15. Lasts

The Camino ended on the 3rd of May. We had to say good bye to all our new friends, but it wasn’t an all sad affair, because no more than two weeks later we would have an epic Exchange Student Reunion. This was thanks to the Spanish Tri-District Convention held in Toledo over the weekend of 15 May. All the Rotarians form the whole country converged on Toledo for one weekend to celebrate Rotary and also discuss projects. It was compulsory for all exchange students to attend, but no one complained. It was a lovely two days. The Friday we all donned our pin filled blazers and met up in the lobby of the hotel the Convention was held at. It was wonderful, seeing the same people you shared four days with only two weeks back, or meeting up with some of those you hadn’t seen since Burgos, or since my first week when we went to Guadarama or even meeting new people!

Even though it was a three day meet-up, we as exchange students only attended the Friday. The guest speaker at the event was no one other than the President of Rotary International, K.R. Ravindran himself. And as if that wasn't enough, I had the enormous honour to be asked to ask him a question in a Q&A session we as exchange students had with him.

The Saturday the students were treated to a walk-through tour of Toledo, having tour guides and the whole shebang! The evening we had off time at the hostel we were staying and everyone got to know each other better, sharing all our crazy exchange stories. Sunday everyone got back on our fleet of buses and headed to Madrid for another (more informal) walking tour though the city. At the end of the morning everyone was joyful – this wasn’t goodbye. At least, not for those going on Eurotour. I unfortunately could not go because of the steep price. So, for me, this was certainly goodbye to most of my new friends who didn’t live in Madrid.

After the Rotary weekend, I had a mere three days of school left before our graduation. Let me explain how the system for their final year students work, and how I fit into the picture.

The 2º’s (short vir Segundo Bachillerato, which is what they call their final year) have official school until the middle of May (in our case it was the 18th) where after they have their graduation ceremony. Before that though, they have about two weeks of globales where they write exams about the whole year’s work (I was in Galicia during that time). After graduation they have two and a half weeks to study for their university entrance exams, called selectividades. The names of these series are quite self-explanatory. When you’ve written those you’re officially officially done with school (given that you pass) and can start to enjoy summer while the rest of the grades still have school until the end of June.

Out of all those things I only attended the graduation ceremony and enjoyed my summer *laughs nervously*. Let me tell you how it all went down;

The weekend after we got back from The Camino, I went dress shopping with my favourite Indian in Principe Pio. Shoutout to Raghav for tagging along and giving advice and opinions on every dress I tried on until I finally got the perfect one – completely the opposite of what I planned on. Still.

Shoes weren’t an option because Spain doesn’t cater for feet the likes of mine and I refused to sell my soul at Corte d’Ingles in exchange for a pair of shoes that would fit. Honestly, I’ve never seen such outrages prices for little known brands. So, my trustworthy pumps from SA would have to do. Make up also wasn’t a problem, I had what I needed and could do it myself. Hair too.

So, the day arrived, I had tickets for the fam to attend the ceremony and everything went rather smoothly. It was held in the auditorium of a nearby Art Centre and there were speeches made (a student from every class of which there are three plus some teachers) and also two musical numbers – piano and two classical guitars. Afterwards we all went to big hall that they had rented for the night and partied until dawn – literally. We partied the whole night through, had chocolate and churros the next morning and went back to school just to run through the passages and scream and shout and be generally jovial that we never had to see the inside of that place again. The girls with their high heels and less-pristine-than-before-hair and the guys with blazers slung over their arms and loosened ties – I’m sure it was quite the spectacle. But that is the tradition and I gladly partook, although it all fell a bit flat in my eyes seeing as I would be returning in September. Nevertheless, it was a night I would always remember.

And so began the long summer. Although, not quite yet. I still

attended History of Art everyday for one (sometimes two or three) hours. We weren’t done with the syllabus and as I am enamoured with the subject, I did not object one bit. Besides, I had nothing else to do during the day

During this time I also attended another two Rotary events. One was a tree planting day / picnic near Rascafría in the Sierra Guadarrama with the Sierra de Madrid Club. The next weekend we had our Exchange Student Conference for our district 2201. A goodbye and good luck for the outbounds (my host sister included!) and a good bye and a thank you for the inbounds all going home at the end of June/beginning July. I was asked to sing something for a little entertainment. I prepared three songs and played and sang on the keyboard that a Rotarian brought. I won’t say it went bad, but it could have been better. I guess my nerves got the better of me. Luckily Nahla stole the show with her indigenous Indonesian dance called Tari Merak, meaning Peacock Dance. And wow, what a sight to behold! (See photos). The inbounds also each received an orla, which is like a a class photo you usually receive at the end of 2º, with a single photo of every student on. I thought that was a very sweet thing of Rotary to do for us. The rest of the day was a nice lunch shared among friends.

The following Monday night, our club, Pozuelo, invited us for our (the northerners) last meeting. We all dressed up very chicly, gave a little presentation on our year, (finally) exchanged club banners and while we waited for Nahla to change into her dance uniform (once again) I performed Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika (South Africa's national anthem) to the evening's company, acapella. And thus fully redeemed myself after Saturday's little mishap.

All these gatherings were each starting to be a last. The people around me would all be gone within the next month and a half and then I’d be alone until the newbies arrived in September. And although that was only a two month gap, it was a gap that had never before been there. From the moment I got to Spain, there had always been another exchange student I could hang out with whenever I wanted to. And now I had to face reality of that not being possible. I tried not to think about that too much.

The weekend before everyone left for Paris to start their Eurotour, we all went to the very aptly named Parque de Attractions (yes, the park’s name is literally “Attraction Park”). We spent the whole day there, standing in long queues for a 30sec – 1 minute ride. But it was all worth it. For dinner we went into Madrid to a Mexican restaurant and spent the rest of the night walking around Madrid as a big group of friends – another thing which was a last.
It was lovely.

The next day we had what I now call The Tear Fest. Everyone got together in Las Matas, each person bringing something to eat as a tapa and then we ordered pizza for lunch. When we had our food, the speeches began. One at a time one person would stand up and speak to each exchangee, telling them what they meant to them, recalling some fond memories and promising to keep them in their hearts always. And as the afternoon came to an end, so the tears came as we started saying goodbye. Yes, most of them still had Eurotour, but because of all the poured out sentiments, it made everyone a little more sensitive.

I realised that this saying goodbye-thing was something that I would have to get used to pretty soon, or else I would take each blow to hard.