a continuar...

            The goodbye dinner was wonderful, my roommate Ojilve made chicken and salad and rice (while Luis helped by cutting up some fruit.) I made a cold cous cous salad with feta, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.  My roomies also surprised me with a “Happy Birthday Miss Wisconsin” cake at the end!  They are such great people and I was so lucky to have been placed with them.  We weren’t great friends nor did we spend all our time together, but I always felt comfortable coming home and I got to know each one at different points during the semester. If I ever make it to Latin America or the Caribbean, I have homes in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

            Leaving the Resedencias last night was really odd. I only lived there for 4 months, but upon leaving for the last time I realized that felt such an attachment to that place. It’s the shittiest shithole I’ve ever lived in, what with the nazi graffiti on the signs, the bathrooms smelling like sulfur, the unreliable and awfully slow internet connection and the broken heaters in 0 degree weather, but despite all that, what a great four months I’ve spent there. 

            Many times I was frustrated being surrounded by Americans all day long. I had classes with only American students, I traveled almost every weekend with Americans and the when I went out, I at least started the night with Americans.  But in the end, I realized how many connections with Spanish and Latin American people I made.  Just starting in the last month, I would find I was the only American a group of Spanish people.  Even though I had a cell phone for the whole 4 months, I actually started using it in the last month.  In fact in this last week, my cell phone was blowing up! I was getting calls and texts from people left and right: something that did not happen 2 months ago.  I was even invited out for drinks and to people's houses in Alcalá.  Great timing, eh?

And in terms of spending a lot of time with Americans...While it may not have been the best way to culturally immerse myself, it was great having people in the same situation around.  Seeing that my roommates were all masters or doctorate students in law, computer science, engineering and business administration, they did not have the same semester goals that I did.  They were were not able to travel every weekend or go out every Wednesday night to Nivola.  For that reason, it was great having other people on my program to do those things with.  And in fact, I hung out most with people from UW Madison who interestingly enough, I had never met before.  It is very interesting that we all grouped together and it could be for a variety of reasons: we all lived in the Residencias, we all have common backgrounds, we could talk about people and places which were familiar to all of us.  But at the same time, there were other people in the residencias and there were other people whose backgrounds were more in common with my own, but I still ended up chillin with Madison people.  Figure that one out.  

So now when I get back to Madison, I have a group of new buds with whom I can spend time, rave about Spain, share Residencia gossip, swear in Spanish and most importantly, drink wine and calimochos (a drink popular in Spain made with Coke and cheap boxed red wine). Ahh...thinking of all that me pone triiisssteee!  

So as you can tell from my blog, there have been ups and downs throughout the semester but it was DEFINITELY a positive experience. As I sit here now in Georgia's Athens apartment I cant believe its done.  I'm most sad I wasn't able to develop relationships with a lot of the Spanish, Latin American and Arab people that I was just getting to know,  but at least we all have Facebook, MSN messenger and Tuenti (a facebook-type site that is popular in Spain).  

Well, I need to move on to a happy story to keep me from going on to Facebook and flipping through everyone's pictures.  

Today, as Georgia and I were opening her Athens apartment and listening to the Cuban group Orishas, I realized I accomplished one of my life goals in the last week.  Have you ever seen Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights?  Well, that's one of my favorite movies and I watched it several times last summer over and over (when I was unemployed).  After watching it, I was enamorada with the scrawny Cubano main character.  It became one of my life goals to dance with a Cubano.  Turns out I met a guy in Alcalá who is Cuban, and who has a real name but who everyone calls Cubano anyway.  Turns out I see him at a party and turns out that we dance. together.  just like I had always dreamed.  life is good. 

Speaking of the good life, I am now in Greece with my friend Georgia. I have been here since yesterday, and so far we have just been relaxing.  Since we are the first people here since last August, we had to open the apartment and do a bunch of cleaning.  So we did that yesterday and today, went to the grocery store, and then moved in our stuff.  I didn't realize how pooped I was until I had a moment to sit down and relax.  But now that its just Georgia and me in this quiet apartment in northern Athens, windows open and birds chirping, I can't peel myself off this couch.  

I wrote about this earlier, about not knowing anything about Athens, but when I arrived to this city, I realized that I am really helpless without Georgia.  Luckily, she is very helpful and doesn't mind speaking and translating for me.  But let's be honest with ourselves, I do not know a ANYTHING in this language.  I can't say excuse me when I want to pass someone or thank you for the waiter bringing me food.  I can't even read a dang menu at a café or labels at the grocery store.  When we went this morning, I was just picking things up and being like "wellll, this looks like what I normally eat."  Also, luckily, its a Carrefour grocery store (just like they have in Spain) so I was able to recognize a lot of the same products and buy some of the things that I usually did in Spain ( I can't believe I'm writing about Spain in past tense!).  It's strange going from a country where I was finally able to communicate and where people were asking why I could speak the language so well to a place where I turn into a complete mute.  Being such an independent person, it is rather frustrating, but it also makes me more inspired to learn some Greek phrases.  Right now, I'm trying to learn the alphabet so I can at least start sounding things out and thus, be able to write down the words that I learn.  

So the plan for the rest of today is research Greece, take a siesta, watch Spanish movies that I stole from my roommate's pindrive and then make dinner. 

Downtown Athens tomorrow.

Reminder: my birthday, May 9th.