You want to live the same experience I have?

To everyone who's read my blog about my trip to Virginia Beach and wonders how can they live the same experience, go to EF Language Course Abroad. It's been an amazing experience to spend summer this way, and I highly recommend it to everyone who want to improve a language. 

28th day. Arrivals to Spain.

The plane was landing at 10.25 London time, and that was another goodbye. During the time we had waiting for the next flight, the people who were flying to Madrid and the ones flying to Barcelona had to say goodbye. Another sad moment. Perfect.

The plane to Madrid was taking off at 14.25, and the one to Barcelona, at 15.25. So, after crying and crying for a long time, the ones who went to Barcelona just sat there and waited for the right time. 

In our boarding gate, we met a really important Spanish sportswoman, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who plays tennis really good, and has won 4 Olympic Medals. 

We got to the plane, who was really short thinking of the one from Washington. In two hours, we were in Barcelona. And then, of course, another goodbye had to happen. Some of us live near Barcelona, so we didn't have to catch any more planes or trains, but the people living in the Basque Country, Valencia and a girl from Madrid had to wait for their next trip, some of them spending the night in Barcelona. 

When I got home, I already had messages and emails from the people I had met, both Russian and Spanish!!

And that was the end of the trip. After 28 days, everything had to go back to normal, except from everything we've learnt, everyone we've met, everything we've seen... It's been an amazing experience, and we've won lots of things from it. And I'm really happy that I've had the opportunity to do it. 

27th day. Trip back home.

It's been a little more than a week since I got home, but I still have to explain my trip back to Spain. 

I woke up later than everyday, at seven. I could've woken up at ten or later, but I wanted to get to the hotel soon and say goodbye to the Russian students again, without knowing it won't be the last time. 

We got to the hotel at 8.30, and I started saying goodbye for the second time. But then, when we all had tears falling from our eyes, the leaders decided some Spanish students could go spend the morning with the Russians, because there had been a change in plans and they were coming back for lunch. 

So I went, with three other Spanish girls. I spent all the morning with them, speaking English and having a great time. We went hiking to a forest. And when we got back, we only had an hour before the bus got to the hotel and we left. So we said goodbye again. 

But, of course, something had to happen. The bus was too hours late!! We couldn't believe it!! We waited in the lobby until four 'clock, when the bus finally arrived, and we said goodbye again, now for real. Everyone was crying, Russians, Spanish, the leaders...

But then the real problem came to our minds. Two hours late. What happened if we missed the flight? Everyone started to imagine what would happen if we missed the plane, but, luckily, we didn't. 

We go to the airport at nine, and the plane took off at 10.20. We had to run across the airport, laughing but afraid to miss the flight. But we got there in time. 

The 7-hours flight was at night, so most of us slept all the time or watched some of the movies. 

26th day. Graduation day.

Monday again. But the last Monday. We are leaving tomorrow, Tuesday, or at least the Spanish ones. 

Today's been the Graduation Day. We first had our presentations, we had to present our projects in front of everyone. Some of us did a poster, some of us a PowerPoint with pictures... It was nice. 

Then they gave us our diplomas, with our marks in the EFCELT, the test we took last week. Then we had cake, we took lots of pictures and had an hour of free time before going to the 17th Street to do the Talent Show. Everyone must do something, but nobody wanted to do it alone, so all the Spanish students danced and sang something together, while the Russian ones did the same thing. We had a great time, and then they just let us go wherever we wanted until five in the afternoon, when we were supposed  to meet at the hotel to take the bus back home. 

And then was when the sadness started. We had to say bye to all the Russian people, except the ones living with each of us, of course. And then was when teardrops started to fall. I told goodbye to my Russian friends, and I told them how much would I miss them. I felt so sad... We promised we will talk by email and by Skype. 

But then we had to go, take the bus, go back home. Have the last dinner here and finishe the suitcase. 

Then we watched the movie Something borrowed again. We've watched it almost three times already here!

25th day. Dinner at home.

I woke up late, at ten. When I got into the kitchen, the Russian girl was already cooking. She loves cooking, and she does it great! I love it! She was making an Olivier salad, what in Spain we call "ensaladilla rusa". 

When she finished, before having breakfast, we saw Toy Story 3. We loved it! We had breakfast when the film finished, at noon. 

Then we, the Spanish girls, started packing our suitcases, because we are leaving on Tuesday. The Russian people are leaving on Thursday, so they have more time to do it. 

Then we all sat on the couch for a long time and watched Uncle Buck, Cheaper than the dozen and Ferris Bueller's day off. Good movies. While we were watching them, the Spanish girl made this amazing paella we had for dinner. 

My host mother's son and his family came over for dinner, and I spent a long time with the two girls, who are eight and four years old making paper snowflakes and cookiecatchers. I learnt this word, cookiecatcher. Strange. 

After they left, we watched Chrstina Aguilera and Cher's movie Burlesque before packing again. At ten, more or less, we decided to finish watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We cried a bit, and then we went straight to bed. We had watched too many movies!

24th day. Hospital and ice skating.

After waking up on Saturday, we waited for our host mother to wake up while watching another film, Little Fockers. We were starving when she woke up, but we had to wait for her because we all wanted to learn how to make French toasts. 

After having breakfast, we got dressed and we went to the drug store and to the supermarket. My Spanish housemate had conjunctivitis, so she wanted to buy some drops or something, but the pharmacist told us we had to go to the doctor, so we went to the hospital. 

The Russian girl and I waited outside for more than two ours, and we did a crossword in English, which helped us practice. The words were really difficult, but we had Wifi to help us understand them. 

When we finally left, we went to a buffet where we could eat everything we wanted. The two Spanish girls, we made a promise of tasting everything, so we ended up saying we had never eaten that much before. We ate a lot. 

When I get back to Spain, I need to put myself on a diet. For sure. 

After that early dinner (from four to six), we went to the small ice skating stadium they have here. Most of the people who came were Spanish, there were only three Russians. I spent the whole three hours with my Russian housemate. We went ice skating for two hours before I took up my skates and discovered my wound. The skates hurt, but that is something I already knew. But I wasn't ready to see what had happened to my ankle. My skin lifted. It hurt a lot. 

When we got home after that, I helped the Russian girl make a berry cake. She told me it was a Germa recipe, but really popular in Russia. We started at ten, but we finished at half past one in the morning, when I could barely stand up any more. But the cake looks amazing! It's worth it. 

23rd day. Busch Gardens.

Finally the day had arrived!! We went to Busch Gardens, the theme park, on Friday. It was a great day to go, really sunny, but too hot to be there. 

We walked from ride to ride searching for a shadow to hide from the sun. We couldn't leave our bags in each ride, so we had to put them in a locker from the beginning, so we didn't have water, or money to buy it (bad idea, because a small botter of water was $3) or anything. 

The rides were amazing, and the park was really beautiful. I fell in love with it. it was divided into different European countries, Italy, Germany, France, England and Ireland. It was really nice. 

We had a ticket to buy lunch in any restaurant in the park. Most of us decided to eat in the Italy part, because we all love Italian food. 

After having lunch, we returned to the rides again, but at five, when we were about to get into a rollercoaster, the rides were closed. They told us that a storm was coming and that it was really dangerous to have the park opened. So we waited for more than an hour next to the park entrance until 6.30, where we were supposed to get on the bus to return home. 

In the moment we got into the bus, it started raining. A lot. There were thunders and lightnings, and it kept raining for ours!

When we got to the bus stop, we were afraid of going out, because it was raining very, very much. We got home wet, and all we wanted to do is have dinner and lay on the couch, where we saw the half of the movie Something borrowed (we saw the other half last week) and New moon.