El Día Final de Clase!!

Oh, the final day of class has come and gone!! How exciting it is! :) I am so excited that I don´t have to catch the bus in the morning to come to the University. On my way this morning, I stopped in the bakery for a final farewell pastry. I shared it with Amanda... and it was amazing! :) I will miss the pastelerías (bakeries) when I come home... but it probably is good that I don´t have one locally because I would frequent it often.

I am ready to shop a little more... I find the stores here fun to walk around to and to look through. I may go this afternoon. Tomorrow we go to the market, which I am very excited about!! I may even shop some more tomorrow afternoon.

As I have a few minutes, I though I would make a list of things I will miss here and other things I won´t...

Things to be Missed:
1. Pastelerías
2. Public Transportation
3. Coke Light
4. Fun tiendas (stores)
5. Time for siesta
6. The keyboards
7. Amazing Ice Cream

Things Not to be Missed:
1. Unstable internet connection
2. Using a phone card/no cell phone
3. Dog poop on the sidewalk
4. Slippery Sidewalks
5. VERY small elevators
6. No printers
7. Shops closing midday and Sundays

For now, I must catch the bus... later, perhaps I will blog some more!!! ¡Chao!

So Little Time.

It seems that I always have so much to say and so little time in which to write it all down. Time always goes by so much faster than I can chronicle.

Today, we had our final exam today in our culture class. It is finished!! Now, only one more class for our trip and we are done!

After class yesterday, I came home for lunch. We had a dish called Musaca, I think. It contains sliced pan-fried tomatoes, ground beef, some zucchini (or what appeared to be very like it) and cheese. It was extremely good! Afterwards, I went with Amanda to a lovely little park here in Jaén.

We stopped and got some amazing ice cream along the way. A little later on, we met Sarah and after a couple of directional mistakes and bus rides, we found our way back to the Cathedral... and we went shopping! It was such a restful and relaxing afternoon. I bought a very cute bag that will work for my purse on the trip home. I am very excited!

Today, we are going to the castle here in Jaén. I am very excited! I have heard that you are able to see the entire city from the hill that the castle in on and that it is quite an amazing place. I am looking forward to getting some fun pictures.

I am so looking forward to some less stressful, more people-filled rest of the time here. I like to have time that the stores are actually open to be able to go and shop, rather than never having any down time to do relaxing things.

I found out that not only are we leaving at 6:00 am on Friday, but we are leaving here from the University... so that means a 45 minute walk... which means I have to leave just after 5:00 am if I am going to walk... and even though apparently my family has a car that we used when we went to the Mercadillo in a neighboring town on Sunday, they hardly ever drive it. I think Luis (the Dad) may be the only one who has a drivers license. Apparently, it is quite expensive to be able to obtain one... and besides all this, he bakes and thus works until like 7:00 am. So, I may be walking here... totally NOT fun in the dark with a suitcase, backpack, bag, and bag-sized purse... it could be one very un-fun beginning of a day. I guess we´ll have to see.

So, the mercadillo that I mentioned was much like trade day in Collinsville... very interesting. The one here is supposed to be larger, so I am excited to see what it is like when we go on Thursday!

Home is only three days away... and I cannot say that I have ever been more excited to be going home.

3 days, a long walk, and 2 flights totaling 4000 some-odd miles until then...

Sunday.

Today has been another long day. I woke up this morning to go to the mercadillo in the neighboring town with the family. It was kind of chilly and rain clouds were in the air. We had a nice time. They have a car... we just used it today. Apparently, there are no other reasons for usage than to drive 20 miles. Anyways, the mercadillo reminded me very much of trade day. I didn't buy anything because I didn't find anything that I just couldn't go without.

I have worked on my paper and presentation all afternoon long. It is now after midnight. I am ready for it to be over tomorrow... I have finished everything but my works cited page.

For the week: final in culture class on Tuesday; Cruzcampo on Wednesday; Mercadillo on Thursday; Castle on Friday.

I'm out for the night!