OHHHHHHHH We're Halfway There

Number of times I have played "Livin' on a Prayer" today: four.

Today marks my halfway point of study abroad. Holy. Moly.

It's really weird, because in some ways I feel like this just snuck up on me and I can't possibly be halfway done already, and in some ways I feel like I've been here foreeeeeever and can't possibly be only halfway done. I've learned so much about the language and the culture of this gorgeous, peculiar, completely foreign, fun, sometimes silly city since getting here, and I know I still have a lot more to learn.

I was trying to explain to people today that I'm so glad that the end is starting to be in sight, and it's not because I'm miserable here by any stretch of the imagination. It still absolutely sucks being away from everyone I love and being away from familiarity and the luxuries of America, but I have adjusted pretty well and am doing okay living here. The reason that I'm so glad that the end is in sight is because I feel like I can start to focus more on the great things about Europe than on the things I miss back home because those things will be in sight. It won't be like the first week when I had to wait four months to see my mom and to go to a restaurant with free refills of Diet Coke and take a hot shower for as long as I wanted. I will be so excited that my home is in sight that everything will just be that much better and that much more enjoyable. This might sound depressing, but I really don't mean it to!

For a "deep thought with Sally" moment, I just have to comment on the feelings of study abroad students. Study abroad is a lot harder than people think it is. The vast majority of the kids on my program came in the program SO excited about study abroad, having to have wanted to do it forever, so excited to travel and to live in a foreign country and all of that good stuff. That was one of the hardest things for me at the beginning. I did NOT want to be in Granada at the beginning and was so homesick and just was having a really tough time. I've gone steadily up since then. There are good days and bad days, but on the whole I've been doing better and better as time has gone on. The vast majority of the kids, though, are starting to get out of the honeymoon phase and are missing home like crazy. What interests me, though, is that most people don't really talk about it. People feel like they have to be like "oh my gosh this is GREAT! This is the best thing EVER, I never want to LEAVE!" It's almost like there's a stigma attached to admitting homesickness. My advice to future study abroad students is to allow yourself to feel how you feel. There will be days when you can't get the key to your apartment to work and you had trouble communicating something to the store clerk at Blanco and you look at pictures of your friends at school on facebook and they're all having a great time and all you want to do is go home. And there will be days when you have an amazing conversation with your host family and you get asked for directions by someone on the street who thinks you're a native and you walk around the rest of the day feeling so Euro and you walk up to the Mirador de San Nicolas and look over the city and realize how incredible it is that you have the opportunity to do this. My advice is to just feel whatever you are feeling. Don't let your feelings of homesickness get you completely down, but it is important to feel it and not to feel like you have to constantly be ecstatic. Don't let anybody make you feel dumb for being homesick. It happens to everyoneeeee and the absolute best thing you can do is acknowledge your feelings, feel them, and then try to pick yourself up. (I do realize that 90% of the people who read this will not study abroad, but I want to write all this down before I forget!).

Today was our day trip to Cordoba, which I'll blog about tomorrow. It was good but exhauuuusting! It's my bedtime!! Hope everyone's doing well!