Done with Exams!

What a crazy day! This morning, I woke up early to finish my literature essay. Arrived at school at 8:30 to fill out my program evaluation. Then I had my oral exam for conversation class. Studied for my history final, and then took my history final. At 2:30pm, I was done with my classes for the term. I cannot believe how fast my time here has flown by. I feel like I just moved in to Amparo's apartment, but at the same time, I feel so comfortable here.

After school, I went to the beach at Villa Olimpica with a bunch of friends. It felt great to soak up the sun, swim in the Mediterranean, and not worry about exams!

I got home around 7pm and Amparo and I spent an hour looking at photos of the little town where she grew up in Alicante on "el goo-GLEH" as she pronounces it. I showed her some photos of Moose Mountain and Dartmouth, and showed her where New Hampshire is on the map of the United States. It was fun to see her town and to share photos of mine.

Then I went to Plaza de España, where we had our final program dinner. We ate at the same restaurant that Amparo took me to last night haha. And I had the same waiter haha haha. All 17 students, 2 professors, plus our T.A., ended up sitting, talking, and enjoying one final meal together for more than three hours. Professor Bueno thanked us for being an enthusiastic and cooperative group. He told me he was very glad I came on the trip, which made me feel good.

After dinner, we took photos outside, overlooking Plaza de España and I said goodbye to Elisenda, our fabulous teacher's assistant/excursion planner and Professor Bueno and his wife, Gladys. It was hard to say goodbye to the other Dartmouth kids on my trip because we have literally spent hours together, every day for the past 10 weeks. It's amazing how well the group bonded, because we all come from different social circles at Dartmouth, but here we were drawn together as English-speakers. All but one of us are sophomores, so we will be reunited on campus in the end of June.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Lyon, France, where I will meet my friend Nancy to begin our 10-day European adventure!

Here's the travel plan:
Friday June 1 - fly to Lyon, France, spend the night with Nancy's host family!
Saturday June 2 - train to Nice, France
Sunday June 3 - Nice
Monday June 4 - train to Florence, Italy
Tuesday June 5 - Florence
Wednesday June 6 - Florence
Thursday June 7 - train to Rome, Italy
Friday June 8 - Rome
Saturday June 9 - Rome
Sunday June 10 - fly to Barcelona
Monday June 11 - fly to New York, then drive home to Etna :)