End of my Madrid Program :(

So yesterday (May 14th) was the last official day of my program (ie my finals are now over!!!!). Some people took the group flight back to the US bright and early this morning. I still have a couple weeks left in Europe so I'm not that sad just yet (though it was very sad to see them go!)

I will still be updating the blog on the adventures I have in the coming weeks, though for 16 days I am living out of my backpack with limited access to computers (or showers for that matter) so from May 21st to June 6th I probably will not be posting any new things (maybe a short blurb? but no photos).

Anyway! Wrapping up the studying part...

Madrid is the perfect city for what I wanted to do: improve my Spanish (sorry Barcelona, Catalan not high on my list!), live in a big city (great nightlife and easier/cheap travel), experience Europe and just mix it up from my Seattle/Spokane lifestyle. I would recommend Madrid to anybody, hands down.

And USAC (University Study Abroad Consortium) was a good choice too... I'm not going to lie, I chose it because it was the least expensive, but that way I had more $ to travel. The staff here are amazing and the group I was with was sooo great. The program is small (30 something? maybe?) so you are still encouraged to meet new people... SMALL classes (which I usually love but it gets hard when you have a Spanish Narrative class with two other people and one of them never shows up!)

And I lived in a homestay- easily one of the best parts about Madrid; I really lucked out with my host family. My host "mom" (they are 30) is so sweet and girls' nights with her have been awesome. And my host dad is really cool too; super into Atletico Madrid and constantly teaching me new stuff about Madrid and Spain.

Some stuff I will miss about Madrid:

-The people (esp. my host family and my friends in the program)

- The schedule. It didn't actually take that much effort to fall into the routine (I don't sleep that much in the States, either :)) I will definitely miss dinner at 10pm, getting to the bars at 1am, clubs at 3am, getting home at 6 or later... but I don't think Spokane would be able to handle that lifestyle.

-Traveling: in Spokane you can't catch an hour long flight to Barcelona, Granada, Valencia, or take a longer trip to London, Paris, Lisbon, Morocco... and flying is relatively cheap (like I said, 20euros total for Valencia flying).

-Cultural differences/awkward confusions. Like the fact that the Americans STILL insist on getting "minis" (which are the huge sizes of drinks) for each person, rather than sharing them like the Madrileños do. Also, yesterday when making brownies for my host mom's birthday and needed to borrow an egg, my host dad said they only had fresh eggs, no hard-boiled, sorry.

-The excuse "Well when else am I going to do it?". Sometimes when I am on the border about doing something (usually cuz it costs $) I think "when else am I going to be in Barcelona/ Paris/ Madrid/ London, etc., etc.?". This is awesome but not the most financially responsible.

-Late night walks. Admittedly, this is something I do in Spokane, but I always have to be super vigilant and carry my pepper spray. Here there are ALWAYS people at between midnight and 6am, so I feel more safe (safety in numbers and all!)

-Rotating languages. The fact that I speak English, French and Spanish fairly well makes for much more interesting times (and actually I can kind of understand Catalan and Portuguese, plus some German from years of relatively unsuccessful Saturday German school). But Morocco would've been hard without my French, and I can help out a lot of tourists because usually we can find a language in common. American people are infamous for not learning other languages. Also last night when my friend Jess and I were walking to a bar a French guy behind us was petting her hair and saying slightly weird/gross things in French and so, obviously, she was upset, and I got do to a super dramatic 180o and admonish him in French. But then the creeper was super excited that I spoke French so I had to give a fake name, fake place of origin, etc. But actually on that note...

-Fake names. They get hard to keep track of (when I'm "Kira" I'm from California, when I'm "Juliet" I'm from Canada, etc.) but they come in handy when I'm in a squeeze. Like everyone says, you don't meet the good guys in clubs and bars.

-Adventures of newness. I went to a gay club last night (if you are in Madrid, check it out: Ohm"), and you know what? Probably one of my favorite clubs of all time. Better music and oh yeah, there was a guy in a tank top playing a violin. (there were a LOT of guys in tank tops. But it didn't hurt that I have never seen that many completely ripped guys in one place- those guys have the most amazing muscles/builds.) And this might sound bad but having a gay guy tell you that you are beautiful while passing you in a club makes me feel 2314543632 times better than when a straight one does. Cuz the gay guy probably actually means it, and has no prerogative ;) And!!! It's the only club where there was no line for the girls' bathroom, but a huge one for the guys'.

Some stuff I am really excited to go home to:

-People. Obviously. I miss my family and friends so much!

-Food! Spanish food is good and all but my favorite foods are Thai, Indian and Vietnamese, all of which are sorely lacking in Madrid (and a majority of Europe? good Indian food in London but...) And BUBBLE TEA. I know I have already freaked out about this on other posts but seriously, lack of bubble tea has affected my diet negatively- I've been eating gummi bears to compensate.

-Movie nights. I got to have a couple of them (Twilight in Barcelona with some Gonzaga friends, Pretty Woman in London with a friend from HS, and Enchanted with girls from my program here) but I will be stoked when we can watch movies on a TV instead of a laptop and have junk food ;)

-Gonzaga. I know this is cheesy but Gonzaga has really started to feel like home. The campus, even. I have spent my best days, longest nights and sunny afternoons with some amazing people over there... and I get to see some of them this summer! (for like a day but w/e)

-Ovens. I may not be a huge fan of cooking, but I do enjoy baking (usually from mix, yes mom I know, but sometimes from scratch!) and my host family doesn't have an oven (or a dryer for that matter). I miss that.

- My dog. She's pretty, and smells like home. (Actually I have missed the smells of home immensely.)

-Driving. I'm not one of those people who gets stressed out and likes to go for drives, but I still enjoy driving with friends, music, car-dancing, or just boring errand runs from time to time. Haven't been behind the wheel of a car since January...

-Classes in English. I missed both the classes part (yeah I'm a nerd) and the English part.

-Customer service. It kind of sucks that American waiters rely so much on tips to earn $, but I have gotten some HORRIBLE customer service here.

-My bed. There's a duvet waiting for me. And a pink stuffed elephant.

-Guilt-free texting. Every time I send a text here it's like, "oops! there goes another 12cents." I have free texting back home.

-The water (in Seattle). Both Madrid and Spokane are land-locked, so I get a little antsy to see the water sometimes.

-Good dancing music. I have started to legitimately hate house music. WHY do they not play Taio Cruz's "Break Your Heart" in clubs here? It was like that song was written with my dancing in mind.

To wrap up, I want to share something that Dr. (Eric) Schmidt, my Ethics professor at Gonzaga, shared with us (some teacher's lessons really do stick with you!)

He asked us what we would be doing with our summers (this was last year, right before I started my internship with the Department of Commerce), then asked why none of us were going to Europe to travel/ backpack. For most of it is was financial reasons (why spend tons of money when you could make a substantially less amount of money?) But then when we figured the overall cost (incl. opportunity cost), he essentially asked, "When you are my age, with a wife, (a kid? I don't remember if he has kids), a mortgage, a job, responsibilities, don't you think you would PAY that $ just to have the opportunity to backpack pack across Europe?" (I'm paraphrasing)

And I can honestly say that that class changed my life, because I'm not sure if I would have been as dead set on backpacking across Italy and Greece without him. I'm putting myself behind credits-wise (will be taking 23 credits next semester) because I can't take some classes over the summer. When my business advisor (yes, I have two advisors) seemed upset that I was putting myself behind and would be taking an advanced Management class while taking the Finance prerequisite, I essentially emailed him, "Thanks for your concerns, but I need to do this. I've decided that my backpacking trip is worth all the extra suffering I will endure next semester." (And he understood, God bless him.)

Backpacking in Europe is a life goal of mine, and something I feel can only be properly done in a certain time in your life (sorry if I am upsetting/offending anyone): before kids, before mortgages and "grown up responsibilities", preferably before age 26 so you can actually stay in the cool places in Germany (age limit at some hostels there... plus it is CREEPY when older people are bunking next to you for the night!) Already I've planned most of Italy and some of Greece and I am so excited to be having these adventures!!!! And I definitely plan on doing more backpacking type stuff later in the next coming years (though it will be no longer be subsidized by my parents... SOB!). My parents went to Eastern Europe on their honeymoon and that just sounds so much more fun and memorable then Hawaii ... (no offense to the people who went to Hawaii on their honeymoons!)

Moral of the story: Europe rocks, Madrid rocks, USAC rocks, and living out of my backpacking for 24 days (though again, 16 days I am not coming back to my "homebase" of Madrid, the first trip is to the Canaries) is definitely, with 100% certainty, going to kick serious butt ;)