¡Adiós!

Today is my last day in Salamanca, Spain.

I woke up this morning melancholy and full of wanderlust. I went to the cafe around the corner and got a café con leche with a tiny little sandwich. Then I wandered over to a cybercafe. I have a confession to make. We have Internet at our residence, but I went over to the cybercafe because the guy who works there is super cute, and I wanted to see him one last time. I normally went there to print out papers or stuff on the Internet since we don't have printers here. And no, he's not one of those "cute but not cute" guys, for someone's information. He had an eyebrow ring, which would normally be kind of eww for me, but he's that cute.

Anyway, on my way over there, I started to tear up, oh, sentimental fool that I am. I wrote an email to a friend as a pretext, and asked him what group he had playing in the background. It was some modern Flamenco, and I liked it. He made a CD full of Flamenco for me and gave me candy. I felt like a little girl. I told him that I was sad because today was my last day here and I wasn't ready to go back. I nearly cried! What is wrong with me? He was really sweet about it and said some encouraging things to try to make me smile and sent me off with dos besitos.

Then I wandered over to the park. My sunglasses stopped the tears from running down my face. I found a shady, solitary spot and just sat there. A man calling out to his dog named Whiskey. An old decrepit man hobbling along on crutches. Bent over women walking arm in arm. I brought a book to read, but all I could do was stare into space.

I teared up talking to nearly everyone I spent time with today. I slowly began snapping out of it, though. I eventually did some whirlwind souvenir and gift shopping. I got my last ice cream cone from Café Novelty in the Plaza. It was tiramisu-flavored. I think the ice cream is what completely snapped me out of it.

Now I have to pack. My next adventure is Pah-REE. I don't know if I'll have Internet access there, but if so, my next post will be "Bonjour!" Here are a few "goodbye" pictures: