Thanks for calling Cornell, this is Emma speaking.

So, as you might have guessed, I am back in Day Hall. At Cornell. In Ithaca, NY. I suppose this blog entry could explain my new living situations, the amount I've been working, and the new people who I've met, but I'm not going to do any of that.

Instead, I am going to tie up loose ends from the blog and leave you all with more pictures than you ever wanted of my travel experience with Angie. I had to put the pictures -- all 600something -- into two different albums. I put some commentary under the photos, too, so you can have a bit of context.
Here's album one:

Eurotrip 2009

And here's album two:

Eurotrip 2009, Take Two

These are just my pictures, obviously -- I thought adding Angie's might be overload.

I'm not sure what else to say, really. I got my laptop back from Amy, and was therefore able to upload all my pictures from my camera and organize them. Coming back to Cornell at times feels strange, at other times it feels totally normal. In a lot of ways, my time in Spain feels totally imagined, like a dream I had and just woke up from. I don't feel like that life and those people and that setting actually exists. Not now, not when I'm here, back in Ithaca. I also can't decide if I relate to this place in the same way or differently. I can feel myself easing back into the old ways and the old way of interacting with this place, and to an extent I like that and to an extent I don't. The sense of self and independence that I gained in my year abroad is valuable, and I want those developments to morph and grow more while I'm here at Cornell for my last year, which hopefully they will. Being a Cornell Undegrad is a completely different way of living and interacting with the world than my life in Spain was. I hope, in moving back to my "old life", I don't lose the skills and insight that I had gained in my new one.

I should say, though, that this place is amazing and incredible in ways that I never appreciated before. The size, the beauty, the nature, the resources, the facilities. Mind blowing. I always knew I was lucky, of course, but since being back, it has hit home in a new way. This place where I get to be and study and learn and grow is incredible. And I plan to take full advantage.

It seems almost inappropriate to write more now in this blog. This blog for the past year has been dedicated to my travels abroad, to my new experiences and understandings of our world and of myself, to exotic and foreign things. It was my outlet, my way of digesting what was happening and sharing it all with you. Although arguably my upcoming experience at Cornell is just as interesting and exciting and unique, I don't have the same urge to blog about it as I did when I was abroad (nor do I think I will have the time for it). So perhaps I will take up this dear blog once again if I embark on a foreign journey into the unknown in the future, but for now, it is time to say farewell.

Thank you all so, so much for reading. It means a lot. I'll let you know if I start this up again any time soon.

Adios!

People Change, Places Don't

Greetings from the midwest of the US of A! I am home after a wonderful 5 week trip of Europe with Angie. Everything went well, we had no problems, and time generally sped by. We met some very interesting people and shared some pretty wonderful experiences. It was, in a lot of ways, the trip of a lifetime. We were constantly on the move, constantly seeing new places, going to museums, meeting up with friends. While I didn't feel rushed anywhere, Angie and I agreed that in the future, we would probably spend more time in less places. But, for Angie's intro to Europe, our itinerary was a good one.

Ideally I would like to be able to catch up the blog and bring everything to speed right now, but I can't upload my photos until I'm at school (my friend there has my computer), so that will have to wait for a few more weeks. I plan to upload a few photos from every place we went, make a Picasa album, and then post a link to the album in my blog, so everyone can see a good overview of the places we went and the experiences that we had. So, more to come on the trip.

Being home is good and strange and homey and foreign, all at the same time. When I went through customs in Detroit, the guy drilled me, found out I had been gone for a year, swiped my passport to double check, and then handed me everything, stamped, and smiled and said "welcome home." It's a small, stupid thing, but it made me feel like a returning soldier or diplomat or something. Like I had some business in the foreign service, like I was a representative of our country while away. And I was, I suppose, in a lot of ways. It just never hit.

Generally, culture shock has been okay. It's strange seeing all the nature all over the place. It's strange that people live in houses and have yards. It's strange that there are sidewalks and most streets don't have much traffic. It's strange that you can walk around almost all of Ann Arbor in under an hour. It's strange that it's safe, it's strange that there is a bird chirping near me right now. In a lot of ways, this seems too picturesque, too idealized -- especially when you walk 5 min to downtown and find funky cafes and fair trade stores. I don't take for granted what I used to. There is so much space here, so much breathing room. Things are GREEN! It's different. I like it, but it's different.

I miss Spanish, though. I hope I can still speak. I try, but it's not the same. It's strange that everyone here is part of my culture, it's strange that everyone speaks in English all the time. Hopefully at Cornell I'll find people to regularly speak Spanish to. That will help.

Not much else, I'm afraid. I imagined being home would be relaxing, and in some ways it has been, but it's also a lot of catch up on a lot of things. Lots of errands to run and people to see. My friend Sam is coming to visit for a week, then I'm going to Chicago for a few days with the family, then I'm off to Cornell. I'll update more once I'm back at school! (Ugh... this is all going by so fast...)

Curioso elemento, el tiempo (Curious Element, Time)

The title is from one of the songs from Cristina, "Tiempo" by Jarabe de Palo. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcgwAePTNk4)

Well folks, this is it. Probably the last blog entry until I am back in the USA, which means the beginning of the end for this trusty online journal.

My exam on Tuesday night was hard, my exam on Wednesday morning was alright, and I have a paper due and a test to take tomorrow morning. Then I'm free. Angie comes on Saturday, we leave on Tuesday. Having here her will be wonderful, no doubt, but it is strange to think about. Angie comes to Spain on Saturday. Two totally different worlds, meeting. And then our travels begin.

Liliana left on Tuesday. It's very weird to be here without her. I remember both deciding to come to Sevilla Sophomore year, both getting in, realizing we were going to get to spend a year together rather than being apart like normal, and then tackling this whole experience together. A year felt like a very long time. And now it's done. She's gone. I'll see her when I'm in Michigan. Liz left early this morning, too. I met her here in Sevilla this semester, but I feel like I've known her for longer. And now this context, this whole construction of our friendship, is done. Liz goes to Cornell, so I'll see her, and Liliana lives in Michigan, so obviously I'll see her, too, but that's not really the issue. My problem is that this situation here is ending, it's all ending, and going so, so quickly.

I wouldn't want to be here another semester. I should put that out there. In a lot of ways, I am ready to be back at Cornell. But being ready to be home does not mean that leaving this will be easy.

I canceled my Sevici card yesterday (for the bike system) and am giving my laptop to Amy tomorrow to take back to the hill for me.

I'm not sure what else to add. Not much interesting stuff has happened to me. I've been studying literally all day every day, with a bit of packing and getting rid of stuff mixed in.

I know traveling with Angie will be great and the tone of my next post is likely to be entirely different, but for right now, all I can think about are tests and leaving and how bittersweet it all is. This place and the Spanish people I have met mean a lot to me and it will be hard to go. I've never done anything like this before.

Because I won't have my laptop this summer, steady internet is unlikely, so I'll post our travel schedule until the end of July now. That way, even though I'm not updating, you'll have some idea where I am. Here it is:
June 13 - 25: Sevilla, Granada, Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona -- Spain
June 25 - 30: Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Cannes, Monaco(?) -- France
June 30 - July 10: Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome -- Italy
July 10 - 12: Prague, Czech Republic
July 12 - 15: Bratislava, Slovakia
July 15 - 18: Budapest, Hungary
July 18: HOME

That's it, in a nutshell, assuming all goes as planned. I originally wrote it out literally day by day, but I think this way is safer. I hope you all have a wonderful month. It's going to go by fast.

Mucho sobre la comida (A Lot About Food)

I just realized that most things I wanted to write in this entry have to do with food. That's telling, I suppose, as the only other thing I'm really doing is studying (Nazca, Moche, Inca, oh my).

1) I was in the kitchen a few days ago working, and I noticed just how Spanish our kitchen is. There were ceramics hanging on the walls and a pata negra (literally "black leg"; the Spanish ham that comes still on the leg, hoof included) chilling on the end of the table, half sliced into. I saw the bulk vino (wine) that Mayte and Fernando buy sitting in the corner in its boxes, waiting to get transported into the glass containers they have (they go through a lot of wine). There were 4 or 5 different glass containers of aceite (olive oil) sitting around and a big bin of live caracoles (snails) waiting to get cooked. And of course, in the corner were some cruzcampo (Sevilla beer) cans, waiting to be recycled. That whole scene has become normal to me, but it is so authentically southern Spain. I wonder if my kitchen in Michigan will feel strange in comparison.

2) Since it's getting unbearably hot again, the apartment smells like it did when I first came in August. Buildings really do smell different in summer, and that smell takes me back to my first weeks here. It's funny how smells can be so closely connected to emotion.

3) On Thursday, Luisa and Eva (the two women who work in the center) went out for lunch with Liliana and myself to our favorite tapas place, Los Coloniales. It was fantastic. Lots of fun conversation and story exchanges. The relationship that I have with them is yet another benefit to staying here for a year. Being able to go out with them like that for a lunch never would have happened last semester. But now I consider myself close to the people who work in the center, Luisa especially.

4) Austin and I cooked both lunch and dinner yesterday. I took pictures, although I'm currently too busy to put them up. It was fun. For lunch, we made vegetable and tofu stir fry with rice noodles. None of them had ever tried tofu before, so it was fun. They were all good sports and I think the food was decent, but Nando and Fernando could not hide their disgust for the tofu. At the end of the meal, Nando whipped out his mayonnaise and meat. It was kind of funny. No one else normally eats dinner in the house, so we made pancakes and scrambled eggs for ourselves (American breakfast for dinner!). We left one for Mayte and Fernando to try, and they both loved it. They had never had a pancake before. Oh, and for lunch we also made peanut butter cookies, which were a big hit. It was a lot of fun and provided some good breaks from studying yesterday.

As of now, nothing very exciting going on. I've spent the last few days sitting around, doing all kinds of studying. I am ready for this week to be done in the school sense, but not in the leaving Sevilla sense.

El otro lado de la península (The Other Side of the Peninsula)

Just got back from Portugal at 5:15am. Overnight bus there and back, two days in Lisbon, one day in Cascais (a beach town, no pictures on my blog because I didn't bring my camera), another in Sintra. A beautiful, fantastic weekend. Wonderful travel companions, excellent itinerary. Everything went very smoothly. It could not have gone better. It was a nice vacation and really great to get a taste of Portugal before I leave. I want to go back eventually--there are several more cities I would love to see. Maybe I can add it to my Spain road trip that I'm planning to take at some point. Right.

I don't have much interesting social commentary about the weekend. Generally, there were a lot of tourists where we were, but almost no Americans, which was a welcomed change. It's interesting how Portugal is so off the map for so many US travelers. My short time there absolutely wasn't enough, and I'm left with a craving to go back. The architecture, castles, and countryside was unlike what I've seen before. Very unique, and interesting that it's so close to Spain. Also, the hostels where we stayed were some of the best I've ever stayed in--one was even ranked the cleanest hostel in the world in 2008!

We could understand some Portuguese. It's interesting how some of the words are so close to Spanish, but others are entirely different. Still, between English and Spanish, we got by.

Now I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

At Lisbon's UNESCO world heritage monastery in Belem. Very neat.

And the tower, also in the Belem neighborhood! (After we went to supposedly the best sweet shop in all of Lisbon. My mouth waters just thinking about it.)

Liz and Amy in Sintra, a village just outside of Lisbon. We took the train there for a day. Beautiful -- surrounded by hills (or little mountains?), cute little city center, lots of castles and a UNESCO site.

Probably Sintra's most famous castle. On the top of a hill/mountain... we climbed all the way up and then decided it wasn't worth going in, but we snapped a few conquering photos before we left! The castle was quite beautiful on the outside and I had the pleasure of using muscles in my legs that living in Sevilla doesn't really require.

I'm a sucker for the "Old House With Laundry" shot. This one is in Sintra.

Amy and Liz in a castle tower in the UNESCO site in Sintra. I made them act like Rapunzel later.

The gardens had crazy caves that ran underground. This is an old well that you can climb down into to access the caves! I was scared. I held both Amy and Liz's hands and made whiny noises the whole time. But I did it anyway!

I told you, I'm a sucker for the laundry shots. This one is in the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon.

Liz and a Lisbon house. I love this photo.

We climbed up the Alfama and walked around St George's castle. It's on the top of one of Lisbon's hills and had great views of Lisbon. Straight down is the center area where we stayed. Off in the distance is a bridge that looks exactly like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

Amy and Liz entering part of St George's castle.

The classic Lisbon picture: winding beautiful Alfama streets and Tram #28. The trams were too packed with tourists for us to ride on them, but they were pretty to look at, nonetheless.

I'm very happy with the trip. It was relaxing, even though it was packed, and I loved spending time with Amy and Liz. Now it's back to a whirlwind of work (finals and papers), packing, goodbyes, and endings until Angie comes in 10 days. Yikes, I can't believe it. Too much to do! Too many ends to tie up, too many conclusions I don't want to have. But such is life.

¿La queréis frita o a la plancha? (Do y’all want that fried or grilled?)

I leave for Portugal tonight at midnight (taking the overnight bus, I am oh. so. excited.), but before I leave, here are updates from this week!

1) I tried snail. Yep. Mayte and Fernando brought home an enormous bowl of live caracoles (snails) on Tuesday and cooked those suckers up on Wednesday. I assume that a snail is indeed not part of the ocean, and I therefore went against my vegetarianism. But I don’t know; I was curious. They were so little and slimey, slugging around in the big bowl. Then, after properly prepared, they looked exactly the same but a little brownish and immobile. Still, before I ate each one I could see its little face and antennas sticking up. To eat them, you grab the head between your teeth and suck on it until the whole thing slides out of its shell. So you slurp them, basically. Mayte gave me maybe 8 or so in a little cup, along with another cup of just the broth that they cooked in. Apparently in bars that’s how they are served (note: every day it seems like there are more and more signs saying “hay caracoles” (“we have snails”) outside of the bars here. So yes, I have tried snail. It wasn’t half bad, surprisingly. And no, just because I ate the snails does not mean I have any desire whatsoever to cut off a piece of meat from the entire leg (hoof included) of pig that Mayte and Fernando have in the kitchen.

Me playing with the little snail head before I ate it with Mayte's hand scolding me.

2) On Wednesday at 3:37pm when I went to teach English for the last time, one of the digital boards around the city said it was 38 degrees outside. In Fahrenheit, that’s 100.4 degrees. I, like a typical sevillana, was wearing jeans.

3) Yeah, I went and taught English for the last time. It was sad. When I left, Javi (7) gave me a big, slobbery kiss and Nacho (4) told me not to worry, he’d invite me to his birthday party, which is at some unknown date in the future. I only taught that family English this semester, but I will miss them.

This photo has nothing to do with the above text. With Liz and Austin in boiling hot weather, um, working on my thesis. Right. And what hard work it is...

4) Barcelona vs. Manchester. Try studying for a final—in your own room, no less, not even in a public space—in Spain when that game is going on. Impossible. Mayte and Fernando had a lot of the family over and there was lots of sudden screaming and yelping going on from the next room. I could hear the cheering and chaos from the two bars outside on the other side of the street. And, of course, that doesn’t even begin to describe the constant honking coming from the heavy traffic passing by. ‘Twas an authentic European experience, even though I did nothing to instigate said experience.

Studying for my exam and a look of doom.

5) On Wednesday night, the same night that I was studying for my final and the Barcelona/Manchester game was going on, an ENORMOUS cockroach scurried up the wall in our room, near Austin’s desk. It must have been at least 4 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. The thing was huge. I saw it on the wall, then I looked to Austin’s face, and it was frozen in complete shock and surprise. There was a pause for a few seconds, asked if she should get Mayte, I said yes, then she jumped up, screamed, and ran out of the room. I moved over closer to the cockroach to keep an eye on where it went until Mayte came. Instead of Mayte, Jave came in (Jave is Mayte’s daughter’s husband and was there to watch the game), laughing and asking where the “little bug” was. So I showed him, he moved forward to step on it, and Austin screamed again. Jave missed the bug and jumped because he was so surprised at Austin. It was hilarious—everyone was laughing. So then the cockroach went under the bed right next to where I was standing. Austin ran away into the living room and I, logically, jumped onto the bed. Jave started rummaging around looking for the cockroach, and once I saw it climb up the wall behind me I was done. I told Jave adios and good luck, and I bolted out of that room. We heard lots of stuff moving around and Mayte eventually came in with the spray, spraying the crap out of everything under our beds. It was kind of funny (like the cockroach incident from last semester that involved Fernando thinking he could get it with a broom on the ceiling). Austin and I were standing and waiting in the living room, and of course Fernando took this upset as a perfect opportunity to play jokes on us. He lightly brushed our legs with a feather or something and we both jumped about 2 feet. I’m pretty sure I threatened to kill him, at which point he was completely doubled over with laughter, giggling uncontrollably at his well-timed joke. A few minutes later, Jave brought in the dead cockroach and was dangling it in front of people’s faces. And that was the moment when Mayte asked us “¿La queréis frita o a la plancha?” (“Do y’all want that fried or grilled?”). And so ends the cockroach story.

6) This should really be 5a, as it still has to do with the general cockroach situation, but that paragraph was getting too long. Anyway, I’m glad there was a cockroach in our room, because it led to major bonding. I haven’t ever spent much time with Jave or Susana (Mayte’s daughter), because normally they come over when I’m not there or I’m studying. They are great people—really nice and always up for a laugh. While we were waiting for Jave the man (that was my joke, I kept telling him what a man he was for killing the bug in our room), Susana showed Austin and me pictures of her new dogs, then Mayte had Nando take a picture of the three of us “mis tres hijas” (“my three daughters”). It was not awkward and the dynamic was very comfortable. I felt like I knew them well, even though I don’t. It was nice.

Right now I am in the general library in the rectorado, the building that houses my departments and where I have all my classes. Cristina and I agreed to meet this morning at 9am to study for awhile together, and I think later we are going to go to my favorite juice place and get a smoothie or something. I’m glad we met up because it got me out of bed and finishing stuff that needs to get done much earlier than I would have been capable of doing myself on a Friday morning. Also, this way we spend more time together—it’s scary how little time I have left to spend with her.

This should have gone in the last entry, but I didn't upload the pictures in time. This is me and Luisa, a woman who works in the center who I have gotten pretty close to, at the goodbye dinner last Friday.

Tonight, like I said, I leave for Portugal. I’ll be back in Sevilla on Wednesday at 5am-ish, I do believe! Hopefully it will be a cockroach-free long weekend.

Cuando viene el fin (When the End Comes)

I just took my first exam. Done with my first class. The end is here. It's coming quickly.

Part of my mood is probably thanks to Cornell graduation, which happened yesterday. I've been thinking about my good friends who have graduated, are packing up their stuff and leaving, setting up camp in places all over the world doing all kinds of work. It's very bittersweet. I was already feeling bittersweet leaving Spain in the first place, but knowing that graduation of the class of 2009 has just happened, that I get emails filled with sadness from my friends in Ithaca who are packing up their stuff for the last time... well, it just solidifies the general sad mood of the day.

But I had other, more relevant things to share...

1) On Thursday night, Austin and I met up with Cristina (my Spanish friend) and some of her friends at the Facultad de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Dept, basically) of the Univ of Sevilla. One of her friends studies art and her stuff was in an exhibition open to the public. It was interesting, nice to look at the art, fun to meet more of Cristina's friends. Then after, we went out for drinks at a nearby taberna. I had a FANTASTIC time. It was the first time this whole year where I felt like I was being myself in Spanish and not missing a beat. I was talking, joking, laughing, all in Spanish, saying things I would say in social situations in English, maintaining my personality across the language barrier. In the past, normally I interact just fine, but I never feel like myself. I am quieter and more timid and am very aware that I am the foreign kid who Cristina brought along. But not last Thursday night. I was being Emma, but in Spanish. And it felt absolutely wonderful.

2) That night with Cristina got me thinking about my language abilities, generally. I wrote on the side of my blog at the start of last summer that my goal for Spain was to come away speaking Spanish "fluidly." I remember lots of people trying to correct me on that ("don't you mean 'fluently'?") and having to explain what I meant. I wanted to leave after this year being able to communicate well, without pauses or "umms" or awkwardness in Spanish. Thursday night is proof that, in a lot of ways, I'm really there. I think I've reached that goal. It is sad in some ways, because it is the end of May and it is the first time I'm really solidly feeling that way, but better now than never. I did it, I suppose. I reached my goal. And as bittersweet (that's the word of the day) as it all is that it's happening now, just as I have to pack things up and head out, it still feels really, really good that I accomplished it.

3) Friday night was the center's goodbye dinner for us, because people are already starting to leave at the end of this week. It was the same place we had Thanksgiving last semester -- it was in a hor d'oeuvres type of format, and we all just stood around talking while all kinds of yummy finger foods were brought out. The sangria was also quite good. Anyway, it was nice. I talked to the people who work in the center a decent bit. Overall, though, just more evidence that things are starting to shut down here.

4) Cristina gave me a CD with a ton of her Spanish music on it. I'm listening to it right now. I love it. We have very similar musical taste, so I basically now have my music, but in Spanish. I'm so happy I have it. I made her a CD of American music, too, so we'll do a little exchange. That's just more evidence as to how we get each other, though. Our music is quite similar (read: indie/folk/rock, more or less). Here's one of my favorite songs that she gave me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0VrYgAlfA

5) Cristina also lent me a movie to watch (wow, maybe I should just title this entry "Cristina"!) called 'Noviembre.' It was stellar, absolutely fantastic. It's an alternative movie made in Spain and winner of a bunch of film festival awards. Anyway, it was in Spanish, obviously. I watched it. No problem. In Spanish. No subtitles. No stopping. No nothing. At times I actually forgot that I was listening to Spanish, not to English. I was processing it subconsciously. It felt great. See #2 and my general fluid abilities with Spanish. Good stuff.

This is the last week of teaching English. This week I also have one more final to take and one more paper to turn in. Then Portugal for the weekend. I'm seeing Angie in less than three weeks. I can't wrap my head around all of this!!