Day Sixty Nine: Good Friends, Good Food, Great Day

This isn’t my door mat, but I see it every time I go to teach my Señora’s granddaughter, and it’s pretty much the motto of my life, and the perfect representation of this trip. Fun fact, a man came out of this door about a minute after I took the picture. He didn’t see me, as far as I know. That would’ve been awkward.

Today was better than yesterday! Although I didn’t think it would be once I got to class this morning. My host mom has officially turned the heater on, so it’s really warm at night. I’m used to sleeping with the fan on high even in winter, so I’ve been having trouble sleeping the past few nights. Even so, I got up early again this morning and decided I would rather have a good morning than lay in bed for another hour. I did some intense yoga and then followed up with yoga for self-love and waking up. Then I made the breakfast of champions I’ve been dreaming of:

It may not seem like much, but after scrounging for breakfast every day I was SO happy to have whole wheat bread, peanut butter and banana, and green tea. I ended up eating a strawberry greek yogurt and taking the orange with me to class. I get really worried that I’ll be starving by the end of my six hours of classes on Tuesdays, so I wanted to fuel up. It worked. I’ve been more satisfied all day, and it’s the best.

That sounds like a pretty great morning, right? Right. But then I got to school. I’m not sure what it was, but I was dead tired in my first class. I was seriously considering skipping classes today, but that’s a dangerous move because I only have three skips per class, and I’m using two in each for traveling. I think the ONLY reason I made it through my classes today was because of other people talking to me and helping me get through it. If I were just sitting quietly on my own, I think I would’ve talked myself into leaving.

Luckily I made it, and we had a huge lunch afterward with some of my host mom’s family. Then, I kept up the surprising productivity and actually studied really effectively for my literature midterm. When it was time, I went to teach my host mom’s granddaughter. She also had to study for an exam, so we spent the class working on memorizing her content, which she did by making up movements to go along with the words and called it “teatro.” She performed with and for me until she had it memorized, all while wearing a headband with sparkly bat wings, and I thought, “this girl is SO me.”

Instead of pushing myself too hard and studying more, I decided to go out with my roommate and some other girls from the program for tapas, which turned into a real sit-down dinner. I wasn’t very hungry, so I got a salad that had an amazing cheese on it. It was really fun to talk to the girls about our travels and classes and time in Salamanca, and I had a really good time. We talked about doing it every week, which I think would be awesome. Then we attempted to get frozen yogurt, but they had closed for the day so I went home to write this and relax instead. I’m honestly surprised by how great today turned out given how stressed out and tired I still felt this morning.

Tomorrow, my plan is to sleep in a bit, go to class, then pick up a letter I received in the office, then maybe do some yoga, and study for literature. I want to get lots of studying done so I don’t feel stressed in Germany this weekend. I finally get to go to Heidelberg and see where my family used to live! But more on that this weekend. For now, relaxation and bed time! Also, reminder to anyone reading this to take care of yourself and give yourself some love. Until tomorrow!