This past week absolutely flew by, I can’t believe it’s already Friday again at the start of another weekend! As of yesterday, there are only nine more weeks until I head home. It’s kind of crazy to believe. But, this past week has been a little hard. It’s that continuing mix of feelings that I feel like I’ve had the entire time I’ve been here, haha. On one hand, I can’t believe that we are at the midpoint, and how fast these eight weeks have gone by. I’ve done so many amazing things, going to Rome, figuring out public transportation (I’m telling you, I’m pretty proud of that), studying Cervantes WHERE Cervantes was born, just so many incredible moments. But, on the other hand, it’s like, “oh…I still have another half of the semester to go.” When you study abroad, at least for me, time has this weird way of both passing extremely rapidly and slowing way down. My guess is because you are taking part in intense experiences all the time, intense because most of them are intensely good, and some of them are, honestly, intensely frustrating. You are living a life you’ve never experienced before, well, ever, and doing things on a normal basis you never thought you’d be doing. But, on the flip side, at least for me, I’m really excited about coming home. I miss everyone, and I miss my culture and my habits. So, I feel like that latter feeling has a way of slowing things down a bit to where, even though you are amazed at how fast time has flow and sad at how little time you have left, at the same time you feel like time is creeping by and you have forever left. I hope that makes sense, haha. All of those emotions led me into a bit of a midway slump this past week, but I know it will definitely pass as things pick up again in November and we overcome the midpoint of the semester.
On a more stressful note, we have midterms this coming week, and I’m pretty nervous, haha. I know they will be hard, but I also know they will be doable with a good amount of studying put into them. I think what worries me is the fact that in most of my classes, my grades mainly subsist in a midterm and a final. So, there really isn’t a lot of room for mistakes. But, again, from how the professors have been talking, all of the midterms sound doable, they just need an intense amount of studying in preparation, haha. Which means I probably should be studying now instead of typing a blog post. Ooops.
The night finally came, this past Tuesday, that I’ve been waiting for for weeks: EL REY LEON! It was absolutely amazing. All of the songs and dialogue where in Spanish, and I am pretty proud to note I understood probably 95% of it. There were some songs that were a little difficult to understand what the lyrics were, and when the monkey talked I had some trouble understanding her, but other than that, it was crystal clear! It was self-affirming to actually see the improvement in my ability in Spanish in a form that isn’t at our college or with my host family, where they know I am a native english speaker. I was pretty happy with it. Plus, the costumes and sets, and just all of it was incredible. The musical was in Teatro Lope de Vega, which is in downtown Madrid, and was absolutely gorgeous. The inside was all red velvet, and the seating in the balcony was down in a stadium form which made it really easy to see. I bought a shirt, of course, that’s black with the gold Lion King symbol and EL REY LEON in giant letters at the bottom, I’m kind of in love with it, haha.
However, after the show, we had our usual transportation issues (which I think was another factor that contributed to my midway slump, hah.) Basically, very long, frustrating story short, we missed the train, and the bus that were both at like 11:45 and 12, and then waited until 1 for the next bus back to Alcalá but it never came because apparently the bus schedule has changed, so we ended up having to take a taxi back, but we only had 40 euros on us, so we had to take the taxi to the mall and then walk home. I didn’t end up home until around 2 in the morning, which I was not a big fan of, considering I had to get up at 7:30 haha. It was very, very frustrating, and really made me miss having my own car and being able to drive wherever I want, but El Rey Leon was most definitely worth it in each and every way!
Anyway, this post has been a little shorter than usual, but it wasn’t too busy of a week. I should probably go study for my midterms now, haha, uggh. Wish me luck!