Home Sweet Home

26 February 2012

Late last night, I took the train from Madrid to Alicante. I was unbelievely excited to get back to Alicante! It was fantastic to see all my Fulbright friends again and share our experiences. Leaving the meeting, I felt a new sense of resolve and energy. I was excited to put into practice what I had learned from other people and see what I can make of the last four months that I am in Spain!

Four months. March. April. May. June. Four months feels like hardly any time at all. There is so much that I´d like to do with my students before I leave. There is so much I still want to teach them.

But I know that those four months are going to pass incredibly fast.

When I arrived in the train station in Alicante, all I could think of was a rhyme that my step-mom used to say when we got back to the house after a trip.

Home again. Home again. Jiggity Jig.

In the last few months, Alicante has really started to feel like home. Every time I go away on a trip for a few days, I always feel a sense a relief and familiarity as I trek back to my house from the bus station, train station, or airport bus stop.

As a recent college graduate, "home" has been an ever changing thing.

I've spent four years living in dorms with other people. Dorm life in to way/shape/form feels like home. While I added personal touches to my dorm rooms, they never really felt like home--mostly because you have to share all of your living space. You share your room with a roommate (or two). You share the bathrooms with twenty or thirty people. You're on a meal plan so you don't even cook in the kitchen that you share with the rest of floor. Finally, you know that it's going to be the same thing the following year but with different people. It's hard--at least for me--to find "home" in that.

However, during college, my "home" with my parents started to feel less and less like home because I wasn't really spending much time there. I only stayed at home during breaks from college. While it's familiar and comfortable, you realize that life moves on when you are away and it's not the same that it was when you were young.

In Alicante, I feel like I've been able to make this a home--even if only for this year. As I mentioned before, there's a feeling of familiarity and comfort when I return from a trip. But there's also a certain sense of belonging and living daily life.

I live a very normal life here. I have my friends who I see often. I have restaurants and cafés that I go to frequently where the waiting staff know me. We chat and tease one another.

I do mundane things like go to the supermarket to buy food--like fresh fruit! I take the TRAM home from work. I see no less than 5 of my students while wandering around the neighborhood and they all greet me with cries of ¨Hello! Hello, Bobbi!¨

I can´t complain too much! Having a ¨home¨ in a city next to the beach isn´t a really tough life!