When Nostalgia Strikes

(c) Majestic Hotel BCN

A year ago today I landed in El Prat airport near Barcelona.  Kind of hard to believe it was already a year ago.  The last couple months, basically since I got back in mid-June, I've been able to say things like "I've been back a week," "I've been back a month," "I've been back five months."  Now, it's "I left a year ago."

Truth is though, even though I'm always nostalgic, and will probably always be nostalgic every single time I come back from a visit to Spain, I haven't been looking back very often and have been looking ahead more.  To the next time I go, whenever that is.  I still don't have a job, I still have bills to pay, but the closer I get to finding a job, the closer I get to being able to go back to Spain.

It's funny how my life has become a countdown of the time it takes to get back to Spain...and the time it's been since I was last there.  The first time I did the countdown was probably early 2007 once I'd submitted my application for the study abroad program with my university for Spring 2008.  Once the last semester before going abroad came, I started counting down the months, then weeks...and then I started counting down till I got my passport, and then...  When I bought my ticket for this last trip, back in September of 2009, it started pretty quickly.  I had two full semesters to get through, two sets of finals, graduation, a week of finals, and then five days in New York before I finally left.

I think the worst part is finally arriving though, because it's like the beginning of the end.  Each day that passes is another day less that I have to spend.  It's like Christmas.  You spend all year waiting for it, and once it arrives, you realize that it's almost over.  Not like it doesn't make the stay any less enjoyable, but you still know that you have to leave soon.  It's obviously less of a problem when you're there for a semester or a year, but once that last month arrives...

I don't know why I'm feeling optimistic right now, it's so unlike me, but in this case, I need it.  I need to be optimistic.  And I hope something good comes out of it, and that by the time 2011 is over I'll already have another trip across the pond all planned out.