I'm back!!!

Home sweet home! I am soooo happy to be back in Winona. I really missed everything- the house, the streets, the coffee shops-everything. I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog here, which I will try to squeeze into my new 9-hour-long days on campus. I've gone from teaching one course to overloading. My first class is at 8 am (gulp) and the last one gets out at 5. Luckily, that's still just Mon-Thurs.

Juan's still in Spain doing what I did back in May for the fall study abroad students. So, Mobi and I have been indulging in some girl time, which mostly involves long walks and many sessions of fetch with the Chuck-it and/or tennis balls. Oh yeah, eat your hearts out, boys.

Last night to commemorate the end of the summer and the beginning of school once again, I made myself a festive end-of-vacation meal. On the grill went an Asian-style turkey burger and corn-on-the-cob, accompanied by an amazing caprese salad and to wash it all down, a FABulous watermelon martini. It was good stuff and a fitting send-off.

FUN IN TVlandia: Sunday I watched my beloved Bleakhouse not win an Emmy-what's up with that?
And I was shocked and appalled to discover that Project-also-missed-out-on-an-Emmy Runway is half-way through another season in my absence. Why oh why, Bravo? Part of the show's appeal was the guilty pleasure of coming home in the middle of the week, having dinner and snuggling under a warm blanket to watch for an hour. It just isn't the same when it's still light out and much better weather for walking outside. Does this mean I won't get my PR fix this winter? I shudder at the thought.
But the only shows I actually missed while abroad were the ones that keep me up late at night to watch- the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. I've been doing my darndest to stay up late enough to watch, though my new mandatory wake-up time is making that difficult. We have talked about getting Tivo and I'm really thinking that may happen soon.
Tonight I made a great program discovery- No reservations with Anthony Bourdain. He may quickly become my second-favorite travel show host, next to Ian from Globe Trekker. He's quite a bad-ass: he smokes and drinks on camera, makes risque jokes and is just a lot of fun to watch. I think he's been around a long time, I just haven't actually seen the show before.

I've got lots of other things to coment on, but it's way past my new bedtime, so I'll save it for office hours.

The Program is Over

And so ends probably the most stressful month of my life. I am on vacation!!! It is a lot of work to be responsible for 35 teenagers, even when they are as good and wonderful as our group was this year. Because even when nothing goes wrong, you are always anticipating the worst case senario. Or at least, I am.

At the moment I am in Madrid in a barely air-conditioned internet place in the basement of a vegeterian cafeteria. These are a new addition to the city, along with Starbucks, neither of which could be found anywhere when I was living here back in 2000-2001. Nice to see Spain is progressing. (I mean the vegeterian part, not Starbucks.) I had hoped to post some final Cadiz pictures, but the computer is not cooperating, and the little timer keeps ticking down.

I celebrated my freedom by going to some Arabic baths near my hostal and then going to a really cool exhibit at the Centro de Bellas Artes about emigration and immigration in Spain. See info here.

Ok, time's up!

AAAARRRGGGGGHHH

Guess where I spent the night/early morning?

The kiddies leave tomorrow at 9:30 am. Believe it or not, I think I am actually going to miss them. In a couple of days ;)