One year

Well, six months studying in Sevilla back in 2009 and a good six months of this 2010-11 academic year makes for an entire year of my life spent in España. It's official. And I still love it.
So I hear you asking, but whyy do you love it there? And thinking about it, it's not just the fiestas, the travels, the crazy Spaniards, or the oh-so-rico jamón. Day-to-day life and being able to function and thrive in a whole nother world all by myself makes me a happy woman. I work, I study, I hang out with friends from all over the world, and just enjoy the ins and outs of living as a stranger in a strange land that has come to feel like home. The fact that I now live a few minutes walking from the beach now makes things even better.
Sometimes I think back to my arrival in Madrid as a fresh-off-the-red-eye-flight American who couldn't even structure a sentence in Spanish and didn't know a single person, and how overwhelmed and nervous I was to be in a foreign country. It's so amazing to look over the 12 months I've got to spend here, the amazing times, the people I've met, the places I've been able to travel to. I feel so damn lucky.




So, Spain, here's to twelve great months and hopefully many more to come.