26 May 2011

It has taken me forever to get this entry up and I am sorry about that. After my London trip, which was my last blog entry, I went to Venice with Hannah for literally about two days, but it was probably one of the most laid back trips I have been on. Even though I had bought a travel guide for the city, we just ditched it and decided on our one whole day to wander around the city and see what we could find. Venice is a maze. Literally. Quite a few times, we found ourselves going in circles, finding dead ends at either a wall or heck, even the water. We did get lost for about an hour past the Plaza San Marco trying to get our bearings. Thank God we did because we could not find where we were on the map, but Hannah managed to figure it out. We ended up not really going into anything, but on Saturday morning, before we were leaving, the line outside the Basilica was huge and we had our stuff with us, so we figured not to mess with our chances on that one. Instead we thoroughly enjoyed our time there just seeing the beauty of Venice, eating home cooked pasta by the hostel kids, Italian pizza and even gelati. It was a nice, relaxing two days considering I generally like to have a plan but instead decided to just go with it.

Since then, I have completed my studies at the university which means I have had about a week and a half of summer vacation in Spain. I have gone to the beach a few times, staid in and read quite a bit, and kept Rachel company on her last day here since she ended up leaving earlier than planned. During this time, we also had new doors put into the apartment which turned out to be an eventful three days and one really stressed Maria. There was sawdust everywhere and Maria is a bit of a neat freak, but seeing as she has been an ama de casa for goodness knows how many years, this is to be expected. It is her job, her comfort, so to see her house in a state of chaos was a little stressful for her. Now though, we have beautiful doors. I started packing last week after watching Rachel's struggles, and I am glad I tried it out because I might not have been able to get everything to fit. So, I have now reworked everything and should be ok. Tomorrow is the last day I have in Alicante, and part of that will be spent in the University area, eating a fairwell lunch with the other students in the program, turning in the cell phone I have been more attached to than I probably should have been, and locating a shirt that I want to remember my time at the university. Sadly, my flight is at the awful hour of 7am on Saturday, so I have to be up and have a taxi at the house by around 4:45. That will be a rough, loooooong day as I make my way homeward.

Do I have any regrets from this time abroad? Yes, but not with what I have done, because even in my worst experiences, my toughest times, I came out of it with some lesson learned about myself, the world, or life. My regret is that I did not spend enough time enjoying Spain itself. I had wanted to go to Barcelona, and would still like to, and I have heard that the north of Spain is beautiful too. And I fell in love with Andalucia, so I hope to go back there sometime. I never really left Alicante, or explored what was near because I was always saving money to spend on my bigger trips, so I never went to Elche or any of the other close communities. But, I did enjoy what I had the time to see, and I have lists of things for my next time I am out here, if there is a next time, which I hope there is. I am thankful for the experience, as it has taught me about myself, about others from my country and from Europe. Perhaps I am not so enamored with Europe as I had been, but it still a continent to admire. I hope to explore more of it, as well as South America after graduate school perhaps. I definitely believe that my horizons have broadened, as cliche as that sounds. So, adiós, hasta luego, y buena suerte with all that lies ahead for you.