Sweden! 27/04

Today was a day full of transportation. Shuttle, plane, walk, plane, and then I got to Stockholm! I was surprised and picked up by Mom and Dad at the airport. They found Katelin before I did! All is well and it feels good to be in Stockholm. It was an amazing study abroad experience, but it is time for it to be over. :)

Despedidas 26/04

I woke up at 11am today with a whopping 3 hours of sleep under my belt. I had to get up and out of the house because the woman who cleans was here to get my room ready for the next student and what not. So I had to roll out of bed, strip the sheets and then get myself presentable to leave the house.  I met up with Katelin and Tara at a coffee shop and then we walked around Segovia for one last time. I came home right before lunch to do the final packing. I had to sit, stand, kneel, and such on my suitcase in order to finally get it to close. Eventually it did close, thank goodness! Puri and I had our final meal together which was very nice.  We chatted about the usual and it just felt normal which is great because I hate goodbyes and being all weird the day someone leaves. After lunch I went to school one last time to print out my boarding passes and I just took my time walking and enjoyed Segovia for the last time (not the last time forever but the last time right now).  I then came back and finalized putting things away, gave Puri her present, said goodbye to Virginia on the phone, and then had my goodbye with Puri. It was hard but we just said "hasta luego" instead of an actual goodbye.  We were both tearing up.  It was then time to go to the bus to the train and then off to madrid.  We ate a wonderful dinner at wok to walk, meeting up with Katelin, Joe, Katie DSA, Katie Liberko, Tara and I.  Then it was back to the hotel before a morning flight to Sweden!

La cena final 25/04

Today was my last full day in Segovia, but it was a good one.  I woke up this morning and went to school to meet Tara.  We are making little awards for everyone in the group to be handed out at the final dinner.  Ex: most likely to be mistaken for a spaniard, most likely to lose something, etc. And then we headed out to do some last minute souvenir shopping and to get a pastry (apple) from our one and only Limon y Menta.  It was wonderful! Then it was time to head home and start the dreaded packing process :/ Stuff appears from all over when you start packing, I didn't realize how much I bought or how much I had left to fit into one suitcase! It was a stressful process but after I got mostly packed it was time for lunch.  After lunch I packed for a bit longer and then decided to take a brief nap and watch a movie.  Before I knew it it was time to start getting ready for the big dinner! I felt like I was getting ready for prom, it was really fun.  Puri and I met up with Jill and her host mom (Sonya) and walked to the restaurant together. We were 20min late, but no real surprise there! The tables were set up so that it was four people per table, so it was the four of us who ate together.  It was basically just like another sunday dinner for us! But the food was really good and we had a great time chatting. After dinner Katie DSA, Tara, and I presented the awards to everyone which went over really well. Everyone was so surprised and thought it was a great idea. I got the award of "most likely to have been 'here' before" because I had been to a lot of places we traveled. Very funny :) The group pitched in and we got Gladys some flowers.  We then took LOTS of pictures with each other, with our profs, and such and then had to say goodbye to our profs. It was sad to say goodbye because they are all truly nice people.  It was then time to head out and get our drink on (more drinking, there was lots of wine with dinner).  We went to the chupitos bar and shots were 2 for 1 priced so we all had our fair share. We then moved on to oso blanco, gua gua, NyG, and finally Hook. I got back home at 5:15am.  I think it was by far the most fun night I have had here and I am glad that this is how I get to finish off my semester. When I got home I talked to Luke and then Katrina for a while and didn't end up getting to sleep until 7:45am!

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! 24/04

I did not sleep well last night, I don't know why. I was up many many times and then eventually would fall back asleep.  When my alarm went off I was so tired that I kept sleeping and accidentally only had 15min to get ready today! But I got dressed and got breakfast and was out the door in time.  It didn't end up mattering that I rushed and was on time because today was just a work day and I had already done my stuff. Turns out I didn't even need to be in class! So I sat around at school, killing time, hanging with people from 9:30-12:30 when my next class was. It got boring after a while but it is better than being in class. Gladys' class was just finishing up the last people who haven't presented and that went pretty well. We got out of class a bit early which was good! Now I am officially done with my school part of study abroad! How quickly the time has flown. After class I came home for lunch, as usual and then went out to meet some people for some fro yo! YUM! We then went shopping and I got some cute new sandals which was really fun. We finished up our ladies shopping afternoon with a glass of wine and hours of chatting.  I finally made it home close to dinner time! I chatted with katrina for a bit and then ate dinner alone with Yumi because Puri was out at a concert.  After dinner I played around with the new software update I got on my computer. I now get imessage on my computer! So cool. I chatted with mom and then she got hers set up too! What a fun thing. Now, to bed :)

Dia de los libros 23/04

Today is a holiday in Castilla y Leon, the day of the book.  So we didn't have class today! Woot. Instead of going to class I spent the morning lazing around and I finished up my last homework assignment of the semester.  After lunch I met up with some people and we walked down to the river and then sat by the river for a few hours.  Tara, Alex and I then went and got a beer to cool off after being in the hot sun for a while.  We chatted for a long time and then decided to go back home.  I relaxed for a little bit until it was dinner time. Puri was not in the best mood, she had a long day and needed some sleep! So Yumi and I ate together and then I decided to go to bed. Overall a very nice and lazy day. It was perfect.

A really LONG day 22/04

Last night I eventually gave up on studying and went to bed.  I woke up this morning pretty early and studied a bit but then fell right back asleep and only woke up with enough time to throw on clothes and get out the door.  Thank goodness I had a granola bar because I didn't have time for breakfast! My first class was a work period for our final projects but I used it to study for my test.  Then came the test. I did the best that I could but I don't feel as confident as I did last time. Oh well, it happens, and now it is over! Next we had presentations in Gladys' class, I am already done so I get to just sit there and learn which is fun.  After class I came home and took a shower before lunch (having gotten up so late I missed my shower time).  Puri, Yumi and I had a lovely lunch before I was out the door again to go give a presentation on Las Meninas, a painting by Diego Velazquez.  The presentation went really well and now I am basically done with school! After our presentations we had a little celebration in the school cafeteria.  We had tapas and sangria (courtesy of Gladys) and chatted about our cultural identity and what we have learned in being here.  It is kind of a way for them to help us wrap up our study abroad experience. There were lots of tears already and it was a great way to think back on how much we really have learned.  After that Tara and I went to get Katelin's earrings changed (the piercings she got a month ago) and then I came home to have an hour to relax before dinner.  I went out to some casual drinks with friends after dinner which was a good time.  I love casual drinks over crazy late night bar hopping.

Cultural Identity:
I have become a lot more relaxed here in Spain than I have at other times.  We really had to learn to go with the flow and that there are more important things than always following a plan or always focusing on work or homework.  They value family so much here and take their time with things.  They eat long meals, they walk slowly, they enjoy, they be.  I think I need to take back some of this culture with me because it is very healthy to be calm and not have so much stress.  I have also learned a lot and grown a lot in myself here.  I have learned how to handle situations that are new and make me uncomfortable.  I learned how to live in someone else's house for four months, how to handle meals with groups of older spanish women for hours and hours, and how to interact with people.  I feel like I have matured a lot.  Before this trip, one meal with mom and a group of her friends or a group of family friends (all adults) would be long enough for me and I would always want to run away after and I usually had Kristin there with me.  Here I had to sit for hours and learn how to participate and enjoy these long meals with groups of people a different age than me.  I have become more confident in my ability to travel alone and figure out different systems and languages without a lot of help.  We have faced so many new and challenging things here that have helped me grow.  Today's reflection was really important because I think it is easy to forget how far we have come in these few months and just how much we have learned.

Last weekend in Segovia 19/04-21/04

Friday 19/04

Today we had our last official class of Cine because our next (and last) class will be the test and then we are done! We finished up our movie and then got out of class a bit early.  Tara, Katelin and I stayed until lunch to get a head start on our studying, but shockingly not that much actually got done.  I came home for lunch only to have to go back to school again to give a presentation on Barcelona.  All of the groups did a great job and the presentations were a fun way to look back on all of our excursions. After that we had a group meeting for yet another presentation.  Katelin had her host sister read over our paper and she said that my part was really good with few mistakes which was great to hear! Then, since it is Friday, we went to go get some tasty churros which was a lot of fun.   I came home and had planned on studying more but ended up getting to talk to Luke instead which was a way better use of my time :) The rest of my night was relaxing.  We had a nice long dinner and good chatting which is always very nice and then it was off to bed.

Saturday 20/04

Our official last excursion in Spain! Wow how crazy that our last weekend and our last excursion are already here.  We met up at the bus station and took a bus to a town called Valsain.  We hiked up the mountain (it was a pretty solid hike, very nice work out) and then once we got to the top we saw the trenches of where the nationalists and the republicans fought in the Spanish civil war.  Also where Ernest Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. There were inscriptions on the trenches that had names and such.  Once said "Viva Espana, 1937". So much history all around us not to mention beautiful mountains and sights.  We ate our lunch on the top of the trenches and then took a brief nap in the sun which felt wonderful.  A few of us went off exploring and found a beautiful river to sit by until it was time to climb back down the mountain.  It was such a wonderful day because it was very low key.  We had no specific plans and we were in beautiful nature.  I think it was what everyone needed because we have been doing a lot of homework and stressing about the Cine test on Monday.  To be completely secluded in nature for a day was great.  The weather was perfect too because you could wear a sweatshirt and not be hot or cold.  So it wasn't too hot nor too cold. If it had been hotter I don't think we would have relaxed in the sun for so long. Everyone got sunburned because we were at such a high altitude. My face has a nice pink tint to it now, but according to Puri it is cute so I think it is ok. I didn't get very burned and no where else on me got burned (had my hands covered, so no rash!).  After that we all came back to Segovia and got FroYo with Gladys and just hung out for a while longer.  Sweet treats taste better after having been in the wilderness all day! I then came home just in time to change and then head over to Jill's house for dinner with Gladys.  We had A LOT of food, and scary food. My stomach hurt so badly after dinner.  We ate this fish that Puri has had sitting in a bowl of water on the counter for four days. It was the idea of it that was gross at first, then I tasted it and was like "yep, gross" but she put so much on my plate and I had to eat it. But it was so bad. So so bad. So bad. Luckily Jill and I ran away at 11:30 (yes, dinner was still happening) because we were going out as a whole group (most of the group) because it is our last saturday in Segovia. We started out at a very fun shots bar where I got a fire shot (light the shot on fire then serve it to you) and two sex on the beach shots.  Mostly it was a fun atmosphere and having so much of the group together was great.  We then went to our favorite bar, Gua Gua and hung out there before I decided to come home for the night.  It was just such a good day with the group and very relaxing. Just what we all needed!

Sunday 21/04

KRISTIN'S BIRTHDAY!!!! Happy birthday to her (even though she never reads my blog ;)...)

Today I accidentally slept in because of being out late so I didn't get to do as much studying as I wanted before heading out to a girls lunch with Puri.  We went to a little beautiful pueblo about 25 min outside of Segovia.  We got there a bit early so Puri and I walked a few houses down to visit the woman I have been speaking to in english.  We said a quick hello and then headed back to the lunch.  The vivienda that the woman lives in was built in 1930 and is in the style of a farm house.  It is beautiful! She has a garden where we ate lunch which was nice.  I got a seat with my back to the sun and she gave me a big hat to wear so that I was protected from the sun.  It was again perfect temperature to be outside in a sweater (protected from sun) and not be too hot nor too cold.  We had lunch with the woman who lives at the house Jose-Fa (sp???), the two sisters who usually come over here, Maite, Puri, and I.  For lunch we had a huge bowl of spaghetti covered in squids ink with squid and shrimp (I thought the bowl was for the whole table, but it was just for me!). I was a bit freaked out by it because the squids ink makes the pasta black black black but it was actually pretty tasty.  After that we had some tasty salad and then bread with goats cheese and caramelized onions on top.  Finally we had some shrimps, the full kind with the eyes and legs that you have to disassemble yourself.  As if that wasn't enough food already, we had some delicious flan, tea, and cookies from cloistered nuns (the same ones mom, dad, and I bough). What a wonderful lunch! I have found that ladies lunches here are so different from the states.  In the states ladies lunches consist of hardly any food! You have a little salad and eat a petit portion and such but here you eat your fill of a three course meal. Very different, very fun.  We then just sat in the sun chatting and enjoying the spring weather.  I was very peaceful and relaxed which was a wonderful feeling.  After a while I started getting antsy about time because I have a test to study for! Eventually they were like oh I think it is time to go and I was like YES PLEASE. It was a ton of fun but I was there with these ladies out in the sun chatting for 7 hours. I was ready to take a break from spanish and to get a start on studying which was starting to stress me out a bit.  I finally got home and settled by around 8:30pm and then it was time to crank out the homework.  I got a chance to talk to Kristin (and mom and dad) and watch her open her birthday cards and presents. It was very fun! For dinner we had fresh eggs and potatoes gifted to me from Jose-Fa from the farm. Then back to studying of course!!