Los Examens

The good news is that I survived exam week. The tests were all pretty intense and a lot of writing, but I think I did okay. It wasn't so much that the tests were hard, it's just that I'm not sure if I wrote enough. The most intense one was the Art exam for which we had 4 images to identify. We had 11 minutes for each image to write down EVERYTHING we knew about it. It was crazy. They were pictures of things such as La Giralda and La Cupula de la Capilla de Villaviciosa (say that 5 times fast!). We had to say who built it, when it was built, materials used, and identify all of the different art things. It was tough, but I felt good when it was done. A really great feeling is that it seems to me that the tests weren't hard because they were in Spanish, they were just hard because it was a lot of information to remember and write down. This is encouraging. I feel like already I have learned so much Spanish, and I was so proud of myself to look down at a whole page of Spanish I had written. I don't know when we'll get our grades back, but I feel okay about things for now.

The bad news is that being done with exams wasn't quite as awesome as I thought it would be. I had kind of built it up in my mind that everything was going to be perfect after exams were done. And for the most part, yesterday was a good day. It was sunny, I wore my new shoes, I finished exams, I got to read the Echo, I got to Skype with my family, I got an ice cream cone for 80 cents, I went to the library, I got to talk to Wolfie, etc. But there was still homework to do (actually...I don't really mind studying), and I still have Pablo hanging over my head. I'm seeing him again on Friday afternoon and have been dreading it for a week. I don't know why he flusters me so much. It's only about an hour out of my life every 2 weeks or so. It shouldn't be that big of a deal. But I feel like he's always hanging over my head. (And I still wish Pablo was that intriguing 20 Minutos guy. Today he was passing out free candy with the free newspaper! What could be better?)

One interesting thing is that yesterday when I was talking to Wolfie, he said something to the effect of "You've already grown a lot. If you came home today, it would have been worth it." But when he said that, I said, "You know what? I don't think I'm ready to come home today. I feel like there is a lot more I am supposed to learn here." So I guess that's a good thing.

But the bad thing is that I only felt that way for a couple hours. And then I got sad again. It seems that every time I get to talk to my family or my friends, it's really great. But after I talk to them, I feel sad. I guess it's like talking to them reminds me of what I'm missing. Sigh. So I suppose the solution is to just stop talking to people from home. But something tells me that wouldn't be so great either. I'm just frustrated by the fact that every time I start to feel good about being here, I start to feel sad again. Sigh.