An Unforgettable Experience #HogsAbroad in Spain

Hi! My name is Felipe Manolof and I had the great opportunity to visit Spain with the faculty-led program to Madrid. I’m an international business major with a concentration in marketing and a Spanish minor. I want to start by saying that one month wasn’t enough because I had so much more of this wonderful country to explore and experience.

Royal Palace, Madrid

I already spoke Spanish before I landed in Madrid, so it wasn’t hard for me to get by. One of my goals was to visit my two sisters living in Tenerife (Canary Islands) and Almeria (Southern Spain) and to experience the culture and learn about the history, both of which I later found to be extremely rich and stunning. I met great people, both from Arkansas and the U.S. and also from Spain and the rest of the world. Madrid is a very diverse and fun city that welcomes people from all over and has a great deal to offer –very appetizing food, beautiful parks and gardens, huge and small museums, stadiums, amusement parks, and art everywhere. My host parents were great. Unlike most of the other people from my program, I lived alone, but not having a roommate wasn’t a problem at all because there was more delicious home-cooked food for me! After class, I would go home and eat lunch, sometimes watch a World Cup game with my host dad, and then take a nap to escape the heat. At night, I would meet some friends and enjoy some tapas, walk around the city, or go dancing for a little bit before the metro closed (taxis are expensive). As students, we got to visit museums and palaces for free! A few of the many amazing places we visited included the Royal Palace (second biggest in Europe), Museo del Prado, and Museo Reina Sofia (both of which are a must visit, even if you think you’re not interested in art).

Catedral Nueva, Salamanca

Salamanca was a trip included in our program and I’m very glad because this historic city was mind-blowing. Salamanca has a huge Plaza Mayor and also the oldest university in Spain as well as one of the most prestigious in Europe. It was crazy to think that I walked on the same streets as important historic figures like Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortez, and Miguel de Cervantes. The buildings had a very elegant façade with a Romanesque and Gothic style and they were all reserved and maintained very well. One of my favorite buildings was the Catedral Nueva, which was a huge and breath-taking structure, not just because it was so beautiful, but also because we had to climb so many flights of stairs to the rooftops and the campanario (bell tower) of the cathedral.

One of the gardens at Alhambra, Granada

Since only Madrid and Salamanca were included in the program, I planned weekend trips outside of the city because I wanted to explore more of Spain. As I mentioned before, I visited one of my sisters in Tenerife, Canary Islands and my other sister in Almeria, Andalusia. Both places had very kind and welcoming people, who also practice the Southern hospitality we know in America, and are a little different from the Madrileños because they’re a bit more laid-back (and better dancers in my opinion). There is obviously more sea food and fish dishes and if I thought it was hot in Madrid is because I didn’t know what real heat was before I went south; however, the breeze from the ocean would always refresh me. The beaches in Andalusia are some of the most beautiful in Spain and Europe –from what I heard—but something I loved even more was the crystal-clear water; I could see the fish swimming around my legs and, on one occasion, the jellyfish swimming at me before they got a chance to sting me.

Almeria Beach

The two other cities I visited were Malaga and Granada, also in Southern Spain. Malaga was a lot more like Almeria and we happened to go while they were celebrating the Fiestas de San Juan to welcome the summer in Spain; this is celebrated on most Spanish beaches and people go swimming in the ocean at night and jump over small bonfires. While in Malaga, we also had the chance to go to a concert on one of the beaches and it was amazing, the best part was that we got in for free! In Granada, we went to the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful palaces in Spain. It took us about four hours to walk through most of the buildings, mosques and gardens. It was a good thing we took big bottles of water with us.

The whole experience was great and unforgettable. I wish I would have had more time to visit other places like Valencia, Barcelona and other cities in Northern Spain. I have nothing but good things to say about the Spanish people and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. I only regret not having studied abroad earlier.

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Felipe spent the Summer 2018 term in Spain with our U of A Faculty-Led: Spanish in Madrid program, with the help of our our Office of Study Abroad Scholarship.

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