the week seven wall

9:22 p.m.

Folks, I seem to have hit the week seven wall.

After a few weeks of a new term, the novelty starts to wear off. Once that happens, you're left with sheer motivation to do well. But once that wears off? The week seven wall. It's a beast of a wall that is hard to get past. I didn't realize that it existed in Spain, but here I am, face-to-face with it.

I think this wall is even bigger in Spain than it is back home. The week seven wall here is magnified due to already having passed the I'm sick of speaking Spanish wall, the Please, oh please, can I sleep in my own bed again? wall, the Can I go home now? wall, the Are you sure this is edible? wall, and the No, seriously, can I go home now? wall.

All of these walls are stacked up against one another, and them boom. Week seven comes around and you realize all motivation is gone, and all that it keeping you going is knowing that you're going to see your wonderful parents (who don't feed you rice and eggs at the same time), your lovely sisters (who speak perfect English at an extremely rapid pace; Hi Samantha and Kendall!), your precious yet precocious brother (who does not use a potty chair to poop in the living room like other young boys I know...Ramón...ew, right? Thank you for never doing that Zachary), and your sweet boyfriend (who is probably twice as tall as the average Spanish man) in approximately 24 days.

But who's counting?

I'm hoping to push through until the end of the term. I love what high GPAs can do for my cumulative GPA, which has been climbing steadily this year. I know that as long as I keep working hard I can do well in all of my classes...I just have to get past that darn wall.

I'm working on it.

In other news, I have a lot of random thoughts swimming around in my head...observe:

- Today my host mom told me I was getting really tan. And then said, "Que horror". Excuse me? How is my lovely brown hue a horror?

- This afternoon I was jogging. The sidewalk was packed, so I was on a narrow strip of it on the other side of the flower beds where no one goes unless they're moving too fast for the crowd. There's only room for one person, so I moved over for the legit runners I encountered, and they all gave me that runner nod that apparently isn't meant to be intimidating but to communicate appreciation or acknowledgment or something. It made me feel cool.

- I saw someone who looks exactly like my Great Uncle Len on the Paseo this afternoon. Granted, he was probably a foot shorter...but still. I see so many look-alikes when I'm here! But this one was almost spot on, except for the height difference.

- In class today we talked about house I admire from the beach every time I see it. It belongs to the owner of the Bank of Santander, whose last name (ironically) is another word for "thief".

- My birthday is in approximately 32 days. So is Samantha's graduation. Just throwing that out there.

- I kicked butt in my grammar class today. Is it bad that I relish when a certain person gets answers wrong? Only because they think they know everything and I find it amusing when they're completely off. And when I'm right. At the same time. Oh, sweet victory.

- I want raw veggies. Really badly. And a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some cheddar cheese wouldn't hurt. Or ice! I miss ice.

- I always feel like someone is going to come over and kick me out of the market when they realize I'm stealing their WiFi...one of these days I should buy something here. I pay to use their bathroom, does that count?

- Public restrooms are few and far between here. There are random "pay-per-use" toilets strewn about along the Paseo, but I try to avoid those...I've used the market's bathroom before, and it was worth the 20 euro cents. Cleanest "public" restrooms in Spain, hands down!

See? Random.

Hope you all had a simply lovely Tuesday. Don't let the week seven wall get you down!

♥ Abigail