4 weeks down

This weekend was to be one of those perfectly planned out and simple weekends. I had been to London twice already, so I was not worried about much. I was excited to see my friends there and was excited to be traveling with my new Toledo friends. We slept a little less than 4 hours Thursday night so that we could get to the airport early enough Friday for a 8:30 flight. When we got to the airport, however, we learned that our flight was canceled because of bad weather at Luton Airport. Frustrated and exhausted, we haggled with the Easyjet people, who told us that although there was no flight available to London during that day, we could fly out first thing the next morning. In the meantime, they were to put us up in a 4-star hotel in Madrid, complete with paid-for meals and transportation to and from the airport. So not exactly the ideal situation, but it worked out. And we got a nice breather from the hostels we have been used to. 

We got up again the next morning after about three hours of sleep and headed to London, where we learned our hostel reservation had been canceled also. They put us up in one about 30 minutes away from everything. We spent a grand total of about 2 hours there. Although we had less than a day in the city, it was a lot of fun. I got to spend some time with Mary, who I had not seen since August. And it admittedly is always nice to be in an English speaking country. 

We got up ridiculously early again Sunday to make it back to Madrid, and of course I felt sick the entire time. We did not even have time to shower once in London (sick, I know) so I was feeling extra grungy. Later Sunday night after dinner I mentioned to Jani that I felt slightly under par because of all the traveling and lack of sleep. When I was working on an essay later, she brought me up some delicious Chai tea, milk and honey to help me feel better. I was about to cry. I just miss that feeling of being taken care of, and I realize how at home I feel here. This family is so wonderful and i feel really lucky. 77 days. Why am I counting?? I don't know. I feel so exhausted lately. I love it here and I am still learning so much everyday, but being with this great family makes me miss my own also. And then there's the prospect of Chicago this summer, and Marion next year...

Servicio

Today we had our first day of work for a Aprendizaje-Servicio class (Service Learning.) I, along with another girl named Maggie from the first semester, was assigned a new location, the Hospital Virgen de la Salud, a hospital just outside the city walls where we will be working with children. Well, I guess when I say working I mean playing. Seriously, it's like a foreign babysitting course. These kids, who range from diagnoses of brain cancer to appendicitis, are so sweet and gracious. There is a little girl named Jennifer, who has some kind of respiratory condition, who fussed and frowned when I tried to leave after reading spanish Robin Hood to her. Our supervisor, Berna, told us that we are kind of a breath of fresh air, a light from outside, because a lot of these kids have to stay in the hospital for days and days on end. It made me, for the first time in months, feel somewhat useful. I have felt like I have been this useless loaf whose sole purpose is to galavant and travel and try to speak the language. I felt, today, like all I had learned is good for something besides my own benefit. I guess that is what service is all about.

I hate shopping. More than anything in the world. More than that, I hate trying stuff on. I would rather have one of my fashion-savvy sister pick out stuff on the internet for me to have shipped directly to Summerlake. And I realize this will definitely be the case come May. I am so incredibly sick of looking at all of my nasty grungy clothes I would not care if they all got stolen overnight. I feel like I must be the frumpiest looking little college student, and I am sure my overgrown mane only adds to that effect. I just feel like haircuts are definitely something unnecessary, which is why I purchased a pair of just-fine stainless steel scissors from the local alimentación to fix those split ends. I know this was random. I just need one heck of a do-over when I get home. But hey, that is what European travel is all about, right?? Grungy, uncomfortable, yet happy and worldly. 

Look out for the falling oranges

Just got back last night (muy tarde) from Sevilla. Wow. What a gorgeous city. To be honest, I originally would have liked to wait until it was super warm outside to go there, but I am so glad we went. I even wore flip flops (maybe not the wisest choice in the end but whatev.) We arrived after an overnight bus at 6:30 in the morning. The bus ride was fine, though, thanks to this extraordinarily kind Chilean guy. I had originally been placed on the bus next to this extremely creepy old man who had a glazed over eye and reeked like spoiled milk. He blabbered unintelligible Spanish in my ear for about half an hour before this guy across the aisle leaned over and said, "Switch with me. You are not comfortable." I had never been more pleasantly surprised, and this guy seriously restored my faith in kind strangers. It's the little things like that, ya know?

OK so over the weekend we saw all of the major sites in Sevilla— the Cathedral, Alcazar, Torre de Oro, Guadalvivir River, Plaza de España, orange trees lining the streets and teeming with fresh fruit. Like I have always said, I love nothing better than walking in a foreign city and absorbing all I can about the place. My host father, before I left, told me to forget about the museums and all the cliché tourist attractions. Instead, he said, ask local youth where the botellón is, where is the best place to grab a café con leche and sit for hours. I loved every minute of this weekend. Except for Saturday night, circa midnight.

My parents were supposed to call around then so I could wish Neita a happy birthday. I thought I would check my e-mail while some friends killed a few drinks at the hostel bar. I learned Lily died. Our poor little pug, more like a third little sister to me. I could not help but burst into tears right then, in front of everyone. I just kept thinking about how badly I felt for my family at home and about how young the poor little thing was. She is, at least, as I have reminded my sister, in good company with our old lab, Danny, up in dog heaven. 

I still went out that night. Ended up turning back around and being as fun as it could be. 

Wednesday nights

Another $3 night. I <3 being friends w/ bartenders. 

Katie is a lazy bum

The great thing about having Internet finally in the house is that you are able to keep in touch with friends, look stuff up on wordreference.com, keep up with world news, check e-mail. The bad thing is that you also can sit on your butt for hours at a time watching Youtube, waste life away on Facebook, watch old Friends episodes. The list goes on and on. Weighing the pros and cons, however, I take the Internet fa sho. I figure I obviously save a ton of time not taking the bus everyday. I think probably we would spend upwards of ten hours on that precious 61 bus per week. I have all this time now to run, Skype, read. Oh and homework? Yea I guess that will fit in somewhere too at some point. 

We all went to Madrid this weekend as a huge group of, get this, 30 people. All in one hostel. I think I lost my good graces with those cute Argentine dudes at Las Musas when they realized we were all one group. It admittedly was a headache getting everything together, not to mention it was the first time most people had stayed at a hostel, so there was some cavetching by some people/person about sleeping in the same room as strangers, but it all worked out and it was a really fun weekend. I did not mean to forget my ID when we went to this huge club on Friday, but on the inside I was a little happy I did not go back. A bunch of us had a chill rest of this night at this adorable little churros place. The next day we spent the afternoon in my favorite natural place in Europe, Retiro Park, and then went to the Prado that night. Even though I have been to that place too many times to count, I still really do enjoy it. 

A few people later Sunday went to a Real Madrid game and, not being the hugest sports enthusiast in the world, I, along with a couple other friends, opted out and came back to Toledo. 

I forgot to update on the status of my wonderful host family. The other day I walked with my host mom, Jani, down to Santa Theresa, a little barrio of Toledo, to drop Ricky, my host brother, off at soccer practice. We keep walking for more than 2 hours during his practice, stopping at a grocery store for a few random items she had to pick up. Not to mention that this grocery store was one of the only ones that sells peanut butter, which I happened to mention that I miss. She insisted she pick it up for me, along with soy yogurt because she knows I like to be healthy. She is so sweet I feel like I can talk about anything with her. She told one of her friends I am "como una hija!" or like a daughter. Needless to say I was so so touched. I love feeling taken care of. 

Little Miss Know-It-All

Believe it or not, I have never felt comfortable being the One with All the Answers. I never have had all the answers. On the contrary, as of recent, I was not even the one who asked the questions. I was the one who, either out of sheer laziness or out of utter confusion, would wait for others to take the initiative to figure things out. This seemed to be the case when I first arrived in Spain and had no idea what was going on in any of my classes. I spoke Spanish then about as well as I speak German now (badly.) When people would talk about certain assignments, I would realize what an idiot I was and do the work I learned was assigned. Currently, however, I seem to be the one people look to for answers. Sure, I have been here a year. Sure, I get the language now. But it's almost comical. I am so used to putting on this front of confidence that now that people actually think I know what's going on it's almost as if I have convinced myself that I do. Mentality is everything.

We had our first day of classes today. The bad part about understanding the language so much better is that spacing out in class is way easier because you can snap back into it at any given moment. I knew that things would be a little slower at first this semester, but I really have to try to apply myself a lot. It really is easy to get straight A's here and I might as well just do it. Now I do not have philosophy (hates it) as an excuse not to be enthused about all my classes I suppose. 

I am realizing how much I am beginning to appreciate all little things here as well as laugh at the things that I used to loathe. I was running on this street by the river yesterday and as a car chugging behind me started to further slow down, I thought, you've got to be kidding me. I sped up and the guy in the car just smiled, held out a beer and said "Tienes sed?" (are you thirsty?) I tried to be annoyed, but all I could do was laugh. 

The day when I decided how much I love Spain

I got up this morning (OK maybe it was 2 in the afternoon) and my host sister started saying how weird it is that we Americans tend to only go out in the old part of the city. I had to consider what she said for a minute before realizing that she was proposing there was somewhere way cooler to go— apparently a barrio right outside the city walls called Santa Theresa. I decided to give myself a rest from running today and walked down to the area they showed me on Google maps (yes, they did. And they also looked up my Summerlake house too and we talked for a long time about how spaced out America is and how we depend so much on gasoline, etc. I think we are going to get along just fine, politically speaking.) 

Walking down I realized Natalia certainly was telling the truth. I discovered an adorable little area lined with restaurants and bars advertising tapas y copas galore. When I was walking back into the old part of the city, in the gorgeous 50+ degree weather and the ancient Toledo skyline against a perfect azure sky, I realized, when I saw that red and yellow flag blowing effortlessly in the gentle breeze, that I love this country just for its simple beauty and, after being here and meeting the people I have, for its citizens. I feel so lucky to have another semester in this place.

We met a bunch of the ND kids in the plaza today before heading out along the Ruta de Don Quixote to a little clearing with picnic tables outside the city, where we intended to enjoy some wine and cheese and watch the sunset. Unfortunately it had clouded over a little by the time we got there, but the view was still incredible and it was an afternoon well spent with lots of hill walking. I hope all these steep hills will be evidenced in the derriére by the end of this year. This group is really cool because they always wanting to try something new and different, no matter if you risk some kind of failure like clouds. This will be a great semester, but I reeeaally miss the fall kids here.