D-Day

Día de Despedida.  Dramatic Day.  Day of I-Can't-Possibly-Say-Goodbye-To-You Feelings.  Au revoir.  Adéu.  Adiós.  Adieu.  Aloha.  Hasta siempre.  Nos veremos pronto.  So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.  Well, there haven't been any waterworks...yet.  My first thought this morning as I rolled out of bed was, "I have to say goodbye to a lot of people today."  I have to say goodbye to the best professor I've ever had.  I have to say goodbye to the best friend I've made here.  I have to say goodbye to the person I was when I first arrived in Salamanca.  That seems like a century ago.  Tomorrow, all of my friends will be leaving Salamanca before the sun rises and I will be waiting to catch my bus to the airport at 11:00 am.  From there, my folks and I will begin our Spanish adventure.  I still can't believe that they are going to be here with me.  It is absolutely surreal.  As I wrote earlier, I will try to post some blog updates while I'm traveling with my parents.  Otherwise, we'll be home on June 6th...which actually is D-Day.  The thing is, I just can't quite say goodbye to Salamanca yet.  So I'll write a much more thoughtful and heart-wrenching post when I actually have to do that.  For now, I'm just in utter shock that my study abroad experience is ending.  That thought leaves me speechless.  Saying goodbye is easier knowing that I will see some of these people again...we'll make it happen.  I'll see the girls from Chicago.  And Julia and I have already made a pact to see another Cirque du Soleil performance together some day.  Road trip to Las Vegas, anyone?  But that isn't the case with all of the friends I've made here.  If I'm being honest, I won't say goodbye to some of them.  There is sort of an unspoken understanding that even if we don't see each other one last time today, at least we have all of these amazing memories to look back on.  That is the most important thing.  Right now I feel anxious, excited, scatter-brained, sad, happy...everything all at once.  I will never be able to fully describe in words what this experience has meant to me.  It has been my life for the past eight months.  Now it's over...and it's time to move on.  More than any other emotion, I feel grateful.