Words of Wisdom from Various Sources

1. "Luxembourg is an amazement to me. It's so small, if you decide to go jogging there, you've got to bring your passport along in case you wind up in another country."
-My Europe & the World professor, José Ramón

2. "Prometa, prometa, hasta la meta." (He promises and promises, until he scores. Aka, men will do anything to 'fook.')
-My host mother

3. "One of the small marvels of Europe is the dicovery that the world could be so full of variety, that there were so many different ways of doing essentially identical things, like eating and drinking and buying movie tickets. It fascinated me that Europeans could at once be so alike - that they could be so universally bookish and cerebral, and drive small cars, and live in little houses in ancient towns, and love soccer, and be relatively unmaterialistic and law-abiding, and have chilly hotel rooms and cozy and inviting places to eat and drink - and yet be so endlessly, unpredictably different from each other as well. I loved the idea that you could never be sure of anything in Europe."
-Bill Bryson in Neither Here Nor There. HIGHLY recommended (and it is HILARIOUS).

Also worth mentioning:

Thus far, my host family has demonstrated to me the use of (a) the umbrella and (b) the seatbelt. Every day is a new adventure, clearly.

And lastly: As much as this blog is full of warm travel fuzzies, don't be completely fooled: learning a language is HARD. And you feel dumb a lot. It hit me like a wall that all the sudden, I'm the outsider international student. It's a very frustrating feeling to WANT to contribute to a conversation in some way, but you simply don't have the means to do it. I constantly fear that I am not going to learn as much Spanish as I'd hoped I would.

Surely, though, I am optimistic - if not from the encouragement of every single person that's ever studied abroad, then for my tendency to be optimistic in nearly every situation (well maybe he stored your number wrong, and really did want to call you, and that beautiful woman he was at the movies with is actually his sister..).

Don't you folks worry, I am quite enjoying myself! BUT - that doesn't mean it's a piece of cake...wherever you go, there you are. Challenges will await you in whatever corner of the globe you tuck yourself into. But, alas, such is the beauty of life. Time to go learn some Spanish and show that challenge who's the jefe (boss).