One Week Left

I keep on moving from being totally freaked out about leaving home to excited about going home. Is that completely contradictory or what? One week from today I'll be in England for 5 days, and 2 weeks from yesterday, I'll be on a plane to Los Angeles. And yet, as I was taking a nitbus from Passeig de Gracia to Plaza Lesseps, and talking to a woman in my building in a mix of English and Spanish, I kept on thinking, How can I leave home? It's amazing how comfortable I feel in Barcelona now. My Barcelonan friends keep on telling me that I know the city better than they do, and that I've done more things that most Barcelonans.

But in all honesty, it's definitely time to leave. I'm very excited to be back in California and see my friends, and then fly to Portland and New Jersey to see my family. I guess both Barcelona and California are home now, which is kind of weird.

I was telling a woman who works at my local grocery store that I was going back to LA for a few months, and then going to Mexico, and she said, in Spanish, "That will be better. They only speak Castellano there." Which I thought was a funny thing for a Barcelonan to say. One of the guys who works there is Peruvian, but was born in Barcelona. He rolled his eyes, and said, "Yes, it will be nice to be somewhere where they only speak one language."

It's funny, however, that now I can totally tell the difference between Castellano and Catalan. When I first got here, anytime someone said something to me, I panicked because I couldn't figure out what language they were speaking. Now I've realized that most people actually speak Castellano to someone they don't know, first, to see if they switch to Catalan. And now that I'm not all in a panic, I've been having these funny conversations with Barcelonans about how crazy their city is. My first impression of Barcelona, that the people who live here are pissed off, has withstood the test of time.

The city is starting to empty out in anticipation of the summer vacations, which start in August. Already, some restaurants have closed down until September. The tourist area is, of course, packed, but Gracia, while not exactly quiet, is a lot less frantic. When I went to see Harry Potter, the movie theater was only one third filled.

My teacher, Chelo, una profesora fantastica, is going on vacation next week, so we said goodbye on Friday. We have a great group of students right now, and most of us are leaving next week. I will post some pictures later today or tomorrow with the group. So we will have a new teacher for one week, and we'll be finishing up, and I'll be taking a test, and I'll be able to see how much I've improved, but honestly, my improvement is miraculous. I've said this before, but I cannot believe the changes in my attitude and aptitude in Spanish from February to now. I can't imagine what next year will be like.

On Thursday, I went out with a Turkish classmate, Olcay, for drinks, and as I was walking to the nitbus, I saw Casa Battló at night, lit up beautifully. I guess I'd never been down to that part of town before. So there I was 6 months in Barcelona, and once again fascinated by a beautiful building in Barcelona. It made my realize that I could probably stay here 6 months more, and there'd be interesting new things to see.

Sigh.