Menos Mal

I am all packed. This is my last blog from my bed in Spain. It has been a strange week in that it has felt very normal. I don't feel like I am leaving and not coming back at the end of the weekend. I'm sure it will hit me when I land in an airport and hear Americans around me.
I am exhausted and that's all I can feel right now. Just spent 2 hours on the phone with the airlines b/c my first flight was canceled.

Today, Thursday, it has been raining all day.
"The whole city is crying that you are leaving," Ignacio at our farewell lunch.


Things and people I want to remember:

Menos mal is a saying I learned a few months ago. It means "It's a good thing..."
Like, Menos mal that I brought my umbrella today since it rained.



Ms. Carmen!!


Ms. Carmen
Every afternoon she puts eye drops in before the bus starts moving.
I look away. Eyes don't bother me...but for some reason watching her put the drops in does.
We discuss how tired we are... talk about our day and our upcoming plans.
Usually an opportunity to correct my grammar arises.
Sometimes she grades papers.
Sometimes we don't talk much at all.
At the lunch today, a student gave out "superlative awards" that we'd all voted on. I won best non-natvie Spanish speaker. I wish I could tell Ms. Carmen.
Menos mal that Ms. Carmen sat next to me on the bus or else my Spanish would be no better off.

Vicente
Greased hair combed back... slightly thinning
Body odor...some days I smelled it more than others, but it had to be him.
He wants to be a boat captain.
He offers me gum... and I take it even though I don't like gum.
He also helps me by correcting my Spanish.
Menos mal that Vicente was my driver or else I would've been carsick every day. The other drivers were crap.

Maribel
Has a greasy mullet... the mullet is very popular in Spain for men and women.
She broke her first glasses and now has new pair.
Every day I hear her say, "no te chilles" (don't yell) to the kids
Every day I hear her name more than anyone else's
She is always smiling
Ponte la chaqueta.. she makes the kids put on their jackets when they get off the bus even though it's not that cold outside.


A hand game/rhyme Valeria and Sara taught me in the lunch line.

colorin colorado (nonsense words really)
nadie sabe que ha pasado (No one knows what happened)
una nina se ha hecho pis (A girl pee peed)
y se quedo así (Now stay like this)

You repeat and jump like this: Legs together, legs out, etc.
And if you land with your legs out.. then your the one who made pee pee.

Every time the kids would raise their hand to speak they started with "that"
Like: "That we need to use a pencil?" "That I have something to show they class."
It started driving me crazy, but it's b/c in Spanish lots of time you start sentences with "es que" or "it's that."


A student here got us all to write paragraphs about living here then he put it all together... here is what I submitted:

It was freezing in the south when I left Mississippi. I'd prepared as best I could for a twenty-something hour trip to a 3-and-a-half-month life in Spain.
Will they have our kind of shampoo there? Should I pack more? How will I sleep without my 5 pillows surrounding me?
Double check the list. Triple check.
Do I really want to do this?

Am I really crying in the Birmingham airport because my mom just left? Who am I? I've wanted to live in Spain for...since forever. Don't cry.
I don't really want to go now. It's too intimidating. My Spanish has gotten so bad.

I have neve been so tired in my life. Is that Switzerland outside this airport? How am I in Switzerland? But I wasn't alone. 3 strange faces stood behind me and piped up "You're with FSU?" when they heard me tell customs why I was going to Spain. Three hours with these three new faces waiting in the Swiss airport. "Guys, I'm so tired." Jet lag was actually a little fun.

I barely remember that day....the first few days. Or maybe I remember them, but it doesn't feel like me who lived in them. Because we've been here for 3 and half months and have gotten to know 3 x 30-something new faces. I can't believe I was ever scared to come here. Can't believe that even for a second I didn't want to get on the plane. Because now, I have no idea who I'd be if I hadn't. Living abroad would have been something I would've said, "oh I wish I had done that before I (got too old, got married, had kids)" about. But not now. I can say I've lived abroad. Learned another language and culture. Seen the Eiffel tower, Colosseum, and Big Ben. My life will fill fuller because of these 3 and a half months...because of these experiences, because of these people.

It seems like life outside of FSU Valencia has stopped. However, we have reminders that our lives are still happening without us there. Skype, Email, and Facebook -all highways in which news from home travels. Exciting news: engagements, births, weddings, etc. Sad news: broken relationships, death of a loved one. Life will not be exactly as we knew it in January.
I watched Mississippi have an absurd amount of snow this winter...and will return to its steaming hot sauna of summer. But it is good to know life has kept going. Makes us realize that we don't want to miss it forever.

And here are some excerpts from the final writing. It really sums everything up beautifully... but it's long so I just picked the main parts.

In the first days La Plaza de Virgen, with its dark-tiled floor and ode to The River, a distant walk. The Riverbed was a gutter, The City of Arts and Sciences--a spaceship, Spaniards—little people from a movie, The Staff--Faculty, Roommates--strangers, Lavin--a weird word, Café con Leche--lacking coffee, food portions--tiny, The Central Market—smelly, The Train Station—hectic, dinners—anxious, alcohol---a relief, and comfort—as lost as familiarity. Then we travelled. We went to Paris and saw Notre Dame, The Tower, and Versailles.
We realized that Virgen is close, the streets intimate, Arts and Sciences magnificent, and the running pants—still too tight. We talked about our passions and our hatreds and we travelled again. We saw the Vatican, Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Morocco, UK, and Spain.
We saw the end in sight and we imagined hugging those who are away, but we blocked thoughts of losing those who are here. We said: “Living in Valencia has been the craziest roller-coaster of our lives. We’ve made undoubtedly some of the most lasting friendships with some of the craziest, yet most exciting people We have ever had a chance to know. This town has transformed our idea of studying, traveling and learning a language, into the experience that people call "studying abroad”. Whether the others who are not here were unable to afford the price, unable to step out of the box, or unwilling to accept uncertainty, We feel sorry that they are not able to know what we do. Tallahassee, Orlando, Miami and Iowa City will be there when we return, just as we have left them, however our lives will not be the same.

We never want to leave; for fear that We may lose what We have found. It’s impossible to imagine Our lives anywhere but here. We have become a source of life to ourselves. Gone are the days of sleep, routine, solitude, rigorous schoolwork, monotony and insignificant priorities. We’re finally living and We don’t want it to end. We are rich; beauty has found Us and wrapped Us in its cloak. It has come to Us in the form of people; people We would have never met before, and now can’t imagine living without. It has come to Us in the form of places. Places that were once only a passing thought or a figment of Our imagination, but our now places of home.”

We said this and learned this and spoke this and more. We each have stories of cathedrals, fields, moments, and people. We are different than we were---How could we not be? The life that comes from 3, the class from 4, the sass from 5, the art from 6, the selflessness from 7, and the mix that comes from Top Shelf—who would Me I and We be without each of those? The details and senses of Valencia are in the people who’ve joined us in growing intimate with Her. We all know the Smell, emitted from people, food, and streets. The Sound, breathed of nature, man, and machine. The Touch, lent by sea breeze, stone, and iron. The Sight, reflected off of ancient, new, and Us. And we all know Valencia, with legs of orange trees, a belly of paella, and eyes like fireworks.

And now I have to be done. My flight is early. I will sleep about 2 hours.
Time to go home.
Menos mal that I came to Valencia, or else I would've lived my life feeling like something was missing.