Senior Year Microcosm

Last night was my last party night in San Sebastian for a "long time," though I know that phrase is incredibly relative. On Wednesday this week, I will return to Andalucía for Holy Week (Semana Santa)...then after that, the other travel fun begins. Here is mas o menos mi itinerario:
Wednesday 04/08: To Málaga (via Madrid) on bus
Thursday 04/09-11: Spend Semana Santa in Málaga
Easter Sunday 04/12-15: To Sevilla
Wednesday 04/15-17: To Granada
Friday 04/17-19: To Córdoba
I need to stress the importance of this situation. Other than (perhaps Rome), the Spanish south is the most sought-after spot for Semana Santa. Spain becomes a heart beating with the lament and joy of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I have heard Sevilla is virtually inaccessible during the week because the processions (called pasos) go down every street. Málaga, where I will spenfd the deepest days of Holy Week, has the longest processions in the world.
Holy Week and Easter are coming at an ideal time. As I have said, San Sebastián and the Erasmus people here have definitely captured my heart. I will miss the friends I have made here during my two weeks. But I itch for more, for exploring the world around me that has been waiting. Once more, it hits me. You're in Europe! Think of what you could do!
Not that it's bad to want to go dancing every night, or go to a bar with silly Swedes and Germans, but it's time I expanded my horizons. And SanSe will be waiting (I hope. Wow, the irony of a meteor or tidal wave destroying this place while I'm gone). But it won't be waiting for long...:(. That's why I've titled this post "senior year microcosm." It's like Semana Santa and the weeks proceeding will be a study abroad of study abroad...I will be leaving my "home" in the Spanish north to see the world, but will be very happy to be back. The problem is, only a month-and-a-half after I get back, study abroad goes away, and I head to Lebanon, and then to LMU. Then only a few months after that, college goes away, and I head for the real world #$%^!! It appears I will be getting a lot of practice at goodbyes. I. Hate. Those.
At Altxerri Jazz Bar last night, down the street from mi piso, the German sweetie-pie Inga and I found ourselves talking about the end of study abroad, and what it means to be relatively near the end, or at least approaching the end. I began to tear up. I am going to really, really cry when I have to leave this place and these people...it's just like college; the reason you love it so much is that it's finite. Like life, I suppose.
Another reason Semana Santa is coming at a good time...so that I don't feel like reality has slapped me in the face on the day I'm set to jet off for Lebanon, I need to put this experience in perspective. To not rely on parties and dancing and cute accents to keep me happy...to become more reflective and less GO. And from what I have heard, you have no choice in southern Spain during Holy Week but to become introspective, even solemn. I may not call myself Catholic anymore, but I still feel the weight of the coming week pressing on my heart. For once this semester, I will give myself all the rest and thought I need.
Things don't die down for me after Semana Santa:
Monday 04/20: Meghan Fitch will be stopping in SanSe. She's doing an internship in London Parliament and (very wisely) decided to spend part of her vacation in Spain.
04/21-23: brief back-to-class break
Thursday 04/23-26: Barcelona with Elisabeth Randall, now studying in Strasbourg, France.
05/01-02 OR 08-09: Madrid: hanging with Brooke/Jordan and friends, but also hopefully seeing un partido de fútbol.
05/14-19: Portugal with Heather from New York, Katrine from Denmark, Sonja from Germany. Also, meeting Father Rui the Portuguese Jesuit in Porto. Apparently he's flying in to his hometown, Porto, on the 18th, which is, by chance (or more than that), one of the days I will be in Portugal!
05/21-24: PARIS
There's a lot more I want to do: go to the party island Ibiza, an island off the east coast of Spain. Walk in Ignatius' enroute to Santiago de Compostela. See the miraculous spring at Lourdes. But you can't do it all, and I think, by then, that I will want to rest awhile with my Erasmus friends :)
So there's my next month-and-a-half. I am bittersweet about it...just as I was to come to Spain. But I have the deep-down feeling that I will be so much more than thankful that I did it in the end. Oh world, I love you. A lot. Thank you.