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STA told me that if I don´t update, I lose my site, so HI!
Missed me, didn´t you? Just kidding, I know I´ve been terrible with this site lately, and I have a ton of photos on my camera phone (still havent started using a real camera) and my computer to upload. I went over the puente (literally means bridge, but is a long weekend when we have a holiday or something) to San Sebastian and Bilbao in Basque Country. I have a lot to say about it, since it was particularly fascinating for my research into nationalism and language and identity and all those good juicy topics that bore the crap out of most people.
Luckily, I´ve found some great friends who LOVE the aforementioned juicy topics, and I´ve been lucky to have some really illuminating conversations in recent months. In fact, I seem to have been lucky in almost everything. These last 3 months have definitely been some of the happiest of my Life Thus Far, and I really can´t even begin to explain why.
It probably has somethign to do with getting into the things I love by EXPERIENCING them instead of studying them in sterile environments. I am IN THE MIDDLE of all the stuff I used to read about, and I love it! That, and I have amazing friends. I mean, just the most perfect mix of Spanish and American folks. My new roommate is spectacular. She´s a fashion designer, owns a chain of 6 jewelry stores in Spain, and does costume design for movies. She´s also like really wonderful to veg out with in front of the TV. I´m spending xmas in Barcelona with a friend whose family is going to show me the real Catalunya, and then KIMMIE comes the minute I get back. How perfect? My work is going fantastically, even with the stress of Global Classrooms, and I LOVE my 13 year old students. I´m not as much in love with the 12 year olds, but at the very least, I teach, they learn, and once in awhile we share a laugh.
On Wednesday, my last day teaching before vacation, we are taking a field trip to a mountain with the science and social studies classes. We´re going to eat lunch there, and the teachers are bringing several bottles of wine. Oh, Spain! I´m also teaching a TON of private English classes and I really enjoy that too. My students are 2.5 up to 48, and they´re all really adorable and fun people! I go to their apartments all over the city, and it has exposed me to a many ¨slices¨ of spanish life. Also illuminating is my lovelife, which has me learning much about the Spanish army--I´m dating a soldier in it, although he promises he has never killed anybody. Yikes! We´re very different: I teach English, he failed it in high school--still, we have a lot of fun and he´s super simpatico.
What else? I´m traveling to Scotland in January, France in March, and hopefully Morocco and Germany at some point before this amazing experience ends. Being here as a Fulbrighter and not a backpacker or a student has really been the best part of all of this: I feel like I contribute something, but I know that the goal of my time here is the exchange--it´s as much about what I gain from it, what ideas I take home with me, as it is about what I give to others. Having the support and company of other brilliant, fascinating grantees is lovely too. We´re having very different experiences, and it reminds me to be grateful for what i love about my own and also showing me just how much is possible with the grantee status and the connections you can make.
I only have 6 months left at this point, and I´m already feeling sort of frantic about the fact that I will have to leave this charmed and vibrant life. Still, how wonderful that I get to bring it all home with me, to relive these blissful days in my heart for the rest of my life, to keep what I love most about it alive in my day to day?
Love and miss you all. Please don´t be afraid to write me or call--just know that I don´t have internet in my new apartment and will probably take awhile to write you back.
Besos,
Jodi
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