My Second Week > Thinks are so boring

So I'm back on Tenerife and there is nothing to do. ...At home I would rent a movie.
Problem----- movies are in Spanish here.

Most of the kids here go out clubbin in the evenings.
IT'S A BIG THING.   If your not out, your in a Convent.
My Host Father is absoloutly unreasonable. He called my dad and neither will let me out until I can speak enough Spanish to make a call or give directions too get home.
All I was asking was that I could hang with my new friends.
Is it unreasonable to go Clubbin between 2 and 5 am.
It's not like some of my most memorable evenings havn't followed a couple of 'roofies'.
I don't understand why my dads' want to sleep. I can sleep during the day. It's not like I can stay awake in class anyway.

Well I'm Jailed until Christmas for sure.



I took some photographs of various things as I had nothing else to do.




Sweet, this Orange tree is growing
right outside my bedroom window






So this is what it looks like around a volcano. I didn't see any baking soda.
Mom, it last exploded 40 years ago and is not supposed to explode for another 5 years



So here I am eating Cream cheese and talking to angles
just like the Philly cream cheese commercial

I'm in love.... a 24hr. Buck Store

I didn't tell my Dad, but there's a hugh mall 5 minutes
by bike from my Host Families home.

Anyway there is nothing to do here.

So this is Tenerife. See it has just one volcano mom 



So here I am standing in front of a Volcano.
Mom, we arrived at lunch time and they had turned it off



So I have my frst test this week. Multiple choice...I tried an experiment. On page One, I translated the questions and attempted an answer. On page Two, I made volcano shapes. Will let you know if I pass or get sent to the Principals office next week.



School in Tenerife ~ I luv LATIN

So, I'm back High School. This time everything is in Spanish.   I don't read Spanish. And, I don't write Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. I don't understand Spanish. Oh! sure I can order at Taco Bell but this is way different. This is Spain, not Mexico. In Spain you eat Paella.
In addition, because I was late enrolling and because I couldn't follow the conversation between my Host Father and the School Principle, my course selection consists of all the classes taught by all the teachers that had space left. Hence the reason there is space for me. And, I mean a LOT OF SPACE. (I think it was my host father's way of ensuring I had something to occupy the time after school.) I was hoping for fine art, pottery and maybe film studies. I understood Spong Bob was very popular. And two or three spares wouldn't have hurt so I could sleep in a bit and not have to think too hard.

So here is what I am taking:

• LATIN,
• PHILOSOPHY,
• GEOGRAPHY,
• Math x 3, I think they are Algebra, Functions and Trigonometry
• BIOLOGY,
• SPANISH,

  

  The Smaller Library

• ENGLISH, 
• SPANISH HISTORY, 
• ANTHROPOLOGY
• SOCIOLOGY
• PHYSICS
• NANO-SCIENCE
• MOLECULAR CHEMISTRY; and
• I can't remember the rest or like the math couldn't translate the name.

So I sit in class and smile. I write down what the teacher puts on the board. So far I have been able to translate what the homework assignments are.
The exception of course is English, I'm on top of the World in this class or I was until Friday when I translated the homework assignment and learned that we start reading Shakespear's Macbeth next week.

My Mini Holliday

So I arrive and My Host Family says were going on Holiday.  .Thought Tenerife was the Holiday.. ..........Location, Location, Location....

• Volcanic Island in a clear blue tropical ocean.
• Lots of fruit juices to put ice and little umbrellas in.
• Sun all the time.

O. K. so whats do they mean holiday???????

Well I said Tenerife has a VOLCANO...We on the Canary Islands every were you look there is a volcano.

Let me explain about volcanos..

They are cracks in the earths's crust were really hot liquid rock and other unpleasant stuff like sulfur gas and dirt escapes.

Volcanic Island
She's ready to blow

Unlike grade school. The baking soda and vinigar used in these puppies is like a billion degrees and there is no way Mom could fit one in he back of the van to take to school.

Anyway there is only one volcano on Tenerife. It' sjust hugh.

Well each of the other Canaries have at least one volcano also. Don't know why they aren't called the Volcano Islands.

I thought Canaries. Well there would be those little yellow birds that sing real sweet until a miner takes it down into a mine. I haven't seen a single canary. In fact, I have a whole sack of bird seed that I don't know what to do with.



Well the purpose of the holiday was for my host family to compete in an open water swim. Did I say my Host Parents are serious swimmers. They compete in open ocean swimming. Forget Jelly fish and those small spinny sea erchins that I stepped on. These people swim like 2 to 3 kilometers out into the Atlantic for fun. They swim fast too. I'm thinking they are thinking sharks. 

But then sharks are not very much differant than the fish we catch in Canada. So I desided to post a little video that my father took while he was raising money to help Rotary help children by participating in the Rotary Club of Brantford Graet Northern Ride. http://www.greatnorthernride.com/.  Look it up. They always are collecting money. Frankly I'll take my chances with sea creatures. Doing anything other than modeling ski apearal is simply uncivilized and cold.

Needless to say they (my Host family) made record time. My host sister and I tried to appear really supportive. We did get good tans. Well sort of.

  I got really really REALLY SUN BURNED. My skin feels like molten rock and is peeling off like the skin off one of those snakes in the plane that I came over on.

Did I tell you I didn't sleep on the flight over.

My host family has suggested that I train with them. For a while I was training with my Host Sister, dana. Now I'm training with Dana's grandmother.



Rotary District Youth Meeting

So a meeting of all exchange students to outline the Rules. It was held in Madrid. Did I tell you I'm a raelly big scccer fan. Thats Football in Spanish. I mean REALLY BIG SOCCER FAN. AND REAL MADRID was playing .. 

Well last year the INBOUND got lost and lost their passports. Probably Club'n. So we were sequestered 45' minutes drive from civilization in some private University without so much as a dico ball, to learn about the 4 D's. There was no way for me to get on the wrong subway and get lost for two 45 minute halfs and a bit of extra time.

So what are the 4 'D's

• No Driving           
• No Dating
• No Drugs
• No Drinking

My Dad was really happy after learning of these rules that I was selected to do the Rotary Exchange.

The meeting was crazy. Lots of new faces and everyone feeling completely out of their element. Kids from everywere, but mostly Americans. And were all struggling to learn to communicate in Spanish.
So I traded pins and facebook addresses and invited everyone to visit me in Tenerife. I'll let my Host father have the good news when we meet on Sunday.

Arriving in Madrid and staying with Altragracia & Rafael

Rafael
You get to write this one. e-mail or send me a facebook message and I'll inset it. Send some photos to

We went CLUB'N

Saying Goodbye

I live about an hour from the airport. Wow what an uncomfortable drive. Both my mom and dad making small talk, and pretending like they were about to cry uncontrollably now that the time had finally arrived for me to leave.



My Grandmother



To my greater embarrassment my Grandmother, Aunt and Uncle also came to the airport. So I get to the check-in. I had packed and re-packed so that my baggage was not overweight. I managed to get within the ridiculous weight restrictions the airlines now permit. Guess someone at home was not being honest with themselves. Unlike my bathroom scale. The airport said my bags were 20lbs over weight.

Oh!! the embarrassment having to re-pack my suitcases - transfer my underwear and bikini bottoms from my suitcase to my carry-on on the floor of the departure lounge of an international airport.

So I get to the security gates. You would think I was a recent immigrant or movie star with the entourage seeing me off. And I thought baggage was an ordeal. 

So they put my carry-on through the x-ray machine. My advise is to go to the airport early. A day early would be my advise. That way you know that all the people that were waiting behind me in the line and watched me strip down to my bear feet and then were entertained by the scanning and re-scanning of my carry-on have departed on other planes. And, not sitting in the same aisle on a transatlantic flight.

So I'm beyond the check point. My family thinks I'm beyond view. Are they crying uncontrollably? Are they staring forlornly at the gate? No They are dancing and playing bumper cars with the baggage carts as they proceed First Class Lounge for cocktails. My Aunts' an executive with one of those cards. Think I got any perks!!

My flights delayed so I text my mom. She doesn't answer. After about 2 hours I hear back.  I explained that the departure is delayed. She said something about a bad connection and we were disconnected. I think she was watching House.

Anyway the we finally boarded the plane. Because of the delay they had to change flight crew. Our meal was cold and the in Flight movie was again 'Snakes on a Plane'. Great they showed it the last time I flew.

What do you pack for a year in the Canary Islands

I don't understand how the airline think any respectable young lady could pack more than a few days worth of product and apparel in the allotted 1 32kg. suitcase they permit.

So here's a list of what I think I will need:

• many Bikinis (I just brought the bottoms only to save weight about 28 of them)
• 1 bag Bird Seed to feed the Canaries
• Sun Tan Lotion/ Block (I forgot to pack any and now glow @ night)
• After Sun (I also forgot it. If you remember the block you don't need this stuff)
• I pair tight, tight jeans (wash them in really hot water and machine dry just before you leave.)
• Some loose fitting shirts. They don't scrap as much when your blistering.
• A sun hat (I recomend one of those snoop~dog or french foriegn legion style hats. Or better - a light weight sleeping bag with holes for your hands and feet)
• many pair of clean underwear and put them in an bag that cannot be seen thru
• cool shoes (it's a myth that you may have to actually walk anywere.
• forget socks if your shoes stink no one will steal them
• make-up
• lots of foundation and bronzing cream (to blend your burnt, peeling and peeled skin)
• whatever space is left fill with product and really tight, tight jeans