Leaving León :'(

August 15, 2010
12:07 AM
I was talking to my dad online just now and came to an interesting realization – I’m leaving León tomorrow (Monday) instead of Tuesday as I thought! I tried to blame my misconception on the different calendar here (starting with Monday instead of Sunday), but I think in reality it was just a dumb mistake. Anyway, it’s all fine, except that now the end has come up on me extremely fast. I’m going to a pueblo with my señora and her mother tomorrow, so I’m pretty much done with my time in León. So strange.

I’m almost positive my suitcase weighs about 50 tons instead of 50 pounds… this might be an issue… everything fits, but I’m afraid that I’m way past the airplane weight limit. I think there should be a “total weight limit” which takes into account your checked bags, carryon bags, and weight of your body. Because that’s the main reason there are weight limits, right? To limit the total weight of the aircraft? Maybe I’m wrong. But it’s a nice thought, and I would be so on the right side of that rule if it ever comes into place! As it stands, I’m thinking I might have to buy a bag to use as a carryon to carry some of the weight.

I also keep thinking about the trek from the airport in Boston to Harvard, and how horrible it is with heavy luggage. Not looking forward to it! Not to mention that my room won’t be open yet, so I’ll have to camp out in someone else’s room for a couple days. And also not to mention all the moving in I’ll have to do afterwards into my dorm! I was lucky enough (ha) to get a room on the 5th floor this year, without elevators. That’ll be a change from the 3rd floor, with elevator set up that I had last year. And I have a futon and ginormous chair to move.

…I think I’m going to die.

As a tangent on the subject of weight limit and suitcases: I want to just throw away all of my clothes and take back a suitcase filled with exclusively European apparel. My mom said it’s normal to want to burn the clothes you take with you when you travel, but it’s so true – I’m SICK of everything that I brought with me. I’ve worn everything about a million times. Plus, the laundry process here has done horrible things to my clothes, so everything is in pretty bad shape in addition to having been over-worn for months now. It’s a good thing I don’t buy expensive clothing, otherwise I would be much more annoyed than I am already. And I’ve bought some clothes here, but I am SO EXCITED to get back to Boston and have access to more of my clothes (and more shopping, without the limits of luggage space). I guess the bright side to all this is knowing that I packed well, didn’t bring too much stuff or anything.

But anyway, back to traveling. My mind is already at school and going back to the US, as you can tell, but I am also excited to travel to France! I’ve been dutifully reading my “Francés para viajar” book that I bought in Barcelona, but I’m not sure how much more I’m going to be able to cram in the 50-some hours I have until I set foot on French soil. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to remember a couple phrases back from when I last took French in 7th grade though! And trying to learn some basic French has also shown me how fluent I really am in Spanish, another pleasant surprise. Plus I feel very cool learning French by reading a book in Spanish ☺

Funny anecdote about buying the book – as some of you may know, I am a horrible bargainer. If someone quotes me a price, I pay it. I’m never going to be able to buy a car alone, I’m sure I’ll get completely ripped off and pay sticker price plus some. Charlene, however, took the role of arguing down prices very seriously while we were in Barcelona. She was able to haggle the price of a pair of sunglasses down from €29 to €6, and then do the same for me when I was too nervous. And in souvenir shops, she would get the price cut in half or more just by looking uncertain or saying she would come back later. So when I bought the book, I decided to take the initiative and try to get a lower price. It was a success in that I was able to get the price lowered… but I had a reason (the strap was broken), and it was only lowered by 5%, which ended up being a negligible amount of cents. I’m pretty sure I could have gotten them to go lower, but I was so scared to ask that I accepted the discount on the spot. I’m not sure what I’m really afraid of, although from my bodily reactions it seems that I am anticipating physical violence. Because the person will be so frustrated at their lack of profit that they will attack me? I have no idea. But anyway, I will never be a good bargainer, and I’ll accept that. I’ll just have to make enough money in the future that I can pad other people’s pockets without making myself broke.

In other news, today I was looking at a girl that I met in Barcelona’s facebook and saw that she had a blog. Turns out reading about yourself from a stranger’s perspective is pretty interesting! Haha. I decided to follow her blog, so I guess it’s quite possible she’s reading this entry now as well… Sarah, if you are reading this – so glad we met in Barcelona, and hope the rest of your trip went well! Sarah’s from Oregon, which is cool for me, as I had met a grand total of one person until her from a western state other than California while in Spain.

Anyway, almost 1 AM here and I have to get up early to get in some last-minute shopping that I was planning to do on Monday… haha! Just glad that I realized my actual departure date today instead of, say, halfway through Monday. Next time I write I’ll be in France!

Brianna