Junior's B-Day Pics

Junior's birthday cake. :-)

Britta, the other exchange student in our home, and myself. She is an absolute sweetheart -and its nice to have someone to make a quick English quip to over dinner every once in a while. Mostly we speak french to one another, but she's from Minnesota.

In the center looking towards the camera is my host sister Melanie who is so friendly and makes me feel welcome. I suspect she'll be the one to help me the most with my Wolof.

"Happy Birthday" was sung 3 times: first in French, then in English, and finally in Wolof. It was lovely! On the far left is my host brother Lou-Lou, although I'll have to get a better picture of him later.

Everything! (And Maids)

ONE HECK OF A WEEK: Lets hear about tea, turtles, and parties!

I sit scrubbing two rainbow colored socks between by hands over a bucket of soapy water and think back over the week; it has certainly been eventful...

On Monday I split a cab with Andy and Lauren to go visit an English learning center downtown where we spoke with various classes about anything and everything and helped them with their English.

Tuesday we celebrated Junior’s birthday, even though the little two-year-old was asleep for the last half of his own get-together. This event, I was assured later, was in no way an actual party, seeing as how that would have involved music and dozens of guests, rather than the ten or so friends who spontaneously stopped by.

Wednesday brought mine and Andy’s roadside tea date with local vendor and informal Wolof professor Sadio. It is an art to correctly steep, sugarize, and mix the ataya tea that people love ever-so-much here, but Andy and I are learning. However, next time I’m going to sanitize the cups myself because the residual stomach ache from our last rendezvous is not to be repeated.

Thursday was an epic day because I managed to flood both mine and my cousin Assane’s rooms. Let me just say that if I’d known that I’d be spending two hours sopping up water and wringing it out of a towel into a bucket that night, I wouldn’t have gone to the gym in the morning! Whewee! A full body workout for sure! Note to self: never turn the tap on in the bathroom and then leave to unlock your door with the intention of returning and turning it off when the bucket is full. Bad, bad, bad idea. Once again, maids to the rescue! After nearly two hours of work and seven buckets of water, our maid Mare took pity on me and helped me finish the second room. I swear, she did what had taken me two hours in twenty minutes. This is something to be admired: the work ethic of the gods.

But onwards to Friday –and let us not dwell on the soreness that persisted throughout thanks to the hardcore workout class combined with the even more hardcore towel-wringing from the night before- when we ventured to the fabric market HLM to purchase some gorgeous materials to have a tailor form into outfits for the end of Ramadan festivities coming up this weekend.

Saturday was the day we made our way out into the boondocks to check out the turtle refuge and that night was the Catholic Choir Soiree where only we Americans showed up at the appointed starting hour -9:00pm. Everyone else filtered in over the following two hours and the music didn’t even start until 11pm. Apparently we forwent the whole party because we left at 1am when the music ended and the dancing was only just getting started. My host mom didn’t get home until, get this, 8:30am!!! ---This is not at all unusual. ---I think the next time I plan to go out to a party or dance venue, I’ll have to prepare myself for a few days by sleeping in. Otherwise, I’ll be asleep before anyone even arrives!

You can imagine that, after this zany week packed with adventures, my Sunday would be a day of repose, and you’d be right; I did virtually nothing on Sunday and stayed at home in bliss.

Fun plans for the rest of this week: check out a documentary at the cultural center, have a climbing play date at a park jungle gym with my fellow climber-in-withdrawal Megan, go surfing, and enjoy the end-of-Ramadan festivities. :-) You just can’t complain when life is good!

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GRATITUDE

Sweat intermingles with rain as I make my way back home from the gym, thinking how ironic it is that I just finished taking a shower and am already drenched once more. Entering my home, our maid Mare is in the courtyard putting out buckets to catch the rainwater that pours down from the terrace rainspouts. These hefty washtubs are full within a minute, spattering water across the tan cement and down a drain; we now have all we need for doing laundry over the next few days. Laundry is a full day’s worth of scrubbing and a second day of drying and ironing, which turns into a third day of drying if it rains. Never am I more grateful for our maids than when they return that pristine stack of clothing to my door and I think of how long I toiled just to wash out some measly socks and bras. They are, indeed, amazing.

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Hugs and love to everyone -especially Oma, Mom, and Uncle Mike. Thank you so much for sharing my blog with GG Jerry before he passed away. That means a lot to me.

Love,

Jocelyn

Birthday presents and a new spanish princess, among other things!

What a beautiful birthday celebration. Some of the most important people in my life in Spain surrounded me today, and over chocolate cake and champagne they all became acquainted. Ignacio, Amelia, Juan Agustine, Rosa, Madelin, Piri, Amachu, and Janire. These are the people who have given me the most during my stay here –a place to climb, friendly advice, support and rejuvenation, an open ear, a roof over my head, and food! And today! Oh, today Ignacio and his parents gave me the most amazing material present! They gave me a climbing backpack!!! It includes the rope bag and everything and, let me tell you, I hugged them all ecstatically before storing it in my room, where I silently leapt and whooped for joy! Madelin gave me a Frisbee from her home state, Wisconsin, among other things. All the gifts I received from everyone were so thoughtful and meaningful. What luck I have to be surrounded by loving and giving people wherever I go. Even when find myself in an emotional state where I tear up most anytime anyone mentions the word “home” or “boyfriend,” there are people who give me something to smile at.
I would like to mention the freedom that words give; I share more through this blog than I usually do with my friends back home. Feel privileged as the audience of my usually cloaked mind.
So where shall I begin today?! Should I start with the adventures of the climbing gym? Or should hop on along to talk about how I feel like I have a good set of hang-out friends at school? Or maybe I should mention that I GOT A PASSING GRADE ON MY ART HISTORY TEST!!! (a 6 out of 10!) Yes, this grade is based on the same standards as my peers, and yes, this means that I have the ability to pass a class in Spanish and upon entering it half way through! *suavely brushes invisible dust off of chest* Thank you, thank you very much! But how about those friends? Well, I went browsing through hippy shops with one girl-friend on Friday and plan on going to the beach with her and another this next Wednesday (and we’ll be bringing a volleyball!). Granted, life isn’t all peaches and cream, but who needs too much cream when you’ve got fun people to hang out with!
And then there’s the climbing gym. Well, we could call Tuesday “The Americas Night” at the gym, cause Chili, Brazil, and the US were all in attendance! I, of course, was the outstanding representative from the US, with two other young men climbing from their respective countries. (Ironically, the man from Chili goes by the name of Argentina!) It was the best gym night in a while since I finally had people who climbed closer to my level and we were able to work stuff together.
Earlier that same day, I took an hour out of one of my art classes to go and talk with an eighth grade English class. In case you’re wondering, the girls think Brad Pitt is hot, and at least one of the guys has an affinity for Julia Roberts! We talk about the important things, of course! Nah, they prepared questions for me about my life (like what sports do I like, do I have siblings, where do I live, what is my favorite Spanish food, etc.) I shared photos, asked them about their general interests, and did all…of…this…speaking…veeery…slowwly. Have you ever tried to cut down your rate of speech to half speed? It is very taxing! But besides the jaw workout, the entire experience was very fun. And you wanna know what? I never would have known they were 8th graders by their behavior! I love how there are interesting people in every age category. I grieve for the person who is “above” talking to kids or younger teens, or the teen who looks at an 80-year-old man and only sees “some old person” instead of a wealth of knowledge and experience that can be tapped into with only a few kind words and open ears.
Well, a few Spanish nuances/facts for you to relish:
1. The Spanish greeting is a kiss on each cheek, starting with right cheeks together. (This takes the place of hand shakes. I really like this different way of greeting people because it immediately breaks the personal bubble and contributes to a more physically intimate society.)
2. Hardly anyone has a dryer. They go for the good-old-fashioned clothes lines. Unfortunately, this seems to call for a lot of ironing afterwards to counter the lovely creases that form.)
3. Due to Muslim architectural influences, most every house and apartment has an indoor “patio.” (Although, ours looks more like one more room rather than a patio. Originally, it was organized so that many families could live together with a common garden/washing area open to the air in the middle of everything.)
4. The Mediterranean diet it dying and being replaced by the convenient, fast diet that is quickly overtaking the modern world. I blame us. *shakes fist at that dead guy who invented the fast-food restaurant*
5. Princess Sophia was just born today and all the Spanish news stations are broadcasting the king´s comments while all of the comedy shows revolving their shows around baby jokes, etc.
6. Now is the time of the elections, but I´m not paying attention because there are too many political parties to keep track of, and it´s all a show anyways. Many of the soccer stars seem to have more influence than these politicians!

Lots of love!

Hugs,

Jocelyn




(Note: I wrote this on Sunday but our internet was down so I couldn´t post it until today. Just so you know!)

MY 18TH BIRTHDAY!!!

You know it’s gonna be a good day when you wake up and the first song that gets stuck in your head is “Oh, what a beautiful morning!...” And it all flows from there. Today I am eighteen, and it kinda makes me laugh and cry at the same time –because I’ve pondered over who I might be at eighteen plenty of times and, the funny thing is, I’m still pondering the same thought! The tears come in somewhere between the realization of my own individualism and the knowledge that I am really so dependent on others, and not only my loving parents who are paying my way through college, but also the love of others.
Which brings me to the most important topic of conversation: Have I told you how incredible all of you are?!?!?!?! When that package of letters came on Tuesday with the bright stickers embellishing it I was so exuberant and content that I cannot even express in words the state of my happiness! I, with the help of my (almost) equally excited eight-year-old host sister, opened it up right away and got to the fourth wonderful card before my brain caught up with my hands and I realized that it wasn’t yet my Birthday!!! So I stored the rest without looking at them and, every day, stuck my hand inside the mystery envelope to whip out the next surprise of the week. Let me tell you, every card was a glowing moment in my day. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It was the best gift I could possible have received: the love of friends. I might add that they now adorn my wardrobe and make me smile each morning. :-)
Well, a quick recap on the day: I went to Terra Mitica with three other exchange students and my local coordinator to enjoy roller-coasters, spinning rides, belly dancers, a Pirate adventure show with buff, shirtless guys and fun fight choreography included, and even a haunted house that was exceedingly fun (a fact that will surprise many of you who know me and my inability to handle even parodies of scary movies!). The park is organized into different “worlds:” Greece, Rome, Egypt, etc. Each section is decorated and themed around this world, such as the hieroglyphics, sphinxes, and pyramids of Egypt or the Trojan horse and Roman fighters from Rome. A highlight of the day was the water rides; we bought crummy plastic ponchos to keep as dry as possible. Needless to say, the multiple holes that quickly formed beneath each sleeve and at the neck didn’t contribute to my dryness, but they certainly served for a roaring good time as all of us huddled together, knocked into each other, compared states of wetness, and, finally, braved the water and went full out with arms up-stretched and hair drenched! We were falling all over ourselves after the third time round on our favorite one. (Thank goodness everyone thought it was gonna rain today, because we didn’t have to wait through a single line!)
Back at home after a full-day’s fun, I had a lovely 50 minute phone conversation with mom, dad, and MaryEllen -a weekly tradition. I dinned, and then the movie Matilda came on the TV and I suddenly knew how I was going to spend the rest of my evening! Man, I love that movie! The scene where she sends everything flying and dances around the room… :-) It makes me happy!

Well, anyhow, tomorrow I will have my Birthday lunch with my host family, coordinator and Madelin –a fellow exchange student. We will be joined after lunch by Ignacio (the climbing friend) and his parents for cake afterwards, which is all sure to include 18 ear-pullings for me since that is their equivalent of the birthday spankings that we have in America. *sigh* I will be strong and survive the ear tugging! After that haunted house, that I braved head on at the front of the group and without a single scream, I can tackle anything! I take that motto to heart: do one thing every day that scares you. Today’s project was the haunted house; next Sunday’s will be a climbing competition! More on that later. Anyhow, I’m off to bed. I’ll write more about my week in another entry tomorrow.

Thank you for being my friend! It is a childish statement, but children often speak truths that we should admire. When I grow up, I want to be just like those children. Wait. Technically, I am grown up! … Nah!

Love and best wishes,

The Queen of Haunted Houses and 18-year-old Goddess
Aka
Jocelyn