First days in the US

When I finally arrived to the airport, my host family was waiting there alone. The flight attendant was not very happy because they didn't have their identification with them, but I said that I knew them and I think she could tell that I was tired after a 22-hour flight and a blank night so she just let me go.
My host father, my host mother and my host sister hugged me and said nice to meet you and I tried to say thanks for hosting me and all. Then we went to the car and I tried not to fall asleep while they were talking to me.
Finally we got to the house and my host mother told me to take off my shoes and then she tried to start showing me the house. I went around nodding until I saw my bed, then my eyes lit and I was happy and my host mother decided that she'd better let me sleep.
The next morning I woke up at like six, but I was really embarrassed so I just laid in bed eating chocolate until ten or so. At some point I decided that I couldn't spend a year like that, so I woke up and got dressed and finally saw the whole house. It was awesome, super big and nice, but ten minutes later we had to leave for school. I went there, I picked my classes and all that stuff, someone gave me a tour, it was alright.
The next week was fun and crazy and I didn't have time to miss a lot of things. We went kayaking, hiking, running, swimming, we went to football games and we had bonfires at the beach. It was all very fun and American. Of course, I tried mac and cheese, corn on the cob, smores, hot dogs and all kind of food you can imagine when you think about America.
The day before school started we had a little exchange students party and I met a lot of people that I had forgot by next day. But by then I was really happy, my host family was really nice (of course I had been really scared about it, I didn't know what to expect and I was freaking out by the time I finally met them, but they turned out all right), they were fun and we did so many things everyday, I was never bored, and at that little party I finally managed to make some friends.
So I got my backpack ready, scared and excited for my first day of school like I only remember being in third grade, and that was it.

Leaving Spain

I was bored.

I was bored of my good student life, of being too much of a good girl. I was bored of doing always the same thing, so I came here. 

I just wanted to do something different. Anything different. And then my friend told me about coming to the US for a school year. Of course there were more reasons for doing it -the experience, the independence, getting to know another country and learning English- but they are not that interesting. 

At first my parents didn't really like the idea. I asked them while we were having dinner at a restaurant, in one of those awkward moments after some kind of fight. It was kind of funny, in a way.

Anyway, they finally agreed. So I started preparing everything (a year ahead, of course). I even made a list of things I had to do. Getting a letter of recommendation from a teacher, talking to all of them, buy clothes and make up (^^), writing good bye letters (okay, I did that later), planning what I would put in my 23 kg suitcase, and, most important, learning to cook Spanish omelet and paella. 

It was a good list, but my mom said it didn't make a lot of sense. Maybe. Anyway I started doing those things and some others.

I loved going to downtown Madrid to buy typical Spanish presents for my host family. I went there with my friends, wearing sunglasses and flip flops and going around taking pictures of everything and speaking Spanish with American accent. You should try it. It's really fun.

But not everything was that fun. 

Here's something I didn't like about those days.

I gained about six pounds in two weeks. You wouldn't plan that, right? I mean, the foreign fifteen is supposed to start once you get to America.

But it happened. 

Good-bye parties.

Be careful, they are bad, they really are. They'll get you fat. And good-bye dinners, they're even worse.

The day before I left I hanged out with my friends, we hugged and promised to write, I cried. Well, it's not too hard to imagine. 

And my last day finally came. Basically, I was very sleepy. 

My family came to the airport with me, it was nice. We were just talking for a while and then I finally had to leave so I started saying good-bye.

First to my little brother, Miguel. He's so cute. He was hugging me and kind of crying and saying that he would miss me (and my donuts, probably) so much. At first I was all sad, too. But after a while we hadn't stopped hugging and the rest of my family was kind of waiting for him and the whole situation was kind of funny so I started laughing a little bit. He didn't get mad at me, though. He really is a nice kid.

Then I said bye to my sister. I agreed to her borrowing my clothes while I was gone and we hugged and all that.

My other brother and I were awkward so we just shook hands making serious faces.

It was my mom's turn. She was almost crying. That's always depressing, seeing your parents like that.

My father was the last one and all I can remember is that we made funny faces. 

And then I left.

Eighteen hours later, I took my last flight. 

I was an unattended minor, so one of those flight attendants took care of me. I think (I hope) she was used to deal with small kids, because she kept calling me sweetheart and honey and offering me pillows and blankets and food and magazines all the time. 

I was reading a letter (and crying too) when I first notice the couple that was sitting next to me. They were eating. 

First, they had wings. Like a lot of them.

Then they had a boiled egg each.

After that, they split an avocado.

And then there were three huge zip bags with baby carrots, green beans and spinach. 

At that point, I think it was too obvious that I was staring at them because the lady offered me some carrots and the guy asked me to take whatever I wanted. They were really nice. 

But they were still eating. After having some bread, they ate more wings. And then they finally had the dessert, cookies and fruit and something that looked like cake. 

When they were done they fell asleep and I read and cried some more for the rest of the flight.

Introduction, I guess

I'm not really sure of what I'm supposed to do, I guess introduce myself? Well, I'm a Spanish exchange student in the UP, Michigan (in case you don't know what it is, there's a lot of snow and deer hunting).
Probably I should say that being an exchange student is something that I've wanted to do all my life, but to be completely honest I didn't even know about it until last year when a friend of mine told me that she was going to do some kind of exchange program. I thought it was super cool but I never thought it would be possible for me (my parents wouldn't let me and everything). But one day I was having one of those awkward family dinners and I mentioned it pretty much to change the topic. The funny part is, my parents started thinking about it! Obviously I got super excited and started being a good kid and all and then my parents decided that it would be a good opportunity for me. So the next day I filled in the 30 pages request and it was official.
But I forgot that I was supposed to introduce myself, so... I'm sixteen going on seventeen, I'm not gonna describe myself but I might post pictures, I like swimming, makeup, reading, music and drawing, and I always end up in some kind of awkward situation. Yeah, that's me.
And.... I'm having a lot of fun here and I was supposed to start a blog the day I came but I didn't know what to write about so I've been putting it off :)