One month later... again

el 6 de abril de 2009

Another "one month" update; once again in a new city with new people and new experiences to reflect upon. And what a month it has been. A lot has happened so, for once, I'm going to try to avoid writing a novel and kind of give you the highlights.

JOB STUFF!!

The job is going well. My co-workers are still really nice, although Ohiana is kind of pissing me off. It's nothing bad about her, I think it's just a personality thing. When she corrects my grammar she sometimes does it rather harshly, or when I don't understand her right away she seems to get frustrated with me. It's not a big thing, but it still wears on me a little bit. As far as work and projects go, I'm elbow deep in this shit. I've been tasked with the noise reduction part of everything, so I'm pulling out material from the past 3-4 semesters, and I'm about to start coding some ridiculous MATLAB stuff. The geeky part is I'm actually excited about it. What else.... I went to Bilbao with my director for 2 days last week for a conference on Marine Energy. It was really cool, and it made me feel really important that I was there. The presentations were, overall, really interesting. So on Friday we got out early (1pm) and instead of driving the hour to work, only to leave an hour later, my director dropped me off at my house in Donostia and told me to work for the hour that would have been on a little summary of what we had seen for our boss. It took me about 2 hours, but I did it and I thought I did it well. Today he comes in and says he read the "informe" that I had written. I asked him if it was okay. He said it was good... then chuckled and jokingly? I hope? said "except for the grammar." I kind of smiled and also chuckled... and felt like shit. The kicker was when he told me that if I would be more comfortable I can write in English.

Harsh.


NOT JOB STUFF

My housemates continue to be awesome and I am ever more comfortable living in this house. It's still amazing and I really do feel comfortable here, which is really important to me right now. I moved rooms, from the one downstairs next to the tv with no windows, to one upstairs, where 1/2 of the walls of the room are windows. It is very bright, much quieter, and the mattress is even more comfortable. Moral boost for sure!

Meg and Rissy's visit came and went and was rather awesome. We had some amazing weather, and with it were able to explore a bit of the city. We even made it to an Irish Pub in town for a couple of good Irish beers on St. Patrick's Day, though did NOT come home with the free Guinness top-hats they were handing out. Problem: I was facing the wall, and thus didn't notice when they started handing out the hats. Rookie mistake, and I'm ashamed.

We made up for it by having a BLAST in Barcelona with a certain three Canadians. It was really good to see them again, I must say. It was also good to go to Barcelona again because I got to see some things that I had missed last time I was there. The trip was made even more fun thanks to Meg's Aunt Ana... that crazy woman! She was absolutely hilarious, and would NOT stop feeding us. The most interesting part of the trip was clearly the 20 minutes directly after Meg twisted her ankle playing on the Statue of Columbus... when Bryn, Wood, and I had to chase down (well... he was walking away slowly, but still) some random dude who swiped her camera. The guy saw me and Wood walking up as Bryn was getting in his face, and I think he decided it wasn't worth it and handed it over without a word. Score one for us! Saying goodbye was difficult as always, but I was to spend the morning with Ana around the city which was an interesting endeavour for sure, so I was able to distract myself.


Not much happened since then, just going to work and stuff. This past weekend Cory rolled into town to hang out Friday night. We ended up calling up our friend from the IEP, Jon, who is from here. He took us out with some of his friends and it made for quite the night. After hanging out with his buddies in "el local" (a rented basement room on the other side of town, full of booze with a huge tv, video game systems, and plenty of couch space) we headed out to a couple of bars around town, just having a good time. The drunken walk back was more than interesting and falling asleep posed no trouble at all. We awoke in early afternoon with red stomachs and after getting ready headed out to find some restaurant my housemates recommended. As much as I thought "Hollywood" may be an American themed restaurant, I was NOT expecting a very TGI-Friday's, Applebee's, type menu with ACTUAL American style hamburgers. It was delicious to say the least. After lunch we hung out for a bit before Cory mosied to the bus to head home.

Yesterday I headed to Bilbao to meet up with George, Amanda, Pid, Maxime, and Cory. Pid was visiting and wanted to see both Cory and I , and there was a new exhibit at the Guggenheim so we all rendezvoused there and enjoyed the afternoon walking around and trying to understand the crazy "modern art" that fills that place. The highlights, for me, were two fold: The new exhibit was done by this Japanese artist. One part was what was called the "gunpowder" drawings. There were all sorts of fireworks/explosives that this guy set off either in town, or out of town, or around himself in some field, and he depicted them on mostly beige colored canvases with black gunpowder. It was really interesting, actually. I think he was the same guy who coordinated the fireworks show for the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Beijing. The second exhibit was this crazy Anime stuff, that was one part really neat and cute and bubbly and funny (flowers and bright colors and happy go luck)... and then strayed into "what the hell?" territory rather quickly with a statue involving a naked Anime character... male... masturbating... with a helix of swirling semen surrounding him. Like I said. What the hell?!

In any case, it was really good to see some familiar faces and hang out with friends again.


PERSPECTIVE... sort of?

So April marks 7 months abroad. I've spent 7 months away from my home, though I have been most fortunate enough to have visitors who have not only shared with me some amazing times here in Spain, but also have brought me some comfort that only someone from home can bring. And I don't just mean the coffee, Autocrat, and Mac'n'cheese... though all of those are much appreciated.

This time abroad has more than anything taught me about myself. Anyone who I have talked to about being abroad has heard me go on and on about Costa Rica and how it was a new awakening from me, learning who I missed, why I missed them, what was truly important to me, etc. Well this had been no different, and has been even more intense. Costa Rica was a 5 week trip, which is enough time for me to miss a couple birthdays, a couple parties, and a couple weeks of work. 7 months, and what will be 11, is a time frame not to be trifled with. People make new friends, finish semesters, start dating, end dating, graduate, celebrate holidays, take vacations...

Although Spain has also taught me about who I miss, why I miss them, and what is truly important to me, it has more intensely taught me about who I am. My true self. What, deep down inside, drives me. What do I take joy in? When I'm alone, what do I look to for comfort? When I am alone, what is it about being so that I do not like? What is it about being so that I do like? How do I react in situations where I'm forced to make a decision, and have no support next to me? How do I deal with language barriers? How do I deal with cultural barriers? 5 weeks is not enough time to answer each of these questions. 7 months is scratching away, at the least somewhat fiercely, at the tip of that iceberg. And even more so in this past month while here, essentially alone, in San Sebastian which has taught me more than the preceding 6.

It is strange the way life can be sometimes. One small example of how this time abroad has affected me: Most of you know a few of the options I was considering after graduation were Peace Corps, Engineers for Sustainable Development, Raytheon's Antarctic Program (maybe you didn't know about that one, it's a year in Antarctica) that would involve my being sent abroad for an extended amount of time without being able to come home. As excited and interested as I was in these programs, I am seriously reconsidering all of them. Being away from friends and family for 5 weeks is rather lonely. But you make friends and you know you will be home soon. While in Santander, I had friends around me and it was great. The first month was a BLAST, the second even more so... but after a while it started to wear on me. And now...well, 7 months is a long time to be without friends and family.

Yesterday while in Bilbao I mentioned to George how I missed hanging out with them in Santander. She said, "We miss you too! Why don't you just come hoooooome!" This was not the first time someone has told me to "just come home" in the past several months. I will not spend the next 4 months in my room, locked away, sitting online every night, avoiding the beautiful life going on outside around me... but I will certainly be keeping a countdown in the back of my head.

As much as I love this country, and as much as I am truly blessed to have this experience and would not give it for anything... I think I'm ready to come home.

I miss you all, and hope that you are doing well.

Saludos,
Andrew
Donostia, ESP