The First Lasts

With exactly one week left in Oviedo, I'm starting the torturously slow process of saying goodbye to my life here one piece at a time. I'm almost starting to get the sense that I'm living my time in Spain backwards, parting with things in the order in which I found them.

On Friday, I celebrated my last night out in Oviedo with Mica. What a difference almost six months makes! I remember the lost American girl who didn't know how to order a drink, who was beyond embarrassed when this smiling brunette was ordered to be her friend. I remember that girl, but she's disappeared since October. Mica helped me take my first step away from being that girl. She was the first solid thing I could hold on to in a situation that was occasionally overwhelming. Now, as my friend prepares for her own time abroad, I can only hope she finds her own 'Mica.' All it takes to be at home somewhere is one loving person who will welcome you into their world without judgment or reservation.

I spent the rest of the weekend with the family in Tapia, the seaside village where I hadn't been since my very first weekend in Spain. That parallel provided another bittersweet insight into how much has changed since I arrived. I have worked hard for the relationships I have with all the members of my Spanish family. I know their full value because I know the months of patience and acceptance and kindness we have mutually invested in building them. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't always easy. It was, however, unconditionally worth it.

We made our last Friday night cookies (albeit on Sunday). Little can use the hand mixer without help now. And I am finally a bit more fluent in the metric system!

Tomorrow I'll go to Calle Gascona for my last Asturian ciders to say goodbye to Alemana and Javi.

Almost every day between now and next Wednesday I'll say goodbye to at least one friend, in fact. As painful as that is, it also leaves me with a sense of gratitude. In six short months my life in Oviedo has filled with people and places I love. The catch-22 of travelling like this is you always hope to create something that you know will be hard to leave behind.