I refuse to say adios, so i'll just say hasta luego.

This video pretty much sums up my whole Barcelona Experience. Ignore the promotional ad at the end, though thats relevant too because I feel like I was constantly bombarded with ads and stuff like this anyways. Yes, I'm talking to you Michael Jordan...

Words cannot even describe how emotional the past week has been. On top of finals, both wanting to go home and not wanting to go home and being stressed about the next two weeks of traveling Europe I haven't had the time to think about the fact that I'm actually leaving this beautiful city and won't see the amazing people I've meet for quite some time. Last night we all met at Ovegra Negra to say our final goodbyes. I literally LOVE my friends here. Through laughter and tears we all said our goodbyes and kept making plans to all visit each other. We all probably hugged each other about 15 times before moving locations and hugging another 10 times before parting ways. Fortunately, after all this traveling our sense of distance has shrunk and we all feel like we won't be THAT far away from each other back in the US even if we all live in different states. It's funny how I used to think states like Colorado were so far away from me, but I'm now thinking about how close it actually is and how plausible it is to go visit. Literally, we're all just a plane flight or road trip away. Of course it's going to be weird not seeing some of these people everyday anymore. I feel like we have all become such a funny little thrown together family and even though we all get on each others nerves sometimes we really do always watch out for each other. If someones having a bad night there's always someone there to talk to and make sure they're alright, or when someones not feeling well there's always people looking out for each other and making sure they have what they need and get home okay.

I just can't even believe how fast this semester has gone by. I feel like I just got here and it's the first week, where I came here knowing no one and was calling my mom crying saying that I made a mistake coming here and wanted to go home. All the Spanish was overwhelming at first, I couldn't understand my host family, I was constantly lost and with everything being so new it was just really scary. However, about a week later I had begun to adjust, made some new friends, started to pick up on a little bit of Spanish and was unfortunately still getting lost... Now three months later I'm crying because I'm leaving, have made some amazing lifelong friends, can semi communicate Spanish (more so understand than actually speak,  but i'll continue to work on that), and I'm STILL getting lost (you win some, you lose some). I'm without a doubt in love with this city and all the people I have meet here. I could probably go through every single person I met on my journey and write a whole post on each of them. A few of my friends I've made here are without a doubt some of my favorite people in this whole world.

It;'s crazy to think that the majority of us came here knowing no one and were all thrown together and we came out with such amazing experiences and friendships. I really wish I could explain how much this experience has impacted me and how much I will treasure it forever. I've done things here that I never thought I'd ever do in my life. I've grown more independent and have learned that I really can manage to survive nearly anywhere. It's not as hard as you might think to put yourself out there and make new friends and learn about a whole different culture. It's weird how in this short amount of time I've become so attached and somewhat depended on the people I've met here. They have really become my support system. Sometimes it really does feel like a dream when I think about the fact that I've lived in Barcelona for this long and have traveled all around Europe. I've traveled to Rome and Paris. I got to see my friend Ellen in her hometown in Germany. Then the hardest one for me to believe sometimes is that I went to Africa, slept in the desert, road a camel and walked the streets of Fez like it was just my casual everyday life. It's just so strange to even believe that I have done all these things when I say it out loud. It literally feels like it has become normal to just book tickets to go to Rome this weekend while sitting waiting for class to start. Why not, right? Or to just walk past Gaudi's buildings daily nonchalantly glancing up in amazement but then carrying on with your day because you get to see the same building people travel specifically to Spain to see everyday.

As I sit here tearing up on my bed in my little yellow room in Spain I am filled with too many emotions to even comprehend. I am going to miss this place so much. I feel like I've been living a dream for the past three months and it's going to be a shock to go home. Though don't get me wrong, I am SO excited to see my family and friends. It's been rough without them and I wish I could make all my Barcelona friends here stay longer and then bring all my family and friends here as well, but that would just be TOO ideal. I can't even manage to be on facebook right now with everyones posts about going home. It's all becoming so real that it's Friday morning and I'm not up doing my homework while waiting for everyone else to wake up so we can go adventure. Or that I won't get multiple posts in our group facebook message about what everyone's doing tonight. All these things are just little pieces of this trip that I will miss just as much as the things I've seen through my travels.

I'm so grateful for the time I've had here. I'm looking forward to coming back, you can't keep me out of Barcelona. I'm also looking forward to getting back to Arizona where I can still hangout with a few of the friends I've made here! I've already made plans to get Mellow Mushroom, Sprinkles Cupcakes and Cheesecake Factory (they have patatas bravas which I will forever be obsessed with from now on) when I get back to school.

It's going to be a weird transition back to the States. Everything I've done the past three months has really been such an intense experience it's going to be really different to go back to reality and get back into the groove of old friends and school. I have honestly become attached to my host family and a few friends who are always there for me. I really have no idea how I would have gotten through this whole experience without them.

I'm all packed up in my empty room now, not willingly ready to close this Barcelona chapter of my life, but accepting it. Off to Travel Europe with Rose for the next two weeks then back home for the New Year. I better go say my goodbyes to Celia now, this might be one of the hardest. She has been the best mom I could ask for here, literally treating me like her own daughter. Taking care of me when I was sick and encouraging me with little chocolates when I needed to study. I got so lucky to be put in the best homestay.

I know I am becoming repetitive but I'm so thankful that I got to have this experience. I really have grown and changed as a person and I hope that I will be able to have more adventures like this one throughout my lifetime.

Hasta luego, Barcelona. don't you worry, i'll be back.
Besos,
Lauren

Words cannot explain this experience, but ill try my best: Morocco

First off let me just say, before you start looking at these pictures or reading about this trip you really should pull up the entire Pitbull CD as background music to get the full experience of my Morocco adventure. Let me get you started with the most played song by Mr World Wide. Our bus driver (we spent a good chunk of time, as in multiple days with sections of traveling at 7 hours at a time with very little breaks, on this bus over the week) owned the ENTIRE Pitbull CD and listened to it on repeat again and again and again...

Hotel key chain in Fez. This was the hugest and heaviest set of keys I've ever had to carry. Then to top it all off me and my roommate Becca got the rooms with nonworking doors BOTH times we were in the hotels on this trip. Our key would get stuck in the door and we would spend a good 10 minutes trying to get it out of the door so we could leave. Everyone who passed would attempt to help us too, with no success. Our key was like Excalibur's magic sword

Moroccan money! Also known as the Dirham. One Euro is worth 11 Dirham, so everything was relatively cheep in Morocco, which was awesome!

The pictures below are from the market in Fez. I would have never been able to manage to find my way around this place if it were not for our tour guide. All the streets look the same and you have to go down little dark alleyways with cats and chickens wandering aimlessly everywhere to get to specific little stores. Everything was damp because of the rain and it all felt old and dirty. It was different. Donkeys pulling carts of trash and other assortments of things to who knows where. People wheelbarrowing old ladies who cant walk down the streets.

Rug Store was an overwhelming experience for some. Baiscally, these guys know how to sell. They put on a rug show for us while giving us all tea (let me just say probably the best tea I've ever drank) Then they would target people and split them up into groups or take people off on their own and individually show them rugs. It was actually somewhat creepy how it was all happening so fast and at the same time. They figured out that me and a few of my friends didn't want to buy a rug fairly quickly and then began to ignore us and focus on the real buyers. One of my friends was getting overwhelmed when they were talking to her by herself because she didn't have enough time to think with all of them hovering and talking to her at the same time. You could tell that she was getting overwhelmed and our other friend saw that and said "Becca, you don't have to buy a rug if you don't want too" and the sales people quickly scurried her away from us trying to show her more things while putting distance between her and those influencing her not to buy a rug. It was all pretty intense. A few people ended up buying rugs, some loving their decision and others immediately regretting it once they figured out how much they ended up actually spending. 

Below are some pictures of a sheep fur washing area. It smelled horrid. The mix of the dead animals with the sulfur was just overpowering. 

Heres me and our amazing tour guides:

We went to a show one night where we saw belly dancing and listened to live music. It was very interesting and fun because they pulled people from the audience to dance along a lot as well!

Throughout the trip on our looooooooong bus rides we never seemed to stop at real bathrooms. Ever few hours we were pulling over to the side of the road where our driver would then tell us that we had a 10-15min "break". "break" meaning if you gotta go pee, do it now out here in the open because we're not stopping for another few hours and it may or may not be at a gas station or another random pit stop in the desert like this again. These bathroomless stops bonded everyone instantly. Sometimes, like in the picture below, there was ZERO coverage to pee. At that specific stop there was a ditch a little ways away where many of the girls scurried off too and we were all just squatting peeing together in a ditch in the Sahara Desert. At first it was difficult, stage fright kicked in and we all we're just squatting there agreeing not to make eye contact with anyone. But by the end of the trip it was sadly a norm to just get off the bus and quickly disperse, pee, and head back to the bus. I have never felt more like an animal than when having to pull over to the side of the road and watching 50kids get off a bus and just run in all different directions to find some sort of semi coverage to take care of business. It was ridiculous, but part of the Moroccan experience I suppose. 

Our first morning in the desert we woke up to watch the sunrise. Actually, I wouldnt have woken up if it wernt for Mark and Kevin continuously poking me gently (even though I told them the night before that I knew I wasnt going to wake up and I gave them both the permission and instructions to literally punch and shake me until I wake up) Walking outside in a daze we saw a huge group of nomads who began taking us on a hike thru the sand dunes to go find the best spot to watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful. The pictures dont do the actual sight any justice (as do all my pictures of this whole trip)

While walking back to the camp we realized that the nomads that led us to the various dunes to watch the sunrise were not hired tour guides and they quickly whipped out their bags and said "let me show you my job" while giving us stories about how selling trinkets of small camels and little rock eggs to tourists supports their families. It was extremely awkward because none of us had money with us and none of us really wanted to buy anything either. The nomads also got very upset when you didnt buy anything after they took you out so when trying to leave it felt awkward because no one wanted to or could buy anything.

While in the desert we slept in a giant fort tent. It was awesome. There were just little mats one after another inside the tents and it just felt like a giant sleepover because you could see and talk to everyone inside the tents!

CAMEL RIDING TIME! So much fun. The camels were actually really nice and riding them was a little difficult at first, but once you got used to the "camel dance" it was easy enough and kind of like riding a horse!

All I wanted was a picture of me kissing a camel on this trip. Below was the best one that I got. My friend Garrett probably took about 25 different pictures of me trying to kiss several different camels. The camels are scary when youre putting your face that close to them!

When we started my group of camels were at the very back, but we soon picked up the speed and passed up everyone and got to ride at the front of the pack for the majority of the time! It was amazing to look backwards and see all of the camels behind me and the open desert!

Repping ASU from Morocco!

At one point we ended up at this hotel in the middle of the desert after our camel ride when we had to walk back to camp. This was supposed to be a stop for water and a break, but we were told we were able to use the pool if we wanted too! It was so hot outside, nearly everyone jumped in immediately. Wherever I go I cant seem to not end up in a pool.

Everywhere we go there are children wandering all over. This specific child below was so precious. He was one of the happiest little kids ive seen. He had dirt all over him and flies swarming his face and eyes but he didnt seem to notice at all. He would come and play with us and drink our water and take our snacks. All the children around Morocco were always eyeing or asking for water and snacks when they saw us with some. Its hard to see them suffering and to see them drink a 3 liter bottle of water within seconds is astonishing because you just wonder when the last time they actually had some water was.

Heres our typical daily meal. And when I say daily meal I really mean this is what they fed us for every single meal. It was a slight struggle for me because I really dont enjoy veggies at all, but I never knew when they were going to feed us on this trip or what the next meal was going to be so I kept chopping up all my veggies into the smallest pieces ever and mixing it into my couscous so I couldnt taste it as much. However, I LOVE couscous. You have to be careful eating it though because you often think you can eat mounds of it, but 15min later it all expands in your stomach and it then looks like you have a food baby.

So many of the kids that just rome around the desert just loved taking pictures and being in photos! If they saw someone with a camera they often asked to be in the pictures or to have pictures of them taken!

Below is a picture of me and my friend Allie. We spent one afternoon talking to two nomads, Mohammed and Assi. At first we were a little wary when they began talking to us because we thought they were going to try and "show us their job" and try to sell us stuff like all the other nomads, but after a little small talk we found that they just wanted to talk and we ended up sitting on a sand dune for over and hour. They were so sweet and answered many of our questions about their lifestyle. They tried to teach us some words in their language and taught us how to spell our names in the sand. Its so amazing to me that they knew so much english along with other languages as well just from talking to tourists like us. Through our interactions we were both learning from each other and practicing multiple languages (I even got to practice my spanish a little bit too!)

Through this experience of talking with locals, and a few others in Spain, I've learned that It's always fun to hangout with your friends and talk and do things with them; but its also really interesting to step out of your comfort zone and talk with new people and ask questions. I've learned that people, not all but a lot of them, really enjoy talking and sharing about their lives and taking opportunities to learn about others and their life and culture is something that everyone should really take advantage of.

This is one of my other favorite pictures from my trip besides the camel kissing one! The left is Allie the middle is our new friend Assi and the right is me. In the middle of our conversation Mohammad said "Turn around guys, the sun is setting!" and then I naturally wanted pictures and Assi told us to pose like below and I think the picture turned out awesome.

This trip to Morocco was probably my favorite one so far. It was just so different and amazing I wish I could explain just how unique it was there and all my experiences and what I saw. "different" is the only word that always pops into my head when people ask about Morocco. Even when talking to my friends that went on the trip with me weeks later we just look at each other and say things like "ah, I miss Morocco, it was just so much fun, so different, I can't even explain it." but we understand the same feeling when talking to each other about the experience we just can't find the proper way to portray it to everyone else that gives the whole trip enough justice.