Home Sweet Home

Yesterday I arrived home in Seattle. As the plane was landing and I looked out the window and saw Mount Rainer, the cascades and green seattle. I thought to myself "I'm glad to be home" and then thought, "I'm more glad, I'm glad to be coming home". Traveling is amazing. And I miss it a lot but there is something about home. Going to a restaurant and knowing what you want to order because it is your favorite and you always get it. Ordering a double short americano and being able to put a dash of cinnamon in it. waking up with your cat curled up on the bed next to you. Taking a long bath. seeing your friends and family. Yes, home is a good place to be.

Knocked Out

It continually amazes me how a little tiny virus can land a full grown healthy person flat on their back.

Such has been the case with me since arriving in the States. I guess I cursed myself when I said in my last post that I had had good health. Apparently 8 weeks is the limit of my immune system. Once I got comfortable it said, "no more, I'm done." Thus my time here has been slower paced than I had anticipated. But that's been good. As a result, I've been able to spend more time just hanging out with my grandma, reading, watching movies (I highly recommend "stranger than fiction"). It's been a great decompression from two months of traveling. And perhaps the strangest part is how unstrange it feels. How easy it is to lapse back into life as it was. But that is also scary, because I don't want the last two months to have been just a dream and right now, that's what they feel like.

Anyhow, tomorrow Granny and I are going to attempt a trip into a city and perhaps see a show. Then on Thursday we have planned a party for her friends-- tapas. Then on Friday it is time for my final trip home. I can't wait to see my cat.

Eavesdropping

Listening in to others conversations is a luxury I haven't had for the past two months. Surrounded by spanish and portugese their fluid language always just blended in to background noise. Often times I didn't even realize when they were talking to me directly as I got so used to tuning it out.

So now that I am back in the US the coversations around me seem really loud. I'm not used to hearing so much english so every coversation around me seems really pronounced and I'm almost fascinated by my ability to understand the world around me.

Everything seems so easy, it's pure luxury. For instance, I was able to go walgreens today and buy the cold medicine I wanted, and ask if they had "Emergen-C", I could actually ask for something I needed without relying on hand gestures. Luxury.

It's good to be back, but it's also sad that its over. My trip was great and, I am realizing, really blessed with good luck, good experiences, and relatively good weather. I'm sure through time in my memory it will only get better.

It's not over yet though, I have a week here in New York and I'm planning on enjoying my time in the Big Apple to its fullest. So hopefully there will be a few more blogs from here. Then once I am back in Seattle I will see what I can do about getting some pictures up on the site. So all of you used to using this site to waste work time, fear not! the blog will continue a bit longer.

Preparations to Leave España

I haven't been doing too much the past few days. I attempted a day trip to Toledo on Saturday and Toledo was definitely a very beautiful town but I realized I am at capacity in terms of site seeing. I've had my fill of cathedrals, monestaries, quaint cobbled streets and pictures of christ on the cross. And so I feel like I don't want to do anything and yet feel like I have to do everything because it is the last few days I have in spain. Still, after toledo I decided I wouldn't get enough out of a day trip to Segovia so I decided to save that until next time. Instead, I've been hanging out at the amazing museums here (the Thyssen is incredible!), shopping, and soaking up whatever spain I can in the last few days.

It's hard for me to fully realize that I will be leaving spain the day after tomorrow. As it approaches, I find myself getting oddly sentimental about even the things I find weird and somewhat uncomfortable with spain (such as the fact that appears to be socially acceptable for old men to unzip and pee on the street when the need arises). And I keep spending and spending and spending, trying to figure out what souveniers I can take home to friends and family to help share this experience with them. But in reality I realize that at the end of this time this experience will have been mine alone and no one will really be able to know spain in exactly the same way I have. And I like that, but it also saddens me a bit.

Madrid III

Third time appears to be the charm with Madrid. I'm enjoying it a lot. (Despite the fact that it is downpouring rain and there is no end in sight with the forcast.)

I had met two girls in Lisbon that are in Madrid right now. Mercedes is from Argentina and staying in my hostel and Lucia lives in Madrid now but went to school in Santiago de Compostella. (We bonded when I told her Galicia had been my favorite region in spain.)

So last night Lucia took us out to show us madrid. We went to an amazing tapas bar where they had tapas of salmon sashimi and brie with a pepper salsa on top... yum! Then she showed us a Rioja wine bar. Tonight she is taking us out to dinner as well. It is so great to have a local tour guide! The other encouraging thing is that I can actually understand her and mercedes when they speak to each other in spanish. It only took 7 and a half weeks of emersion to learn a few basics.

I spent the whole day today at the Prado. It was a popular option for tourists due to the rain so I had to wait in line for half an hour, outside, in the rain. Thank god for my seattle rain gear. Once inside and warmed up with a coffee I took to the museum. I had been before, when I was here last, but the visit had seemed rushed and in hindsight I felt I could have gotten a lot more out of the experience if I had invested in the audioguide so that's what I did today. The audio guide definitely helped me get a lot more out of the experience and I really felt like I got a better understanding of the art.

I am hoping to hit the Reina Sofia on Sunday and the Thyssen on Tuesday.

Mystery of the Spanish Drullet Solved!

So I have solved the mystery of the spanish drullet!

(Those of you who have been following my blog will remember an early entry in which I mentioned the phemomenon that in spain there are an enormous amount of urban mullets and that some of the urban mullets have a long dreaded portion that I had dubbed, "the drullet".)

Well, speaking with a girl from Barcelona she revealed the mystery. Apparently (at least the catalans) have adopted the drullet hairstyle as a form of political protest. The catalan seperatist movement has adopted the donkey as their symbol-- supposedly because they view themselves as a very stubborn people. So likewise this long dreaded tale of the drullet is supposed to represent the donkey.

So they are literally trying to look like an ass. I love it.

Leaving Lisbon

Today I am off to Madrid. My last travel day before I return to the states. I am really sad to be leaving lisbon. This city has felt like a home away from home, a place I could see myself staying for a while.

One thing I've realized I don't like about traveling is always having to say goodbye. There are places I've wanted to leave, but for the most part, I arrive some place and form frienships with people and connections to a city and then have to move on. One could look at the bright side and say, yes, but you are always going to something too and that's true as well. But it doesn't change the fact that leaving is hard especially not knowing when or if you will be back and knowing that even if you do return it won't be the same place.

Still, I am looking forward to my time in madrid and new york and most of all a return home.