A month of celebrations

There were a lot of reasons to celebrate in May. For one, Madrid had a ton of holidays: Labor day, Dos de Mayo, San Isidro, etc. It was one holiday after another, which means long weekends for me. Two, I had visitors to keep me company, feed me and make me travel, which is always awesome. And three, I had my birthday and I reached my 6 month mark here in Spain.

Now I usually don't care for my birthday. Yes I will celebrate it by going to dinner or get drunk or whatever. But the whole time you will usually find me bitching about how old I am getting. This year, I've decided to stop. As sucky as it is to be three years away from 30 (no offense to the 30 year old and above crowd...hehehe), it's really not that big a deal. Right, 30 year old and above folks??? So I'm a year older, but I like to think I'm also a little bit wiser...ha! Entonces, I've decided to embrace my oldness and have a party. Tomorrow, I am going to have a very belated birthday party full of tapas and alcohol. I am super excited about it, but I do wish all of you can be here to celebrate it with me. I will make sure to blog about the festivities. It should be an interesting night.

May 17th was my 6 month anniversary here in Spain. Although this is really no big deal, I am pretty proud of it. I think this is the longest I've ever been away from home, from family and friends. I remember being away for four months to study in Rome and never wanting to go home. Most probably didn't notice how bitter I was when I came back from that semester abroad (Why couldn't I just be rich and be able to pay for a whole year's worth of constant traveling and not studying??!), but I was pretty upset about it. And now, five years later, I am super excited to go home. Not that I am unhappy here, but this is what happens when you turn 27 - you appreciate and miss your friends and family more. That and I just really want to have some Mexican food. I definitely love it here and still plan on staying for a while, but you can't help but long for home when you get to be as old as I am...ha!

So yes, I still have a long way to go - lots of Spanish to learn, lots of Spanish men to meet (I've given up on Spanish girl friends), lots of growing up to do (which I don't think will ever happen) - but I think I'm in a good place now. At least, I haven't had any real bad bouts of homesickness for a while. Hopefully, it will just keep getting better...

P.S. Eurocup starts tomorrow. My party is going to be a birthday/6th month/futbol celebration. Vamos España!!!!