Being Aquí and Why I'm never getting a dog

So I think that this is quite possibly the first time in my life that I have not been such a huge fan of weekends. Here in Spain, weekends are much harder than weekdays. On the weekdays, things are pretty much scheduled for me, and I don't really have to make a lot of decisions. Plus, it's really not much different than being at Taylor...I just go to class basically. But the weekends are when I would be hanging out with people, seeing people, being with you all. So weekends are when I miss you most. I miss watching movies on First South, I miss spending all of Saturday in the library, I miss eating popcorn with my Mom on Sunday, etc. And here I can't do that. The weekends are when it is easiest for me to long for home.

However, with that being said, this weekend I also noticed that even when I long to be home, I am still seized with this completely overwhelming feeling that this is EXACTLY where I am supposed to be right now. I don't belong anywhere else but aqui (here) right now. I don't understand it. I don't know why God wants me here. But I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt, that He does. I KNOW that if I was at Taylor right now, it would be wrong, and I would not be happy. I suppose these thoughts should be comforting. And in a way they are. But in a way they aren't because...I'm just confused mostly. I know God wants me here. But why? What in the world is He doing?

Something else that I noticed this weekend (this is a little less deep), is that I hate dogs. Carmen went to visit her sister this weekend so Erin and I had the apartment to ourselves on Saturday night. That was nice. Except we didn't actually have the apartment to ourselves because Boli was there. Boli is usually a pretty calm, nice dog, but whenever Carmen leaves for more than like half an hour, Boli cries and makes horrible noises that a dog should not be able to make. Anyway, when we tried to go to sleep, we couldn't because Boli wouldn't shut up. So I got out of bed and sat on the couch with her on my lap until she fell asleep. But when I tried to dump her off my lap, she woke up and followed me into my room whining. Ugh. So, I got a blanket and curled up on the couch and let Boli sleep on my feet. I can't believe I would do something like that for a dog! I finally fell asleep, and when I woke up around 2, she seemed to be sleeping soundly enough that I could sneak out from under her and go back to bed. Ugh. Stupid dog. That is why I am definitely going to have a kitty when I grow up, and not a puppy.

Other weekend highlights included a Skype date, going in the cathedral with Sarah, an awesome brownie from Las Palomas, lots of time to read and relax, and learning that the ice cream at Rodilla doesn't taste as good as it looks. Oh, also, meeting with Pablo was a lot better this time. It was still awkward, but we decided to speak in Spanish right from the beginning so I felt like it was a lot more helpful. I think I'll probably still dread it next time, but it wasn't terrible. Nothing was terrible this weekend. There were a lot of good things. But, I can also say (for probably the first time in my life) that I'm really glad it's Monday.