"I got stuff to do, too, but I just brought it as a formality!"

This entry's quotation was said by my friend Shannon. We roomed together in Malaga for the night we were there (the center always puts us up in quite nice places with a very legitimate breakfast (the breakfast is not to be underrated)) and we were talking about all the work we had to do. Well, I was talking, she was listening. I said how I brought work and said I planned to do some on the beach, and she just kind of looked at me and said the above quotation. And it's so true. Everyone brought work this past weekend because you can't just straight up leave your work at home (that leaves a 0% chance that you'll do it), but it's not like they actually expect to get the work done over the weekend. It just leaves the chance that maybe, perhaps it will happen. Like Shannon said, it's just a formality.

So, Malaga from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. It was nice. I like Sevilla better, but it was nice. I've been to Malaga very briefly a few times in the past, but never as a destination. Saturday Liliana and I went to the Picasso museum (Picasso is from Malaga), got lunch (patatas asadas), went and had some coffee (caffiene was much needed, plus it was raining), and then climbed up to the castle ruins on top of a big hill. The view from the castle remains was spectacular. We stayed up there for awhile talking and taking in the scenery. After, we planned dinner (a great vegetarian place where I had WHOLE WHEAT PASTA) and did some walking around before checking in for the evening.

Today, Sunday, Shannon and I woke up early to leave plenty of time for breakfast. Like I said, breakfast on these center trips are to be taken quite seriously, then I packed up and headed to the beach for the day (well, until we had to get on the bus to go back to Sevilla at 4:30). The beach wasn't the best I've ever been on (read: found a used maxi pad, found some poop, saw another child pooping on the sand down the beach), but it was still nice to hang out with some kids in the program on the water for the day. The weather on Saturday wasn't so great, but today it was sunny and beautiful. A fantastic day for the beach and a fantastic day to go swimming in the still somewhat frigid Mediterranean.

The view of Malaga on our way up to the Castle. The day's weather had been kind of gross, and this was what it looked like just as it finally started to clear up. My camera didn't capture it very well, but the mountains in the distance covered by clouds were gorgeous. The whole scene was just pretty. Plus it smelled like wet nature (pine trees, anyone?), which was a beautiful thing. Liliana and I were raving. I hugged a tree.

Later, walking around on the remains of the castle. The weather was clearing up very quickly. A view of Malaga's mountains. (Mountains and ocean. And olive groves. Pretty great.)

Malaga city by castle. The population is around 560,000.

Before my delicious whole wheat pasta, taking in sunset on the beach. Malagueta was the name of the beach. I'm sitting on the "u".

Sunday on the beach with Liz and Austin.

All in all, a good weekend. And Shannon was quite right, I did not touch my homework.

I will say, though, that generally speaking I am done with the center trips (just to reiterate: the center takes us on 3 trips every semester, and this was the last one for this semester, and therefore for my Spain experience). I don't like boarding a bus with Americans, being loud and dominating a hotel, getting looks and having people talk to us in English before Spanish. I like going off on my own, doing my own thing, blending in. I don't need the center to babysit me in the same way I did last semester (ok, it was never a need, but it was nicer last semester). It's good, it's another sign of growing up, of moving on, but it also feels a bit weird. It's part of the reason I don't click as much with kids this semester, I think. Their experience is what I experienced last semester; their adjustments are my adjustments from last semester. What I'm thinking and feeling now is different and I just can't relate it to the stage that they are in.

I talked to Liliana a lot about that this past weekend, which was great. I'm so happy to have experienced this with her. There is so much unknown coming up, what with the year ending, us leaving Sevilla and our Spanish lives, and going home to a life we left quite awhile ago. I've started thinking about what it will be like, and some of the parts of transitioning back boggle my mind. For example, my phone. Free to others with verizon. Free after nine. Free on weekends. People to call. People to chat with. DID. I. MENTION. FREE? And the same time zone. Just incredible. No, but in all seriousness, that's just the basics. That's a funny example of something that actually represents a huge shift back to an old life I left behind and an old way of interacting with the world and with people around me. The transition is not going to be a walk in the park.

This weekend was a lot of thought and contemplation like that, mixed in with the itinerary of what we did. Leaving my life here is going to be hard. I've never done anything like this before, and leaving involves giving up a lot. I'm ready to go back to the states and then I'm not ready at all. I have progressed so, so much here and am finally settling in as more of a Spaniard than a foreigner. And now it's almost time to leave, to move on. Such is life.