Only in Santander..

This has been my last weekend in Santander. Joder, the time has really flown by. I didn't believe it when I was told at the beginning the this trip would go really fast, but it's true. Yet at the same time, I feel as if I have been in Santander forever. It's almost like I can't remember what it's not like to live with my Spanish family, to have to speak Spanish just to get by, and to live in this overcrowded clusterfuck of a city.

I'm suprised at just how acquainted I've become with Santander, which makes me glad that I decided to stick around most weekends rather than do the touristy thing and travel around. A lot of people in my program traveled almost every weekend to places around Spain and Europe, and they wound up tired, stressed, and broke. Travel just stresses me out, and I absolutely hate feeling like a tourist, wandering around a city when I don't know where anything is, just seeing the superficial sites. I'm glad I stuck around Santander, and really got the feel of living in one place and becoming emmersed in the culture rather than being a tourist and only catching the superficial shell of a bunch of places. I think I gained a lot from it. I got to go to Salseton and Funky hot dance classes, and explore all around the city, and go to musuems and out at night. It's been a good 10 weeks.

At the same time, I'm not looking forward to coming home and having everyone telling me how much fun I must have had, and what a big party my study abroad experience was. I would say, on a whole, this trip was more work than it was fun. I know some people have studied abroad and it was a haze of binge drinking, misbehavior, and merry making, but that's not what my trip has been. Its been incredibly valuable for other reasons, in terms of how much I've learned and how much I've grown up, and I wouldn't trade that for anything, but if I wanted to have fun and party I would have stayed in Corvallis, with my cat, horses, coffee shops, and college bars. So if I come home and someone asks me about how much fun and crazy times I've had, don't be suprised to see me roll my eyes. I would call this an educational experience, granted one that I think everyone needs.

On to the actual fun part. On Friday I went to another dance class, this one was called "Funky Hot" dance, which is basically hip hop. We learned a routine to a Britney Spears song, and it was sooo much fun. After the class two friends of mine and I wanted to keep dancing and not forget the routine, so we went to a park by the bay at 11 o'clock at night and danced on a bridge for 30 minutes in the dark. Only in Santander...