Extracurricular

Two years ago around this time, I was in Spain, then Germany. I think I'm always going to miss the castañas and the glühwein.

I remember when I was a kid and none of those places seemed exactly real. Or if they were real, they weren't for people like me. I see this in my students, too. When I tell them I lived in Spain, they get the same look I think I used to get when my French teacher told me about visiting Provence. I think the only place my students have ever been, other than where they live now, is Mexico. But some have never been there, either. Quite a few of them have never seen the ocean. I didn't see it until I was ten.

I'm looking at a winter break alone and I'm trying to tell myself that it will be nice to have a couple of weeks to rest or whatever. But, like someone pointed out to me last week, I'm thirty years old and living on my own for the first time.