Happy Father's Day!

                Happy Father’s Day! I wish that I could be with my dad for this day, but fortunately I will be seeing him (and my mom!) this week, as they will be flying into Madrid on Friday! I’m ecstatic to see them and I can’t wait to introduce them to all of my friends. They are all pretty excited to meet my parents too, as they’ve heard a LOT of stories about them, and have even met them on Skype a couple of times!

Anyway, I’ve been pretty busy lately, so I’m sorry for the delay in updating my blog! I had finals the first week of June so I was busy studying for my exams, and then as soon as I finished my exams, my best friend from home Elizabeth Bard came to visit!

                I’ll have to admit, despite the laid-back semester the University of Burgos has, the final exams are SO hard. They are all in essay format and take about three hours. It was difficult, but I was able to pass all of my exams except for one. What’s nice is that the university gives its students a second chance, so I will be able to re-take it this Friday. I would be a little more disappointed about it, but I found out that over half the class hadn’t passed the test, so it makes me feel a lot better!

                Liz arrived in Madrid last Monday, and from there we flew to Rome, Italy for a couple days. It was so exciting to see a familiar face from home, and it was as if we hadn’t even been apart for four months! We met up with my neighbor Daniel from Brazil there and he surprised me by speaking English with Liz. I had no idea that he knew English, so it was quite the surprise when I turned around to see who Liz was talking to, only to find out that it was him.

                Daniel is by far the best tourist (besides my dad) that I have ever toured with. He knew exactly where to go and what to see, so he played tour guide throughout the whole trip. We visited so many places: the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Sistine Chapel, the Spanish Steps, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum. Everything was beautiful. I’m always in awe of everything we see, because I wonder why we don’t build such beautiful, intricate buildings anymore.

                We left early Friday morning to return to Burgos, and arrived around one in the afternoon. Unfortunately it wasn’t the greatest weather, so Liz wasn’t able to see the city at its finest. One thing that I noticed with Liz here was the amount of Spanish I actually speak. I know that I speak a lot of it, but with her here (and not knowing ANYTHING that was being said) I realized that a large majority of my time is spent speaking Spanish rather than English.

                This past week has been pretty quiet, as Caetano has left to travel throughout Europe with his girlfriend. Although I’ll see him in a couple weeks, it was a very, very sad goodbye. He was almost like a leader of our close-knit international group, and everyone was sad to see him go. With people leaving, it’s really making me realize that my trip is coming to an end, and I really don’t want to go!

In front of the Colosseum!

Liz and I

Daniel and I

Pantheon!

Before I threw my coin into the Trevi Fountain

The famous Spanish Steps

I took this for my Dad, because a cafe was covered in old newspapers. It reminded me of the collage made by my great-grandfather that we have in our kitchen!