Hola chicos,
This day was the saddest day ever: the day we all had to say goodbye to Sevilla. A majority of us met up in Plaza Alfalfa with Vicky, Quique and MJ to have a farewell breakfast together. It was really great…. But I got all emotional because it was the last time we were all going to be together, so of course I cried. It sounds lame, but all of us had grown so close to each other and had had such an unforgettable experience that I couldn’t bare thinking that it was all ending. Quique, being the amazing person he is, bought all of our coffees and breakfasts. I hugged Vicky goodbye and ALMOST cried. Randi, Michelle and I decided to do something fun to take our mind off of the sadness, so what did we do??? PARTY PANTS SHOPPING! That’s right, I bought a 3rd pair… #sorryimnotsorry. We got our final fix of Stradivarius, thank heavens…. Ohhh Strad, one of the millions of reasons why I HAVE to come back to Spain.
Alright, after our retail therapy (literally though), I went home for lunch. HALLELUIAH, we had the most delicious lunch. Sevilla was having unseasonably cold weather for the summer so my house parents decided to make us a dish that they don’t usually serve until the fall/winter, but since it was so cold, it made sense. This was DA BOMB. It was like a pork and beef stew with rice and some divine white sauce. Ohhh it was mighty tasty.
After I finished packing (yuck), Cassie and I met up with Michelle, Randi, Sara and Maggie to go have a final hangout with Juan. We went to a nearby restaurant and ordered a jarra of sangria. We chatted about random things, like Spanish Slang, since Juanito is the expert on that. Afterwards, we went back to ISA to have our fashion shoot.
After this final hurrah… all that was left to do was sadly wait at home until it was time to drag our luggage to the meeting point.
When that moment finally came, we said goodbye to our house parents and decided that the only way we’d survive such a sad evening would be with some HELADO!! Ohhh Helado… I don’t know who I love more, you or Strad...
Well here comes the most depressing part. We were all crowded around a giant bus, carrying all of our massive luggage… and BALLING. It was one big cry fest. Obvi, I was participating. We were hugging each other goodbye because some of the group wasn’t getting on the bus back to Madrid because they had other traveling plans afterwards. We were consoling each other. It was like we were at a funeral: The Death of our Sevillian Study Abroad… was that too dramatic? No. It wasn’t dramatic enough. This was seriously sad stuff man.
Then, I said goodbye to Quique, let’s not even talk about that one. Now, don’t let this seemingly happy photo fool you, I was a wreck.
Randi and Michelle presented all of our personal notes that we had written to MJ and Quique and then we all were corralled onto the bus. MJ was later texting with Quique and he commented that the notes were soooo nice and that he was going to miss us all so much. Igualmente, Quique.
The bus ride was uneventful, until we arrived at the Madrid airport where AGAIN the cry fest resumed. This was even sadder because it was rushed. Everyone had to get all of their stuff off the bus and say their final goodbyes in 5 minutes flat. No bueno.
Fortunately, my flight wasn’t until 5pm and Deonna was on the same flight as me, so we decided to get dropped off in the city center to spend time there rather than waiting 12 hours in an airport. In Madrid, we went and had coffee and a snack and then wandered into the Parque Retiro. I had remembered it pretty well from the last time I was there with Val, so I navigated us to the main square in the park and we took some pictures.
After relaxing here for a while, it was time for me to say goodbye to MJ at the train station. It was sad BUT I know that we will see each other again. Por eso, nos dijimos “hasta luego”.
Then Deonna and I hopped on the metros to navigate our way to the airport. It never ceases to amaze me how much camaraderie there is amongst people who speak English in a country where that is not the national language. On our hectic metro experience (we had to change metro lines 4 times) we met 5 different people who just decided to befriend us because they heard us speaking English.
Finally, we arrived at the airport. Eventually made it to our gate, waited until I unwillingly boarded the plane back to the US.
FINALLY but very very sadly, this concludes my “Me Llamo Raquel” blog. After all of my amazing experiences that I will never ever forget, I have only one thing left to say:
Hasta luego,
Raquel
Wuah!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your journey!