Hello all,
As some of you might know, I had to cut my adventure short. As of now I am back in the States and doing well. Still trying to get my health issues sorted out, but I feel better being back home. Below is a post I made to Facebook a few days before leaving that kind of sums up what was going on. Now that I have better internet access, I'll post a link to some more pictures.
-Jeremy (aka Yeremi)
Dear friends,
For those who have not yet
heard, I am leaving Spain this Sunday (27 May) to return home to the
States. I know this is quite sudden (I only finalized my decision this
morning) and could come as a surprise, but I feel this decision is in my
best interest.
The past month or so, I have been going to
different doctors, clinics, and hospitals with stomach problems. Each
medical professional made suggestions on what it might be but I have
never received a definitive answer. Along with these stomach problems,
my anxiety, something that plagued me in the past, has been increasing.
For the last few weeks I have been suffering from bouts of anxiety,
stomach pains, and the associated physical symptoms. After much
consideration of my health, I think that it is best that I return home
to hopefully improve my anxiety problems and therefore allowing my
doctor to better treat my stomach problems.
That said, I
can safely say that I will not have any regrets returning home now. With
all certainty, I have accomplished everything that I set out to do, and
then some. I remember my biggest fear coming to Spain was my Spanish
abilities. Not to say that 4 years in high school and two in college
didn't prepare me, but I vividly remember my first day in Madrid trying
to tell my hostel's address to the taxi driver. In comparison, one of my
proudest language moments in Spain occurred less than a month ago when I
was able to successful talk to someone in Spanish on the telephone.
While this might sound silly, I assure you this is not a feat to be
laughed at. At this point, I definitely do not consider myself fluent,
but I am extremely pleased with the progress I've made over the past 8
months.
Besides increasing my knowledge of Spanish, I was
also nervous about how my work would proceed. Thankfully this went well.
I have loved nearly every minute of working with my students and
teachers in my schools. Thinking back to the first days and hearing my
students speak now, I know that my work helped to improve their English
skills. If nothing else, my students can now respond to my habitual
question of "how are you guys?" without a puzzled look and some Spanish
side discussion as to what I said. I've also enjoyed working with my
other auxiliars. Kyle, Tremaine, Afeefa, Aaron, and Nat are some of the
most patient and passionate people I have ever encountered.
Of
course, I was also nervous about meeting new people in such a foreign
environment (pun intended). Thus, I also want to acknowledge all the
friends I have made in this experience. With all honesty, I would not
have made it past the first week of Spain without all of you. I would
name you all, but there are so many of you and I would hate to leave
someone out. I consider you all very good friends of my mine and I hope
that no border will keep us from keeping in touch.
Thank
you also to all my friends, family, and loved ones back home for your
support. I'm sure I've talked to many, or all, of you sometime in the
past 8 months with some sort of gripe and I want to thank you for
listening, or at least pretending to listen.
In addition,
my time in Spain wouldn't have been as pleasant without my flatmates
Tiffany and Felipe. Everyday you guys helped me to see the world a
little different and I was constantly learning from you both. Plus,
you're both awesome.
As for my last few days in Spain.
Tomorrow I bid farewell to my school, students, and teachers. Followed
by a lot of packing and meeting up with some friends throughout the day.
On Saturday I am going on my final day trip, to a city called El
Escorial. Then finally on Sunday, I catch a 9am flight that arrives 9.5
hours later around 1pm in Charlotte, N.C.. Finally, I have just a two
hour flight from Charlotte, after a three hour layover, which should get
me to Detroit around 6pm.
I just wanted to share with you
all this short, disjointed, farewell to Spain and collection of my
thoughts. I'll post some more thoughts at a later date in my blog, most
likely when I'm in the States.
