The learning never stops

After four months of writing my blog, I just learned five minutes ago how to read the comments that people have left on it... The learning just never stops. I have learned a lot about myself, my culture, what other people think of my cultue, the Spanish culture and history- all in the past week!! This has been a crazy busy week and the hecticness will only continue.
This was my last week of classes, finals have officially started! I have sucessfully finished two of my classes, my two favorite classes here (History of the Spanish Language and European Theory) , which is bitter sweet because I really enjoyed those classes and professors very much. But I am just glad to have them out of the way. Going through all of my notes just reminded me of how much I have to learn and remember. Four montsh of notes is no joke. The past four days I have been locked in the library and my room just studying, reviewing, on the verge of tears because there is just so much to learn and not enough time to do everything. That is one of my problems, I want to do SO much but there just never seems to be enough time. Trying to make time for other things was one of the reasons that I was so stressed this week. Two weeks ago I made time to go on vacation. I went to Ibiza and spent all week on the beach with hundreds of other Erasums students. It was sooo much fun, but of course no studying got done and no papers were written. I cam back, but of course studying was not on the top of my priorites. Well it was, but other things seemed more pressing. Instead of studing this week I went to Alicante and met up with the Coe students that are doing the May term in Spain. It was so much fun and I am glad that I went (I stayed with a friend that I made while I was in Ibiza who was super nice). During this trip I was just reminded of what I have learned, all of the friends here that I have made, all of the things that I have done, all of the things that I still want to do, how I have just gotten to a place where I can reflect and look to the future simulataneously. It was interesting to hear the things that the Coe girls liked and disliked about Spain, things that I said shortly after my arrival. I felt more Spanish this past weekend than I have felt at any point in my time here, being able to show someone that I have made progress.
This crazy, busy week is almost over. My roommate is moving to Madrid because she was offered a better job (something that happened while I was in Ibiza), I am leaving tomorrow to go on a European trip to Italy (Milan, Venice, Rome), Madrid and London. I am excited, nervous, anxious and just have a million things going through my head. But I know that I will have a great time. I just know that when I get back there will be a million things to do. Get to know my new roommate, who will be here when I get here, finish two essays, study for three tests, try to do more traveling and finally return to the U.S.
I had almost mentioned that I had learned more things about how people percieve my culture, so I shall get to that point right now (I feel all over the place right now, very scatter-brained and it is definitely showing in this post). My old host parents went to New York while I was in Ibiza. When I got back I went over and had lunch with them. They told me all about it, what they saw, how it was "Just like in the movies." It was interesting to hear what they thought of America based off of what they saw in Manhattan. That it is a wasteful culture, that we eat a lot of fast food, that we are always running, always in a rush to get somewhere. The funniest thing that Dori told me was that she used a waffle iron for the first time at their hotel. She found it facinating and was just amazed because she had never made a waffle before. It was odd to me because we have a waffle iron in the caf and use it all the time, getting upset when they took away the waffle batter during weekday lunches. It was interesting to see how her face lit up when she told me how facinated she was by the shoe selection at Foot Locker. It just never really occured to me that such small things of our culture can have such an impact on someone seeing them for the first time. I know that people experience it, but it was interesting to see it from someone that I know well.
Today, while taking a break from studying, I had coffee with Dori. We talked about how life just changes so quickly. People come in and out of our lives and we just have to learn how to adjust accordingly. Some people stay in your life forever while others have just brief contact with you. But everyone teaches you something, makes you realize something new about them, about yourself, about life in general.
The learning just never stops and I am happy with that.