3 posts tagged “spain”
Soooo I did it. Bought my plane tickets. I am leaving Denver on August 17, will fly non-stop to London and then hop on a connecting flight to Barcelona. Seven weeks later on October 5, I will do the same thing in reverse. I am ridiculously excited, ridiculously nervous and....ridiculously excited. I have no idea what I'm going to do there. I want to go to around 12ish places so I figure I can stay about 3 or 4 days in each place, though I'm keeping things open so I'll stay longer in places I really love, less in places I feel less attracted to.
I am going to go to some of the "big" locations, like Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Grenada, etc (as well as starting and ending in Barcelona.) But I also really want to go to several places that I have no idea about. I really want to go to Extremadura, east of Portugal, which apparently is "more rural" than most other places, but other than that I have no idea what's there. But I plan on finding out! Right now I am sort of planning on doing a clockwise jaunt through Spain, starting in Barcelona, going south to Valencia and then west through Andalusia, then north and over etc.
Both my dad and my sister immediately asked me "where else" am I going, as if going to Spain wasn't enough. My dad mentioned Greece and the UK, my sister mentioned Italy and France. Maybe! I might keep an eye on Ryanair.com and see if they have any insane deals, since sometimes their flights are cheaper than it would be to go elsewhere in Spain by rail. So I'm open to the possibility of going somewhere else for a bit, but this is still a "trip to Spain" so I don't want to get carried away. Plus I don't speak Greek, Italian or French, lol, and part of the reason I'm going to Spain, apart from it being amazing, is that I speak the language.
But yeah...I already have a little countdown going. 62 days!!! :D
Over the past few days there seem to have been a lot of things that remind me of Barcelona. I'm sure part of it has to do with the warm weather (even in the middle of February when it was rainy and crappy, I, being a native Coloradan, still thought of Barcelona as being "warm" and "tropical.") I also just read George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia for my political science class, which was pretty interesting, since a lot of it was in Barcelona. The commentary about Spaniards was amusing as well, and even though it was written 70 years ago, most of it's still true (like everyone always saying things will happen "mañana," and how if something's supposed to start at 7pm, it might start anywhere between 6:30 and 9pm.) Definitely worth a read if you're at all interested in Spain, the Spanish Civil War, and/or events leading up to World War II.
Anyway, my missing Barcelona has sort of dulled over the past few months. Not that I don't miss it still, of course I do, but I think my brain has finally catalogued the experience into the "Amazing Times to Remember Fondly" mental folder, instead of it just floating around in my mind where I'd just think about how much I wanted to go back and how much life kind of...sucks back in the US. I've mostly gotten over that, and am more happy and content when I look back on it, rather than angry and disappointed that I'll never have that experience again. I'm glad it happened, rather than sad it won't happen again. Baby steps! It only took me like a year to get over it.
Though one thing I would really, really like to do is to go to Barcelona for, say, a summer, and just work for a few months. Like, work in a bakery or clothes store or something simple. I'm disappointed in my level of Spanish proficiency, and I think a period of time back in Spain would totally polish up my Spanish and, maybe, I'd actually get to the point where I'd consider myself to be "fluent." Also, working (and living) with Spaniards would force me to not only listen, but to talk as well. I'm usually much more of a listener than a talker (believe it or not) and consequently, my speaking ability is severely lacking in comparison with my listening comprehension.
That probably won't happen for a while though...money's kind of an issue (especially since the dollar is weak sauce now.) But after I graduate, I'll try to save up some money for it.
Battlestar Galactica = win. It's nerdy and dorky but also thought-provoking and smart...me likes.
I evaluated the books I'll have in Spain, and realized I have...well...a lot.
His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass, the Subtle Knife, the Amber Spyglass)
The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children #4)
The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children #5)
Harry Potter (1-6)
Xenocide (third in Ender series by Orson Scott Card)
Children of the Mind (fourth and final in Ender series)
13 books! Unfortunately I will be sans BSG, though hopefully I can watch all the episodes up until what's currently available in the third season before I go.
And speaking of the Earth's Children series (which is probably one of my favorite series now), evidently there is a 6th one in the works. Yay! The 5th one was released in 2002 so hopefully it'll come out soonish (though evidently there was a 12 year gap between the 4th and 5th books, so I'm not going to hold my breath). But still, I'm excited, even though I haven't read the 4th and 5th books yet.
Anyway I head back in a little under two weeks. I'm kind of nervous, kind of anxious, and really excited...This semester's going to be interesting. It's going to be weird at first because so many people from last semester won't be there, and it'll feel kind of weird and empty without them.
