Today marks the last day of my first week studying abroad in Cadiz, Spain, yet it seems as though I’ve been here for months. My trip started with a three-hour delayed flight to New York, causing me to *almost* miss my connecting flight to Spain by five minutes. (Big thanks to my aviation expert/best friend for his airport advice, directions, and moral support).

Once I made it onto the plane, I discovered that all three “Taken” movies were featured as films for the flight, which I quickly scrolled right past. It seemed like a bad premonition for my life in Spain for the next four months. I decided to watch “Hot Pursuit” in Spanish; however I switched the language back to English after a half hour, solely because the dubbed-over speech was annoying, (and I didn’t really know what was going on). Eight hours later, I landed safely in Spain and made it to Cadiz without any crazy “Taken” experiences. It’s been an amazing week, and I am so blessed to be living in such a beautiful city. But, life in Spain is definitely different from my home in America, so here’s just a few of the ways my life has changed since living here, categorized by the normally insane things I would never say back home.

“I don’t want to take a nap.”

Yes, I knew everyone in Spain takes a siesta during the day. I did not realize that the entire town shuts down for everyone to sleep for three hours. There’s so much to do here and it’s always so beautiful here it seems so crazy to me that we’re just supposed to sleep through the day. I would much rather be exploring the beaches or eating tapas than sleeping in my room. But, after a few skipped siestas and nights out in Spain, I realized that these naps are very necessary, as no one in Spain sleeps during the night, and without the siesta, I want to go to bed at five PM.

“My 60-year-old host mom parties more than me.”

On my first night “hitting the streets” as the Spanish say, the group of kids I am studying abroad with and I decided to go to as many places as possible. We started the night at a bar at around eleven o’clock, however, we quickly learned that the ~cool kids~ don’t even start pregaming before midnight. So we hung out by ourselves for a bit waiting for more people to show up. After a while, we left one bar to check out another and eventually headed to a club nearby. We danced on the tables to “Ignition”, pretended to be professional Salsa dancers when the Spanish tunes were blasting, and then sang the lyrics to “Blank Space” at the top of our lungs. Eventually, the lights came on in the club, and I realized it was already four in the morning. Normally, I am in bed by midnight, and I was shocked to see it was so late and I was still standing. We all shuffled out of the club and I was ready for bed, but then we discovered that no one was going home. Everyone was rushing over to La Punta, a street known for its many different discotecas. We decided to go over just to see what even happens at a discoteca, and ended up dancing on a stage to 60’s music for another hour. Finally, us Americans threw in the towel, deciding that five thirty in the morning was long enough to stay out. However, the next day, as I struggled to tell my host mom about our night in Spanish, when I told her when we came home, she laughed and said, “Oh, early night, huh?” Then she started to tell me that a regular night out in Spain usually lasts until 7 a.m., when you can buy a churro for breakfast and then go to bed after that. She showed me pictures of her and her friends in their Flamenco costumes at the nearby Pasteleria, and continued to laugh at how we did not make it out very late. I was exhausted the next day, and I’m not sure how many nights I’ll be able to stay out to seven AM, but obviously I have to at least try to be as cool as my host mom.

“No thanks, I don’t want any more ice cream.”

I love ice cream and dessert more than the main course, but my host mom will cook me so much delicious food I truly can’t eat anymore. She works so hard to cook these spectacular feasts for every meal, and I always feel bad when I can’t finish her food. But also, she expects me to eat so much food, I don’t know who would ever eat as much as she wants me to. Yesterday, for lunch she asked me if I wanted to eat three sandwiches or only two. When I said I could only eat one, she laughed and handed me two anyways. But, I’m trying lots of new things and becoming very ~cultured~.

“Mom I’ve had wine with every meal so far.”

Her response: “Oh my gosh Kelsey are you just drunk all the time??”

Silly Mom. By wine, I mean Tinto de Verano, which is my host mom’s favorite drink. It’s 4.5% alcohol for the entire bottle, and my host mom has a glass with every meal. It’s basically grape juice, but it’s absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys wine, juice, grapes, limes and the finer things in life.

“I have absolutely no idea as to where we are right now.”

Okay, so this is not a crazy thing for me to say, as I’m lost 24/7, but it absolutely sums up my study abroad experience so far. Living in a foreign city, where I have to speak Spanish in order to ask for directions, has not been the easiest thing in the world. I’ve never used a map so much in my life; but I’m figuring it out-I normally know where the “Ocean Street” and the “Main Street” are, and how to get to my house from there, which is a start. (PSA: I still don’t know the real names of those streets, but you have to start from somewhere, right?)