The end :(

“Why can't we get all the people together in the world that

we really like and then just stay together? I guess that

wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves.

Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes.

I know what I need. I need more hellos.”

- Charles Schultz

My semester in Spain is finally coming to an end and I couldn't me more sad about it. The past two days have been full of spending lots of time with friends and lots of tearful goodbyes (ugh!).

Here are a few pictures from my last week here:

Maura sent me this package last week... a wawa shirt
HAHA mustve known i was missing wawa. (notice all the
stamps she used to send it lol)

There is a bar called Austin that hangs a bunch of American college
shirts for all the abroad students, and they let students sign them when
they leave

signing the shirt with a little tribute to gary williams

me and bobby

bianca, corey, me

jen and i!

roommates plus steph before  our last beer pong night at Mulligans

me and Ryan!

last little 'family' dinner. I made chorizo chili, ryan
made garlic rice and brought bread and pesto, and
bianca made artichoke dip. and bobby brought ... wine.

Some of my favorites in Alicante at family dinner -
Jen, Taylor M, Bobby, Bianca, Ryan, Taylor R and Corey

Corey and I with our program director, Luis, and another USAC
director, Veronica

Spending a semester abroad has been better than I could have ever possibly imagined. When i went back to Madrid a few weeks ago, it was such a wierd feeling thinking about how much has changed since I first stepped off that plane in Madrid back in January. I knew absolutely no one, spoke zero spanish, and had little confidence in my ability to find my own way around a huge city. I remember being so nervous I would have no friends, wouldnt get along with my roommates, would have no one to travel with, etc. Since i didnt go far away for college, this was my first time going somewhere completely out of my comfort zone where I was completely alone! Obviously all of those worries went away when I met the best group of friends and got 4 amazing room mates. I honestly can't imagine having a better experience.

I seriously think that studying abroad should be a requirement. At the very least colleges should make it easy for all students to be able to take classes abroad regardless of their major. UMD made it VERY difficult for me as an education major which I think is absurd - I am 100% confident I will be a better teacher and a better overall person after my experiences abroad. I know so much more about other cultures, and am so much more independent. I have definitely learned more during one semester abroad than I have in all my years in school... so worth it!

I feel like in my 5ish months here I have accomplished pretty much everything I wanted to do. By the time I go home next week I will have visited 11 countries (17 major cities) that spoke 5 different foreign languages. That is, in total, 24 different flights! People always ask me how a weekend could possibly be enough time to see some of the cities I've been to, but you'd be surprised how much we were able to see and do in such a short period of time. Im so glad we were able to make the best of all of our travel time.. I still cant believe I've been all the places I have!

Probably the only thing I wish I had done was learn more Spanish. It was definitely a difficult balance between trying to see as much of europe as possible and trying to learn spanish. It was hard to go a week of speaking spanish followed by a 3 day weekend of speaking only in english, then switching back to spanish, etc. I wish i had more time because then i could have spent half the year learning spanish and half the year travelling!

I can't possibly sum up my study abroad experience without a little shoutout to the people at USAC who made it all happen for all of us! USAC is an amazing, incredibly well-run program. I am pretty sure Alicante is the best place to go because I find it hard to believe there could be anyone better to run a study abroad program than Luis, Veronica and Sylvain. They put up with all of our crap and were there for anything we needed at the drop of a hat! The 3 of them are some of the nicest people I've ever met and there is no way they could possibly get paid enough for the amount of time, effort and care they put into their jobs. I am definitely going to miss them!

I know I've said this enough but I just still cant believe I'm sitting here writing a blog about the end of my semester abroad. This is something that I planned and saved for and looked forward to for 3 years and it went by in an instant! It hasn't hit me yet that this is all over, and I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and go to the market, or climb to the castle, or lay out on the beach. It is definitely very surreal. I feel very fortunate that my closest friend I've met here also goes to Maryland, but it was so hard to say goodbye to my roommates and just Alicante in general. This place will always have a huge piece of my heart and I can't wait to come back again someday!

I guess the best way to end would be to go through some of my favorite memories from my time here:

- The first time we all climbed to the castle and having that first "wow.. i live here" moment
- My first weekend trip to Brussels and Amsterdam
- Maura's visit
- Paris: Eating escargot, bottles of wine with aussies under the eiffel tower, Staying in Cooking a french meal with Maura's cousin Tim
- Dublin: fun times with good friends, making it just in time for st paddys day festivities
- My parents visit and my Aunt's visit - getting to show them around Alicante!
- Switzerland with my parents and Corey - Montreux is tied with the Aran Islands for my favorite place in Europe!
- Getting to Montreux and taking the train to the mountains and realizing I was standing in the swiss alps
- My 21st birthday
- Going to Prague alone and having it be such a success!
- Spring break with my brother
- Bike ride around the Aran Islands
- Rock climbing with Corey
- Kayaking and windsurfing in March
- Cooking class!
- When my parent's and aunts came to cook for me and my roommates
- Barcelona and bombas con mis tias
- Sitting in Delirium in Brussels for hours and trying a million different types of beer
- Every time I ran into someone from Maryland (while walking up to the castle one day wearing a maryland shirt, a guy started chanting 'lets go duke!' it was like my worst nightmare coming true!)
- Every Kebab outing (especially in Granada)
- Arab baths in Granada
- All the wine nights spent sitting around our dining room table

I leave in just a few hours for one final trip. One of my best friends Colleen is coming to visit with her boyfriend Phil and his friend Mark. We are meeting in Rome and will be there for 3 days and then we will be in Santorini, Greece for 5 days. I leave in a few hours when I will fly from Alicante to Liverpool, have a 6 hour overnight layover there (what fun!) then fly from Liverpool to Rome and will get there around 10:30 am. It will be a long time to travel so I just can't wait to get to Rome and see everyone! I have to check one of my bags (because I have most of my stuff from the semester) so that will be a whole new experience .. I'll try to get some pics of me trying to carry all this stuff because I'm sure its going to be pretty entertaining for everyone but me!

Though I am unbelievably sad to leave I cant wait for this last trip and then I will be very excited to get home and just stay put for a little while. I will be perfectly content with not getting on another airplane any time soon! I can't wait to see everyone and get to the pool!

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this all semester... hope I kept it interesting enough for you all! Stay tuned for one last update about Rome and Greece! :)

Mercado Central

All semester I have been planning on having an update just about Mercado Central. Well I leave tomorrow so I guess its about time i get around to it (I'm finding there are a lot of things like that, that I'm barely having the time to get around to... where did this semester go?) Here are some pictures of the market - it is one of my favorite things in Alicante and something I will miss the most!

The bottome floor is half the fish market and half fruits and vegetables.
There are TONS of different vendors all selling similar things, but somehow
each one seems to always have its own loyal customers.

GIANT fish! there is always something new and cool every time i walk through here

This guy yelled at me for taking a picture .. rude.
But he sells all kinds of cool shellfish.

so many fresh huevos

beautiful fruit and veggie displays!

check out those strawberries! 1.50 euro for 1 kilo (2 pounds!!)

coffee!

Gomez.. my favorite place to get jamon y queso.
Some of the nicest people work there!

so much queso!

Huge flower market

Missing the market already!

echo de menos los estados unidos... un poco

While on the subject of lists, I also have a list of things i am DESPERATELY MISSING from the states:

(in no particular order)
*family and friends not included... to obvious

- Cook outs. I think this actually is the number one thing I miss and have been craving. One of my first meals is definitely going to be hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill with martins potato rolls, potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, deviled eggs, fruit salad, pasta salad, etc. CANNOT WAIT!!!!
- Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper (more specifically, Big Gulps)
- My house (carpet, a big kitchen, comfortable couches, a big nice tv, my own bathroom, etc.)
- MY BIG COMFY BED and my room
- Chipotle
- 3 Brothers Pizza (pizza in spain is absolutely terrible)
- the pool
- a (good) washing maching and more importantly a DRYER
- THE DOLLAR. Maybe this is what i miss the most ... i cannot wait to get back to the dollar and not have to deal with this miserable exchange rate. Definitely getting tired of spending 10 euro and having to realize its 15 dollars. Im also really excited to not have so many coins that are actually worth a lot!
- My car and driving.
- The radio
- Country music
- TV... cable and tivo
- Target
- Chic-fil-a
- Wawa subs
- Ocean City
- Air conditioning
- Grass and a yard
- my cell phone
- not having to use plug adaptors
- wireless internet that actually works (also up there as one of the top things i've been missing)
- being able to understand everything thats being said around me!
- home cooked meals
- BREAKFAST FOOD!

Definitely looking forward to having this entire list back in my life in a couple weeks!

Vida en Espana

I've officially been living in Spain for over 4 months! At the beginning of the semester I started a blog post about the differences between Spain and America and just random things about living here. It was almost all finished and ready to post 2 months ago, and then my computer crashed. I still wanted to share some of it with you all so I put together this list of random things about how I've been living- not as good as the list i had going before, but it will have to do.. i'm sure I've missed a ton!

- Siesta: every day from around 2-5, most stores close for siesta. Some re-open, and stay open until 8 or 9, but some close for the night.

- There are very little rules in general.

- Night life: Bars dont usually get crowded until 2 am, and clubs are open until 7:30 am. If you are an early riser on the weekends, you will usually pass people on the street who are just ending their night.

- Spaniards don't eat dinner until 10 pm or later! Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and school children get to go home so everyone can eat lunch as a family. (hence, siesta time)

- Personal space does not exist

- Mayonaisse (or AliOli, garlic mayonaisse... delicious!) is always, always the condiment of choice. For everthing - french fries, paella,tortilla espanola, etc.

- Light switches are everywhere. In most public bathrooms you will have to turn on the light in the room, then the light in the stall, and probably a light switch if you have to go up or down and stairs.

- Light switches look exactly like doorbells. I'm not sure how we havent gotten evicted for accidently ringing the downstairs neighbors doorbell while coming home from the bars trying to fumble for the lightswitch

- Rather than gathering and having parties in apartments, people meet in the streets to socialize. The most popular place for this is the explanada, where there are tons of chairs and people gather and sit with their friends all day.

- EVERYONE SMOKES.

- When you order something with ham, you are most likely going to get jamon serrano, which is similar to italian procuitto.. and so much better than any ham in the US.

- If the waiter at a restaurant brings you out bread - it is usually not free. If you let him put it down on your table and you dont touch it, you still have to pay. The only way to avoid getting charged is to refuse the bread completely.

- The cheapest wine that I have found is Don Simon 55 cent box wine. It comes in regular sized boxes, and juice box sizes (like to pack in your lunch!). I usually upgrade to the 99 cent bottles... so much more classy.

-The main local grocery store here is called Mercadona.

-When you buy vegetables at the grocery store here you HAVE to weigh them and get a sticker for them before you go to the check out.

- The hand baskets in the grocery stores have wheels and an extendable handle so you can drag it around like a puppy on a leash. so fun.

- There is no over-the-counter medicine in grocery stores, you have to go to a pharmacy to get anything, even advil.

- You don't tip in Spain, and taxes are included in the price! this is one of my favorite things about living here. When you go to a restaurant or buy something from a store, the price thats listed is exactly what you pay. You dont have to factor in taxes, tips, etc. So much easier!

- Almost every single major park/playground has adult excersize equipment next to it so parents can work out while their kids play. Smart.

- Spaniards [and most europeans] dress for the season, not the weather. So when it was 70 degrees out in february and i was walking to the beach in a bathing suit and sun dress, I got quite a few wierd looks from the rest of the population wearing winter coats and scarves. Even now that its in the 80s daily, many people are still wearing long pants, shirts and scarves!

- Breakfast is usually coffee, toast or 'tostadas' small sandwiches, usually with ham and cheese.

I think the best way to sum up Spanish life is from a quote that my friend learned from her Spanish professor. She told the class that Spaniards live by the 8-8-8 rule.

You must sleep for 8 hours, play for 8 hours and work for 8 hours. If you sleep more than 8 hours, you are lazy. If you play more than 8 hours, you are a drunk. And if you work more than 8 hours…you are American.

I think this is my favorite thing about life in Spain. People are so laid back and do whatever they want. Nothing is too serious here and I think their lives are better for it. I am definitely going to miss this kind of lifestyle!

Its absolutely impossible to believe that I am leaving here for good in exactly 5 days. I can't even think about it! In some ways I feel like I'm ready but in others I feel like I just got here last week. I plan on spending the next 5 days on the beach (duh) soaking in every last second of Spain I can get.

Prague!

I left frankfurt early thursday morning for prague. You arent able to take a train straight to prague, so i had a 2 hour train rided to nurnberg, then a 2 hour bus ride from there to prague. I have never booked a bus trip like that so it was a little tricky. I had 30 minutes from when i got off the train to go to the bathroom and find the bus. After asking 4 different people where the bus was and getting 4 different answers, then almost sweating to death from nervousness, i finally found the bus stop which was clearly marked with a big sign right outside the main doors of the station (of course). Somehow i got ridicilously lucky for the second time. The bus was a double decker and not only was i assigned a seat upstairs, i got the front right window seat which everyone knows is the best seat on the bus. I got to see right out the front widnshield the entire drive to prague and had the best view.. It was awesome!

I arrived in prague around 6:30 pm... The bus ride in was absolutely beautiful. The first glimpse of the city showed colorful rennasaince style buildings with gold accents. I quickly realized that prague is one of those cities where literally every building is photo-worthy... It was hard to keep myself under control! I luckily found my hostel with little trouble in about a 15 minute walk. I stayed at hostel orange right on wenceslas square. This has been my favorite hostel yet! The receptionist was so nice and greeted me with a free orange and a map. Then she showed me to my (adorable) room. The whole hostel is painted in bright colors and is just a great atmosphere. The common room was clean and comfortable and actually a good place to hang out in for once. I got settled in my room, then went to the restaurant downstairs to get food to go (they have a discount for hostel guests) that night i talked to some of the people innthe common room. 2 hilarius australian girls who quit their corporate jobs and are travelling for 6 months, a french canadian girl studying in italy, and a guy from missouri on vacation (he actually works in OLATHE, KANSAS...shoutout walton fam! Small world)

The next day i woke up early so i could fit as much into my one day in prague as possible. At 11 am i was scheduled to do one of the sandemans free walking tours, so first i went to find where the tour would start, then walked around for a few hours. Once again, i got really lucky with weather and it was completely clear and 70 degrees... Cant believe ive beem so lucky all semester! One of the big sites in prague is the astrological clock located in old town square. Every hour it goes off and is basically like a giant coo-koo clock. There. Are 12 little figures that spin around inside (for the 12 apostles) and a gold  rooster on top. Then there are 4 other little statues that also move on the hour, on the outside face of the building. The bottom clock is the name clock. Around the clock are 365 traditional czech names. There is a different name designated for each day of the year, and if you have a traditional czech name (like most czechs), each year you get to celebrate your 'name day'. The name day is celebrated just like a birthday in the states. Pretty cool! The whole thing is pretty impression because it was built in 1410 and is still operating! After the clock goes off, a trumpeter plays at the top of the tower and everyone cheers. At first i thought the trumpeter was a cute ancient czech tradition until my tourguide told me they only added the trumpeter 3 years ago because people were generally dissapointed with the lack of excitement after such a buildup for the clock. Oh well.

Astrological Clock

At 11 i met up with my tour group. The tour was really nice.. Not quite as good as the one in edinburgh but it all depends on the guide you get. Here are some pictures from the tour!

trumpet player

old town square

beautiful architecture on every building!

old town square

St. Nicholas Cathedral

Theatre

the crowd waiting to watch the clock go off.. a little excessive

After the free tour was finished i decided to sign up for the 10 euro prague castle tour with the same company. I hadnt planned to originally but since i was by myself i figured id be better off doing it with a group than alone. I met some really cool people on the tour and 6 of them were staying in the same hostel as me! So it worked out great. This tour guide was a lot better than my first one (he apparently writes the scripts for the free tours!) he was from new hampshire and moved to prague 6 years ago, just for the heck of it. He was really cool. The castle was awesome and totally worth it. Its one of the largest royal complexes in the world.

monastery

monastery .. where they also have their own brewery

beautiful prague!

love this building

changing of the guard at prague castle

st vitus cathedral

amazing stained glass.. the pieces were so small!

***SIDENOTE*** i am now currently on my layover on the way back to alicante at the venice airport. This is by far the WORST layover ive ever exlerienced. First of all, i tried to exchange my coronas, and they only accept bills. Some coronas go up to 3 usd in value so i really got screwed there. Then she told me i would only fet 1 euro back for my 100 corona note.. Such a scam! So i gave up and got in line for the ryan air passport check. After standing in line for 15 minutes the lady told me it was too early to check in and that i could t go through for another 3 hours. I was early, but i figured since i was on ryan air layover, i could go through whenever.. Wrong. This meant my food choices were limited to the crowded pizza place or digging through the trashcan for leftovers. I opted for the former and ordered 2 pieces of pizza and a diet coke, which they informed me they dont have from the fountain. I settled for a water and went to get my pizza. Little did i know that one slice of pizza in italian standards is actually a quarter of an ENTIRE pizza in US standards. This not only meant that i spent 8.60 EURO on to slices of pizza, i also had to look like a huge fatty to everyone in the whole restaurant and sat by myself attempting to eat an entire half a pizza. After that bit of fun was over, i went to find a seat in the arrivals hall while i waited for 2 more hours to pass. This is when i discovered there are only 4 chairs in the venice treviso airport. Yep, you guessed it - all 4 chairs are taken! so that brings me to now, sitting on the floor near the ryan air desk watching all the other lucky travellers who get to go through security now, instead of 3 hours from now. Ps. There is no wifi here. :(
***END SIDENOTE

After touring the castle grounds i walked down to find the lennon wall. The lennon wall is basically a huge wall of artistic graffiti dedicated to john lennon. People scribble tons of beatles quotes and other phrases all over the wall in different colors. Some are really artistic and some are simple butbthe whole wall ends of looking pretty cool. I was pretty dissapointed in the wall instelf.. It was MUCH smaler than it appeared in my friends pictures and didnt have as cool designs as i had seen before (but thats to be expected with something llike that) i took a few pictures then headed over to walk across the Charles Bridge.

The charles bridge was beautiful. Its lined with tons of statues and has huge Towers on either end. The statue of of st john nepomuk, near the end of the bridge, is the oldest on the bridge and is supposed to be good luck if you rub the bottom of the statue.

charles bridge

view from the bridge

st john statue

After my long day i was extremely exhausted... I had been on the go for almost 12 hours! I went back to the hostel where i had some new roommates. They were really cool.. It was a group of 2 guys and 2 girls from unifersity of texas, studying in Bath. I watched tv and hung out with them for the rest of the night. We all went to bed pretty early since we were leaving around 7 or 8. My flight left prague at 10:20 and got me here to venice treviso where i have a 7 hour layover. Its been a blast so far, as you've read!

*** UPDATE: after finally being allowed through security, i get down to gate 8 for ryan air which is basically a converted warehouse room with 5 chairs for all 4 gates in the room. 45 minutes til boarding!

Prague was one of my favorite cities in europe ... so beautiful! It definitely had some of the prettiest architecture i've seen and the coolest buildings. I definitely hope to get back there at some point! I was really nervous about doing prague by myself, but I'm so glad I stuck to the plan and didn't back it. It was so, so worth it and even better than I expected. If you had asked me in january if I'd be travelling it a foreign country that speaks CZECH all by myself I would have thought you were crazy. But it was great and definitely something I would do again!