Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! The last 4 weeks have FLOWN!! It seems like just last week we were going out to crepes and tea to celebrate the halfway point, and now, as of this coming Saturday, I will be home in 3 weeks!

A lot has happened in the last month...my program went to Madrid for 5 days which was incredibly fun! We got to visit the Prado museum, which has lots of works by famous Spanish artists such as Goya, El Greco, Picasso, etc. It was really neat to get to see those works in person. We also got to go to El Escorial, which is a palace-church-monastery-school-library-and more all-in-one, commisioned by King Felipe II of Spain; and Valle de Los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) which is a monument commissioned by Franco to bury and honor all those who were killed in the Spanish Guerra Civil (Civil War). Franco himself was buried there. It was very neat but sad and austere at the same time. We also got to visit 2 small cities about 1.5 hours outside of Madrid each. The first was Segovia, which I think has definitely been my favorite place that we've visited as a group. It is very small, and all the leaves there were changing colors, so it looked just like fall, and made me think of the Pacific NW. (In Granada, the leaves are just now changing colors and falling...and it's almost December!! I had been missing fall...) There is also a huge castle in Segovia called Alcazar that Walt Disney actually based his Snow White castle off of, so we got to check that out which was amazing. Segovia is also famous for it's Roman Aqueduct, which is completely intact and still standing today. Toledo was our last day...it is known for its steel and gold work so there were definitely no shortage of jewelry and sword shops. I felt like I was in the mediaeval days.

Since getting back from that trip, I've just had a few busy weeks. Lots of tests and midterms etc. I'm also DONE with the DELE!!! It feels great! For those of you who don't know, the DELE is a standardized test put forth and produced by the Spanish government. Passing it or not determines whether or not you are proficient in the Spanish language (supposedly). It's basically like the SAT in Spanish. Parts of it were tough, but I'm just glad that it's done with and I can move on to other things.

The weekend after the DELE, we took our last group trip, which was to Sevilla. It was only for one night, so not nearly as long as our trip to Madrid, but it was fun all the same, and great to be able to hang out with everyone from our program. We went on a walking tour of Sevilla, and also checked out the Cathedral (which is the 3rd-biggest in Europe supposedly), and visited a monastery and an ancient Roman city called Italica. I would have liked to stay in Sevilla a little longer, but it was neat to see what we were able to.

I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and that I'm sad I won't be home, but that's ok. A bunch of us are going to a restaurant that is making a Thanksgiving dinner American style on that night. We'll see how it is...it won't be home, but at least it'll be something, and we'll still be with all our friends who we love, here. It'll be hard, but I just have to think of it as a unique experience.

Time has really flown, here! I leave for a week-long trip to London/England in a week from Thursday, and after I get back from that, I literally have 10 days until I'm home. I can't believe there's so little time left. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting and talking and trying to get a little situated in our hostel on our first night in Madrid, although at the same time, I feel like that was years ago. I'm going to be so unbelievably happy to be home, but sad to leave Spain at the same time. I've really gotten accustomed to the life here, and I'm going to miss that, as well as the friends I've made with ILACA, but it's going to be so nice to be home at last.