I'm kind of amazed at how quickly life changes. Big things happening in the next few weeks and I'm excited!

I think Chicago was good for me because I had been feeling a little bit sad about leaving Madrid at the end of June, but the trip made me remember how much I love meeting new people and being in new cities and just changing it up every once in awhile, yo. So since I've come back to Madrid I've loved it just as much as ever, but I'm also reenergized to go on exploring. Especially because that's really what it felt like being back in the United States for the first time in nine months - like being in a foreign country. The first things that stood out to me when I got off the plane were 1.) these people are really tall, and 2.) it smells like french fries.

I also found being around so many English speakers to feel rudely invasive. Not my family, of course, but random strangers passing the street. Like hello, I'm in my head here, can't you see that you're interrupting with all that conversation flying out of your mouth? I think since Spanish is my second language, I must tune it out more when I'm not directly involved with whoever's talking. Meaning that all of a sudden while riding the L or meandering down the Riverwalk, I was suddenly forced to be all up in everyone's business. Listen, I know your husband needs to remember to pick up hamburger buns from the grocery store, but I don't want to hear about it, okay?

And then when I came back to Madrid I discovered some very interesting tidbits of information. Like the fact that my last day teaching at Colegio is actually two weeks prior to what I initially thought. And that flights to Turkey are not that expensive. Nor are flights to Tunisia.

Ahhh!!!! I'm going to Turkey and Tunisia! I fly out Friday and spend three days in Istanbul, then the following Friday I fly for three days in Tunis. Istanbul has been on my list of places I've wanted to see since forever, but I'm really excited to learn about all the political stuff that's been going on down in Tunisia. Like this:

Or this:

And if I really play my cards write maybe even something along the lines of this: