LDOC

Last Day of Classes. Was technically last Wednesday, I guess, because I skipped/had my classes canceled on Thursday and don't have class on Friday. And today, Monday, is my last normally-scheduled day, but I'm only going to the classes to take the exams. And then I have one more on Wednesday morning, and that's the end. I read over my notes a few times this weekend, studied a bit with Emily last week, and woke up early this morning with every intention of hitting the books hard. And yet, somehow, I've managed to convince myself that journaling is a better use of my time. To tell you the truth, it doesn't take much convincing at all. I know I'm going to do fine on the exams, and if worst comes to worst, they're essentially pass/fail anyways. It's so hard for a Carolina student, and a worker-bee (when it comes to school work) like myself to purposefully not give it my all on something; there's something that never sits quite right with me. But in retrospect, 20 years from now, I'm not going to care one bit if I got a 7 or an 8 on this history test, but I bet I will like going back and reading about the little ins and outs of my study abroad experience, reliving the moments as if they're happening in real time again. And I can, because that's what I've done with all of my entries- kept up with it, made sure it was thorough, and left no detail unmentioned. And I'm pretty proud of that. So here I am, sitting at the kitchen table with Cola-Cao, the Dia (off) brand of Principe cookies, a family-size box of Corn Flakes, my empty tea glass and a box of green tea packets in front of me. And let me just say, I've been going all out on breakfasts as of late.

Here's a yogurt (desnatada, better than semi, for sure, but the consistency is a little too similar to cottage cheese for my yogurt tastes) and granola (corn flakes) mix with sliced strawberries and bananas mixed in, a piece of honey/corn flake toast (to resemble the corn flake french toast at Carolina Coffee Shop...it didn't, by the way) and another piece of toast and strawberry jam. Also threw some jam in the yogurt. It's a hot mess, but I like preparing stuff in the kitchen, and I definitely miss the liberty of opening the pantry and fridge and looking for something interesting to make for breakfast (since its my favorite meal of the day), so this'll have to do. 

As for exams, what? 2 today? This weekend I went shopping, babysat and played with Nico for an entire day, got Fiorentina ice cream twice (May's flavor of the month, Violet, was in the back but the owner brought me a sample of it anyway, and then proceeded to make me get out my phone in front of him, go to his Facebook page, and "share" his link to the flavor of the month with all my Facebook friends), cycled at the gym a few times, messed around on the machines on Saturday morning- no one is there on Saturdays, and I'm not good at using the machines/don't know how most of them work, so I always feel self-conscious about figuring them out if someone is waiting around behind me, but on Saturday mornings I don't have to worry about that (all Spaniards are still sleeping)- and went to Cadiz on Sunday for the entire day. Took 11am bus out and the 9pm bus back. It was cloudy and I even brought my textbook with me to study, but that didn't mean I got much of anything done. We got frozen yogurt, set up our things in our secret spot, napped, took advantage of the Sunday special (everything 1 euro) at Cien Montaditos, and went back to the beach to nap again in the sunset. All in all, I'd say it was definitely worth my 20 euro bus ticket, and who are we kidding, would I have really been studying that much more if I'd been at home? 

Last day trip of the semester

It was also so necessary that I get out of the house for the day. I've been wanting to spend more time with Cristina lately, because her family is awesome and I really will miss them so much, but she's been getting under my skin just ever so slightly about lots of little things and I don't want to end on a bad note or with any kind of sour taste in my mouth. But its so apparent, sometimes, how self-absorbed she is. Anytime (and this is if and only if you can even get your story a midst her rants) you say something about yourself/your day/your friends/your family, she half way listens to you and then says "igual de mi hija..." blah blah blah, basically just turning the story back to her and her daily happenings. Its not like I want to talk about me, I just want to talk about anything besides whatever she's obsessing over at the moment, because she'll repeat that story in so many ways, at so many different times, find ways to bring it up in places you couldn't imagine it could possibly relate, all throughout the day that its almost unbearable. When I tried to leave for the gym around 11 on Saturday, I literally had to go back to my room, pretending I forgot something, and come back through the front hallway to start the good-bye over again because each time it didn't work and I got sucked in to another one of her rantings. This time it was about her daughter's novio italiano and how much she dislikes him, how bad of a person he is, and who knows what all else about him, I couldn't listen past 11:30. It took that long to get out of the house. 

Funny nuance number two about Cristina, she isn't really self-sufficient for anything but cooking and cleaning, which is pretty sad, but also humorous when it comes to certain things- like figuring out the weather. There IS a Weather Channel on Spanish television, and C COULD turn the TV to it once in a while to figure out what the week's forecast is, but she waits for her best friend, Meli, to call her and tell her what to expect. I crack up every time I ask Cristina, "will it be warmer by Wednesday?" and she replied "I don't know, Meli hasn't called to tell me yet." Seriously? Does she think Meli is the weather goddess or something? Only she has the power to truly know if its going to rain? Oyoyoy.

Interesting and very eye-opening to me about Cristina's viewpoints on social norms in life, she told me one day (it was her rant of the day) that she called her son, Jairo, while he was ironing his wife's clothes. She was appalled that not only does he have to iron his own clothes, he's ironing Joli's, now, too! "Lucky wife!" Cristina said. She doesn't think its right that, since they both are working parents, that Jairo ends up doing laundry/cooking more than Joli does. I don't know anything more about the situation, but its so clear to me that Cristina has the traditional mindset, that the wife is meant for the housework (and not necessarily anything else), and I've never been around that before, and especially not in such close quarters. 

Hopefully after this mini descanso, I'll be fresh and ready to embrace all her quirks and laugh at them rather than want to step on her broken toe. But sometimes I just want to grab her shoulders and shake her and tell her there is so much more out there in the world she doesn't know about! And she's not too old/too weak/too whatever to find some of it out. She's too afraid to fly, so that's why (she says) she wouldn't ever come to the U.S. But ohhhh what I would give to have her come visit me and stay in my house, and see her reaction to everything we do that she is so unaccustomed to. The thing is, I know she's happy- well, not exactly happy, because she complains daily that her kids never call her and she's all alone and she feels abandoned...I would feel awful for her if these were accurate statements, which they're not- but she is content with the life she leads and doesn't want to learn anything new. This experience has taught me that there is such an unbelievable amount of new things out there in the world to learn, and that I can never let myself lose sight of that. I want to always feel like I do right now- that I have so much to experience, and that the time to experience it is now. Studying abroad has taught me confidence to manage the logistical side of things, which will now support me whenever I want to go out on a limb and do something out of my comfort zone. I know I have the capability to handle whatever is thrown in my path, and what I have to gain from taking that leap of faith sometimes knows no boundaries. 

I can't wait to bring that home with me and see what kinds of adventures I can find right under my nose there. But first, to the university to take my exam.