And all of a sudden it is over
I am writing my final story upon return in the Netherlands after ending my Erasmus period.
The last week I had to finalise my work in the lab, and teach the things I learned to an Italian girl which started with her internship in the lab and will be taking over my tasks. It was nice to be able to explain everything to her, and to have as an intern, my own intern, which followed me and listed to me carefully, as I did at the start of my internship half a year ago.
But during this last week I also had some spare time, as you can read in my previous story about taking a surf lesson and spending time with my friends. Since I don’t know when I will go back to Valencia, I organised two ‘despedidas’ (goodbye parties) in order to see everyone that was close to me during these last six months.
One of the goodbye parties took place in a ‘Bodega’ which was used in the past as a wine cellar, in which you can order tapas (jámon, queso and more) and drink wine that is stored inside big barrels. Many locals come and visit this place and therefore I organised my goodbye dinner for my lab colleges in this ‘Bodega.’ It was very nice to see that all of them came to say goodbye, we had a really nice evening!
My last evening, which was on a Friday, I decided to invite my friends at my place to have some drinks and to go out to one of my favourite clubs in Valencia afterwards, which you can see on the picture. A traditional thing to do is to buy a Spanish flag and let the people write something on it and to keep it as a memory. After my friends wrote on my flag we went out; it was a great evening in which I had so much fun! When I got back home in the morning I called a taxi and went to the airport.
After reading all the nice messages on my flag I got a bit emotional for leaving Valencia. It has been an amazing half a year, in which I have developed myself, not only during my work in the lab but also as a person. I look back at a great time in which I visited beautiful places in Spain and in which I met such nice people. Some friendships I have made will surely last longer than these six months! Even though I am back in the Netherlands now, I cherish all the memories and I know I will be back soon. Therefore I know this is not a goodbye, but this is a ‘see you soon’!
¡Hasta pronto, hasta luego Valencia!