So this is goodbye...

So my finals are officially over! I am very excited. I think I did well for the most part (my Islam final will always be a little iffy. But hooray! Now I have the rest of today and tomorrow to relax, pack, say goodbye to people, and get ready to return home.

Now that’s something.

I still cannot believe that it is over. Becky is done today, and is leaving to go to Portugal with her parents. Peter leaves tomorrow. Then there I go.

It’s been a wonderful ride, guys, and I just wanted to thank those of you who stuck it out and read this, even if not regularly, and left me little notes or sent me e-mails. I truly appreciated it, and cannot thank you enough.

Ick. Packing does not sound at all appealing. I do not know how I am going to get this all home. BUT I know that if my bags are too heavy, it will cost me less to pay for the extra weight there than if I sent stuff home. That being said, I don’t really care. It’s all coming home whether they like it or not!

I have been kind of feverish the last day and a half. It hasn’t been so fun. My throat’s been killing me too, and all of that on top of finals has just been excellent, let me tell you. BUT IT IS OVER NOW!! :) I just have this super fun dry block of wonderment stuck in my chest that I cannot cough up because it is so so painful! My throat hurts, but not as bad as yesterday, and I am happy my fever is gone.

Buuuuuut yeah. If you ever get the chance to come to Spain, do it. Go to Granada and see a little piece of what I called home for a semester. You will love it, if you’re lucky enough to make it here. If not, indulge yourself in the pictures I took. There’s enough of them there to keep you busy for quite awhile.

I have already started a list of the things that I want to eat upon my return (don’t laugh! Ok…go ahead, fine!):

Olive Garden’s fettuccini alfredo
Steak and Shake chicken tenders and cheese fries
Taco Bell tacos and cheesey fiesta potatoes
Portillos hot dog and cheese fries
Noodles and Co. mac and cheese and buttered noodles
Panera broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl
Aurelio’s pizza
Chef’s kitchen pizza from Jewel
Mac and Cheese
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brownies
Rice Krispy Treats
Nachos and queso
Chips and Salsa
Goldfish Crackers
Corned Beef Hash
Cinnamon Roll French toast from Egg’lectic
Eggo Waffles with syrup
Eggo Waffles with peanut butter

Hope you enjoyed that one. :)

What I wouldn’t give for a nice massage and a manicure/pedicure right now. Mom? You up for it? Hm? Hm? We shall talk.

I cannot wait to sleep in my own comfy bed at home with a warm room and blankets to squish around in. And seeing my parents and puppies. And my friends from home and school. I cannot waaaait!! I just hope everyone is as excited as I am, but I am not going to get my hopes up too, too high, because Veronica says we shouldn’t. The whole culture shock re-entry thing.

That’s something to look forward to, I am sure.

But yes, it is possible that this is the last post I have on here, so again, thank you all so much for reading and flipping through the pictures and all that. I love you all for it, trust me.

Here goes nothing I guess.

…I just hope Iberia doesn’t decide to cancel my flight. I will not be a happy camper. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Much love from Spain for the last time,

M.

I am going to vomit...

I just took my Islam midterm, and I think I did well! Yay hooray!!

But in other news, there was a COCKROACH scuttling around in our room this morning. I am so disgusted. Ew ew ew I do not think I will sleep again.

I came back into my room after brushing my teeth, and there he was, sitting next to my bed in all his nasty, cockroach glory. I told my roommate as I ran out of the room to tell my senora. I found her in the kitchen merrily fixing us breakfast (coffee, and toast oh boy!) and told her what literally translates as "there is a bug in the corner of our room." She looked and me and confirmed that it was in my room and not in the bathroom (where, she told us later, they usually show up, if ever), and followed me back to my room.

As she approached the corner, and told me she didn't see it anywhere. It had crawled behind the box, and I told her that. So (in Spanish, of course) she said, "Wait! I need to get my bug spray!" and ran out of the room and returned with a spray can that had to be at least 17 inches long and popped the lid off. She approached the corner, can at the ready and shoved the box to the side. Nothing. Then she shoved my books to the side. Nothing. So she shoved my folders over and SURPRISE! There he was, and he was not happy. He began hissing at her a little bit and began to scurry away as she sprayed him with as much cockroach repellent as she could muster.

My 76 year old Senora was hipchecking tables, beds, and chairs out of the way to chase it around and kill it. Then he disappeared.

My roommate and I proceeded to continue getting ready for class after she told us that even though he was missing, he would die because of the spray, and she would spray our room again and let it sit, and then clean and put our room back together for us before we got home tonight.

Here's to hoping my senora gets the bugger and all of his other minions!

Sick.

Ah! Sweet, sweet internet!

So I haven´t had internet since the last time I posted...which is a lot of days, I realize. But Granada is absolutely amazing, and I love it so much. I JUST got my email and passwords for internet access at the University of Granada, so I will have more regular access there starting tomorrow. At the moment, I am at an internet cafe, so this will be short seeing as I am paying for my time.

My host family is great: Isabel (my señora...about 70 years old), her husband Enrique, and their daughter, also named Isabel live with me and my roommate Allison. It turns our she is from Naperville! Who knew?!

...the keyboards here are strange and I do not like it. BUT! I will survive, es cierto.

We had our placement exam today, well, the first one at least, and I thought I did well on the writing portion, and okay on the multiple choice. It was really difficult!! We shall see tomorrow.

I cannot seem to get used to the eating habits here...I am already starving, and dinner isn´t until 9pm (its 7:35pm). We have a small breakfast of toast and coffee con leche (YUMMY!!), and that´s it until lunch at 2pm...which is HUGE, and then dinner at 9pm, which is smallish. I also need to obtain more water somehow. 2 cups of water at each meal is just not enough.

But this is all for now...I will update and put pictures up soon, I promise!

Besitos!