A Fitting Ending to the Semester

Hi All!

In a few short hours, I will be catching a bus to begin my long journey back to the United States. I plan to do an all-encompassing, retrospective blog entry, but right now, I don't have the time nor the energy for it. However, I did have an odd little experience today which sort of wrapped up my entire Spain experience...

I was eating lunch with my host sister, and we were watching The Simpsons. In the brief segment I watched, there was a city-wide power outage, and riots were breaking out in the street. One group of people broke into a music store and came out in marching band formation, complete with instruments. I found myself humming along to the song this newly-formed band was playing without even realizing what I was doing. Then, I took a step back and realized that the song was the Notre Dame Victory March! I was so stunned to have this completely unexpected taste of home occur on my last day in Spain. I thought it was a pretty fitting little ending, almost as if it was meant to happen. THEN I kept watching, and shortly thereafter, a group of people were seen walking away, having stolen Picasso's Guernica. At this point in time, I was utterly flabbergasted. I saw the painting in person, studied the event in history class, and wrote a research paper on it, so it's been a pretty common theme during my studies here. To see the painting in The Simpsons of all places was too bizarre for words.

After getting a taste of America and a taste of Spain in a rapid-fire sequence, I began to feel almost as if I was fated to see that little segment of The Simpsons. I feel pretty special to be one of the few people who can claim to have lived both of those experiences. Although I never would have expected it, that animated TV show has definitely provided some weird sense of closure to the semester, and I am now more ready than ever to come home!

See you TOMORROW,
Jill