feeling torn between two amazing things

The last three weeks of studying abroad have been one of the most fragile times for me. The feeling of bitter sweetness has been sauntering in my head. While I have fallen in love with my life abroad and people along the way, I can’t help but to long for my new life that is waiting for me at home. I say that I have been fragile lately because all it takes is not being able to find a shoe to make me want to go home. Perhaps my fragility has something to do with the fact that this is also the happiest I have been since I have been abroad. With my time here coming to an end it hasn’t taken any effort to enjoy all aspects of the time that I have left here. I want to make the most of my last few days, I want to leave a positive impression on those that I came with and the one I have met along the way. At the same time, I have so much in store for me when I get home that it’s hard not to want to jump start my summer in America. Talking so frequently to my family and friends at home has not made my wildly racing thoughts any more at ease but I’m glad that I have something to look forward to. It’s hard so want two things so much at the same time.

Gypsy Girl

With innocent eyes she approached playing an accordion. She put her hand out begging for money, it was hard to say no. She was dressed in all pink, her clothes were both dirty and hand-me-downs. Her ponytail was high; it started at the top of her head and went all the way down to her lower back. When she smiled her front tooth was chipped at the half way mark, which was hard to look at.

She played an unfamiliar tune but it was beautiful nonetheless. The owner of a near by restaurant came out he shooed her away as to not “scare off business”. But, who could be scared of such an innocent creature? One who knew nothing better but to go around begging for money all alone? It was clear that her parents had told her what she needed to do that day, to go out and gather money for the family. How could she deal with the rejection of so many people? How could she walk around approaching people eating lavish lunches being so gluttonous when she would die for only a piece of bread? After watching this charade play out for several minutes another accordion playing little girl came over to have a conversation with her. These children flooded the tourist traps hoping for at least some generosity of the people lucky enough to travel to their beautiful city. This scene as a whole was hard to look at.

Dow Jones

In Barcelona we went to the coolest bar ever called the Dow Jones. Naturally, the bar was set up with the theme of the Wall Street stock market. Upon walking into the bar you see little plasma televisions equally spaced all around the bar area. On every other screen there was a soccer game playing and on the others there was an extensive list of wild drinks with a list of prices next to them. The prices were listed in green, red and blue. If the price was in green that meant that someone had just brought the drink and the price was about to go up. Once one drink goes up it causes another drink to go down so those drinks were listed in red. This game can become extremely fun with the more people that are at the bar.  As you can imagine it can also be really frustrating as your trying to push your way to the front of the bar to get your favorite drink that was recently lowered but by the time you get to the bar and get the bartenders attention the drink you were going to order skyrockets 4 dollars. Overall everyone in our group had an amazing time at the Dow Jones, many people got to experiment with their taste-buds and others like me were finally able to indulge in our most favorite American mixed drinks (such as the Bloody Mary, which was made to perfection).