Marisa’s abroad in Madrid, Spain, until Dec. 19.

I’m taking a quick computer break from studying for my first midterm, and suddenly it feels like I’m back at Northwestern. Well, sort of. I did about two consecutive hours of studying, which is hardly impressive, but certainly more than I’ve done all semester. And Ally just scurried into the kitchen screaming something about getting an interview at Christie’s art auctioning house for a summer internship, which reminds me that I should be doing more applications, too. So far, one is in and three more are in the process, but I’m feeling a tug of urgency to get the rest of them lined up for some reason, even though it’s only October. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that being abroad has given me a warped sense of time, or maybe it’s because I feel so disconnected from home and I’m worried that I’m forgetting about some of the humdrum things I have to get done. That might explain why I sent the International Studies department a hurried email this afternoon, essentially out of the blue and with no rational explanation, asking which quarters my remaining core classes are offered. Or perhaps I’m just feeling guilty since Northwestern has given me the Pavlovian instinct to constantly busy myself with dull tasks and reading, but I’ve been playing for the past six weeks and haven’t done more than a few scattered hours of work. I guess that’s really nothing to complain about, and I should enjoy it while I’m here and stop worrying so much. I promise I’m not completely neurotic, by the way; I’m just inexplicably stressed today.

In other news, I had a particularly Spanish weekend, filled with tapas and sangria and a long-awaited trip to El Rastro. The market was packed with people and we could barely move at some points, but I did make some good purchases. It reminded me a lot of the markets in Morocco, except that it didn’t smell like garbage and I wasn’t surrounded by cats, both of which were changes for the better, I think. This weekend, I’m going on a day trip to beautiful Valencia, where I’ll take in the old city, check out what is supposedly the Holy Grail, eat some paella in the city that invented it, and visit the largest aquarium in Europe. You have no idea how excited I am for the aquarium. In fact, Valencia has built this entire City of Arts and Sciences, which includes a massive science museum, the aquarium, a planetarium, and an art center, all housed in stunning works of modern architecture. I could literally spend days in there. Perhaps sleep next to the shark tank or under the “stars” in the planetarium? I’m such a nerd.

Speaking of which, I should maybe get back to studying. Or maybe the real test here is letting go and refusing to care about such inane things like grammar tests when I should be enjoying an exciting foreign city. So far, I’m getting about a B+ on that test, but why not aim for perfection?

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