The clocks turned back, the sun sank lower, and as darkness fell across the Kasbah by the sea, Ramadan had struck Rabat. 

Once I decided to study abroad, my parents immediately started looking to see if it was possible for them to visit me while I was in France. I’m lucky enough that everything worked out and they were able to travel to Nantes during my younger brother’s spring break. In this blog, I’ll go through some of the things we did in case anyone else has visitors coming to town.

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Throughout our study abroad program, there are several overnight field trips that students can go on with IES Abroad. These excursions are included in the cost of the program, excluding some meals. Throughout the semester we’ve previously traveled to the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. These field trips have been some of my favorite ways to spend time with my friends in the program and explore France outside of Nantes. In this blog, I wanted to take you through our last overnight trip at the end of March when we visited cities in the Normandy region.

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Before coming to Granada, I researched the heck out of Spain, places to visit, how the culture would be, and compiled a huge list of things to expect before I even arrived. Throughout my dedicated googling, something that came up several times was a diagram outlining the highs and lows of homesickness and other emotions during a typical study abroad semester. I found it fascinating and tried to drill it into my head so that I would be well prepared when each of the listed phases happened to me during my time in Spain. The thing is, that’s not how it happened at all. 

For the intro and day 1 of my tramp, check out part 1 of this post! For those of you who have stuck around for part 2, here it is…

Day 2: (14.6 km, 9 miles)

I grew up in a mountainous area called the Black Hills, at an elevation a little over 5,300 ft. Those mountains are a granite-y, pine tree-d gem in the rolling Midwest prairie, and I have them to thank for inspiring my first tramps and my interest in the outdoors. I will always consider them my beautiful home, but after seeing the mountains in New Zealand, I’m not sure I can still call the Black Hills “mountains”.

I had heard of Cotopaxi and all its fame before even realizing it was in Ecuador. Maybe the brand with the same name is partly at fault for that, but it has long been on my bucket list nevertheless. I was bummed when I arrived in Ecuador and learned that the national park surrounding the volcano has been closed due to the volcano blowing ash, and crossed my fingers that eventually in the semester I’d have the chance to go. That chance came during the first day of our mid-semester break, when three other friends and I decided to stop by Cotopaxi on our way south. 

One of the reasons I wanted to study in Europe so badly is that as a kid, I lived for a couple years outside of Munich, Germany. I was young enough that I don’t remember most of my time there, but sometimes I will have random feelings of nostalgia…. usually in grocery stores. This post will explore nostalgia through the lense of popular Central European snacks.