IRES Assignment 5: Trucks again, Three-dimensional people and THE END.

First, I'd like to apologize for not posting. This has been due to many causes, chief among them the last will my of laptop to give up the ghost in Spain and my own apathy. 

I am back stateside, and it's very obvious.

Case in point.

I'm back to speaking English to address people. I have ridden in a car I actually own (or my parents do, at least). I have had full, sit-down meals everyday instead of the discreet tapas that you don't really register as lunch or dinner. I have come home to lay down and sleep several hours, to the point where I don't know if it's the jet lag or the cumulative tiredness of six weeks on the road that's keeping me nailed down to the couch or bed.

I still think I'm in Spain sometimes, though. I guess it's a natural reaction since it hasn't even been a week yet; but I really get the urge to walk down to the river-park or out to Old Town or out for some paella. It's not all nostalgia though, I also think back on what I learned out there and I think about how that's going to help me here.

Ohana

For one, I made a new group of friends. For another, the friends I already had are now better friends because of all we've gone through.

I've also learned a lot of little things, but I hope they will come in really handy when exploring the world the way I've always told myself I will. I can tear a subway system apart now; I know exactly how they work and how to operate them. I've lost the fear of traveling alone, and I've come to accept it as a side effect of people having different interests. I've learned that sometimes you will just screw up and that maybe public humiliation isn't as bad as it's hyped up to be.

I have also learned a lot outside traveling, an awful lot of it at work. I have learned, more or less, what the life of a doctoral student looks like. I have learned how and by who research is carried out at top universities. I have learned that it isn't carried out by the homogeneous mass of guys in white lab coats you usually imagine when you imagine "scientists", but rather people with individual interests and necessities and likes and dislikes. Actual, three-dimensional people.

I have also learned I'm not terribly bad at that "research" thing. It did seem really complex the first couple of weeks, but with guidance, effort and a bit of common sense, I managed to throw together a decent project that was coherent and efficient.

I have learned, for the n-th time, that even though you can miss home and it's probably your favorite place in the whole world, every place you go to has something different to offer. I learned that it's possible to get attached to it, love it for its quirks, and appreciate it for taking you in.

I think that's what I like the most about Valencia, the way it took us in. The way it was a place I knew, a place I wouldn't get lost in after spending days without finding my bearings. The way it served as a base camp every time we went out; when at the end of a long weekend you would get back to the flat and throw your bags (and yourself) onto the bed and think "I'm home".

I miss it, but I'm also glad to be back. I hope to be back in Valencia someday, but not yet. Not yet.