la yanqui returns home

Wow, hey, kids. It's fantastically refreshing to read over this blog after having been away for two months! I miss you all.
So I just got back from 2 months in Europe--most of which was spent studying Spanish and Iberian history in Salamanca, Spain, some of which was spent travelling by myself through Rome and southern Spain (read: al-Andalus, with historical and current Muslim-influence). It was bizarre to travel through the "first world" for the first time in my life; I'm glad I saved it for last. Traveling to places like Ecuador or Egypt is much more difficult, to be sure, but then also more deeply impacting. Traveling through Spain was a two month vacation, in the best possible sense. I also made some good friends there from SPU (people I hadn't known previously), which makes it a lot easier to go back to Seattle for my senior year. But really, there's nothing like living in an intense environment like Egypt to make you bond with and appreciate the people that you're with. Even though I spent a month with these friends, a month together with all of you in Egypt felt like a lifetime. I missed having you all there with me--it just seems wrong to travel abroad without you all, you know?
That being said, it was such a relief to actually speak the language in Spain. I am going to start up Arabic classes again at an institute in Seattle starting in September--but with 10 years of Spanish already under my belt, I had a blast getting to know Spaniards and actually being able to express myself well with them. (I may or may not have also had good enough Spanish to score a 34 year-old Spanish lover for my last 2 weeks over there... oh, Juan Carlos)
Anyway-- I can't wait to see you all at Suz and Grueler's wedding! Soon, very soon. I've also been inspired by reading up on all of your busy and interesting lives to snap out of European-vacation mode and get back to my Middle East books and start doing something meaningful again.
Finally, if any of you are lurking around the Chicago area in the next few weeks, let me know, because I'd love to see you.
Take care, my friends--
Alissa