So I guess this is the end. My last blog post before I
return to California, or until I go on another adventure worth reading about. These
past two weeks have been a sort of blur, the first week was great. I was with
Lazaro most of the time until he left on Saturday. My friend from Poland, Kate
left on Thursday. The last hour we spent together we talked about the summer,
what we had learned and how we had grown. Kate who is literally the complete
opposite of me had broken out of her shell a little bit and when she returns to
Poland she has already planned to get her skydiving license (you jump 10 times
and learn to do tricks so you no longer have to go with an assistant ). We
laughed as we both came to the conclusion that if we had met anywhere else we would
have never been friends… But somehow we were able to get super close despite
our completely contrasting personalities. Lazaro took me out to dinner before
he left Saturday morning. It was fun!
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| Me and Lazaro |
This past week I also went to Jerez with the family. This
awesome hybrid between a city and a village. It was so pretty!! I got some
awesome pictures with the church.
Then on Saturday almost everyone left, the majority of the
families and all of my friends as well, even the hotels were pretty empty. So
now it’s pretty lonely, I have gone into hard core teaching mode with the kids.
I make them write stories and correct them on their grammar. These past few
weeks I have been working on a play with the kids, the kids performed it last
week. They had written it and made props and everything. I guess I understand
why I never succeeded in Drama. I kinda managed to ruin the play. I forgot
pretty much all my lines and what I was supposed to do. At least the English
was good.
We went back to the main city of Cadiz one more time before I left. Here are some pictures!!
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| Since we are on a penisula I am standing in front of the majority of the south of Spain but you can't really see it too well. |
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| If anyone has seen that James Bond movie ( the one with Halle Berry) In the beginning of the movie he is supposed to be in Cuba, well this is actually where the scene was shot in Cadiz And thats the building where he was eating, I am standing on the "Island" where the bad guys were. |
People here keep asking me the question if I am ready to go home? I think that is a loaded question. I mean yes of course I am ready to see my friends, and be able to use American slang words without getting a look like I am out of my mind, but I know I am going to miss it here. Miss the stress free environment, my Spanish family, sleeping 9-10 hours EVERY night, I will defintely miss all the thinking time. I feel like I have a lot of stuff figured out now. I mean I think I do. I guess I don’t really know where to begin. I kind of want to sum up everything I have learned. At the beginning of this adventure I had some goals. Make friends, read, get tan, become more mature, fight the American stereotypes and lastly be inspired. I now have friends from all over the world, in Ireland, England, Portugal, Poland, and all over Spain. Check! I read 5 books. Check! I am very tan for me, unfortunately half way through the summer my skin reached its maximum level and I stopped getting tan, but at least now I am off-white. Check! Maturity? Well I personally think I have become more mature but my parents will probably have to be the judge of that when I return. Check! As for Inspiration, I got a lot of that, from proving to myself that I could somehow run 3 miles everyday despite my hostile relationship with running, to hearing about cultures from all over the world, to watching the sunrise on the beach, and counting shooting stars at night. Check!!
(WARNING: the following paragraph is about feelings. You may get bored, I will not be offended if you skip it).
The number one response I always get when people have talked to me when I am in Spain or before I left for Spain is, “Wow, I bet you are having(or going to have) the time of your life.” I already know the first thing my dad is going to say after I get off the plane, “was it everything you hoped and dreamed for (but in his sarcastic tone ). To answer the question I guess it was, but it was way different than I expected I don’t really know exactly what I had expected, but if anything this wasn’t it. Not that that is a bad thing. Not at all. But “the time of my life” I define differently then I think a lot of people meant it. You see this experience wasn’t exactly super fun. Yes it was fun, but my everyday life is fun. I think that was why it will effect me for the rest of my life. It was the COMPLETE opposite of how I have lived my life ever since I can remember. Anyone who knows me knows that I thrive on being as busy as possible. For the most part I don’t breath. This has taken a toll on many relationships in my life, as people sometimes can’t handle my over powering stress. For the most part I am a very positive person, but I think that a lot of the time I let stress rule my life. I think the majority of the time we rely on the people in our life for happiness. That is something I discovered my first few weeks here. Without my friends and family and my constant busy schedule my life felt pretty useless. Many people would
love three months of doing nothing, but for me it was very difficult. I had to learn to find happiness even when I was having the worst of days, when the kids were being horrible, and all of my friends at home were asleep. I learned to rely on God so much more, and even though I thought I would feel lonely, thanks to my strengthened relationship with God and the new security I found in myself, I managed to keep a smile on my face even on days when I was pretty much completely alone. I think that few people actually get the opputnuity to be away from everything that defines who they are. I think for the majority of my life I got caught up in other peoples expectations and the reputation I had created for myself. But here no one knew me, it was kind of like starting college, the only difference was I didn’t have anyone to impress and I didn’t have to do anything to try to fit in. I think this was the realist version of myself that I will ever be. It wouldn’t say I was a different person but without the stress of school and friends I had time to think about who I wanted to be. I feel torn because as much as I am ready to go home and see my friends and family and eat innout, I know how much I am going to miss spain and I worry that I will forget everything I’ve learned here.
So now some of you who have read my blog have daughters, cousins, nieces, and friends who are interested in being an Au Pair! That’s great! It is an experience that I wish everyone got to have, and I would be more than happy to talk to them. But as a warning they need to be ready to be completely independent. I got lucky and got a family that made me feel like their daughter, but it was still hard. Make sure they do their research, and I would really encourage them to talk to me or someone else who has had an Au pair experience!
Thank you to everyone who kept up with my blog, and kept me in their prayers. I hope it inspired you to go out and explore the world and experience what you have always wanted to experience, because there is so much out there that God has created for us to enjoy, and as I experienced first hand with how quickly this summer passed, life really is very short.
― Eleanor Roosevelt
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