By fuentescaro
Time has sincerely gone too fast. I remember being excited early September about being in Sevilla, a beautiful European city with so much history. Now, I sit at a coffee shop late November while listening to Christmas music because in Spain they do not celebrate Thanksgiving. Looking at all the people here at the coffee shop, I cannot help but feel nostalgic. Nostalgic in the sense that I am going to leave soon a city that has given me so much perspective about my identity.
I still identify as a Latina and first-generation student in the United States. However, I have taken more pride in saying that even though I was not born in the United States, I am still American. A lot of people in Spain have questioned whether I am from the United States as soon as I start speaking. I have to explain my nationality and how growing up in the United States has influenced not only my accent but my Spanglish. It has been a strange feeling when people try to guess where I am from and I think the hardest part of leaving my international community will be not being able to see them and interact with them on a daily basis.
I will miss coming to my host home during lunch time and listen to the stories of an enthusiastic nine-year-old. Most definitely I will miss all the interactions with my CIEE friends, getting churros con chocolate and walking in the streets decorated with Christmas ornaments. For the most part I have been accustomed to communicating in Spanish with my host family and friends. I have had a hard time with some vocabulary but I think my Spanish has increasingly improved.
I hope to stay connected with my host family and the friends (both Spanish and American) that I have made while studying abroad. I hope to continue to interact with them via social media. My host mom does not have Facebook or Instagram so we have compromised on WhatsApp calls. Writing about what I will miss the most has made me realize how lucky I am to have had the privilege of having met all of them.