Last Blog from Spain... only 2 weeks late!

Well, this is it… my last few hours in Spain. I am sitting in the Madrid airport writing this post, but by the time I put it on my blog I’ll already be home. I had to say goodbye to Alicante this morning when I left at 6:35 AM, but what a way to say goodbye! The plane took off as the sun was rising over the mountains, city, and blue sea, and I waved goodbye to my home. It’s crazy to think about how my semester here has flown by, yet I don’t feel as if I have wasted one moment of it. Everything I did has helped me learn something; obviously I have greatly improved my Spanish, but I think I also improved myself.

This week was a long one because I was the last of my friends to leave Alicante. Therefore, I was the one who ran around saying goodbye to everyone. I am going to miss everyone; my friends are the only people on the planet who will truly understand what we all went through, good and bad, in Alicante. I was starting to get worried when I hadn’t shed a tear, but then I went to the country house with my family on Sunday.

It was such a perfect way to end my stay here. Everything was just so normal, and my family was my family even though I was freaking out about having to leave. We swam in the newly finished pool (which they built by hand!), ate lunch (best food EVER!), and of course talked about everything in Spanish (Proving that I have improved greatly!). When it came time to say goodbye, I lost it. Maria Jose turned to me and said that she and her husband needed to leave, so we needed to say goodbye. She tried to give me the normal dos besos (a kiss on each cheek) but I just pulled her and gave her a huge American style hug. Although we look like polar opposites, she is the closest thing I have to a real sister. I started balling, and dos beso-ing and hugging everyone only became more difficult. After about 20 people, I seriously couldn’t catch my breath between crying and trying to speak broken Spanish; I cannot remember the last time I cried that hard. I said goodbye to Maria Carmen, Fran, Claudia, and gordito (Kay… gordito literally means “little fatty,” his nickname). For the last week, Kay has been running around saying, “Sarah! Guapa!” He just mastered saying Mama, Papa, and a few other words, one of them being my name. I don’t care what language you speak, if a little kid who just started talking can say your name, it makes you feel very important. I will miss that for sure.

Claudia gave me a huge kiss and said, “No te preocupes sarah, nosotros vamos a visitar tu y benito en los estados unidos, claro mama!?” That translates to, “Don’t worry Sarah, we will come to visit you and ben in the U.S., right Mommy?” At this point, the whole family proceeded to tell me that they insist that not only I marry Ben, but have the wedding on the beaches of Alicante. They continued to create the whole wedding, including the reception which would take place at their country house. Of course we all laughed when they mentioned how many ovens we would need to cook chicken and rabbit for their family and my family. At this point, the laughing mixed with the crying produced some snorting, and I had 30 people hugging, kissing, and laughing at me. Only with family can you do all that in front of, and walk away not embarrassed, but missing the people who laughed at you.

I know that many of you are going to ask me what my favorite part of studying abroad was. That is an unfair, ridiculous, and loaded question; however, I am probably one of the few who can answer it. I mean, there are about 20 different parts that I could say, but one that I could mean with all of my heart. The beach, Semana Santa, Las Fallas, Paella, Palma Mallorca, my cruise, learning Spanish, my teachers at school, beating my half marathon time, the Valencia region, cooking classes, drinking wine, getting to know some awesome people I will never forget… yeah those are all highlights. But, my family, they were definetly the ones who made my trip the best. I would say 80% of my best memories include my family. They are the ones I laughed with the most. I told Maria Carmen that if she ever didn’t want Claudia or Kay, I would adopt either one of them. Of course she thought I was joking, but I am so serious, I love them like my little brother and sister.

The best way to describe my madre here is to say that she is exactly like my madre at home. How on earth do I have two awesome Moms? Amazing cook, loves everyone, genuinly kind to everyone, a little crazy at times (in a good way), always carrying conversations with me, and a great friend. Saying goodbye to her was extremely difficult. She insisted that I come back to visit, and I promised her that I would without hesitation. The last thing she said when I walked out the door at 4:45 this morning was, “Remember Sarah, we are your family 100%. Not just me, but you will always have 10 more aunts, more cousins than you can count, and a niece and nephew who love you like an aunt. Let me know when you get home or I won’t be able to sleep. And I love you.”

I am going to miss my Spanish family as much as I miss my American family. Yes, I am thrilled to be coming home and I have learned a lot about myself through all of this. But above all, I somehow gained another family, which I never thought was even possible. And I love them all.

Baptismo y Palma Mallorca

Hola!
Well, a week from today I will be home! As much as I can't wait to see my family, eat Mexican food (I know, weird), and sleep in my own bed, I also don't want to leave. I also can't believe Joey is graduating in a couple of weeks, which also means I am a junior in college!
This past week has been a good one. I took my huge Spanish final, which I had studied a lot for, and I think I did well. In fact, even if I get an 85% on it, I will be fully content knowing that I know 85% of the irregular verbs in the Spanish language. (If you have studied a foreign language, you know exactly what I am talking about.)
Last Sunday, I had such a neat opportunity, that turned into one of the best days yet with my family. I was invited to go with my family to Claudia and Kay's baptism. Before the ceremony, Fran and I drove to get the cake, which was made by the same lady I took tapas class from back in February. (Small world, even on this side of the world.) After we successfully carried the wedding sized cake up to our 5th floor apartment (and that is just as hard as it sounds), we made our way to the ceremony. It was held in an old Catholic church, complete with all the decorations, stained glass windows, and huge ceilings. Claudia and Kay looked beautiful in their little white outfits, and I was surprised when we arrived that they ran up and kissed me. (man I am gonna miss these kids). The ceremony was short and sweet, and I understood a fair amount of what was being said. Afterwards, the whole family headed to a restaurant for lunch... just imagine 70 people at a restaurant. It was a fun afternoon; we were served a four course meal which took around 5 hours to finish. They really take their time with meals over here. When we were done around 6:00, Claudia and Kay's more immediate family and I headed to a local carnival and the kids rode some rides while we all had coffee. It was such a great day, and I am so lucky to be considered a sister in this family, therefore an aunt to these kids.
The week flew by, probably because it was filled with exams, projects, and of course la playa (the beach). On Friday, Kim, Tessa, and I left for Palma, Mallorca! If you know anything about Spanish geography, we went to one of the three islands to the right of inland Spain. Our flight was only 30 minutes long. Once we arrived in Palma, we took a bus from the airport, and headed to the city to have breakfast. We tried ensaimadas, which are the sweet pastries that Palma is so famous for. We met up with Chris and Quinn, who both had a later flight. It was hot and the beach was gorgeous, so we opted to go straight there. On the way, we ran into a fresh market, so we bought some bread, cheese, and fruit for lunch. The water was crystal clear, and perfect for swimming. We swam REALLY far out, I felt like I was in the middle of the ocean. We ran into random sand bars where we could stand, and then we would hit deep spots. We had a blast swimming, and I never felt like I would get attacked by huge animals because I could see my feet because the water was so clear.
Saturday morning, we went the Cuevas del Drach. We actually rented a car and drove all the way across the island. That definitely went smoother than we figured it would. We went on a tour of these huge caves, which led to an underground lake! There were tons of stalagmites everywhere we turned. When we got to the bottom, we watched a 10 minute classical music concert, played by musicians who were floating in boats on the underground lake. The music sounded beautiful, because we were in caves, and afterwards we actually got to take a 5 minute boat ride across the lake!
Once we were out of the cuevas, we bought another picnic lunch and sat on some benches while to eat. We safely (thanks to Tessa's amazing driving skills... ) made it back to the other side of the island. As soon as Quinn mentioned that we had done great, not got lost, not crashed, etc., we tried to park the car in a spot, on a hill. After nearly crashed 4 times, we ran inside to ask the owner of the hotel to park it for us. We all watched as he banged the front and the back of our precious rental car into the other parked cars, but at least no damage was done. We decided not to press our luck any further, and walked to the beach leaving the car where it was parked for the rest of the day.
Palma was so fun, and I think that might be my favorite little weekend trip we did all semester!

Crazy stories

Well, this past week in Alicante has flown by. I had two very big presentations that I had to prepare for, and they both went well. I feel more and more confident in my Spanish; I was comfortable enough to get up in front of the class and talking about gastronomy in Spanish for almost 30 minutes. It was a bit hard to speak Spanish with mi madre right when I returned home, just because I was a little out of practice. However, I already feel like I am right where I left off, which is encouraging.

Well, I have more to share about the end of our trip… I am sure most of you have heard the stories… but Ben and I had quite an adventure, thanks to my stupidity (or “mistakes I have since learned from”). The last day of our cruise we stopped in Split, Croatia. Croatia was very different from other European cities, especially since they only recently became a country. There are many historical sites to see, but not many that Croatia can call their own. Ben and I had an excursion booked through our ship to go see Krka falls, supposedly the tallest falls in all of Europe. The 1 ½ hour bus ride to get to the falls was great; we got to see so much scenery that we would have missed if we had stayed on the coast. Croatia is pretty, and a lot greener than Spain. We made it to the falls and went on a 2 hour hike up and around them. There are little bridges built over some of the smaller falls so we were able to actually go over them and see some gorgeous views. We also saw water mills and other ways they use the falls to obtain energy. On the way back to our ship, we passed a huge Croatian palace and the city of Split. Croatia is so different, but I really enjoyed my time there.

Of course our last night on the ship was spent playing scrabble, and going to the last dinner so we could say goodbye to the people we ate with every night. It was a great experience to live on a boat for 13 days, but I was a little tired of it by the end, so I was glad to be going back to Alicante. Little did we know, when we got off our ship and headed to Venice, that was when the adventure started.

Venice was great; it was our second time there, so we had no trouble navigating our way through the city. I really like Venice; I think it might be my favorite city in Italy, so I was thrilled to go back. Although very touristy, it’s so different because it’s all on water, and I just love all the boats and that the city has one constant blue tint to it. We went to a very local pizza place, found out that we still don’t know any Italian, and made our way to the main square. We had 6 ours in the city, and managed to find our way to the airport no problem. All was going well, until we realized that we were at the WRONG AIRPORT. We should have researched it a little more, but now we know that Venice has two airports, one that was basically built just for the airline we were flying with aka where we were supposed to be. Fortunetly, the problem was easily (yet expensively) fixed, and our 70 euro taxi ride allowed us to catch our flight to Barcelona. We though that we were on track, until we flew into Barcelona (trying to catch our next flight in 65 minutes) and realized that we were in the WRONG AIRPORT. Of course, I felt very dumb at this point, and really regretted that I didn’t take the time to mapquest these airports. This is what I learned: Just because the airport name has the main city name in the title, doesn’t mean that it is remotely close to the main city. We found out that 1. The airport we needed was 2 ½ hours away on a good day 2. A new plane ticket would cost 300 Euros, Each. 3. A car was the best option. Of course I was upset and was feeling stupid and helpless, but I could see the thrill in Ben’s eyes when we decided to rent a car.

Our goal was to make it back to Alicante by 11:00 AM the next morning, just in time to head to the country house with mi familia. By the time we left, it was already almost 10 at night, and we were literally a 30 minute drive from the French border. If you have seen a map of Spain, you understand that we had basically the entire East coast to drive in 13 hours. Nonetheless, Ben and I proceeded to get directions, and were advised to follow the coast, and stay off the A-7 tollroad. My favorite part of the entire 3 weeks with Ben in Europe was this car ride. I hate to admit that I am thrilled that our mistakes led to this. We drove (we may or may not have drove fast) and follwed the coast. We stopped at a McDonalds (with fear of every source of food closing in the next few hours), ate dinner, and got 6 burgers to go (just in case we got hungry, you never know). We were doing fine, until Barcelona. I would love to be able to say that getting lost in Barcelona for 2 hours was frustrating, but I loved it. We seemed to be going in circles, but at the same time, we got to see all these famous sites from such a new perspective. After asking for directions, messing those directions up, getting more directions, messing those directions up, and getting more directions, we were on the road again! We drove until 3 AM, until we decided to stop and sleep in our car. Ben really wanted (and in my opinion needed : ) ) a shower, so we decided to stop in Taragona and see if any hotel would let us shower for a few Euros. Maybe it was because it was late, or maybe because we couldn’t find any non-ritzy hotels, but the kindest response we got was (in a thick accent), “You just want to shower?” We decided that we needed to rest, so we parked on the side of the road and took a two hour nap. Don’t worry though, I was very hesitant about this part of the trip, so we picked the safest spot we could possibly find. At 5 AM, we got back on the road, stopped for Red Bulls, and continued our journey. We drove on all these roads that swerved through the mountains while the sun was rising. It was breathtaking. My eyes kept shutting, so it was a good thing that Ben was wide awake. We passed through Valencia, and all mountains of eastern Spain. We passed the fields of windmills, the town where I got my best half marathon time in, an amusement park, the rock of Benidorm. We basically drove through all the towns I wanted to show Ben. We made it to Alicante and mi madre generously offered Ben a shower, and after we were both clean, we headed to the country house with mi familia!

It was such a relief that we had made it to Alicante, and the afternoon made every trouble of the trip worth it. Mi famila ADORED Ben, and Ben definetly spoke better Spanish than everyone expected. We played with Claudia y Kay, gave Ben a tour of all the houses, ate an amazing oven cooked meal, went on a walk, and spent a great day with mi familia. My Spanish family invited Ben to stay in the extra room we have here, so he wouldn’t have to stay in a hotel. It was already quite an honor that they invited him to the country house, but the fact that they invited him to sleep at our house meant that they considered him family. The next morning, I went with Ben to the airport, and although we were both sad to say goodbye, we were thrilled that Alicante has only one airport, and we definetly got that one right…

So needless to say, after all that adventure, Monday afternoon I took a 5 hour nap. Tuesday was a busy day, and I was still recovering a little. Wednesday I had my interview with Operation Christmas Child. It went fairly well, and I will find out within a couple of weeks if I get a second interview. Although I REALLY want this internship, I also realize that I will end up where God wants me. But, everyone keep praying por favor!

I can’t believe I have only about two weeks left here in Alicante. I am a little homesick now, but I know I will miss Alicante one I am home. It’s weird having two places that I call home now. But I will see you all very soon! May 18^th!

¡Adios Amigos!

¡Tened un día bueno!

¡Disfrutad vuestro tiempo primavera!

¡Y cuando yo llegare a Los Estados Unidos, mi gustaría pasar mi tiempo con todos de vosotros!