Before coming to study abroad, never in my life would I have thought that I would go to Vienna, Austria for my Spring Break. Of course, the only thing I knew about Vienna was Billy Joel’s hit song in which he sings, “When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?” In this case, I realized Vienna was in fact waiting for me when one of my good friends, Anjali, suggested that we go for a few days of our week-long break. And so we did. Just eight short hours later on the train we arrived and I immediately fell in love with this city that I was so excited to explore!

A few weeks ago, after hours of painstaking deliberation to find a time that worked for us despite the transatlantic time change, I signed on to a Zoom meeting with my academic advisor from my home university. Before we dug into the meat of my thesis proposal, we chatted about my time abroad: academics, food, culture. Then my advisor asked me about travel. Many students who study abroad in Europe travel to other cities on many, if not most, of their weekends abroad, and my advisor asked me about my favorite places I’d been.

With the end of spring break, I’m officially over halfway through my semester abroad. On the one hand, it feels like I’ve been in Granada forever, and on the other I’m stunned by how quickly it feels like time is passing.