End

Well here it is. I am sitting in my apartment at 4:30 in the morning on the day that I am coming home. I just finished packing up all of my belongings and I am watching tv and eating a sandwich. I plan on staying awake until my flight in order to sleep through it. (I have never been very good with sleeping on moving vehicles) I really hope that all of my bags are under weight and everything goes well so that I can go home safely and on time. My flight leaves at 10:45 and flies to DC. From there I arrive in STL just in time for some dinner with the family. (It's Jordan's college graduation. He is graduating a semester early with a double major. He's a champ) My finals week was pretty intense but I made it through just fine. On Thursday we celebrated with a night at the club and then today we had our final program lunch. Our program took us to a very nice hotel and had a great meal for us. It was a wonderful 5 course meal with all kinds of delicious food. All of our professors and our program directors were there so we had the chance to say "bye" to them one last time. A couple of us then walked around the Plaza del Sol for some last-minute gifts and things before we all came back and napped/packed. Tonight was a pretty bittersweet night. We all hung out one last time and had to say our "goodbyes". The "bros" hung out here at our apartment for a while before heading to a bar downtown. Once we got there, we met up with many people from our program. From there, people started breaking off to go home little by little. A couple of us went back to the other girls' apartment to hang out for a while before we eventually decided to turn in for the night. It was actually a little funny because the last person who I said "bye" to was my friend that had been my roommate on the first night in Spain in the hotel. It was kind of funny things worked out like that. I am going to miss all of these people so much. We became very close after these last couple of months and it is going to be hard not being around them all of the time. I hope that I will see them again someday in the future. It is time now though to head back to the good ol' USA and have a very nice break in my own home. There will be lots of family visiting so that will be great. PLUS, I am dying to have some of my mom's home-cooked food. She is like a professional chef. I can't wait. There are many things I am going to miss about Spain but I am so excited to head home and be back in my own country. I can't believe I am going to get to have this experience again but in Milan, Italy. My life is amazing. The next time that I post something, I will be in the United States. I can't wait.

Luke