A long hiatus

It was about the time I left Madrid that I fell off the face of the Earth, at least blog-wise. It's a good thing that I kept a daily journal of my travels -- not that I will put up here a daily trip log, but I would like to end my trip. Here's the plan: one post for each country left. I have Belgium, the Netherlands, A short stop in London and Iceland. I'll have to sort through my pictures as I write the posts and pair them down. It's ridiculous how many pictures you take when you have a digital camera and a 4GB memory card. Sometimes I feel like I should go back to 35 mm.

In this post I'll finish Spain and tell y'all what I'm up to these days. So first up, history or current events? History forms the backdrop for our modern world, so let's start there.

Six months ago, in my last post, I was in Benavente, Spain, staying with my good friend Meagan from Peace Corps. It was a great couple weeks spent working on my spanish and my cooking. Me and Meagan cooked together in Niger/Benin and it was even better in Spain, even if we stuck to the tiniest budget we could. I could see myself living in a little Spanish town. I'm very jealous of how she lived there, learned Spanish, and had the chance to appreciate that style of life.

High-lites of Benavente:

A day trip to Salamanca, home to the oldest University in Spain (founded in 1218!!) and some good old Spanish architecture. Nothing exceptionally interesting, but it had a nice little university town feel.

TAPAS COMPETITION: Perhaps one of the BEST things I was able to be a part of during my trip. Many of the bars in Benavente had a special tapas for a euro in a competition where one would travel around the town tasting the tapas and vote on the best. My favorite was the cavier and prawn topped salmon pure ice cream cone. Seriously. It sounds weird, but yum. There was also the cow's stomach potatas bravas. The idea of tapas is great. Enjoy food with drink. Good food.

Walking about town. We rambled in the country and around town. Even in little Benavente the Spanish had a eye to parks as they developed their town. More compact towns with parks in the center and here and there. I think that's the way to do cities, not suburbanization.

It was the first of November that I made my way back to Madrid and then onto Brussels. And I'll leave that for the next post. Preview: Good beer and some good Aussies.

So where am I now?

Back in Seattle. I arrived here on November 23rd. Having spent just about a week each in Belgium, Netherlands and Iceland. I moved back in with my parents. Spent the holidays seeing family and friends I hadn't seen in years. Got my applications for law school in order and come the middle of January I was back at the job I had been working before I left for the Peace Corps. It seems in a way like I hadn't gone anywhere at all. My friends were all here doing basically what they had been doing when I left and now I was too. Comforting, but also a little discomforting at the same time.

I'm good at my job. I think I'll make a good lawyer, even displaying some of the drafting and research skills now. It's just not a job I would want to do day in and day out for years. I've been there a total of five months so far and I'm ready to be done. I best find a law degree that isn't associated with a firm like that (not that the people there aren't great).

I was writing today. First day in a long time. Inspired me to get back on this blog (that and seeing John and Cary for the DCI countdown and how they said they used to read my blog, but it hasn't been updated in a while -- GREAT to see you guys!).

I was writing about how it seems like I feel more in my element when I'm out of it. I'm more comfortable when I'm uncomfortable. New situations, new people, and the unknown help me feel at ease where the familiar and expected have me feeling in a sort of malaise. Life's funny like that. I wonder if it's a generational thing. My parents and my parents' parents were about settling down and starting a family. Don't read into this that I wouldn't like that. In a way, I'm jealous of my friends that are there, that have kids. If things had worked out differently in my life, that could have easily been me and I would have been happy.

Still, there's something that propels me forward. A sense of trying to experience something new or of reaching beyond what I know I can grasp. Something out there keeps me yearning for more. For good or for bad, it seems that I can't be satisfied staying still.

I'm off to American University for law school next year. It could have been the University of Washington, I could have stayed in Seattle. It isn't though because, in the end, it was the bit of hesitation and nervousness and fear that I felt in moving to DC that swayed me. I've enjoyed being in Seattle. But I feel I'm complacent here. It's time to get back on the road, to see something new again. It's time to be uncomfortable, unknown, and out of my element; it's time to, once again, find that version of myself.

If y'all are still interested I'll get up the other trip posts and try to be more active in my blog-o-sphere actions. I'm also going to get back behind the lens and starting taking more pictures. But for now enjoy the benavente spread. Not the best photos, but I promise better from Belgium and especially iceland. I'm gonna get back into this, stay with me.

JK