Throughout our time in Barcelona, we kept comparing it to other major cities! It had such a gorgeous arch that Paris, France is famous for!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Barcelona!
So, this brings us to day 1 and day 2 of the 10 day adventure! We arrived in Barcelona and used the Metro system to get to our hostel, which was located near the Sagrada Familia!
A view from outside the window on our way to Málaga. Yay green! And mountains!
Me looking a little crunchy (that's for you David!) after 3 hours of sleep, crying after saying goodbye to Carmen, and wearing 6 layers of shirts to make my suitcase lighter!
Our room at our hostel in Barcelona!
This post is quite long, so click "read more" to see the rest of the photos!
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Videos!!
Hello!! I know it has been a few days since the last post, but I have been working hard on a few videos! The first one is a music video to the song No Hay Dos Sin Tres, which was the theme song for the 2012 Euro Cup fútbol (soccer) tournament! It was huge in Spain, and of course, Spain won, so it was very exciting! Kelley, Elle, and I filmed ourselves dancing at various locations we visited, namely Ronda, Spain, Las Alpujarras hiking trip, and all of the cities on the 10 day adventure! Much of the footage actually came from our last night in Madrid in our hostel room!
This video is from Kelley and my walk to school every single day! We obviously sped it up, so you didn't have to sit and watch a 23 minute video! Also, for security purposes, the video starts about 3 or 4 minutes away from our apartment buildings! Sorry that it's a little bumpy!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Lessons Learned and Thoughts from Study Abroad
My time in Granada and later on the 10 day adventure really taught me a lot which I hope to carry with me in the future. In no particular order, here are some of the lessons I have learned.
1. Pack light, regardless of how long your trip is! Never again do I want to lug around a giant suitcase.
2. Spanish is really such a wonderful language. It is really fun to speak and just sounds so beautiful!
3. People are really the same anywhere, regardless of the language they speak or the country where they come from. We met some really nice locals and had experiences that totally mirrored people we know in the US or experiences we have had here. So cool!
4. Company is a lot more important than the destination. I am pretty sure that Kelley and Elle and I would have had a blast wherever we went, and it makes me look forward to future travel with family and friends!
5. Air conditioning is a huge luxury. So much of the world, including the developed world, lives without it, so it is silly to complain about the heat, and I will never do it again!
6. I think the US should have fewer cars and more bakeries or ice cream shops. :)
7. I kind of want to open an Eco Bed and Breakfast!
8. I think my travel style can't really handle fancy arrangements, or pricey hotels and restaurants. I don't need to stay in a nice place, and absolutely love eating cheap meals at the grocery store. I would rather spend my money visiting all of the cool places than cooped up in a fancy hotel.
9. It was amazing how quickly Carmen, my host mom, and I bonded, proving once again that family doesn't have to be biological!
10. We are spoiled in the US to only have to know one language. We consider it a huge asset for resumés, etc when we know a second language. In Europe, especially areas that are more touristy, even more basic, low-paying jobs are expected to know multiple languages, for people, like us, who visited Italy without knowing anything in Italian.
11. Language is so fascinating, and I seriously want to learn many more languages!
12. I can't wait to continue traveling worldwide with every chance I get!
13. I look forward to learning so much more about all of the places we have visited in a historical context.
14. Planning trips isn't as difficult as I thought prior to studying abroad!
15. My experience was awesome, but home is definitely where the heart is!
Scroll down if you have not yet had the chance to watch part 2 of the video with Rome and Madrid pictures!
1. Pack light, regardless of how long your trip is! Never again do I want to lug around a giant suitcase.
2. Spanish is really such a wonderful language. It is really fun to speak and just sounds so beautiful!
3. People are really the same anywhere, regardless of the language they speak or the country where they come from. We met some really nice locals and had experiences that totally mirrored people we know in the US or experiences we have had here. So cool!
4. Company is a lot more important than the destination. I am pretty sure that Kelley and Elle and I would have had a blast wherever we went, and it makes me look forward to future travel with family and friends!
5. Air conditioning is a huge luxury. So much of the world, including the developed world, lives without it, so it is silly to complain about the heat, and I will never do it again!
6. I think the US should have fewer cars and more bakeries or ice cream shops. :)
7. I kind of want to open an Eco Bed and Breakfast!
8. I think my travel style can't really handle fancy arrangements, or pricey hotels and restaurants. I don't need to stay in a nice place, and absolutely love eating cheap meals at the grocery store. I would rather spend my money visiting all of the cool places than cooped up in a fancy hotel.
9. It was amazing how quickly Carmen, my host mom, and I bonded, proving once again that family doesn't have to be biological!
10. We are spoiled in the US to only have to know one language. We consider it a huge asset for resumés, etc when we know a second language. In Europe, especially areas that are more touristy, even more basic, low-paying jobs are expected to know multiple languages, for people, like us, who visited Italy without knowing anything in Italian.
11. Language is so fascinating, and I seriously want to learn many more languages!
12. I can't wait to continue traveling worldwide with every chance I get!
13. I look forward to learning so much more about all of the places we have visited in a historical context.
14. Planning trips isn't as difficult as I thought prior to studying abroad!
15. My experience was awesome, but home is definitely where the heart is!
Scroll down if you have not yet had the chance to watch part 2 of the video with Rome and Madrid pictures!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
10 Day Adventure Video Part 2!
Hello! I am officially writing this from home! And, here is the part 2 video of our 10 day adventure from Rome and Madrid! Enjoy!
10 Day Adventure Part 2
Unfortunately, Blogger was not letting me embed the video in the text, so all you have to do is click on the link!
10 Day Adventure Part 2
Unfortunately, Blogger was not letting me embed the video in the text, so all you have to do is click on the link!
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Final Thoughts in Madrid
Hello wonderful people! I cannot believe that tonight is the last night I will spend in Spain! This summer has been absolutely amazing and crazy! I definitely think it has been life changing in many ways! And, after 8 weeks, 9 cities, 7,581 pictures, and too many miles to count later, I will be getting on a plane tomorrow to come back home! I am quite excited, although I have truly cherished every moment! My time in Granada was amazing with classes, Carmen, my friends and general living experiences, and the past 10 day adventure with Kelley and Elle has been out of this world!
So you may be wondering, what does this mean for your blog now that you are coming home? Well, let's be real... there is still a lot to post from the past 10 days! So, over the next few days, there will be 3 youtube videos, 10 posts from the 10 day adventure, and 2 more general reflective posts! So there will be much to read, as well as many pictures to share! However, once I have blogged about every possible study abroad moment, I will be continuing my blog how it was before I left for Spain. For those of you who were not aware of my blog content prior to Spain, I blog about many of my interests, such as recipes, environmental info, quotes, info to promote positive body image and self-esteem, etc. And anything else I come across! So, I would definitely love it if you would like to keep reading, but definitely want to thank you for being a loyal reader this summer while I have been abroad! :)
On that note, have a wonderful evening, and I will be back in the US tomorrow!
I know I have posted a lot today, so if you want, be sure to scroll down to check out the youtube video about the first 6 days of the 10 day adventure!
So you may be wondering, what does this mean for your blog now that you are coming home? Well, let's be real... there is still a lot to post from the past 10 days! So, over the next few days, there will be 3 youtube videos, 10 posts from the 10 day adventure, and 2 more general reflective posts! So there will be much to read, as well as many pictures to share! However, once I have blogged about every possible study abroad moment, I will be continuing my blog how it was before I left for Spain. For those of you who were not aware of my blog content prior to Spain, I blog about many of my interests, such as recipes, environmental info, quotes, info to promote positive body image and self-esteem, etc. And anything else I come across! So, I would definitely love it if you would like to keep reading, but definitely want to thank you for being a loyal reader this summer while I have been abroad! :)
On that note, have a wonderful evening, and I will be back in the US tomorrow!
I know I have posted a lot today, so if you want, be sure to scroll down to check out the youtube video about the first 6 days of the 10 day adventure!
10 Day Adventure Video!
Here is the 10 Day Adventure Part 1 video I talked about in the previous post! Enjoy!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Some leftover pics from Granada!
Hello!! I can't believe today was already day 9 of the 10 day adventure! We had a busy day of travel from Rome to Madrid, and then thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this evening! We have also been so lucky with all of our transportation. I don't have any new posts to upload yet, but on today's airplane I did make a youtube music video from some of the photos from the trip, although the internet here has been a little slow. So stay tuned! In the meantime, here are a few photos from our final days in Granada!
On the last Thursday of classes, we had a bread lady party! To my delight and Kelley's dismay, we somehow happened to be matching!
Clockwise starting with bottom left-hand corner: torta de chocolate, kuña, pan con aceite y azucar, y una palmera.
My Spanish composition class! From left to right: Nerea (my teacher! she was the greatest), Steph, me, Bree, Dulce, and Alex.
Enrique Iglesias is on the left and my host mom's son Jorge is on the right. If you have not yet read about this story of how Carmen knew the Iglesias family, I believe you can find it on my post titled "Málaga and Barcelona". In the picture below, Enrique is the one lying down with the hose.
This is the hot mess of my room the night when I was packing for the 10 day adventure. I believe this was at 2am... eww. Never again will I travel with so much stuff. However, everything fit in my one suitcase!
Pretty building on the walk home from the farewell dinner!
Kelley and I enjoying our favorite "galletas oreo" ice cream in Granada! I don't know why we keep matching, but I think this photo was from the last Tuesday in Granada.
I will miss her!
A picture of my friend Emily and I! She is super nice and we were actually in the same Spanish class last semester!
One night there was a beautiful full moon, so Carmen's son Jorge called us and told us we should come over to see the view, since his apartment looks out over the mountains! It was a lot of fun!
I can't believe I am going to be home on Monday! Crazy crazy stuff! Besos y abrazos! A video is coming up real soon!
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