I have been Granada, Spain for almost a week now, and all I can say is, HOLY COW! I GET TO LIVE HERE FOR FOUR MONTHS?! This city is absolutely breathtaking, and is filled with so much history. Let’s just say I definitely wasn’t feeling this way a week and a half ago when my room looked like a tornado just went through it, and I was stressed to the max. I was definitely having doubts as to whether I really wanted to go, but all of my loved ones kept telling me that is was an experience of a lifetime and I would love it once I got there. I wasn’t quite as sure as they were. I was so scared to make the journey from Chicago to Madrid to Malaga and bus to Granada all by myself without my parents. My dad drove me to Chicago, so he got the listen to all of my nerves. 🙂 The last few weeks of summer flew by! I had my final for second semester organic chemistry, so that consumed my brain power for a good two weeks. After that was finally done, I was able to come home and spend the last two weeks with my family and friends back home in Waupaca, Wisconsin. The first week, we rented a cabin on a lake, so I wasn’t able to get any packing done then, but it was such a relief to relax after being soo stressed for the last few weeks. Right after we got the cabin, I got a really bad cold, which is just my luck. So instead of doing a lot of kayaking and paddle boarding, I did a lot of laying on the dock and trying to sweat the cold out of me. I didn’t want to have a stuffy nose for an eight hour plane ride.
When the week ended of enjoying the sun, it was time to finally get down to business. I still had all of my clothes that I brought back from school in garbage bags littering my room. It took me an entire day to unpack and hang up my clothes, and pick what suitcase I wanted to bring along. Next, came the hard part.. picking out what clothes I wanted to bring. I first went through my closet and picked out all of my all-time favorite pieces. After I laid them out on the floor, I realized that I probably had enough for the four months! I just had to add a few more sweaters and the miscellaneous things, but I was pretty set! That was a huge weight off my shoulders. I decided to bring a backpack, a duffel to use as my carry on, and pack a big suitcase. I divided up my clothes between my duffel bag and my suitcase in case my suitcase got lost or didn’t make it to Malaga. It was pretty easy to pack everything in both bags and still have extra room to pack things that I will bring back. I haven’t noticed anything yet that I have forgotten, so I must have done a decent job of packing! I looked up other blogs of students that have studied abroad to see what they brought, and I pretty much packed the same amount of clothes! Saying good bye to all of my friends and family was sooo hard! The day I left was definitely a roller coaster of tears, nerves, and excitement.
The whole day of traveling went smoothly, but I was exhausted when we finally got to the hostel in Granada. I had to share one room with two other girls, so it was definitely a squeeze with all of our suitcases and backpacks. Even with the seven hour time change, I slept really well. I think I was one of the only ones that had a good night of sleep. The second day we were there, we got to see our school and have a few orientations. It was around that time that I realized that I was going to be here for four months. The next few days consisted of more orientations and tours. While walking around, I realized how “hippy” the town is. It has a very slow pace of life, and all the people are very chill and just like to enjoy life. Also, we were given the opportunity to tour the Alhambra. It is soo gorgeous and it blows my mind that is built such a long time ago! It is by far my favorite part of Granada!
Hasta Luego!
