Alemania y la sombra de Pablo

So if it wasn't for la sombra de Pablo, I would be feeling pretty good about life right now. And when I forget about Pablo, things are looking up. But right now I have this Pablo shaped sombra (shadow) hanging over my head. (And since I've never met Pablo, I don't even know how big his sombra is.) Pablo is my "intercambio." When we started the semester we had the opportunity to sign up for an intercambio. This involves meeting once a week with a student from the University of Sevilla (I think) who wants to learn English. One week we speak in Spanish and the next in English. I wasn't crazy excited about this prospect ever but signed up because I felt like I "should." I didn't expect to get a boy. But anyway, tomorrow at 6 I am meeting Pablo at Starbucks. Oh dear. I am very nervous. I can't talk to boys in English. How am I going to talk to a strange boy in Spanish? (And since Spaniards don't go to college until later in life, he could be as old as 30!) If you think of me around 11 or noon your time tomorrow please send up a prayer for me!

But other than that, things are looking up. I am very excited because...Voy a Alemania! It all happened rather quickly, but just this morning I bought a plane ticket for Germany! Angy once said that you shouldn't get excited about someone coming to visit until they have bought plane tickets. But get excited, Angy...I'm coming to see you! I'm not going until the end of April, but I am still very excited. It feels good to have some sort of travel plan. And I am very glad that Erin was here to help me figure out Ryanair and get my tickets arranged. It feels so strange to be buying tickets to go to another country. In the States this would be such an ordeal. But here...not so much. Everyone is getting excited about traveling everywhere, and now I am excited too! Yay!

So there are lots of things to be excited about: I'm excited about Germany. I'm excited about an upcoming weekend. I'm excited to talk to my family in a couple hours. I'm excited about going to the library to get more movies today. I'm excited about playing Bingo at the hospital tonight. I'm excited about the last Happy Hippo in my desk drawer. I'm excited about starting to volunteer at the nursing home next week. I'm excited about the day it stops raining (Agh! It rains ALL the time lately!). I'm excited about putting on dry socks when I get home from school today. I'm not excited about Pablo, but I'm excited about the first meeting being over. And maybe it won't be so bad. Jesus is here with me, and I think things are good.

(By the way, the mystery letter was from Rachel Wenger. Thanks, Rachel! I forgot that she was still at school in South Carolina. Yay for mail!)