Who says you can't go home?

The airline, actually. My original ticket brought me home on the 1st of June, but that was A. too soon to pack up and move out and B. not a good day to go home if I wanted to finish my Spanish class and take the final exams (oral and written). That lead me to change the date of my ticket to July 6th. But soon as June arrived, so did the thought, 'I want to go home'. Nothing was wrong, nothing happened, I do not have any particularly pressing business at home but for the first time I can remember in Spain: Round 5, I simply want to go home. You might be thinking one of the following:

1. That's nice.
2. Perfect timing because you are coming home soon.
3. You've been in a foreign country for 9 months, it makes sense. There's no need to explain.

I will explain anyway, even though you might be thinking #3. Things have changed a bit in the past week: my job here is done, Clarisse went home, Megan went home, my Spanish class is over (except for the tests) and the sun has switched to the rotisserie lamp setting. If I wasn't bored before, I certainly am now. All this free time gives me more time to think about how I miss my car, having money, Dairy Queen, popcorn/caramel corn from St.Paul/Minneapolis, the ability to say exactly what I want to say and just plain feeling like myself. I feel younger here because I have fewer responsibilities and because I lose a lot of my personality without the ability to make sarcastic comments. I'm taken back to a time when I was younger and sweeter and spoke in simpler sentences (and thus wasn't as hilarious). Also, without someone to talk to it is harder to be yourself or to act normal when talking. Although I spoke English in class, it's not the same type of English I use in the US. And when speaking Spanish I concentrate on trying to make coherent sentences that give the general gist of what I am trying to convey. Some days I just hope that what I am saying IS Spanish. I'm looking forward to going home and having more grammatically sophisticated conversations. And maybe even ones that include slang. I'll be able to say things like 'check it', 'shut the front door' and 'for shizzle'.

Thus, I came to the conclusion that I needed to change my ticket again. I convinced myself that my Spanish isn't at a high enough level to pass the oral exam, so I might as well go home. Besides, an oral exam on the 1st of July when the class ends on June 8th is a large span of time. You've gotta want or need that grade/half a certificate in level B2 to stay that long. I don't, so going home early just made sense.

Unfortunately, many people want to travel to the US in June, so it's hard to switch your ticket, unless, of course you want to fly first class. I would love to fly first class but I would not love to pay for it. As a result I will remain here in Spain for a bit longer. (My remaining roommate doesn't like goodbyes so he said he wasn't going to say it; he was just going to act like the day I left was any other day and that I would be home when he got home. I said told him that since that was the case I wasn't going to tell him when I was leaving, maybe that will make it easier on everyone. And that's why I am not writing the date in this blog...at least for now. So don't ask me.)

And so I am here in Spain biding my time, drinking my wine until the big day rolls around. And then the search for a job commences.

As a side note, I actually enjoyed being on hold with TAP airlines when I was making these changes. I loved the song and the sound of Portuguese. I was almost disappointed each time the agent picked up. I highly recommend calling them and waiting on hold for a few minutes when you have some free time.

Here was the most exciting part of my week thus far. I saw a bright light out my window at about 12 AM that I had never seen before. Turns out it was the moon:

There is a lunar eclipse tonight. Don't bother looking for it yourself. It's not visible in the US. Aren't I lucky that I'm not home yet?