End of ILP Dinner

September 19th

I had slept over at la residencia and got up at 9:00 for the last "free" breakfast.  We had our last orientation at 10:00 to answer last minute questions about registering for classes and what we were supposed to do next week once classes began.  I turned in my class sheet and if I get the schedule that I want, I will have class all day on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, but I'll have Wednesdays and Fridays off.  Wednesdays for homework, Fridays for travel.

After lunch, I officially moved out of the residencia and turned in my key.  Rather than head straight to my piso, I climbed farther up the hill of La Cartuja and explored the area that I had neglected to go to the last three weeks.  There were some cool buildings in the philosophy college and also a beautiful observatory at the top of the hill.

The rest of the afternoon at my piso was lowkey.  I hung out with my roommates and helped clean up our apartment.  I had an introduction to German lesson from Heiko as we went over the pronunciation of the alphabet and basic words and phrases.  

At 9:00 I headed up the street to Puerta Elvira for the final ELP dinner.  It was in fancy hotel and rather than have a sit down dinner we were served hundreds of tapas of all different varieties along with copious amounts of soda, wine, and beer.  All of the professors and directors were there as well.  I think the professors imbibed more than the students as a group of guys and I spent the evening talking to our Grammar professor who was giving us the low down of the many types of wine that Spain had to offer.  Everyone had a great time.

Those students who had to catch early morning flights went back to their pisos while the rest of us went out to the botellón.  I didn't want to go to another discotheque so after stopping by to see my friend's piso, I went home at the early hour of 4am.

Tomorrow at 7:00pm I leave for Madrid and then a flight to Paris.  I'll be in Paris for three days staying with a friend from UCSD.  I'm spending three days in Paris for sure but I may decide to continue on to Brussels and Amsterdam to meet up with friends from my program.