Bohoyo, Avila

Host dog

Oldest bull ring in Spain

Pure Happiness

I’m aware of my lack of posting. February has been a great month. I knew the second that I hit that half way point and started working my home, things were going to take a turn, and not to my surprise, they did.

I’m not saying things were terrible before, but things are way better now, I just belong.

The day I’ve been counting to since 121 days ago will finally be here in 2 days: Febuary 28, 2013: Reunited with my dad. I keep imaginging this Thursday morning, 10:00 a.m. waiting at the metro station at ground level, eyes open for the familiar face to be walking up the stairs. And everytime I do it brings a little tear to my eye.

I’ve really been enjoying life lately. The other day on twitter, I woke up to a tweet from a girl from my class that said, “All I can say is I’m going to miss Emily so much next year. Philadelphia girl come to Madrid one more year!”. People don’t realize it, but those things mean a lot to me. It feels great to know I’m going to be missed. Sorry fo the mushy stuff, but these people are making an impression on me, and that’s pretty scary.

I love school. I’ve gottten to know pretty much everyone in my class, and I love how they don’t judge me for my mistakes, or how many questions I ask them about homework. They’re all really cool people. I’ve had a lot of people come up to me lately asking if they can come to my house this summer, to which I always respond yes. I’m not sure if they’re always serious, but I am.

Esta vida es una cosa bonita, y cada dia, yo aprendo que Espana es el pais para mi.

Therefore, I won’t be returning to PA.

Happy Lunes a todo.

Cathedral in the Making

The following pictures are of a cathedral that was started to be built back in 1942, and is still being worked on today. It is all done by one man who started the building because he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was isolated from the community. There are no blue prints, no plans, he does what he feels like and how he wants, from anything he can find. This man’s name is Don Justo, and he has created one of the coolest cathedrals I have seen in my life.Truly a piece of art. I met him and he was the sweetest person. His hands clearly held a story of all the work put into the cathedral, but he couldn’t have been happier or had a bigger smile on his face. I wish I would’ve gotten a picture with him, but it completely slipped my mind.

With that being said, enjoy these:

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This past weekend, I went with my host parents to see snow.

I was woken up early on Sunday, and honestly didn’t start out very excited about the trip because of the 1 and a half car ride that awaited me. Since I’ve gotten here, my experience in cars has only brought me to headaches and upset stomachs, so I was not anticipating that part of the journey. Also wasn’t incredibly pumped because I’ve seen enough snow coming from Philadelphia to last alife time.

However, despite my mixed feelings, when I saw the snow capped mountains in the distance, I got excited.

It turned out to be really nice… and cold. Extremely cold. After a succesful wanna be snow fight had finished between my host parents and I, we went back down the mountain, stopping here and there to get different views of the scenery. Well spent Sunday in my opinion.

Tomorrow I find out my grades for the quarter so fingers crossed. It feels good to finally have results for all this work.

It feels good to feel like you belong in your host country. It’s an unexplainable feeling to feel a sense of belonging in such a foreign place. It makes me want these last 5 months to go on forever. However, I know they cant… guess it’s time to start taking “viva la vida” seriously.