My absolute favorite view of the city of Vigo
...the mingling smells of cigarette smoke and coffee that tickle my nose as I sit at an outdoor caftetería...
...the feel of the sun warming me during a winter paseo along the beach...
...the confusion of listening to a tableful of Spaniards all talking at the same time...
...the tangy taste of an olive, washed down by a cold caña...
...the sight of children out with their parents, enjoying the last bit of sunshine at 10:30pm....
There are certain things that will always remind me of my time in Spain, and I hope that when I look back on these days in years to come, I'm able to remember the above sensations...how Spain made me FEEL.
Tomorrow, I say a final goodbye to the country that captured my unwilling heart, where I've spent 3/6 years of my adult life. I'll bid farewell to the only city I've lived in so far that I could see myself being in long-term, to friends who are more like family, to a life that has made me happier and more relaxed than I even knew was possible before I first came here. Spain has changed me, it has shaped who I am today enormously, and I'm honestly in disbelief that I'm not going to be living here anymore in the fall, that my students are no longer "my" students, that soon all the work I've put in learning Spanish will mean nothing as I struggle my way through a different language barrier.
I suppose I should have more feelings about what feels like a breakup with my true love, but at the moment I'm in denial. I probably will be even after the plane leaves Galicia and I'm thrust into a world where English is spoken and tortilla is only for tacos. I have no words, really, to describe how I feel right now. Betrayed? Hopeful? Grateful? Sad. I don't know, they're all in the mix there somewhere. But goodbye has to be said. So it goes.
I don't know what more to say than gracias, mi querida España, y nos vemos prontito. Hasta luegiño.
