I can't believe it's over...

So I'm currently sitting looking at my empty armoire and freaking out a little bit. This has been where I've lived, slept, cried, laughed, done homework, hung out with people, made friends, and grown over the last three and a half months. How do I just say goodbye to a place that's changed my life so much? How is it possible that I actually am not ready to leave yet?

I've decided that it's not going to be terribly difficult to say goodbye to the city of Granada itself, but it will be very difficult to say goodbye to everything that I associate with this place, like all of my friends and memories. I know I'll still have both of those things, but it just won't be the same back in Chicago and Champaign. I think I'm going to feel, at least for a little while, like I'm missing part of myself. Because how do you go from seeing people every day to not seeing them at all? And furthermore, how do you go from sharing the same experiences and the same hardships back to normal life?

I think Steve put it really well. He said, "while I'm not ready to leave Granada yet, if everyone else went home and I was here by myself, I don't think it would be worth it to stay." Granada, for me, is the people I've met, the friends I've made, and the memories I'll hold on to for a long time. Some of my favorite memories are:

-Walking around looking for/avoiding zombies in the Alpujarras with Steve
-Batan
-The last day we had in Rome - perfect weather, we saw beautiful things, and I was just on top of the world
-Walking around Barcelona with Melissa and having a really good conversation with her
-The bike tour through Tuscany
-Salsa lessons
-Short-sheeting Steve's bed in Florence
-Devon's birthday/Camborio
-Farewell dinner/Granada Diez
-Just being able to relax
-Getting to walk around in Paris with Brett and talk
-The wind storm in Algeceiras (haha...)
-Hanging out in the biblioteca
-Halloween
-Thanksgiving dinner

There are a few things that I'm not going to miss, however, such as:
-No central heating
-Crappy Internet
-Nonexistent customer service
-Cigarette smoke EVERYWHERE

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to go home and see my parents, Paul, Stratford House, and the Banambra (in that order), but leaving is still sad and hard to handle. I want to go home for Christmas because I am so excited about giving everyone their presents (and I hope nothing breaks while I am traveling, because I would be so incredibly upset, especially the liquids...) and I am so excited (strangely enough) to see all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and just enjoy a good, old-fashioned Christmas with them.

I am definitely not excited for the next day and a half. We have to take a bus to Malaga from 7p-9p, then a train from the bus station to the airport from 1015-1045 (or something like that), and then hanging out ALL night in the Malaga airport, checking in at 4 in the morning, taking a flight from Malaga to Paris from 705a-930a, having a layover in Paris, then taking a nine and a half hour flight from Paris to Chicago from 115p (Paris time) to 340p (Chicago time). AND I'm really congested, so it's probably going to hurt to fly. I decided that my nose is protesting the insane amount of cigarette smoke that I've been around the last three and a half months by choosing to not let me breath anymore. Darn cigarette smoke... It probably also doesn't help that my hair stays wet for several hours due to it being too cold in the apartment for the water to evaporate off of my head.

I am definitely a different person leaving here than I was coming here. I am so much more relaxed, I trust the Lord infinitely more, and I know and really understand that people are so much more important than school could ever be and it's okay to take breaks from studying and hang out with people, and I know that the Lord has got complete and total control over my life, and He knows what He's doing, and I can trust that and not be afraid. I think I am a lot more liberal as a person, more outgoing, more human, but I love the Lord so much more and I trust Him so much more, and even though those two things seem contradictory, I can't imagine myself growing in any other way. I am a liberal Christian, and I love it. I don't know that I've been happier with myself as a person, ever, so that has to be something good.

Well folks, I made it. See you on the flip side.
Dos besos...

In a world where children get penetrated, broken, and eaten...

I am DONE with finals!!! Whoo hoo!! It is a wonderful feeling, let me tell you.

I just wanted to tell a story about our culture presentations today. We had to give expositions on our volunteer work (or our groupings with Spaniards over this past semester). So, during our expositions, one guy was trying to say that he introduced himself to these little kids but accidentally said the verb for "insert or penetrate" and our professor's eyes got all wide and she was like, "no! no! that's not the right verb!" And then one guy was trying to say that he broke up a fight between two boys but ended up saying that he broke them. And then another guy said he met some kids and he ate Chinese food with them, but the way he said it was like, "I met some kids that I ate with Chinese food," like he ate the kids and the Chinese food at the same time. It was fabulous. We had such a good time in that class today.

It's weird to think that I'm going home in only four days. But... right now I'm going out with some friends so I'll have to update later (once again...)
Dos besos!!!

Internet at the Piso = not such a good thing

I don't have too much time to update because I should be studying for finals but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here, still doing well, and actually not ready to come home yet. Isn't that ridiculous?

Anyways, I mostly just want to tell everyone to go look at my pictures, even though they aren't all labeled yet (I'll do it when I'm done with finals, I promise). And I'll update my life when I'm done with finals, too. But... yeah.
Dos besos!

Uhh... November When??/Boot Fever/"Bond" in Spanish is still Bond

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's already December! November seriously FLEW by ridiculously fast, and now I only have thirteen days left in Spain! Where did the time go?? It probably got sucked into my trips to Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid, and my four exams, two presentations, and a paper. Being busy sure makes time fly!

So this weekend was SO busy. On Thursday, everyone in our program got all gussied up and we went to this really nice Spanish restaurant for a "traditional Thanksgiving dinner." I ended up walking around in heels half an hour previous to this dinner due to someone mistakenly telling me they were at a bar on one street, when they were actually at a bar on another street, so my feet were not very happy with me when we got to the restaurant. Anyways, they got the food right (pumpkin soup, turkey, stuffing (sort of), cranberry sauce (literally sauce, not like the jellied stuff), and mashed potatoes) but their portion sizes were a little off (as in way smaller than we're used to). We all just had to face it - nothing beats Thanksgiving at home, where you eat until you go into a literal food coma and then all of your uncles fall asleep "watching the football game." It was a good time, though, and we all ended up hanging out until like three or four in the morning, which was fantastic. It's always good when different groups of friends within the program hang out because we all get along really well; it's just generally too difficult to plan something for all 45 of us.

Friday, Melissa and I celebrated a traditional Black Friday - we shopped... all day. We met up about noon (so five in the morning in Chicago, prime Black Friday shopping time) and were shopping until about seven. I know; me, shopping for seven hours. Pretty crazy, right? We did take probably a two and a half hour break in the middle for lunch (and then waiting for the stores to open up again after siesta), but we were pretty much shopping for the rest of the time. We both ended up getting lots of wonderful things (for ourselves and then LOTS of Christmas presents - I finished shopping for my mom, dad, and sister). After that, Steve met up with us for churros con chocolate and pretty much as soon as he met up with us, he took our bags (and there were a lot of them) and carried them the entire time we were with him. What a gentleman! After we got churros, Melissa headed home but Steve and I roamed around in Corte Ingles for like an hour and a half. We looked at all of the board games and electronics and sports stuff. I didn't end up getting home until 930, so I was out of the house for a full nine and a half hours that day! Now THAT'S one heck of a Black Friday. (It was nice that no one else was celebrating with us, because American Black Friday shoppers are actually kind of scary)

I did get a pair of boots while shopping and I LOVE them. I seriously, love, love, LOVE them and I spent a good portion of yesterday trying on different outfits while wearing them. And now I really want a pair of brown boots so that I can wear boots with my brown clothes as well. I have quite seriously caught boot fever.

Saturday, I did homework all. day. long. It was quite brutal, but I was preparing for my finals, since I have my first one on Thursday (again, WHERE did the time go??). Then I met up with Steve, Brad, and Andrew to go see a movie. We decided to see the new James Bond movie but we had about an hour before it was going to start so we just walked around the mall for a while. We happened upon this strange gaming place and they had this thing that was sort of like a batting cage, except that it had four guns, two on each side, so you were shooting these soft balls at each other. So, of course, the boys were intrigued, so we all went in and it was actually quite a blast. I did get hit quite a few times, but I got a couple of good hits in as well.

So then the movie: it was in Spanish. That's right, I watched my first James Bond movie in Spanish. I got really caught up in the little details of the movie, so it took me a couple of days to decide what I thought of the movie, but in the end I decided I liked it. I did feel like it was just James Bond going to a whole bunch of different countries and killing a whole bunch of people. But apparently that's Bond, so... yeah. Definitely quite the experience.

In any case, I think this is a sufficiently overly-long update,, so until next time,
DOS BESOS!!