On the road again….

Currently on a bus from Sevilla (not Seville! Actually, yes, but that’s the English “translation.” Come on, now; is a translation really necessary.  How hard is it to say Sevilla? Lazy bums.)

Anyways, continuing my catch-up from before, I forgot to mention the farewell party IES threw us on Tuesday afternoon. Having finished all of our finals for our IES classes, they had a little luncheon/mingling session at a hotel for the students, our Spanish families, the IES staff, and our professors.  Despite the initial awkwardness that always occurs when students and professors are thrown together in a social situation, it was actually a great opportunity to talk to some of them.  All four of my professors were extremely intelligent and sweet people, so it was sad to see them, knowing that it would be the last time. 

Take Juanjo, for example. 

He was our professor for the Economy and the European Union, and despite having gone off on a few rants against Muslim immigrants in class (Spain – well, Europe in general - has some tension with immigration…), he was a really understanding professor who was just excited to have students interested in his class. (Spanish students are apparently very unenthusiastic about their studies.  Going to classes is overrated for them. Not surprisingly, failing a class in Spain is a fairly common occurrence…) 

And then there was Emilio, our Spanish Language professor for Group A (somehow I made it into the top group for language. Who figured?) Emilio is essentially a short little Spanish man obsessed with food (particularly desserts), fútbol, the cities of Madrid and Rome, his attempts to quit smoking, and Starbucks coffee.  Probably once a week, the subject of Starbucks came up in class. Each time, he would express his excitement for his next trip to Madrid (no Starbucks in Salamanca – fine with me, unacceptable for Emilio), when he would spend the afternoon with a couple of venti lattes.

Besides the professors, it was fun to finally meet a lot of my friends’ Spanish families, and to have all of my friends meet Basa, about whom they had heard a lot.  Even those people who hadn’t met her yet were obsessed with her, whether from the food that had fed far more than just me on our trips, my pictures of our view, or my stories.

Jessica, Basa, and I

My favorite moment took place during the announcement of the photography contest. Unsurprisingly, I had submitted some of my pictures from the semester to the contest. Surprisingly, I won three prizes (two second place, one third place).  Much better than the souvenir money prize, the best part was the reaction to the results.  After each name was announced, there was always some friendly applause and congratulations.  But then, a minute after my name was announced for the first time, we hear a gasp and very delayed reaction from the front, where Basa was sitting: “Ay, ¿Keeeen? Keen, ¿dónde estás? Keen, ¡has ganado!”  Thanks for informing me, Basa. But actually, it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. She was so excited and proud about it. And then when I won a prize for the third time, she exclaimed again, “Ay, dios mío, Keen, eres rica,” and started fanning herself, in front of the otherwise silent room.  I was actually unable to stop laughing; it was just so entertaining. And then when Jessica, my roommate, won a prize, too, Basa shouted the same delayed reaction.  Essentially, everyone left the party even more jealous of our homestay than they were before. 

The weird thing about the party was the lack of farewells, strangely enough.  We left without much of a sense of conclusion.  There was no cheesy speech about how we had grown and improved so much since our arrival; there were no tears; there was no year-end slideshow of all of the staff’s photos.  It just seemed like a nice opportunity for everyone to get together and eat free food.  But then, as soon as the fiesta was over, we indeed started saying our first goodbyes to the few students who were already done and flying home the next day. 

Our program only had 32 students in it, and every single one was a genuinely nice person. So, after having spent the past three-and-a-half months with them, it was weird to imagine not seeing all of these guys again. I'll definitely miss them, not to mention Salamanca.

And look at how Spanish we all ended up!!