School's out for summer!

I just took my last exam and I guess you could say I rocked it.

Two more nights in Granada.... let the party begin!

Coming to a Close

Only four days left in good ol' Spain. It didn't feel like it was really ending until I started packing and cleaning my room. A few people have left already and more are leaving tomorrow and Tuesday. This is the not so fun part.

I have one exam left and it is an open-note exam so it should be fine. I was supposed to type a five page paper for my culture class, but I spilled an entire glass of cranberry juice alllll over my computer and now it won't even turn on. I'm praying my protection plan covers being an idiot aka spill damages. So anyways, I am now going to write the paper by hand and if he has a problem with that, I'll bring in my sticky computer and ask him to show me what he would have liked me to do. And if worse comes to worse, he's a little guy and I could win in a fight.

We had to take a post-diagnostic test measuring our level of improvement over the course of the semester. I got an 80 percent on the test I took prior to coming here, and on the test we took last week I got a 92 percent. Not too shabby, huh? (Plus I learned all the swear words and that alone is reason enough to spend a semester here if you ask me)

I leave Wednesday morning from Granada and then spend the day in Madrid before flying out at 6 am Thursday morning. Only a few more days, I better go out and enjoy them!

Hasta luego.

Touché, Antonio.

Yesterday at dinner we had pork chops and rice. As I was finishing my rice, I noticed a tiny little pink thing under a carrot... A tiny little pink thing known as a shrimp. When I looked again, I found lots of tiny little pink things.... Antonio tricked me and gave me the shrimp rice instead of the vegetarian rice, and being as trusting as I am, I ate it all and never bothered to question it! I asked him if he knew he did it and he said yes!!! He said he knew that I would like it if I tried it.

I was owned by Antonio.

The worst part of it all? It was the best rice I have ever had... in my life.

Spaniards: 3
Gringos: 0

Nicely played, sir.

Granada Shenanigans

Tuesday, Rachel and I were sitting on a bench near the fountain and a 70 year-old man came up to us and asked to sit next to us. He told us he had never sat next to two more beautiful girls on a bench before. He then told us we needed to go to the beach because we were whiter than the snow on the mountains. After that compliment, he asked if we had boyfriends in the US. We told him no and he was shocked... How could two beautiful gorditas (little fatties) like us not have boyfriends?! He then gave us his number and told us to call him before we left town.

True Story.

Travelled Out

Ok, I made it back from Paris in mostly one piece. I need about a three day coma to catch back up, but it was way worth it.

The first night I got to the hostel and they told me that they gave our room away because I showed up an hour later than I said I would. The lady at the hostel said they had an available room in some random guy's apartment across town.... It wasn't actually as sketch as it sounds and it worked out really well. Brie and I shared the bed and two Canadian boys that were in the same situation as us, shared the futon in the living room. The owner of the apartment, David, is a firefighter and he stayed at his friend's apartment for the night. Plus he gave us 40 free metro tickets, the equivalent of over 40 euro.






The second night they gave Brie's room away and her and Rachel and Justin went to another random guy's apartment for the night while Christine and I stayed there. Don't worry, I wrote one amazing review for that hostel. The last night we stayed at a nice hotel and finally had a good night's sleep.

The best part of the entire weekend was having a picnic in a park while a violinist played for us the entire time. It was great... until a bird crapped on me... twice. Other than that it was a great
afternoon and a fun trip.









And with that trip, I've wrapped up all the traveling planned for this semester. I've never been happier to be back in my tiny bed in Granada. Just three plane rides away from being back in America!

F to the RANCE

I travel to Paris with my one kidney to meet Brie tomorrow, Christine and Rachel on Friday, then Justin on Saturday.

If you need to find the cool kids, we'll be in Paris.

Dropped Like a Bad Habit

Over these past three months I have met so many different people, from so many different places, doing so many different things with their lives. A lot of them took breaks from their lives to come over to Europe and just explore and see what life has to offer. I've had a lot of time to think while I've been over here I've been inspired by some of these people and their ability to do what makes them happy instead of what is viewed as a safe life plan. I've decided that I am not going to keep going down the safe path in terms of a career and that is why I have decided to drop my education major.

After 15 years of school, I've almost started to hate learning. It's not the actual material that I hate, but rather the system of teaching and learning the new material. I've thought about it all semester and I've realized that I don't want to spend my life working in a system that I hate... Who wants their kid to be taught by a teacher that can't stand the school system anyways?

Yes, this is a big change and somewhat of a risky decision, but I've never felt so free. I can do whatever I want with my life - there isn't a set plan. It's scary and liberating at the same time. I'm going to complete a couple of business minors before graduation in May of 2010 and then just see where life takes me.

Plus this means I can work in another study abroad trip. Yessss.

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
--E.M. Forster