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...

Madrid!! and... The End is Near.

So I just got home from my last traveling extravaganza, visiting my sister in Madrid, and it was lovely!

We did a self-led walking tour on Friday and saw the Plaza de Espana, the Temple of Debod (SOO amazing!! It's the only piece of Egyptian architecture (or one of the only ones) that can be found outside of Egypt (that wasn't stolen... *cough* Paris *cough*)), Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol (with the plaque commemorating the middle of Spain), Puerta de Alcala, Parque del Retiro, and Palacio de Cristales.

Then on Saturday we went to the Prado Museum and saw religious paintings, and portraits of royalty, and Greek/Roman mythology, and then more religious works, and more religious works, and more portraits, and MORE religious works. By the end, I was like, "dear goodness, how many pictures with the same theme can you have in ONE building??" But then we went to the Reina Sofia and that was really cool, although I liked the second floor better than the fourth floor (the permanent collection is divided up into these two floors, with art from the early 1900's to the avant-garde movement on the second floor, and then more contemporary art on the fourth floor (read: modern art)) but I REALLY liked the second floor so it made up for it. (I got to see Picasso's Guernica... :)!!!!)

On Sunday we went to the Rastro, which is basically like this giant flea market, but it was wonderful! I bought lots of presents for other people and for myself, and had a really good time with my sister. It did get SUPER busy, though, like so busy that we could barely walk down the aisles. It was kind of insane. I was sick for the duration of the trip (darn sinus infection), but it didn't hinder anything we wanted to do, which was nice.

I'm really glad I went to Madrid because I really enjoyed getting to see my sister, but Barcelona is still my favorite city in Spain that I visited (sorry other Spanish cities...)

In other news, I only have twenty days left in Spain. Holy cow. I'm going to be home and get to see all of my friends and family within the month. I'm incredibly excited, but actually kind of feeling bittersweet about the whole thing. I mean, yes, I'm SO ready to get home and have all of the comforts of home (love of family, friends, Pauly, central heating, Internet...), but it's just going to be weird to go home and not be in this place that I've finally really gotten used to. There's still a bunch of stuff that I want to do before I go, so I'm going to have to make sure I fit it all in!

In all honesty, though, if I don't burst of excitement within the next twenty days at the thought of getting to see my novio very soon, I might just burst when I do see him. So, if you see me and I'm looking a little jumbled, it's because I exploded and had to put myself back together again.
Just thought I'd warn you all.
: )

Dear goodness...

I am listening to Christmas music already...
I have found that it makes for excellent background music when I am studying, or avoiding studying, as I'm doing right now. It's just so pretty!!
It also reminds me of home and warm fires crackling in the fireplace, and hot cocoa with marshmellows, and being at my Grandma's house for Christmas, and being so excited to give my family and friends everything I've bought for them here.

Random

So, I know I posted yesterday, but I have been having some serious flashbacks from home. And it's weird because I'm actually NOT homesick, so I have no idea why I've been randomly getting memories from college and high school. Like the following:
-Reading a Streetcar Named Desire in J-Pot's junior year English class and CJ having to yell "Stella", which he did quite unenthusiastically
-Watching One Tree Hill on Valentine's Day freshman year of college and then having Paul come to the door of Stratford with b-e-a-utiful roses
-Finding out I didn't get into Cornell U and then having to go to work afterwards
-when we had to do a presentation on Rumpelstiltskin (I think it was) in Coan's junior year English class (I'm feeling a trend from this year)
-Carpooling with Ian senior year of high school
-When the second floor girls pretended the hallway was a runway and had a fashion show after the Victoria's Secret fashion show
And just all these other random memories, and it's been really, quite the weird experience. Just thought I'd put this up, even though it's really a pointless post.

Paris and other ramblings

Oh. My. Goodness. Paris is SUCH a beautiful city! I'm so glad that I went, like for serious. Plus, it was really good to get to hang out with people from home; it was kind of like we were just taking a trip randomly (minus that I had to spend a good amount of time working on a presentation for my culture class). Plus, we got to see Brett, which I was so incredibly excited about.

We went on a free walking tour and saw a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce (including the French Academy, the New Bridge, the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, see my Picasa album) and had a really cool tour guide. Then we saw the Louvre (I was shockingly not as impressed by this as I thought I was going to be; yeah, it has a lot of cool art, but just not my style of art, and it said it had a big section on Spanish art and there were only a few paintings), the Eiffel Tower (WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, and it was really pretty at night; we even got to see it sparkle!), the Arc D'Triomphe (also very cool, and gargantuan), Moulin Rouge (but it wasn't open so we couldn't go inside, but the street that it was on was quite sketchy (most definitely the red light district)), Sacre Coeur (There was a service going on, so it was kind of awkward, but cool nonetheless), and the Musee d'Orsay (I loved, loved, LOVED this museum; it's the museum with all of the impressionist paintings, and it has Cervantes, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, and all of these other artists and I was so blown away). It was just a wonderful trip, although I'm not sure I've ever spent that much money on food in one weekend.

In other news, I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left here. Now that I'm traveling and seriously in the downhill slope and have a ton of school assignments to occupy my time with, time is seriously flying. I can't believe that I've been here for over seventy-five days already. That is SUCH a long time!! I will say, though, I am still incredibly excited to head back to Champaign and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm feeling very sad to have missed some of the Koin/Strat events this semester, which seems so ridiculous to say because I'm in EUROPE, but still.

Also, I can't tell you how busy I'm going to be in the next three weeks or so. I had a culture presentation today (that went well, I think), an art history take-home test due tomorrow, a linguistics exam next Wednesday (the 19th - after my weekend in Barcelona), and then an art history paper due the 24th, as well as an art history presentation the 24th (after my weekend in Madrid). So I'm going to definitely have to use my time wisely in these next few weeks, and still find time to spend with people since I won't be around for a couple of weekends. I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn't everything and that people are more important than school.

Other than that, I don't have too much else to report, except that my sister decided to come home for Christmas, which I'm incredibly excited about, because I thought it would be really sad for her to be by herself on Christmas and also for us to be without her. So yay!

Visit with Megan!!

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had absolutely fantastic weekends and are not drowning in the Midwest (what exactly is going on over there?? All I keep hearing is rain, rain, rain...)

This past weekend, my sister (Megan) came to visit me. She's going to be a teacher's assistant in Madrid this year (October through June), and she just got in on Thursday, so she decided to visit. On Friday, I introduced her to my senora and family and then we just kind of hung out, walked around the Albaicin and Sacromonte a bit. While we were eating dinner, though, these two guys randomly decided to sit down at our table and started talking to us. Neither of us remember the guy who was sitting's name because we were horribly distracted by his crooked and plaque-infested teeth. It waas just really random that they sat down because we didn't do or say anything to make them come over. Megan also found out on Friday that her school is going to help her find housing so she decided to stay an extra night in Granada (which was really nice).

Saturday, Megan and I checked out the Mercado de San Augustin in search of breakfast (like fruit or something). I was thinking it was going to be like a giant supermarket except with only fresh stuff (like the bakery, the meat/fish market, and the fruit/vegetable section). It was basically this warehouse with ALL fresh meat, so we decided against getting anything. We also went to the Alhambra this day, which was a lot of fun and still really pretty. We just got the garden tour (because the regular tour was already sold out), and I was worried it was going to be lame, but it was almost the same (except we couldn't go into the Palacio Nazaries) but it was 13 euro for the regular tour and 7 euro for the garden tour, so I think we got a pretty good deal. AND it took five hours, so I don't think we could have gone for much longer.

On Sunday we went to the Parque de las Ciencias and it was SO COOL. It was this huge campus of a bunch of different interactive science-y stuff and it was spread out over a whole bunch of buildings (some of it was inside, some of it was outside). It was just really, really cool, like there was a special exhibit on venemous creatures and another on the Antarctic, and a butterfly house, and lots of interactive mechanics/physics-type stuff. After lunch, we went to the Parque de Federico Garcia Lorca, and I liked that a lot too. We found this bunch of kittens, so we played with them for a while, and then found this Spanish playground. They had this funky see saw, which was basically an upside-down curve with a seat on each end and the spring in the middle (on the highest part of the curve), so we decided to try it. Let me tell you - it was NOT a safe piece of playground equipment. I felt like I was going to fall off the entire time and I went really high. For dinner, we got doner kebaps, and I LOVED IT! IT was super big, super yummy, and not expensive at all, so I'm definitely going to go back there.

Monday we just kind of hung out. It was really hard to say goodbye though, for both of us I think. For her, she was going back to Madrid, to this place where she didn't know anyone and didn't ahve anywhere to live or anyone to hang out with or anythign to do during the day, which are all really scary adn overwhelming things. For me, it was kind of like I'd finallly come to grips with being in this weird place with all these weird people and then someone familiar shows up and I felt so much more comfortable and when she left, it was like I was coming to Spain all over again and losing that familiar feeling. I was also really upset because I know that she had to go back to Madrid to be by herself and I don't want her to feel lonely. So it was really hard. But hopefully we'll get to see each other between my bus and flight to Rome for Semana Blanca and then definitely November 6-9 (because I want to visit Madrid) and then hopefully right before I leave.

All in all, though, it was a really good weekend and it was really good to see her.

Megan!

Megan's coming today! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!
She should be getting to the bus station in Granada around 330 so I'm going to pick her up from there, and then we're going to take the bus to the hostel and check in and then just hang out! I'm not sure entirely what we're going to do, but I know tomorrow we're (hopefully) going to check out the Saint Augustin Market and then (definitely) go on the garden tour of the Alhambra.
Mostly she's just coming for both our sakes: see a familiar face in such an unfamiliar place, you know?
In any case, I'm super excited!