Back in Madrid

Well hello there. Another insanely long period without updating, and I still haven’t posted about most of the trips I took this semester. I’ll get to it soon!

I’m back in Madrid after spending just over two weeks back home in California. I really missed California, and being back there for Christmas break showed me just how justified I had been in missing it. California in general is amazing with its wonderful weather, beautiful sights, and fun places to go, but, to add to that, it’s home, and, well, there’s no place like home. Seeing my friends and family again and visiting all my favorite places was fantastic. I just wish I hadn’t spent the majority of break being future-homesick. I mean, I’m really, really glad I’m spending the entire school year in Spain, and it’s nice being back here, but I wish I could have had a little more time at home. Or, actually, what I really wish is that teleportation would be invented now so I could go home whenever I felt like it and then come back to Spain whenever I want after I leave.

Finals are coming in a few weeks, and I’ve been kind of stressed about that, even though there’s not much I can do for now to prepare. It’s just hard that I have no idea what grade I’m getting in any of my classes, so I could honestly end up with Fs or As in all of them, and that’s scary. And I don’t know how Spain’s grading system will translate to American grades, so it’s possible my professors give me 7s, considering that a good grade, and it translates to a C or something. Grr. I mean, okay, I just have to keep reminding myself that even if I don’t do as well in my classes as I hope, in ten years, when I look back on this time, the experience of living in Spain, not the grades, are going to be what I remember. That doesn’t mean I’m not trying hard in my classes. I really am. It’s just that I don’t feel like I have a lot of control over my grades, and I need to stop getting stressed out about that.

I’d really like to skip ahead a month, because, in a month, I’ll be done with finals, my mom and aunt Valerie will be visiting, it will hopefully be less cold, and I’ll be ready to start my next semester. I’m excited about next semester. I haven’t figured out all my classes, but I only have to/can only take two that will count toward my major, which means I get to take two classes completely of my choosing, and I think I’ll take two web design classes. AWESOME. The other two will be Communications classes, one mass communication and the other interpersonal. The interpersonal one will most likely be a gender anthropology class. Aaand, it looks like I’ll only have classes Thursdays and Fridays (possibly one class on Wednesdays), which means more long weekends and lots more traveling!

And speaking of travel, I’m going to Amsterdam April 11th through 14th! My friend Ariel and I booked our flights and hostel the other day, so that should be great. And Connie and I are working on planning our spring break, which will hopefully be split between Andalucía (Cádiz, Sevilla, and Málaga, hopefully, so we can check out all the Semana Santa, or Holy Week, stuff) and Italy (Bologna, Venice, and Florence). I’m pretty sure planning trips has become my new favorite thing in the world. I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m back in the U.S. and can’t fly off to another country every weekend.

It’s weird having a weekend with nothing to do since for the month or two leading up to Christmas break, I had every weekend completely filled with visitors or travel. I’m kind of bored, so hopefully I can get out and do something with friends. I’ve somehow wound up back on California time apparently, which means I couldn’t go to sleep until around 7am (and then kept waking up) and slept until about 7pm. Maybe I’ll take advantage of all this free time to write about some of my trips. We’ll see.