No es ‘Adios’ sino ‘Hasta luego’

Kristin and I with our host mom, Cristina. Love her!!

Oh, the adventures of returning back to the USA! Why, you might ask? As I type, I am currently at my aunt & uncle’s home in Charlotte, NC, because flight #4 of 4 on my journey home to New Orleans was cancelled yesterday evening. Luckily I have relatives here who could rescue me from the airport (forever grateful!). This 25 hour return home journey has just turned more into 40 hours!

I started this post on plane # 3 of 4 on my journey back home. Right now it still feels a bit surreal to be back in America. Let’s just say that my journey though customs was a bit of a Spanglish mess (used words like gracias and hola a lot more than necessary!). :p I’m already missing Spain, but I know that now is the right time to come back. I accomplished what I meant to do in Spain, and that’s the best I could ask for! If my 30 hour conversation with my cab driver yesterday or my 4 hour conversation with a new Spanish friend in the Madrid airport aren’t indications that I’ve achieved fluency, then I don’t know what is! I’ve updated my More from la Vida en Sevilla gallery with some photos of my last days in Spain.

So this morning I’v embarked the journey of returning to some of American ways. I’ve been thinking about what to say in this post for awhile, and I’ve compiled a list of some of the things I know I’ll miss most about Sevilla but also what I’m grateful to return home to:

I’m alive!…

…. which I’m sure you all knew, but it’s been quite a while since my last post! After our trip to Cádiz I had intended to post the next day but obviously that never happened. Our directors told us at the very beginning that these first few weeks of orientation were the most intense of the entire program. I didn’t believe them at first but I definitely do now! So what have I been up to?

Just a preview of what I’ve been up to: in front of el Palacio Real in Madrid (with ice cream, of course!)