December 12

I'm in America.

My flight from Valencia was delayed, therefore I missed my connection out of Paris. Charles de Gaulle was insane. Passport control was very, very slow and I had to take a bus to my terminal. Then I had to run to the end of the building to get to my gate, but by that time I was very late. I caught the next flight to Detroit, 3 hours later, though, so that was good. The majority of FSU students leaving missed many of their flights. Brittany actually had to spend the night in Paris and flew home yesterday...it was not a good day to fly, apparently. 

Anyways, I am home now and will start up my blog again in January when I return. I hope y'all are having fun following me around the world. Happy holidays! :)

December 9

This morning started with a 6:30am wake up call and a tram trip to the beach once more. We went to watch the sunrise, but the could blocked it pretty well. Regardless, many memories were made.

I got news this morning that I could move into the other apartment with a few of my friends, and it's the same building where all of my friends will be. I also got am email from my math teacher informing me that I got an A+ on his exam. Math has always been like that for me, but it was nice to have that confidence boost.

We had lunch with FSU students and staff so we could do dinner on our own. The six of us went out, one last time before Dara and Caitlin head back to Tally. I don't think it's really hit any of us yet. Dara said goodbye to me at least three times and it doesn't seem like she's leaving. It feels as if we're all going on separate weekend trips and we'll meet back again on Sunday...

On a sidenote, it's too loud and I'm too excited to sleep right now. I need to be up in 4 and a half hours, so, is sleep really worth it? Doubt it.

December 8

I just finished my last exam of the semester! Woo! I had math at 9am this morning and I was very glad to have had Radabaugh in high school. This class is nothing like calculus, but whenever I start to overthink the basic stuff, I always have the calc way to go about solving a problem. Mom scoffs whenever I say something like that, but it works for me, so...

I finished most of my packing last night so today I could just relax and tomorrow could be spent with mis amigas. Wednesday our plan is to go to the beach early in the morning to watch the sun rise. We'll have our "farewell lunch" later in the afternoon at FSU. Then we'll finish with dinner together and walking around Valencia once more before we all leave. We may attempt ice skating again, too. It'll be a busy day, and then I'll be up at 5 am so I can get to the airport and head on my way home. I'm stoked. 2 days!

Dara and I had once final "date" dinner last night and we stuffed ourselves with patatas bravas. Patatas bravas are native to Spain and are just potatoes with this really delicious sauce. Anyways, it was an amazing dinner. I don't know who is going to go out to dinner with me next semester, but I do know that I am really going to miss Dara. Yep.

December 5

Dara and I went to a market this morning. We took the tram over and were there for about 2 hours. She is really into "thrift shopping." It wasn't like the flea markets that I am used to it. There were a lot of 1 euro make-up, kitchen utensils, and a bunch of clothes being sold. It was an interesting experience. We went to lunch at this great hamburger place we found...it was a seriously delicious burger.

Later tonight Barcelona played Valencia, so some students went to the bar to watch the game and Dara went out with her church friends. I decided I would rather walk and chillax than do that...because I really don't care that much about futbol. I did watch the score though, throughout the game and they ended with a tie. Lame. I guess that's okay though, because Barcelona beat Real Madrid 4-0 and they tied Valencia 1-1.

Dara and I went ice skating at the center town square at 11:30. Everyone else went yesterday, so it was just the two of us this time. It was so great. The ice was starting to melt, so there was a lot of water, which makes it really difficult to skate on, but all-in-all it was good. There were only about 10 other people skating with us that late, because it closes at midnight, but that made it easier. We didn't have to worry about running children over or having to stop all the time, that's always a pain. There is also a guy who works there, Oscar, he has a thing for Dara, he was very flirty. We might go back tomorrow.

December 4

December 2

Dara and I went out for an evening walk on Wednesday. Dara, being Dara, made me take lots of photos in front of lots of graffiti. So there's that.

December 3

I took my Spanish exam on Thursday, and although I did study, it did not go as well as I would have hoped. I am super glad that I studied what I did though, because I would have been very screwed if I didn't know the opposite of "fuera" or "cerca." That night we all went to an Italian restaurant we all like. There were 8 of us, myself, Dara, Emilia, Jacqueline, Brittany, Jessica (who we dragged with us after she told us she was headed to McDonald's), Caitlin, and Caitlin's roommate, Katy. It was delicious, as always, and a lot of fun, for our last Thursday night in Valencia (for the year).

December 4

My new favorite pastime is walking through the shopping district with Christmas music playing through my phone. It does not seem quite like Christmas though, the palm trees are very off putting when thinking about Christmas. There also isn't any snow and it's still fairly warm here during the day. Valencia tries, however.

Dara and I went to the tree lighting ceremony in the town square tonight. It is not a real Christmas tree, nor is it really a fake one, it's just, like a cone made of green fabric with really tacky lights...but people cheered nonetheless. There was a choir singing, and the only song I could recognize was Silent Night but they sang the Spanish version. They also have an ice skating rink up, which we plan on doing before we leave. There was this ice performance that was very cool to watch. It's insane what these people can do on ice skates and not fall.

December 2

I just finished my first "official" college exam. It was for my online macro course, and it didn't go too horribly. I have my Spanish exam tomorrow, which will be interesting because when we were reviewing our professor forgot what she had put on the exam. She literally just went over everything with us, but told us half the stuff wouldn't be on there, or maybe they would.She didn't know, and she truly didn't, it's sad.

Last night I went to dinner with Jacqueline and Brittany. It was 50's American Style diner, there was old school music playing, and cliche American menu items, and straws, Spain doesn't like straws, but, this place had them! We came up with a list of things that we needed to do within the next week before Dara left. The ice skating rink in the town central goes up on the 4th, and we need to go to the beach, the park, Taco Away, a futbol game, etc, etc, and finish at La Reina, the place we went to dinner on our second night here. We though that was appropriate. It was a fun night.