the home stretch

I’m leaving four weeks from today.  I’ll have been abroad for eight months (not including the three weeks spent at home over Christmas), and I’m ready for the end.  I have visited five other countries and went to mainland Spain five times.  I’ve traveled to every corner of Mallorca and have learned some of the Mallorcan language, Mallorquín, as well as a bit more Spanish.  I’ve made friends here in Santanyí.  I’ve learned that I like teaching, and that I have a heart for it, and that I’d really like some training before I jump into my next teaching stint.  I’m tired; all I really want right now is to be at home, curled up on the sofa with my Mom, or watching LOTR with my brother, or going for a bike ride with my dad. 

Maybe I’m just feeling a little blue at the moment because Joy left yesterday morning.  After our great week in France together, she spent a week here and we explored the heck out of the island, visiting 13 different beaches and a lighthouse, getting a bit lost while trying to find a castle, and playing dozens and dozens of hands of rummy and cribbage.

I have friends here on the island (four friends, to be exact, outside of my colleagues and my roommate), and although I can call any of them to organize something, I couldn’t invite them over for a sleepover and a bazillion hands of cribbage.  I don’t have friends here that I can chat for hours with, or friends that are good for spending a rainy Saturday with.  I’ve been happy for seven months of leading a pretty quiet life, riding my bike down to the beach, greeting my students when I pass them on the street, occasionally hanging out with my roommate, but generally going about my business alone.  You don’t realize how lonely you are until you are with a dear, dear friend.

My last four weeks here will go by in nothing flat, but I’m starting to get antsy already.  I’m going back to a job I love at Grand Teton National Park.  I’m going back to having family only a quick car ride away, and to a place where I speak the language.  I’m going back to the mountains, where I can identify the trees, where I know the habits and habitats of most of the mammals and a growing number of birds, where I know which berries are tasty—raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries,  huckleberries, Oregon grape—and which ones aren’t.  I feel disoriented if I don’t know and understand the landscape that surrounds me, and now that I’m about to leave, I feel that I’m getting my footing here on Mallorca.

I fully intend on coming back to Spain; it is a wonderful, diverse country, and I have a lot more exploring to do.  I don’t want to jump too far ahead of myself, looking forward to the end; I haven’t finished this year abroad yet, and I’ll keep blogging right on through to the end!