Week Twenty

144 days since I’ve backed up my computer apparently.

This week began with two final farewell days in Dornbirn – pancake dinner at Maddy’s with Stefan, Jan and Camille, moving things over to the new room with Jan and Maddie, farewelling Laura, Nikki and Thijs at the station, sterilising Moosmahdstraße, going to Friends with Jan and Jena and generally just wrapping up this exchange semester. It was super hard to say goodbye to the last few, particularly as they were some of my closest friends from these four months. A big goodbye to the Slovenian hikers and the Dutch girls, I’m seriously going to miss you four a lot.

The hardest of goodbyes this week was to Jena. Between wheeling the BBQ through the streets of Dornbirn and forming the words ‘Servus Dornbirn’ out of all our spare coins, we spent time reminiscing and reflecting on the semester that was. The friendship that I’ve formed with her has been valuable beyond words and I’d be surprised if I ever came across a more sarcastic American in the future. Despite not knowing how to spell favourite, she’s truly one of my most valued friends and I look forward to Dornbirn Down Under 2016. Thank you for walking me to the station at 4:30am on Tuesday where I caught a train to Zurich and a plane to Barcelona.

I find myself now in the coastal Spanish city having the most enjoyable time. I’ve been staying with the lovely Dowsons, sleeping and eating really well and just enjoying the warm (super warm) Barcelona weather. Days haven’t been overly packed as I’m here for about 10 days but have been perfect in terms of holiday mode. I was super fortunate in that Dan got injured so took time out of his busy tennis tour to recover for one or two days meaning we got to see each other. In addition to a visit to the physio, we also made it up some WW2 bunkers where we got a view across all of Barcelona. It was pretty phenomenal. Have also made visits to Barcelona beaches, a range of Tapas bars, Park Guell, the Ramblas and a multitude of gelato shops. I have been blessed to be able to visit ICB, the Dowsons church, and attend a gathering that they have mid week. How thankful I am for their generosity and for showing me around so.

I was super lucky also to cross over with some of the Roseville College gals – Zo, Josie, Gemma and Bell. We walked through the gothic area and sat in various squares. It made me miss Australia but was so nice to see them too, particularly heading to their hostel during the State of Origin. The hostel played the game on all screens in the building and the common areas were FLOODED with Australians. Seriously. The camaraderie was insane! It was just like an aussie pub. What a country hey!

On a sidenote, just came back from the gym with Brent and Polly. Most hi-tech thing I’ve ever seen – you check in through fingerprints and eye scan!

Anyway, that’s just a small update. Having a great time here – loving Spain, loving the seafood, loving the sun but most of all loving the people I’ve been able to spend this time with.

Pancakes/crepes (not using the oven) with Jan, Stefan, Maddy & Camille