Hey hey! We’re now a month into classes here in Granada. I’ve changed housing, traveled to two different cities in Spain and plan to travel to another one soon, so we have a lot to catch up on.
The biggest thing that I think I need to explain is my housing change, going from a homestay with a family to a residence hall with other IES and University of Granada students. I was really sad to say goodbye to living with my family, but it was a decision that was best for me.
When studying abroad is talked about, everyone talks about how amazing homestays are and how much they help to improve your language skills. While both of those are most definitely true, what’s not brought up is how your personality type might affect the type of housing you want to consider while living abroad.
I definitely consider myself very introverted. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with people, especially my friends, but I need a place that is my own, that I can go to when I need a break and not worry about interacting with people. I’m also pretty independent and enjoy coming and going as I please and doing things on my own.
It’s very hard to feel like you can be both of these things while living in a homestay, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just didn’t really fit well with me personally. My host family and I tried our best to make it work, but at the end of the day, the best option was to move to a residence hall.
That’s been the biggest thing that’s happened in the past two weeks, but I’ve also done some traveling as well!
I went on a weekend trip to Madrid two weeks ago, where I met my parents for the beginning of the 10 day trip they had planned in Spain to visit me and to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
We spent a lot of time talking and walking around, doing some tours and eating a lot of really good food. One of the restaurants we went to for dinner had this amazing chicken paella, and I’m now committed to learning how to cook paella myself for when I get back to the States.
On the drive back to Granada from Madrid, we stopped in Toledo and walked around the historic city for a few hours. It was super interesting to compare the two cities, Toledo being the historic capital of Spain and Madrid being the current capital of the country.
IES also took us on a day trip to Cordoba, a trip I was required to attend for my religion class since the city is a rich historical site for Sephardic Jews in Spain. The professor for our class led our tour of the city before we took a tour led by one of the other professors of the old Mosque that was converted into a Cathedral when the Catholic Monarchy took over Spain.
It was a super informative trip and I’ve loved being able to travel to a few different places in Spain with IES. This upcoming weekend will be my first solo trip since getting to Spain, and I’ll be going to Sevilla for a few days to explore and visit a friend who’s studying abroad there.
That’s about all I have as an update over the last two weeks, but as always I’m enjoying my time here and loving all of the people that I’m meeting and forming friendships with. Hasta luego!
