Lists from the Ever-Never-Satisfied

Things I miss about home while I am in Spain

• I-Hop
• Peanut Butter
• Panera
• My mother's extremely well-stocked cupboards
• Real rainy days
• Not spiders
• My unbelievable bed
• My mother's cooking
• Portsmouth
• American power outlets
• My parents. There, I said it.
• Getting my eyebrows done prior to their usurpation of the top half of my face
• Cafés where you can buy more than a coffee the size of your index finger
• My iHome
• Amigos

Things I miss about Spain while I am home

• Discotecas
• Chorizo and Tortilla Española
• Age Expectations
• High heels, everywhere
• The churches
• Spanish
• Tapas tapas tapas tapas tapas tapas tapas tapas
• My Spanish family
• My sweet, old, broken down apartment where nothing works
• The gorgeous Spanish sun
• The well-dressed, eligible young bachelor types
• Easy public transportation, just hop on the bus and you're in the city!
• Private dance parties in my single apartment (aka: the bachelorette pad)
• The oldness of things
• Pervasive culture of personal style
• My job
• Feeling useful all of the time
• Pull&Bear, Bershka, Blanco, Zara *sigh*

Stream of Consciousness

Oh gee, it's been a while since I updated here. All I can do about that is apologize.


Things have been extremely busy on the Spain end of things. I'm preparing for Nepal, fulfilling all of my duties for being a functioning member of the academy family here, fulfilling extra expectations so that things may run even more smoothly once I've left them a man down in two weeks, and sometimes I even sleep. My sleep schedule is as concerning to me as it is to my parents, whether they believe that or not, and I can't help but wonder if it will make jet lag even nastier to recover from.


I'll be on my way back to the US of A on the 12th of April and, as much as I am looking forward to Starbucks, Panera, and peanut butter being a part of my life again, I am having very mixed feelings about pretty much everything right now, leaving Spain chief among them. I hope to write something a bit more conclusive to this leg of the experience either on layover in Barajas or on the plane ride itself. We'll see. If the words aren't there, they aren't there, I'm beginning to learn and accept.


While I don't have anything terribly organized to impart to you, I thought I might share a couple of my thoughts/experiences/little tidbits from everyday life, so that you have a peek into what is going through my mind at 5000 mph these days. I would like to call this part of the post: "Hannah's Faulkner Corner". That was a stream of consciousness joke. Oh my goodness, I am such an insufferable nerd.


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• "Just when you think that four year olds can't come up with a new arrangement for the alphabet, they prove you wrong. Oh, so wrong."

• "If I do calf raises while I'm making photo copies, that should qualify as my exercise for the day."

• "If this Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD doesn't work for the little kids, I will cry. I will just sit down on the floor and cry."

• "There would probably be fewer wars if everyone carried a well-stocked pencil case in this world."

• "Asistir = to attend and attender = to assist? Why, Spanish language. WHY!?"

• "Biblioteca = library and libreria = book store? You're still stumping me, Spanish. Is this FUN for you? It is. You're totally doing this on purpose."

• "Gerund. That is the funniest thing I've heard all day. Gerund… hehe."

• "Pastelleria is a much nicer word for bakery than bakery."

• "English, you are such a ridiculous language. Why am I helping you take over the world? None of you makes any sense. Seriously, phrasal verbs? Whose idea was that?"

• "If someone properly pronounces a "j" sound today, I will give them my life savings."

• "Tapas. New Hampshire needs tapas."

• "Chorizo. New Hampshire needs chorizo."

• "I am incapable of speaking any languages today. Words just aren't going to be a thing for the next 24 hours"

• "If anyone gives out a single spoiler about the Hunger Games film between now and the time that I get home to see it, they will suffer greatly."

• "Seriously, you think you can text through my class? I was in high school less than 12 months ago, kid. Between sophomore Biology and senior Chemistry I had plenty of experience with texting under table rims- and no, when I ask you what you're doing and you say 'looking at my hands' I'm not going to believe you. Put the phone away."

• "No, land of sweatpants and Crocs, aka New Hampshire, you'll never take my personal style alive!! AIEEEEEE!"

Post VI: A Room of One's Own and "The List"

Now that I'm flying solo on apartment living, I'm able to take the many lists and Vogue/Elle/Harper'sBazaar/National Geographic/Travel Magazines cut-outs that were stacking up on my desk top and put them on the walls with the sticky-tack that we use to hold up worksheets in the academy. That stuff is absolute magic. It's nice, not only because I was never one of those girls who could get away with posting my interests all over my bedroom walls in constantly rotating boy-band bulletin format, but also because I have officially moved myself into what was once Niall's room, which is larger than mine and has a peachy paint color that makes it seem brighter and far more open. Other benefits? A larger closet, full-length mirrors, a creepy view of the neighbors' apartments, and power outlets that are closer to the bed. Aside from those things, and more importantly, the light bulb in my old room was dead and now I don't have to bother to change it. You better hope your kids are never as lazy as me.

Maybe at some point I will post a picture of my shrine wall to editorials, but for now I'll give you the text of what is on the hand-written pages pinned up on the closet front where I can always see it. Written on yellow legal pad paper that I bought at the airport, I sat down and wrote this on my very first evening "home".

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Okay.

I know that you're not looking forward to the next three months nearly as much as you should be, but remember that if you fail to take advantage of every moment of it, the only loss is yours. Set goals for both routine and spontaneity!

- Go to Logroño more often

- Get in touch with your pals from Zaragoza and coerce them into going dancing

- Get off of the bus in Navarette and explore

- Take more pictures for your parents' sake and your own

- Be sure to get to Seville! (and Granada and Toledo and San Sebastian)

- Take more walks. Know this village better than you know your own hometown.

- Set a goal to run 4 times a week

- Cook something new and exciting every so often, try for once a week

- Spend your evenings on worthwhile things

- Keep the apartment spotless

- AND Make it home! Bring in the candles and the cheap stick incense!

- Really dedicate yourself to your work, both in teaching and in preparing for it

- Do NOT countdown

- Use your planner religiously

- Do NOT put things off- organize properly and promptly

- Find Make time in your day for God (Also, why is this halfway down the list! Priorities, kid.)

- Write letters promptly

- Mail letters within two days of writing them… not a month and a half later

- Work on some free writing contests

- Trytrytry to do your back exercises at LEAST once a day

- Set goals for your evenings, lest you end up wasting them

- Dress well - look good - be clean and professional

- Speak Spanish as much as possible

- Let yourself relax at night and turn the computer off if you aren't writing

- Read. Readreadread.

- War and Peace

- Great Expectations

- A Game of Thrones

- En la Sombra del Viento

- Go to sleep earlier

- Wake up earlier- sleep past nine only on the weekends! You are wasting day!

- Lights! "This isn't a counsel house"

Each day happens once and each moment in it? The same.

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I can't avoid the great yellow eyes of the list staring at me from wherever I stand in my room, but it's good to write them down a second time. Am I missing anything?