Me quedan once días doesn’t have a good exact translation but it basically means I have eleven days left. I finished my classes on Tuesday and have been soaking up as much of Barcelona as I can since. Today we had a “re-entry orientation” in which they tried to help us remember things, good and bad, about our time here, warn us of reverse culture shock, and they gave us some tips on how to use this experience in resumes and other professional applications. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much I’ve learned, how much I’ve changed, and all the great people I’ve met and I’m going to miss. Barcelona is and forever will be a part of me. My language skills have obviously improved drastically. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought in the last few days “I didn’t even know how to say (insert ridiculously easy word) when I first got here.” Perhaps a good example is my list of goals for the semester. The first day of orientation they had us write down our goals (in Spanish) and seal them in an envelope. Well, today we got the envelopes back. The first thing on my list was “improvar mi español.” Now, to you non-spanish speakers that isn’t funny so let me explain. Improvar isn’t a word. Yes, it looks like improve and that’s clearly what I meant but it’s not a word. For me, that pretty much sums up my language experience here.
A sampling of my adventures as I travel Europe and study in Barcelona.
