It’s 3 am and I am finally packed and ready to go. No, that’s not quite right. I’m not ready exactly. More like prepared. I have my tickets printed and my passport packed. But if you called me right this second and told me I could stay, I would. Without a doubt.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am ecstatic to see my family and my friends. I know, because I’m being honest with myself, that I will cry when I see my father. I will also cry when I see my nephews. I miss each and every one of their loving smiles. I cannot wait for the big bear hug that I know I will get when I see my brother. I’m also so excited to see my sister and mother. I feel like this trip has helped me grow closer with the both of them, though I’ve been thousands of miles away.
My friends, my many, many friends have no idea how much I learned about them and our relationship this semester. I have realized that I am blessed to have so many truly good friends. Best friends. And I cannot wait to see everyone!
I guess the real reason for my reluctance to leave is the unknown. I do not know when I will back. I do not know when I will get to walk these streets and breathe in the beauty that is Granada. And that not knowing is truly breaking my heart.
This city, it’s enchanting. That’s the best word I can use to describe it. As Jensen and I walked back to our apartment from our last night of tapas hopping with friends, we stopped by the cathedral to have one last look. And I was as in awe of it tonight as when I first arrived in Granada. In that moment, as I stood in front of one of the prettiest cathedrals I have ever seen, I realized what it is about this city that makes my heart race and beat slowly at the same time. It’s the magic here. I feel it everywhere. The Alhambra is a place of a thousand fairy tales, all of which a small part of myself knows to be true. The Albayzín is like teleporting to a different time and place. Everything here is covered in residue of the past. Residue of the lives that have touched it, and there is magic in that. And everyone that comes here is exposed. With enough exposure, it seeps into our bones and changes us. I know this to be true, because I have changed knowingly, gladly. And it was this city that made it possible, that helped me along.
In these past four months, I have learned so many things about myself. I’ve learned to accept things I’ve been ashamed of and to forget things that are unimportant. I’ve learned to face my fears head on. I’ve also learned to embrace the potential within myself, the potential that I have taken special care to hide from out of fear of failure. Those are just a few of the things I’ve learned from this city.
In my time here, I was given the challenge to push myself. Not just to learn the Spanish language, but to truly push myself, to find out what I am made of. I am proud to say that I rose to the occasion. I will no longer doubt my capabilities as a student, as a woman, or as an adult, no matter how young I may be. I was tested here, in this great city, and found myself to be a self-sufficient, resourceful, woman. I have no regrets from my time spent in Granada and am proud of all I have done. This trip wasn’t about succeeding or failing. It was about learning. And I truly believe I have learned some of the most invaluable things a person can learn about life and about themselves.
One of the first posts I wrote, I titled “You can fall in love at first sight with a place as with a person.” I could not have picked a more accurate or true statement. Nothing will ever be able to replace Granada, my first home away from home, in my heart. So I say this now, a pledge to city that I owe so much. This is not a goodbye, it is a see you later. And until then, you will be missed, never forgotten, and always loved.
I realize, after writing this, that it is time for me to move on. I have had the experience of a lifetime, I have learned invaluable things about life and myself and now it is time for me to put all of my knowledge to use. So, I guess I am ready after all. Let the next chapter begin....
Kaitlin Hope ♥
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
December 15th, A Heavy Heart
Today is a special day. Today is the birthday of someone that I love very much. Today my Aunt Penny would have turned 50 had she not passed away this last August. Today has been hard.
She was so excited when she found out I was coming to Spain. I didn’t even get to tell her, my grandmother did. Yet, somehow people from home were calling me saying how excited they were for me to be going to Spain. When I asked how they knew, more people than not said, “You’re Aunt Penny cut my hair and all she did was talk about how proud of you she was! She didn’t even know I knew you at first!” I still laugh at that because there’s no telling how many people know I went to Spain this fall.
My Aunt Penny was a handful. You will not find a person that knew her that will say she wasn’t wild. There are hundreds of Penny stories. I hope one day I’ll have friends that can talk about me as fondly as hers do of her. She wasn’t perfect but she was real. She wasn’t afraid of being herself. Ever. And that’s something I hope to learn from her, even though she’s gone.
This will be our first holiday season without her and it is going to be so strange. Strange not to hear her cuss my sister for getting the good present in Dirty Santa. Strange not to hear her sing “Little Johny” to any of the kids that want to hear it. And maybe some that don’t. It’s going to be strange not hear her ask when we’re karaokeing or when I’m going to “get me a man.” It’ll be even more strange not to hear her say her token “men aren’t worth s**t” response when I say I haven’t found one worth dating yet. I could go on and on. But I won’t dwell on the sad parts. I’ll just cherish the time I had with her.
As much as I love Spain, I am now ready to come home. I am ready to be with my family. I wish I could have been with them today. But as long as I’m here, I’m going to honor my aunt. I’m going to make as many memories as possible this weekend and I’ll think of her while I’m doing it. Actually, I’m sure she’ll be whispering in my ear, telling me to do things I probably shouldn’t! That’s what she did best : )
For those of you who knew her, I miss her too. For those of you who didn’t, that’s a shame... You missed out.
She was so excited when she found out I was coming to Spain. I didn’t even get to tell her, my grandmother did. Yet, somehow people from home were calling me saying how excited they were for me to be going to Spain. When I asked how they knew, more people than not said, “You’re Aunt Penny cut my hair and all she did was talk about how proud of you she was! She didn’t even know I knew you at first!” I still laugh at that because there’s no telling how many people know I went to Spain this fall.
My Aunt Penny was a handful. You will not find a person that knew her that will say she wasn’t wild. There are hundreds of Penny stories. I hope one day I’ll have friends that can talk about me as fondly as hers do of her. She wasn’t perfect but she was real. She wasn’t afraid of being herself. Ever. And that’s something I hope to learn from her, even though she’s gone.
This will be our first holiday season without her and it is going to be so strange. Strange not to hear her cuss my sister for getting the good present in Dirty Santa. Strange not to hear her sing “Little Johny” to any of the kids that want to hear it. And maybe some that don’t. It’s going to be strange not hear her ask when we’re karaokeing or when I’m going to “get me a man.” It’ll be even more strange not to hear her say her token “men aren’t worth s**t” response when I say I haven’t found one worth dating yet. I could go on and on. But I won’t dwell on the sad parts. I’ll just cherish the time I had with her.
As much as I love Spain, I am now ready to come home. I am ready to be with my family. I wish I could have been with them today. But as long as I’m here, I’m going to honor my aunt. I’m going to make as many memories as possible this weekend and I’ll think of her while I’m doing it. Actually, I’m sure she’ll be whispering in my ear, telling me to do things I probably shouldn’t! That’s what she did best : )
For those of you who knew her, I miss her too. For those of you who didn’t, that’s a shame... You missed out.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Irlanda: ♪One foot in sea, one on shore♪
I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving week since before I came to Spain. Why? You may ask. Well, because my best friend came to visit : ) We started planning this adventure last summer before I had even bought my plane ticket to Spain. At first I think we mentioned it as a joke but it took Parker about 5 minutes to actually decide to ask for a trip to Europe for Christmas. Bless her family for saying yes!
We set the plans in stone in September when Parker purchased her plane tickets. Because she was going to be here for a week, we decided we should go see another country while she was here as well. Unsurprisingly, we picked Ireland. Parker and I just had to go see our imaginary lover from our favorite book series which is set in Dublin. I’ll spare you the details, just know that we geeked out big time on this trip! Haha!
So, Parker flew straight to Dublin and I caught a flight out of Madrid. We met up on the 19th at around 1pm after I walked around terminal 1 for 20 minutes and then finally realized she was in terminal 2. That’s when the adventure began : )
We quickly realized that Irish people are some of the nicest people. They’ll talk to you just as easily and nicely as an Oklahoman! That may have been my favorite thing about Ireland. Don’t get me wrong, Spaniards are nice, but they’re not Oklahoma nice. Irish people come as close as it gets I think. On our bus ride into the city, we got to meet an adorably sweet old Irish man. He talked to us the entire 45 minute ride. In the first 2 minutes of speaking to us he announced that he was gay, 70 something, and liked to wear an earring to annoy all of his stuffy counterparts. I loved this man instantly and took it as a good indicator of how the trip would go. I’m happy to say I was right!
The first thing we did after checking into the hostel was check local movie times. At that point, it had been 3 months since I’d watched a movie in an actual movie theater. If you know me very well, you know that is an absolute blowout record of how long I’ve gone without going to the movies. I practically live at the Warren when I’m in the city and the Malco is the backdrop for about half of my favorite high school memories. Needless to say, I’ll never wait that long again. I felt like I’d been separated from a long lost family member or something. So, of course, Parker and I went to watch Breaking Dawn. Don’t judge me! I couldn’t wait until I was home in December while everyone was posting about it on Facebook during the mean time. And because we were already americanizing our first night in Ireland, we decided to have Burger King for dinner. Again, don’t judge. I had fast food only one other time in the three months I’d been gone. I’ll go ahead and admit that I also had Starbucks in Dublin, but I won’t apologize for that!
After our “big” first night out, Parker was tired from her flight so we went back to the hostel and planned our itinerary for the next day. We booked a trip to the south coast of Ireland to go see the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. We woke up at 6am to go catch a bus at 715 to Galway and then met up with our tour guide group. It was a beautiful day and all of the Irish kept going on and on about how it was uncharacteristically warm. I take the credit because the exact same thing happened when I went to England for Bo’s wedding. Apparently I can’t help but warm a place up! I haven’t posted the photos yet but I will soon. The countryside of Ireland is stunning and luckily we got to take a walking tour up the Burren. The “Burren” in Gaelic means “the rocky place” which were actually rocky hills that provided an amazing view of the countryside. The photos I took don’t begin to capture the greenness of the country.
After the Burren, we went to the Cliffs of Moher. They were breathtaking! I felt like I was at the end of world, and staring off into the Atlantic was incredibly humbling. Not being able to begin to fathom the distance from Ireland to the States definitely makes you feel small. Along the way to and from the Cliffs, we got to see so many cute fishing and farming villages. I would love to go back and explore them all one day. We also saw a few Irish castles and English forts. Everything, old and new, in Ireland has an incredible charm to it. If you ever go to Dublin, I fully recommend taking a day trip to one of the coasts. You’ve never experienced anything like it.
After the Cliffs, our tour bus stopped to eat at a place called Fitzpatrick’s. That’s when we realized that there were 2 American guys on our bus. Well, they realized we were American when they overheard Parker and I ranting about football (as usual). They were studying abroad in London together and we got to hangout with them for a while that day. One of them was from Dallas originally. I apologized for his bad luck ; ) Even in Ireland, I felt his pain! Haha
On our third day in Ireland, we spent the day walking around Dublin. Surprisingly, Dublin is actually rather small. We could have easily walked from one end to the other in under an hour. We started the day off by going to see Trinity College. I’m sorry to all of my Sooners, and while I still love our campus, it pales in comparison to Trinity. OU’s campus will remain my favorite but I’m afraid Trinity may have stolen my heart. Seeing a campus like that did nothing to help my graduation jitters. I began to think up excuses to go study abroad there. I found a few, but none that would hold up too well against my parents.
After Trinity, we walked to the Guinness Factory. That building is by far, one of the coolest things ever designed. It’s shaped like a Guinness glass on the inside! While we were there, we learned how they make Guinness, took some amazing photos, and had a half a pint in the panoramic view on the top floor of the building. Shamefully, I’ve never been one for beer so I took a few sips but I just couldn’t hack it!
After, we walked to the Jameson Distillery and bought some gifts for some lucky ducks back in the states. The Jameson Distillery was pretty impressive as well but we decided against a tour because we wanted to make sure we had time to explore Temple Bar district. We had a superb dinner at an Italian restaurant and looked in some fun boutiques. Sadly, we didn’t get to have a night out in Temple Bar because we had a bus to catch back to the airport.
We spent our last night in Ireland at the airport in Dublin because we had an early flight to Madrid. Nonetheless, I had a good time just laughing and being absurd with my best friend. Without a doubt, all of the tired travelers sleeping next to us on the couches at Starbucks hated us, but I know we were entertained. Parker and I usually are. Overall, Ireland was fantastic and I cannot wait to go back. I’ve definitely added it the list of places I plan to know, not just experience.
Kaitlin
We set the plans in stone in September when Parker purchased her plane tickets. Because she was going to be here for a week, we decided we should go see another country while she was here as well. Unsurprisingly, we picked Ireland. Parker and I just had to go see our imaginary lover from our favorite book series which is set in Dublin. I’ll spare you the details, just know that we geeked out big time on this trip! Haha!
So, Parker flew straight to Dublin and I caught a flight out of Madrid. We met up on the 19th at around 1pm after I walked around terminal 1 for 20 minutes and then finally realized she was in terminal 2. That’s when the adventure began : )
We quickly realized that Irish people are some of the nicest people. They’ll talk to you just as easily and nicely as an Oklahoman! That may have been my favorite thing about Ireland. Don’t get me wrong, Spaniards are nice, but they’re not Oklahoma nice. Irish people come as close as it gets I think. On our bus ride into the city, we got to meet an adorably sweet old Irish man. He talked to us the entire 45 minute ride. In the first 2 minutes of speaking to us he announced that he was gay, 70 something, and liked to wear an earring to annoy all of his stuffy counterparts. I loved this man instantly and took it as a good indicator of how the trip would go. I’m happy to say I was right!
The first thing we did after checking into the hostel was check local movie times. At that point, it had been 3 months since I’d watched a movie in an actual movie theater. If you know me very well, you know that is an absolute blowout record of how long I’ve gone without going to the movies. I practically live at the Warren when I’m in the city and the Malco is the backdrop for about half of my favorite high school memories. Needless to say, I’ll never wait that long again. I felt like I’d been separated from a long lost family member or something. So, of course, Parker and I went to watch Breaking Dawn. Don’t judge me! I couldn’t wait until I was home in December while everyone was posting about it on Facebook during the mean time. And because we were already americanizing our first night in Ireland, we decided to have Burger King for dinner. Again, don’t judge. I had fast food only one other time in the three months I’d been gone. I’ll go ahead and admit that I also had Starbucks in Dublin, but I won’t apologize for that!
After our “big” first night out, Parker was tired from her flight so we went back to the hostel and planned our itinerary for the next day. We booked a trip to the south coast of Ireland to go see the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. We woke up at 6am to go catch a bus at 715 to Galway and then met up with our tour guide group. It was a beautiful day and all of the Irish kept going on and on about how it was uncharacteristically warm. I take the credit because the exact same thing happened when I went to England for Bo’s wedding. Apparently I can’t help but warm a place up! I haven’t posted the photos yet but I will soon. The countryside of Ireland is stunning and luckily we got to take a walking tour up the Burren. The “Burren” in Gaelic means “the rocky place” which were actually rocky hills that provided an amazing view of the countryside. The photos I took don’t begin to capture the greenness of the country.
After the Burren, we went to the Cliffs of Moher. They were breathtaking! I felt like I was at the end of world, and staring off into the Atlantic was incredibly humbling. Not being able to begin to fathom the distance from Ireland to the States definitely makes you feel small. Along the way to and from the Cliffs, we got to see so many cute fishing and farming villages. I would love to go back and explore them all one day. We also saw a few Irish castles and English forts. Everything, old and new, in Ireland has an incredible charm to it. If you ever go to Dublin, I fully recommend taking a day trip to one of the coasts. You’ve never experienced anything like it.
After the Cliffs, our tour bus stopped to eat at a place called Fitzpatrick’s. That’s when we realized that there were 2 American guys on our bus. Well, they realized we were American when they overheard Parker and I ranting about football (as usual). They were studying abroad in London together and we got to hangout with them for a while that day. One of them was from Dallas originally. I apologized for his bad luck ; ) Even in Ireland, I felt his pain! Haha
On our third day in Ireland, we spent the day walking around Dublin. Surprisingly, Dublin is actually rather small. We could have easily walked from one end to the other in under an hour. We started the day off by going to see Trinity College. I’m sorry to all of my Sooners, and while I still love our campus, it pales in comparison to Trinity. OU’s campus will remain my favorite but I’m afraid Trinity may have stolen my heart. Seeing a campus like that did nothing to help my graduation jitters. I began to think up excuses to go study abroad there. I found a few, but none that would hold up too well against my parents.
After Trinity, we walked to the Guinness Factory. That building is by far, one of the coolest things ever designed. It’s shaped like a Guinness glass on the inside! While we were there, we learned how they make Guinness, took some amazing photos, and had a half a pint in the panoramic view on the top floor of the building. Shamefully, I’ve never been one for beer so I took a few sips but I just couldn’t hack it!
After, we walked to the Jameson Distillery and bought some gifts for some lucky ducks back in the states. The Jameson Distillery was pretty impressive as well but we decided against a tour because we wanted to make sure we had time to explore Temple Bar district. We had a superb dinner at an Italian restaurant and looked in some fun boutiques. Sadly, we didn’t get to have a night out in Temple Bar because we had a bus to catch back to the airport.
We spent our last night in Ireland at the airport in Dublin because we had an early flight to Madrid. Nonetheless, I had a good time just laughing and being absurd with my best friend. Without a doubt, all of the tired travelers sleeping next to us on the couches at Starbucks hated us, but I know we were entertained. Parker and I usually are. Overall, Ireland was fantastic and I cannot wait to go back. I’ve definitely added it the list of places I plan to know, not just experience.
Kaitlin
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