Hey blog readers! I apologize for writing/posting this a week after I returned home. I've been pretty busy and didn't have time to complete my final journal entries. But luckily I decided to take some quick notes to remember all that happened those last 2 days and I think I covered everything, with many details. Enjoy reading my last few blog entries!
Tues. June 29th
The night before, my friend Ashley and I had made plans to go to a town called Deià. It’s located about 45 minutes north of Palma. We took a 9:30 AM bus there and explored the town. We went into this really old church and a cemetery. We got to see Robert Grave’s grave…which sounds pretty ironic. We walked by Robert Grave’s house too but you had to pay to walk inside and see the little museum. We got to see the beautiful water in the sea and it actually looked pretty cool because the water and sky were almost the exact same shade of blue. While we were exploring, I found a little herbalist store. I bought a package of jasmine scented incense sticks for my madre Loli because I know she loves burning them and that scent. When I gave them to her after I got home, she said she loved them and said she was honored that I pay attention to the small details. She started burning one in the house and it smelled really good.
For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on the two presents I was going to give to my host parents’ kids: Eva and Toni, and Virginia and Mame. I decided to handwrite each family a letter thanking them for welcoming me into their family and for all of the cool things I got to do with them. I also borrowed some blank CDs from Virginia (without telling her why I was going to need them) and burned the pictures and videos I had taken of their family over my visit there.
Later in the afternoon, Eva and Sira came over. I handed the CD of pictures and the letter to Sira and she looked at me and asked, “¿Por qué?” I told her it was a going-away present and then Eva began to tear up. Sira again asked why her mother was crying and then got all excited when a tear drop landed on the floor. Sira was just too funny that we all began laughing. I gave Eva a big hug and thanked her for everything and she told me she would read the letter later.
I went with Loli, Eva, and Sira to the town of Esporles. Their friend’s daughter is named Úrsula Pueyo and she competed in the Winter Paralympics Games in Vancouver in skiing. Her story is very impressive because she suffered an accident and now has 1 leg. She won a gold medal when competing with all of Spain. Esporles is her hometown and they were awarding her with several medals at the ceremony we went to. The whole thing was in Catallan so I wasn’t able to understand it but I got to meet her afterward, which was pretty cool.
After that, I returned home and got ready because our group was going out to a fancy restaurant together. We decided to get all dressed up since it would be our last dinner together (since we would be eating our very last dinner with our families the following night). We went to a restaurant called Sa Cranca on Paseo Maritimo that serves paella. There were 14 of us there and we decided to split 2 giant paellas. I had a Mixed Blind Paella which meant there were no shells on the seafood and also no bones in the meat. It was very good and we all had a fun time. We walked back home together and made plans to meet up for one last day of fun at the beach the next day.
Wed. June 30th
It felt really weird waking up that morning and realizing that this was going to be my very last full day in Mallorca. And because I had slept in till 11 AM, I realized that by that time tomorrow, I would already be in Madrid waiting for my next flight. I had to complete an evaluation survey that our program director Alice had emailed to us. We were asked to rate our experiences of our 2 program directors, the different excursions, our home stay families, and whether we would recommend the program to future Arcadia students. It was kind of like a trip down memory lane as I reflected on the past 4 ½ weeks.
After completing the survey, I met up with Ashley to take the Bus 3 to Playa de Illetes. Three of our friends were already there and almost the entire group came a little bit later because they had been doing some souvenir shopping. We worked on our tans for one last day and went swimming in the sea. Most of my friends and I knew that the beaches and Atlantic Ocean back home would definitely pale in comparison to the Mediterranean Sea. We had a lot of fun and tried not to think that this was going to be the last day we were going to spend together as a group.
I headed back home around 5 PM, showered, and got ready to go to Mame and Virginia’s house to say goodbye to everyone. I also brought my lap top because my parents wanted to meet Mame, Virginia, Jaime, and Miguel. I was able to Skype with them and we then learned that Mame is able to speak really good English! He talked about what he does for a living and thanked my mom for the gifts she had sent to his sons. I helped translate a little bit for both Mame and my parents. My little brother also got to meet everyone because he too happened to be on Skype. Toni and Sira came over later too and I got to play with all 3 of the grandchildren in their backyard. Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. We asked the little kids if they understood what was happening (a.k.a. I was leaving), and then asked if they wanted to go on the big airplane with me back to the USA. At first they thought that it sounded like fun, but then realized it would be 9+ hours of flying. Toni and Eva still say they’re going to send Sira to live with me for a year when she turns 15, which means I’ll be 32 and might have my own little children at that point. I gave everyone big hugs goodbye and we all promised to keep in touch through Facebook, email, and hopefully Skype.
After we returned home, I had my very last dinner with Loli and Jaime. Jaime hugged me at one point and said, “No te vayas, No te vayas” which means “Don’t go.” I assured him I didn’t want to leave and would love to stay with them for an extra week, or month, or so. My last dinner was chicken, pasta, and toasted bread: my favorites! After dinner, my real parents wanted to Skype with my España padres one last time to say goodbye. My four parents Skyped together and we learned that Jaime never knew his son Mame could speak English. I translated amongst the four of them and Jaime told my parents that they have an amazing daughter and that they should be proud of raising me well. Loli and Jaime also invited my parents and me to come back and visit anytime and assured us that we would stay with them in their house instead of getting a hotel, which is very sweet and generous. The four parents said and waved goodbye.
I then got ready to go out with my friends one last time to Hogans, which is a bar. Our journey came full circle because Hogans was the very first bar I went to with my friends one of our first nights there. Almost our entire group was there (minus 2 people) and even Jaume, our program director came out to say goodbye. We hung out, talked, and danced to the live band playing. I was having a lot of fun and didn’t want to leave but it was getting late and I still wasn’t finished packing. So we began the very sad process of saying goodbye to everyone. It’s weird to think that just a month ago, we all arrived in this foreign place as strangers, and now we’ve all become friends and have shared so many memories together. I hugged everyone and we all promised to stay in touch and joked about a reunion in Palma next year. Then I walked home with my friend Erica and said goodbye to her too.
I returned back home and finished packing, which took a little bit longer than I thought it would. I was thankfully able to get everything into my massive suitcase and zip it up. I had to wake up at 6:15 AM the next morning and only got 2.5 hours of sleep, but I knew I would sleep on the plane.
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