I thought I should do a short post about something other than school. So, when I am not in school melting my brain with spanish, I am either home working on more school stuff or running.
Honestly, at home running was my sport that I did for excercise. Here, it is something completely different. Something I cherish and look forward to at 7. I get home from school at 3 and I fill my time until I go to run at 7.
Running is great, and for millions of reasons. First off the obvious one, excercise. I eat soo much here. I eat breakfast (fresh bread with olive oil), lunch at school (a fresh bread "bocadilla", or sandwich), another lunch after school at 3 (a full course meal), "merienda" or snack at 5, and dinner at 9 (usually leftovers from other meals). Sooo much bread. So, running is going to hold off that weight, hopefully...
Another reason I run is because I can do it myself. I don´t need to be led around like a little kid. I can walk to the beach, run as long as I want, as far as I want, whenever I want. It is nice to be independent, a rarity here as a foreign student.
While I run I just space out, let all my stress just flow through my feet. I run and I run fast, not running away from my stress because that would be cowardice and if I stopped, the stress would eventually catch up. Instead, I let my stress work its way through me. The first ten minutes of running are always the hardest, because the stress is still in my head, then with each step I take it pounds closer and closer to my feet and then to the pavement, and as I continue running, I am running the stress to the ground and by the time I have finished, I have stomped my stress into the dirt, feeling good as new.
And lastly, running is a challenge. Because school isn´t as challenging as I was expecting, despite the language barrier, I get home from school and complete my homework in an hour or two depending on how much reading I have to do. And after I translate whatever it is I am doing, the actually work is simple, not making me have a challenge. So, to take the place of the challenge I recieve at school at LOLHS, which was academic challenge, I challenge myself in running. If one day I run a really fast 40mins, I say to myself, okay, tomorrow I will run that same speed for 50 mins. I run fast for 50 mins, but I am still feeling good, so I finish with a full out sprint for the last 200 meters. A challenge I was never really willing to take in the US.
In Spain, it is still around 70, usually higher, everyday. So, after I run I am HOT. So, naturally, the sea is right there, I jump in. Too bad, aparently 70 degrees is too cold for the beach in Spain, so I am the lonesome swimmer that people think is crazy. But, I don´t care, it feels really good. And the sea isn´t even cold...so I don´t know why people don´t take advantage of the beach. But, maybe that is just me being from CT. My host mom specifically thinks I am crazy. When I retur home after running and my hair is wet she always asks with disbelief, "you went in the sea again??". She doesn´t disaprove, she just thinks its crazy. But what can I say, its hot!
Also, today I skyped with my family, because it is my little sister´s 10th birthday! It was nice to see all of them. I miss them all so much:( Happy Birthday Dani<3 I love you!
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