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.
