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Week 3

In our third week of classes, we began our oral presentations in class. We had 1 presentation for each class on a topic of our choosing. I did one project on how poetry analysis differs for the origin of the poem (ex: la versificación española) and the other project on the most important exports from Spain and why they are produced in their regions specifically. Abbie and I spent lots of time reciting our presentations in our favorite coffee shops and sitting on La Caleta. It certainly wasn’t the worst place to do some studying! 

We also had a cooking lesson at Foodie Cádiz where we made paella, sangria, and tostadas! They did a great job of including everyone and the food was absolutely delicious! I’m not entirely sure I could make paella on my own, though. I guess this was the week of food for Abbie and I because this was also the week we discovered our favorite restaurant in Cádiz, an little place in La Plaza de San Juan de Díos that sold a huge variety of exotic flavors of empanadas. I think we went 3 days in a row after the first time we tried them! 

Unfortunately, we said goodbye to our host sister Maren early in the week. She was off to her next adventure at a farm near Vejer de la Frontera! It was very sad to see her go, and the house felt very empty without her in the following days (especially at mealtimes). 

This week we only had a day trip on Saturday so we had some extra free days for our last weekend. Abbie and I got up on Friday and went to the train station so we could spend the day shopping in San Fernando. We were back around 3 or 4 and still had time to have a picnic on the beach before getting an early night so we were prepared for a big day on Saturday! 

On Saturday, we took a bus to Málaga to hike el Caminito del Rey. The views were absolutely incredible. I couldn’t believe how high up we were, and honestly how free we were to just walk through and be up close and personal with the scenery! It was fun to talk with my host mom when we got home about everything we had seen and experienced as she had visited el Caminito del Rey about a year before we did. I also turned 20 that day so it was a great way to spend the first day of my twenties! As far as we knew, there’s not really an equivalent to the word teen in Spanish, so Abbie and I decided that I was no longer a “dieci”. 

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Tarifa, Bolonia, y Vejer de la Frontera

Our second weekend away was spent in the southest point in Europe, a picturesque, relaxed city named Tarifa. Tarifa is located in the province of Cádiz so we didn’t have to travel very far by bus before arriving. We started our day with a short walking tour of the city given by our beloved CML leaders. While the tour lasted probably less than a hour, they managed to shock us with 2 views that I will never forget. First, Africa. We came around the corner and our guide barely even had to point it out, as Africa was looming over the sea about 14 kilometers away. I was absolutely dumbfounded. 

The second view was my favorite (as it also included a view of Africa). We completed our tour on the bridge to a castle on la Isla de Palomas. On the right of the walkway was a beach (which would later be filled with windsurfers) with water from the Atlantic Ocean. On the left, was the Mediterranean Ocean. To give you an idea of how close they were, our tour guide later timed us running from the Mediterranean Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, and it only took 1 minute and 34 seconds. That was not a moment I will soon forget. 

We had free time for the rest of the afternoon to explore the city on our own. Abbie and I decided to go shopping first, and told ourselves it was educational by trying to convince the store employees that we were Spaniards. (We were only somewhat successful.) We also sampled some Arabic pastries and had the one and only iced coffee we were able to find during our entire month in Spain. (While I certainly missed ice coffee, I would give it up in a heartbeat to be able to be back in Spain. Not to mention, the cafe bombóns really grew on me as well.) We then spent the afternoon relaxing on la Playa de Chicas with the other students from our program before having a nice dinner in a vegan restaurant. 

The next day, we drove to Bolonia to tour ancient Roman ruins and spend a few hours searching for beach cows (while we didn’t find any, the idea that cows did walk on that beach still made us feel very exotic haha). We stopped in Vejer de la Frontera for lunch on the way back to Cádiz. I had the very best Mediterranean food I have ever had at a little tapas restaurant in the plaza while a few girls from the program and I reflected on our experiences with our host families and day-dreamed about potential future excursions to Spain. I thought this weekend was planned very well by CML as we were able to relax, spend some time touring and learning about the history of the province where we were living, and were able to see 3 cities in 2 days! 

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El intercambio

In our second week of classes, we participated in an exchange program for an afternoon with other students from the University of Cádiz who were studying English. This experience was certainly in my top 5 ways to spend an afternoon in Spain. This was the perfect way to see how far you had actually come in the speaking aspect of Spanish specifically, and demonstrated the kind of conversations you have to look forward to as you continue to make progress in your use of the Spanish language. 

I was placed in a group with my roommate from the program (Abbie), 2 Spanish girls, and a boy from Jordan. Araceli, one of the Spanish girls, didn’t speak very much English, but was extremely enthusiastic about the program and more visibly excited about successful communication than anyone I have ever met. It was extremely encouraging to have such a positive interaction while trying to use my Spanish with a native speaker. The other girl, Alba, spoke English very well. I found it easiest to communicate with her because we both spoke enough of the other’s language to understand where they may be making mistakes or be able to correct them as they went. I was very excited that we were both able to gleam so much progress just from a couple hours of conversation. Alba taught us many colloquialisms specific to Cádiz that my roommate and I later used almost every day and also helped to spark conversations with other native speakers later in our experience. The boy, Amer, was learning both Spanish and English at the same time (which was I’m sure extremely exhausting and very impressive). Abbie and I later saw Amer on campus in between classes and La Caleta, one of the beaches close to the school, many times. I think it made both of us feel much more at home to have a friend outside of our program that we would bump into and catch up with around Cádiz. 

After the exchange program, I felt incredibly motivated and most importantly, able, to seek out other similar opportunities to speak with native speakers. This was one of the first times that I realized how much progress I had made in speaking the Spanish language. 

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El Finde en Granada

Cádiz feels like home to me so it’s obviously my favorite city, but our weekend in Granada definitely made me realize how many diverse, beautiful, and historically significant cities there really are to explore in Spain (all of them, literally every city). I have been consistently impressed with how many adventures CML has been able to fit into our time here, and I am never disappointed with the places they choose to share with us! 

In Granada, we explored the city on a few of our famous CML walking tours. At the end of our first tour, they didn’t ~really~ explain where we were going (except that we would have to walk uphill for a while). I like to think that not telling us where we were going was on purpose because I couldn't believe my eyes when I came around the corner at the top of the mountain. Spain has a knack for one-upping itself with incredible views, food, and people. We were standing on the top of a mountain looking out at La Alhambra across from us. It was absolutely incredible, but even the view pales in comparison to the inside of the city (which we were able to visit on the following day). I noticed that the night life was much bigger in Granada than in Cádiz, which I expect is due to the fact that Granada is “una ciudad estudiantil” (meaning it is angled toward a lot of student life due to the university there).  

As I mentioned, we spent our second day exploring La Alhambra from the inside; I have never seen so many picturesque views in one place. The ancient, religious city was quite literally perfect. 

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Meeting the (Host) Family

I recognized the bridge “de la Constitución de 1812″ as soon as I saw it. As soon as we arrived in Cádiz, we met our host mom, Mariló. She told us that her kitchen window looks into Carmen’s window (another of the host moms). Our friends, Lauren and Stella, are living with Carmen so the 6 of us set off together to walk directly uphill with our 50 pound suitcases. It was a walk I will not soon forget. 

At the top of the hill, Mariló and Carmen told us to cross the street to look over our view of the ocean. The four of us raced across and looked out over the edge toward the water and the buildings all the way down to the other coastline. I will never forget the purest form of elation as we realized all at once that we actually get to live here! 

We live right in between the older and newer parts of the city, which is about a 25 minute walk to the university where we are studying. Our mom speaks very quickly, but is very kind and immediately treated us like a part of the family. They have an adorable little dog named Koko who Abbie and I have fallen hopelessly in love with, and there is another student here from Germany who is also in an exchange program. Her name is Maren, she’s 17 years old, and quite impressive in her Spanish skills. We have had lots of fun over the last week getting to practice our Spanish with her and she has helped us a lot with everything we need to know about Cádiz and about staying with our host family! 

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Sevilla, España

Abbie and I joined the rest of our group in Seville on Saturday where we had a few minutes to explore and shop before meeting up with everyone for the introductory dinner. We drank “tintos de verano” and spent the evening getting to know the other students in our program, as well as our program leader, Yaye. It was serendipitous to hear Antonio and Álvaro, our leaders from Centro MundoLengua, speak to us about our program in Spanish and realize that I could understand almost every word. I couldn’t comprehend that I get to spend a month here with the sole purpose of learning Spanish and growing my view of world culture. 

I was so glad to find out (although I suppose I probably should’ve known ahead of time) that we were going to spend Sunday in Seville before departing for Cádiz. I discovered so many new things about the culture and history in Seville, as well as the fact that it is supposedly the hottest city in Europe during the summer. This was the one fact I could have done without experiencing first hand! We took a guided tour of El Barrio de Santa Cruz, Real Alcázar de Sevilla, La Torre, y La Catedral de Sevilla. The history and culture and beautiful things that I was able to witness were absolutely astounding. I also loved getting to experience everything with new people and watch how they reacted to these incredible experiences and understand them better based on the way they thought about the culture before them. However, I think my favorite part was speaking with some of the locals during our lunch break. Abbie and I have continued to seek out speaking to locals every chance we get and it is the highlight of my day every time. 

My Spanish speaking improved even from the tour of El Barrio de Santa Cruz in the morning to the tour of La Catedral in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe how fast this happened and I can’t imagine how much I will learn in an entire month. I am already worried about how I am going to keep up this level of practice when I return to the United States. Until you are put in the situation where you have no option to use Spanish Dictionary or cop out and speak in English, you will never know exactly where you are in your progress with a language. Personally, I was absolutely shocked at how much I already knew and how quickly I was able to pick up on new vocabulary and speak in tenses I haven’t used recently. 

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The Trouble with Travel

The adventure began in the airport when Abbie and I heard “will the party of 2 traveling to Madrid please come see me?”. We spent the next few hours sitting in an airport cafe changing all of our flights, trains, and hotels for the first 48 hours of our trip. We considered renting a car and doing a little road trip across Spain, but we thought we’d be too tired to drive after so much travel. We ended up connecting to Madrid through the London Heathrow Airport. During our layover, I bought a toothbrush and booked a reservation for a beautiful Italian restaurant called Bel Mondo for that evening at 19:30.

Upon arrival in Madrid, we discovered that our luggage had not arrived with us and we needed to return that night at 22:10 to pick it up. For our first 24 hours in Spain, Abbie and I felt like we were putting out one fire after another. However, our luxurious dinner made us completely forget about all of it for a couple hours. Abbie and I took a Spanish class together during my freshman year, but didn’t know each other very well outside of that. We quickly found that we travel very well together and have so much more in common than I would’ve even hoped for! I think as long as you have similar goals for your study abroad, traveling brings students together as you get to know each other in a way you never could otherwise while sharing an incredible experience.

P.S. We got our suitcases without any problems that night and certainly got some practice in how to get around in Spanish!

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T-48 Hours

In my freshman year of college, I planned to study abroad in Cádiz, Spain. Unfortunately, a few months before the departure date, COVID-19 submerged the planet into a pandemic that changed every aspect of work life, school life, and social life. Over the last 14 months, people all over the world have had to adjust to what life looks like without dinner out on the town, small talk in coffee shops, and in some cases, even being able to hug one’s own family members. While finishing my freshman year classes from my home in Greenville (rather than my dorm room at the University of South Carolina), my study abroad program felt like a pipe dream from another lifetime. Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel appeared in January of 2021 when vaccines started to become available to the public. I am now halfway finished with my undergraduate career, and the time has finally come! In 48 hours, I will be boarding the plane to begin my long-anticipated study abroad experience! 

I think everyone has experienced some form of disappointment since the pandemic changed the course of the last year of our lives; this was not what anyone expected. I spent a lot of time looking forward to my trip to Spain, and when it (among other things) were cancelled, I had trouble getting my hopes up  for these kinds of opportunities in the future. For that reason, I haven’t been very excited (or for that matter, nervous) for the trip this summer. Whenever my mom asks me about how I’m feeling about the trip, I always respond that I don’t think it will hit me that I’m actually going to Spain until I am sitting on a plane 40,000 feet in the air. 

I was mistaken. It actually hit me this morning... at 4am. I woke up panicked and started packing, filling out forms, and printing documents that I probably already have 7 copies of all over my house. I do know that I still have 2 days to get all of these things done, but my family (who I haven’t seen since before the pandemic hit) came into town tonight and I knew I didn’t want to spend my time packing while they sat catching up in the next room. I’m sitting with them as I write this blog entry, so I think this will be a good place to stop for now. If all goes according to plan, my next entry will be uploaded from Seville!