Good news! I passed my history midterm! Only three more exams to get through before our extended weekend, since we have Monday off for las Fiestas de Dia de Todos Los Santos. Everyone is pretty excited about it- it’s a big weekend for travelling. And not to brag or anything, but I’ll be spending it in Paris!
This a trip I’ve had on my mind since I knew I’d be studying abroad in Spain (as opposed to Argentina, which was my second choice, or somewhere like the Gambia which is a program through my school which I considered, too.) One of the appeals of coming to Europe is how close you are to so many other amazing places, and while I had originally wanted to do a more untraditional trip, I wouldn’t trade the experience I’m having for the world. And since I’m here, I may as well try to travel to other places.
The Office for Cross-Cultural Programs at my home school has a series of workshops for students studying abroad every semester and during one of them, you can start to plan out a budget and even learn some tips for planning trips at a low cost. But one of the biggest pieces advice that the students and head of the program gave was to pick two or three places that you really want to go. Prioritize, and then if you’re not completely broke after you see everything you knew you wanted to, you can go ahead and do more. I’ve been to Morocco and Portugal, two places where I knew I really wanted to go, and now I’m ecstatic to be able to go to Paris, too.
I’ve heard amazing things about Paris, and I’m super excited. A friend of mine who is doing an exchange program but goes to UPO with me was just there a couple weekends ago and said he completely fell in love with it, and knew I would, too. He was also so helpful by sending me the itinerary he and his friends had planned for their time there, saving the girls I’m going with and me a little bit of the overwhelming task of planning from scratch. This is our first long trip that we are doing on our own. Although we went to Cádiz together one weekend without a program, it’s a lot easier to travel just an hour or so to the coast than it is to plan a long weekend in another country. Needless to say, I’m glad I’m not doing it all alone.
He also included some great dad-like advice: “Remember to eat and drink water because you will walk so much, have the best time, and take lots of pictures!” Reading through his email made me so much more excited to go, but it also made me realize just how lucky I’ve been to make friends with the people I have met this semester.
Before leaving for Spain, one of my biggest fears was that I wasn’t going to make friends soon enough, or at all, to have someone to travel with and to keep me from getting too lonely or homesick. When I first went to college, socializing always made me feel less homesick and happier to be there and I had a feeling it was going to be the same studying abroad. And I’m not going to say that there hasn’t been a time when I’ve felt lonely or missed home to the point of tears because that would be a lie, but I can honestly say that I’ve made some great friends and I feel silly for being so worried.
It’s insane how close you get to some people in such a short amount of time. There are nine of us in the International Studies program with SSA, and only three of us go to UPO but we’ve all been having a great time together in class and on our trips. This picture is the nine of us and our professor Sara on top of the castle in Trujillo, the last stop of our trip this past weekend.
I think everyone fears what the other people they will meet will be like. Just know that not every day is going to be a blast with the friends you make, and you might not always be able to do everything you wanted or planned to do with them. Everything is going to be alright. What’s been important but difficult for me to remember, is that abroad or not, it’s okay to be alone sometimes. I don’t want to let it get in the way of what I want from this experience. I’ve learned it can be really nice to do things on your own, even though it might feel weird sometimes. You can take as much time as you want, wherever you want, doing whatever you want, and just enjoy your own company.
This past weekend I went to the Cathedral and climbed La Giralda alone, and was happy to be able to take in the wonder and beauty of it all at my own pace. Here are some of my favorite pictures that I got: