I went home early, under the circumstances, and was able to spend a month and a half at home with family and friends. It was so wonderful to be home, with my mommy and daddy. It felt like I had just come home from being at App for a few months, not that I had just come home from a few months in Europe. It was a nice feeling though. I ate two corn dogs with ranch before passing out, HALLELUJAH!
The first two weeks I was home, I spent on my couch, eating Pepperidge Farm cookies and watching Frasier. It was SO GREAT. I had friends coming in and out of my house almost the whole time I was home. I got to see all my bestest friends, Bri, Amanda K, Briana, Josie, Michelle, Javier, Alissa, Rob, Chris, Kristin, Caitlin, Anna, Emily, Shaheen and more! It was great being able to catch up, I miss you allllll. I also went to Ohio for Christmas and got to meet my 4 new baby cousins! One is my first cousin, Daniel, and the other three are my cousin's kids, Elle, Kaelyn and Levi, they are all so precious! Eeeek! Baby fever much? No worries, they aren't coming for another 7-10 years.
I spent New Year's in Winston-Salem with Leah, one of my friends who had been studying in Sevilla from App. We ate our 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of 2011. Its a Spanish tradition that is supposed to bring you good luck in the new year. We had to google how to peel them though, it was a fun time. We drank champagne, played with Tony (Leah's Great Pyrenees pup) and had her brother drive us to Cookout at like, 2am for corn dogs and french fries. Mommy and daddy and I got to spend lots of time together the last week I was home. It was a lovely break.
My flight back to Europe left on January 16 around 8pm from Charlotte. This time around, I flew into Paris. I spent a week in France, visiting my friends there. I took a train first to Angers (about an two and a half hours south of Paris) to see my friend Michelle who is studying there from App for the semester. We shared her little twin bed and I had the most interesting bathroom experience to date. Shower, sink and toilet all in the same, tiny little space. So efficient, so European.
I have two french friends who live in Angers and studied at App for a semester. Anatolle, aka Borracho!, studied at App Spring 2010 (same as my friend Niki), and Thomas studied there the next semester (Fall 2010). It was awesome hanging out with them! We went to an irish pub, drank hot wine, ate amazing Chinese food, went to a party on a boat (I'm at Kinko's straight making copies), went to the Galleries Lafayette (GREAT shopping). Michelle and I found this great authentic French restaurant and after trying to decipher the menu we had a lovely, lovely meal. I had a french sausage and Michelle had some beef skewer thing and CHEESE for dessert. NOM NOM. Our waiter was hilarious too, hahaha, he reminded me of Sebastian from the Little Mermaid (cliche? perhaps).
After three days in Angers, I headed to Lyon, the third largest city in France (after Paris and Marseilles) to see my FRENCHY FRY, Johanne. Of course I brought a crap ton of clothes back with me, even though I told myself I wouldn't. So it was kind of a work out walking to Johanne's apartment from the train station, but it was humorous. Johanne showed me all the sites and we had a great view of the city. I had french onion soup in Lyon, which was incredible, and more cheese, and home made crepes (SO GOOD). She spoils me. Johanne is getting ready to go back to the US for an internship that she got in BOONE. I'm so excited. The longest period of time we have spent apart has been, 5 months, I think? Since she left Boone in May of last year, I have seen her 3 times. We don't know what we are going to do when we can't see each other every few months... ha! After two days in Lyon, I took a train to Marseilles and a flight back to Sevilla. One thing to remember about France, "A pastry a day, keeps the doctor away!"
I got into Sevilla around midnight on Sunday, Carmen and Jose (her boyfriend) came and picked me up at the airport. I was so happy to see them again! We took a little drive to the river before heading back to the apartment. I'm happy to be back in Spain, I've missed it. My Spanish has gotten a lot better too, I was shocked! I'm much more confident now with speaking and just being in Spain. Its a great feeling. I have a great schedule this semester, I'm taking 5 classes again but they all seem really interesting. I'm reading El Quijote for my literature class, aaccckkkk! Its going to be a lot of work, but I'm excited. I still have all my final exams from last semester to take, I'm going to try to get those out of the way by the middle of February.
I think I've chewed your ear off long enough for one post... I'll write again soon, don't worry.
Oh! And, tomorrow is my birthday! I'm turning 21!!!! So anti-climatic here... Oh well. I'm having a party tonight at my apartment with a few friends, it should be lovely.
Un abrazote!
PS- I'm an official resident of Spain, and consequently, the European Union #winning
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