Harry Potter, Spain, Kate

Seeing the sun shine away makes me VERY happy. Yesterday was not a good day for being happy. It rained in the morning so I didn't go outside. It stopped in the afternoon so I went to St. John's to practice piano but the sun still wasn't shining. I came back and watched the 4th Harry Potter in partial preparation for the premiere last night. I fell asleep 30 minutes in and after a few tries made it through the movie by about 9:30. However, in between there it began to downpour like mad and after a pounding on the door by security we were sent to the basement of the Gorecki where we had to wait out a tornado watch. It rained forever, only to quit, show us a little sun, and then to begin again... but even harder this time!
We headed to Applebee's for 1/2 off appetizers and $3 Long Islands around 10, making Tuesday my new favorite day. The Long Islands sure didn't help me stay awake to the end of the movie but they were incredibly tasty! In the end I'm proud of not only staying awake for the entirety of the movie but also for understanding almost everything for not being a Harry Potter freak.
And now, a few pics from our last day/night in Segovia...

Kendra, Dave and I as we were saying good-bye. Clearly we were all excited about it.

We all waited until the last day to take a picture with the acueduct!
Here I am with Gladys, our director, at our final dinner with our host moms. She's crazy. Good crazy.

L to R: Me, my host mom Maria Jesus, Leah's host mom Asuncion "Asun", and Leah. Our host moms were friends so one day when mine was in Prague I got to have lunch at Leah's house :) I was also lucky enough to get to play dominoes with Leah's host family one Friday night!

This is my host mom's grandson on the day he came to say good-bye to me. He was trying to hide under my bed so his mom wouldn't take him home because he wanted to stay and play "American cards" with me... aka "slap jack"

I wish I had a picture with Leticia, my host mom's oldest granddaughter (17) who I call my host sister. She spent a lot of time in our house and even lived there full-time for about a month while I was there. Only 5 days until she arrives in the states!

Today my friend Kate and I were planning to go canoeing on Lake Sagatagan at St. John's but it was so windy we opted for a walk to the chapel instead. I haven't done the chapel walk since freshman year so it was nice to go out and see it! It was also the first time I had ever walked out there during the day and oh, how beautiful it is! After our walk we laid in the grass next to the St. John's Abbey just relaxing and talking and Kate taught me something new... that the bottom end of a piece of grass is very sweet tasting. She randomly began to eat blades of grass and when I inquired as to what she was doing she raved about the delicious taste of it. I tried it. Of course. And it was pretty good. I am officially a grass-eater. This summer has been great because Kate and I get to spend a lot of time together. She works the rock wall a few nights a week so I enjoy going there when she's working and actually will only go there if she is working. I don't want anyone but her belaying me!