The Last Day in Spain

Day 167: 2/15/09

The last day of my Spanish exchange was a success. Belén woke me up at 11:30. I was a bit confused about this at first, but then she explained why she was waking me up. We were going to a restaurant, and we were going to go there by ship. This seemed pretty cool. Vicente was busy, Ana had to study, Marta was still in Vigo, and Belén doesn’t like ships, so María picked up Tito and we all drove to the port, where Javier (Belén’s brother) was waiting for us in the boat. It was a nice day today, so it was perfect for riding in a boat. Except I didn’t ride in the boat. Javier had me drive the boat. I’ve never driven a boat before. I can count the number of times on one hand that I have been on a boat, but I found driving it surprisingly easy. Just like a sluggish car. It was probably about a 30 minute ride, and then we arrived at a restaurant, where more of the family was waiting for use. I got Calamaries in ink because that sounded good. Then I drove back, and we all went to Javier’s house to hang out for a bit. I ended up playing Mario Kart with Marina for a little while. I said goodbye to Javier and his family.

María then took Tito and I back to Tito’s house, where Tito showed me his collection of worldly things that he has collected over the years. He has trinkets and paintings from all over the world, and it was pretty cool to see a bunch of authentic things from as far away as Nepal or Bali. I marveled at his trinkets for a bit, and then we went back to the house. I have pictures of everything, from Lugo and today, here. At the house, I packed my last things, as there were still some clothes that had been in the wash. I’ve got my two checked bags packed, but I still have to pack my carry-on. I then spent some time with the family. I haven’t said goodbye to them yet, as I will see all of them in the morning. I will miss the family, and it will be bittersweet to say goodbye to them because they are good people, but I’m very happy to be returning to the US. Also, I know that I will keep in touch with them for a long time, so I will see them again in the future. After about 40 hours of traveling and sightseeing in Frankfurt, I’ll arrive back in the US.

This is where I will end my blogging. While it’s tempting to write about my adventures in Frankfurt, chances are I will be seeing 90% of the people that I write this blog for within a week, and then I can explain all of my stories in much more detail. Blogging actually takes up a lot of time, and I plan on spending that time doing something more productive in the US, but I don’t know what. My whole purpose of writing this blog was to let everyone know what I’m doing in Spain. I’ll be back in the US, returning to a normal life, so chances are I won’t be blogging for a while. Here are some stats from the blog:

140 posts—and I’ve been here 167 days

172 single spaced pages in Word

122, 968 words (as of writing this)

512, 603 characters

6551 paragraphs

That’s a lot of writing I did over the past 5 ½ months, and it’s all for you, the people who read my blog, so you could see what I was up to during my time in Spain. I love you all. Peace.