One month to the day since the last past. So in the last entry I mentioned that January was going to be full of school work, and then February would hit and I would be taking finals and then I would finally have some free time and would be looking forward to visitors. The one thing I forgot was that February and the end of the semester also meant that people would be leaving to go back home.
Something about High School makes it okay to leave your friends. You know they had to live close to the school, and especially in RI you all lived so close anyways. Even knowing you're heading off to different schools doesn't bother you too much, because your parents' house will remain where it is, and you might even see each other over Thanksgiving, Christmas, who knows. Maybe visit each other while at college. Hell, maybe even go to the same college.
I can't really speak on college yet, but from what I've gathered and from what I am expecting/assuming, it's not going to be anything like high school. In many regards. College seems to bring greater bonds between people than high school. I think it did for me anyways. And so when you graduate, you want even more to be around the people that you have just spent the past 4 years of your life with. However, unlike high school, there's no more college. Yes there exists Grad School, but I rarely hear of large groups of people attending the same grad school (unless it's the school they were at for Undergrad of course). So you've made a tighter group of friends, but it's more challenging to stay in touch because it's time for your job to (at least partially) dictate where you go instead of you choosing.
Then there are experiences like this, which are like neither of those things. I've been here 5 months now. In that 5 months, I've grown closer to some of these people than I ever thought I possibly could. I was invited to stay with a friend's family over Christmas having only known her for 3 months. And the only "getting to know each other" that we were all doing was drunken street walking at 4 or 5am and trips to the beach while hungover. The strength of the relationships I've made here has truly surprised me and I could not be happier... nor more sad to leave.
Last night one of my really good friends Susanne left. She was definitely one of the closer friends that we had, and was surely one of the regulars whenever we went anywhere. Friday night our friend Martin left. He was another crazy Austrian. He was a great guy and Cory, him, and I had some amazing times over the past couple of months. I'm sure I will end up saying that about all of my friends here, which is a testament to them really. It's just weird to see these people leaving when I still have so much time here. Costa Rica was only a small taste of this. There, too, we all grew close rather quickly but the 5 week time restriction kept the thought of home and friends in the back of our minds always. Here it was completely different. The *reason* I was not homesick was because I grew so close to these people so quickly and they made me feel comfortable. It's slowly becoming more and more apparent that we will be leaving in a month and I'm just really thankful that I'm only moving a couple hours away and can come back and visit. We have also talked often about how lucky the Europeans are. If George wants to visit Susanne in Austria she can just hop on Ryan Air out of London and it's a couple hours and 40euro for a weekend with her friend. For Cory, Amanda, or I to come visit it's a couple thousand dollars and scheduling and days off. Still, it would be worth it.
As far as what I've been up to, I was not lying when I said I would be doing school work pretty much all month. I wrote a couple of papers, took a couple of exams, and rocked a presentation with Cory. I have 2 of my 5 grades already and passed both of them. Shibby. Other than that January was really a blur. We had a hurricane pass by near us, we had 3 or 4 days of freak 60 degree weather and I went for a run on those days, which was great. I was all excited and actually getting back into it and then the rain and cold weather returned and it rained for about 6-7 days straight. Between the rain, wind, and cold you're asking for the flu if you go running. So anyways that brings us to this past weekend in which we had Martin's going away party. We hopped to a couple bars and had a good time as always. Cory and I got to finally hang out with our friend Lauren. I met her back in October through the Frisbee team, but we never got a chance to hang out. She lives north of Boston near/in NH. We've run into each other at bars and such and always had a blast, and Friday was no different. I spent the weekend studying/watching movies to prepare for my Meteorology exam yesterday. It was difficult, and it's the only class that I won't be surprised if I fail. Fail as in not getting a 5.5/10, because 5.5 is the grade we need to transfer the class back to URI. Anyways, after the exam I returned home and just chilled out. Last night, as I mentioned earlier, was Susanne's last night. We went downstairs to what somehow has been renamed "Andy's Bar" and hung out there for a while. Susanne and I played darts, which we love to do, and it was good to have that be one of our last memories. Amanda had bought a cake and made a little slide show so we ate the cake and watched the show and laughed as we reminisced about all the good times. The group of them went out to meet more people and hit up a couple more bars, but I've been nursing a stomach bug and decided to stay home. So Susanne and I said goodbye and I went upstairs and went to bed. It was a good night though, and I got some great pictures.
That's Susanne and me in my frog hat. The Frog Hat comes from Susanne's birthday party a couple of months ago. We played this game where you wrap up a bunch of random presents around each other, and you do a hot potato type passing of the package. When the music stops you unwrap one layer, keep the gift, but have to do that task that was written on a note in your layer. By far the most hilarious was reenacting the birth of Jesus. There was a lot of screaming and our friend Karl crawled out from under the table and it was ridiculous. Anyways, they sabotaged it so that I would get the Frog Hate because they knew I'd be the only one willing to wear it out to the club. They were right. Susanne had been holding on to it for a while and gave it back last night. Our friend, Maria, who works at the bar loved it. Yea, last night was a good night to remember for sure.
So now I have nothing to do for a couple of weeks. Ayla and Casey are coming out mid-month, and I'll meet them two and Cory in Madrid for a couple of days before we all fly back to Santander to hang out for a couple more days. The only thing that I must do is obtain an apartment in San Sebastian. That search starts today. Probably. No really it will. It's miserable out again (more hail) and so yea. I also plan on doing some reading. I have several books to read, and a couple of them are short. I'd like to finish my current book and maybe one other before I leave for San Sebastian.
Speaking of which, I guess this happened also: I got my contract for Ibaia Energia SL, so I'm officially employed. My workday is Monday through Friday 8am-4:30pm with a half hour lunch break included. I have a 45 minute train commute both ways from downtown San Sebastian. Yes, I was also surprised. I guess when they said my internship was "in" San Sebastian, they meant "in, about, or around" San Sebastian. It's okay though, I'll probably just get more reading done. Shibby. So, as I mentioned the only step is actually finding an apartment to commute from. I'll end up moving out there at the end of the month and will have about a week or so to settle in before Meg and Rissy storm into Spain. More visitors!!! I'm really excited to see some faces from home.
Also, this happened:
That's hail not snow, but we have had some nasty storm systems over the past two weeks. We've been getting hammered with these really cold wind currents coming right in from the North and all sorts of cold windy days. Hail has become commonplace. Weird. It's been melting or the rain will wash it away minutes later but even still it is strange to see.
Well, that's it I guess. I hope you are all doing well. I'm off to go... do... something.
Miss you all,
Andrew
Santander, ESP
1 comment:
That frog hat is just spectacular.
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