Have you ever experienced what happens after you spend a significant amount of time living in one place? At some point in your life, have you ever stepped back and realized that, even though you never planned or wanted to, you have managed to accumulate an unsightly level of random items in the form of memorabilia, souvenirs, clothing, shoes, or (in my case)...books.
I know some of you know what I'm talking about.
It's not that I find shelves overflowing with books as unsightly. Just the opposite. Put me in Barnes & Noble and my face lights up like a five year old at Christmas as I go from shelf to shelf picking up titles that catch my eye and flipping through the pages to experience a wonderful burst of that "new paper smell". Unfortunately, this love is the source of my problem.
As much as I don't want to admit it, I only have two months left of exchange, and that breaks my heart. Of course, the end of exchange means that I have to eventually try and cram all of my worldly possessions back into suitcases in order to be allowed to bring them with me on an airplane. This has become an evident issue because, though I did collect many souvenirs and memorabilia throughout my year, I have also collected several (you guessed it) books!
Some of these books I wanted in order to read (El Hobbit, Divergente), but others just seemed to appear. I got story books as gifts from my host families, travel and tourism books from my Rotary Club, and even some complimentary books in a gift bag from an art museum my class went to in Madrid.
Why don't I just leave some books behind, you ask?
I. physically. can't!
I can't bare the thought of leaving a single one of these books behind, even the random museum ones that I will probably never read. It actually pains me thinking that I might have to leave some of them behind just so that I can fit my sneakers and black heels into my suitcase with all my other souvenirs.
Fortunately, I believe I have come up with the perfect solution. Leave behind half of my wardrobe! Good bye winter jacket that is too short in the sleeves and no longer warm. So long jeans that are now way too tight with the addition of my exchange weight. Adios sweater with the tear in it and the sneakers that no longer have any tread.
......As you can see, I have my priorities straight.
In other news, we had last Thursday and Friday off because of Workers Day. Technically, Workers Day was Thursday, but we still didn't have school on Friday. Because of this, we went to Jaca to see a festival they were holding that celebrates when the Muslims were pushed out of the town during the Crusades.
I climbed a small cathedral wall to get these photos. I hope you enjoy them!
Here you can see the horses and the lovely Medieval outfits some people were wearing.
And here we can see poles adorned with fake heads of "Muslims".
Of course, there were drummers.
I did ask about the significance of the flower hats shown above, but I never got an explanation.
That was an interesting experience. Of course, going to this meant that I was thinking about Medieval Era and fantasy stories involving dragons all weekend, so when we went to see one of the most well-preserved castles in Spain, all I could think was "where are the dragons" and "Knights of Camelot!" Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the castle.
This Friday, I have to leave school two classes early in order to go to a Rotary Conference in Victoria. 20 of us exchange students from my district are coming (one of them being me). I'll make sure to bring my camera this time!
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