After six weeks in Toledo, some of us are getting a little bored.
How horrible does that sound? We're living in a beautiful, historic city. We're in Spain, for Pete's sake. Still, after more than a month, we've fallen into a routine and the newness has begun to wear off.
We're still learning. We're still taking in the culture. But at the same time, we're tired. We have loads of homework, and it's all in another language. In some cases, we have crazy host families.
Sometimes it seems as though we trudge through each week just anticipating the three day weekend, which will present new adventures, as various members of our group of Ohio University students scamper off to London, Rome, Paris, Dublin or any of the various cities of Spain (the ones that aren't Toledo, that is).
We heard about the opportunity to take these mini-trips long before we had ever left OU's campus. We've been planning them for almost as long, and we return from each one with more stories to tell, more photos to share and more souvenirs and gifts to cart home.
Weekends mean exploring La Alhambra in Granada or touring Parc Güell in Barcelona. Weekends mean flying to London or Dublin and luxuriating in three days of being surrounded by people who actually speak English. Weekends mean feeling that sensation of newness and adventure again, which permeated our senses during our first few days here.
What we didn't really prepare ourselves for, as we planned for these adventures, was weekends in Toledo.
Logically, it's not possible for us to travel every single weekend while we're abroad. Homework rears its ugly head, and dwindling finances remind us that there is a limit to the trips we can take. Spending this past weekend in Toledo, however, has made me realize that there can be excitement found in staying a little closer to home.
A weekend in Toledo means time to catch up on homework so that weekday evenings can be spent with friends and language partners.
A weekend in Toledo means time to seek out new areas of the city we haven't yet visited and busting out the camera that's been collecting dust in our temporary hometown.
A weekend in Toledo means time to relax, to take a break and not have to worry about catching a bus or seeing all of the sites on a tourist map.
A weekend in Toledo means time to sit and dream and actually make plans for coming back here someday.
Yes, our weekdays may be growing repetitive, and yes, the stress certainly piles up between Monday and Thursday. Still, the prospect of spending a weekend in the same city that presents the everyday challenges of Spanish poetry and host family conflicts doesn't need to be a negative one.
For my part, I'm excited at the possibility of another weekend in Toledo. There's still so much left to do.
-Rebecca McKinsey is a sophomore studying journalism and Spanish who is studying abroad in Toledo, Spain. Send her an e-mail at rm279109@ohiou.edu or follow @ThePostCulture.
