As death week (and a half) is approaching with its dreaded and mythical (the whole "I'm in Spain for studies" concept hadn't kicked in until now) finals and presentation (one. that one for my third year literature class that my brave, confident self who likes challenges signed up for without consulting the nervous half that would much rather fail an exam than "fail" a presentation in front of a classroom of 60 native Spanish speakers...Tell me again who signed "us" up for this?), there are a lot of reasons for me to be ready to be home. Why? Because December 22nd I'll be finished with classes, three days away from Christmas, five days away from seeing the bf in California, and who knows how many until Disneyland. And bacon. So much bacon. Garlic bread too. Food tangents aside (potential list of cravings to come?) , I have so many things to be starting down the countdown for. However, days like today remind me to stay here in the present, in my incredible experience in Spain, and make the most of these last two and a half weeks here in Salamanca.
Why, you may ask?
1) I've finally become comfortable with my little babies (aka my students) in my English classes, to the point where when I ask them to listen, they actually do. The whole (clap clap clap clap clap. clap clap) method might be a keeper.
2) My little babies found out that I leave in two weeks, and were really bummed about it. It's nice to feel that something is going right here in Salamanca in spite of my sporadic academics.
3) THIS. (see pictures below)
3) (continued, the story behind the pictures). Leaving class today, one of my students said "Profe, mira el cielo" (profe, look at the sky). I looked up and saw this. Today is also the first day in forever that I've brought my camera to class (since we were taking pictures with the older kids). Walking across the bridge that I cross twice every Tuesday, I stopped and took a few pictures (ok, a lot of pictures) of this beautiful blessing, by the side of a friendly elderly man. He came up and started a conversation with me about how beautiful the sky is. After our brief conversation, he said that beautiful, Spanish "Hasta luego" even though we'll probably never see each other again. It's the small things in life that make it worth while.
How lucky am I?
Besos,
Katie
P.s. I was listening to Itunes as I wrote this, and on my shuffle came many songs with sentimental melodies. One of the song's lyrics caught my attention (just ignore the fact that it's a love song, it has some pertinent phrases to the end of this study abroad adventure hehe). Titled "if you leave", Ashton Allen sings "Looking back on yesterday, I swear it was a dream..." and "It's almost time to say goodbye". Looking back on August, at the beginning of my time here in Spain, is almost surreal. It's so hard to believe that four months have flown by so quickly, but here I am, t minus three weeks from saying goodbye to Salamanca, maybe permanently, maybe just for a really long time. But, wohh, has it been a journey.
