So, my first three weeks in Madrid have been quite the rollercoaster ride. It's been a whirlwind of travel, meeting new folks, the never-ending game of packing and unpacking, dealing with a nasty bout of illness, and feeling a little bit like a fish out of water. I think anyone who's been an exchange student can relate to that complex mix of excitement, anticipation, and uncertainty. I think being doubly displaced has aided in that.

It's been almost four weeks since I arrived in Granada and the feeling of being in an extended summer vacation with a new group of people is finally fading away as the assignments build up. Before coming to Granada, I didn't realize how much I rely on having places to study and do assignments that were not my room. So when I realized I'd have to find my own little nooks to do work, my roommate and I set out on trying out local cafés that would replace the library or campus center that we were so used to having nearby at Bryn Mawr.

Solo traveling and staying in a hostel definitely seemed intimidating to me at first. I have found many students from the US are a little nervous to stay in hostels because honestly we don’t have anything like that in America and cheaper places to stay like motels generally have a bad rep. I did quite a bit of research into what staying in a hostel would look like and determined that maybe it wasn’t so scary after all. Hostels are amazing because they provide a cheap place to stay and are generally pretty nice.