Study Abroad in Spain

Spring break was really fun and I am so glad I got to see so much of Europe in one(ish) week. I think Hamburg was my favorite part of Spring break and my favorite place in general, closely followed by Prague. I toured St. Pauli, Hamburg's Red Light District, with the same guide and many of the same people from the morning tour and it was such a different part of the city. At the very first stop of our tour, we saw two people having 'some fun' in the park, to which the tour guide replied, "If we stopped every time we saw something like this in St. Pauli we would never make it through the tour," and continued to give us information.  Unlike Amsterdam where the workers are behind glass, the girls rent out a portion of the sidewalk and talk to the men and follow them. Overall, it was just a really cool and very different part of the city. We saw where the Beatles first started playing, WW2 bomb shelters that are now parking garages and Discotecas, and all kinds of str

It has been a wild last few days. On Thursday I took an exam in my class and then we went to view all of the Semana Santa floats and take pictures. After that, I went home, ate lunch, finished my packing and Adri, Maddie, and I headed to the airport. We said goodbye to Maddie in the airport as she headed off to Barcelona and then Adri and I boarded our flight towards London. Upon arrival we had to take a train into the city and from there an Uber. By the time we made it to our hostel it was after 11 and we just headed to bed. Friday we took a Hop-on Hop-off tour and saw a lot of the major monuments. I ate fish and chips for lunch and Adri had chipotle. We met up with Meghan, Matt, and Logan from our program and just spent time wandering around the city. Adri and I took an overnight ferry to get to Amsterdam and it was amazing. We had our own cabin with bunk beds, our own bathroom, a 3 course dinner (with amazing lemon tart!!), and a breakfast buffet. It was basically an overnight cruis

Well, these last few weeks have really flown by. I was sick after our trip to Prague, recovered, and joined the program for a trip to Morocco. We took a three-hour bus ride and then a ferry to get to Tanger where we stayed. The waters were a little rough on the way to Morocco and a lot of people got motion sick. We visited so many places in two and a half days it was insane. We saw Asilah, the Blue City, Tanger and went to a ton of different shops with hand-made products. It rained all day Saturday which was not awesome but we made the best of it and the beautiful views helped you to forget that you were wet and cold. Morocco is famous for its pure Argan oil and we went to a pharmacy to try it out. I bought some henna lipstick and this weird spice mix that you breathe in and it helps stop migraines, snoring, and allergies. We also went to a store where they made rugs and a store with handmade scarves and decorative blankets. Here I fell trap and bought a really gorgeous multi-color bla

This last weekend was an adventure. Six other girls and I took a girls trip to Prague. I did not know anything about the city, including that they don't use euros. You may be thinking, 'Savannah why on Earth did you not look up a single thing about the country you are visiting?' and I agree that is a great question. I had an amazing time and Prague was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The architecture was so beautiful and the views were to die for. We really just spent our time walking around and taking it all in. We saw the John Lennon wall, the Prague Palace, and much more. The food there was really different and I have come to like sauerkraut. There was also this amazing dessert that was like a thin and hollow cinnamon roll. Audrey and I shared ours and it was filled with chocolate strawberries and ice cream. You could also get it filled with whipped cream or caramel. We stayed in a really cute hostel and the 7 of us had a room to ourselves. On Saturday

As you probably guessed from the title I spent another weekend simply relaxing and enjoying Sevilla. On Friday I spent the morning alone and finally made it to Maria Luisa Park, which is now one of my favorite places in Sevilla. It was huge and absolutely breath taking. I explored and spent some time reading while enjoying the lack of people and nature. Then I went to the Aquarium with two friends. The aquarium had a whole room of jellyfish and a green anaconda, two of my favorite animals, so I was pleased. I ended up walking like 12 miles that day between the park, the aquarium and getting food. Many people were traveling this weekend so I got to spend more time with Ahnna, Amanda, and Jenna which I really enjoyed because I don't see them much during the week. We went to an amazing tapas restaurant in Alameda Hercules and after had a few drinks and smoked a hookah (sorry lungs). Saturday I tried a poke bowl, went to the top of Las Setas, sat by the river, watched a little Netflix,

Hello readers! This was my first weekend in Sevilla where I had absolutely nothing planned and it was amazing. I had no day trips or anything and really spent the whole weekend relaxing and enjoying how amazingly warm it is here. On Wednesday I went with my friend Melanie, from Germany, and Fernando, from Cadiz, to see Captain Marvel and learned that there is both a movie theater and huge shopping area close to my house. Captain Marvel was amazing and no I did not have to watch it in Spanish. Melanie also cooked me an amazing dinner with sooo many vegetables :) Thursday I showed two of my friends the Nervion, the plaza near my house, where we got frozen yogurt (I am seriously obsessed with it right now) and went shopping. I spent Friday day relaxing near the river and being with friends. It was Maho's, the Japanese exchange student, last few nights in Sevilla so her friends came over and showed us how/made us sushi. We stayed up late talking to Maho and her friends and Saturday mor

On Friday the group went to C órdoba, a small town about an hour from Sevilla, where we saw the Mezquita. The mezquita is a mosque that was converted into a Catholic church. It was huge and the architecture was amazing. That was about all C órdoba had to offer. After we toured the Mezquita we saw the rest of the town and had tapas for lunch. My new favorite food is fried eggplant with honey. Later that night we went to a restaurant called Geiko burgers and just relaxed with friends. Saturday I got up early and went to  Cádiz with Jenna. We got there at about 9:30 am and there was no one there. All the shops were closed and it was easy to walk through the streets. We went to the beach and spent a few hours exploring and looking at the tide pools where unfortunately we didn't see many critters. It was still beautiful and the water was soooo blue. By the time we left the beach the streets were packed with people there to celebrate Carnaval, a festival like mardi gras. We had a variety

News flash everyone: the longer you wait to buy plane tickets the more expensive they are! Learned this lesson the hard way. Needless to say Audrey and I took the train to Madrid, which quite honestly was much less stressful and way more comfortable, but we made it! The two of us left on a Thursday morning and were in Madrid by the afternoon! We stayed in a hostel, my first time, that was not amazing but definitely wasn't horrible. In an effort to save money we shared one large bed in a room with about 30 other people. Definitely was an experience I will remember. Our bed looked a little like a cupboard and we had a curtain for privacy. It made me feel a little like Harry Potter living under the stairs. We met up with one of my friends from high school and explored Retiro Park and some of the other sites in Madrid then we went to a Bastille concert. Akine and Lewis Capaldi were the opening bands and I think Lewis may be one of my new favorite artists. Bastille was incredible and so

I genuinely think that time moves faster here than in the U.S. I feel like I blinked and now it has almost been a full month. It simultaneously feels as though we just arrived and have been here for so long. My classes here basically consist of taking four different Spanish classes all in one class in one semester, if that makes any sense at all. I have one class for three and a half hours a day four days a week and so far I have completed one whole section! (Completed one section or class that would normally take a semester.) Classes are going great and I really love my teacher. On Monday I am going to visit a school to help teach English which is amazing and will definitely help me in my future teaching career. I am also looking forward to joining more intercambios and meeting more locals. Last weekend I went to Paris with my two friends Maddie and Adri. Two of our friends went the week before so they gave us a list of what they saw/did and warned us about the riots that are happeni

This past weekend our program took a trip to Granada, Spain. We left around 11:30 on Friday and took a bus to get there. We hit some really bad traffic and our director said in the ten years they have been going to Granada they have never seen traffic so bad. When we finally made it, after like five hours of travel, we checked in to our hotel and set off to see the view. Since the Granada is near the Sierra Nevada mountains a lot of the city is uphill. Sam, our director, took us to see one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. Pictures do not do it any justice. There were many merchants at the top of the hill and at one point the police drove by. I have never seen so many people move so fast at once. Since they do not have permits to sell they all had to scramble when the police came by. After taking in the view we traveled back down to bar hop. In Granada, most places serve a free tapa with every drink. The tapas were so good. Some of my favorites were mini hamburgers, frie

Well, this was the first week of classes and I made it through! I am taking an intensive language course and my class is huuuge. There is me, the professor, and oh yeah that is it. It's just me and the teacher four days a week for three and a half hours a day. I actually am really enjoying my class so far. We talk only in Spanish so I am getting a lot of practice in and its one-on-one help all the time, which is good because I like to ask a lot of questions. My teacher's name is Loli and she is so sweet. Surprisingly classes go by pretty fast and I am only aware of the fact that time is almost up because my stomach starts to rumble. I haven't quite adjusted to having such a late lunch after basically eating sugar for breakfast ( sorry kids even though whole grain is the first ingredient sugar is the second). God, I think I'm funny. So far this week it has been really fun, we even took a field trip to a traditional market with all fresh. By fresh produce I mean the fish

I have never traveled across so many time zones in one day before. Let me tell you it does something strange to your body. Although not as bad as I thought it would be, it is definitely taking some time to adjust to the time difference and schedule here. For whatever reason 5 am seems to be a common time amongst my peers and me to wake up and be unable to return to sleep. Not sure what is so special about 5 am considering that makes it 10 pm at home but I can't wait for the day that stops happening. The Spaniard schedule is probably every college students dream, unless you are like me and bedtime is 11 pm. Their nightlife really means night-life, like do not go out to the bars before 10 and you don't go to the club until 2 am. One of the hardest parts to adjust to is the eating schedule. Breakfast is small and between 8:30 and 9:30, lunch is around 2:30 and dinner ranges between 8 and 10 pm. I have been eating a lot of Spanish delicacies while here like Coco Puffs and chicken n

Well, we are now approximately one hour away from boarding flight one of three. Yup you heard that right three flights before reaching my final destination. The joys of being a broke college student involve things like this, taking three flights instead of one because it makes the ticket just a little bit cheaper. Traveling alone is a new experience for me, but as the baggage counter attendant said I am an expert traveler. (Jokes on him I've only ever been on two planes). My suitcase weighed in at exactly 50 pounds, the max weight, and I had no issues with security. After this, I will begin my search for a water fountain and then patiently wait for my boarding number to be called. Less than 24 hours away from being all the way across the country. Wish me luck!