home sweet home.

I've been home for two weeks exactly today. Two very busy, full, fun, interesting weeks! After finally getting back to Portland after approximately 21 hours of traveling, losing my little mp3 player, having a suitcase lost, chatting with a cool soldier going home for Christmas before being deployed to Afghanistan and (not) sleeping, I was pretty tired. Mom and dad picked me up from the airport and we headed to Kevin and Helen's house where I fell asleep in an instant. When I woke up, it was Christmas Eve! Well, it was Christmas Eve when I went to sleep too, but just barely. So mom, dad and I headed to Philomath, I unpacked my Christmas gifts for everyone (the ones I had anyway), and....well, I don't really remember much else. I was kind of out of it. I think we had family dinner? Pretty sure we did. Yes, turkey-and-stuffing-style dinner. YUM.

Then it was Christmas! A fun day of family and food and gifts and stories. And playing with Sierra's playdoh...then I was ready for bed at like 6. The next week or so was a blur of sleeping (mostly not sleeping, actually), unpacking, re-packing to move, meeting up with friends, watching TV, more food, and mentally preparing myself to get back in the routine of school-work-volunteer-homework-life. THEN it was time to move.

First of all, let me say how amazing God is. Sometimes he brings people into your life at just the right time. My friend Annie is so great and we have a lot of fun hanging out. Well, she happens to have two friends who live right next door to her who decided they wanted another roommate. Sooooo Annie introduced us and here I am! These girls are so great and sweet and fun and they love Jesus and are such great roommates! Besides paying like a third of what I did for rent last year, I get to live with two really great girls, right next to another really great girl, and still be close to campus, etc. AND I get to keep my car here. Yay!

So, I'm back in Portland. As soon as I got back up here I heard from my old manager at the gym asking if I wanted to pick up any shifts. Another blessing, I didn't even have to contact them to start working again, easy as that. It doesn't hurt that at least one person recently left so there are open hours. Another God thing? Although I will miss working with Sarah, she was lots of fun. Then my first full day back up here, Annie and I went to SUSHI. Yum. And she showed me where to catch the bus, etc. And then we went to church! Such a good way to start things back up again in Portland.

Although I did break down a little in class on Tuesday. I started off the day in my psychology class, learning about human development and the theories by Piaget, Skinner, Vygotsky, etc. The things I had just finished studying for a whole semester in Spain. And while in class I opened up my notebook to take notes. I started writing on the lined paper and the spaces between the lines seemed GIGANTIC. I had to double-check to see if I had accidentally bought wide-ruled paper. You see, the notebooks in Spain are grided. They are not lined. And the grids are tiny. Like super-tiny. So to write on one "line" is like writing in half of a lined-line. Anyway, both these things (the subject and the paper) made me think of Spain. Right off the bat. Then during my break, I ate a mandarin. Which I took to class a lot in Spain. And Sofie would take like 3 to class. And the mandarins in Spain are waaaay better. Then I had music class. Ohhh music class. Well this didn't remind me of Spain at all. It was just funny. Although an old co-worker from the gym was in that class. Fun.

Anyway, next up was Spanish. Well obviously this reminded me of Spain. But not just because it was Spanish. First of all, two girls in this class were in my class this summer. So they wanted to know all about Spain. Then our instructor walked in and started talking. And from the second word she said, I knew she was from Spain. The accent is very recognizable. So that got me all sentimental. THEN she said what we were going to study: accents. This is what I had study in good ole Joaquín's class. So not only had I been reminded all day of Spain by random things, but then I was sitting in class listening to Spanish, studying something I had just studied in my favorite class over there. Only I wasn't in Spain. And Joaquín wasn't teaching it. And Sofie wasn't sitting next to me in class. And then I started tearing up a little. I was like, "AMY! What are you doing?!?!?!" But I couldn't stop. No tears actually rolled down my face, so I don't think anyone noticed. But my eyes just kept welling up. I finally got it under control. And then Annie picked me up and we did a little shopping at Freddy's.

I still miss Spain. I still wish I could have stayed another semester. But it is even more clear to me now than it was before that I'm supposed to be here. I am excited to be back and hang out with my old friends and live with these fun girls and learn in class and go back to working at the gym and start a new after-school class (here's to hoping it goes better than it did last year...) and all the other good stuff that will happen while I'm here. It's already started out pretty great, I know God will just do more good things in my life. Only he knows why I'm here instead of in Spain, but I trust he has a good reason for it!