España, ya te echo de menos

I can’t believe I only have three weeks left in Spain!  I can’t say I feel like I just got here—I’ve experienced so many new things in the past few months that last summer seems like forever ago.  But at the same time, I am amazed by how quickly the time has gone by and by how soon my study abroad experience—which I’ve been looking forward to since middle school—will be over.  It’s been an awesome couple of months, and even though Thanksgiving has made me particularly aware of how much I’m looking forward to going home, I’m already missing Spain.  Here are just a few things it’s going to be hard to leave behind:

1) Traveling!  There are so many amazing places to visit here in Spain, and I can take a weekend trip to Morocco or France if I want. 

2) Catching sight of the Alhambra on a regular basis.  Even after living here for three months, it still kind of takes me aback.

3) Free tapas. 

4) Being called “guapa.”  Yeah, we all complain about getting hollered at on the street, but no one’s really that angry about being told they’re guapa.

5) My friends and my host mom.

6) The food!!  And especially olive oil.

7) Spanish nights (when everyone is out and everywhere is open and there are always fun places to go).

8) The light homework load.  It’s been a really nice break.

9) Passing 5 pastry shops on my way to class.

10) Helado.

11) The Andalusian accent.  I’ve gotten fond of “Granaa” for Granada, “no pa’ na’” for no pasa nada, and “ma’ o me’o’.”

12) Living in the middle of a city but being able to walk from my house to the hills.

13) The language.  Spanish is prettier than English. 

14) The crumbling fortress walls by the Río Darro, getting lost in the Albayzín, the fountains, and the flamenco music that wafts into the Sacromonte streets late at night.

This post is already getting too sentimental for me, but even so I feel compelled to include this poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez we read in my lit class that expresses very well how I’m feeling about Spain right now:

¡Nostaljia aguda, infinita,

terrible, de lo que tengo!