November is here and I find myself in my third month home. I cannot believe that it has only been that long. I simultaneously feel so close and so distant to my time in Spain.So much has happened since I've returned and honestly I haven't had much time to process my return, the differences, and all that I learned in my time abroad.
What I do know is that I often ache to be back in Pamplona. My heart strings are tugged with desire to be walking the streets of Pamplona, to be sitting in a piso surrounded by my people, to wander from bar to bar on Thursday nights eating pinxos and enjoying the charm of juevinxos, to be speaking Spanish, and to see my improvement day by day.
I miss the place and the lifestyle, the culture, and mostly the people. I miss my Erasmus family, the classmates who helped me every step of the way, and Johanna and Leslie and our nights of language exchange.
I should be studying for my comps, and I will get back to that, but as I sit here, listening to my Pamplona playlist, I can't help but to yearn for the place and people that I left behind. You don't realize until the experience of a lifetime is over just how amazing it was.
I get excited when I get to talk about my time abroad and even the thought of it all brings a huge smile to my face. There is so much that is special about the types of things that you get to do when you are in a new country alone. If only tomorrow I could hop in a bla-bla car, head to the South and get lost in charming cities, narrow streets, and incredible edifices containing the architectural and cultural influences of centuries of different groups. How I wish I had explored more of Navarra and all of the diverse natural wonders that it has to offer. What I would give to spend an afternoon sitting in the ciudadela and a night roaming in el casco viejo... These things that seemed so trivial to me at the time have become something that I wish for constantly.I guess this post is mostly for me. To express my wish to return to times past and a chance to discuss my nostalgia. It is also a plea however, to my friends studying abroad here in Maryville or to my Maryville friends about to go abroad to make sure to make the most of every moment and to revel in the glory of these days because they will go by fast and before you know it, you will be sitting somewhere reflecting on times gone by and how they were the best days.