La Última Semana

I know I’ve been backtracking a little with the blog posts since my very depressed one that I wrote in the airport…but I still wanted to write about my last week in Navalmoral.

The week was filled with goodbyes to all of my students, fellow teachers, private lesson families, and friends.  On Wednesday, I had my last classes at Zurbarán and made a cheesecake to bring in.  Everyone was so nice and I got so many wonderful presents.  I went to the gargantas that afternoon with Josemi and had a great time relaxing, swimming with the fish, and eating chips all afternoon.  Thursday, I celebrated my last jueves social by eating at my favorite restaurant and going out dancing.  Friday was a day filled with doing all of the little stuff (closing my bank account, buying last minute things, packing), going to lunch with the English department teachers, and eating my last kebab at Quetapa.  Saturday morning, I finished packing before Mamen and Oscar drove me to the bus station.  Saying goodbye was teeeeerrible.  Driving away from Navalmoral was so hard.  I had built a life there over the past year. I had made a whole new set of friends, of family. I had started with nothing and ended up with everything.  When I first started writing in this blog in the beginning of the year, I had hoped I would be sad to leave Spain, because that would mean that I had enjoyed my time there.  Well, I was more than sad, so I guess that meant I had REALLY enjoyed my time there.

Mi hermano mayor

Luckily, I had something waiting for me in Madrid.  My wonderful father had decided to give me an incredible gift as an “I’m proud of you” for the year.  He got me a room at the Hilton, near the Madrid airport.  I arrived to the bus station and immediately took a taxi to the hotel.  After checking in and figuring out how to use my room key to get the elevator to work, I was stunned at how cool my room was. Demasiado lujo! I was able to chill out in the (watch out!) air conditioning and go for a swim in the pool (that had about 435 buttons that controlled different things just asking to be pushed), and then I went to explore the airport side of Madrid.  After talking to friends and making sure I didn’t have to explore alone, we went on a long walk to a park (now my favorite in Madrid) and to the mall.  We hung around the mall for a few hours, eating 100 Monteditos, going in and out of shops, then (how appropriately) eating at Foster’s Hollywood American restaurant for my last supper.

It was so hard to make those elevators work...

After a year of hostels, I may as well have been Princess Kate.

A beautiful park.

Once back in my room, I watched a few movies, then went to sleep…knowing it was my last night sleeping in Spain for who knows how long.  In the morning, I got my stuff together, took the hotel shuttle to the airport, checked-in, and sobbed my way through security.  I had forgotten to take out my laptop, so the security lady, with a very concerned look, told me, “Please don’t cry.  It’s okay. You just need to take out the laptop and go through again.”  Oh lady, if only the laptop were the most of my concerns. 

The flight was uneventful and long.  After a hurried dash through Heathrow to make my connecting flight, I was fortunate enough to sit next to a girl leaving her study abroad program in England…enough chatter so it wasn’t boring, but I didn’t feel obligated to talk to her.

Seeing my parents at the airport was wonderful! Then, seeing the rest of my family when I got back to my house was great too. I really did miss them a lot.  But I always say, if I could just bring all of my friends and family to Spain with me, the world would be perfect.  The more time that passes since I was in Navalmoral, the more reminiscent I get.  I adored my year there and hopefully, someday very soon, I will be able to go back.  Besos a todos! Os quiero!