Last Friday, we had a class dinner to celebrate the completion of classes. It was held at the Palacio de la Magdalena here in Santander. This palace was finished in 1911 for the king and queen of Spain when they used to vacation to Santander every summer. Now the palace is the official building of the UIMP. But I can tell people that I've eaten dinner in a royal palace!
The dinner was so nice because our entire group was there, along with all of our professors, the directors of our program, and the director of the UIMP. We got to eat a variety of food including, bread, croquetes, calamarie, chicken, and ham. For a university, the food was pretty decent.
After we ate, a couple of people spoke about our experiences here in Santander. One of the professors recited a poem about saying goodbye. Although I couldn't understand every word of the poem, I definitely could feel the emotions that he conveyed. A bunch of people started crying, and some how I was able to hold back the tears forming in my eyes.
On Monday, we went to the UIMP to get our grades and to correct any discrepencies. I had such a positive experience at the UIMP. The three professors I had were so passionate about their subjects, and I learned so much in every class.
Monday was a really difficult day for me. Not only was I struggling to pack two months worth of stuff into two bags, but I was also very emotional. It was hard to imagine leaving the life that had become "normal." I was going back and forth between wanting to go home and wanting to stay. When school was really rough, I was so ready to go home. But when the time came to leave, I wished that we could have a couple more days to enjoy Spain.
On Tuesday morning, we had to meet at the UIMP at 5:30am to take the bus to the airport. It was very difficult to say goodbye to my madre. As soon as I walked into the kitchen to say goodbye, I started bawling. I actually had to leave the room to compose myself. We talked about what a great experience I had in Spain, and she wished me the best with the rest of school. I will miss my madre very much. I really appreciated the relationship we formed in the two months I've been here. I hope that I will be able to keep in touch with her, but she doesn't have an email, so that makes things harder.
Once we got to the airport, my sadness for leaving went away and my excitement for returning home appeared. Our trip from Santander to Madrid and from Madrid to Chicago was really smooth, although the nine hour flight was pretty long. It was so great to see my family waiting for me and to give my little sister a big hug. As sad as I was to leave Santander, it certainly felt great to be back home.
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