School So Far...

I am loving my life here in Spain, but school has been a real challenge for me.  The first few days were definitely the worst, and its getting better, but who really likes school all that much anyways?  Anyways, lets just say, the first few days were really rough.  It was probably the hardest thing, mentally and emotionally, that I have ever done.  I don't want to sound dramatic I'm just being honest.

The first full day was pretty much completely terrible.  I can't say I even understood 1/4 of what the teachers, or students, said.  Basically, it was the same as the first day of school in America.  (I think) they talked about the rules and what we will be doing this term or year or whatever.  This is why it was hard for me.  We have all heard the same think a million times and so they just kinda rushed through it, and there wasn't much class participation, writing on the board, or other things that usually help me.  I totally understand and wasn't expecting much different but hello... this is a new language and school and everything for me, and 6 classes later my head was going to explode.  I was so frustrated and emotional that my goal for the day was to make it through class and lunch before I cried.  Because I was going to cry.  After lunch I laid down for a siesta and cried, prayed (which is a great stress relief, btw), slept, cried some more, and woke up feeling much better.  Carmen, her friend Paula, and I went out and it was a great way to get my mind off things.

The next morning I woke up absolutely dreading going to school, but, it turned out to be infinitely  better.  My first class was P.E. and apparently I was supposed to wear sporty clothes to school, who knew? But it turned out ok because we didn't do anything.  Then we had Lectura, where the kids who don't have a religion class just go hang out in the library.  Needless to say my favorite class.  In Spain, if a teacher doesn't show up, your class doesn't get a sub like in the U.S., you just don't have class (heck yessssss) so we just chilled out some more for my music class.  In the rest of the classes we actually started with material and I was able to follow along.  There are some classes that I think I am going to have to accept failure in, like Lengua and Etica, because I just absolutely don't understand.  But there are others that I actually like and with effort can understand.  I am particularly excited about my history class because my teacher is very nice to me and it will be interesting to learn about these historical events from a different perspective.

I hate to end on a bad note, so something good did come out of school so far... friends!  There are many people in my class who are very nice to me and explain things to me when I don't understand or let me see their notes.  There are quite a few really cool people in my class and I think we are going to be good friends.

This experience definitely isn't easy, but I am learning a ton and loving (almost) every minute of it!

Besos,
Bailey