AMERICA I HAVE RETURNED

So i definitely didn’t update this nearly as often as I planned :/  oops.  But I can’t even begin to explain how nice it is to be back in San Diego.  I had an amazing time abroad and had some cool experiences but it I am so happy to be back in my vista with my beloved roommates <3<3

SO much has happened since I last updated.  I saw the Sagrada Familia (which I had a view of from my room), visited the Picasso Museum, La Pedrera (a really cool building designed by Gaudi), La Boqueria (Barcelona’s farmers market), and went to an FC Barcelona fútbol game, just to name a few.  And that was just within the city!  We took a day trip to Figueras to see the Dalí Museum and to Girona, which is kind of known as the “Florence of Spain”.  It’s basically exactly what you see when you think of Europe.  I suggest you google image this city because it is GORGEOUS.  We also took a weekend trip to Valencia, which was one of the highlights of the whole month.  You should also google image this place.  While we were there we took a walking city tour and went to the aquarium, which is really cool and modern-looking.

While we did and saw a lot of amazing things, I think I’m going to miss the simple things most.  Like walking through the city to class (my class sucked, by the way.  Imagine fitting a semesters worth of a third year language course into 11 days worth of classes), taking the Metro to the city center, having drinks with dinner, and eating tapas for lunch with friends everyday after class.  The pace in Spain is so much slower and relaxed.  People work so much longer days in order to make a living, so they take a couple-hour lunch breaks in order to get energy to continue working.  The time they take off they really enjoy.  Eating out in restaurants isn’t as rushed as it is in the States, where the waiter is trying to rush the check out to you so they can make room for the next round of customers.  In fact, you barely even see the waiter because since they don’t make money off of tips, they don’t wait on you hand-and-foot.  This also means they aren’t very friendly….on the way back home we had a layover in JFK, where I got McDonalds for lunch.  I swear, I thought the woman who took my order was the nicest person I’d ever met.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned so far about this trip (I think I’ll continue to learn from it, even though it’s over), is how much I love America and my life here in the States.  I’m truly so lucky.  What I think is so cool about my study-abroad experience was that I not only learned how to appreciate another culture — I learned to appreciate my own.  Even though I had so much fun, towards the end of the trip I was more than ready to go home to my beautiful San Diego.

This next semester has so much in store for me.  With digging into my major and minor classes, my term as as RVP beginning, my 20th birthday, plus COACHELLA (!!!!), I’m going to be sooo busy.  But I can honestly say I’m really excited.  I feel like I’ve already had so much growth during my Sophomore year, so I’m looking forward to seeing where these next few months take me