Hit me baby one more time
Some closing thoughts on Salamanca
18.12.2005
-3 °C
I feel a bit lonely tonight walking back to my single-again room near the río Tormes in the piso I've come to know as home for the last four months. The streets are nearly empty, a nearly 180º change from some of the last minute shoppers braving the weather over the weekend. I'm enjoying the peaceful walk home, despite the chill, admiring the almost excessive number Christmas decorations littering the alleys and hanging rather dauntingly above the streets. At least "severe weather" is not in the vocabulary here.
My host family, Concha and Lourdes, left for the US last week on Monday night -- an old student of theirs got married this weekend and they were invited to the wedding. It was Concha's first time off the peninsula, so I'm glad she got to go. Her sister came in from the pueblo to babysit the three of us the rest of the week. At first it was really weird to be in their house without them, but her sister is similarly mannered and talks just as much so it's not too different.
Thursday night marked probably the single biggest party night I've experienced here. First Clancey and I went over to San Boal -- the international courses building -- for an open bar and some tapas. I think we had a bit more than our fair share of the champagne, but I blame Clancey since the camarero seemed to have quite the crush on her and made sure our cups were never empty. Then there was the Noche Vieja celebration (New Years' Eve Party) in the Plaza Mayor at midnight -- for some reason they celebrate it a few weeks early for all the students. After crowding into the plaza, past the police checkpoints (I'm not really sure what they were checking for though...), we huddled under the clock with the rest of the salmantinos waiting for midnight to come. After that there was the Facultad de Sociales bash (each department at the university hosts a party throughout the year) which coaxed most of the rest of the students out for remainder of the night. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep before escorting Clancey to the bus in the morning with all of her crap. I exchanged some teary.eyed goodbyes with her, Elizabeth, Jaycie and Colby before they climbed aboard for the 6am departure. It's weird to say goodbye to people I've known for such a short time -- I actually think I might miss them (ok I admit I will). Friday passed rather uneventfully, and Anna left early Saturday morning to go back to Germany. The rest of the weekend it's just been Tía and me. And now I'm leaving tomorrow.
No real revelations here, sorry, just some unanticipated sappiness -- I don't think it will hit me until I'm in the airport that I've actually left Salamanca for more than just another weekend trip in Europe. As ready as I feel to come home, I don't know how ready I am to actually leave. I only hope that I don't forget everything I've learned here and how much I've grown.
