I know I’ve been MIA in blog world for the past while—¡lo siento, y’all! I’ve been traveling roughly every other weekend, which has been a phenomenal experience (AND the reason I haven’t been keeping up the blog. I’m going to stop procrastinating and write posts about those trips after I finish this one.) So far, I’ve been to Córdoba, Itálica and Granada (with the program) as well as to Ronda, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona (with friends). I’ve got two more trips left, aside from one or two possible day-trips to nearby beaches: This weekend, during the first part of Semana Santa, I’m off to London to visit my friend Kathryn; and I’ll spend the greater part of Feria viajando por Italia with my friend Cat, who knows Italian and will probably end up speaking for both of us as we stop in Bologna, Venice, Florence, Rome and Bari. I didn’t plan on seeing so many places while I was over here, but I knew I at least wanted to visit Paris, London and Rome during my semester abroad. I’m amazed that I’ll have been to all three before I return to the States!
The nice thing about being in Europe already is that flights and buses to other places are pretty affordable. Each round-trip flight has cost me about 100 €, and bus rides are usually about 30 €. The not-so-nice thing for me is that I got into a travel frenzy early in the semester and booked a handful of flights before I realized each trip comes with a lot of other costs aside from getting there. It’s not like I’ve bought souvenirs, other than a couple small gifts for my family, or dined at five-star restaurants. Travel is just expensive. I should have accounted for hostel stays, metro cards, food, taxi fares, attractions, food, developing my film, and food when I typed up my budget. I’ve enjoyed having this opportunity to travel and I’m making the most of each of my trips, but I wince every time I check my account balance. I guess it’s better to learn how to travel economically late than never, even if I had to learn the caro way.
It’s been disorienting to yo-yo between embarking on intra-European viajes and sitting around in Sevilla on the weekends I don’t travel. The lows of homework and boredom feel even lower after I’ve come down from the high of go-go-going to and around new places, places that have only been real to me on postcards and in guidebooks. Don’t get me wrong—me encanta Sevilla, my Spanish home away from home. I know I’m fortunate to be here for the semester. I love living at a new pace in a new place, immersing myself in another language and culture. I’ve met so many wonderful people and tasted some of the best food, most of which I didn’t know existed. But after three months of being here the novelty has worn off, and I feel myself sinking into homesickness. I go back to Virginia (and Carolina, my real home away from home) all the time.
One thing that’s made it harder here is how little space—physical, mental and emotional—I have to myself. As part of the program agreement, Ana is required to cook our meals and wash our clothes for us. The laundry thing weirds me out. I’ve been doing my own laundry since I was tall enough to reach the knobs on the machine, and I’ve gotten used to having a say in what detergent and wash cycle my clothes take. I also hate giving someone else my stained, dirty garments to llavar when they disgust me after a while. My roommate, Callan, and I share a small bedroom with frilly pink bedspreads. Sharing a bedroom isn’t normally an issue for me (I’ve shared a room for pretty much my whole life), but since you have to buy something to spend time away from home and we're all broke, Callan and I spend most of our not-in-class time together in our room. Callan and I are good roommates—we’re respectful of each others’ schedules and needs, and we’ve got a similar taste in music—but even the best of roomies need time and space to themselves.
I feel claustrophobic in this open, beautiful house. My asthmatic lungs aren’t made to process air thick with tension and Pepe’s cigarillo smoke. It doesn’t help that everything Callan and I do is under scrutiny. Ana comes in and reorganizes our room when we’re in class or otherwise out of the way, usually before I have a minute to put away my clothes or books. I can’t ever find my things, and she’s convinced I’m a slob if I leave my outfit for the next day on the bed. If I make myself a mug of instant coffee or tea every three or four days, she’s mad at me ‘cause I’m “always” in the kitchen, eating. If I can’t understand something she tells me, Ana gets frustrated and says it exactly the same, mumbled way again; if I give up trying and just say sí, entiendo (“yes, I understand”), she gets even madder and tells me not to say entiendo when I clearly don’t! I know Ana probably means well and that this is her house, after all, but I don’t know how many more lectures on closing the door gently but firmly, speaking clearly (uh, no comment) or where to put my multivitamins (on the side table, dammit!) I can bear.
Space issues aside, I miss my people. Sure, I’ve made a lot of good friends in the program. We’ve had so much fun traveling, studying and partying together, and I know I’ll definitely hang out with some of my compas after we get back to the US. But there’s nothing like spending time with my family and with the friends I made outside of this stranded-on-a-desert-island social situation. It’s been hardest to be away from my “besties” (my sisters), my Winston 4 buds and my friends from FSU, especially since a lot of them are graduating this year. I’m so grateful for modern technology—I don’t know how I’d have made it without Skype and Google Phone!—but a video chat once every two weeks or so doesn’t quite scratch the itch for face-to-face time with the people I love, in the places I love most.
Ay, I need to stop writing and get out of this house for a couple hours before I go loca, loca, loca. I'll post about Granada, Ronda, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona soon, promise!
Os extraño muchísimo.
