Well, trying to write a weekly blog post didn’t turn out as well as I expected….whoops. “I’ll do it next week” has been the daily excuse and all of a sudden I’m here for a month.…what!? All of my new friends would make fun of me for saying this, but TIME FLIES BY WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN! True, right?
Always so much to write about, but so little time. For starters, classes have been going great! Mondays and Wednesdays can kind of be a drag with my days starting around 8:30 am and ending around 5:30 pm, but my one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays makes the long days worth it! I am taking Spanish Literature, Advanced Grammar, a Spanish writing and speaking course, History of Spain, and an Arab History class, which is my favorite, by far.
Always so much to write about, but so little time. For starters, classes have been going great! Mondays and Wednesdays can kind of be a drag with my days starting around 8:30 am and ending around 5:30 pm, but my one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays makes the long days worth it! I am taking Spanish Literature, Advanced Grammar, a Spanish writing and speaking course, History of Spain, and an Arab History class, which is my favorite, by far.
Besides class, these past few weeks have been spent roaming around the city. ISA, the program I am studying with, doesn’t let any week pass by without some type of activity or trip so I've attended my first flamenco show, visited The Alhambra, and have had way too many cafés con leche and Spanish pastries to count (just kidding, you can never have too many.) We all also recently went on a trip to Ronda, Spain for the day, which was amazing. We visited the Baños Arabes (Arab baths) and checked out El Plaza de Los Toros, their bull fighting ring! Olé.
My host parents, Teresa and Francisco, have been a blast. From helping me with my Spanish to cooking me some of the yummiest food, I couldn’t have asked for a better pair. As far as Granada goes, it has been absolutely perfect. The more time I spend here, the happier I am with my decision to study here. I FINALLY feel like I am getting the hang of the city and know my way around, which is comforting. I feel like I know it even better now that I had to make my way to and from the airport all alone this past weekend! Speaking of, did I mention I planned a trip to Barcelona, nothing went wrong, and it actually turned out amazing? Mom and Dad would be proud of me for putting my big girl pants on this time.
Barcelona was nothing short of fabulous. Spontaneity at its finest is when you decide to meet a friend from The U of A, who is studying in Sweden, in northern Spain for a weekend getaway. Since this was my first solo trip, I was a little nervous about everything working out. With the hostel, the flight, attraction tickets, I would say this trip was a complete success! We stayed at HelloBCN hostel, which I 100% recommend to anyone who will be making their way to Barcelona anytime soon. 40 euros for 3 nights, how can you beat that?
Barcelona was nothing short of fabulous. Spontaneity at its finest is when you decide to meet a friend from The U of A, who is studying in Sweden, in northern Spain for a weekend getaway. Since this was my first solo trip, I was a little nervous about everything working out. With the hostel, the flight, attraction tickets, I would say this trip was a complete success! We stayed at HelloBCN hostel, which I 100% recommend to anyone who will be making their way to Barcelona anytime soon. 40 euros for 3 nights, how can you beat that?
We were typical tourists for the weekend and visited the must-sees, such as La Sagrada Familia, La Rambla, Barri Gotic, Park Güell, Castell de Montjuïc, etc. On Friday we took one of the famous Sandeman free tours, which was the best way to see the city, in my opinion. If you ever have the chance to take one, in one of the major cities around the world, check it out. Totally worth it. We hit all of the hot spots and along the way, made two new friends who were studying at Cambridge in London. We ended up spending the rest of the day with them and their hostel “mates,” who were from Spain, Serbia, Germany, South Korea, and Switzerland. While we were out later that night, it hit me that there were 10 people from 7 different countries just casually hanging out in Barcelona. How cool is that? I will definitely be taking up their offer to visit them sometime in the future.
From new friends to some unbelievable sights, the trip was a complete success. I can’t wait until the next time I get to visit! Next on the agenda is Sevilla and Cordoba with my program and then Morocco the week after! AH! Time to mark a new continent off my bucket list. Can’t wait! Until next time amigos!
From new friends to some unbelievable sights, the trip was a complete success. I can’t wait until the next time I get to visit! Next on the agenda is Sevilla and Cordoba with my program and then Morocco the week after! AH! Time to mark a new continent off my bucket list. Can’t wait! Until next time amigos!