Hola from Frankfurt
Airport!
There’s a distinct lack of
Spanish here, and it’s starting to hit me that my experience in Spain really is
over. It’s been such an eventful, emotional and tapas-filled week that I almost
didn’t have time to grieve for my time in Spain before now. But I can’t deny
that I’m excited to get home, especially after seeing an Air Canada plane on
the tarmac. Cuanto tiempo sin estar en mi
país! (It’s been too long since I’ve been home.)
Emotional as they were, my
last two weeks in Linares were really special. On the work front, I started to
hear murmurs of end-of-Dahlia’s-time-in-Spain activities from my little
5-year-old students on Monday. On Wednesday, I arrived at the elementary school
to find the door where I usually enter locked. I went to the other door and…
surprise! All my kindergarten students were gathered in the entrance, ready to
present some short plays and songs they had prepared. Later I was bombarded by
a giant group hug and given some really special gifts: booklets of drawings
made by each student, a bouquet of flowers, and a beautiful Tous bracelet from
the teachers. To be quite honest, I was a mess. It didn’t help when I saw
little faces looking up at me saying, “Te
quieroooo teacher, no te vayas!!” (I love you, teacher, don’t go!), though
it did cheer me up when one little guy asked me if I was going back to my pueblo (village, meaning if I was
returning to my small Spanish village). Later, my colleagues and I went tapeando (tapas bar hopping) for a
whopping five hours, which was a lot of fun. I then went to my last gym class
and went out again that evening with my gym friends. Thursday was my last day
at the high school, another emotional day. My last two classes came together to
present me with cards, another booklet of messages and a framed class picture.
In previous weeks, I had also received a really nice plaque from the school and
a necklace with a gorgeous blue stone. Later that day, some colleagues and I
went for tapas and later to a little fair that was happening in Linares.
Despite the tough goodbyes (and the near overdose of tapas), it was an amazing
feeling to feel so appreciated at the two schools. These sweet goodbyes made me
realize just how lucky I was to be integrated so fully into the lives of my
students and colleagues.
There were also lots of
goodbyes on the personal front. Last weekend, the guiris (a cute word for foreigners) of Linares went out for our
last group tapas. We all realized how much we were going to miss those outings,
especially the great tapas atmosphere and the delicious, inexpensive food and
drink. My colleague and friend Juany-Carmen also took me on a day trip to the
Sierra Cazorla, a beautiful mountain range where you can do various levels of
hiking. We chose a simple route and later went out for a delicious lunch. Later
I had to say goodbye to Maria Jose and Soco, two lovely sisters we guiris were lucky to meet this year who
welcomed us into their group of friends and included us in various outings.
Then yesterday was an incredibly difficult goodbye to my hosts Elena and Andres
and their families. I’m not sure little Domenico fully understood what was
happening, but when I told him I’d be back to visit in the future, he seemed to
be OK with that and told me to bring lots of toys when I returned. In short, it
was an incredibly emotional week, but I’m so glad to have shared these moments
with the people that have become such an important part of my life.
Which brings us to today
and the joy of lugging two 50-pound suitcases, a 20-pound backpack and a packed
purse onto trains, metros, and shuttle buses. Suffice to say that it’s an
experience I’d rather forget! Not to mention I nearly missed my flight this
morning because of the incredibly long lines to check in baggage and later to
pay my extra suitcase fee. I think I made a new record when, 25 minutes before
take-off, I ran to security, rushed through the process of taking off my
boots/jacket/jewellery and unpacking parts of my carry-ons, and arrived panting
at the gate. All part of the experience?
Well, I guess that’s the end of this blog! Hope you enjoyed reading it because I certainly enjoyed writing it! :)
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