Contemplating...

Today I don't have class until the afternoon so I thought I would do a quick little blog post.  Yesterday was our first day of semester classes and it went so well.  I love my Phonetics professor and I think the class is going to be so enjoyable.  It'll get challenging, I know, but our first day was so much fun.  I felt like such a goof when he had us practice making Spanish vowels sounds!  We did a bunch of silly exercises to create the mouth shapes and sounds that are necessary when learning to speak Spanish.  I could not stop laughing!  That class, combined with seeing the pictures from my sweet little nephew's baptism, receiving a letter from a friend back home, watching "Aguila Roja" with my Spanish family, and getting some great news from my dad made for a wonderful Monday.  At the same time, I have been feeling a little homesick.  I guess that's normal after being away for almost a month.  Don't get me wrong...I am so happy here.  But there are some difficult circumstances, here but mostly at home, that I have had to deal with alone.  I wish more than anything that I could have my parents physically here to talk to.  I wish my best friend was here too, so that we could have each other to lean on.  I miss seeing movies with my group of girls in DeKalb.  I tend to think about these things when I'm just relaxing here at home or wandering through the city in the afternoon.  I keep myself busy by spending time with my friends in Salamanca.  On Sunday I went to El Rastro with a few other girls from my program.  El Rastro is Salamanca's flea market.  We had a good time and it kept my mind off of things.  And this weekend a group of us are thinking of going out for chocolate fondue.  I'm also looking forward to booking my trip to Prague very shortly.  I have so many exciting things going on but I'm not afraid to admit that I have been a little nostalgic and lonely lately.  My time here is going by so quickly.  Sooner that I can imagine, I will be home for Christmas.  I have been sitting in the kitchen this morning, watching Angelita cook.   I told her about being homesick and how much I wish I could just hug my folks.  It was as if we were sharing some sort of parallel experience.  She told me about how much she cried when her son, Javier, left to study in France for a year.  And I told her about how I didn't want to let go of my mom at O'Hare.  She told me about the girls she has had in her home and that it was difficult for every single one.  All the while, Angelita's eyes were tearing up from the onions she was chopping and mine were tearing up because I miss home.  Maybe Angelita was tearing up from all of the happy memories she has and maybe I was tearing up because she makes us feel so loved here.  Estoy tranquila ahora.  Muchisimos besos y abrazos.