Settled

I am trying to remember how settled I feel here for when I come back from my trip and, inevitably, feel like I'm not settled anymore.  But now I have my routine.  I see the same people on the bus and on the street.  I remember to dodge the poop on the sidewalk up the hill to the bus stop.

And today, I had another breakthrough in feeling settled here.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned before, but I'm pretty sure there is a convent near my house.  Nuns (not in habits usually, but in very simple clothes carrying rosaries, etc.) are always all over the neighborhood.  One in particular always stops and talks to the locals at the bus stop.  Typically, this was the two little kids who waited for their private school bus with their mom, or the guy who also works in Parque Miramon (the technology park where my office is) and has apparently lived here forever.  And she typically ignores me, or just says hello quickly on her way past.  Well, today, she sat down next to me at the bus stop and chatted away until the bus came.  I only understood about 50% of what she was talking about.  I had been knitting when she came by, and she talked a lot about her mother who used to knit, and also something about the weather, I think.  I did a lot of nodding and saying "claro," "bueno" and "vale" (great words for any spanish conversation - basically meaning, "of course" or "right" or "yeah").  She was also convinced that I am from the UK - as many, many people are.  Apparently, according to people other than the nun who have made this mistake, I don't "seem" American, whatever that means.

I hope I can settle back into the routine I have quickly when I get back ... and I hope the time in Chicago doesn't fly by too quickly (though I know it will).  A week from now I will be an hour away from boarding my plane to Chicago.  It's sort of sad, but I am actually really psyched that my whole travel day, from leaving the hotel to getting into Chicago will only be about 15 hours, instead of the 23 or so hours I traveled on my last trip across the Atlantic.  And 3.5 hours of that is layover in Madrid where I can window shop in the mall!  Can't WAIT!!