6 DAYS

OMG not ready to say goodbye to everyone yet. And the other day my host family told me they are not ready for me to go either. It was so sweet.. partly because all along I was sure they thought I was some crazy freak they were dying to get rid of. Gracias a Díos!

Finals this week. Then Switzerland, then the family!! My friend Flannery and I also planned out our Sound of Music 2009 Germany/Austria tour. I cannot believe this life is real.

Had a phone interview the other night for that one internship I am trying to get through ND in Chicago. I think all went well. I am not 100% comfortable with questions like "How do you describe your leadership style?" just because I feel like everything I say sounds so scripted and cliché. Who knows. Also might have faltered a bit when they asked me, in Spanish, how I plan to apply my faith to the Chicago Latino community. (what?!) Anything else in Spanish, and I would have been just dandy. Crossing my fingers. 

Have I mentioned how much I hate money?

Fall despedidas in less than 2 weeks??

Yes. I cannot believe it either. In less than two weeks, I will have said goodbye to my Toledo fall Domers and will be on a plane to Geneva. A few friends and I are traveling to Switzerland and Italy, going from Venice to Florence to Cinque Terre to Milan. It is a small group going, and it will be so weird to go without a bunch of the friends I have been traveling with this semester, but I am so excited nonetheless. This huge dorky part of me will be fulfilling my inner Rick Steves as I hike those five little Italian cities (that was one of my fav episodes of RS on PBS actually.) I am so proud to say that I will be one well-traveled individual after this year.

Being an American Studies major, I had this huge fear that after I got back from a year of reading nothing but Spanish and taking classes only in Spanish, I would somehow forget how to conduct my studies in English, so I started reading again for pleasure— in English (which I more or less never do during the school year.) Maybe it was the Crime and Detection class I took freshman year, or maybe because they are such easy reads, but I have been really into murder mysteries and books of the like lately. Sounds weird I know but it feels good again to be able to read a page in less than ten minutes (OK I am exaggerating but reading in Español seriously does take me forever.)

On another note, I think it is hilarious how we Americans have these preconceived notions of Europe being this place on instantaneous love, no matter where or when. I honestly was of that mentality originally as well. I keep hearing these stories of people "falling in love" in Spain, etc. My friend's host parents met because her madre, at the time an American student in Madrid, visited Toledo and fell for this random dude who talked to her in the street— a random dude who would, just years later, become her husband. She would move her life from the US here to Toledo to be with him and later host American students, to whom she would relay this story of, more or less, love at first sight. So I guess I understand why these romantic mentalities still exist, but in reality you run into SO many creeps and nasties wherever you go in Europe (k I am not being fair— there are obviously a fair share in America also obviously.) I think I have just run into too many here unfortunately. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. Aka not that big of a deal in Spain, but since I have Facebook, I obviously end up reading everyone's statuses about going home for Thanksgiving, and it makes me so nostalgic about T-giving with the fam. Waking up uncomfortably early to run in the Turkey Trot, attempting to help cook stuff, passing out later in the day while watching something like Miracle on 34th Street, probably playing Scrabble with the fam, eating leftover turkey. I especially miss it this year because the fam is in South Bend for the first time in a few years. All the SB friends are obviously home, and I miss everyone so much. 

I am starting to realize how much easier spring semester will be. No family holidays we will be reminiscing and crying about here. I should say Easter, but I also have not been home for Easter in like three years. In the spring, I will be more or less on the same wavelength as everyone else in the fact that we all will be leaving April 28. I am looking forward to the fact that I will know this language so well at the beginning of a new semester. I will definitely not be as lost as before! Although this is hard, especially, I think, during this coming month, I am so happy I did this. I am beginning to realize that I am just getting comfortable here, especially with talking. I am really not ready to go yet. It is going to make the going home all the sweeter. 

They are making some special dinner for us tonight— la Celebración de Acción de Gracias. Weird. I have seen turkey here in Spain like twice. 

DUBS

Just got back from Dublin last night. I could not tell you all we did. In all these other European cities we do so much walking around and site seeing and getting lost and all that but this weekend the only one touristy thing we did was go to the Guinness factory (which was SO fun- we sat and sipped for 2 hours with an incredible view of the city up in the Gravity Bar.) We all had some friends who are studying there, so it was so much fun to hang out with other ND kids and also to see the game Saturday night with them (which was NOT quite as cool of an outcome as I would have hoped.) Saturday night though, after the game, was one of the most fun nights we have had in Europe. I can't tell you why, either. I think the Dublin kids got wind that we are the "crazy" ones who stay out till all hours and love to dance, so they took us to this really fun but super crowded pub. It was one of those completely carefree good clean fun nights. Have to say all in all I LOVE Dublin, mainly just for the time spent with my friends. 

Tried to wake up today at 10 and physically could not lift myself out of bed I was that tired. I think I am sick too. I am sure all the rain this weekend did not help much. My friend and I are planning a Austria-Germany trip complete with a Sound of Music tour. As much as I totally miss America, I am starting to love more and more this surreal life I live. It really is the craziest break from reality I have ever experienced. I have no real obligations, no drama, no stress. Maybe I should? oops. Don't worry I am still doing fine in school, padres. 

ho ho ho

I was sitting (no, standing) on the bus on my way to school, listening to my iPod, which I had put on shuffle. What comes on but Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas album. I quickly pressed skip but the sound of the little kids singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing stuck in my head and all day kept thinking about Christmas at home with my family. The days leading up to the big day, when all we do is sit by the fire and drink coffee and hot chocolate. It makes me so sad to think that we will not be at home for Christmas.

I can't help but think of, however, our first Christmas in Charlotte. I thought it would suck so much because we were not at what I thought was my home, in South Bend. It was wonderful, actually, and I remember feeling totally at home. It was not sleeping in my own bed, though, that made it home and it was not the fact that we had to wait forever at the top of the stairs while Mom and Dad "get stuff ready" downstairs and it was not the fact that my sister busted into my room at 6 am to wake me up. It was the fact that I was with my family that made it special.

This entire time I have been whining and loathing in self-pity at the fact that I won't be at my house for Christmas. I have been thinking that it will be sad and different, but in reality I think it might be the best. This will have been the longest I have seen my family, and seeing them Christmas eve eve might be the sweetest gift I ever could have asked for. Really, I am coming home for Christmas in a way. 

Sorry for being so mushy. Just having one of those days. I have also been getting sick lately and I stupidly ran outside when it was like -489 degrees outside, so I am probably worse now than I was yesterday. Must buck up though because we are going to Dublin this weekend!!

oops

I have gotten to the point lately where I want to throw away all my clothes that I brought here. Wouldn't it be so fun to start totally fresh with all new Euroclothes? I was thinking that it would be totally hilarious if I completely assimilated myself into the culture here— kind of like that girl in The Things They Carried who went totally native in Vietnam. Weird thoughts I know. I am kind of starting to love Spanish style though for some reason, and the guys' mullets are growing on me... kidding, I have not come that far yet. 

My friend and I worked really hard on preparing this philo presentation yesterday only to realize that we were supposed to do a different one. So typical. I think that when I go back to ND I am going to be in for the biggest shock of my life... actual long essays and reading hundos of paginas in English. Sublime. 

This weekend we are going to Segovia during the day Friday and then on Saturday Madrid (only for a night) but then Sunday we are staying in the city and going to a futból game. Real Madrid would have been awesome but quite frankly I am scared to death to go to one of those games. The fans can be crazy, to say the least. We are going to a Club Atletico game instead. Cannot wait! It's my host sister Ana's favorite team. The other day they called me into Ana's room to show me Google Earth, and we Googled Summerlake. Made me a little homesick. 

Welcome to America, oops I mean London

So we left Friday morning (super early) for London expecting, certainly, a different kind of weekend, filled with lots of English and money spending and nostalgia about everything English we know. When we got there, though, I felt this weird kind of sadness that I could not pinpoint. I think it had something to do with the fact that the leaves were changing in London just like they do in South Bend (not so much in Toledo), they were putting out Christmas decorations and playing American music. I don't know. Maybe it sounds lame but it made me really miss home. 

At the same time, however, it was so completely awesome to actually be in London— all I could think of was Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, Bridget Jones, Spice Girls, Beatles, Charles Dickens and Austin Powers. The British are such lovely people (yea, and I picked up such words as lovely, charming, whilst and mind, used as a verb, like mind the stairs.) We crammed so much into that weekend that my head was spinning by the end of it, in a great way. We did all of the tourist sites like Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, riverboat tour of the Thames and a double decker bus. I was awesome. And it was also awesome asking for things in English and having people understand you! And I know this sounds really petty, but even when eavesdropping in little conversations in the Tube, I felt really cool because for once I could understand everything they were saying and I got quick little glimpses of English gossip. Later on Sunday when we were on the Metro back from the airport to the train station in Madrid, I realized that it is only different here because we really have to tune in to conversations to understand (which I did to this unfortunate group of Spanish guys talking about getting mugged.) I was, admittedly, pretty proud of myself.

Touring around London, it got dark around 4p.m., which was so weird. I had forgotten that they are on a different time zone. They also go out a lot earlier and come back earlier, and places are consequently closed a lot earlier. The bar we were at Saturday night was super fun, but I realized how much I missed Spain when we found ourselves leaving at 2. I also realized that I miss the awkwardness of getting used to a different place and the struggle of a foreign language, if that makes any sense at all. I was almost overjoyed when the man at customs asked me, in Spanish, if I have enjoyed Spain. I really do love it here, have to admit. 

Today I got a care package from my wonderfulbeautiful friend Beth, who will be studying in Dublin next semester. Thanks girl. Trust me, you're going to get a kick out of Europe. I will be in Dublin in a little less than two weeks— I will give you the full report. In the meantime, Bob will keep me company.