Treasure the Final Moments

These kids graduate the day before I leave!

Even though I still have two weeks left in Granada, my time here is dwindling and it has become very apparent. I have begun to say my goodbyes to those who I do not see often, and it is very sad. All the people I have met over the past five months have made an impact on my life, and I will remember them forever. Thursday was my last day volunteering at the high school. I had to say goodbye to my favorite class, which was so much harder than I had expected. We played a review game about biology because they had a test coming up, and as their last question, I asked them to spell my name. Now, you may be thinking, well if you've had them as students shouldn't they know your name? And yes, yes they do. But they cannot spell it. Because of the Spanish accent, many of the kids in the lower grades think my name is Jane, because that's how they pronounce Jenn. It was really funny walking around to see the responses the students had put down! Some of them got it right, some struggled a little bit and looked so confused when I said my name wasn't Jane. They looked so disappointed.

My favorite class! They're awesome!

Friday I went to the high school for my last after school conversation group with the kids. I made cookies and we played Headbands (the English version that I brought from home) to practice asking questions and describing things. The kids really had fun with that. Conveniently afterward, there was a class going on with a lot of my students, including one of my favorites that attends Thursday conversations with me! I was so excited to get to say goodbye for real! I got so many hugs and didn't want to leave, it was so heartwarming.

Me and Clara, my favorite student. I'm going to miss her the most!

They came after school to say goodbye to me and Nicole!

View from Pepe and Lola's balcony

Saturday Javier took Nicole, Ana and I to the beach in Almunecar where they have an apartment. We ate lunch at abuela Lola's apartment, a beautiful apartment with a terrace balcony that looks over the ocean. Lola cooked fish and migas (a breadcrumb dish) along with melon and their homemade wine. It was a lovely lunch on the balcony with a nice sea breeze.

After lunch we all hung out on the beach. I was pooped, so I took a nap on my towel. It was cloudy and I didn't plan on sleeping for long, but when I woke up, I had a lovely sunburn on the backs of my legs. Ana had an even worse burn on her back, it was very very red. Needless to say, we all got sunburnt and Javier joked that we would have to cover ourselves in front of Big Beatriz so she wouldn't find out and get mad. When we got home she just laughed at us and gave us some aloe.

Ana applying Javier's sunblock

Sunday was a relaxed day. I spent most of it making a scrapbook for the family when I leave. They are getting very sad as the days go by, and it's going to be very hard to leave them. But till then, I will continue to treasure the moments we share together!