Week 4 by Gabrielle Bachis

            This is the final week in Cáceres. Some of it is bittersweet. I will miss my host family and being my friends everyday on this trip. It is amazing how quickly a person adjusts to their surroundings. It tries to grab onto everything which resembles its previous comfort zone. Here, the aspects that I will hold tight and remember will be those two things, because they remind me the most of home. As much as I’m counting down the days to being back home, there are relationships and memories here that I know I will treasure always.

            The week is flying by. We have one full day left in Cáceres. Today we went to Trujillo. It is a nearby town with a rich history, similar to Cáceres. One of their most celebrated figures is a conqueror named Francisco Pizarro. He went on an expedition to the Americas and conquered the Incan empire. One of his family members even married an Incan person. Pizarro died in Peru, but his legacy lives on in Trujillo. With a statue made in his honor, and his house open for tours, you can tell that this town celebrates and remembers its past. This is one of the things that I adore about Spain. So much history is remembered. It lives on, whether in the form of a fiesta or a procession. I am truly in awe when I think of the past battles that took place right where I stood, of thousands of lives coming and going. Now I am a part of that history. It’s a vapor, for sure… but I am playing a part in it. History isn’t something that’s ended, it is being written right now.