Hello. The following message is brought to you by a siesta.
Really though. I had a great siesta today and it continues to energize me! Even though it's 10:30 at night -- later than my usual time to blog it up -- I HAVE THE POWER!
As usual, my sense of time is nearly non-exsistent. Some hours feel like days, but some days only feel like hours. Then there's the "I've almost been here for six weeks" fact. Say what? My friend Hannah (Oregon -->Spain) wrote something in her blog the other day about how when your mind is full of other things, you lose your sense of time perception. I don't know if that's scientifically proven, but if not, exchange students would be living proof. We're surrounded by new culture, language, people, everything - it's kind of a lot to take in. So while we're processing all those things, time somehow gets thrown out of the mix. I still have about eight and a half more months of exchange, but I don't quite know what to think of that. One one hand, I'm thinking: Only eight and half more months?!?! I've only been here for, like, a month and week, so that's like repeating what I've done . . . sevenish more times? However on the other hand, I'm thinking, I'm here for HOW LONG? I could almost have a baby in that time! I miss you so, Iowa!! I hope you're getting what I'm trying to say here. If you don't, that's fine, because I don't think I do!
Remember what I was saying about avoiding the "November Blues" last blog post? Well, they hit me. Sometimes it's homesickness, sometime it's a "there's no hope for me at school" feeling, and sometimes it's just wanting to bite everyone's head off. I have found that the root of these "blues" (sadness, frustration, irritability) is usually somehow linked to Spanish. For example, I might be at school one day and I want to tell my friends a cool story. I start to tell the story in Spanish, but I don't know an essential word. I improvise with charades and Spanglish, and move on with the story. I end up stopping half-way through because there are too many words I can't think of and trying to share my story has turned out to be far too much work than it's worth, and my class must be thinking how random and strange Americans are. From there, my thought process usually goes something like this: I wish I knew more Spanish. If only my Spanish was as good as my English. I miss just casually talking in English with friends in the U.S. and not have to rethink every word I say. I miss my friends. I miss high school. I miss my family and Iowa and corn and why does my life stink?!?!
I know my life doesn't stink, but do you see how my thoughts led to that? I know I'm in Spain, living up the chance of a lifetime. But sometimes, it's difficult. And sometimes, all I feel like doing is curling up in a ball and drinking hot coco.
Fortunately the hot coco here, Cola Cao, is delicious.
I'm not depressed, but sometimes I have bad days. Even in beautiful Spain, people have bad days. Not all bad though :) As I told you guys last week, Evelyn invited me to her church last weekend! Apparently there is church every day, but I think most people only go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I went on Friday night, and it turned out pretty cool! We sung some praise and worship songs (in Spanish of course), then everyone introduced themselves with their name and nationality. There were about 30 people, and almost everyone was from Paraguay! After that, a message was given and then we had a meal of pizza and coke and goodness. I really enjoyed myself and I'm hoping to go back this weekend. Apparently they're doing a Christmas play, and I think it'd be really cool to get in on that! Note: Christmas is less than a month and half away! That sounds so crazy!!
Well I'm going to try and catch some Z's now. I love and miss you all!
P.S. It was great chatting with you tonight, Mom! :)