TRAVEL SEMINAR.

You've been in Madrid for about 4-5 days.... now pack for 16 days, we are traveling through out ALL of Spain. Madrid to Barcelona to Valencia to Granada to Seville to Cordoba then back to Madrid finally. The most exhausting and expensive trip I have ever taken. It consisted of checking in and out of hotels, waking up every morning at 7 am for all day/evening tours after staying up and out with everyone until 3 am, taking too many photos, paying for too much water, walking, walking, walking, WALKING, the history of this, the history of that, the what?!

Lets just say traveling with 111 college students was not the best idea USD had in mind but how worth it all was--- utterly and completely worth it. The sites I had seen were mind boggling and breathe taking, such as La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Arts and Science sect of Valencia, Al-Hambra in Granada, Cathedral of Seville (3rd largest in the world), the Mosque of Cordoba, plus too many more to list.

The beginning.

This might be a little late, but better late than never. So the first 4 days in my new life seemed like a dream and about a year long.

The feeling of landing in Madrid is one I will never forgot. It may seem like a cliche but it really was indescribable and surreal. It was more of state of disbelief. How did I ever convince my parents to let me do this? The excitement of it all took over like a crashing wave.

People were giddy, anxious, and ecstatic. it was actually quite frightening but what was most comforting was that I had 111 of my fellow classmates with me walking into this new life blindfolded as I was. Skipping into the details- Meeting my Senora (Carmen) was a relief---she looked normal, acted normal, COOKED normal foods... well kind of, all in all she is precious and I could not be luckier to be living with her along side one of my former roommates Rachel. The first official day was filled with tours, orientation, rules, regulations, so on and so forth. Next two days consisted of day trips to Segovia and Toledo. Which were just absolutely gorgeous little towns.

The next day after this was one of the best days of the beginning- My other two former roommates Christine and Audrey (who are doing semester at sea, where they live on a boat and go to class BUT get to visit about 22 different countries) visited for 2 days. They are both more than just roommates but one of my best friends. We all went out for tapas and walked the streets of Madrid, how crazy is that statement in itself? It was beyond refreshing seeing them, an ease into it all.

I will never forget those first few days, it has changed me.