09.21.22 to 09.22.22 Classes and Friends!!
On Wednesdays, my only class is Human Physiology at 2:30pm, so I get to sleep in until 9:00am and then have a lazy morning. I enjoyed going to class, and can’t wait for the rest of the semester! Tonight, a group of ISA students all got together to play UNO and catch up on life. It was so much fun to see everyone!
Thursdays are my long days with three classes. I have Spanish in the morning, immediately followed by Biochemistry, then after a short break, I have Culture in Contemporary Spain. E, K, and I met up after our classes for dinner at a small local restaurant before heading towards the beach to attend a language exchange. This event was held by the Valencia Language Exchange group and it was so much fun to meet and speak with individuals from Italy, Alabama, and Israel. Most of ISA left a little early because we had an 8:00am roll call at the ISA office the following morning!
09.23.22 to 09.25.22 Granada!!
This weekend was ISA’s group trip to Granada! We had to be at the ISA office at 8:00am, so we could start our six hour train ride as early as possible. Immediately upon departure, everyone fell asleep and only woke up for our lunch break at a very nice truck stop, then it was straight back to sleep. We were awakened by our supervisor telling us to gather all our things because we had finally arrived at our hotel in Granada! The hotel was so nice and K was my roommate for the weekend!
After arriving on Friday evening, we decided to head towards the city center and walk around before our group activity. Another student in your group had actually studied abroad in Granada, so he was able to give us a tour. Our group event with ISA for this evening was walking to a scenic overlook to observe the Alhambra. After about 20 minutes we headed to a Flamenco restaurant, where we watched five fabulous individuals perform for an hour. It was so cool to see how another culture dances, other than the one I group up in! Once their performance was over, ISA walked us back to the city center and we all split into smaller groups. Some cities in Spain have a tradition where you get free tapas when you order a drink. We stopped first at a place that gave us a meat platter with our sodas. Then we headed to a restaurant with amazing pasta, it was so good. Then we met up with our friends to head home because we had another early morning roll call.
Saturday morning, we all woke up super early for breakfast before hopping on the bus to go to the Alhambra. It was beautiful, inside and out. The history of this spot on top of the architectural designs was breathtaking. I also really loved the flowers in the garden, they might have been my favorite part. After our amazing guided tour, we headed to the city center in smaller groups. My friends and I ate Kebabs and returned to the hotel for a siesta.
After our siesta, our “tour guide” friend took us to a special viewpoint to watch the sun set over the Alhambra. Even though we all complained during the forty minute walk, it was completely worth it to see the beauty and to spend time with all my friends. We stayed for a while after sunset, then headed down the hill for dinner at a restaurant. My friend and I split a traditional paella dish before we all returned to get ready to explore the city’s nightlife.
Sunday morning we all got to sleep in before hopping on the bus to return home. We stopped at the same place for lunch and everyone slept the whole time because we were so exhausted from the chalk full weekend.
I fully recommend going on all group activities offered by your program. These other ISA students are some of my favorite people alive, so creating these amazing memories with them, are moments I will never forget.
09.26.22 to 09.27.22 Regular Class Days!
I had my regular classes and took as many notes as physically possible. K and I enjoyed time at home with our host family and also snacked on some amazing papas bravas! My mom also called and we got to catch up, hopefully I will be able to call my back home friends this week, but the time difference makes it so difficult. I will keep this paragraph short because the Granada review paragraphs are long!
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