{"id":4729,"date":"2014-05-21T08:40:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T13:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=4729"},"modified":"2014-05-21T08:40:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T13:40:51","slug":"saying-adios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2014\/05\/21\/saying-adios\/","title":{"rendered":"Saying Adios"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/courtneyadios201405a.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-4788\" alt=\"courtneyadios201405a\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/courtneyadios201405a.jpg\" width=\"576\" height=\"316\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<figure><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/courtneyadios201405c.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-4790 alignright\" alt=\"courtneyadios201405c\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/courtneyadios201405c.jpg\" width=\"259\" height=\"390\" \/><\/a>Oh what a semester! I am very proud and happy with everything that&#8217;s happened over the past five months: the travels, the language studies, the relationships created &#8230; it&#8217;s been a truly rewarding and exhilarating experience of self-discovery, education enhancement, and understanding.<\/p>\n<p>One of the scariest things I&#8217;ve experienced in my life was stepping off the bus in Valladolid to be picked up by our new host families. I was absolutely petrified. But that step led me into the arms of a host mom who I couldn&#8217;t be more thankful for and an experience I will treasure forever. Everyone who&#8217;s been on study abroad trips usually says the same thing, but until you live it for yourself I think it&#8217;s impossible to understand how your life is altered after learning to adapt and live in a new environment.<\/p>\n<p>The hardest part come Saturday morning will be parting with the people I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time with while here. One of the best ways to learn a language is to connect with the people of the community, and for this I&#8217;ve made a good amount of close friends over the past semester. Between saying goodbye to my host mom, the professors, and my new friends it will be a little <em>triste<\/em>.\u00a0A friend once told me how he chooses not to miss people; that to miss someone is a sad, depressing action. When we think of people not with us in our present moment, we shouldn&#8217;t be sad about that! Instead, he explained to me we should celebrate the relationship we have with the person. I believe this is true, so I also opted not to &#8216;miss&#8217; people, but celebrate the times we spend together. I also believe the people that mean the most to you in your life you will see again.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/courtneyadios201405b.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-4789\" alt=\"courtneyadios201405b\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/05\/courtneyadios201405b.jpg\" width=\"576\" height=\"316\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Leaving Saturday, I have no doubt in my mind that I will return to Spain whether for work, vacation or long term. I think this makes it easier to leave. I felt the same when I left the U.S. to come here; I was confident I was going to return to the U.S. (I mean, I live there) so I didn&#8217;t feel I needed to be sad about embarking on an adventure. This time, I am stepping on the plane to start life as a graduate; independent, educated and traveled. It&#8217;s the next step in life, and I am fortunate enough to take it with the experiences I&#8217;ve had here over the last five months.<\/p>\n<p>So it&#8217;s not an <em>adios<\/em> Spain, but only a <em>hasta luego.<br \/>\n<\/em> Courtney<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/category\/students\/courtney-c\/\">Courtney Cerniglia<\/a> is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point majoring in business administration and Spanish.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oh what a semester! I am very proud and happy with everything that&#8217;s happened over the past five months: the travels, the language studies, the relationships created &#8230; it&#8217;s been a truly rewarding and exhilarating experience of self-discovery, education enhancement, and understanding. One of the scariest things I&#8217;ve experienced in my life was stepping off [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,12,53,23,24],"tags":[440,305,312,343,344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}