My Year in Espanya: Good Times with Rotary

Sometimes a person knows a day will be beautiful just by waking up and having that good feeling in their bones. For me, this has been my feeling for the past few days. It began right before the All District Rotary Youth Conference, and it has yet to wear off. :)

To begin: the conference was not in Madrid, it was in a place about an hour's busride away. The only parts of Madrid I saw were the various transportation centers (airport, metro, bus station, etc.). There are three Rotary Districts in Spain this year, and 90 exchange students were in attendance. Of the 90, there were only about 8 students representing nationalities other than the US and Canada. 17 students are still in the US due to visa issues. Essentially it was a two day slumber party in the dorms, with various important informational meetings mixed in about cultural differences, insurance, rules and regulations, etc.

There were two personally important moments that I gained from this conference (aside from the generally important moments that go along with making new friends). They are:

I now think of the house I'm staying in as home. This happened the second night while I was sleeping in the dorm room with the other girls. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw someone's charger glowing. I thought this charger was mine because I had the feeling that I was sleeping in my host family's home. When I realized I wasn't there, I was glad to realize that's where I was going back to the next day.
I met a woman who was shocked at my terrible situation of having to live in an area where the families I'm staying with speak Catalá on an ordinary basis. Sometimes it's hard, but this situation isn´t terrible at all! As a Rotary Exchange Student, it doesn't matter where you go, your job is to learn whatever culture is surrounding you. For me, that is the culture of Catalonia. It is true that Catalá isn´t spoken in many parts of the world, but it is extremely important here. If a person can understand a different culture and utilize its language, they will have the ability to understand the history and contribute to any future work concerning that culture in a manner that is greatly enriched. Saying it isn't important to learn a language because it's only used in a small area of the world is like saying it isn't important to vote in national elections since only one person gets to be selected President.

This week at school has been going along as well as the last one; I don't understand very much most of the time, but I understand a little and the people are very friendly. Tonight I'm going to a dinner with the Rotary Club for the first time, and I'm looking forward to orchestra later this week. I have taken quite a few photos. The photos of the conference are on Facebook right now. I will put them in an album when I return to the US. The photos posted below are just a few things I came across my first week here.