, and even writing letters to Santa Claus. It's all really fun and such a good way to spend my time. 

I'm also planning on exploring Sevilla in my free time, because even though I've lived here since September, there's still a ton of places to explore (especially my own neighborhood...oops?). I want to explore at night too so I can go around the city and see all of the Christmas lights! I already love what I've seen so far. Finally, this week I would like to get my hair trimmed if I can get up the courage. My ends are so dead, and I need a trim soo badly; however, I am no longer a fan of haircuts ever since my last one...it was quite possibly the worst haircut I have ever received since 2005 when I had my hair cut up to almost my chin. Ugh, what a nightmare. 

And then, after this week, I'm rollin' outta here to Brussels on the 22nd. I guess I also have some planning to do this week!

Personal Post 5: My Spanish is improving?!

You heard that right friends, I'm starting to notice improvements in my Spanish. My accent is still súper white, though. Poco a poco, I guess. Here are some events from this past week that made me realize that my Spanish isn't somehow getting worse in Spain (illustrated with gifs from Parks & Recreation):

1. The other day, I was watching the news on TV. Usually, I always turn on the subtitles, but the remote was too far away (read: I was actually just too lazy to reach for it), so I just decided to not use subtitles. Well, low and behold, I understood everything that was being said! I remember when I first got here, the news seemed impossible to understand, but now it all seems to be pretty clearly said. Success! 

Me when I first got here and tried to watch the news (with subtitles)

Me after understanding the news without subtitles

2. I had a whole conversation with Toni, my host mom, and I understood about 80% of what she said (as opposed the usual 50%). We were discussing comparative education, the Spanish school system, and she was telling me about how "back in her day" they didn't have to learn English in school. It was really nice to have a conversation with her, because usually I just keep it to small talk and simple things since I don't really know how to speak like a normal person in Spanish.

Normal conversation success!

3. The other day in my translation class, me and this girl were trying to translate a paragraph from Spanish to English as literally as possible. We were speaking in English, and I was trying to say, "What does this word mean?" but it almost came out as, "What does this word signify?" However, I only got to, "What does this word sig--" and then I realized how weird that sounded, so I tried to restart my sentence in English the "right" way, but at the time I could not remember how to say "What does this word mean?" -- the only thing I could think of was the Spanish word "significar" which means "to mean" or "to signify." Obviously, it looks the most like the English word "signify," which is why I could only think of that word! Finally, after stuttering and restarting my sentence like twice, I finally just switched over to Spanish and said, "¿Qué significa esta palabra?" That was a good moment.

4. I successfully ranted to my host mom in Spanish. I've been having some communication problems with my internship, so one day I came home from it and sat down and started complaining to my host mom. She understood everything I said, and she offered me some advice -- and it was like a completely normal conversation! I didn't have to look up any words, I didn't have to ask her to repeat herself 9,320,483 times (okay maybe like once or twice), and I didn't stumble over a ton of words like I normally do!

How I feel on a daily basis here, except during that rant!

5. I'm catching myself thinking (and dreaming) in Spanish! My dreams aren't completely in Spanish, but the other day, I did have a dream I was trying to buy bread in Spanish. It was just that one part of my dream though, not the whole dream. And the conversation went like this (the translated version): 

Me: Is this bread free?
Cashier: No.
Me: But the sign says "free."
Cashier: No, *points at other bread* that bread is free.
Me: Oh, well can I buy this bread?
Cashier: Yeah, it's 1 euro.
Me: Thanks!

I don't know why I wanted to buy bread, but I definitely think this reflects Spanish society -- bread is everywhere here. I don't really want to buy any, though. Especially that bread from my dream; it was just measly looking toast. Why did I want that?

6. And lastly, probably one of my more significant realizations, the other day I decided to listen to my Spanish playlist on my phone while I was walking to school, and I actually understood the lyrics! I never really understood what they were saying before, but this time I was just like, "So THAT'S what they're saying!" That's when I realized, "Dang, maybe my Spanish is improving!"