The home stretch

Saludos!

So, super long time no write.  Sorry about that!  There are a few reasons for that: our wi-fi broke twice in the last month or so, and my boyfriend was here for a visit.  So I'm finally writing another entry that is long overdue.  Life here has been fairly routine as far as my teaching has gone.  I'm coming home very soon so have had to talk to my students about that.  I'm helping some of them with the process of finding new English teachers.

I'll get to the most exciting part of the last month: Smiley came here to visit me!  I  can't believe I am lucky enough to have had my boyfriend visit me in Spain!  It about killed me waiting for him to arrive, but it was worth it.  I went up to Madrid and met him when his flight came in.  We spent 2 nights there and saw the city, mostly just hitting the most common sights (El Prado, El Museo Reina Sofia, Parque Retiro...), but we also took a trip to visit the Don Quijote/Cervantes statue.  I read El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha in one of my Spanish courses at PLU.  I took to referring to him as my "homeboy" and wanted to show the statue to Smiley.  DQ is seriously an amazing novel and well worth reading (even in English, though I'm proud to say I read it in Spanish).  It is considered to be the first ever novel and was published in 1595 or so.

Ok moving on.  After Madrid, we took the bus back to Seville (it's so much easier to tolerate a 6 hr bus ride when your sweetheart is sitting next to you!) and spent time here.  We also took a trip to the beach in Cadiz!  The weather was plenty hot and we enjoyed being on the beach and relaxing.  In Sevilla, we were lucky enough to see a La Liga soccer match!  We got to see Sevilla beat Real Sporting 2-1!  One of my English students has a carnet (season tickets) and helped us get a free ticket so we only had to pay for one instead of 2 tickets.  It was so nice of him to do that for us!  Getting to go to a La Liga game together meant a lot to Smiley and I since we are both huge soccer fans and La Liga is like the top of the top in terms of professional soccer (with the exception of the English teams, of course).

I was also able to introduce Smiley to my Spanish friends which was a lot of fun.  I ended up translating a bit but I think my friends enjoyed practicing their English!  Before we knew it, it was time for Smiley to head home.  I did not handle it well :(  Let's just say there were tears at the train station when I had to let him go back to Madrid to catch his flight home.  I know it's not that long before we'll actually be living in the same city, but it's not easy saying goodbye, especially such a wonderful week together.

So since he's left, I've been pretty homesick.  I'm not going to sugar coat it, I kinda fell apart.  Living halfway around the world is really hard sometimes.  Our wi-fi broke the morning Smiley left so that was kind of a double whammy.  I felt very isolated with no way to call or email home unless I went to a place with wi-fi.  It got fixed about 5 days later.  Anyway, I'm trying to enjoy my time in Spain before I leave because I know it'll be a very long time before I come back.  I don't have any major plans for the weekend.  I feel like I should travel to a new city but I don't have the motivation to go alone and my friends can't go this weekend.  Most likely I'll visit the art museum, catch a movie, Skype with Smiley, my mom, and my cousin Jamie, and hang out with my roommate Raquel and her friends.  I like hanging out with Spaniard so I can practice my Spanish.  On Friday I am going to a Flamenco show with Carmen and her friend Barbara.

That's about it for now.  I'm really looking forward to being home.  I'm trying not to dwell on being homesick even though it's been overtaking me lately.  As my dad would say, I'm in the home stretch!  Returning to Seattle is not so very far off.  Be well and I'll see you before too long!

Un beso,
Ashlita