Vida Con Ashley

What It's Like To Study Abroad In Spain

By Unknown - 1:43 PM

When I first started at ECU, I was unsure of a lot of things. The only thing I knew for sure was that, at some point during my 4 years, I wanted to study abroad. However, I never thought I would go somewhere that I didn’t know the language. With my job as an RA, I couldn’t take a semester off to study abroad, which limited my options. During my junior year, I found out about the summer program to study Spanish in Granada, Spain. I had to take 2 more years of a language for my major so I figured why not? I took a chance and I can easily say that it was the best month of my life. If you’ve been keeping up with my previous posts, you’ll already have an idea of what I’ve been doing. In this post, I’m going to break down my experience as a whole.

School:

Every day for a month, I attended the Centre of Modern Language at the University of Granada. I took Spanish 2 with a class of 6 people and 2 teachers. My classes began at 9am and went until 1pm with a 30 minute break in between the 2. If you’ve ever taken a Spanish class in the US, it might not have been very enjoyable. At least it’s never been my favorite. However, I really enjoyed my classes in Spain. Being in such a small class with teachers who spoke in Spanish 99% of the time really made it easier to learn. For once, I felt fully prepared for our final exams and ended up with an overall A- for the month. Also, the school had 2 coffee vending machines with café con leche. I can’t even pretend that that wasn’t my favorite part.

Family:

For the month, I lived with a host family. A mother, and her 10 year old daughter in an apartment about 20 minutes from the city center. My family was very nice and hospitable, but the language barrier was a bit frustrating for both of us at times. I didn’t know much Spanish, and they didn’t know much English. I wanted to talk about a lot of things, but I wasn’t sure how to say it. One thing that took a bit of time to adjust to was having to eat 3 meals a day. It’s very rare that I eat 3 full meals a day at home, much less 3 full meals. About halfway through the month I got used to it, and actually looked forward to going home to have lunch instead of always eating out.

Program/Activities:

The program that I went with was EDUCATRIP and they were AMAZING! The staff was always super helpful and available, and our excursions were lots of fun. We had weekend trips to Nerja (my FAVE), Los Cahorros, Seville, and Cordoba. We also had tours of the Alhambra, Albaycin, and cathedral in Granada. Some trips I liked more than others, but it was mainly due to who our tour guide was, and not because of the place itself.

Other Activities:

Whenever we had free time, which wasn’t often, we would go shopping or hang out around the city and get tapas. We spent our first weekend in Madrid, and our last weekend was spent in Barcelona. Both cities were so much fun, but they’re so different that I can’t begin to say one was better than the other. However, if I HAD to pick only one to go back to, it would be Madrid. Barcelona is HUGE and looks a lot like any other large American city. Madrid felt more ~authentic~ and the people were so much nicer and fun. I guess the only way to get a fair comparison is to go back again ;)

Overall, my experience in Spain was nothing short of incredible. If you're ever given the opportunity to study abroad, absolutely go for it. You won't regret it and you may not ever get a chance like this again.

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"Soy Dead"

By Unknown - 8:25 AM

These last 2 weeks have gone by so fast that I haven't had time to sit down and write about everything. Most of last week was spent shopping (let's be honest, that's been every week), hitting up a few local bars, and studying for final exams. After hours of studying, I can happily say I passed my classes with an A- [insert praise emoji].

To celebrate our last weekend in Spain/classes ending, a few of us spent the weekend in Barcelona. We left immedietly after class on Friday and taxi'd to the bus station, which we then took a bus to Malaga's airport to fly to Barcelona. After a long day of travel, we finally arrived to Barcelona around midnight. On Saturday, we took a cable car over the city which was absolutely amazing. I would also like to say that, to get to the cable car, we climbed a steep dirt hill wearing jeans and sandals. If you remember our steep hill climbing adventure in Nerja, it went very similar to that.

After the cable car, we took a bus to Park Güell across the city. Unfortunately, the park had sold out tickets to see the part Gaudí designed, so instead, we climbed up to the highest point we could find at the park to f~~inally catch a cool breeze~~ look over the entire city.

Whilst at the top, we could see the infamous Segrada Familia (which unfortunately was sold out all weekend). I never realized how massive this building was, and it amazes me that it won't be finished until 2026 and it'll be double the size it already is. I'm currently planning on coming back when it's finished, who's with me?

After miles (9 to be exact) of walking we made a pit stop at the Arc De Triomf. Fun fact: Barcelona was supposed to have the Eiffel Tower, but the citizens said no because it was too ugly for their beautiful city.

That night, after a siesta that accidentally lasted 2 hours too long, we got ready and headed out to an Irish pub nearby to watch the Real Madrid/Barcelona soccer game. The game started at 2am our time, and the bar closed at 3am, so we only saw half of the game, but in the end Barcelona won and that's all that matters. Since the night was still young, we found a club down the street and took a chance. It was an interesting night to say the least, and we didn't get home until 5am. That left us just enough time to wake up bright and early for another day of adventures.

On Sunday, we (once again) woke up later than expected, but quickly made our way out the door to a burrito restaurant a block away. I haven't had a burrito in at least a month, so when I say this was the best burrito I've had in a while, technically I'm not lying. After our burritos, we metro'd to Camp Nou for a tour of the stadium. I've never really been a soccer fan, but after touring the stadium and learning a bit about the team and their history, I think I can say I'm a fan. I bought a shirt so that counts for something, right?

After the stadium, we hauled it back to Park Güell and bought tickets to go into the mosaic area. The architecture was incredible and the views of the whole city were unreal. Once we were done taking 10000 pictures, we headed home to chill on the beach before our day of travel the following day.

Now here is where everything begins to go downhill. The night before, we said we'd go to sleep around 12 since we had to get up at 4am for our flight at 7am. We ended up staying up until 2am, and were woken up by the hotel owner at 5:37am banging on our door to tell us our taxi was here and didn't want to wait. Needless to say, we were up, packed, and out of that room within 2 minutes. Our taxi driver hated us, but FLEW to the airport which I appreciated greatly.

"Oh it's fine", we said, "it's early and no one will be there", we said.

We were wrong.

The line for security had at least 500 people in it and by this time it was 6am. We eventually got up to security around 6:15, but all broke into groups since we didn't want to wait and we all miss our plane. Me and my 2 pals finally got through security and headed towards gate A05. Halfway to our gate I got a text from the other group saying we were gate B36 on the other side of the airport. Mind you it's 6:30 and we're on the other side. We HAUL to the other side, but when we're 2 gates away, I receive another text saying it was the wrong gate and we're at A05. We all run (literally) back to gate A05 and get there right at 7am. Luckily, people were still boarding. We got up to the front of the line, to then have the flight attendant tell us there was a flight change and to wait to get our new seat. We got our seat, walked out to a bus, and were taken to our new plane. The flight itself was great, but overall, yesterday morning was a solid 0/10.

Overall, I loved Barcelona so much. The people weren't exactly my favorite, and it was very touristy, but it was a lot of fun. However, if I had to choose, I would pick Madrid over Barcelona.

But don't get me wrong, I'll be coming back for both very soon ;)

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Life Moves Quicklimente

By Unknown - 1:08 PM

The saying "time flies when you're having fun" is real and I'm experiencing it first hand. Oh, and it sucks. In 15 days I will be back on US soil and I'm not going to lie, that's kind of bittersweet. Don't get me wrong, I miss all my friends and family (and Starbucks), but I've fallen in love with Spain so much. I never want to leave, so I've decided you're all coming to live with me now. Pack your bags.

This past week we didn't have any excursions so I spent my time at school, relaxing, shopping, and eating plenty of tapas. However, on Saturday we got up bright and early for a day trip to Seville.

I absolutely LOVED Seville, despite it being 105 degrees and humid. I wish we had been able to stay overnight to see more of the city, but we would've missed our trip the next day to Córdoba. After a healthy breakfast of Doritos and a chocolate pastry, we arrived in Seville and walked to our first tour site, the cathedral. Fun facts: it's the 3rd largest catholic cathedral in the world and part of Christoper Columbus is buried there. Personally, I liked the Granada cathedral better, but this one was also very beautiful. At the end of the tour, we were given the option to climb the bell tower and get a breathtaking view of the entire city. It was breathtaking mentally and physically. We ended up climbing 34 flights, but the view was completely worth it.

After our workout, we sat down in the courtyard of the cathedral and like the true adults that we are, we pulled out the bagged lunches out moms made us. To make it better? We had juice boxes, fruit, and little sandwiches. People stared a bit but I just like to think they were jealous.

An hour later, we met up with the group to tour the Royal Palace of Seville. It wasn't nearly as large as the one in Madrid, but it was beautiful! I also geeked out a bit cause it's where Game Of Thrones has been filmed.

We ended our tour, what felt like 40 miles of walking later, at the Plaza de España. It was probably one of my favorite places we've seen so far. It's HUGE and so beautiful. Not to mention, Star Wars was filmed there once (see: nerd). It was a great way to end our trip.

The next morning, we left for Córdoba once again, bright and early. Halfway there we stopped at an olive oil shop/restaurant/rest stop. We were given a ton of bread, tomatoes, olive oil, and ham to taste. I think America needs to adopt the "only carbs for breakfast" mentality.

After breakfast (which we later found out wasn't breakfast, but an olive oil tasting), we walked through the narrow streets of Córdoba. Córdoba was beautiful, but it wasn't nearly as large as Seville, therefore not as much to do and look at. The white buildings were decorated with blue pots holding colorful flowers, and I think that was my favorite part of the city. We were given 2 hours of free time before heading to the Mosque-Cathedral. Once again, the cathedral was STUNNING, but once you've seen one cathedral, you've pretty much seen them all. Not to mention, our tour guide talked a lot. Like, a lot. I don't think we saw as much as we could've because she would keep us in one spot for 30 minutes at a time. Once we left the Mosque, we were given 5 minutes to "quicklimente" get ice cream (quicklimente isn't a word, but our guide kept saying it). Instead, a few of us ran down to the river to take some pictures because we didn't want to miss out on seeing it. Unfortunately for us, we ended up walking down there with our group later, and we missed out on ice cream.

To add on to the fact that we were tired, done with learning, and hot, we sat in the back of the bus thinking we'd have more room to stretch out and sleep. However, whenever we went up a hill, the back of the bus overheated and sent HOT air onto our feet for a solid minute. Needless to say, we were more than happy to get home that night.

On Monday night, we toured the Alhambra and it was beautiful! It's the highest point in Granada, so obviously the views from the top were incredible. The architecture was insane and the gardens were a dream. It was a ton of walking, though. I'm talking 3 miles solely at the Alhambra. Yesterday I walked a total of 11.5 miles, so yeah, my feet are done for.

Today, I got a tattoo. I got a small pomegranate on my right ankle, and I love it so so much. For those of you who don't know, pomegranate is Granada in Spanish, and is the official symbol of Granada. I love that I'll have Granada with me forever.

(Photo 4 is a look inside my school! It's definitely a lot prettier than some of the buildings at ECU)

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Nerja & Far

By Unknown - 6:34 AM

Have you ever seen something so outstanding that it doesn't feel like you're actually there and seeing it in real life? That's how my weekend went.
The past week has been busy with classes, exploring Granada, and trying (emphasis on trying) to improve my Spanish. Luckily, we were able to relax for a day with a trip to Almuñecar and Nerja on the tropical coast. Going into this trip, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I knew it would be fun, obviously, we would be on the beach. However, I wasn't aware of how absolutely stunning the towns would be.
Our first stop in Almuñecar was an hour bus ride from Granada. The entire ride we were so consumed with the mountains and rivers that we were driving past, that it didn't even feel like an hour. We got off the bus at the top of a mountain and climbed through the ruins of an old castle (?). The views from the top were unlike any other. The Mediterranean sea below was the bluest sea that I had ever seen (shoutout to Myrtle Beach), and the white houses perched on the side of the mountain contrasted with all of the blue. 100000 pictures later and after turning my dress into a shirt (it was super windy, okay), we boarded the bus for a 30 minute ride to Nerja.
I thought Almuñecar was beautiful and it couldn't get any better, but Nerja was quick to prove me wrong. We walked through the almost desolate town before coming upon the busy town center. Once again, all of the buildings were white and decorated with colorful flowers. An archway looked out to the insanely blue ocean. I was almost offended at how beautiful the scene was, and kinda upset that I don't live there. We split from our group for some free time on one of the beaches.
2 things about Spanish beaches: most of them don't have sand, they have rocks. It's like walking on hot gravel and to be honest it wasn't fun in the slightest. I also though the ocean would be warm since we're closer to the equator and it's mid-july, but nope. Freezing. No bueno. At least it was pretty to look at from afar.
We ~~faced death~~ climbed up a steep sand mountain on the side of a cliff (sorry mom) to get up to a breathtaking view of the whole city. Eventually, we made our way down to another beach which we quickly found was a topless beach. It's refreshing to see how carefree and nonjudgmental everyone is (I'm looking at you los estados unidos) and just hangs out with no clothes. I didn't partake, thought. Maybe next time :)

After Nerja, we returned to Granada and ended up spending the night with tapas, friends, and mucho vino. Luckily, we were able to sleep in the next day (aka I slept until 1pm, oops).

On Sunday afternoon we toured the Royal Chapel in Granada. I wasn't super pumped for this trip, as I'm not really into history. HOWEVER, it was SO interesting and I'm glad we had the opportunity to go. The cathedral is beautiful beyond words and the history is so rich. We even got to see the actual caskets that Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand's bodies are buried in which I'm still trying to process in my mind. Spanish culture has been so much fun to learn about, and I can't wait to see what else this trip has in store.
PS- If you haven't already, take some time to listen to the songs that I have on the playlist posted on the right sidebar! I listen to this playlist on the daily walking to class, and it gets me pumped and ready to go.