When I left off last week I was fighting a nasty cold so last weekend didn't consist of too much. Friday night I walked around the city with some friends & got yogurt and then just came home and went to bed. Saturday I went and toured the palace in town with some friends and then later that night went to a bar to watch some Flamenco but the place was packed so a big group of people from our group sat outside in what is kind of the town center and bonded for a few hours which was really nice. Sunday I woke up to go to church but had no voice and didn't feel so hot so I slept in for a little bit and then met up with some friends to finish planning our Italy trip!!! I finished out the weekend by catching up with some Pastor Kieth aka Batman sermons, working on some homework, and looking into planning a trip to either Paris or London. Prettyyyy relaxing!
Monday it was back to the daily grind of class, nap time, planning trips, flamenco class, and planning a trip some more. Tuesday followed about that same pattern except for instead of flamenco class, we made hand painted Spanish fans... I'm SURE mine will be selling for 209834958349850 Euros by the end of the week! (haha). OH YA! AND!!!! I booked a flight to Paris for a long weekend with two of my friends! Wednesday I went to class, had some lunch, went to a cafe with some friends, watched a movie at one of our apartments together, went to our chapel-like service and then I met with my intercombio. My intercombio took me to this little restaurant that had a GREAT deal she said. When it came to our table it was two plates. One that looked like bacon that hadn't been cooked and the other was a plate of shrimp. The whole shrimp. Eyes and everything. For those of you who don't know, I am my father's daughter when it comes to food. I eat the same thing over and over and over again and rarely try something knew. My intercombio, Carmen, suddenly felt bad because she didn't even ask me if I liked these things. I told her, "No pasa nada," (its not a big deal). And copied how she ate the food. It was surprisingly not so bad, shrimp and all. I didn't get home until about 11:30 PM, which normally wouldn't be a big deal expect for I had to still shower and be up at 5 AM to leave to an overnight class trip. I took the shower, which ran completely out of hot water with half a bottle of conditioner in my hair, and then laid in bed WIDE AWAKE until about 4:30... so that was fun.
My roommate and I then got up at 5, managed to get ourselves together and headed to meet the rest of out group to board the bus and head 6 hours north-ish to Toledo. Even though I took Dramamine I still struggled with motion sickness but thankfully I slept most of the way and it wasn't too much of an issue. First we stopped at wind meals that had something to do with Don Quixote. Then, we arrived at our hotel, checked into our rooms, and headed out into the city. Thursday we saw a church, and a monastery and just wondered around the city. Today (Friday) we toured the cathedral and headed home. Something that I failed to mention is that this city is like at a top of a mountain, with curvy cobblestone streets. It was VERY pretty however, by the time the bus had wound its way out of the city, my wonderful new found car-sickness took over and I was miserable. Thankfully my Dramamine kicked in and I was out for a good long while and feeling mas mejor. (much better).
Tonight we got back at about 9:30 and came home and had dinner with Isabel and now I'm blogging and heading to bed. I'm still feeling a little woosy from the Dramamine haha.
It really is crazy to think that I have been here for a month. Looking back I don't think I prepared myself well enough before coming here. Up until about last week I just had this almost overwhelming feeling of unhappy heaviness because I wanted to be home so bad. Don't get me wrong, I was and still am enjoying my time here but it just felt like I was always carrying around this unwanted anchor that bring me down. However, like I said, something has changed and I feel a lot less overwhelmed, and way more confident that I can not only manage to get through this experience but thrive in it as well. Today one of my friends was saying how when she wanted to go she wanted her close friends and family to be able to tell a difference in her: spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Simply put, those have been and are my goals as well for the semester.
Something that I had learned this past semester in one of my classes and thought, "Oh, this won't happen to me!" comes from my Intercultural Learning and Adjustment class: People (close family and friends) are going to ask and want to know about what all you're doing and how its going... but only to a certain extent. Don't get my wrong, this is not a bad thing, but again something I could have done a better job of preparing myself for. I know that it is impossssssiiiiible for anyone who isn't going through this experience with me to understand what it's like and what I am going through. On the other hand, I want so badly to maintain and grow the relationships that I have at home, but it's a pretty difficult task considering we're on two different playing fields now. All the while I'm in a completely foreign country, with people a barely know, learning a language I thought I already knew. Change of some sort is inevitable.
I'm REALLY REALLY REALLLY REALLLLLLLLLY looking forward to this coming week! Grandma Joyce, my mom, and Allyson will all be here! I'm so excited to get to see part of my family & I have 2 days off from school so I get to spend even more time with them. Hopefully I won't get us lost and they will like it here as much as I do!
I'm just going to stop keeping track of the amount of time I haven't worn sweatpants in public and will be sure to alert everyone the second I do haha.
Be Kind,
Audrey
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind & compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
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