back in the USA

There were two things that surprised me the most when I first got back to the US.

1. Clouds

I had forgotten that clouds are so big here! When I got back on Tuesday there were these huge, puffy clouds, and it was raining. There was even lighting. That kind of thing just doesn't usually happen in Cádiz in the summer--the skies are pretty much sunny and clear 100% of the time.

2. English

I walked into a Panera Bread and everybody was speaking English! There wasn't a single 'vale' or even 'gracias' =( Now I have to remember that if I talk in Spanish nobody will understand. Perhaps more importantly, I have to keep in mind that if I talk about someone in English, they'll be able to understand.

It's been nice to sleep in my own bed and have my laptop again, but I definitely miss Spain. Here it's a little abnormal to give people kisses when you meet them, to try and walk to the beach all the time, and to eat ice cream every day.

Later I'm going to talk a little more about Spain and attempt to load some pictures.

Bye for now!

♥Meredith

last night

First of all, I have to apologize for the lack of Gibraltar pictures. The past week has been really crazy with all the packing, unpacking, and traveling. Hopefully I´ll be able to get some monkey pictures up once I get home.

My last day in Cádiz (Friday) was pretty emotional. My family and I all got up extremely early to say goodbye to Nina, and then I left around noon. There were a lot of besitos and I may have been crying just a little. I miss Nina, my host parents, and my host brother already! We all got closer than I expected.

Nina went back to New York, but I was signed up for the travel extension. On Friday and Saturday we were in the beautiful and ridiculously hot city of Córdoba. On Saturday we packed up again and came to Sevilla. We saw clouds for the first time in weeks here--it was quite unnerving.

Now we´re packing our bags one last time, and I have very mixed emotions about going home. Spain is such a different place from America, and I love the culture here. Everything is so much more open and affectionate, and the age of the country adds a ton of depth (history geek). I´ll miss getting to speak Spanish. On the other hand, all of us are totally exhausted from traveling, and I´m excited to get back to my own family, laptop, and pillow.

Adiós for now! Next time I write it´ll be from the states.
♥Meredith

soup kitchen

A few days ago, Nina and I went with Javi, one of the staff members, to help out at a soup kitchen. First we set the tables, cut up bread and watermelon, etc., and then we helped serve the people who came to get food. The staff at the soup kitchen and the people who came were generally very courteous and kind to us.

It was definitely an eye-opening experience.

We recognized several of the people from around town, and it was strange to actually talk to them for the first time. The soup kitchen was also a really tangible demonstration of how bad the economy is in Spain and just how much poverty there is.

And Nina and I both agree that the soup kitchen was the most immersed that we´ve been so far in Cádiz.

Today we visited Gibraltar, so pictures tomorrow =)

Bye for now!

♥Meredith

pictures from Ronda!

Nina took some awesome pictures during our excursion to Ronda this past Saturday, and here are a few of them:

I also bought a really cute bull figurine as a souvenir! Ronda is really famous for its Plaza de Toros, and we actually got to walk around the bullfight ring.

Hasta luego,

♥Meredith

last week

Today is the beginning of my last week in Cádiz =( I´m going to miss this place a ton. The city is so beautiful, my homestay family has been so kind, and I´ve learned so much.

The Abbey Road staff have been really good about letting us earn privileges like later curfews and more free time, so this feels like the culmination of a trip in more ways than one.

Today we took an excursion to a town in the hills called Ronda. It was incredibly picturesque! There were several gardens, a gazebo, views of the hills, paths, and waterfalls. Unfortunately I wasn´t able to upload pictures from my phone to share with you guys =(

Bye for now,

♥Meredith

literature

I like reading, and usually I read in English. But since I´ve gotten here I´ve actually started reading in Spanish!

My host brother loaned me The Conde Lucanor, which is a collection of several short stories. It was written some really really long time ago, as in the 1300s. I am, of course, reading an adapted version.

Sometimes in the afternoon we have an optional literature class, and someone named Gema teaches that. She loaned me Doña Rosita la Soltera by Lorca, so I´ve been plowing my way through that one.

Oh, and having a 17-year-old brother with a computer means I get to pick up some Spanish chatspeak! So far I´ve learned ´jajaja´ and ´xq,´ which means ´because´.

Yesterday my morning Spanish class visited the library! I went to the children´s section and managed to get through a 20-page children´s book in under an hour =) I´m a work in progress.

¡Hasta luego!

♥Meredith

bullfight

A few days ago we had the option of going to a bullfight, and some people from Abbey Road went to a bullfight last night as well.

Personally I chose not to go. I didn´t like the idea of the cruelty and violence towards the bulls, and I felt like I didn´t need to go to a bullfight to experience Spain. What I found a little surprising is that many people from this area are opposed to the bullfights as well. None of the members of my host family like the idea.

But some people definitely enjoy the extreme show of testosterone, the culture, and the excitement. My roommate, for example, went to both bullfights and enjoyed them.

I have a picture from a new Spanish teacher here named Loira.

In other exciting news, more opportunities for community service have started to come up =) Definitely more news on that front later.

¡Adiós!

♥Meredith

flamenco!!!

So three days ago we went to see some outdoor flamenco. But we were surprised--there was no dancing! A man sang in an operatic voice while another played the guitar in the balcony of El Teatro Falla.

But the day after, we went to a place called La Cava to see what, I suppose, we had been expecting. There was one guitarrst, one singer, and three dancers. It was amazing. For me, the most awesome part was the passion that all of them put into their art. I´ve been inspired to try to learn a little flamenco guitar when I get back to the states!

Flamenco pictures below =) By the way, all of the pictures on this blog have been taken by my awesome roomie, Nina.

Bye for now!

♥Meredith

siesta

At home in Sudbury, Massachusetts, we always talk about having nap time. And here in Cádiz it´s a reality! Between morning classes and afternoon classes/activities we have lunch at 2:00...then basically nap time until 4:00.

It´s fantastic, and it´s definitely one of my favorite parts of the day.

In other news, some of us went to a beach called Santa María last night with gloves and trash bags to do some cleaning. We learned that out of the things we (people of the world) buy, we will only still be using 1% of them a year after the purchase. Crazy stuff!

Tonight I´m going to an outdoor flamenco concert--pictures to come tomorrow =)

♥Meredith

pictures =)

Now that Nina and I have figured out how to upload photos onto the computer, I have a ton of stuff to share with you guys. I´m starting out with some pictures of the family.

On the top, from left to right: my host brother, Juan José, his friend, Jesús, me, and my roommate, Nina.

On the bottom, from left to right: Juan José, Jesús, and my host mother, Mari Carmen.

The weather here has been ridiculously gorgeous--it hasn´t rained once here and the rain isn´t expected for a while. This is great for us, but for the people of Cádiz it means a drought =( Maybe we´ll see some rain in the next week or so?

Adiós for now!

♥Meredith

monopoly

One goal of my Spanish class this past year was to become more confident conversationally, so sometimes we used to play Monopoly. There was a $5 fee for talking in English, but usually we slipped into English part way through the class anyway.

Right now I´m playing Monopoly with my host family, and it´s definitely helping my conversational skills! I´m about to lose, but it´s still a lot of fun =)

I also accomplished one of my personal goals today. Juanjo (my host brother) lent me his mathematics textbook from last year, so I had the opportunity to learn some math words in Spanish!

La recta = Line

Incógnito = Variable

Asintota = Asymptote

...are some examples, in case you were wondering.

Now it´s time for some more Monopoly =)

♥Meredith

milestone!

Today, for the first time, I said a full sentence in Spanish without having to think about it!

YAYYYYYY =)

And it´s only been a week so far--I´m really excited to see how much my speaking will improve over the next month. Talking to my host family and teachers in Spanish has helped me out a lot, though I´m still far from understanding everything that people say to me.

My roommate, Nina, is taking a photography class here, and I´m going to upload photos as soon as we figure out how the technology works.

♥Meredith

first post in Cádiz =)

I have been so busy and haven´t had any time to post here, ¡mil disculpas! But Cádiz is so amazing--definitely too awesome to fit into one post.

A lot of my experience so far has been shaped by my host family, so I´ll talk about them a little.

My señora is named María Carmen, and this is her first year with Abbey Road. When Nina (my roommate) and I met her, she seemed as excited as we were! Her husband´s name is Chano, which is a nickname (un apodo) for Sebastian. They have a son named Juan José. So far they have been extremely welcoming to us, and they have been feeding us very well =)

Pictures to come later! ¡Adiós!

♥Meredith

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow!!

I'm leaving for Spain. Tomorrow.

Oh my gosh.

This is AWESOME!

I finally charged up my camera today so I can be sure to take tons of pictures to post up here. And I packed some Pablo Neruda poems for reading and a bunch of verb conjugation charts for the flight! But even though I've spent several hours packing...I'm still pretty nervous.

Que será, será =)

1 day to Cádiz!

♥Meredith

end of school

Today was my last day as a sophomore. If anybody asks me what grade I'm in starting tomorrow, I won't be sure how to answer. My exams are done, I'm going to start getting much more sleep, and I really need to start packing! =)

7 days to Cádiz!

♥Meredith

research!

I thought that I should learn a little bit about where I'm going, so I looked some stuff up.

This is Spain:

(courtesy of worldtravels.com)

Cádiz is at the bottom--it's right near Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean side.

Cádiz was originally called Gadir, which means 'walled city,' 'walled stronghold,' 'compound,' and so on and so forth, depending on who's translating. It is the oldest functioning city in Western Europe as of today (founded perhaps as early as 1104 BC). People there are infamous for their accents (yes!), and the wind can get really strong.

...And that was all the knowledge that I had the will to pursue.

--------------------

My last day of sophomore year is tomorrow, and it really IS starting to feel like summer! I've received some information about my host family. My future roommate, Nina, sent me an email. I'm looking forward to meeting all of them in real life =)

8 days to Cádiz!

♥Meredith

lists

Things I want to learn

• What people listen to on the other side of the ocean
• How to say names of flowers in Spanish
• Vocabulary from a ton of Pablo Neruda's poems
• How to say random math terms in Spanish
• How to conjugate all the different command forms

Things I want to experience

• Going to a dance in Cádiz
• Meeting my host family and bonding with my roomie!
• The sun and the water
• Acquiring a local accent
• Making a ridiculous metadura de pata (faux pas) in an embarrassing situation
• Forgetting how to say some words in English

I am so excited.

9 days to Cádiz!

♥Meredith

hola =)

My name is Meredith Derecho, and I'm going to Cádiz this summer.

With a name like Derecho (it means right, straight ahead, and law), I should probably know more about Spain than I do now.

At the moment I know that Spain is a country somewhere in Europe near France and Portugal where many Spaniards speak Spanish. I know a little about Goya, Velázquez, and Dalí because of an art project I did in Spanish class this year. And since I'm interested in music, I'm slightly familiar with the toque, cante, and baile of flamenco.

Oh, and I've heard that the beaches--especially the ones in Cádiz--are beautiful.

I can't wait to go to Cádiz this summer, and I'm very excited to share the experience with all of you =)

10 days to Cádiz!

♥Meredith