My new host family consisted of a brother who had just turned 16 a few weeks earlier and his mother and father. It was with my new host brother that I would go to school with during the week. I was one of three kids from my school that went to Sevilla the same week I did. However one of the goals of the trip was to make it as independent as possible. We had to buy our tickets on our own (thus sitting apart from each other on the train) and we were supposed to have as little contact as possible with the other two once we arrived in Sevilla. Now of course since I was in the same class as one of them it wasn't perfect, but we all did the best we could.

Being just one of three true English speakers in the school, we were bombarded with questions about the United States, questions like "Does everyone own a gun?" or "Do you always eat at McDonalds?" or other questions along those lines. After I calmed peoples fears that Americans weren't just fat people that sat on their porches shooting people all day, they started to make conversation and make us (meaning me and the other kid from my school) part of the group.

Since the two other students and I did not have anything to do during class we would visit other English classes to talk and help out in each class. Our basic role in each class was to answer the kids' questions that the teacher told us would be simple. Oh were we in for a shock. First of all, these classes were some of the loudest I had ever been in. The kids talked the entire class, nonstop. Second, their simple questions are not simple at all. How many 17-year-olds do you know who know exactly what they want to be when they grow up? I certainly don't know many. For me the simple questions like "What's your favorite movie?" or "What's your favorite band?" are hard because I don't have one specific one. And to top it off they learn British English so there was a little confusion. One memorable mix-up was the definition of mascot. The question was "What is your mascot?” Pretty simple question, no? Not at all. Apparently in British English mascot means pet. You can only imagine how such answers such as a Quaker (Moses Brown's "mascot") and a door (one girl went to Deerfield where their mascot is a door) would have confused them.

The weekend was another memorable experience. Friday night I got to witness some drama between my new host brother and one of his friends. My host brother felt that his friend was spending too much time with his girlfriend and not with their group of friends. I stayed out of that whole battle, leaving it to them to sort out. Saturday we did the typical teenage thing. We went to see a movie (Date Movie, a really dumb movie but incredibly funny) and hung around in the center of Sevilla. We walked by the beautiful bull ring and by the famous cathedral with its amazing tower that has a great view of the city. The day was finished off by watching F.C. Barcelona battle it out against Real Madrid in the biggest soccer rivalry in Spain (it is like Red Sox vs. Yankees). The game finished in a 1-1 tie.

Overall the 5 days experience was one that immersed my almost fully into the true Spanish life. A life that included Spanish school, hanging out with friends until late at night, watching soccer and just enjoying life. To top it off it helped my Spanish immensely as I noticed a huge difference in my Spanish when I arrived back in Zaragoza to resume my normal life. Of course shortly after this I went on Spring break where I would barely hear a word of Spanish, but that is a story to be told tomorrow.