Missing home while making another one
Feb. 17, 2023
Feb. 17, 2023
Wed, 02/22/2023 - 9:42pm
At this point I feel like I need a theme song to play every time you start to read my columns about being in Spain. A five- or ten-second clip of music that ends with a drumroll and final chord - like one of those singing birthday cards - so you won’t get bored when I start my column with “it’s been another week in Spain.”
I miss food. Not that the food here is bad, don’t get me wrong, but I just miss the sugary and unhealthy food of the States. I have created a list of all the food I want to eat when I get back and some of it includes Frosted Flakes (or any cereal), pancakes, my grandma’s spaghetti, my other grandma’s sloppy joes, chocolate milk, and some good ol’ greasy American pizza.
While you can get most any type of food here, it's just not the same, you know? Like my desire for chocolate milk. They don’t refrigerate milk here, so there’s one way it’s not the same. Besides that, I taste the chocolate much more than the milk. Oh well.
This week has been a week. On Saturday, my friends and I went to Toledo, Spain: It was the most amazing thing. Toledo is an old military city so there’s a castle and a military academy and a bunch of stores that sell swords. So you know what I had to do–buy a sword! And they say money doesn’t buy happiness.
Not only that, though. The atmosphere and the landscape of Toledo made me dream about the past and what it would have been like living in that time, in a city built on the mountains. Once again, it gave me Outlander or like non magical Harry Potter vibes or something.
Then, on Monday, we toured the Royal Palace of Madrid. That, too, was amazing. Now I can’t decide if I would prefer to live in a castle or in a palace because the palace also intrigued me to the point of daydreaming about banquets and balls. Both castles and palaces make me romanticize my time in Europe. Now, I ride the bus home with my airpods in, feeling my main character moment. Or at least I try, because if Europe isn’t the place to romanticize my life, then I don’t know where is.
I know it’s cheesy, but one of my goals while studying abroad is to learn to love myself more. My host mom keeps reminding me during our hour-long dinner conversations that I’m very young and that I should just enjoy my life–especially now that I’m in Spain! She’s sweet and very encouraging; talking to her always helps my mood–which is surprising considering we only talk in Spanish. Sometimes we’ll be in the middle of a conversation and then I realize, “Wow! She’s speaking Spanish!” Although I don’t really understand all the words, I can generally understand what she’s saying, so that’s something.
Having her as a support has been very beneficial, especially when I’m stressed. Not that I’ve been super stressed–the only thing that’s really caused me to feel upset is booking and paying for hostels and train/plane tickets for weekend voyages. We’re going to Lisbon, Portugal, this weekend and then we also booked plane tickets to Italy for spring break, going to Rome and Florence. I’m so excited.
My Determination: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” —Albus Dumbledore