By Katie Reed
Universidad de Navarra, Spain
Well I have finally made it to the day that I was anticipating since I left home...the day Mom and Aunt Marcia are coming to Spain! However, this past week leading up to today has been the hardest yet. Last Thursday was the big strike that I last blogged about and after that things seemed to get harder and harder. When I got up on Friday, went to class, and came back I had an email from Dad. I knew that my baby girl Millie was sick, but on Thursday night Dad had to have her put her down. This broke my heart. I remember being out on the river bank camping for the weekend and turning around and there was that pitiful girl sitting there about to starve. After stealing our food out of our tent she refused to leave. By the end of the camping trip we had convinced Dad to let us take her home. So after loading up the jeep we put her right in on top of all our stuff and Millie was off to her new home. From that moment on she was our little rescue baby. Everytime I pulled up in the driveway my girl was at my feet before I even got my car door open. Everytime I walked out the door it was all I could do to walk without walking right on top of her. She was such a sweetheart and very special to me. After putting her down it was so hard to let go of my baby, wanting to be there for my Dad in this hard time, and then worrying about Mickey. He was like a part of Millie, everywhere she went he went, everytime she barked, he barked. After losing Millie it was hard to imagine how poor Mickey would take it. However, the day went on and the next morning when I got up I had a text with one of the worst things I had heard in a long time. Will and Katie were in a car wreck and Will was killed instantly while Katie was sent to UT but then passed away later that night. They both have always been very special to me and have lots of fond memories of them. It was so hard to hear this, but what made it even harder was not being able to be there for the people that I love when they needed me the most. Going through all this definitely made me appreciate all the people that I have in my life. I have become so much closer to my friends now and especially to God. Without him I don't know how me or anyone else would make it through this. It was so comforting to have Courtney and Amanda here though to talk to and know that even though I was far away from home, I was not alone. After making it through the weekend I had a test Monday and it was back to the regular school week. Oh wait..no its not...it's only a three day week because Semana Santa "holy week" starts Thursday!! One afternoon Aude, Courtney, Amanda, and I walked to La Morea for some girl time and shopping. Wednesday we had another test in Spanish but this one was oral. It turned out being kinda fun though. My partner was from Brazil and we had to have a formal and informal conversation in Spanish. I have never been able to not laugh during these exams, even at home at MC. Oh well, that makes it fun. After that I went to my next class only to find out that it had been cancelled so my vacation began early! This only left one logical option....Siesta (nap)!! However, after falling asleep I didn't wake back up until 5 hours later. Needless to say this kept me alive and well till after 4 this morning. I went down that evening to Courtney's room where Aude was attempting to teach her some french before she went to Paris...this was nothing less than hilarious. We told Aude that we wanted her to tell us a story from her childhood in french and we wanted to try to figure out what the story was about. It was all she could to to tell the story without laughing histerically because she knew that we were not going to understand anything that she was saying. Once she started we were convinced we heard something about nutella, cartoons and elephants. However, of course we were wrong...it had nothing to do with any of that. After deciding we should probably start packing we ceased our learning session and headed back to our rooms. Today I have just been taking it easy. I got some homework done, my own newspaper article with handdrawn pictures...I am very proud! lol. I am all packed and ready to go. My bus leaves here tonight at 1am heading to Madrid. There plane gets in about 7:30 am so I will meet them at the airport when they arive and then it is Madrid and Barcelona for us all for a week! I told myself when I left home in January that if I could make it to Spring Break when Mom came to visit then it would be all downhill from there, and what do you know...its here! Let the fun begin!!!
Universidad de Navarra, Spain
Well I have finally made it to the day that I was anticipating since I left home...the day Mom and Aunt Marcia are coming to Spain! However, this past week leading up to today has been the hardest yet. Last Thursday was the big strike that I last blogged about and after that things seemed to get harder and harder. When I got up on Friday, went to class, and came back I had an email from Dad. I knew that my baby girl Millie was sick, but on Thursday night Dad had to have her put her down. This broke my heart. I remember being out on the river bank camping for the weekend and turning around and there was that pitiful girl sitting there about to starve. After stealing our food out of our tent she refused to leave. By the end of the camping trip we had convinced Dad to let us take her home. So after loading up the jeep we put her right in on top of all our stuff and Millie was off to her new home. From that moment on she was our little rescue baby. Everytime I pulled up in the driveway my girl was at my feet before I even got my car door open. Everytime I walked out the door it was all I could do to walk without walking right on top of her. She was such a sweetheart and very special to me. After putting her down it was so hard to let go of my baby, wanting to be there for my Dad in this hard time, and then worrying about Mickey. He was like a part of Millie, everywhere she went he went, everytime she barked, he barked. After losing Millie it was hard to imagine how poor Mickey would take it. However, the day went on and the next morning when I got up I had a text with one of the worst things I had heard in a long time. Will and Katie were in a car wreck and Will was killed instantly while Katie was sent to UT but then passed away later that night. They both have always been very special to me and have lots of fond memories of them. It was so hard to hear this, but what made it even harder was not being able to be there for the people that I love when they needed me the most. Going through all this definitely made me appreciate all the people that I have in my life. I have become so much closer to my friends now and especially to God. Without him I don't know how me or anyone else would make it through this. It was so comforting to have Courtney and Amanda here though to talk to and know that even though I was far away from home, I was not alone. After making it through the weekend I had a test Monday and it was back to the regular school week. Oh wait..no its not...it's only a three day week because Semana Santa "holy week" starts Thursday!! One afternoon Aude, Courtney, Amanda, and I walked to La Morea for some girl time and shopping. Wednesday we had another test in Spanish but this one was oral. It turned out being kinda fun though. My partner was from Brazil and we had to have a formal and informal conversation in Spanish. I have never been able to not laugh during these exams, even at home at MC. Oh well, that makes it fun. After that I went to my next class only to find out that it had been cancelled so my vacation began early! This only left one logical option....Siesta (nap)!! However, after falling asleep I didn't wake back up until 5 hours later. Needless to say this kept me alive and well till after 4 this morning. I went down that evening to Courtney's room where Aude was attempting to teach her some french before she went to Paris...this was nothing less than hilarious. We told Aude that we wanted her to tell us a story from her childhood in french and we wanted to try to figure out what the story was about. It was all she could to to tell the story without laughing histerically because she knew that we were not going to understand anything that she was saying. Once she started we were convinced we heard something about nutella, cartoons and elephants. However, of course we were wrong...it had nothing to do with any of that. After deciding we should probably start packing we ceased our learning session and headed back to our rooms. Today I have just been taking it easy. I got some homework done, my own newspaper article with handdrawn pictures...I am very proud! lol. I am all packed and ready to go. My bus leaves here tonight at 1am heading to Madrid. There plane gets in about 7:30 am so I will meet them at the airport when they arive and then it is Madrid and Barcelona for us all for a week! I told myself when I left home in January that if I could make it to Spring Break when Mom came to visit then it would be all downhill from there, and what do you know...its here! Let the fun begin!!!