It’s nearing toward the end of March now, and I cannot believe how quickly this semester has gone by. I didn’t even realize it was half way until I started hearing about people at Rollins taking their mid-terms. I don’t have any midterms here. It’s kind of nice, but a little scary. My entire grade relies on the final exam in May. I am so nervous about it that I have already started making study guides for it.
I am so lucky to have been placed with a wonderful host mom. A lot of the people here with host families have had to change families because of incompatibility. I never even had that thought cross my mind. I do miss the independence of living alone/with friends, but after some time I have adjusted to living with someone. We know when to talk and when to give each other space. We have a routine now. I am pretty bad about waking up for classes despite my alarm so sometimes she will wake me up if she notices I haven’t on my own which I super appreciate.
I have gone on several trips now, and next week is the start of Semana Santa (Holy Week) which is Spain’s spring break. So far I have gone to Lisbon, Portugal with a few friends I have made here. The following week, I went to Rome. That one was particularly great because I got to visit my best friend who is studying there this semester. I miss my friends so much. After that, I went to Bilbao, Spain. That was my first solo trip ever. Let me just say, solo trip is the way to go. I had the most fun on that excursion. I love traveling alone. It’s a little scary and I tend to not be out past sundown, but having the opportunity to prove to myself that I am great company to myself and going on adventures all alone is totally feasible was delightful. For Semana Santa, I am going to Amsterdam with a few friends, then Venice alone, and then I am meeting Aislinn in Vienna. I am so excited to see her and go on a wild adventure with her. It will be nice to have a familiar face.
I have really found a routine here in Oviedo. I was feeling quite down for a while, not because of any language barrier, but because I felt like nothing was ever going on. I don’t have homework here the way I do at Rollins and I found myself missing the workload. Siesta culture really threw me for a loop. I was not sure what to do with myself during the afternoon while everything was closed. However, now I find joy in the fact that once the class time ends, they don’t really expect us to spend more time focusing on the material. I have started a routine of going to the gym with a few friends Tuesday through Friday. That really helps with occupying my time and staying out of my bed. And now that the weather is starting to get warmer and less rainy, the friends I have made here are more inclined to spend time outside. This past Wednesday after class, we took the bus to Gijón and spent the afternoon at the beach. It was fantastic! I missed going on spontaneous adventures to the beach like I did in Florida.
Last week, my Dad came to visit me. That was really great. I am not new to being apart from my family for months at a time since I normally go to school out of state, but there was a different feeling being on the other side of the world than just one state over. It was really refreshing to see him. It was pretty funny when he was talking to my host-mom and I had to translate everything for them. He doesn’t know spanish and she doesn’t know english. I felt pretty awesome.
I have also started to make some local friends. There are a few people from Oviedo who I have become close with which is very exciting. They force me to speak spanish which is exactly what I needed. For a while I was nervous that I was speaking more english than spanish despite being in Spain. I was worried that my knowledge of the language wasn’t going to progress any further, which was my main goal being here. But know that I have these friends, I feel confident that I will be speaking spanish more often than not. Even my mom mentioned how much my spanish has improved which is very high praise.