Keeping in stride with my posts this far, this last one is *late* per usual. Spain has really shown me the importance of slowing down when it comes to assignments and correspondences. So, as I linger here a couple of weeks longer and my home university begins bugging me about things for the coming fall semester, I find myself keeping with these less American expectations about *due dates*.

But enough about that!

These past couple of weeks have been filled with lots of lasts and lots of firsts. A quick rundown, the last two weeks consisted of:

– very very little sleep

– one (16 hour) dance-filled music festival

– many many sunsets watched on the beach

– a major heat wave

– school I swear! (more on this later)

– final paper

– final presentations

– our last group lunch

– a Basque cooking class

– and so many goodbyes and hugs

As I reflect on my time here, I am reminded of how important the relationships we make are. The people I met here became so important to this experience and I grew to care very much for them. This made the final few days with everyone quite emotional. However, •agur• (a Basque word you might remember from some of my other posts if you’ve been keeping up with me) comes from a connotation of “a hint of something in the future.” As I say agur to my friends here, I can’t help but feel like it isn’t a true goodbye. Like some of you have been following my adventures here, I will be following theirs and I can’t wait to see what exciting things everyone gets up to.

I am also reminded of the impermanence of our experiences by taking a quick account of the things I’ve lost and broken on this trip. Here’s a little list for you:

– two pairs of shoes completely destroyed

– one broken phone charger

– not one, not two, but FOUR pairs of lost sunglasses

– two broken wallets

– three lost pins

– and one lost wine opener

If I included everything lost and broken by each of us, there would be pages to fill. But oh well, things are meant to be used and not everything is meant to make it to the other side.

I do promise I’ve been in school this whole time! In fact, the last couple of weeks were heavily dedicated to final projects with much of my time spent in various libraries (and getting kicked out of said libraries) with friends. I’ve realized that libraries are very strict here. Some are meant *only* for reading magazines and newspapers, some require very specific reservations (even when they’re empty), and some close in the middle of the day without any warning at all. But oh well, we made do.

For my final project, I decided to do a critique of green energy from a European perspective. I really didn’t know where I was going with my research when I started. I just knew I wanted to write about energy. It wasn’t until I was almost entirely done that I realized my paper was about the weaponization of the term “green energy” by states/entities/governments as a form of propaganda to perpetuate infrastructural/economic colonialism in parts of the global south and to maintain the capitalist notion of growth. I am curious about what else I might find on this path if I keep looking. You all might hear more about this from me later.

All of our hard work took the stage during our final presentations. Everyone chose to write about different topics and all came from pretty different backgrounds so there was quite a variety in what people talked about. Seeing everyone’s hard work made me so proud of all of us.

So, this is my last post here. If you’re interested in keeping up with my adventures, you can follow me on instagram @deer.hands. With so much appreciation and gratitude for my time here and the people I met along the way, I say agur for the last time. And to all of you, I say the same.