Time to take a breather

So even though I've said goodbye to cheap airlines and overnight buses, packed bocadillo lunches and outfits that will last me 3 or 4 days in a row for multiple purposes, printing boarding passes at EUSA way ahead of time and planning out how early I need to leave in the morning (it's always been before 5 am it seems like), I feel like I've been in a whirlwind of travel throughout Sevilla this past week. Rachael arrived last Thursday bright and early and I've been staying with her in el centro all week long, running around between class and making trips back to Cristina's for clean clothes, and seeing the sights that Sevilla has to offer with Rachael, making sure her short Eurotrip was worthwhile! 

But now that I'm back at Cristina's, in my new room (the summer study abroad girls move in tomorrow, into MC and my's old room, so now I'm in the spare bedroom in the back) I have time just actually sit and just be. And boy does it feel good. I'm on one of life's high's right now (if that's even how you say it), because I just keep smiling as I think of how things have been going over the past couple weeks. It's been tremendously weird to slowly see some of my study abroad friends in the LSCS program go home or leave for their Europe travels, and  to have to say goodbye one by one, and its a little bit freaky to think that that means that I too will be leaving pretty soon (something I've been ready for for a little while, but now that it's actually within spitting distance I'm having a bit of a mini panic attack about it). But I'm also given the gift that while I see my friends leaving, I can put myself in their shoes and realize that I still need to seize the day and soak up more of this enchanting city and this magical experience of living abroad, but its not like I've realized it too late. When I said goodbye to Mary Carr, I still had 3 weeks left. That's half the time the summer kids will be spending here! So I can safely say I don't need to freak out quite yet. I can just lie here in my bed that's just a few inches too short for me (It's David's, aka the 6-year-old's, so yeah), listen to the campanas chiming in the nearby church and the voices of the Spanish niños playing on the playground downstairs, and eat my muesli with chocolate crunch cereal that I've got stashed under my bed for emergencies such as this (when it's 7:30 and you're starving and dinner's not for another 2 hours tonight), and I can just be so happy about the past few weeks I've had. Luckily I've been taking rapid-fire pictures and diligent notes in my iPhone to document what's been going on when I haven't had time to journal it or else I'd never remember it all. 

One of my fondest memories of my time here and being in this home-stay experience was the day MC and I asked if we could bake cookies "American-style" (just chocolate chip) for Cristina. She said of course, provided that we did it when she was there and could supervise (hombre, claro). Gollllly I can't believe I haven't written about this yet, it was so long ago! But no less hilarious to recall even now. So. MC and I went to buy the ingredients at Mas, and this in and of itself was an ordeal. There is no organization to Spanish grocery stores. There is even less variety. We found the one kind of flour next to the produce and the medicines; the brown sugar was a hard chunk, put into a carton that looked like it was made for milk; there was no vanilla extract so we got maple syrup; there were no chocolate chips so we bought a giant Milka bar and used a mallet at home to crush it up (kind of). The rest of the ingredients Cristina had. 

We proudly displayed our purchases on the kitchen table and prepared the kitchen for cooking. Did Cristina have a pan to put the dough on? Of course not.  She offered her glass casserole dish, and I graciously declined and asked if we could use the bottom pan of the oven that had never been removed until today. We scrubbed it clean and decided it would suffice. NOW the recipe: its in standard measurements (cups, ounces), and all the ingredients are listed in metrics. We ended up eyeballing everything and making many, many batches of cookies, just 4 or so at a time, so that we could sample, figure out what needed to be added/subtracted, and finally come up with a recipe that worked for us. The maple syrup honestly made them all taste a lot like pancakes, but when they were hot and fresh, right out of the oven, they were delicious. 

Our reactions after the first try

Anxiously awaiting a particularly promising batch

As I cleaned, Miguel Angel continued to enjoy our masterpieces

Cristina, trying to explain what she thought of our American desserts 

Cristina tried to pretend like she didn't really like "American cookies" (although she did try to add her two cents about what we needed to do, even though she has absolutely no idea what a chocolate chip cookie is), but we caught her sneaking bits and pieces of each batch. She's a bit of a closet-eater (and we love it). Miguel Angel also tried to say he preferred savory to sweet flavors, but he continued coming in and out of the kitchen to snag a cookie or two throughout the whole process. All in all it took a good 3 hours from start to finish in the kitchen. I cleaned the dishes afterward and Cristina was so surprised when I told her I do it at home. I don't mind it at all, and in fact it kind of reminded me of when Stephen and I make some experimental meal and then take turns washing/drying all the unnecessary dishes we used in the process. Like a little bit of normalcy and home, is what I would call this experience. But with a Spanish twist for sure, so I guess maybe it felt like creating some kind of "home" here in my Spanish home. We laughed the entire time as kept pulling out batch after batch of strangely shaped, strangely tasting cookies, and tried to think of what we could have possibly done to botch a recipe as simple as this. I swore to Cristina this isn't what I had meant to cook, but after I saw her eat her 6th or 7th cookie, I figured she enjoyed them just the same. 

Somehow over the past few months, I've gone from feeling like I'm "staying" in Spain, to feeling like I'm truly living here. I won't say I feel as comfortable in Cristina's home as I do in my own, and there are days when I say to myself "this would be sooooooo much more ideal if I could've just gotten an apartment here!" but honestly, I would not trade this experience for the world. I'll take the good and the bad, because at the end of the day I remember the good and the great experiences, and I've gained a family in another country, not just a new city that feels like home. They have opened up their home to me, and I know they do it every semester, and next semester there will be new girls living the same life I'm living now, but I am confident that what we've created here over the past 5 months is unique to us. The four of us have laughed, been sad, been angry and tired, and been downright silly with each other, and we've done it all together. I feel comfortable asking for pretty much anything, even if I don't get it. I know how to let the little things roll off my back and remember the reasons why I love Cristina, recognizing that her quirks are just what make her her. Today I sat at the kitchen table with Cristina and she explained to me MA's recent break-up with his girlfriend. A)I understood our conversation 99% of the time, so that by itself was an accomplishment and worth sharing, and B) I felt like we were talking like friends, like we actually had something to talk about, not just "I cleaned your clothes" or "Could you please pack me a bocadillo for the weekend." I even picked up on the subtleties of our conversation, like when she was in the middle of one story, and when she heard MA coming down the hallway she changed the subject to talk about dinner, and a while ago I might have been dumbfounded as to what we were talking about, but today I understood that she didn't want him to know we were talking about him. And then when I suggested we do something to cheer him up and recommended baking a cake that I know he likes a lot together, she jumped at the idea and said she'd go to the store tomorrow for the ingredients. And earlier today her grandson, Nico (6 months), came over and I fed him, played with him, and he fell asleep in my arms. She is so protective, but she left me with him in the living room for at least an hour while she made lunch. I just felt so at home today, I can't even express how much it warms my heart. It makes me that much more sad to think about having to leave soon, especially with the knowledge that there is a good chance I'll never see this family again, but it's worth the sadness, because I know it means I'm having such an unbelievably rich experience here. 

So many photos at the dinner table, always with the same seating arrangement. And one of the things I'll remember most about Sevilla. Our meal times are what brought us together and essentially created the feeling of family.

With C's son Jairo, and grandson David; one of our Sunday lunches together

Thanks to MC and her love for photos of everything, I have some memories captured I never would have thought to snap a picture of, like the day C finally recognized what bread we like and told us she bought us the "good kind" of bread, made us pair it with this dried chorizo (in her hand), and had me write down the recipe of the dinner of the night.

Family photo of the 4 of us. Now that MC is back in Raleigh (I can hardly believe it- this will be my first night in Sevilla, sleeping at Cristina's, without her!) meal times just won't be the same, but I'm going to cherish these next two weeks and do as much as I can with my family here whom I have grown to love.

Cristina y yo con el bebe; the first time I've ever fed a baby (that I can recall)...Nico loved me