Easter is over!

So the little vacation is over! This afternoon after lunch I’m coming back to Barcelona, and I still have some homework left!

My little cousins and their parents came on Thursday and have stayed here. They are 12 and 9, just as Bill’s sisters, both girls. So I have spent every day playing lots of things with them, and I haven’t had much free time for me! But I’m having a good time now, though I miss a lot my friends! The weather hasn’t been very good, and it has rained a couple of days, so I haven’t been able to go walking in the forests anymore… 

By the way, in three days is my birthday!!!! I already have my main present, because my parents gave it to me the night before Holland. It’s a camera, because I didn’t have one and my brother was carrying his own, so I wanted to take pictures in Holland! I will buy some clothes and maybe something else if I’m interested. Yesterday was Sant Jordi and today is Oscar’s birthday, these days are full of things! So I will let you know tomorrow about the celebration of Easter, with the “monas”!

See you in the next post!

Song of the day: The Kooks – Always Where I Need To Be

Days in the country!

Heeeey! Today I’m going to go later in the evening to the bar with WiFi in the village, so I will upload all the entries I’ve made and maybe talk with Bill, if he’s online, because we haven’t had the chance to talk yet… So I’ve been here for 3 days, and this morning I’ve gone up to Les Salines, the highest mountain in the surroundings, with 1300 meters. It’s not very high, there isn’t any snow either, but the views from there are really nice. My brother and me started walking at 9:12, and after 7,4 km we arrived there, at 10:28. I have taken some pictures, very beautiful from the forests near the top.

Yesterday we went to Figueres to watch a film called “Sin límites”, about a man who starts taking some pills that make your brain work at 100%, so he wins lots of money and success. You have a good time watching it, and it’s not bad, but there’s no real point in it, no reflections, any second meaning. Well, I’ll let you know some more in a few days!

See you in the next post!

Song of the day: Train – Drops of Jupiter

Setmana Santa!

Setmana Santa has arrived! Today I’m going to Maçanet de Cabrenys, my village in the Pyrenees, and I’ll stay there for the whole week! The bad thing is that I have no internet in there, I have to go to the bar and get the Wi-Fi there…

Last night I started watching a new series, a miniseries actually, called The Pacific. It has won awards, and it’s got only 3 chapters. It’s about the second world war in an island of the Pacific Ocean called Guadalcanal, and it shows how destructive war is, and how it affects to the Marines. I’ve only watched the first part, but I liked it, and I’m looking forward to the next one!

So I have my second trimester grades already! And they are better than the first trimester ones, I got 4 A’s and all the rest with B’s. That’s good, although I think I can do better in the third trimester. Yesterday I went out for lunch with Marina, Arantxa, Oscar, Xavi and the two Uris. We went to Fresc Co, but I ate gnocchi from Pasta Corner… We stayed in the park in front of my house for a while, and then we went to Valero’s house. I was at home at about 7 thirty, and I could talk with Dutch people for the first time. Bill was not online and now that I’m not going to have Internet I’m not going to be able to talk to him… L But I’ll try to come online in some public place and spend some minutes to talk!

See you in the next post!

Song of the day: Jason Mraz – The Remedy

Back To Reality

Today was the first day at school after coming back from Holland, and luckily, as every other wednesday, we didn’t work at all. Yesterday we were aloud to stay at home although there was school, because we arrived very late the night before. So in the morning I went to Elisenda’s house for her birthday. At her place there was her boyfriend, Irene and Mireia, but I didn’t stay long. In about 40 minutes Irene and me left home, as it was almost lunchtime.

When I was at home I was in facebook all time, watching pictures and more pictures about the trip, and I uploaded some too. In the afternoon, at about ten to five I went to school to say hello to everyone, and then I came back home to prepare myself for my basketball training. I didn’t feel like running and jumping, but I had to get used to the normal schedule again. 

So this evening I was doing some homework and I really need something to clear my mind. My thoughts start flying away to Holland every second and I can’t do anything to stop it! I guess it’s just a matter of time to concentrate again in the important things!

Song of the day: Wake Me Up When September Ends

Holland!! Farewell, Last Day

So we knew it had to end someday… Today was the last day in Holland, and everything has happened so fast… But let’s explain how the day was!

I got up a bit earlier because I wanted to take some pictures of the house and the family. I enjoyed everything I did, thinking it was the last time I was going to do it: taking a shower in that bathroom, having breakfast with Bill… Before going down to the kitchen Bill’s father came to shake hands and say goodbye, as he had to leave now. So once I was prepared to go I took my camera and started picturing each corner of the house, except the upper floors, so that I could remember how my exchange was. Finally, I took a Photo of the family: Tessa, Bill, Lobke, Guislaine, the nanny and her husband. I will keep that picture!

Bill’s mother drove us to school with the bags, and we said goodbye then. Some minutes later we left Cals to go to Utrecht by tram and spend the day there. We had some free time when we arrived, as the first group was going up the tower. That was really tiring! We had to go upstairs for 80 meters of height, and those were 465 stairs! But it was worth, the views up there were very beautiful, and we could visit the rooms where the bells were. Even Wessel played a melody with the bells! So after that we went to an indoors-climbing place. It was 60 meters tall and that was too scary for me… I didn’t try to climb, as I’m a bit afraid of heights, but I helped the people in my group, Uri and Adriaan. Uri got to the top of the easiest one and tried also a couple of difficult ones, but always got stuck in the middle, as Adriaan.

We went back to the station; it was time to return to Cals College. When we were there, the Dutch partners told us to wait outside, as they had prepared a little surprise for us. So we waited, talking and trying not to think in the few time we had left. But they said it was all set, and we went in there. Ben was holding his Les Paul, and everyone was in a circle. The Spanish also stayed around them, sitting inside the circle. The surprise was a song: Time Of Your Life, by Green Day. They started to sing it at the same time, all together, and that moment will be in my mind for a lot of time. The song said:

Another turning point;

a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;

directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test

and don't ask why.

It's not a question

but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable

but in the end it's right.

I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs

and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf

In good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories

and dead skin on trial.

For what it's worth,

it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable

but in the end it's right.

I hope you had the time of your life.

My eyes started to get wet and I didn’t want that to happen, not yet. It was so emotive, and I just couldn’t stop some tears falling. When they finished everyone started hugging and saying goodbye. There was an hour left, but it was like seconds, lots of things were happening at the same time. I managed to not cry, and Ben played some more songs, as Wake Me Up When September Ends. We all sang it together, holding hands. When the teacher said the bus had arrived, it was the saddest thing ever. We looked for our bags and once they were inside the bus I started to say a final goodbye to everyone. The last person to say goodbye, just as I was going inside was Bill, it was the third or fourth time we did it. But when I saw them from the windows I realized that it was over, and how much I would miss them. The driver turned on the engine and there was a huge wave goodbye. We got away and when I couldn’t see them from my sit, I just couldn’t stand it anymore and cried silently. After twenty minutes or half an hour Miriam came to sit besides me, and we talked about the most funny and important moments in Holland. We had some laughs and the trip didn’t seem that long.

In the airport we checked in and we didn’t have to wait much. I bought some souvenirs, as I couldn’t buy them anywhere else, and after a while we entered the plane. I sat with Joana. We listened to music during the trip, and we arrived in about two hours. It was half past eleven when we arrived, and at the time we were in the bus from El Prat to the school it was Eli’s birthday. We arrived and our parents were already there. I said hello and went home while I started to explain how everything was.

And that’s it, that was the end of my day, but I don’t think I will easily forget it, neither this nor the people we left in Holland. Sincerely, I think it was the greatest time I had in my life.

Song of the day: Green Day – Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Holland!! Calvin's party, Day 5

Well, today it has been the last whole day in Holland, and now I just can't think of the farewell, because we have to enjoy these last moments and wait for the last minute to come. This morning we were supposed to go to an amusement park, a really important and huge one, but I woke up at a quarter past ten, so it was too late. I had breakfast with all the family, they had prepared a big meal with lots of different things, including some croissants handmade by the little sister, Guislaine, and nine scrumbled eggs . Everything tasted very good and I ate a lot.

A friend of Bill came by his house and we were playing pointless games in the computer for a while, they were really original and I had fun. A bit later in the morning, at about 2 o'clock, we went to his swimming pool. It is big for being of the family, and it was quite new, from some weeks ago. We invented a new sport called water hockey, but I lose 6-2... But we had fun, and when we had a quick shower we prepared our bicycles to go to Calvin's.

Almost everybody was in there, some playing FIFA and some others in the outside, it was sunny. I wet outside and stayed there talking with people, it was really warm. Later I went out to the street, where there was a little zone for children, and we were there for a while, waiting for the other people to come with something to eat. We could choose between Frikandel and some other thing, and there were 4 cubes of french fries. After finishing it and cleaning everything we got on our bicycles and cycled to the little "beach" by the river.

It was sunset and it was very beautiful. I spent most of the time there with Marina, and there was time to talk about lots of topics and things. Later, when it was almost dark, we all returned home, at about 8 or 8:30. Once we were there, I ate the kind of yoghurt Bill gave me some days ago, and we decided to watch a film, after I prepared all my bags to go. It was really sad when I saw my bedroomall tidied up, with everything packed, but I tried not to think about it. The movie was The Tourist, and although I had watched it in Barcelona, I enjoyed it for the second time. By the time it finished it was late, so we said the last goodnight. I was going to miss that! I listened to some music in bed, as I did every day, and I spent a while in deep thoughts. I said o myself that I had to sleep well all night, because that would be the last one. See you tomorrow, in Barcelona!

Song of the day: Ben Saunders - Kill For A Broken Heart

Holland!! Paintballing & Emmely's party, Day 4

Hello everybody again! Today it was a really exciting day! In the morning we went paintballing, the first time in my life I did it. The place was indoors but big and it was like in a real war, with the ruins of the houses, broken cars... Well, we dressed up with a suit they gave us, covering all our body from paint. We also had to wear an armor, as we were under sixteen, and I appreciated that, because the guy teaching us how to play said the paintballs went like 300 km/h!!! We started with maybe 50 balls, I don't really know how many there were... So we started making two teams, the yellow and green one and the red one. The second match was capture the flag, with the same teams twice. We took a break to have something to drink and then returned to play the Dutch versus Catalan match. We started equally, but then the Dutch people trapped us and we were surrounded, so we couldn't do antything! We lost. The last match was everyone versus WESLEY IN A COW SUIT! He started in one corner and we started in the opposite one. He had to run to the other side of the field and then the game would be over. So we started shooting at him and he was hit like twenty times! Well, I had so much fun, but I got hit three or four times: once in my mouth, once in the side of my face and once in my arm.

We arrived home at half past three and we had something to eat. We watched a theater show that Bill's father and sister had seen the day before, but we watched it in the DVD. The nam of the comediant was Koller, and he didn't say anything in the whole play, just acted without talking. It was really funny, I think he's good! We had dinner outside the house, Thai food. It was the first time I ate that kind of food, but I liked it. At about eight o'clock we left home to go to Emmely's, where we had the second party in Holland. It's a really big house too, and when we arrived almost everyone was there, with a fireplace like at Thom's.  I had a really good time there, with the music and everything, it was fun.

When we came back it was a quarter to one, and we went to bed, I was really tired. The next day we would go to Calvin's in the afternoon, to have another party. It will be great too!

Song of the day: BoB - Magic

Holland!! Amsterdam & Tom's party, Day 3

So here I am again, to explain how this great exchange is going! Today it seems that the rule of everyday beter than the previous is real! We woke up a bit earlier in the morning, because we had to be at school before 8:30. We were going to take a bus to Amsterdam! I already got used to riding bikes and actually I like it, it refreshes your mind of ideas. So I sat with Oscar, and we spent almost all the trip talking with Joana and Marina, in front of us.

So the first thing to do was visit the Anne Frank's museum. The secret Annexe was bigger than what I thought, it was actually pretty big. But only the Spanish students could go inside, because there was such a long line it would be too late come get inside half an hour out of the schedule. Afterwards Spanish and Dutch people met in front of the Reijsmuseum, where there's a huge garden with flowers and other things. Group 2 (mine) had to wait for 45 minutes before entering, so we went for a walk to a big square where there was the word "iAmsterdam" in enourmous letters. In the museum we had to fill in some portfolio about Love in paintings and sculptures, and we saw some really famous art pieces like "The Nightwatch".

Then we went to have lunch to McDonalds, where I ate a Quarter Pound cheeseburger with fries and cola and Bill ate TWO BIG MACS!!! We also went for a boat trip along the canals and we saw the most important buildings of Amsterdam and where Bill felt he was was alone because we talked in Spanish almost all the time! :) We had to wait for the bus for a bit of time, maybe like an hour or around, but the return trip wasn't really long. When we arrived home and prepared our stuff for Thom's party, we got to Bill's mother car and left.

I just can say the party was EPICLY AWESOME. There was a fireplace in the garden, with everyone, just talking to friends, in the outside of the house. Joyce brought her guitar and the both of us had a great time playing and singing songs, I loved that time. So at 1 o'clock the people left in the house had to pick up everything and we said goodbye to everyone. We arrived home at 1 thirty, and it was really late, so we went to bed.

Song of the day: Paramore - The Only Exeption

Holland!! Swimming pool, Day 2

Hello theree!! Today it has been better than yesterday for me! We jut came back from the swimming pool just in front of Cals College and I had so much fun! Swimming pools here are not like the ones in Barcelona, they had a slide, a really big swimming area, artifiial waves... We arrived there at 7 o'clock and left at about ten or something like that. Time went really fast for me there, and after changing our clothes we went back home. I tasted something new I liked a lot. It was some kind of yoghurt with another thing I don't really know how is it named, with cranberry taste, and it was great!

So this morning we went to school early,  at 8:30 we were already there. Everytime we have to go to the other side of the river we have to take a boat that costs one euro per person, but Bill has some special ticket and doesn't need to pay. So the first thing we did at school was an interview. We had to come up with some questions and then record a whole interview with minimmum 3 minutes of length. We got to do it and we even put a background song in it! After that it was time to prepare the Europe poster. We drew a map and wrote some tasks as explaining a myth or the european stereotypes. At the end we didn't finish it at all, but most of the people didn't either, it was too much work. Then we entered another classroom and prepared for Dutch class. Wessel was the teacher for that hour, and he didn't do it that bad! So my group (Bill, Wessel, Roger, Maxim and Andrea) had to learn a dialogue in Dutch about a grocery store and then say it in front of the whole class. It was something like:

- Goedendag
- Hallo, wat wilt u kopen?
- Ik wil niet een, niet twee, maar drie appels kopen
- Dat kost een euro en tachtig cent.
- Alstublieft
- Dankuwel en tot ziens
- Tot ziens

I still remember the conversation and I know how to pronounce it! Most of the people went to Utrecht after that class, but we went home and spent some house time. I met the nanny and her husband, they have been at Bill's house since he was born. We watched the end of the Beowulf film and played some guitar songs. We had dinner at 5:30 or maybe a bit later, but it's still strange for me to eat at that early time!! Then we took our bicycles and went to the swimming pool. You know the rest of the story then! Every day is better than the previous one, this is awesome!

Song of the day: Jason Mraz - Wordplay

Holland!! Arrival, Day 1

Hello everybody, specially my parents! I hope you read this, because I'm wasting some of my valuable time in Holland to write this down! Last night I was nervous as I had never been. I went to bed early, after a little time of conversation with Bill, and I didn't sleep really well, so I got up at three o'clock in the morning and prepared all my stuff to go. My father drove me to school with the bags, and when we kissed goodbye I was already entering the bus to the airport.

Non of us believed what was really happening, and in five or six hours we would be flying or in Holland!! So I listened to some new muic I had downloaded from Jason Mraz to think about other things and don't be so nervous. We checked in and had to wait there for a couple of hours, as the flight was leaving at 6:45. But the time finally arrived and we got to the plane. I sat on the window, with Maria, and we talked a lot about eveyhing, even the flight was interesting!!

So once we were at Schiphol we had to take a bus to Cals College. It took a while, but when we got there everybody was almost shouting of emotion, specially when we saw all the Dutch mates waiting for us. We said hello to everyone and shared some time together in the entrance, but in that time the schedule started. We had to take a little class of introduction where we had to say what we liked the most about our partners and things like that. Like that we broke the ice and everything went fast, Calvin's father drove Bill and me to Bill's house and I was introduced to his family. At home there was only his mum and little sister, Ghislaine. I unpacked my things and then it was time for my first ride! Bicycles are big in here, and they're not the same as the Spanish ones, but I think I got used to it pretty fast. We were going to an ice cream shop over the river, with Roger, Wessel, Maxim, Andrea, Martijn, Marc, Anna, Tessa, Albert and Tjeerd.  We stayed there for a while, in some rocks, and then went home at about 5 o'clock.

Then I went with Bill to the grocery store, because he had to buy some things to eat. Afterwards, Bill's father drove all the family to a restaurant, a "bufet libre", and we had dinner there. We could get whatever we wanted to and then ask the cook to cook it. I liked it a lot. At home we decided to watch a film, Beowulf, but it was already too late, about ten o'clock, so we didn't finish it, just half of the movie. I said goodnight d went upstairs to my bedroom. Well, so this is my first day in Holland!! I've only been here for som hours and I'm already loving it!!


Song of the day: Jason Mraz - Remedy