My two months of preparation have seemed like a journey in itself–a journey towards another journey if you will. Between the road trips and shopping trips, working as a babysitter for four beautiful children, and spending time with my family, the day has finally arrived. Tomorrow I will be boarding an eleven hour flight out of JFK and landing in Buenos Aires at approximately 4:40AM.
During orientation, we took an overnight trip to Springfield. When we got there, we checked in at a hostel called Smylies and dropped off our things. The hostel gave us sandwiches for lunch and then we all headed out for our adventures. First stop, we went to a kayaking triathlon type competition. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but we went down to the river to watch the kayakers come in and get on their bicycles. It was really cool.
We’ve been doing lots of snorkeling during our free time after class! We’ve seen a variety of species including Moorish idols, parrotfish, iguanas and lobos! The biodiversity here is incredible and the wildlife is not afraid of people because most species here have no natural predators. We are finishing our module 2 class tomorrow and have a final exam… then on to module 3!
As I am writing this post I am 5 days away from having lived in Cape Town for almost an entire month! Time really flies here, and it feels like only yesterday that I arrived. I have been really lucky to have had a couple of weeks to explore Cape Town and South Africa before classes at University of Cape Town (UCT) start to limit my travel during the week.
When friends return to their home universities from their study abroad programs, it seems like they’ve not only visited every city in all of Europe but also gotten to know their program’s city like the back of their hands, and had a fantastic time every moment they were outside of the United States. A whole semester sounds like a long time, so before I came to Spain this sounded quite attainable, but as soon as orientation began in Salamanca I realized this couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
Although I’ve only been in Granada for about three weeks now, I can already feel myself falling in love with Spain. I can say with confidence, however, that I am definitely still in the awkward tourist phase. I trip over the cobblestones on the reg, am shameless with my camera, and have yet to master the art of getting anywhere on time. Progress in these areas will be made… eventually. For now, I have stories to tell.
It hit me that I am leaving to go abroad at exactly 8:58 this morning, two days before departure. I opened an email my new RA sent me that included the orientation week schedule. The email left me with a rather unsettling feeling in my stomach. This led me to start frantically shopping, in realization that I should probably have started packing earlier.
Happy Belated (or not!) Valentines Day!
Many people assume that Valentines Day is a worldly celebrated tradition. In Spain, the actual “lovers day” is called La Diada de Sant Jordi and is not until April. So, for the first time, I enjoyed a V day that was chocolate and rose-free. I spent a wonderful weekend with my new friends, exploring the city, and feeling in-love in a whole new way.
Among the many things that I did this weekend, I spent an amazing night at the cooking workshop organized by IES:
This was meant to be posted last week but I had some trouble with my account – sorry for the delay!
This day has finally arrived; It’s the day where I can no longer put off packing. I forgot to remember that packing is an essential chore before leaving the country, and now I’m facing the daunting task of deciding which pair of boots is going to be most essential to take abroad. It’s a funny feeling to have something to do after having been at home for the past two months with mindless chores being the highlight of each day.