Goodbye, Guanajuato

It has been 1 week since I left Guanajuato. At this time last week, I was already in Chicago waiting to board my plan home. I've been waiting to write this entry because I wanted to think about it...

Friday, the girls and I spent the day and the night out. We met in the afternoon at a nice little cafe to have coffee, and we met later in the early evening to hang out in the center of town. Of course, that night we went out to all of our favorite places until the first group had to leave for the airport. There were plenty of tears, plenty of hugs, and plenty of laughs for the last night. Did we sleep? No.

Studying abroad in Guanajuato was one of the best things I've ever done. I was able to immerse myself in a completely different culture, and I even had to use their language. I salsa danced every day. I got to know the city, and was able to travel to different cultural centers around Guanajuato.

I saw pyramids, mummies, the mexican war for independence, Cristo Rey, callejoneada, volcanoes, horseback riding, waterfalls, and more...

How often do you get the chance to experience so much in such a small amount of time? It's rare.

But even more importantly, I learned more about myself and I met some amazing people. It's an experience that I'm never going to forget, and now that I'm back, I think about it at every moment. I unconsciously compare things here to how they were in Guanajuato and vice versa. I crave the food. I miss speaking in Spanish. Most of all, I miss salsa dancing. I miss my friends, and I miss my host-family.

I'm glad I still decided to participate in this study abroad program, despite the swine flu scare and the drug wars, and I cannot wait to study abroad again.

Until next time.

The Beginning of the Goodbyes

Today was the beginning of our goodbyes (well, actually it was yesterday, since it was our last day of classes). ISA threw our goodbye party tonight. It was pretty nice. We had chimichangas and cake (well, everyone else had chimichangas and cake. I wasn't feeling well enough to eat anything), and another band came to play music for us. I'm not exactly sure of what kind of music they played, but I think it might have been banda or ranchero because some of the professors and program directors began to pull some of the students to dance with them.





We took plenty of pictures, but my favorite was this one. The entire group:



After the ISA party, we went to our last salsa class at El Bar. I loved the people in this class, and I loved learning everything about salsa and much more! This wasn't our last time at El Bar though; we're planning to go back tonight and tomorrow.

the whole class

a picture with one of the instructors, Jose