In place of me writing about another ribbon this week, I'm here to tell you that Katie Stallard, my beautiful mom and constant inspiration, is done with chemotherapy. Although this is not the end of her treatment, it is the closing of a very difficult chapter in the greater breast cancer story. Any breast cancer patient or survivor can tell you just how draining it is to sit in a chair, week-to-week, for hours at a time and receive chemotherapy, a powerful medicine that goes after not only the bad cells but some of the good ones too. Over the past couple of months my mom has struggled with losing her hair, her energy, and her satisfaction in some of the simple things we do day-to-day but tend not to really think about... eating, for example. The next step will be a series of radiation treatments which we expect to be nothing compared to chemo. A quick shout out to the friends and family who have showered my mom with love, support, presents, and even home-cooked meatballs, y'all seriously rock. And lastly, shout out to you mom... congrats! I am so thrilled to see you pass by another milestone in the journey with your unwavering bravery and high spirits. How you do it all with such grace, I wish I knew.
So... what's new with me in Barcelona? In the breast cancer awareness spirit and a nice little follow up to my blog post entitled "Coats: A Way of Life", I bought a coat!! And it's pink. Every day I feel that I come closer and closer to being mistaken as a Spanish woman. I am now the proud owner of platform booties and a cool coat. Also, this week I did some additional credit card damage by booking flights back to London and to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon will be a nice little getaway before finals in April (praying it's warm enough to enjoy the beach) and London was a must because three days was not enough time to experience it all. There's still so much to see! And who could turn down another opportunity to hang out with your best friends? Certainly not me.
Quick peak of the coat.
What else? What else? I suppose it's worth sharing that earlier this week I paid an overdue visit to the doctor in Barcelona. Since my recent trip to London, or maybe even before then, I have been suffering from terrible congestion. As someone who seems to be constantly sick, I figured time would heal me or maybe cheap decongestant medicine from the local farmacía. Well, no, this was not the case for this time so my program helped me set up an appointment with the English-speaking Dr. Saval. Let me tell you, friends, what I would do to get my hands on an American Visa for Dr. Saval because this guy rocked. Not only did he prescribe me the Z-Pack that saved my life this week amidst papers and group projects, we also made great conversation concerning Spanish politics and his collection of 100+ Don Quixote novels. Leaving his office I had one thought: would it be wrong to adopt Dr. Saval as my second honorary Spanish grandfather? I mean I wouldn't want to offend Father Miguel from the soup kitchen...
Other miscellaneous tidbits from this week:
-Saw the beach in Barcelona for the FIRST TIME this semester (not a joke but I wish it was)
-Drank beachside mojitos with breakfast tacos
-Explored Arc de Triomf-area and pondered going to the zoo
-Showed up to a movie theater that claimed to show movies in English, found out they did not, went back home, will probably not attempt to see another movie while abroad
-Ruined a "burrito bowl" dinner with store-bought fajita seasoning
-Knocked out some midterms work with cupcakes and coffee
-Binge watched Scandal on Netflix (which by Season 3 is completely unrealistic)
Well, that's about all for this week. Wish me lots of midterm luck and I'll see you back here soon.
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