Is it really over?

I am surrounded by boxes, and movers.  Somehow, there are a few more returning than came with us.  Could we have done without much of what we brought?  Definitely.  But we did use most of it.  Except for my sewing machine—those projects did not happen.  I could have brought fewer clothes, fewer shoes, but I didn’t know what the shape of my life would be like. 

The apartment is starting to look much like what it did when we arrive, most of the signs of messy family life removed.  The photos of friends and family have been taken off of the refrigerator, the kids’ artwork taken down from the walls.  Alec has just left to meet our good friends for one last pizza dinner, while I finish up the details with the movers.  Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with them soon.

On Tuesday some friends from Brooklyn arrived to begin their own year here.  They came by for a drink and then we went to dinner.  Tomorrow we will given them a box of food from our pantry and The Barcelona Notebook, which was a real lifesaver for me.  It sort of feels like a full circle moment to have people we know beginning their own adventure just as ours is ending.

I will miss Barcelona, both as a place in and of itself, and as the place where I got my mojo back.  I got strong and healthy here, slowed down, re-grounded myself in my academic work and gave myself more time and space than I have in a very long time.  I shopped for food and cooked, I read, I followed hunches and tangents, I hung out with my kids.  I aim to maintain the lessons I learned when I return to New York, and I know it will be a challenge.  Let’s face it, New York is not the first place that comes to mind when one thinks about slowing down.

But first, we are prolonging our adventure with a six week road trip.  We’ll pick the kids up from camp tomorrow afternoon and begin our drive east, through France and Italy to take a ferry to Croatia.  We will chill with some friends on a small island for about a week, spend a few days in Dubrovnik, and then head back to Italy to catch a ferry to Greece, where we will spend a bout ten days each in the Peloponese and on an island called Chios.  Then it’s back to Italy where we will spend a few days in Venice before driving back to Barcelona to sell our car and tie up loose ends.

So stay tuned!  More adventures to come…