It's official...

...I'M COMING BACK!!!

My acceptance letter!

For anyone that didn't already know, I found out about 2 weeks ago, that my contract had been renewed and I had received placement in Andalucía for the coming school year. Two days ago, I got my official letter saying that I'll be returning to the same school in Rioja! YESSSSSS! Despite all the doubt that I had after having turned in my application late, everything actually worked out for me! I am sooo excited!

When I found out, it was like the most gigantic weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I had been worrying a ton about what the next year would bring for me and it was definitely affecting the way I was thinking and how I was feeling about the quickly-approaching end of this term--including one night that ended with me in tears in the middle of downtown after talking to Tomás about how much I was going to miss living with them next year :(

But anyway, now that I know I'll be back, I feel so much more carefree about these last couple weeks here. While I obviously want to take advantage of this time, it's not the end of the world if I don't get to do everything that I want since I'll have many-a-more weekends here next year!

As for plans for next year, I regret to inform you all that you will no longer be hearing stories about how Martín saved our asses by calling the landlord and getting him to fix all of the broken things in our apartment. Nor will you be entertained by stories of Tomás' ridiculous antics. Martín will be finishing up his undergrad studies at the end of this term and will either be moving back home or as he would much prefer, to Valencia to pursue a masters. As for Tomás, he will be moving to Milan, Italy for the year to study abroad. That being said, I'll be living with Endika, who luckily for me, is staying and more than likely 2 others who we will meet in September when we begin the search for our replacement roommates.

And the next question that you might have, NO we will NOT be staying in the same piso! ZERO percent chance of that happening. As I'm sure you all recall from the blog entry about the bathroom, one too many things have broken in this apartment for me to even consider coming back. To date, the list of things that have broken/gone wrong includes, but is not limited to: water pipes, water heater (nearly fell off the wall and was hanging on by a single screw), cable box, light on the terrace where we hang our laundry, our second bathroom, la plancha (the griddle deal we often cook on in our kitchen), our toilet (was detached from a pipe and leaked water everywhere a couple times), the drains in our bathroom (water was coming out of a hole in the ground and made it all the way into the living room and into Tomás' room), several kitchen cabinets, and our kitchen sink faucet (fell off the wall and was held on with scotch tape for like 4 days while we waited for our landlord to come fix it). That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there's more! Wow, seeing all those things together in that list makes it sound absolutely ridiculous...like I live in a homeless shelter or something hahaha

While I am super comfortable here and it has actually felt really homey since day 1, I don't think that it could sustain 4 people living in it for another year. At the rate we're going, there would be fewer things left in tact than broken if we lived here again. That being said, we will begin our search for a new apartment here pretty soon as we want to have something secured before I leave for the summer. We're hoping to stay in the same part of town as it's a great location with 2 big grocery stores, the gym, and most of our group of friends very close. I'll update the blog with pictures and everything when we decide on a place for next year!

I'm unbelievably close to finishing up this school year here. I've only got 2 weeks and 2 days left of work...that's a total of only 10 work days! Insane. I can't believe how fast it has gone. Here's to the little rats I don't have to say bye to at the end of May :)