So, oh boy what an interesting past week this has been. I have been traveling practically non-stop. I can't remember where I left off so we will start with sometime last week. lol
Sunday night, our internet ran out and we decide as a group that we were'nt going to pay for it again with only a week and half left. So, we decided we would just use the computers at school. Went to bed at 2 up at 9 on Monday morning.
Monday - Day 1 of my last 3 days as an undergraduate student and Exam #1. Exam went good, after the exam I booked my hostel for Lisbon, same brand as the one I was staying at in Granada. We had one more class in the afternoon where we had to give a final presentation. After class I decided that I had to do some last minute site seeing and gift shopping for people. Please don't ask why I have saved some of the main things to see in Barcelona until the last minute. lol When you actually live in a city you notice these things but you don't make it a point to actually visit them and I think it's probably like that when you live in any city. Your just busy with your day to day life that you don't go and visit the monuments and touristy things. I've seen and done a lot of things in Barcelona and most of them have been the things that when you come to the city as a tourist they are not the first things on your list to see. I've done stuff after school and stuff but I haven't been in Barcelona on the weekends because I have been traveling everywhere else and then the couple weekends that I planned to stay in Barcelona, I ended up traveling to other little villages outside of the city! So, I started by visiting the MACBA or contemporary art musuem, it's literally 4 blocks from my flat. It was a rather quick visit and I wasn't really impressed, it wasn't the type of contemporary art that I was expecting at all. After this musuem I headed to the Boqueria for a fruit juice one last time. I got some pictures of the market at christmas and had 2 juices. They were delicious as usual and I'm really going to miss them! After that I made my way over to the Cathedral and decided to go inside one last time, I love the Cathedral. Then I did the christmas market outside of the Cathedral and bought a few things and then I had some Basque tapas at a tapas bar, which were delicious, looked in some more shops and headed home. After I got home I went to the Carrerfour, my neighborhood grocery store, this place has also played an important role in my everyday life and so have the people who work there like Alfredo who I also say Hola to. lol He's from the Dominican Republic. After the store, I came home, started packing, and then the Finland kids, Sam, Vania, and myself all went over to the Black Sheep to have one last drink with Goncalo because he was returing to Lisbon on Tuesday to go to Prage with his family for the week for his mother's birthday. It was a good time and Mikko was trying to tell us all how they 'freeze' their christmas trees in Finland, turns out, the torch them just like we do in America. Mikko is absolutely crazy and his English isn't the best so he gets things a little confused sometimes. lol I also had to say goodbye to Outi too because she was going to Sevilla the next morning with Nina and I wasn't going to see here again before she left for Finland. She has been my partner in almost every group for school so we've spent a lot of time together and have gotten to know each other pretty well. I'm going to miss her. It's really hard to say goodbye to these people that I have spent the last 4 months of my life living with and getting to know. This past week has been full of tearful goodbyes and hopeful 'see you laters'. It's sad. I didn't get to bed till about 2 again this night.
Tuesday - Up at 9 am again, school early to study for the exam, took the exam and then headed home to run over to Goncalo's before he left to give him some of his stuff that he had at our house and to say goodbye. I'm going to see him tomorrow here in Lisbon so this goodbye wasn't sad. lol After dropping that stuff off I headed to Park Guell, a must see in Barcelona. It was really cold outside and being up on this hill with the wind didn't help the cause but I'm so glad that I went and I wish that I wouldn't have saved it for the last minute because if I had more free time this would definitely be some place that I would love to go and just people watch. Gaudi did an amazing job with this park and I was really impressed, one of the best things in Barcelona hands down. After the park I headed over to the Sagrada Familia, again, please don't even ask why I have saved this till the last minute either! lol I've been with the school but we didn't go inside and I wanted to go inside the church so I paid 9 euros and it was the biggest waste of 9 euros that i've spent. I went inside but I couldn't go up in the towers this day becasue they were doing some type of construction and keep in mind the entire church is still being built so I went inside and you can only see the ceiling past all the construction equipment. I was dissapointed and I felt like I had just wasted 9 euros. I hope that by the next time I come back to Barcelona they will have more finished and it might be worth seeing the inside. I took a bunch of pictures of the outside though and that's what's most impressive. It's going to be beautiful when it's finished it really is. lol After this I headed over to the Hospital Sant Pau, by this time it was nearly dark outside so I just got a glance and then headed back home because it was so cold outside! I had no idea it could get so cold in Barcelona but for the past week we have either been experiencing a serious cold front or it's finally gotten cold and it's going to stay that way! It came very suddenly and the high everday has been in the mid-40's. Brrrrrrr. After I got home I worked on my porfolio that was due tomorrow and then I went to bed around 2 in the morning again. 2 am was a pattern this week. lol
Wednesday - LAST DAY AS AN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT!! AHHH!!! Last Exam, which also meant last time I will ever have to see the two dumbest teachers in the world. lol So happy about this one being over. After the exam I stayed after school and finished up my porfolio, I didn't finish it till around 5, I was in such a hurry to leave that I left my ID in the comptuer lab and had to have Alex pick it up for me Thursday. So, I turned in my portfolio and walked out of Sant Ignasi's doors for the last time. It was really heartbreaking. The only good thing is that I won't have to walk up that treacherous hill everday! lol I'm really going to miss it though, the school is gorgeous, it's like stepping into a fairytale everday, and the staff is equally as nice and I'm not gonna lie, I'm going to miss the Spanish kids too, sometimes they can get on my last nerve, but for the most part, I've enjoyed almost all of them. I took the metro home as usual and after I got home I relaxed for a while and then before I knew it, Sam had opened a bottle of cava to celebrate our last day of school EVER!! He is also done after this semester abroad so we celebrated the traditional Spanish way and had some cava. We drank this while watcing the Wedding Date, lame I know but it was too cold to be outside doing anything. lol After we finished the cava we opened up this really nice bottle of wine that Sam had bought and drank that! All this while I was trying to pack for Granada and Lisbon, needless to say, I forgot a few items. lol While the drinking was taking place, Sam and I were having a conversation and then before I knew it all four of us were in my room working on fixing the handle on Stephanie's suitcase. Drunk Sam had every tool out that we could find in the place, lol it was pretty hilarious. Even though I find Stephanie pretty annoying and well, I find all of my roommates annoying at some time or another, it was kinda nice to be spending one of my last nights with all of them this way.Together. We all agreed that we would have a pretty awesome time going to Walmart together in the middle of the night. lol My roommates - gezz, there is just so much to say, at one point after getting back from Milan I recall writing in a message to someone, and I quote, ''I'm so annoyed with my roommates and if it wasn't so freaking cold outside I would seriously sleep on the street tonight!'' haha. I look back on this now and realize that this was only when my experience in Barcelona was just beginning. Now, I'm getting ready to leave the city that I've lived in for the past four months of my life, the city where my daily life has been a challenge everyday, the city where I've grown with 18 other students and my 3 roommates from the US, the city where my Spanish skills have improved beyond what I ever thought possible, the city where I've had so many good times followed by so many bad experiences that I can't even count them anymore, the city that I've fallen in love with despite all the negative things that it has to offer, its a beautiful city and it took me a while to see it's beauty but now that I have, I never want to leave
I keep thinking about what's next and everyone has been asking me this recently. As the time is drawing near to go back home I've been thinking about this a lot in the past week myself. For the first time in my life, I don't have a plan for what's next and if you know me, you know that this is very unusual. I have a plan for everything. I've had a plan in place for the past 3 1/2 years and even though I've been pretty unhappy for the majority of this time, I've been sticking to the plan, because well, it's THE PLAN! Once I start something I have to finish it. As a taurus I am very stubborn and very determined. I do everything with passion and I always give it my all, and sometimes I can be pretty competitive when doing it to, it could be the smallest thing in the world. So, I don't have plan, back to that. I'm not sure what's next, I will wait until I see what the results of my LSAT are before really making a decision about anything. I should find out my results on the 26th of December or a little after that date. If I'm happy with my score then I will start applying to law schools for admission in the fall and if not then I might take the test again in February and wait to go until the next fall. Honestly though, when I left the states I defnitely wanted to go straight into law school or directly into grad school as soon as I fnished my undergrad because I didn't want to take a break and have to pay back any student loans. lol I still do want to go to law school or grad school but I'm not as stuck on the idea now as I was when I left. Europe has changed me yet again, although this time not so drastically and not in the same ways. I'm finally done with my Bachelor's degree and that's a big accomplishment and I've been in such a hurry to get fnished that I haven't enjoyed one second of the experiece and now I just want to slow down, reflect on what the past 3 years of my life have been like and then go from there. Life is too short to be unhappy, even for one day. Like I said earlier..It's impossible to be happy everyday but it's important to try to be happy everday. I'm sick of having unhappy days so whatever is next, it's defnitely going to be something that I enjoy, I don't care if I die trying to find that happiness in a job, a relationship, a law degree, etc. Right now I have so many doors that I could open, it's just a matter of taking that next step and opening one. I could do a lot of different things now, I could get a job, go back to school, I can do anything anywhere in the world. Ideas would be greatly appreciated, I know Julie would never tell me either way it goes what I should do, she never helps me make any decisions, she always says, ''you just have to decide for yourself I can't help you decided things like that.'' One of the main reasons that I chose to do this specific study abroad program was to see if I could really handle living overseas by myself, without my friends, my family, and my support group. This was just sort of a test run to see how well I could handle it because Europe is a place that I've seriously been considering living and working. Now that I've survived the past 4 months without feeling the need to go crawling home, I know that I can handle it, and I'm really proud of myself. I'm not gonna lie, it's a little scary to think about moving here and I can't belive that I'm actually considering it but, if I did move though and I didn't like it, it's not like I couldn't ever go back ya know. Plus, if I thought I was really independent before, I've become even more independent and learned more about myself in the past 4 months than I thought possible. For example, in the past 4 months I have learned how to cook actual food and I've done a lot of dishes and everyone knows how this is my least favorite thing to do in the whole world. Impressive, I know. I am also considering writing a book maybe? I like to write I could be a lawyer or a travel writer, or maybe even a disney adventure guide. Regardless,I despise writing and I love it doing it leisurely at the same time. I would give anything to be a travel writer but I feel like that would be a very hard job to come by. Now, my 'Let's Go Travel Book' has become my best friend on this trip, it gives me great recommendations for everything from hostels, places to eat, and things to do in specific cities. It's been very good to me but I would probably change a few things if I could. For example, if I wrote a travel book I would probably call it something like 'How to travel like you mean it' or 'How to get what you want when you travel'. I'm not sure but something along those lines, this is just so you can get the general idea of what the book would be like. It would be a step around all the bullshit in the travel books, full of tips like 'hey, don't go here and don't waste your time doing this, and here is where you can find dirt cheap food.' I think it would probably be a best seller with all of my sarcasim involved. lol So, here I am sliding into home plate with a million different opportunites just waiting for me on the other side. HELP ME decide what to do! I need a job or something!
Ok, back to the trip. lol I got to bed really late wednesday night obviously and had to get up around 7 or so to start my trip to Granada..I will post all about my trip to Granada and then to Lisbon in another post that I will probably be writing on the plane tomorrow! Wish me safe travels, i'm going to be spending the next day and a half on airplanes...blah! I'm not very excited about it!
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