Coming home pictures

Mother's Day lunch with Grandma, Bucky, and Downtown Sue

Putting on Abbie's shoes :-)

Nina!

My parents had a cold diet coke and Kirschbaums smiley face cookies waiting for me... I think I cried a little bit with my first sip of Diet Coke

Reuniting with my dad at the airport

And with my mom!

I figured I would post some "coming home" pictures for anyone who hasn't seen them yet :-)

i'm HOOOOOME!!!!!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I got home safe and sound :-) I'm LOOOOOVING being home already... getting to see my parents at the airport was totally surreal and so awesome! I'll post more later-- going on 1 hour of sleep in the past 36 hours so I need a nap! CANNOT wait to see everyone!

hasta luego, grana

Surreal. So so so so so surreal. In two hours, I start my journey home. Oh. My. Gosh.

I'm trying to put how I'm feeling into words but I'm having trouble, which, I'm pretty sure, is because I really don't believe that I'm leaving. I really feel like it was yesterday that I was sitting in my piso looking at my iCal and just wishing it was February. And now it's May and the next dinner I eat will be my mom's pizza and the next time I change clothes will be in my room. So unbelievably crazy.

I used to really not get why people were so "you NEED to study abroad... it's the BEST thing ever". It's TOUGH! It's hard and you have to be away from your family and your friends and everyone and you're in a completely new place where they don't speak English and it's hard! But when you're sitting and waiting for your cab to come pick you up on the last day, you kind of get it. You get that you just did something REALLY cool. You realize that you lived in a foreign country for four months. You realize that you lived in a small city in a non-English-speaking country with a family that knows almost no English. You realize that in four months, you have been on three continents, in seven countries, and in fifteen cities. You realize that you did something you never thought you could do. This feeling is worth every skype session that I sobbed through, every time I turned bright red stumbling my way through a conversation, every time I would see my friends' away messages and get homesick... It's worth it. And the absolute BEST thing is that in a few hours I get to come home and see everyone that I've missed the crap out of for the past four months.

Tonight was our farewell dinner, which was a great time, along with our CEGRI rage at Granero. Highlights included eating a great meal, getting to eat at the same table as Miguel Angel and Nerea, watching my teachers dance on a bar, taking a shot of tequila with Yanira, my lit and conversation teacher, and watching the entire CEGRI staff chase out a guy who was creeping on all of the girls. It was the perfect end to the CEGRI experience. I'm really going to miss the CEGRI teachers! I also just said goodbye to Alli and Breezy, which was SOOOO tough! Thank goodness I get to see them in a few weeks though!

I also just wanted to thank everyone so much for being so so so so supportive of me during this whole experience. I am so lucky to have such a solid support system back home and such great people to go home to. Thank you so much to everyone for reading my blog and keeping up with me... It really means more than I can say. I love you all and can't wait to see you!!

WE GOT TO SEE ALI!!

OH. MY. GOSH.

That was the best goodbye to BADos I could ever imagine! 

So a few weeks ago, we found out that our favorite bartender, Ali (the bartender previously known as Alé.... I was spelling his name wrong this whole time) had left BADos. We were SO upset that we didn't know it was his last night and that we weren't able to say goodbye to him. Legitimately, I got a little bit choked up over it. He was just one of the best people we met here and we were so bummed we had no way to say goodbye. 

Cut to today... We're walking to BADos and pass an outdoor café. All of a sudden we hear a man yell, "¡Chicas!" (Girls!) we look over and see Ali jumping out of his seat and running over to say hi to us!! WE FOUND HIM! We were in such shock and were just so excited that we got to see him one more time. We told him that we were going to the bar for a drink and that we missed him and that we were so worried we were going to have to leave without saying goodbye. He gave us his e-mail and phone number and facebook name so we can keep in touch when we're back in the US. He also ended up coming to the bar later to say hello again and so that we could take a picture with him. It was just so great to have that closure with our Spanish friend!

It's weird to think that I went to BADos our first night here. Out of all the tapas bars in the city, we randomly chose that one and it became a place that we were known. It became a place where we were always welcomed with hugs, kisses, and as many rounds of "las tapas primeras" (the first kind of tapas) that we wanted. Ali and Moha were so welcoming to our visitors and made all of them fall in love with BADos as much as we did. As excited as I am to get back to Kam's, I have to say that BADos will always hold a very special place in my heart. 

A tribute... because I love BADos and this is more appealing than studying for my grammar final..

día de la cruz

It was so sweet I had to take a picture

día de la cruz

Storefronts closed for siesta

Part of my walk to school... note the Sierra Nevada mountains

Shawarma

The rest of this weekend has been great. Yesterday we did our shawarma lunch (and I finally learned out to spell shawarma), then walked around the city all afternoon. We were so stuffed from our shawarma that we decided to push BADos back to tomorrow, so I'll make sure to blog about our goodbye to our favorite place tomorrow.

Today, we went to mass at the cathedral and then checked out a few of the plazas decorated for el día de la cruz, or the day of the cross. There are huge crosses made out of flowers in a ton of plazas and everyone is dressed in traditional Spanish clothes. Flamenco dresses are everywhere--- so, so cool!

The rest of today is just going to be a day of studying... two finals, one interview, three actual classes, and three class fiestas left!

Final Weekend!

Well, we're into the final weekend in Granada... this is so exciting!

 

Thursday was a very important day for a few reasons. My life was changed completely by my purchase of gypsy pants. Yup, gypsy pants. Granada is filled with gypsies, and they all wear these pants that look kind of ridiculous but are very intriguing. They're kind of I Dream of Jeannie-esque, but not necessarily to that extreme. I like to describe them as kind of like gaucho pants with a weirder waistband and that are cinched at the bottom... very strange. Howeeeever, we've been so intrigued by these pants that we needed to buy some. And they are AMAZING! So comfy, so euro... I've been living in them this weekend. 

I also got a TON of souvenir shopping done on Thursday, which was really exciting. We're gonna do a little bit more today but I think I'm almost done! 

Yesterday we spent the day in Nerja, a beach town about two hours away from Granada. It was absolutely gorgeous and it was a great way to kick off our last weekend. Today, we're going to kind of do some of our "one lasts". We're going to get one last schwarma for lunch, go to the mirador one last time, and get one last round of tapas at BADos. I spent the morning packing, and I think I'm pretty much set to go aside from the clothes I'm going to wear this week... that's just so crazy to think of! Tomorrow is going to be mass and then lottttts of studying during the day.

Getting closer and closer and getting more and more excited by the second to see everyone!

Starting to Wind Down

Well, we're officially reaching the end of the study abroad road. This is SO exciting!

I started cleaning out my room last night and was getting kind of nostalgic! I ran across my orientation packet, my receipt for WiFi at the hostel we stayed at the first few nights, the cards I read on the plane ride over here... it's so weird that I got all those things FOUR MONTHS ago!

I'm getting more and more excited about the thought of having completed this. My sense of accomplishment grows every day and I know that getting on that plane is going to be the best feeling in the world. I will get on that plane knowing that I did something that I really didn't think I could do, and that's pretty exciting.

The girls and I have started planning out our last weekend here, and it should be pretty fun. We're considering maybe going to the beach on Friday and then spending Saturday walking around the city, shopping, having one last botellón, and hitting up all of our favorite spots one last time. We just can't believe it's our last weekend in Granada! Kristin will have two more weekends in Europe after that, and Alli and Breezy will have three (they're staying to travel), but they said it's still so bizarre that none of them are in Granada. 

I am one edited essay, one final interview, and two final exams away from being done! Just gotta keep trucking through this last chunk of classes :-)