My first week in Leon

My family and I flew here to Leon on the 3rd from Barcelona. My host mom is the sweetest lady. At the airport she gave me a huge hug and held my hand and talked a lot. I also met one of my host sisters, who just turned 23 a few days ago. She laughs a lot and is very friendly. Both her and her mom help me out so much and show me around. The first evening I was there my host sister and I walked around town and she took me to this apartment building where they get fresh cow´s milk! There was this man who poured my host sister 2 big jugs and kept telling people to keep the door closed. Maybe it´s illegal? Anyways at the apartment my host mom boiled the milk on the stove to kill bacteria. I couldn´t believe it! Fresh cow´s milk! I´ve been putting it in my coffee every morning. The apartment I´m in is modest and comfortable. I get my own bedroom and share a bathroom. The city of Leon is really great. Everything that I might need is nearby and everybody walks everywhere. There is a bus that I need to take however to my volunteer workplace. Twice a week I´ll be working at a place called Fundación Secretariado Gitano, where they promote gypsies´rights and teach them helpful skills to get a job, maintain a living, etc. I´ll be like an aid helping out with activities, probably with people of all ages. I think it will be a really different yet exciting experience and I start next week.

I´ve been eating some interesting food. When I traveled around with my family we ate amazing gazpacho, tortillas españolas, churros, and pastries. My host mom and sister have made pork loin, ham sandwiches, frozen pizzas with added chorizo (sausage), and ensaladilla (means small salad...cooked and mashed potato, carrot, green bean, egg, tomato, tuna, olives, and mayonnaise smooshed together...I like it actually) for example. There is some form of pork every day. And sometimes the food is dripping with oil so my stomache hurts. In general the food has been ok, but lately I´ve been missing the sandwich bar at Pitzer. I feel really pressured to eat everything on my plate because my host mom repeats a lot how she hates wasting food. Once she made arroz con leche (rice with milk, a dessert) that we ate for 3 days and I wasn´t a huge fan of it. There is always bread and tomatoes with oil and vinegar, and fruit for dessert. Every morning I eat cookies or spongy cakes called magdalenas with coffee for breakfast; lunch is between 2 and 3, and dinner is between 9 and 10. It´s a weird schedule that I´m still getting used to. My host mom and I talk a lot during breakfast, and during lunch and dinner we watch tv with my host sister (she´s been studying for exams in the mornings). I get along really well with both of them. I already know I´m going to have a hard time saying goodbye to everyone. They are so afffectionate with me, and actually everyone in general is more affectionate here...I´ve kissed a bunch of people in greeting, it´s all very new to me.

My host family consists of more than just my mom and sister. The rest of the family (host dad, grandparents, and 2nd sister) lives in a pueblo (meaning town) an hour away in another city called Zamora. My host mom and sister drive to the pueblo every weekend. The only reason why they have the apartment in Leon is because the daughters take classes at the University. We drove to the pueblo this past weekend and I met everybody else. My 2nd host sister is my age! I am really excited. She is hilarious and talkative and she is living with us in the apartment starting this week. She´s probably even more warm and affectionate than her older sister. Both of them talk clearly and I can understand them (my host mom is a little harder to understand, and my host grandparents nearly impossible). I will learn so much Spanish because of my host sisters and I know we´ll be close friends. We went out on Saturday night to meet some of their friends and I was totally lost because I didn´t understand any of their jokes or colloquialisms. They tried to include me though and I had a good time. At the pueblo my host mom washed everyone´s clothes by hand, a big job. They have a farm there, with chickens and pigs, plus they grow fruits and vegetables - like pears, grapes, and even sunflower seeds. There´s also a water well nearby. My host mom told me they kill the chickens which sort of grossed me out, but not as much as the fact that they kill a big pig for Christmas. My host mom told me that the previous student they hosted (actually they´ve hosted like 15 international students from all over!) couldn´t watch. Luckily I´ll be leaving before Christmas. But I´ve already witnessed the chicken process, it was a lovely surprise. Yesterday we were at the pueblo to pick up my 2nd host sister. She took me outside to show me the animals and I saw my host grandpa holding 2 dead chickens...I was shocked. Then he went to kill some more and I told my host sister I was freaked out and she understood so we didn´t watch, but I could still hear the squawking, it was awful. The chickens were rinsed with hot water and then my host mom, sisters, and grandma sat and pulled all the feathers. I was still in shock and standing a good distance away staring, and then they told me to sit with them. So I sat...at first I was really disgusted and felt kind of faint - I never liked dissections in biology and I hate killing even spiders - plus there were flies allll over the place. Haha but the funniest thing was that my host mom had out a package of cookies and offered me some. At first I said no I can´t, but she insisted, ugh. So I ate cookies and watched them de-feather the chickens. After they were de-feathered they were put on hangers and then my host dad torched them to singe off all the little hairs. Then they were cut open and cleaned out - the guts were thrown away and the innards were kept for later. After a final rinsing they were done. There were about 7 altogether. I can´t believe I saw all this and will be seeing more of it this semester. It wasn´t so awful, but I did feel a little sick and I definitely would not be able to watch what they do with the pigs.
Their place at the pueblo is also comfortable (with a kitchen, living room, 4 rooms and only 1 bathroom all along a hallway), but the town itself is old and old-fashioned. It feels nothing like the city or Europe. I´m excited about it though because for a while I thought "am I playing it safe by studying abroad in Spain when I know of people studying abroad in India and Africa and when I already know some Spanish" but everything is different at the pueblo. Everyone either lounges in their pajamas, takes naps after lunch, feeds the animals, collects water or fruit, etc. It may not be as extreme as in other countries, but it´s certainly different from Orange County or Claremont. And my Spanish is shaky - I understand a good amount but have trouble speaking it. My host sisters have been teaching me common expressions and sayings, and I´m also working hard at rolling my "r´s". I have no doubt that I´ll be practically fluent by the time I come home.

Some things haven´t been easy here. At times I feel left out when the family is together and other times I get shy because I don´t know what´s expected of me. I feel pressured to eat things I don´t like, and my host mom encourages me to buy new clothes and to dress nicer. Some stores have strange schedules. But the hardest thing right now is the fact that I´m Jewish. Soon after I met my host mom she showed me a picture of the church at the pueblo on their calendar. And this past weekend my host grandma asked me if I like Mass. When my parents were still in town they came to the apartment one night for dinner. My hosts showed a video of my host sisters´first communion, and they were laughing and pointing things out, and then my host mom asked if we were Catholic. I said we´re Jewish, and then she didn´t really say anything. I couldn´t tell if she was embarrassed or what, but I was uncomfortable. I´m not being judged or treated any differently, but I feel like I need to put my Judaism on hold. I´m too embarrassed to explain to them because I´m not sure how they view this difference, or if they know much about Judaism at all. Catholicism and Judaism have lots of differences. I´m a little sad especially because the High Holidays are about to start and I won´t be celebrating them. I´m not very religious, but at least at Pitzer I have the option of celebrating with Hillel or going home for the dinner. I feel comfortable discussing religion with friends at school. But here I can´t do those things. Maybe my host sisters are more open so eventually I´ll be able to talk to them about it, and after the High Holidays I´ll feel a little better.

All in all though, things have been fine and I´m having a great experience. My hosts are so nice and I´ve been learning a lot from them. When we are all together at the pueblo everyone jokes around a lot and I can tell that they are really close.
Anyways I miss Pitzer a lot too! I hope the semester is off to a great start for everyone and I wish all my family a Shanah Tova!