Today:
When I woke up this morning, I had that nostalgic feeling of sleeping over at my grandparents’ house with the whole family, waking up on a holiday weekend and knowing our plans for the day to go to fun shops, walk around, and relax without a real schedule. It’s a holiday in Spain today so almost everyone had the day off. Some of my host mom’s family came to stay with her last night and no one set an alarm clock. I heard the kids this morning and felt that same lovely feeling that I didn’t have an alarm or any set plans today, that I wanted to shop for things to give to people back home, and that today is a relaxing, vacation day.
I went to lots of shops and bought some fun stuff and then met up with my roommate and her friend. The three of us walked around and then went to our apartment because our host mom was having a huge family lunch with paella. We filled up the whole living room with an extended dining table and I ate so much I don’t even know if I’ll be able to have dinner tonight. Our host mom’s granddaughter played waiter and took all of our dessert orders on a piece of paper which was so cute.
After lunch, I met with my program director to go back to the pharmacy for more medication and then she took me to get a coke and see how things are going. I love talking to her because her views are so refreshing and she’s very enthusiastic and kind. Then I went home, met back up with my roommate and her friend and the three of us walked to the river at sunset. It was so beautiful; it’s insane that I live here. Tonight we’re planning on relaxing at the friend’s Airbnb and watching a movie. I am loving this chill holiday, and it’s even cooler to think that I still have two more days of weekend before I have to go back to class. Also, here’s what the Plaza Mayor looks like for the Spanish holiday:
Thoughts:
I don’t think I’m doing enough on the blog to capture everything that matters, like what’s happening through the day and my thoughts/feelings during the trip, so I want to make more of an effort to do that.
Before I came here, I imagined that I would feel like three months was way too short, and I was right. I’m about halfway through this adventure and my body is barely getting adjusted, let alone my mind. I want more time to settle into the culture, to learn the language, to feel like I’m really here and not just on an extended vacation. I want to have more experiences like hiking and traveling all over Spain, but I also want to get a taste for other countries. For some people, three months might be plenty or even too much, but I could be happy with a lot more time to let this life become a natural thing and really get to experience it. I want that here and I want that in a lot of places. An ideal life for me would be settling into a place for a year or so and then moving on to somewhere else in order to get a real feel for life there and still be learning about a lot of different cultures. Maybe that will be life someday, who knows. At the very least I know I never want to stop traveling, and that it’s way more doable than I thought before this. All it takes is a bit of sacrifice and effort, but it’s possible and so worth it. Traveling is my happy place.
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