So things might be getting better….?

I ended up crying after my last class while saying goodbye to some friends.  I never used to cry, what the hell is happening to me?  People kind of seemed to lose any pity of me when I told them I was going to Sicily for a week first to see my boyfriend before going home; but honestly, excitement for seeing the boyfriend was heavily outweighed by the sadness of leaving Salamanca. 

As I’m sure you already guessed I had no will to leave Salamanca; especially knowing that I would have to carry all 3 of my bags by myself to the bus station (uphill) and then manage them through the metro in Madrid to make it to my hostel to leave 2 of them there before taking myself and the last one to the airport.  But I did it! And once I did, leaving Salamanca didn’t seem as bad. I started day dreaming of going back, that helped a little bit. One of my friends has told me I shouldn’t cry because I’m leaving, I should smile because I had the experience. He’s right; I don’t deny this at all. But it’s still not easy.  I’m in Italy now, and glad for it. I’m looking forward to a nice vacation enjoying myself and what time I have with the boyfriend while he’s not in class and studying. 

 My “culture shock” statement for the day: Spain is way better than Italy. I don’t know if you want to consider me as Spanish and call it straight up culture shock or if I’m still American and this is just some type of reverse culture shock.  This is about as lovely a question as the women from the Canary Islands in the airport trying to decide if their flight home from Madrid was national or international.  Not really I guess, but it’s still funny to ponder. 

My boyfriend seems to have easily adjusted to his new “home,” I don’t know how he did it so fast. His Spanish is going out the window as his Italian is improving while I’m still relying on Spanish to communicate even though people understand English better ( I was the same way in Portugal too, but at least I know how to say please and thank you in Italian). After 3 weeks back in Ogdensburg/Potsdam will I have adjusted? Well, even if I do adjust in such a short time, I will get another adjustment when I go to Middlebury College for French immersion for the summer.  Either way, I don’t things will ever be the same…. And that’s supposed to be a good thing right? 

Someone once told me change was good, I told them I didn’t like it; I guess that’s still true….