February 26, 2007

Hola!

I’ve been here about four months now so I guess it’s time to write my ¨quarterly report¨.

Everything is great here in Spain; it’s about 65 F on January 5th! I’m not complaining.

My family here is really nice and they’ve been really helpful and good to me since I’ve been here. I really have no complaints at all about them. I’m the only student in Galicia so I wont be changing families. I have an 18 and 25-year-old brother and a 23-year-old sister. They also have a 16-year-old son who is in NY with Rotary.

School is pretty boring. I don’t need my grades so it’s a little tough to put effort into schoolwork when I know it doesn’t count for anything. But it’s not too bad, it’s where I’ve met most of my friends and I’ve read two books for classes.

I’ve joined a ballet company here in Vigo and attend classes two to three times a week. I went with my ballet company a few weeks ago to see a famous ballet in A Coruña, a city near Vigo. I can’t however join lacrosse because it doesn’t exist in Spain. The school doesn’t have anything other than classes, so there are no clubs or sports or dances or anything.

The only problem I’ve had was making friends. It was pretty tough to make all Spanish friends obviously because I was the ¨new kid¨ and because of the language barrier, but eventually things picked up and I have my friends now and I’m really happy. Homesickness hasn’t really been a problem, sure I miss things at home but I know I’ve lived with all of that for 18 years and I have the rest of my life after this.

The only complaint I really have is the Rotary program here in Spain. I know I shouldn’t complain because I was warned about it before I came but there are some things that could be better. There are probably only 45 Rotary kids in the entire country and the closest one to me is about 10 hours by train in the Basque Country. Also, only one trip this entire year is offered and it’s just through the south of Spain. A Eurotrip was offered through another Rotary program but only 9 places were available and they were all taken quickly so I’m not able to go. We’ve only had one meeting and it was the first weekend I was here. They aren’t really a problem though I just wish we had more opportunities to be with other Rotary kids to have more trips.

I guess that’s all for now.

I’m having a great time and I enjoy myself here more and more each day.

Thanks a lot!

Alex Wilson. xoxo.