Sarah Cushing

2008-09 Outbound to Spain

Hometown: Ormond Beach, Florida

School: Seabreeze High School, Daytona Beach, Florida

Sponsor: Ormond Beach West Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida

Host: Granada Rotary Club, District 2200, Spain

Bio

Sarah's Bio

Hello! My name is Sarah Cushing and I am sixteen years old. I live in Ormond Beach and go to Seabreeze High School. I live at home with my mother and older brother, Kevin, and my much loved doggie, Skippy!!!

For the most part I'm very outgoing, a hard worker, and always up to try something new, especially FOOD! Food is a major part in my life. I love to be in the kitchen and create items with what's on the shelves. I like to read in my spare time, go out and explore the woods, and also go to the beach or movies with my friends.

My goals in life are to become a successful chef(ette), live overseas and become immersed in all the various cultures, learn multiple languages, create a difference (whether it's by making people happy when they see me or finding the cure for hepatitis), and just be happy!!!

Being blessed with this opportunity to travel, live, and learn overseas for an ENTIRE year is overwhelming, yet exhilarating to think about! I could babble and babble for hours about this once in a lifetime chance. My friends, family, co-workers, and all of the Einstein Bagel customers are ecstatic for me. I couldn't thank my mother, grandparents, or Rotary more for allowing me to go through with such a life altering adventure. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

September 17 Journal

Today makes it a whole week that I have been here, and I love it so much but at the same time I want to run to the airport and hop on the next plane home!! I got onto the plane without shedding a single tear because I was ready for this trip! I mean I was the last outbound to leave, but that all changed a few days into my exchange! I have been homesick the past few days, but I'm done crying because I'm in ESPAÑA and I'm not coming home until July!!! Now I am just looking forward to learning everything about this wonderful country, and am looking forward to starting school! Did I actually say I am looking forward to beginning school? I can already tell that this trip has made an impact in such a short amount of time!

My first weekend here was indescribable! My family has a beach house that is about an hour from where I live and is absolutely breathtaking! It has enough rooms to fit an army in! The Mediterranean Sea is amazing and lined with mammoth rocks to jump into the sea below. Before I even tested the water I jumped off of the biggest rock and was in for a surprise! The water was extremely cold, but it was so refreshing I couldn't get out! My family called my loco (crazy). What is really different about the beach is instead of sand there are stones. I started crawling after awhile because they hurt my feet so bad, but my family was used to it.

I will never forget my first sunset in España! My three sisters, one brother, and I went way up in the hills to a light house. I wish I had my camera with me that day because the sky was a gigantic mixture of orange, red, pink, yellow, purple, etc. The sun set right in between two sets of mountains and the reflection on the water was impeccable! I'll never forget such a beautiful sight. EVER! I want to send pictures, but I can't quite figure out how to put them on the computer yet.=(

I thought when I got here I wasn't going to know a single word anyone was saying to me and visa versa, but I've actually been getting along quite well! I'll let you know how I'm getting along alter my first day of school next Monday! Haha. Everyone I have met here has been absolutely beautiful from the inside out! I am also going to begin Flamenco dancing lessons the 2nd of October with my sister Lucia. I can't wait to learn such a magnificent dance!

Okay, if I don't wrap it up now I will keep blabbing on and on. I'll save my yapping for my next entry. I'll try to keep it a shorter next time, but since I'm the first outbound here in España I want to tell you EVERYTHING!! I am so thrilled to actually be doing this! I couldn't thank my family and Rotary and friends any more! I LOVE YOU!! ALL OF YOU!!!!!!

MUCHOS BESOS!!!!

Sarah or Margarita

My family calls me Margarita, Marga for short, because I always have a flower with me and in Spanish Margarita means daisy! Which is my third favorite flower!! Again, muchos besos!

October 21 Journal

Hey everyone!!!!

So last weekend my family and I went to this "pueblo" about an hour or so from my house. The church was numero uno and our house was number two!! That's how in the center it was! It was amazing and I never wanted to come back to my house in the city afterwards!

So Sunday my mom, my dad, and I went on a hunt for chestnuts! And my legs were sore from the two hour hike the day before....yes I'm American haha. Anyways we left around 11:30 in the AM and we went on this trail wayyyyyyyy up in the mountains and the trail was cluttered with fallen down trees and blackberry bushes and at many points in the hike we just made our own trail!! There was this beautiful waterfall lined with rocks and splashing rapids. A dog followed us the whole time, and I named him Charlie =).

And I saw this house that was abandoned in the woods and I went inside and it was so cool! I felt like I was in some kind of adventure movie or something because of all the fallen down wooden beams and crumbling rocks and dangling vines. It was sooo awesome, and another house we went to was a friend of my fathers. The house's yard was just a whole bunch of cactus. I ate a whole bunch of the cactus fruit, and grapes from the vine, and this fruit called a caqui which looks like a tomato inside and out, but it's really sweet and juicy. Anyways once we finally collected the two HUGE backpacks full of chestnuts (castañas) we finally headed back to the house, and at this point it was 2:30 in the afternoon!!

Being at the very top of a mountain was the most amazing feeling, and I felt like I was Jack standing in the bow of the boat in Titanic!!! haha except this was 1000 times more amazing! My family is huge and everyone I met has been absolutely phenomenal! I'll write later. I love you and miss you all!			One of my first sunsets in España
My family, left to right: papá, mamá, my cousin Lucía, my sister Maria, yo, y my sister Patricia	The beach from the highest point of my casa de la playa	My first experience eating paella	With the other exchange students in Madrid. The monument in the background has to do with the government
Me and the Spanish flag blowin´ in the wind			Our friend Alberto, yo, mi hermano Ignacio, y mi hermana Lucía
My friend Linnea (from Sweden) and detrás is the muy famoso Alhambra	Here I am "devouring" all that delicious jamón!	Me in a pueblo named Pampanera... absolutely astonishing	Mamá y yo the day my parents and I went on that awesome hike! The tree is considered the Fairchild Oak of España.

November 6 Journal

Holy crap! I can't believe it's already the 5th of November. In Spain they write the date 6/11/08. Have you guys had as many questions about the election and Obama as I have? I think my whole school has asked me who I would have voted for! Haha, but anyways that's not what I'm writing about today.

Last Sunday I went with my sisters, Lucía and Patri, and my friend Linnea to the Sierra Nevada. First I have to say, I have never seen snow before. With that said once I saw my first bit of snow on tree limbs and then on whole mountains I started freaking out! I kept screaming, "Mios Dios," and they were all just laughing at me, but what else should you expect if you take a teenager to see snow for her first time??? It was awesome! I had my first snow fight and had my first encounter with frost bite! Not so fun...I couldn't feel my feet for like 5 hours!!! We had coffee in a ski lodge and I even saw a dog make the snow yellow!!! It might sound gross to you, but hey I've never seen that before! I finally did though and it was awesome! I can't wait to try skiing and we have a family friend that teaches it =) So when the slopes open later in the month I get to try that too! Do you think I can do it? I hope so. Then on our car ride home I saw a whole bunch of cows just chillin' in the snowy mountains eating frozen grass and ice! It was cool I wanted to take one home, but I didn't think it would fit in the car...

Anyways, here are some pictures!! Enjoy! Hasta Luego, Sarahhhhh		At left is my Jody Davis of Spain =) and to the right is the Al Kalter of Spain =) ... hunks huh?	My Flamenco dance dress that my Aunt Sonia gave me! It weighs like 20 pounds!!
My friends that I went out with on Halloween!	My friend Linnea, me, my sister Lucía, my sister Patri in the Sierra Nevada	Me and my Christmas tree =)	This barely comes close to how beautiful it actually was!

November 18 Journal

So I just got back from Madrid!! It was so much fun! I mean I've already been there, but this time I went with 150 classmates for our senior trip (they have a HUGE test for college and stuff at the end of the year so that's why we went so early). The whole bus ride there was full of games, singing, clapping, and music (most of which we made up ourselves). They play games that I've never heard of, but they do play that game " I spy something with my little eye that begins with the color...."! We saw all kinds of museums and all that historical stuff and I met so many people in my school that I didn't know existed!! And when I went to school yesterday it was like I was in a whole different school because I knew so many more funny people. And it is so cool because in the streets there are all kinds of people dressed up in costumes dancing and doing all kinds of crazy antics to make money and entertain people and I love taking pictures with all of them!!! ha

I can't believe their views on the USA though it makes me kinda sad. I mean I know where they're coming from, but at the same time I don't because some of the things they believe are so ridiculous!! But hey that's why I'm here as they call it to make "buenas migas" between the US and España =)

But holy moly!!!! There was one part of the trip that scared the bejeezers outta me! I know I was prepared for it and it's not very uncommon to see, but it's kinda like the story that you just hear and never think it can actually happen to YOU! Any who, we were all in a big group crossing the street and I see this guy come in front of me and put a jacket over his arm and reach toward my friend Irene's purse and unzipped it in a matter of half a second! My immediate reaction came out in English and I screamed at him WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?????????? Then he went away and I guess my first attempt to stop him wasn't good enough because he tried it AGAIN!!! This time I shoved him in the back and said ¿PERDONA,QUE ES TU PROBLEMA? and he finally went away empty handed! I wanted to cry because I have never seen such dishonesty in my life before.

Haha, but on a better note. Everyone I know at my school knows I love Bob Marley and they all want my necklace, but I refuse to give it up. Then during a ride in the bus the song "Jammin" came on and I started singing it to my friend Saida and then everyone else started singing it too! It turned into one giant kum-by-ah haha and it was so cool because I felt like after this weekend my classmates and friends finally got to see a little more who Sarah really is!!