The end...finalmente!

Ok this was a long time coming, and even though I've been home for almost 3 weeks I feel like I still need to tie up loose ends on my blog.

For my last week in Valencia, I had a few things that I had been wanting to do but never got around to, so it was definitely time to actually do them. The main thing I wanted to do was make Paella, that traditional spanish rice dish that I've shown on here before I'm sure. According to my host brother Luis-Miguel, Lola, my madre, makes the best Paella in all of Spain, and I don't doubt it, so I got to learn from the master. It turned out really well-Lola said I was already a pro, but I'm not going to lie I had a lot of help from her. We'll see if I can make an OK paella in the US.

I also visited some of the sights around Valencia that I hadn't gotten a chance to see, such as the main tower in the city and a few churches. Exams were also tied into everything here, which made for a busy and stressful time, but they went smoothly I think.

On the night before our last day, Lola made us a "cena divertida" or a "fun dinner" which she kept talking about but never made and which involved a bunch of different things. The next day the whole group met at a restaurant and had a "comida de despedida" or a "goodbye lunch" where we ate paella (I finally got to compare Lola's to something else, and there was no comparison, she makes the best I've had). We also had the typical goodbye chats and said adios to all the professors and students, etc.

The whole week my roommate Zach had been planning a last meal we would have with Lola and Luis-Miguel, that we would cook and american style dinner. I have to admite, at first I was skeptical because finding american ingredients in Spain is not that easy, but we found everything we needed in the international section of "El corte inglés," minus something for cornbread, but we managed. The meal was awesome. We had chicken fried steak, fried green tomatoes, bean chili, cornbread, mashed potatoes and for dessert we had bread pudding. Lo and behold we even made sweet tea--this was the ultimate southern american meal. Lola was incredibly impressed and kept saying that had she known Zach could cook this well before then she would have made us make dinner all the time (Zach had the recipe for everything, I was just the sou-chef). It turned out to be a great night; Lola made a farewell speech and it was a fitting goodbye.



My flight the next morning left at 7, so I had to be at the airport by 5. My roommate's flight was at 6, so he had to be there by 4, so we came up with a brilliant plan to not go to sleep that night. Kind of a bad decision, because I couldn't sleep on my plane from Paris to Philadelphia, so I was incredibly tired when I got back. But, I was very happy to see my family at the airport waiting for me, and I was glad to be home.

Well, that's it for my Spain blog. I had an amazing 4 month experience in España and I hope you all enjoyed coming along with me for some of what I did. My madre Lola always says to never say "adios," just "hasta luego," or "see you later." You never know if I may come back to Spain, or anywhere else in the world, and make another blog, so here there is no adios from me, just an Hasta Luego.