AROUND CHRISTMAS

Hello to everybody!

How are you going? I am going very well, very excited for Christmas.

Singing carols

Did you know that I have already been to three Christmas parties? The 9th of December I went to one with my neighbor, Janet, at her Church. It was very nice, we played I game that was completely new for me: "White Elephant." We have to give the most awful presents that we have at home. The present that I got was pretty nice thought. We went caroling too. It is singing Christmas songs to people's houses. I do not sing well at all, but it was fun. Here I am leaving a picture of it.

The Exchange Students

The 14th of December I started the midterms. What are the midterms? The super scary exams that we have to take at the end of the first semester. You may not believe me, but they are difficult. I studied a lot!

The 15th, Saturday, I went to my second party! It was with all the other exchange students, at the house were Augusto (from Brazil) lives. It was so much fun, I laughed a lot with my friends. Now I can say that I have friends from Germany, Italy, Ecuador, Brazil, China, Tailand, Korea, Russia, Denmark, France, Colombia, Venezuela... and, of course, the United States! Wow! It sounds amazing, doesn't it? We are going to go ice-skating the 5th of January (probably) so I am going to see them again. They are all so nice! Here I am leaving you a picture of all of us. Enjoy it! (We are not even all of us, we are really a lot!)






What else, what else...? Well, I had such a stressful week last week! Seriously! I studied so much. However, I think I did well the midterms. I already have the marks of two of my subjects, Contemporary Literature and Honor Pre-Calculus (Math) and I had in both a 99%!

Serena, me, Bernadette, and Sarah!

On Wednesday we finished school and I was thinking: finally! I finally can sleep! Yesterday I slept twelve hours during the night, what do you think of that? Well, on Thursday do you know what I did? I went to my first sleepover! My first American sleepover! It was in Bernadette's house, one of my friends, and at first we had a party (my third) during the afternoon. It was great, I had a lot of fun with my friends. Thanks, Bernadette! Here I am leaving you a picture of my friends and me at... two in the morning! Don't we look great for that time?



The last thing... Today, Sunday, it is Saint Victoria's Day. Happy Saint, Victorias! Well, today we went to Karen and Craig's house (Karen is Don's sister) to have a Christmas dinner there before Christmas. It was very nice, I really liked them. I ate so many desserts! You know, American people make cookies and goodies for Christmas (like in the films!). I helped Lynne making them and then, of course, I helped eating them!

Prezettes at the Concert

I almost forget! Presentation Academy offered a Christmas Concert in the start of December, and I did not tell you about that. It was very awesome, moving and exciting in the same time. My sister, Meredith, has a wonderful voice. She is a Prezette, what means that she is one of the best singers at school. Here I am leaving a picture of the Prezettes at the Concert. I absolutely loved it!




Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and then it is Christmas Day. I hope that everybody has a great Christmas!

See you next Sunday!

Bye Bye!

THANKSGIVING AND THE TOWER

Hello to everybody!

Here I am again! I am sorry! Where you missing me? I had some very, very busy weeks!

Two Saturdays ago I went to watch Twilight with Riley and her mom and on Sunday I worked Open House. What is Open House? It is a day at school that we have to receive people from other schools and show them about Pres, give them a tour around the school and explain to them what we do. When the four hours of work was finished, I was feeling exhausted!

On Monday and Tuesday we had class (well, on Tuesday it was the grandparents day and we had a liturgy), but on Wednesday the Thanksgiving Break started! That day I did not do much, we had a little Thanksgiving dinner for Ellie, my oldest host-sister, because the true Thanksgiving Day, on Thursday, she had to work.

All of us at Rainforest Café

On Thursday we went to Karen's (Don's sister) house to have the Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was delicious! I ate a lot. It is exactly like in the films, with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. And... a lot of desserts! I love desserts! Lynne made them and they were awesome!

On Friday it was Black Friday, with great sales. The mall was crowded, I went there with Riley, then I went to Riley's house to help decorate their tree. It was very pretty!

And do you know what I did last weekend? I went to Nashville! Yes, Nashville, the capital of Tennessee! Can you believe that? It is awesome! I really loved it, it was fantastic! We went there on Saturday morning, to a hotel that was so big and with a lot of gardens. Then we went shopping to a huge mall, and then we went to see the Rockettes! Yes, cabaret! Before that, we had dinner in the jungle! The Rainforest Café! Seriously, sometimes it was so real that it was scary (you have to ask Mere, I was sitting next to her and a couple of times I was jumping because of the noises the tigers made). However, I loved it so much, it was very nice. Here I am leaving a photo of it. You will like it!

My friends, Santa and I at Light Up the Tower

Finally, last weekend I did not do much, it had been such a busy week! On Sunday I went to Light Up the Tower, a kind of party that takes place at Pres (and they light up Pres’ Tower). I had fun, I was there with my friends. Then I went with my friend Morgen to the cinema to see a film for an assignment in History, Lincoln.

Now I want to share this thought with everybody: in Spain we do not have Thanksgiving, which is a pure American holiday. But… do you know what? I really found a lot of things to be thankful for:

Thank you to my host family for being here with me, sharing all those wonderful moments.

Thank you to my parents, that allowed me to live this dream and are with me even when they are four thousand miles away.

Thank you to my siblings, Victoria, Alberto, and Meredith, because they are fantastic and I would not know what to do without them.

Thank you to Pres, because it is a great school with all my friends and teachers there.

Thank you to all my family and all my friends back in Spain, because they support me with their love even if they do not realize they are doing so.

And finally thank you to the Foundations Barrié and Amancio Ortega, because they gave me the opportunity to live this amazing American year.

Thank you to all of you for making me like I am now. I wish to everybody a wonderful year full of happiness, love, and peace.

See you next Sunday!

Bye Bye!

BYE BYE BIRDIE AND SPANISH RESTAURANT

Hello to everybody!


Friday night I went to see "Bye Bye Birdie" in the theater of Pres. It was so nice! It is a musical, and all the girls and boys had very powerful voices. I really enjoyed it.



On Saturday I went to a service opportunity. I had to help the kids making Gingerbread houses. It was very very cool! I met some friends there, they were from other schools but I hope I can see them again!

For dinner on Saturday we went to a Spanish restaurant, De la Torre. I absolutely loved it! I was missing a lot of things, like Spanish ham (jamón serrano) or Spanish Cheese. I am very glad I finally ate them! Lynne, Don, and Mere liked the things, they said it was nice trying new food from other countries. Here it is one photo of the four of us at the table. Aren't we cool together?

See you next Sunday! Bye Bye!

HALLOWEEN

Hello to everybody!

Halloween! Halloween! The day between the dead and the living people!

Our pumpkins!

The day before Halloween I carved a pumpkin, and it was very very nice. I mean, it is a very complicated design! Lynne carved other pumpkin. Here I am posting a photo of both of them, mine is the one with the witch and the other is the one that Lynne carved. Mere was going to carve it, but she had a lot of exams at school. Seriously, a lot of times I feel sorry for her! So much homework!

At school dressed up

The day of Halloween was fantastic! I ate food Halloween-related and I gave candy to the children! And... we went to school dressed up! I was a Pink Lady, of Grease. That is ironic, because I have never seen the film. Mere was Hermione, of Harry Potter. Oh, I was so happy when she told me that! I love Harry Potter universe!

Mere and me. Aren't we cute?

Yesterday I went to a Halloween party at a friend of Alex (Mere's boyfriend) house. He was very nice inviting me too, and I had a lot of fun. In fact, I do not have any photo, because I did not have time to take them! We played Twister, ate pizza, were around the fire, play cards... I will never finish. It was awesome!

Today I did not do anything outside, I had a lot of things to do at home. I was talking to Mere for a long time while she was doing her art homework. I love talking to her, she is so nice and friendly and intelligent and awesome and fantastic and pretty and wonderful and lovely and adorable and tolerant and peaceful and... Again, she has so many qualities that I cannot describe her with words. I do not know if she would be pleased if she knows that I have talked about her like this in my blog, but I want that everybody knows how much I love Mere. You have to meet her!

It is late and tomorrow is Monday. So, I have to say,

Bye Bye! See you next Sunday!

POWDER PUFF

Hello to everybody!

I have to say sorry that I did not update yesterday, I arrived home late and I did not have time.

I went to the Powder Puff, the feminine football girl. Pres played it against Holy Cross, another school. We lost 16-14, but we played very very good. Well, I did not play, but... I was giving candy to the children! All the children were dressed up and said Trick or Treat to us. They were so cute!

Here I am leaving photo of the Powder Puff. Some of my friends were playing there, and my History teacher was encouraging them. She has a very big voice!



I had a lot of fun, but it was freezing! And Lynne told me that in winter we are going to be at -9 degrees Celsius (16 Fahrenheit). I am going to die of the cold!

Here is Meredith dressed up to go to a Halloween party. Isn't she pretty?



I will see you next Sunday!

Bye Bye!

WEDDING

Hello to everybody!

The wedding cake

Do you know what? Yesterday I went to a wedding! My first American wedding! I have asked Mere, and she told me that it was an average wedding, typical here. For me, it was really original!

It was a Methodist ceremony, and the bride was very pretty. I love weddings, I always cry. The groom was Don's nephew, and I met a lot of people of Don's family. Everybody was very nice to me. At first I thought that I was going to be a bit embarrassed because I did not know anybody, but I had fun.

Then we went to the reception in a museum. It was original! It had low lights, and after the dinner was over, everybody started to dance modern music. Of course, the first dance was a formal one between the bride and the groom. They made such a nice couple!

We ate salad as the first dish, and then very nice chicken and beef. And... macaroni and cheese! Cody, the bride, loves macaroni and cheese (and I really like that too). The cake was awesome! It had a lot of different cupcakes of several flavors.

Weddings here are less formal than in Spain (I think, I have not been to a lot of weddings). However, they are very nice. People here get married with twenty-six years old, more or less. In Spain, people get married in their thirties, so it is different.

Anyway, do you know what? I had lots of fun and I learned how American weddings are. But, either American or Spanish weddings, I always cry! Weddings are so moving!

I will see you next Sunday!

Bye Bye!

DRACULA & END OF THE QUARTER

Hello to everybody!


Last Sunday I went to see Dracula with Mere (my sister) and Alex (her boyfriend). It was so nice! I was not very scared (probably Alex would say that I was, but... I was not!), but yes a bit. It was so real! In some times of the show, I was at one meter (3 feet) of the actors! I love the theater!

Do you know the best part? We took a photo with the actors in the end of the show. Here I am posting it. It is great!


Guess what? The bad thing is the first quarter finishes tomorrow. Yesterday and today I had a lot of exams and projects. So I had to study! (Yes, I am a student, in theory it is my job and all of that, but... I still do not like it). Anyway, I think everything was OK.

I will know my marks for this quarter (each year has four quarters) next Wednesday. I am nervous! They will show how I am doing things as an exchange student in her American life. Oh, I love America! I encourage everybody to come to the United States at least once in their life, they are not going to regret.

This advice is to people that are thinking of coming or not with the Barrié and Amancio Ortega Foundations: Come on! It will be a wonderful, very impressive year with a lot of new things. You are not going to regret it!

I hope to see all of you, my readers, in the comments.

Bye Bye!

WALK-A-THON

Hello everybody!

Me and my friend Emily

Some days ago we had the Walk-a-thon at school. What is this? It is a 3-mile walk that we do during school time. Why we do that? Because it is a prize. We helped to earn money for school so it can give other students scholarships and we had a lot of prizes: a T-shirt from the Walk-a-thon, a week without uniform, walking three miles singing and shouting with our friends... It was fantastic!

You could hear the energy of the people, the love that all of us feel for Pres. Here is one of the songs:

Mere and me after the walk-a-thon

We are the toppers!
We are proud!
We are not quiet
but we are loud!
We come from Pres!
We are the best
because we are better
than all the rest!
We are the toppers!

Sarah, me and Bernadette (The Bees of Pres)

What do you think of it? It is fantastic, isn't it? It made me feel part of Pres, belonging to this group. During the Walk-a-thon, we were not thinking about problems, about homework or about any thing of this kind, just about the love that all of us feel for our school. Dear readers, it is a great experience! I hope that I can participate in other events of this kind soon!


See you in the comments!

Bye Bye!

OPERA

Hello to everybody!

In the Castel Sant' Angelo (the end)

A couple of days ago I went to the opera with my friends of the Language Club. It was fantastic! I have been in more operas before, but I always like them. Here we saw the play Tosca, in Italian (with subtitles in English), and it was great! I finished crying (I always finish crying in operas) because everybody died, but I like sad endings, they are very moving.

Rebecca, me, and Hannah

Everybody was very beautiful with the dresses and high heels. Only three of us went: Rebecca (the President of the Language Club), Hannah and me. Here I am posting one photo of us with our long, pretty dresses. Mrs. Bletso came too, she is the Spanish teacher and the moderator of the Language Club.

Mrs. Bletso and me

Hannah and me

It was a Wednesday, so we could not go out to any place after the opera finished. Anyway, I had a lot of fun. The next day I had a History test, so I had to study that night.

Part of our group!

And now an advice for future exchange students: Try to be involved in as many activities as you can! It is not difficult and you can have a lot of fun! You can go to museums, to fairs, to operas... And some of them have just one or two meetings a month! For example, tomorrow I have a meeting with my Language Club, and it is the first meeting of September! Really, you can have a lot of friends, and be very accepted at your schools.


I hope to see you in the comments!

Bye Bye!

MEETING THE OTHER EXCHANGE STUDENTS

Hello to everybody!

Ke and me

Some days ago I had a dinner with some of the exchange students of CIEE that are living in Louisville or near. I had a lot of fun, and it was really nice talking to other people that are in the same situation that I am. You know, talking about home, about our own countries, about our feelings, about why we are here... In general, all of them were very glad, as I am, for being in the United States. Most of us have been here a month and it continues to seem like a dream.

Most of us in the volleyball field

We had dinner and played volleyball. Volleyball is a very big sport here! Here I am posting a picture in the volleyball field, with some of the exchange students and the host brothers and sisters that had been there. I really liked them! Meredith, my host sister, could not go because she had a lot to study, but she told me that she would love to go to the next, don't worry!

Ke, me, Sofia, Daniela, Zelia and Kathrin

I am waiting for the next meeting of exchange students! We gave each other all our phone numbers and our facebook information, so it will not be difficult to meet. I am very excited to see them again, they are like me. You see their faces and see very brave, adventurous people that do not have doubts in coming to the United States for a full year.


My dear readers, I hope to see you in the comments!

Bye Bye

NHS

Hello to everybody!

I am in the National Honor Society! The National Honor Society is an organization that recognizes students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of service to the community, leadership, scholarship and character. It is very important here, and I am really happy to be there. If anybody had said me two weeks ago that I was going to be accepted, I would have said that I cannot make false illusions. Now, it is like a dream.

Being part of the NHS is fantastic; you can have very good friends with similar interests as yours and talk to people concerned with the same things as you. It is compulsory going to all the meetings and doing at least ten hours of service per semester.

Lexie and me

I am sure that being part of the NHS will be an amazing experience, and that I will learn a lot about the way of being a leader in the United States, knowing how to act in the face of bad situations without losing calm.


Here I am posting a photo of Lexie and me with a poster of the NHS. Lexie is the President of the NHS at Pres, she is very nice.




If you want, you can find more information about the NHS in this page: http://www.nhs.us/

I hope to see you in the comments!

Bye Bye

MY FIRST FOOTBALL GAME

Hello to everybody!

During the match

Last Friday I went to my first football match. But not football the one I am used to in Spain, American football! I was so excited! I saw something that I had only seen in the films before! I was laughing for all, really crazy.

Me and Mere

What did I feel? I felt nervous, like there was something in my stomach when I first arrived to the football field. It was like in the films, I can say that without being wrong. I went there with Meredith and Alex, her boyfriend. It was awesome! (Every teenager here uses this word a lot!) I met a lot of people there, friends of Alex and Mere.



And I started to speak Spanish! To who? You will ask. To Chris, he is an American boy but his parents are from Mexico. Really, I was speaking in Spanish and not with the Skype, to my family! I felt like... I do not know how to describe it, perhaps a bit of enthusiasm for being mean and can talk in front of other people without they know what we were saying. But we did not say anything bad! They were all good things!

Me with the Cougar

Alex goes to a school called DeSales, and their team is the Colts, and we won! The other team name was Cougars, like the animal. The match was long, perhaps two hours and a half, and I was not understanding nearly anything (for the next time I have to print the rules from Wikipedia and go with them to the game) but I had lots of fun, I felt as if I were finally American, I was really happy.

I am just updating the blog with this post because I think it is quite important that I should post this and then, in a couple of days, all the things that I did this week. It was a really busy week!

My dear readers, I will see you in the comments!

Bye Bye!

2 BLOGS? NO, ONLY 1!

Hello!

Two posts in the same day? No, I am sorry. This post is to explain something:

I have two blogs, one in English and the other in Spanish. It is really a lot of job to update both blogs, so I am going to continue just with the one in English. In one side of the blog there is gadget that can translate the blog to every languages.

Here I leave the link to my Spanish blog, but I am going to stop updating it now:  http://desdeky.blogspot.com

In this blog I have more or less the same posts that I have here before this post.

So, hereafter, I am going to post only here.

Bye Bye!

AFTER TWO WEEKS

Hello to everybody!


After a while, I am here updating again. I have had two really busy weeks, with a lot of beautiful moments.

Before dinner last Saturday

Last weekend, Paul, Ellie and Lance came to have dinner at home. Who are they? Ellie and Paul are my host siblings, and Lance is Ellie's boyfriend. Here I put a nice photo before dinner.

Morgen and me

Last Monday I went with Morgen, one of my friends at Pres, to downtown Louisville. It was the first time that I have been there! It is impressive, with all the high buildings and the street full of restaurants and cafes.

My "liquid photo"

For Wednesday I had to take a photo of a liquid for my Photography class. Do you like the one I took?

Rebecca and me next to the River

Yesterday, Friday, I went to the World Fest in Louisville with my friends from the Language Club. There were 22 countries represented there, it was nice! It was very very hot, but I have seen the typical Mexican clothes, Indian food and a lot of more things! Do you know what I tried? The Funnel Cake! It is really American, and it is only sold during Fairs! Then, I went to the Ohio River with my friends, and we took a lot of photos.

All the Language Club girls

The Funnel Cake

A Spanish Pres Girl

Here I am posting one of my photos with the Pres uniform, it is nice! Now I can see that I feel like a Pres Girl, and it is a great sensation. Yesterday we had the Pep Rally, where we watched a movie starring some Pres Girls, and a nice spectacle of bees! Why bees? Because of the most important motto of Presentation Academy: BElong, BElieve, BEcome. And they gave us a T-shirt of Pres!





So, my dear readers, I will post another post when I have more interesting things to tell you. Next Monday we do not have school, because it is Labor Day, so I will have a weekend of three days! Wonderful!


I hope to see you in the comments!

Bye Bye!

IN SHEPHERDSVILLE

Hello again!

My host family gave me this cake! It was so nice!

I am in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. It is a town next to Louisville. My school is in Louisville, but my family lives in Shepherdsville. I told you I was going to talk about my five first days here, and here I am!

Presentation Academy (Pres for short)

I arrived on Thursday morning, a bit tired. That night I ate a true American meal! You know, mashed potatoes, hamburgers... And on Friday it was my first day of school! Pres (Presentation Academy) is really big! It seems to be smaller! At first I was a bit overwhelmed, but then I just got more confidence in myself and I met a lot of people! I went to all my classes, we only have seven subjects, the
same everyday.

Meredith and me

And on Saturday, I went shopping with Lynne during all the afternoon! Lynne is my host mother, she is really nice. Between shop and shop, we went with Meredith and Don to a restaurant called Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Don is my host father and Meredith is my host sister. I love her! She is really friendly and good! The restaurant was just original! It did not seem like anything I have seen before!

Meredith, me, Don and Lynne at Lynn's Paradise Cafe

Meredith and me with the same T-shirt!

After that, we watched a film called The Way, it is about the Camino, the Way of Santiago. It is a way that arrives to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia (my region). The Cathedral was built at first as a little church in 829 C.E., because it is said that under it is the tomb of the Apostle Saint James (Santiago in Spanish).


On Sunday I just did my homework! They were so hard to do! Not really difficult, but very long for me. I think it will be better with the time.

Meredith, Alex and me

The biggest pumpkin I have ever seen! 

And today it was my second day of school! I really enjoyed it! And in the afternoon, I went to the Kentucky State Fair with Meredith and her boyfriend, Alex. He is so friendly, like an English gentleman. The Fair was very nice, I learnt about Kentucky way of life and I went to the funfair!

Vegetables in the Fair

In summary, I had five really nice first days, and I am sure the rest of the year will be as nice as these five days. 

Bye Bye!

ABOUT NEW YORK

Hello to everybody!


I am in Kentucky!

New York seen from the Empire State

I went to New York for two days and it was wonderful. We went to the top of the Empire State, and NY seems to be a city that never finishes! Wherever you go, you will see buildings and houses and a lot of things! I post a photo. It was foggy so the photo is not really clear, but I loved the views.

The Statue of Liberty

And I have gone in a boat over the Hudson River. We saw the Statue of Liberty, and it is huge! I really thought that it was going to be smaller, but I loved it!

Times Square

After that we went to Times Square. It is impressive, with so many lights and advertisements! It was really amazing!






Right now I am in Shepherdsville, near Louisville, with my American family. I will make a new post after talking about my two first days here. I have to leave you because I am going shopping! We are going to get my school supplies!

Bye Bye!

Hello!

Hello to everybody!



I am Laura, and this blog will be the diary of my experiences in the United States. This wonderful opportunity is thank the Barrié de la Maza Fondation and the Amancio Ortega Fondation.

Presentation Academy

In one day I will be in New York! Then, in three days, I will go to Louisville, in Kentucky, my final destination. I have a fantastic host family, and my school is great! It is called Presentation Academy, and it is only for girls!

I know it will be a brilliant year, and I hope to see you in the reviews. Bye Bye!