Where am I?

I've made it back to my hometown, but it somehow feels even more foreign than when I make my annual trips back from Stanford. There has been a significant amount of change, some of which feels like more drastic change in the past 6 months than there had been in the previous 3 years, but overall it still gives me a sense of comfort unparalleled by any other place.

It goes without saying that I missed the important people in my life - I'm really happy I was able to come home even if just for a short time to see my family before heading off to yet another adventure in the DC area - but leaving Madrid was still like leaving a part of me on the other side of the ocean. My only comforts are rediscovering the simple treasures I forgot existed in the US. One of the most obvious for me regards food. I was extremely fortunate in Madrid for having a host mother who genuinely cared about me and respected my choice to be vegetarian, and while she did amazing work in the kitchen, Spanish vegetarian food is not MY vegetarian food. It's not the hummus, avocado, and bean sprout sandwiches that remind me of summer, it's not the mango and black bean salad that I like to eat with chips and salsa, and it's definitely not the aloo palak Indian food that has become one of my all time favorite dishes. Spanish food is great - I fully intend on replicating some recipes! - but I missed the freedom of a kitchen.

I also desperately missed having a gym. It took my stay in Madrid to make me realize how much I took the gym at Stanford for granted. I found a great introductory deal to a Bikram yoga studio, but unfortunately couldn't afford a full membership. Soon after, I signed up for my first 10K race. Running kept me busy for a while, until I broke my toe trekking through the Spanish countryside on el Camino de Santiago just one short week after the race. My unfortunate toe kept me from walking without a limp for about a week and certainly kept me from running for at least 2 weeks after that (mostly because I never really took care of it or rested appropriately). Monday I walked into a gym for the first time in way too long and damn it felt good.

Then, of course, there is the world of smartphones, cable TV, Netflix, and Pandora that has opened up to me. A world of entertainment at my fingertips, for better or for worse.

But just as I expected, the reality of my presence at home makes my entire experience abroad seem like a dream. El Paso has a way of doing that even with my life at Stanford, but the greater physical and psychological distance between the US and Spain makes it much harder to bridge the two. Now it's on to the next chapter in m life - summer research, here I come!!