The last moments

I don't have a Twitter. However, I felt some twitter-like inspiration on the last leg of my journey back home from Spain in late May.

I had a notepad with me and decided I would write random thoughts down as they happened. I just found this notepad while cleaning my room and realized that I didn't post any of this here on my blog.

Before I write this, I wish I had written "tweets" about the "morning" before traveling. I put quotes around "morning" because I had to leave my host family's house at 4:30am. I ate dinner as usual the night before around 10pm, then said goodbye to Rocio before she had to go to sleep around 11:30. Carlos stayed up, watching TV, while I sat in my room and packed my bags until 2am. Thinking that I should get SOME sort of sleep before leaving, I took a nap until 4am, then made sure Carlos woke me up if I wasn't in the kitchen by 4:10am. Luckily he didn't have to, and I ate my "breakfast" then got ready to leave.

I remember that the first thing on my mind at the moment was how much I would miss my host family and my Alicante home in which I had lived for the previous 5 months.

The second thing that was on my mind was how I would miss the live broadcast of the series finale of LOST, which would be at 6am Spain time. It was devastating, really.

Anyways, on to the "tweets," which are un-twitterlike in their order, because I wrote them in the order they occurred, the newest posts at the very end.


May 25, 2010
(Alicante airport)
6:15am: Just saw a guy make the last call for boarding on his flight. He ran to the gate and chucked his papers at the flight attendant, in a rush.

6:18am There seems to be 2 types of people at the airport: those with some sense of style, and those who equate "travel clothing" with "mountainous terrain clothing."

6:20am There is a woman dragging her duffel through the airport. Someone needs to tell her it doesn't have wheels.

(Madrid airport)
8:55am You know Security's having a good day when they are whistling Duran Duran.

9:04am Airports everywhere are collections of people looking around aimlessly and being confused.

9:15am Asked if the toy store clerk would take a picture of me and a lifesize cardboard cutout of Pocoyo. He said taking photos isn't allowed. Jerk.


Pocoyo.

9:35am I just got abnormally excited for a tortilla bocadillo. I'm gonna miss those.

9:36am Received a plastic cup for my squirt-top Evian watter bottle. Way to be wasteful, Spain.

9:45am Just got a call from Katie [Blubaugh]. It was a much-needed surprise after not talking to anyone in the past 5 hours.

10:15am Why is that man holding a woman's legs in the air at the bookstore? Oh, I just noticed 2 EMTs leaning over her. Sure took me a while.

10:20am I am BALLIN' with $400 cash. Looks like funny money after a semester of dealing with a rainbow of bills.

10:25am Why does the Chupa Chups machine appear to me now, when I am fresh out of Euros?!?!

(on Madrid-Chicago flight)
7:15pm Snack box time on the plane! Unfortunately, due to orange allergies and refusal to eat marbled deli meat, I only scrounge the 1-inch candy bar and small palmeritas cookies.

(Chicago)
2:30pm Back in the good ole US of A: where sedate people ironically wear athletic clothes on a daily basis.

CUTE OVERLOAD

So finally I got to Alicante, I waited outside in the cold (45 or 50 degrees, so cold but not too cold) while I waited for my host mom to arrive. And no, that wasn't supposed to happen. She arrived, and she spoke perfect English! That was a big disappointment. So then she showed me around the apartment, in English. I responded to everything in Spanish. (After dinner tonight, it came about that they said they'd only speak Spanish from now on...but they still say English every now and then)
I took a nap, then when I woke up, I heard a tiny little spanish voice down the hall. When I first arrived, only my host mom was home, and now she had picked up her 2 yr old son from school (which I am curious about...what school is there for 2 yr olds?). Remember in one san sebastian entry where I said children's voices are even cuter when they're in Spanish? Well, IT IS TRUE.
Dante doesn't know any words in English, so he is super duper cute. When I went to the kitchen and he came out from the patio, the voice in my head made this noise: gaajkshdgksueyrgh. That is an affectionate gargling noise of a CUTENESS OVERLOAD!

He was really shy at first, where he hid behind his parents, the table, the door, a chair, or anything that he could just peek around from, since I was a stranger.
He soon warmed up to me, and he got into his little show and tell mode that kids get into, where they just want to show you EVERYTHING. Instead of "lookit! lookit!" he's shouting "mira! Mira!" as he shoves various toys, a placemat, a shoe, and a cereal box in my face. Later I saw him wandering the hallway alone and asked him if he'd show me his room. He got SO excited at the idea of this, and immediately ran into his room and showed me all of his toys and the mini plastic slide in the middle of the room. When he showed me his chair in the den, I pointed to his shirt to ask him if he knew what number it was, and my hand brushed across the super sticky surface. Later, my host mom informed me that he likes honey. A lot. Like, 3 or 4 times a day.
In the den is also MY favorite toy of the bunch, a Mr. Potato Head doll named "Darth Tater."

Later, after dinner, he sat and watched a 7 minute clip from his favorite cartoon [edit: Pocoyo] as we finished eating. During the clip (from youtube) he was in a trance. After the clip, he was calling papa to fix it for him so it would play more. I have never seen a child refuse desserts and chocolate, but he did just that as he zoned out to the red octopus and yellow boot-shaped duck on screen. Then, of course, when it was time to go to bed, he was all "NOW I want chocolate." Then he just began naming random foods he wanted, and it was hilarious. He even said "pine nuts" at one point. Then he just began naming more and more foods. At one point, my host dad said "would you like me to make you something? perhaps a strawberry souffle?" Dante, with the most serious face, thought for a moment, then said, "Yes, I do."

Eventually he left to go to his room, but before he put on his jammies, his mom carried him in my room, and she said "what do you say? hmm? Oh, he wanted to give you a kiss before bed." And so I ducked down a bit and he gave me a peck on the cheek, with a huge grin on his face! SOOOO CUTE!