there's only one place left I wanna go... HOME!

I'm going home, back to the place where I belong...

It's funny... we've come full circle here in Spain. We are leaving just as we started.. but let me start from the beginning. :)

This past week has been a week of "good-byes". Our first good-bye was Thursday night when we were in Paris. Billy dropped us off out our hotel, and we hugged him and said, "See you tomorrow!" Well, we never ended up seeing him the next day due to cell phone malfunctions, and he was absent from class this week, so that was our final good-bye to him. I still remember when we first contacted Billy back in October or November. He'd "poke" me on facebook a lot, and I was really bad at never responding to his emails. The first time we met Billy in person was as we were walking across campus (wut da fish??), and it was totally unplanned. He was just strolling along going to class, and there we were! The next day we learned that we had a class with him, and the fun developed from there.. I'll never forget Billy showing us how to use our stove and bringing us wine to drink and teaching me how to be real gangsta! My ebonics skills have improved too, especially in writing! Haha. Thanks, Chrilly! :)













Our next round of good-byes involved classes. There were two classes over here that I absolutely loved: DDM and IMP! To be honest, I couldn't really tell you what either of those stands for (Well, maybe IMP.. but not DDM), and I'm not really sure why I took them because they don't apply to my major in any way, but the content of the class isn't what I loved, the people were! The picture on the left represents my IMP class. The little guy in the front with us was our teacher, Diego! Diego's pretty much the nicest little man alive. He goes swimming like every day and is entirely environmentally conscious, so he bikes everywhere. At one point, he asked me to marry him, although unfortunately, he is already married... :) Jan, or Honza, is the guy directly behind me; he's from the Czech Republic. He's very work-oriented, and he was the leader of our team. He definitely kept us on track.. and kept us passing. I'll miss Jan! I'll also miss Anna, the other girl in the picture besides Emily and me. She was also on our team (as was Billy), and she was sooo sweet. She's from Poland, and she was always willing to help us and talk about silly stuff that didn't relate to IMP at all. :) Finally, the picture on the right is of David, our DDM professor. If David was younger and not my teacher, he'd be like my dream boy. :) He's nerdy and fun and makes it impossible for you to be unhappy in his presence! And he's really patient and kind. He told us all kinds of funny stories about when he studied in the U.S. in high school. He had problems driving, and he didn't know that words like "shit" were considered bad (or as he called them "ugly words), so he went around screaming them happily. :) Oh, David... I wish every teacher was like him!!!


The hardest good-bye of all, though, came on Thursday when we had to say good-bye to the lady we work for, Maria, and her daughter, Natalia. Without a doubt, these people have become our adoptive family here in Spain! Maria answers our questions, feeds us food, and worries about us like any mom worries about their children, and Nat, too, is also patient with our million questions. She even reassures us about how we are going to pass our classes! :) We started out going to their house to help Nat with English (She doesn't even need help! She's awesome at it!), and these people ended up helping us out WAY more than we helped them! I can't begin to express my gratitude for them. I must admit, though, the last day of "tutoring" was probably one of the most fun. Natalia showed us some Spanish music on youtube, and then she wanted us to explain to her what some lyrics of American songs meant. For example, you may have heard the song "My Humps" by Blacked Eyed Peas. Basically, it's a song about "junk in the trunk" and "lovely lady humps", so we had to teach this sweet little 15 year old girl (and her mom!! Maria was in the room!) what these things meant. It was hilarious! Emily and I did learn to say "pelvic thrust" in Spanish.. I'm sure that'll really be useful to me in the future! ;) Emily and I both really hope that Nat decides to come to the U.S. sometime soon. If not, I am most definitely visiting them when I return to Valencia! I miss them already.

After work on Thursday Emily and I decided to throw ourselves a "going away party", which consisted of going to Pizza Hut! We also celebrated our Spanish language final being OVER!! We decided to order the "New Yorker" because we're Americans. However, the waitress informed us they didn't make it in 2 people pizzas.. just 4.. so we go the 4 person pizza, and we dominated that thing! Haha :)

My last Friday in Valencia was rather uneventful. We had to go meet with a teacher at UPV early in the morning, and then I attempted to lay on the roof and sunbathe (I'm going to miss that roof so much!), but it got really cold on me. Boo! Emily and I did watch a million episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, though! Mi favorito! :)

Saturday was the exact opposite of Friday: it was VERY eventful! The duenas (that's landlord en espanol) were going to come aruond 10am, so we woke up early. Actually, I rolled out of bed and didn't put real clothes on or brush my teeth for them, but whatever.. anyway, they were coming to "close" on our apartment. They had told us that we would have to stay until the middle of June even though we had asked to leave early because they couldn't find anyone to rent it. However, I was reading in the contract one night and saw where it said we COULD move out if we told them 30 days in advance, so Emily and I were prepared to ask them about it. When they showed up (they're two sisters), they once again explained how we had signed up until the end of June but they'd be nice and let us leave in mid-June. They were going to pay our half month's rent with half of the deposit we had given them in February and then give us the other half. Well, when we brought up the issue of how we had told them in April we wanted to move out early they sort of ignored it.. and then we brought it up again.. and they ignored it again. Finally, one of them said she was confused because she knew we weren't actually going HOME until after June 1, so she thought we would want to stay longer. We then reminded them that we had told them we could stay with a friend, and they said there was a difference in languages that they didn't comprehend. I think they tried to make us feel a bit guilty by saying gained money for us would be lost money for them, but we held strong, and we reminded them that in April we said we'd move out in the end of May because it'd be easier for them to rent for an entire month instead of just half of one. They finally agreed but told us we would have to move out that day, and so our eventful day began..

As soon as they left, we started pulling out suitcases and cramming stuff in. As it turns out, I have a lot more CRAP now than I did when I first came over here, and thus, space was limited. I was arranging and rearranging and cramming things in to the tiniest places.. and then when I thought the suitcase was full, I found more space and crammed more in. It was a tedious process, but in the end I somehow miraculously got everything to fit, and Emily did too! Unfortunately, that process took up the majority of the day, except for the small bit of time where we ate dinner (pasta! The first and now last meal we had in the piso.) and the duenas were going to return at 7pm, and we still had to clean! I won't go in to too many details about our stove, but let me just say that it was disgusting, and the only way the filth came off was to scrape it with a knife.. so disgusting.. the bathroom sink was also rather nasty, but a sponge worked on it! :) I tend to think I'm a fairly clean person, but when you live in an old apartment that seems dirty no matter how much you clean it, you start to not care as much.. this habit will definitely not be one I continue in the US of A! Besides general cleaning, we had boxes (yes, boxes) full of trash. We made one trip after another up and down the stairs with trash, and we pretty much filled up the dumpster outside -- yay, illegal trash dumping! We finished just in time! As soon as we got the last bit of trash down and our suitcases down the stairs, the duenas showed up! She was actually really nice to us as she finished up all the loose ends and gave us our deposit back. I'm very thankful that these two women decided to rent to two silly American girls! The little piso will always hold a piece of my heart. It may have been old and ghetto, but it was ours, and it was always nice to return to after a long weekend of traveling... :) Good-bye, piso! You will be missed, too!

After we finished up all the paper work of the piso, we had Maria call a cab for us to transport us and our stuff from the piso to Abril's, where we would be staying. Unfortunately, when the cab showed up, we realized that all of our stuff would not fit in the car WITH us! Therefore, I took the majority of the stuff in the cab with me, and Emily got the pleasure of lugging two large suitcases to the metro. The cab driver had been a bit mean with us at first when he saw all of our stuff and didn't understand why we hadn't called two cabs, but he turned out to be rather nice. He talked to me about school and informed me I should get a Spanish boyfriend, and he even helped me unload all of my stuff at the metro stop where I waited for Emily. As I waited, a million people walked by. They probably thought I had been evicted from my home or something.. nope, not quite! :) Emily made her way to the metro stop, and we called Abril and asked her to help us. The sweet person that she is came right away! Unfortunately, even with a third person we couldn't get it all out once, so I continued to sit at the metro stuff while they took part of our luggage..

I, too, eventually made my way to Abril's! We are so very thankful for our sweet friend. She has been so accomodating to us! One of her roommates has been gone, so we have pretty much taken over her room, and Abril keeps telling us that "her home is our home"! Emily and I both feel so fortunate to have met her.

On Sunday Emily and I woke up early for church in Valencia. If you remember, we also went to church on our first Sunday here. However, this time we went to an evangelical church that was entirely in Spanish. It was SUCH an incredible experience, and I wonder now why we didn't do more of it this semester! It felt like I was back in the FCOG (That's First Church of God, for you non-Pryorites :)) with worship music and how the service was laid out, except it was all in Spanish. I think the Spanish aspect made it an even better experience, even if there are parts I didn't quite fully understand. It's amazing to me how people who speak entirely different languages can still feel the Love of our Father in the same manner. His Love doesn't require any sort of language at all; that is AWESOME! Everyone at the church was also really nice. As we were leaving the service, one guy in particular ran after us and asked us if it was our first time to be there. When we said yes, he gave us all sorts of information about services; there was even one for young adults. I was so blessed by the entire experience!

We attempted to eat at Subway after church, but it wasn't open yet, so we asked these security guards of the mall when it would open, and they said they didn't have water so they wouldn't be opening that day. We were sad! I settled on McDonald's, though, and Emily got Spain's version of Panera. As we sat down to eat, we noticed that Subway was opening! Darn security guards! They lied to us!!

Later in the afternoon made up for our disappointment, though.. we ventured down to Plaza de la Virgen, which, if you remember right, is also how we started our trip the first weekend we were in Valencia! We even passed Center Valencia Youth Hostel along the way! Oh, what memories... it seems like we were there soo long ago! We discovered the the Plaza is MUCH more exciting when it's warm outside! It was bustling with people, and we found booth after booth full of fun ceramics and tiles! I didn't allow myself to buy anything, though, because I seriously have NO room in my suitcases. Still, it was fun to see some Valencian ceramics!

The fun for Sunday sort of ended there.. we had to study that night. :( Spanish Regional Economy is just not exciting when compared to Spanish Ceramics or church. Sadly, that is pretty much all we did on Monday, too. When last night rolled around I was SOOOO tired of looking at my notes; I just wanted it to be done with! Therefore, when Tuesday morning rolled around and it was time for my last test, I met it with mixed emotions: I was nervous, but I was ready to get it over with! Upon arriving to UPV, I found that their system for placing people into rooms for testing SUCKS! There was a small herd of people crowded in the middle of the hallway, and they would call people's names and put them in rooms for the test, but no one could hear, and the rooms filled up. It was chaotic! I'm not sure how I did on the test, but we'll worry about that at a later date..

Emily and I succeeded in having Subway for lunch, and then we went to the beach.. It was so nice to lay there and fall asleep :). I will miss living 5 minutes from the beach! Really, I will miss Valencia as a whole. A little piece of my heart will always belong here. It's been so welcoming to me these past few months, and I have so many good memories here..

However, there are things that I REALLY miss about home. In no particular order, I miss having a good cell phone, driving my little Honda whenever and wherever I want, sleeping with a plethora of pillows every night, having a working shower with hot water always, Taco Bell, my whole family, milk and cookie night with the 104 gang and friends, snow days, seeing the "Welcome to Pryor: A Town for Every Season" sign when pulling into Pryor on I-44, having Ashley wake me up in the mornings, hanging out with Aaron and Krissy, friends from high school, Wednesday night Ghost Hunter marathons, reading books in English for fun, good hair days, watching TV and eating popcorn late at night with my dad, falling asleep with my cat, the ten minute walk to Strong being the longest walk to class I have, random late night trips to Steak 'N Shake, talking to Jessica late at night about stupid but fun stuff really late at night when we should have been sleeping, my church and Bible study, being the hunchback of Scholars with H, watching "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" all too much, the US dollar equaling a dollar, being able to call my mom as I walk back from class, having a dryer and microwave, my desktop, complaining about Beardsley with Rach, peeing with the door open and continuing to have normal conversations while doing so, the shower radio!, Tuesday and Thursday lunches with Jered, screaming "KAAAAAATE" for no reason, the chef statue and all its glory, being able to steal things from Garst, a glass of cranapple before bed, college friends in general, non-creepy boys who do not have mullets OR man purses, Oprah at 4 on Fridays, parties on the futon, fighting for parking spots near Scholars, STRAIGHT HAIR (arrggh!), red meat, options in shoes, being in tune with the world and not having to rely solely on cnn.com for news, NOT having a time difference, and so much more..

Still, there's so much I will miss when I leave Spain.. being able to talk and knowing that the majority of people can't understand a word I'm saying, hearing Spanish being spoken (especially by little kids! It's the cutest thing ever. Yes, ever, Emily. EVER.), traveling to other COUNTRIES on the weekends, the spontaneous actions that occur here, smart cars, public transportation (especially how cheap it is), being surrounded by history!, being able to be the "stupid American" and not caring, living by the philosophy of "Oh well! I don't care what I do! I'm never going to see these people again!", not caring what I look like ever :o), always splitting things so equally with Emily, Spanish radio stations, talking American politics with foreigners, seeing pretty fountains everywhere, living two minutes from the beach, the silly ghetto apartment and all its glory (especially the one-legged Jesus who hopped on water), Maria and Nat, discovering beautiful differences between cultures, the cute little, old Spanish couples who get all dressed up and stroll through the streets hand in hand (As I told Emily one time, I WANT ONE! Not an old man.. but a boy who still wants to hold hands when we're 80 :)), tortilla espanoles, the extremely nice and helpful people everywhere, taking naps on the roof, creating a million and two inside jokes with the Em Tram, fresh fruit markets, fajita night in the piso!, ceramics, narrow streets, train rides across beautiful countryside, the little old man who has a store near us, hearing "La Cadena" on the metro, open-minded people, Spanish, the vacation from life in general, and sooo much more...

It's quickly approaching the time for me to head to the airport and head HOME... I had hoped to make this post a bit of a reflect, reminiscent collage of sorts, but I'm running low on time, so you can expect that to happen once I'm back on U.S. soil. :) For now, I am heading to the airport one last time, and I'll be landing in the great state of OK tomorrow around 5pm. I have had an incredible 5 months here, and while I'm not quite ready to leave, I AM ready to be home! Thanks to all those who have kept up with my "adventure" these past few months! I can't wait to see you all. I don't know what I would have done without you. Love you all! My next post will be from the US of A!! :) Hasta luego, Valencia! I will return to you one day, but until then... un beso muy, muy, MUY grande!

P.S. To everyone who thought Emily and I would hate each other after 5 months.... we defied the odds! We don't. :) I don't know what I would have done without her at certain times this semester. I love you, Em (and I'll even love you when you can't talk!)! Thanks for the most amazing semester of my life!!!!! You're the BPE plus some! White or chocolate?

...where your love has always been enough for me.