I thought that somewhere in the 5 weeks of being in Mississippi--no car, no job--so literally stuck in the house all day, I would be bored and update my blog way too often with uninteresting quotidian details, such as what I ate for every meal, how many minutes I spent in the shower, etc. But on the contrary, I have been really busy. One reason is that I have rediscovered my love for reading. Majoring in English (and French too at the last minute!) really killed my love for reading. Every weekend in college, I had several novels to read, papers to write about them, things to analyze. And after that I needed a break, but now I'm over that, and luckily we have a house full of books so that has kept me pretty busy. I also have been focusing on my real (non-blog) writing skills. I took a class at the local independent newspaper in Jackson on creative non-fiction, which was fun and has also rekindled my desire to work on my writing.

I have done my annual room clean out--somehow I don't add to the contents of my room, but every summer I can find several trash bags of stuff to give to GoodWill (one of my priorities has become not accumulating so much stuff). If anyone ever gives me a trinket or doodad or whatchamacallit again I will send it back to you. I have enough crap in my room to decorate and fill an entire house. So I am working on minimalism.

I have been catching up with friends and family a lot who are around town. Susan's wedding festivities started the day I got back, and since so many of my friends came to town for the wedding, I just pretended like it was all a big welcome home party for me! It was, of course, awesome to see Susan and Hedge who have since settled in Shanghai. Talking to them made me remember that no matter how "foreign" things seem in Europe, it is still western civilization. Even for me, it is hard to imagine going somewhere so different. If I knew how to write good luck in Chinese here, I would. Good luck, Sue and Hedge.

My trip here was long though smooth-enough. I went to Madrid a day early because I wouldn't have time to catch a train there and get my flight in the same day. Since I had an afternoon to kill in the city, I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, which is not the Prado or the one where you can see Guernica, but the other one. I had seen it 4 summers ago when I backpacked through Europe, and I remember loving it, but at that time, we were near the end of the journey and suffering from severe museum fatigue after seeing so much great stuff so it was hard to appreciate. This time, I got to really take my time and enjoy it.

The next morning I had to get to the airport with all of my things, which was no small task, considering that I am so cheap that I refuse to take taxis. That is right, I insisted upon taking the subway which involved no fewer than two transfers and an uncountable number of stairs. What really struck me while I was travelling was how much more friendly and helpful the Spanish people were than the French. I have gone through Paris with lots of luggage many times, struggled through subways and all of that, but NO ONE has ever helped me. In Spain, several people helped me get my suitcase down the stairs or onto the subway cars. They always asked in Spanish if they could help me, and if I hesitated to respond, started speaking in English. The difference between the countries is almost tangible--there is definitely an element of friendliness that was not (as) present in France.

Now it is my last week here, and I have not accomplished much on my to do list--such as eating lots of good sushi and doing some of my other local favorite things. And I am also pretty busy being a bridesmaid for Cori. Last weekend I attended no fewer than 3 parties for her and Mark, and this weekend will be full of festivities. It will be great (and so convenient!) to see all of my college buddies who will be coming for the wedding. I guess I can sort of pretend like all this is a farewell party for me.

Anyway I have to run. It is so strange how these 5 weeks which I thought would be relaxing have felt more like a marathon!