The end.

Hello everyone! I know it's not good that I was late on my very last blog post :( so I apologize. But I'm only late by one day! Yesterday I hung out with Jake most of the day and I was busy trying to arrange all of my souvenirs too, and basically by the time Jake left I was too sleepy. Trust me, it'll be better since I'm doing it today because I had wisdom tooth surgery this morning and who knows what state of mind I'm currently in. It may make it more entertaining.  I feel fine, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see when I reread this post a few days later if I'm actually fine. So yes, I am back in good ol' Grand Rapids and have been since Thursday night. This blog post will cover my last few days in Barcelona and what I've been up to since I got back.

Monday I had my very last class-related activity, being a Spanish final, and then I was officially done with classes for the year and am now a senior in college! How did this happen so quickly?  So I took my final and it actually went quite well, so I was happy about that. All the finals I have gotten grades back for have been acceptable, good enough, especially when dealing with the Spanish grading system. I believe it's a lengthy process to get my grades transferred back to the U and available for me to see, so I'll just have to wait and see how they actually turned out, but I'm not too worried. I mean they won't be stellar, but they should be good, and I had to work a lot harder for them than i usually have to! That's for sure, haha, so I'll be extra proud of them for that reason :). After Spanish, I began my quest of the week, crossing off the few remaining things on my to-do in Barcelona list before it was time to leave. This started with visiting Gaudi's Casa Batllo.  It's literally right outside the metro stop I took everyday to class and I knew there was no way I could leave feeling at peace if I didn't get to tour the inside. Cara and her studio section had their final studio review after Spanish, so not many people were available to come with me and the ones who were didn't feel like paying to get in (losers, they missed out ;)). Granted, it was definitely one of the more expensive ones at 14,55 euro per student, but it was worth it for me. That included an audio guide though, which was nice, although super cheesy at times. It was just crawling with tourists (myself included, I guess), as well as some of the other sights I saw that week, leading me to believe tourist season in Barcelona had officially started. That's okay though, it was a nice little self guided tour with the audio guide and the other people didn't bother me much, except they're in my pictures. Oh well. I wonder how many random people's pictures I'm in. I always think that's funny to think of. Anyways, it was a really neat building, I enjoyed the tour, and they even had a little exhibition at the end of furniture he had designed, which was equally as impressive as his buildings.

After my tour, I didn't really have anything I needed to do, but I didn't want to spend the whole day in my room, seeing as it was a nice day and one of my last, so I just walked down Passeig de Gracia, starting at Casa Batllo and going down to Plaza Catalunya. Psg. de Gracia is known for it's shopping, especially really expensive designer stores I could never afford, so that was fun :). I got some dirty looks from shopkeepers who knew I wasn't going to buy anything, but I wasn't bothered by it. Needless to say, I in fact didn't buy anything, but it was enjoyable, just walking along, stopping in a store every few minutes. I got to Pl. Catalunya and had lunch there at a little Italian coffee shop because I wanted pasta haha. I got tortellini and it was wonderful. After that it was time for me to head back to the apartment so I could register for my classes for next semester at 3 pm Barcelona time. (Highly preferable to the scheduled 8 am Minnesota time.) It was the most unbelievable thing, I got into all the classes I wanted without a single problem! It's going to be a busy semester. I have a semester-long architectural photography workshop (usually workshops are only half a semester), a drawing class, a portfolio design class, a thesis capstone development class, and two housing studies classes for my minor, giving me 18 credits.  After that was all done, I decided to take a nap. I blame all my finals, I think I was still exhausted from the residual stress, even though the tests themselves were done.  After my nap, it still wasn't very late in the day and it was lonely in the apartment because no one else was there, so I decided it was a good opportunity to check another item off my to-do list.

I got back on the metro (also good, because I needed to use up my remaining metro passes; by the time I left I only had two rides left and it expired that day, so it was almost perfect) and headed to the Arc de Triomf, where we had gone the very first night when they took us on that walking tour, and then walked under it to the Ciudadela Park. It's one of the few large green spaces in Barcelona and it really is huge.  I walked around for awhile, saw some cute baby geese in the pond (where you can rent a paddleboat!) and just wandered until it started to get dark. It was a nice way to spend some time and it was still a really nice evening. I got back to the apartment and still no one was there for awhile, but close to dinnertime they started to file in. That night was our last family dinner, so afterwards we got a family picture (minus Juan Jr., we had forgotten to get one before he left for Milan :( ) and Juan Sr. took a video of us saying goodbye with his iPad. We exchanged email addresses and all that and then that night we said goodbye to Helen since she had a really early flight the next morning. It was pretty sad, she had been so kind to us, even with the unexpected turn of events with Juan's accident. She never forgot about us, there was always food on the table, and she even took care of us when we were both sick even though she was still taking care of Juan. Any future host students they have are so lucky to be with that family, I know Cara and I certainly felt that way, and I'll miss them so hopefully if I ever do return to Barcelona, I'll be able to see them again.

Tuesday morning Cara and I got up and decided to make one more visit to Park Guell (also on my list, since we went there like the very first week and vowed to return) in case we had missed anything the first time we went, and really, how often in life do you live within walking distance of a Gaudi masterpiece? We had to take advantage of that one more time. It was even more crowded than Casa Batllo had been, so we were really glad we had seen most of it on our first visit. We just walked around a little in the areas we hadn't spent much time in and visited the gift shop. We weren't there for long, but I felt like it was still worthwhile. After that we headed to CIEE for a "Farewell Workshop" where they tried to prepare us to go home and gave us pizza and we did some cheesy little activities, but it was nice to see all my classmates since it had just recently hit me that I won't be seeing them every day anymore. We were apparently one of the bigger groups they've had, but there were still only 20-something of us, and as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, we really did become like a little family. I feel like that's just bound to happen when you go through an experience like that with other people; they understand and so you bond with them. After the workshop, a few of us were still hungry so we went and got tapas at a really great place that Cara and some of the others had been to before, but it was my first time.  We got to sit outside, on the "terazza" so it was fun. That was one thing I hadn't put on my list, but I hadn't done it until then and then I was happy that I had gotten a chance to because almost every restaurant has one and they're always packed with locals. After my half of the group finished our tapas, we parted ways with the other half for a trip to our favorite candy store, Happy Pills. They're so fun! I decided I should franchise one in the states and put it right on a college campus.  I'm not sure I've described them before: they're these little, all white shops, with the candy arranged in rainbow order on one wall, and there are different containers you can choose to fill, or you can get a bag and do it by weight, and you just put on a glove and choose all the candy you want! It's a great time.

I ate my candy on the way back to the apartment, where Cara and I then began the packing process, which is a lengthy one. I had more than enough space, but I was worried about weight. I brought my parents home two bottles of wine as a gift from our wine-tasting trip, and I really hope they like them, because they caused most of the problem, haha. After I gave my parents their gift, my dad asked if it was even legal for me to transport them since I'm legal in Spain, but not here. I have no idea. But I made it, so whatever haha. And they didn't break, either, which I was super worried about the entire time I was flying. So anyways, I packed the best I could for the moment, and then it was time to leave for our farewell party. It was pretty fun, we got food and got to watch a slide show of both our pictures and pictures that the staff had been sneakily taking all semester (including lots of sleeping shots, I was in one of them too).  Our professors were there, so we got to say goodbye to them as well as to all our classmates. It was really nostalgic and sad watching the slide show and there were some tears as we all said goodbye to each other. I really hope we can somehow all get together in the future, even though we're from all over the States. I'd be willing to travel for a reunion, but really the majority of us are from Minnesota, so everyone else should come here ;).

Wednesday was another pretty chill day, which I was glad about. I didn't want my last few days to be hectic. We got up and went back to CIEE just quickly, so I could donate my Spanish phone, hair dryer, and hair straightener and leave my unused architecture supplies in the studio for future students. Afterwards Cara and I went to Bar Mandri, up close to where we live, for patatas bravas, which are a typical tapa, but for which Bar Mandri is particularly known. Patatas bravas are just fried potato cubes with a allioli (spelling?) and some kind of spicy ketchup sauce, so really the only difference between places is the sauce, but Bar Mandri's really was the best I had while I was in Spain. After that, Cara went to have coffee with a friend of Juan's she had met, but I didn't know him well so I decided to go check off the final thing on my list: the Labyrinth park. It was really neat. The park was beautiful and the actual labyrinth part was fun. I felt like I was either in Alice in Wonderland or the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter. Both things that made my little nerd brain quite happy :). After I was done at the park, I wandered around a little near our home metro stop and bought myself a picture frame so that I can print out our host family photo and put it there :). I had lots of souvenirs from lots of places, but it took until the day before I left to get one from Barcelona.  That night we had dinner with just Juan Sr. He ordered pizza and we watched the Barca game, it was a good last night.  Then we finished packing, I weighed my suitcase to be sure, we said goodbye to our host dad and left our keys on the kitchen table, and it was off to bed so we could be up bright and early the next morning to hail a taxi to the airport.

It was so surreal leaving after all that time. We got up and had no trouble getting a taxi, we were interrogated about our bags in the check-in line, but had been warned about this by Cara's parents, who had just left the week before.  Luckily, my bag was under the weight limit. I actually had a few kilos to spare and wanted to ask if I could rearrange some things because my two carry-ons were unbelievably heavy. Anyways, we were pretty early and we knew Juan would actually be flying in from Milan soon, so we waited outside security for him and finally got a picture with our host brother :). We met up with another friend from our program who was on our same flight to Newark and we all went through security. We got some food to try to use up our remaining euros and then went to the gate to wait. I was so happy to be on a real airline again after all my budget traveling. We boarded in sections instead of all at once and it was great.   They fed us lunch almost right away, which was odd seeing as it wasn't lunchtime in either Barcelona or Newark, but it was pretty good. Then I slept for awhile, read for awhile, watched two movies, then they gave us a snack. I read a little more and then the 9 hour flight was done. It was cool because on the plane everyone had their own little tv where you could watch movies and stuff and it was completely free, just like on my long flight on my way to Barcelona. And again they had the flight information option where your screen would show things like where we were on a map as we were flying, the position of the sun on the earth, the ground speed, the outside temperature, and of course the amount of time and miles remaining. I found it quite amusing and really didn't mind the long flight. I stayed entertained.

When we landed in Newark, however, things got stressful. I had 90 minutes until my flight left for Minneapolis. In that amount of time, I: deplaned, went through passport check, got my bag, went through customs, rechecked my bag, took a tram to my terminal, and went back though security. I made it literally as they were calling my boarding group. It's a good thing customs and security went smoothly, or I may not have made it.  Then when I got on the plane, I realized it was the smallest plane ever built and one of my bags didn't even fit in the overheard compartment or under my seat, so I had to take my computer out and put that under the seat instead. Then it fit above so it was all okay. That was a pretty quick flight compared to the first one and I arrived in Minneapolis around 5:30 to chilly, rainy weather. Lovely. I met my parents at the baggage claim and then we went and got dinner at Granite City, which is one of my favorite restaurants :). Then came the drive home, and when I got there I unpacked just enough to hand out gifts before going to bed.

The next morning I got up and unpacked and then at noon I had a phone interview for an internship this summer in Minneapolis making 3D computer models for a company that installs solar panels. It went really well and they offered me the internship :). It's unpaid, but I think it'll be a good experience and I'm happy about it. I also found out that I got the secretary position on the board of AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students) for next year :). So it was a good start back, even if it was snowing. I got to see Jake that day finally :). That night we went and saw our old high school's Spring musical, Little Shop of Horrors. Emma's boyfriend was the lead role :). It was really good, I thought, and he was just perfect for the part, so that was fun.  Saturday I spent the morning looking into grad schools, which is really weird, and then I went with Jake to his little cousin's birthday party where I was reunited with his entire extended family (somewhat overwhelming). Afterwards I finally got to go see the Hunger Games movie!! I'd been waiting for almost a month and I was so excited. I thought they did a really good job, I loved it. At this point, it was still snowing. Lovely Minnesota weather, as always.  And then yesterday I looked into grad schools some more and watched Frozen Planet until Jake came over.

Technically that's the end of the week, but I suppose it's worth mentioning that then this morning I started the day with wisdom tooth surgery. I was quite nervous, never having been put to sleep before. I didn't look once at the IV because it freaks me out, and it was really weird how fast I was out. The next thing I knew I was awake and they were transferring me to a chair, which was difficult considering how dizzy I was, and there was something large in my mouth preventing me from talking very well (along with the numbness, that didn't help either; turns out it was gauze, who knew?) It was a strange experience to say the least. I got home, had a smoothie, went to sleep, had some pudding, went back to sleep. Rough life. Although it's not like it's comfortable. My face is huge, I look like a chipmunk, and I'm pretty sore. So that's fun. Hopefully I'll feel a little better tomorrow. Either way, it was a good excuse to do nothing and take the time to write my blog. My very last blog. I hope to now include these in a scrapbook somehow. Thanks for coming along for the ride and I hope you enjoyed it :). Adios!