tooooomorrrrowwwwwww! (cue Annie song)

i have an important announcement.

I GO HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!

i'm so excited!

I love Valencia (especially now that it's finally warm!)

I love the peeps in my program

I love how I was basically on vacation this whole semester (casual weekend trips to Paris anyone?)

I love the muffin children i tutor

I love that café is in abundance here and it's really delicious

I love city life (most of the time anyway) and being able to walk everywhere

I love Spanish food (not my madre's........) but paella & tortilla will always have my heart

I love learning a language & picking up on cultural sayings without even realizing it

I love sharing a room with Srams & having our intellectual/deep talks about random topics

I haved loved my experience here but I'm so ready to go homeee, see my fam (happy graduation aleesh!), eat cakes and cookies and pancakes whenever i want, sit on my couch w/ my sisters and leave only to go to the kitchen, see all my amigas, go to the playa, read a book because i feel like it, catch up on tv shows, oh and i guess take some math classes on the side.

so there it is, good bye valencia! until neeeext timeeee!!!

on another note though, we had our last dinner w/ madre tonight. the majority of the conversation was madre talking about nude people on the beaches. typical. today srams and i got madre flowers as a good-bye because she's been dropping hints at us ever since we got here. when we gave them to her, she basically started bawling (sp?) and kissed me i think seven hundred times. it was cute. whatta 180 since my first post huh? i hope she doesn't remember that srams and i stole her toast. oopsies.

anyways then we forced her to take a picture with us.

can i get a drum roll please?????

is that how you pictured her? 

for our last meal, she made us tortilla which is what she made us on the first night here. how nostalgic. 

i also went to tutoring for the last time today (sad) but i snagged a shot with the adorable little six year old girl. she made me a butterfly picture. it was the sweetest.

how cute is she?!!!!!

we went to the beach on sunday, had our last exams on monday and a closing program that night where one of the professors gave a 45-minute lecture on superheros. weird

then we celebrated our last night out in valencia at polo55 (basically the only place open to fiesta on a monday night) which was a good timeee! we celebrated w/ agua de valencias which is really just a mimosa but the valencianos think they invented it

anyways im off to finish packing

¡Hasta luego in AMERICAAAA!!! :)

¡Mangia!

helloooo!

sorry it's been awhile.

i went on a 2 week vacay w/ my mama and aunt and instead of hashing out every step of the journey, i'm going to show highlights from the trip w/ some pics!!

the hot spots we visited: Prague, Czech Republic
                                       Budapest, Hungary
                                       Dubrovnik, Croatia
                                       Venice, Italy
                                       Florence, Italy
Enjoy! (only 4 more days until I go homeee!)

traditional czech meal right when we land...beer and (no) meat

Prague, on the Charles bridge

stopping for lunch in Budapest, Hungary

Overlooking the Adriatic Sea in Croatia

St Mark's Square, Venice!

Had to get a bag of souvenir pasta...so many pretty colors & fun shapes!

Day trip to the island of Murano where they blow glass! (and make cool Pandora charms)

Figline Valdarno (small town right outside of Florence). this is the view from the Chef's house!

me and Chef Claudio workin on some homemade gnocchi's yum!

choppin parsley & garlic for calamari & mussel broth

me and the Chef! sweetest Italian muffin man -- we made 6 courses!! including an eggplant appetizer, risotto, 2 types of pastas, seafood dish, and dessert!

Last day in Florence & of the trip :(