One Third Behind Me?

The View From My Terrace

You will notice clouds, proof positive that it's not always pure blue sky and sunshine! It's also still a bit cool outside so I am very much looking forward to cafe con leche on the deck soon, and on an ongoing basis.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monday (Lunes), 2 February - So, I left Estados Unidos on the seventh of January and set down in Valencia on the eighth; this Thursday or so will mark the end of my fourth week of the adventure, pretty much a third of my planned time away. A little time for reflection, perhaps, and some lessons learned?--------------------------------------------A new class this week with new people; from Montreal, Britain, Switzerland, Israel, Germany and Syria. A fun group that got a particular kick out of realizing during class that a form of the spanish verb "to take" or "to have" is "tomas", which is identical to my escuela name, Tomas... you must understand that laughs come pretty easily after 4 or 5 hours straight of Spanish language study! The one third milestone has been a meaningful one for me. One of the reasons I decided to tackle three months of language immersion at 74 freaking years of age is that I didn't want to just travel, I wanted to travel with some sense of purpose - sounds a bit grandiose but if I could walk out of this just a little bit of a different person, with experiences just a little bit more textured than just being "on holiday", then good. And four weeks in one place, with a task to complete and a three month goal on the horizon, brings some contentment for sure. As I was saying to Emily last night while she was generously helping me sort through stateside mail (read: bills!), there are good days and less good days; hell, there are good moments and shitty moments, just like always. But in a way that's different, the days and the moments are more on my terms than I feel like they have been in some time. And that's a win, that feels good - just like I hoped it would.