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...

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!

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!

Italy!!

Hi Everyone!

Starting tomorrow, I am going to be traveling through the fabulous country of Italy for the next ten days! I will try to update during the trip, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online.

Right now, I need to go home and pack (and try to figure out how to fit ten days' worth of stuff plus a laptop into my backpack without it exceeding 10kg or the weird dimension requirements... yay?)

If nothing else, I will let you all know how it goes when I get back!
Italy, here I come!!!

Complain-y

So... I just found out yesterday that my grammar exam that I thought was next Thursday is actually this Thursday (a.k.a., tomorrow) because of an error in the syllabus...
SURPRISE!!!

Also, I'm going to be really glad when Semana Blanca is over, as awful as this sounds, because I am tired of planning a trip for five other people who are actually getting annoyed at the fact that I'm planning things. I've been sending everyone in the group e-mails with updates and such, and I had to send another one because I found some trains that we could take while we're over there, and I told a girl in the room that I'd sent her another e-mail, and she was like, "another one??" like it was really so terrible to just read the e-mail and think about it for a second or two and then respond to it. Sorry for making your lives easier by taking care of everything so you don't have to think about it at all. My bad...

Weekend Update

Another post-weekend update!

This weekend was pretty chill; I got to hang out with Melissa some (finally!), relaxed, started studying for my first exam (in Linguistics that I THOUGHT was on Wednesday but just found out it's not until next Monday, so that's pretty fantastic), and found a church to go to!

I'm so happy about this last one. It's called Iglesia Evangelica (so it's an evangelical church if you didn't get that) and I went with Brad and Kaitlin. Everyone was so friendly and I just felt really welcome and really relaxed right away. I understood almost all of what was going on too, so that was a bonus. We met a whole bunch of people after the service (it was actually harder to understand people at this point because everyone was talking and it was kind of loud), and specifically a girl from California who studied abroad and ended up just staying here in Granada. She told us about how all of the young adults meet up on Saturdays at 8pm and hang out and go out to dinner together, which I definitely want to do. And I asked her about a bible study during the week and she said that she'd find out for me and let me know (because they're going to do one, just not sure when/what yet). Because I really liked it but I'm going to be gone a lot of the weekends (October 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, 31-Nov 2, 7-9, AND 14-16 for certain) but I still want to be involved in the church.

I think I'm going to do this as my "tarea externa" for Culture (we have to enmesh ourselves in a group of Spaniards) and I was going to volunteer somewhere, but this is just so much more what I would like to do if I have to talk to Spanish people. Everyone at the church was just so nice and happy that we were there. So I'm very happy. And I'll be in Granada for the next two Sundays, so hopefully by then, the whole bible study thing will be figured out.

I'm also attempting to finish planning for the week break that we have and hostels are SO EXPENSIVE in Italy. My goodness! I sent the group an e-mail with a whole bunch of hostel possibilities and hopefully they'll actually be diligent in getting back to me so I can book those tomorrow. I think we might end up being cozy and sharing beds and stuff, but we'll see what people think about that.

packing already?!?

so earlier this morning I thought it would be a good idea to pull out my suitcases, just to see how big they are, to make sure I'm going to have enough space for my stuff when I go abroad. Seeing as I am just over two weeks out and I foresee my next couple weeks being very busy with finishing up my work/internship obligations and spending time with people and saying goodbye to everyone, I felt this was a safe idea (not too far away from the trip, but not too close either). So I pulled them out and got kind of worried because I wasn't sure my big stuff (like my winter coat and my lighter jackets and my shoes (of all the things for me to be worried about having enough room for...)) was all going to fit. So I went and grabbed my winter coat and put it in my smaller piece of luggage and it looked like it took up a LOT of room, so I went and grabbed my lighter jackets and my sweaters. After all was said and done, I ended up packing my fall and winter shirts all into my smaller piece of luggage and I still have a decent amount of space left in it, and THEN I still have my bigger piece of luggage for all my tees, tanks, pants, skirts, dresses, shoes, toiletries, and miscellaneous. So I'm feeling a LOT better about having enough room for everything and I'm not feeling anymore like I'm bringing too much stuff.

I do have to admit that, the other day while at work, I made a few lists of things I need to do/have to buy/want to remember to bring to Spain. I think this was really good for me, however, because now I don't have to think about all of that stuff; it doesn't have to hang out in my mind because it's all on paper. It really was good for me to get it all out because I really do have too much to think about already without having to try to remember all of that stuff as well.

So yes, if you couldn't tell (even though it only kind of seems like it), I am MUCH less anxious about my trip, which I am very thankful for. Now I'm starting to think it's going to be more exciting (rather than dreading) meeting the new people and getting to be in such a beautiful place for so long. I'm definitely not ready to up and leave yet, but I am getting there, which is a huge victory for me. (yay!)

First Entry

Hello and welcome to my new blog that I'll be using over the course of my time abroad to document my time there, including my travels and school and all the people I meet. This is going to be how I update everyone on my time while in Spain so I am not sending out mass e-mails. This way, you can read it at your leisure (or, for some of you, whenever you're avoiding doing schoolwork).

In any case, I'm going to be in Spain in a little less than a month and I'm kind of starting to freak out (as you can tell by me making this journal now instead of right before I leave). I mean, I'm so super excited about going to Spain and getting to experience their culture and meeting all the people I'm going to be in the program with and, of course, the classes that I'm going to be taking. However, these things are also the things that I'm very nervous about. I think I have everything that I need as far as clothing and all that is concerned (I still have to get my toiletries but that I can do the week before I go). I also have a plan for being done with volunteering and hostessing and interning so that I have time to spend with people before they all go back to school and so that I can pack and get ready and really just mentally prepare myself to go. I am a little worried about the whole toiletries on the plane thing, with the 3 oz. shampoo/conditioner/whatever containers all having to be in a gallon ziploc bag - I think this is an international thing and if I want to travel for a week, I'm definitely going to need more than 3 ounces of shampoo, but I'm not sure how it's going to work if I'm not checking my luggage. So I guess we'll just see when we get there, and I'm sure this is stuff I really don't need to be worrying about right now; I'm just being odd.