This summer, I decided to do something a little different from my usual babysitting job. In July, I packed my bags, caught a plane, and journeyed to Spain for a month. However, this was no vacation; this was a month-long study abroad program run by the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, or KIIS. In Spain, our home base was in the small town of Segovia, Spain. This town quickly became one of my favorite places! The city has gorgeous architecture and is known for its roman aqueduct, cathedral, and castle. Our classroom was located in the Plaza Mayor of Segovia, so we were always near the heart of the city.
As part of the program, we were assigned roommates and a host family. Our professors told us that one of our best sources for information would be our host families. And they were right! I learned more about daily life, Spanish culture, how to get to places, Spanish food, etc… from my Señora (my host mother) than I did from anyone else our entire month in Spain.
Space is hard to come by in Spain, so most people live in apartments or small houses. My Señora's apartment was actually a lot larger than I was expecting! It was on the fourth floor of an apartment building that was about five minutes from the city’s center, which made it easier for my roommate and me to find our way around! Our bedroom was super tiny, but it had a beautiful balcony that offered a view of the surrounding neighborhood! It wasn’t too hard to settle in here!
What was difficult was dealing with culture shock on top of the two college courses I decided to take. The first two weeks of my month in Spain were really hard. Everything was new and different, especially the food. I was in a foreign place where I only had a limited understanding of the language. I was constantly wishing I had either my family or my best friend at my side. On top of all of this, I always seemed to be working on homework instead of exploring the city of Segovia.
I wasn’t alone in my struggles. My roommate and my other friends on the trip were definitely experiencing the same thing. By the end of the first week, we had already agreed that studying abroad was a terrible mistake that would never be repeated again. We were tired of all the assignments, the strange food, speaking in Spanish, traveling for excursions and weekends, and being away from our friends and family. By the end of week two we were more than ready for our long weekend trip to Italy.
Our trip to the airport, flight into Rome, and arrival at our Air BNB all went smoothly. We were all settling in when I finally checked my phone. On it, I had several text messages from my parents, all of them asking if I was ok, if I had made it to our destination, and if I had heard about the terrorist attack in Nice, France. My heart literally almost stopped. I couldn’t believe that there had been another terrorist attack. I know that I wasn’t even near Nice, but I certainly wasn’t as far away from all of this as I had been in the United States. It all became very real for me how far away I was from home I actually was.
However, despite this tragic news, my friends and I didn’t let it ruin our time in Italy. We were determined to have an amazing time and see all that we could while we were there. And we did. We visited the Vatican, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (Hillary Duff Movie anyone?), the Coliseum, and Ostia Antica (an ancient Roman city). We also had the most amazing food: all of the pizza that we could eat! Italy really became the turning point of the entire trip. It reminded us that while there were some really difficult things happening in our world, we still had this amazing opportunity to explore a new place and learn new things!
With this mentality in mind, we returned back to Spain where our last two weeks were considerably much better than the first two. Our professors eased up on the homework and we got a little bit more used to the food and the language. Instead of traveling far away on our last weekend, we stuck around in Segovia. We explored the hiking trails, visited La Granja (a palace for the royal family), attended a mass in Spanish, and experienced the night life in Segovia. My study abroad trip finally felt like what it was supposed to!
However, just as I was getting used to Spain, it was time to head back to the states. I thought I would be ecstatic to go back home, but I found myself wishing I had just a little bit more time (ok maybe like an extra two months) in Spain. It was hard to say goodbye to my Señora, my professors, and all the other new friends I had made on the trip! I realized that I would never forget everything I had learned on this trip. While things may not have been amazing all the time, I still was able to experience life in a different country! It has given me the chance to see that our world has so much to offer to us. As I sat on our plane, I immediately began thinking of how I could return. There’s still so much left unseen and I can’t wait to take the next opportunity to travel back!
