Goodbye!

Barcelona has been wonderful, I’ve been so glad to be living in Europe again. But as the announcements have come and gone for all the fun parties (and championship winning games!!!!) I’ve missed, I’m regretting my decision to stay in Europe long after school finished up here. I miss my Kenan-Flagler family, and I’m scared that my incessant Facebook status updates are not enough to keep me fresh in my friends’ memories.
I chose to remain this long to be able to explore parts of Europe I had yet to visit, and I have. I’m on the train home from Bilbao now, not riding a motorcycle as I’d hoped to, due to my extremely foolish insistence on riding from Barcelona to Nice in the rain. I hate riding in the rain, and crashed in Nice, so the train it is. However, since it seems to never stop raining here, I’m glad to be on the train and not cold and wet on a bike.
I have taken some wonderful trips, including revisiting two of my favorite cities, London and Paris, finally seeing the Cote D’Azur (even though most of that trip was spent recuperating from a sprained ankle in my hotel room), watching the World Superbike race in Valencia, and finally seeing the Guggenheim Bilbao, as well as the special bonus of seeing one of Bilbao’s nightly “Saint’s Week” processions, and sharing a hotel with the cast and crew of Cirque Du Soleil’s Varekai, tempting me to run away with the circus…
The big reason I’m staying so long and missing all the awesome parties with my wonderful friends is that I’m obsessed with MotoGP. This is the world’s premier motorcycling race series, and Spain competes head-to-head with Italy for having the most passionate fan base. The Jerez, Spain round was always the first on the calendar, and remains the first European race. It’s a big deal, like going to Mecca, but even bigger, for people like me.
So I figured why not stick around and be with my people the first weekend of May, then rush back to the Hill in time for graduation? Well, it turns out, as much as I prefer living in a European city over Small Town, USA, I also prefer being with my friends! I knew I’d miss being “in the bubble” once graduation comes and it’s time to start making money, but I didn’t realize just how much I’d miss my family at Kenan-Flagler. I’ve never been in such a tight-knit group before and it was an experience I’m sure I’ll always try to recapture.Here’s 3/4^ths of the Kenan-Flagler/ESADE crew gathered ‘round the laptop for one of our Tarheel’s winning games. Of course only the fashionista remembered to wear the right t-shirt!If you’d like to read the next chapters, you can always find me on LiveJournal.

Susanna Schick