1st week in Spain

I have now been in Spain for an entire week, and it has been a blast one at that. To begin my journey I landed in Madrid in the morning of the 21st. After a little bit of waiting we were greeted by our program chairs and took a bus to our hotel, which was in downtown Madrid. Once settled in me and some of the other students in my group headed around the city to find lunch. We ended up going to a little restaurant and had soup and fish. Once done we went walking around the city some to see the sites. After which we returned back for a quick meeting and a tour of the city via bus. The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the Centro part of Madrid where we did a walking tour of the city and ended at the museum of Prado. Once we finished there it was lunch time, so we decided to go check out the oldest restaurant in the world. Although we did decide not to eat there it was quite neat to see it. After we finished eating we went to the largest park in Madrid and had a little walk around of the place and then returned back for some relaxation before dinner time. For dinner we found a place and just got some empanadas. Then we went back to the hotel to get some more people in our group and headed to centro to go to a little bar and just chill. On the following day we hoped on a bus and headed out to Toledo, which is a city about an hour and a half south of Madrid. Once we checked into the hotel we had a quick meeting and after we went to the center of Toledo for lunch. We ended up going to a nice little place in the city that was one of the oldest places in the city. When we finished with lunch we back to met with our group and took a tour of the city. On the tour we visited the 4th largest Cathedral in the world, the ministry of Queen Isabella and King Fernan attended, as well as we visited other places around the city, such as the old Jewish synagogue. It was really neat to see all the old historic places in the city. After we finished out walking tour we went to the look out over the city and saw a breath taking sunset and view of the city. Afterwards I returned back to the hotel for the evening. On Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed towards Sevilla. After a half a day of riding back we finally arrived and me and my roommate were greeted by our host mom. After we got a tour of the house and all me and my roommate met up with two other girls who live super close to us and we went with their host brother to the city centro to get a little tour of the city. After which we just returned home and had dinner with our host mom and went to bed. Sunday we woke up early as we met our group in the Centro to get a tour of the city. Downtown Sevilla is so beautiful as it really keeps the historic look to it. After our walk downtown me and my roommate returned home for lunch and then went back out to see some more of the city and met with some other girls in the group. On Monday we got up early to go and take our placement test for Spanish. After the test was finished we got a tour of our school Pablo de Olividade and then went back home for lunch. Since we had a break between lunch and our meeting/dinner with our program. Since we had the free time me and my roommate walked around downtown and run into some other people in our program. After getting some icecream and relaxing for a little we headed out to our meeting. After we finished our meeting we went to a resturant where we got to try typical food from Sevilla. So we got some bread with tomato and tuna, pieces of cod, and rice with meat in it. It was all very delicious. After that I just returned home for the evening. Tuesday we had the morning free so I went and worked out with some other girl in my program and came home for lunch after. After lunch me and my roommate met back up with some other girls in our group and did a little shopping before heading off to our school for orientation. After we had the orientation me and my roommate went back home as we had to get up early in the morning to start the first day of the semester. I am looking forward to my classes, I will be taking Literature of Latin America, an interpretation class, intercultural communications, and advance spanish. This morning I had my first class, it was really a interesting time as I had to get into Spanish mode since the class is taught all in Spanish. I am really looking forward to seeing how the rest of this semester will do and look forward to the experiences I will have.

Until Then

Madrid

The group in Toledo

Night in Sevilla

Plaza de Espana

Starting Off

To start with this blog that I am dedicating to my worldly travels, I must start off with the next big adventure I will be taking...a study abroad to Sevilla, Spain. So after doing my two years in other countries learning the culture and language its finally time for me to try and master Spanish, which I keep learning and relearning. I will be making this trip in a few short weeks and will be studying for roughly 4 months in Spain. While there I hope to make some independent traveling throughout Europe, including a trip back to Italy to visit my friends and family that I made during my first exchange. During my 4 months I will be writing about the culture shock and cultural and language developments I have during my time in Spain, as well as my adventures both in Spain and other places I end up visiting. As for now everything is ready to go and all that is left is to just wait until my arrival into Spain. 

Until Then