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 :-)

Hanging out with 1,700 of my closest Spanish friends...

So yesterday was the big party for Granada students that Vega invited us to. Oh. My. Gosh.

Let me start by saying that it was definitely one of the best cultural experiences I've had so far. It was a really cool insight into the lives of 18-23 year olds in Spain. 

So, Breezy, Vega and I met up at 11:30am to go to this party. We had to wait at a gas station for a guy to come and sell us our tickets for the party, and once we got our tickets we went to the Hipercor (a big store) to wait for the bus to come pick us up. I expected there to be maybe 200 people there. Nope. 1700. One thousand, seven hundred people all waiting to get on busses to travel 20 minutes to a discoteca for this party. It was a madhouse! 

People were literally elbowing each other in the face to get on the busses. It was like sorority/fraternity barndances on steroids. Vega, Breezy, and I all locked hands in an attempt to stay together, but we were bombarded so fast that we lost each other for a few minutes... very intense! We ended up realizing that we were either going to get trampled trying to get on a bus or were going to have to wait three hours to get on one, so one of Vega's friends told us to follow him. He said he was going to call a taxi for us. After about five minutes on the phone, he told us he couldn't get a taxi but his grandpa would drive us. We got a ride to a discoteca in the middle of an olive field from this guy's grandpa. I love Spanish people.

So, we got to this discoteca (in the shape of a castle) and it was HUUUGE! It turns out it is the biggest disco in Andalucía (the region we're in). And the place was absolutely mobbed. It was wall-to-wall people, all dancing and singing and drinking and talking. 

We hung out with Vega, her brother Ezekiel (pronounced: eh-thee-KEEL), his girlfriend Laura (pronounced like Lawry's Steakhouse with an -uh at the end instead of the -ees), and all of their friends. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and we got to do a LOT of Spanish practicing! 

All in all, it was a really fun day and a really good experience. I'm so glad I got to see a party from the perspective of a Spanish person... Breezy and I were probably the only two Americans in the whole place and we felt like we were fitting in well. Usually, we all get targeted as Americans and are subject to people coming up to us and going "oh my GAWD" (seriously, happens all the time. Very clever.), but this time we were totally blending in. It was such a cool perspective to have for a day. Check out this video of the madness: 

A mí me gusta mucho ir al cine

Today was a really fun day because Breezy, Vega (the Spanish girl who is Breezy's intercambio), and I went to the movies! Breezy and I have been talking about wanting to see a movie for awhile now, and it was a perfect day to do it. 

Walking into the movie theatre was one of the biggest reminders of home I've had so far. Seriously, aside from everything being in Spanish, it easily could have been an American movie theatre. It's fun that the schema is just so similar. The smell of popcorn, the obscenely large boxes of candy, the overpriced soft drinks... all of it!

We saw a Spanish movie called Al Final del Camino, which was about two journalists (who hate each other) who have to go undercover to do a story about a retreat for couples with marital problems. It was really cute, and, of course, the journalists fall in love at the end. Very textbook romantic comedy :-)

Vega invited us to go to a big party tomorrow. It apparently starts at noon and goes the whole day and a TON of Spanish students will be there. I heard "room full of Spanish people to talk to" and I was THERE! I will make sure to take lots of pictures and blog about it tomorrow!

Things I Will and Won't Miss

So, my friend Gina did this on her blog and I thought it was a great idea so I'm going to copy :-)

THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT SPAIN:

-My host family. I was really, really, really blessed being placed in this homestay. God was looking out for me.

-The walking! I loooove that it takes me a half hour to walk to school and a half hour to walk home. The exercise is great and it's really fun to people watch

-Tapas bars. Seriously, where else in the world can you go and get free dinner with your drinks?

-Alé from BADos. Alé was just one of the best Spaniards we met here. Such a great guy, always looked out for us, so welcoming to our visitors, knew our orders, always handing out the free chupitos.

-Tortilla Española, or Spanish potato omelette. SO tasty!

-Being able to people watch at any time of the day. People are always in the streets and it's so fun to watch how they live

-Fountains everywhere! There's just something really cool about all of them

-Sra. Pan, the lady who sells tortas de chocolate

-Botellón

-Listening to Spanish people try to sing American songs (i.e. Carlos' version of "Stayin' Alive" or Rosario's (male) friend's version of Beyoncé's "If I were a Boy")

-Siesta! How it's perfectly acceptable to take a nap in the middle of the day

-The weather!! It's soooo nice

-Being able to see the Sierra Nevada on my walk to school

-My CEGRI friends, but I'll still get to see them all the time back home <3

THINGS I WON'T MISS:

-Being woken up every morning by Carlos crying. I still can't figure out what he's screaming about, but it's a daily occurrence

-Not having control over when or what I eat! It's really nice to have someone cook for you, and Rosario cooks very well, but it's frustrating having no control

-Julia, the grammar teacher

-Having to download TV shows off of iTunes

-How sloooooooowly people walk. Seriously, molasses in January. These people just stroll everywhere. I get that they're just laid back and are enjoying their walk, but I walk with a purpose! The worst? Older couples who hold hands and walk like that. You can't get around them!

-The fact that cars honk CONSTANTLY here. If there is a traffic jam, you can bet that 85% of the cars will be laying on their horn. 

-And, of course, being this far away from the people I love. I've always been a pretty ooey-gooey-I-love-my-family-and-friends-and-boyfriend-la-la-la kind of girl, but being separated for this long has really made me realize that it doesn't matter where you are, it just matters who you're with. I'm SO lucky to have made such great friends here and I'm not trying to minimize that at all, but being away from everyone back home has just been tough! Thinking about all of the reunions I get to have (SO SOON!) is so exciting.

THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:

-Seeing everyone!! This is the longest I've gone without seeing my mom in my whole life! It's just going to be so great to see all the people I've missed so much.

-American food!

-Baking

-DRIVING! I haven't driven in 4 months!!

-Kam's (both going there for fun and working!)

-Meeting Nina! I have a whole new family member.... crazy!

-My week at school after I get back

-Being able to spend Mother's Day with my fam

-Hot, good showers for as loooong as I want

-My own bed

-Being able to lay on the couch and watch TV!

This is a great city and it has been one of the best study abroad experiences I could have asked for, but I'm definitely counting down the days until all of those things! Can't wait to see everyone :-) It's getting closer and closer

Good News :-)

Oh my goodness, Tuesday is almost over. I swear, the school weeks here absolutely fly by. This week's been pretty good so far! I had my big literature paper due on Monday and was having a lot of trouble thinking about what to write about on Sunday night, but I ended up having one of those lightbulb moments early Monday morning (the paper wasn't due until the afternoon), so I think I did okay on it!

It's just been a pretty normal week! I've been watching a lot of my Office DVDs... that's fun! We have a lot of stuff to do in all of our classes these next two and a half weeks of school, so it's just a lot of homework and a lot of studying. My favorite teacher is Yanira (I have her for both literature and conversation) and she has been so understanding about us having so much to do. We were supposed to have conversation presentations next week, but she came into class today and said that they weren't important and she wanted to take away some of our stress so we don't have to do them. I love her!

We all had a ton of fun for Laura's birthday on Saturday. We botellóned a little bit by our favorite "juice bar" (it's actually a café with slot machines called a salón de juego (game room) but someone thought it said salón de jugo (juice bar) the first week and the name stuck). After that, we went to a bar near our pisos, then to both of our favorite chupiterias, and then a discoteca that's built into a cave. It was the coolest disco ever-- literally the walls are just cave. It was a ton of fun and a great way to celebrate Laura's birthday.

I'm just kind of working on homework and putting some stuff together these next few weeks... it's so weird that my time here is winding down! I remember in January when I literally thought April would never come, and now it's almost May!

Oh... and did I mention... 

... Remember that little plan I had cooking up circa two posts ago? It just came to fruition. See everyone in time for Mother's Day :-) 

Weekend!

It's been a pretty decent weekend so far! I realized yesterday when I was talking to Matt that this is my first full down weekend since right after my dad left... how weird is that? I've been feeling a little antsy and jittery and I think the uncharacteristic amount of downtime is a good explanation. 

Tapas on Thursday were good-- Vega told me that I speak Spanish very well, so my confidence came back up a little bit for that test. Yesterday I slept in reaaaaally late for the first time in a loooooong time, so that was awesome! After I got up and took a walk, then just came back and relaxed all day. It was great to re-charge after so much crazy traveling last week. Rosario came home for lunch and was really excited because she passed statistics (she's going back to school to become a nurse) and so we had a huge lunch with wine to celebrate. The kids and I hung out for a little bit after lunch. My friend Caitlin sent me the song "Hoedown Throwdown" from the Hannah Montana movie and I played it for Maria. She was completely beside herself because she said that nobody here has been able to hear it yet because the CD isn't out (things take much longer here... for a reference point, we just started to see advertisements for Marley and Me). Apparently Maria's going to be very cool at school on Monday :-). Thanks, Cait!

I spent the afternoon just chatting with people, relaxing, and watching the new episode of The Office. I was going to meet up with Gina for churros con chocolate after dinner but had to reschedule because Rosario was M.I.A. She ended up getting home at 10:45 and served dinner at 11:00... she's a busy lady! I was bummed I didn't get to see Gina, but we're gonna go one day this week! I met up with Breezy, Alli, and Kristin around midnight and we just got a few drinks and had a very chill night.

It's my friend Laura's birthday today, so I think we're going to all go out to celebrate tonight. It should be fun!!

Hope everyone in Champaign is having a great moms' weekend!

Three Weeks Left of School?!

It's so hard to believe that it's the weekend and I only have THREE WEEKS left of school. WOW. The school weeks here go by so fast. I'll get the "oh my gosh it's only Monday?" feeling on Monday and then it feels like I blink and it's Thursday already.

It's been a pretty good week at school. We had a short little paper to do for Literature and watched a movie in Law that I have to write a paper on this weekend. The movie was called Mar Adentro and was about this guy Ramón Sampedro who was a quadriplegic and wanted an assisted suicide in the '80s. We have to write a paper with our reactions to the movie, so I have to think of something more than that I cried through the entire second half :-). The movie is really good (very sad), and I recommend it. It stars Javier Bardem as Ramón and won the 2004 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Check it out! I also have a big Literature paper due on Monday, so that will be taking up a lot of the weekend. 

Tonight, Breezy, Alli, Kristin and I are going to meet up with some Spanish girls for tapas. We have this program called intercambio where our school can set you up with a student from the University of Granada who is studying English and you can get together and practice your languages with native speakers. Breezy's intercambio is a girl named Vega so we're meeting up with Vega and her friends to practice. I'm still a little under the weather from traveling but am so excited about this possibility to practice Spanish so I'm going to go for sure. My proficiency test is in four weeks!! Yiiiiikes.

Rosario had a few friends over at lunch today and I was trying to practice with them, but it was pretty difficult. Between ten days of speaking English last week and the fact that they were speaking a mile a minute and eating at the same time, I was having a lot of trouble understanding and getting a little discouraged. I think (and hope!) that tonight will help bring my confidence up a little more. That test is looming!

Other than that, I'm just kind of relaxing back into life in the piso and getting so excited about my return home. I've got a little something up my sleeve that I don't want to spill too much of yet in case it doesn't come to fruition, but it would be really exciting. I should find out in the next few days if it's going to happen... cross your fingers!!