Post for July 26, 2012

I can’t believe tomorrow will be my last day with everyone whom I’ve met at BIC. I say tomorrow is “sort of” my last day here because I won’t actually be returning home yet since I’m going to Rome for four days then coming back to Barcelona for a day and finally returning home. Tonight was probably the last time I will see most of the people in my program because most of their flights are quite early in the morning but at least I’ll see a couple and we just had an amazing end to our trip together, but I’ll get to that soon. It’s been such a looong day! I finished my final exams without dying though. I think I did well on both of them too, so that’s a huge relief. After school I made plans to to go visit Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic park since today was the 20th anniversary of it’s inauguration. I am so glad I got the opportunity to finally visit it on such a special and relevant day, especially since the Summer Olympics in London begin tomorrow.

On my way to the Olympic park I took the opportunity to take some last pictures of several of the places I had already visited. I felt comfortable doing this since I was by myself and taking the time wasn’t going to annoy anyone else.

Being so close to this track and field was kind of special to me because I used to compete in track and field in middle school and high school and I had quite a competitive spirit. Seeing this track made me miss our competitions and my races but it also made me think of how this place must have been such a large contributor to sports history made during my lifetime 20 years ago. Even just six months ago I would have never guessed that I would find myself standing there soaking in the feeling of inspiration and realization at the same time.

As I walked around the park I had some quiet time to myself in which I could reflect on my experience here so far and I felt quite happy deep inside. I have this feeling of fulfillment and I think it’s because I finally realized one of my dreams since I was very young. I had always said that some day I would travel far far away and see new and exciting things and I finally have. And I think I’ve become addicted to it. I want to see more of the world. I want to go to Asia, Africa, Northern Europe, Latin America, Australia, India, I want to go everywhere!! I’m getting carried away but it’s true. I love this trip and now I’m going to visit ROME! It’s still hard for me to believe that this is actually happening. I feel like I’m going to wake up at home a week from now and think this was all just a wonderful dream.

In the evening everyone from our program had one last dinner together at a restaurant in which we ate, talked, danced, laughed and took pictures together. We also got the chance to say our last goodbyes to our program directors who were great at what they did.

I really enjoyed learning from our program directors because they were fun and kind guides during excursions or whenever we had questions at school.

After our last dinner together several of us went to visit the W hotel because we didn’t want to leave Barcelona without ever seeing the bar on it’s 26th floor. I  was told it had an excellent night view of the city and they were right. This place was very fancy, but the best part of it all was that we never had to spend a dime in it because we just walked in and around it. We had to be dressed nicely of course but it was worth the visit.

Even the bathrooms had nice views of the city.

As our last bonding moment, several of us walked along the beach just goofing around and taking pictures. It made me wish we had a few more days here together without the worry of having to go to school because these last hours were among my favorite during my entire trip so far.

Tomorrow I will be leaving to Rome, but I will return on August 1st and I will be staying at my homestay for one more night since my host mom has very generously offered to let me stay here instead of renting a room in a hostel. I’m so glad she’s letting do that too because I much rather come back to a familiar place for my last night here.

Jose