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Well, the final days of the trip are closing in and I’ve been trying to spend my last hours carefully. I finished up my souvenir shopping and went on a few photographic expeditions over the past few days. Currently I am stalling on a few last papers that I need to write before i start packing. My plane leaves in exactly 36 hours from BCN airport. The flight is a little longer than 10 hours but we land about 4 hours after we take off (crazy time zones).

It will be very weird not being able to walk down the hall and round up a crew to cook dinner with, or be able to find people willing to go walking and sightseeing at any time of the day. I will really miss a lot of the people on this trip and we have been able to forge some very cool friendships. In a way, living in Residencia Onix with this group felt a lot like freshman year again. A hall full of people, everyone trying to get a little work done in between having a good time and making memories that will last a lifetime. We have already made plans to return to Barcelona in 18 years for the completion of the Sagrada Familia.

It is hard to believe this time has flown so quickly. We had a final barbecue on the roof of Onix to close out the summer today and I was reminiscing with someone, remembering the day I introduced myself to her 10 weeks ago in the Barcelona airport. It is crazy to think of all that we have seen, learned and experienced since that day even though it feels like it was just yesterday. Everyone on this trip has grown, learned a lot about themselves, and received an incredible perspective on the world through spending this amount of time overseas. It will be intersting to think how our perceptions of American culture will change when we go back. Maybe we won’t take the little things for granted, like free refills and ice in your drinks.

I miss my friends in Atlanta and I am very ready to relax with my family at my house out in West Texas. I am ready to enjoy a hot dog and a beer at Turner Field and grill out with my new roomies. I am ready to have some of my mom’s homemade food and stop in at Oscar’s Super Buritto. (anyone notice a pattern here?)

It still hasn’t sunk in that I am leaving in 36 hours. All of us have grown so used to being here that it will be strange to go home and be able to walk into a shop and describe exactly what you want. We will feel out of place being able to listen to and understand conversations around us. We won’t have to get by with a few short phrases, gestures, and hoping that if someone asks us a question, they don’t speak to quickly.

Even though I have enjoyed every single second of this trip, it is time to go home.

If you had 36 hours in Europe. How would you spend them?

I know that my updates are becoming less and less regular as my time in Spain draws to an end and for that I apologize. Things have gotten quite busy trying to squeeze every last drop of Spain out of our remaining days. I spent yesterday doing some shopping both for myself and for souvenirs for friends. I did my best with everyone’s requests. Today has been trying to catch up on work around Onix and prepping for my last week. We have a lot of projects to finish by Thursday and there is a lot of fun left to be had in this town. 

Last night a group of us decided to go on a Hemingway bar tour. I had researched several bars that Ernest Hemingway frequented and we walked between them after a great dinner. All of the places he liked to go to were small, out of the way bars which all have incredible personality to them. You could almost picture him hunched over in the corner sipping absinthe jotting notes in a moleskin penning famous lines in “The Old Man and The Sea” or “For Whom the Bell Tolls” For those of you not as familiar with Hemingway, I strongly recommend a little reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway. Why is it that all the best authors are really messed up people? In any case, his contribution to American literature should never be forgotten.

Randy comes to visit on Tuesday with some friends. Should be a lot of fun. I’m trying to wrap up work so that I will be able to spend more time hanging out with him.

I have had a lot of thoughts lately about Spain, the US, foreign travel, cultural perceptions… the only problem is that I have not been able to formulate any of them into thoughts concrete enough to write down. I’ll work on that and get back to you. Until then, it is Sunday night and I do not have class tomorrow. So I am going to utilize the fact that it is the weekend and enjoy myself. Expect a flood of pictures to flickr at some point tomorrow.

So my sister officially left Europe yesterday. My parents left Spain on Friday but they headed to London for a week (lucky!). It was really nice having them here. The only problem was that I felt like they didn’t have nearly enough time to experience Barcelona in the short week that they were here. Heck, I feel like I am just getting used to this place and I’ve been here over 2 months! Speaking of which, I have been here for quite a while, which means that I will be going home shortly (2 weeks to be exact). And I have been doing a lot of contemplating lately about things I will and will not miss about Spain when I go home.

Things I miss about the States

• Ice in drinks
• Free refills
• Chick-fil-A
• My truck
• Eavesdropping in public places
• Mexican food
• Barbecue
• Buckhead Church
• Sweetwater Beer
• Going to work (seriously!)
• Not having to read subtitles at the movies
• Being in the same time zone as my friends (or only one away)
• The Bravos
• Getting some breathing room from GTechies. (Don’t get me wrong, I am among the worst of the Techies. But as much as I love you guys, it is great to have some time around liberal art majors for a change every once in a while)
• Mass media in my native language
• Having my own room

Happy Independence Day! We are planning on grilling and hanging out on the beach celebrating. What are you doing to celebrate the 4th?

At the end of this past spring semester, I was in a rush to get a lot of things done in preparation for this summer. One of the things on my list was to get this blog established and rolling. Part of that process was picking a theme and layout for this blog. I didn’t have a ton of time to debate the Look & Feel of the site so I grabbed a random theme and made a few small tweaks but essentially I am using a canned theme from some “Free Wordpress Themes” site. I want to keep a blog of sorts going after I get back from Barcelona which means I want to give this site a complete overhaul. Any creative ideas or suggestions for how it should look? I know there is enough of you out there to have a good idea or two. You just gotta get over your fear of that little “leave a comment” link at the bottom. Go on, click it. Now type something.

Today, I taught my Spanish teacher the usage and meaning of the word y’all. The question is: by teaching her American Southern slang, is that making her more or less cultured? Probably less, but I’m going to lie to myself. Next on the list: ain’t.

I am going to Sitges tomorrow with the fam to enjoy the beaches. For all of you reading this at work on Wednesday afternoon, just know that I am soaking in the Mediterranean sun right about now. Sucks to be you.