When it all becomes normal

I've been in Madrid for about 3 weeks now.  

3 weeks...I guess that's a pretty significant amount of time.  After all, a session at camp is 3 weeks, and kids come out of that transformed with new best friends.  

Here in Madrid, 3 weeks seems to be the marker of when things here seem, well, normal.  It's like an alarm clock set to awake me from the confusion on the metro, the embarrassment of asking for directions-and then asking the person to repeat them, the fear of feeling dumb for getting lost on my way from the train to campus.  

Instead, 3 weeks in and I'm on a great sleeping schedule, I have a rough idea of where I'm going most of the time, I know what to expect for dinner,  I say "I'm going home" when I'm going back to my host family's apartment, and, although my Spanish is still far from perfect, I don't hesitate to speak or understand.  

Is 3 actually the magic number?  The magic number that brings you to a sense of normalcy?  

Perhaps, because looking back at this week, I find nothing to report that is over the top exciting.  I woke up every day and went to class.  Classes are still pretty cool.  Starting to get homework which is less than ideal, but still nothing compared to Berkeley.  It's still so difficult to bring myself to do it though.  

Maybe there's a disease called abroad-itis: symptoms include: the complete lack of academic motivation, obsessively making travel plans, going out too much.  I don't think there's a cure.

One of my biggest symptoms is certainly making travel plans.  Here's what's on the itinerary so far:

Milan and Venice

Cordoba and Granada

Cadiz, Spain

I am beyond excited.  And again, this is normal.  

But of course, it's not.  

As I continue my life here in Madrid, life at home continues too.  Because of the amazing technological tool that is skype (skype creators, I am forever in debt to you), I have been able to keep up with life at home and in Berkeley.  Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away this week.  She lived a great, long life and we will all remember her with a smile on our faces forever.  I wish I could have been home with my family.  Luckily, this 3 week mark also means that there are friends here to look out for you, to care.  

So life goes on.  You learn to feel normal within an experience which is of course, anything but.  It's incredible and special and awesome and crazy---and it's feeling good.