All good things come to an end...

Last trip to the Mirador =(

To start off my good-bye blog, I want to share a little story with you all.

Friday night was Lizzie’s last night, so we decided to head down to our favorite tapas bar, Poe. Along the way we passed a hotel, where there were many screaming Spanish men above. At first we didn’t pay attention to them until I noticed one little thing.

Me: Are they naked?!?!?!?!?

Someone else: I think they are?!

Another one: Oh my good-ness!!!!

Marianela: I’m going to take a picture!!!!

This is why I didn’t have a Spanish boyfriend. They like to get naked with other men in hotel rooms.

Anyway, back to the sad part…

I’m sitting in EVL’s apartment writing this blog because I am officially homeless.

Today I moved out of the apartment and tomorrow I head out for my two-week adventure to the exotic lands of Portugal, Paris, Prague and the precious state of Michigan!

This week has been a week of lasts. Last club in Spain, last tapas and last experiences with some of the best people I’ve ever met. Since last Sunday, I’ve said hasta luego to six people so far. It’s a good thing that half my gang is from New Mexico, because at least I’ll get to see them when I get home. It won’t be the same without the rest of our foreigners/Bryce from Florida!

This week has been surreal. I am having a hard time believing that this chapter in my life is over. Even though I’ve only been here four months I can’t imagine my life anywhere else. The past semester was everything I hoped for and more! I’ve seen so many breath-taking places, gotten lost, ate my weight in Poe Tapas, met the most ridiculous Spanish men and learned a lot about myself in the process.

Since I was in high school, I knew I was going to study abroad my second semester of my junior year. Now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do next. Besides graduating in two years time, I have no other immediate dreams and goals, so I guess I’m going to have to make up some new ones… here is my list so far:

New Life Goals:

1.     Become more outdoorsy. Learn how to snowboard, mountain climb, repel and kayak. I also need some wilderness skills. A few months in Montana with my Uncle Steve would turn me into a pioneer woman for sure!

2.     Learn another language. I still haven’t mastered Spanish, but maybe I’ll have better luck with something more challenging and obscure, like Hungarian!

3.     Start my novel(s). So far I have three ideas that I want to manifest into the written word. I’ve worked on bits and pieces of each, but nothing substantial. If the job market is this bad when I get out of college, I’ll need something to fall back on.

4.     Compete in running competitions! I think a marathon might kill me, but I could probably do a few 5k’s or something like that!
5.   Visit another continent! Now that’s I’ve done Europe twice, I need some new cultural influences in my life. Egypt, China, Japan, Thailand, India, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are all high on my list. This will all be possible due to the high amounts of royalties I will collect from my best selling novels.

There is a silver lining. Nippy is also coming on this adventure with me. So just in case I don’t blog about my last travels, there will be pictures of Nippy so be excited for that!!!

In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently would have been to take my love of Enrique Iglesias more seriously by heavily stalking him. I know it would be love at first sight. When he finally meets me outside his bedroom window, he’ll want to be my hero and stand by me forever.

So for now this is not adios, but hasta luego Spain! I will someday return to you with my future children and show them all the exciting places that I visited: 

“Here’s the club, El Camborio, where mommy spent most of her weekends making out with random dudes.”

Yeah… that conversation is going to happen.