Case Women's Soccer: July 2010

I spent this past semester away from Case, studying abroad in Granada, Spain. Studying abroad has thus far been one of the best decisions of my life. For anyone planning on or thinking about studying abroad, be warned - the process is extremely daunting and overwhelming and will probably at some point make you think it's not worth the trouble. However, after spending five months in Spain and learning and growing so much, I hardly remember all the hassle. It is sooo worth it.

I decided on Spain because I've always wanted to be fluent in Spanish. That didn't exactly happen...but I am certainly closer! Although my major is Biology and I plan to go to medial school, I've never stopped taking Spanish courses and I had the flexibility to take a semester off of Bio classes while still earning credits for graduation. In Granada, a city in the south of Spain, I took classes at the Center for Modern Languages, a part of the University of Granada. Although I took classes with all foreign students, all of my professors were Spanish and spoke only Spanish with us. There I lived with an older couple, their dog, and another American student. My "senora" fed us three (delicious!) meals a day, cleaned, did our laundry, and, of course, helped us with our Spanish.

I loved living in Granada. Life in general is so much more relaxed, stress free and sane. I feel as though I took a 5 month break from the hectic, stressful, always thinking about something lifestyle we lead in the US. Granada is a small city with around 200,000 people and it is also quite compact, pretty common for an old European city. All the daily life things were close enough so that I could walk everywhere. A typical day would involve going to class, eating a huuuge lunch, taking a little siesta (because it's impossible to be active after lunch), going back to class, and then meeting friends for a couple drinks and tapas before dinner. Life revolves around food. Granada is especially great because while getting tapas (little bits of food you generally eat with drinks) is a Spanish tradition, Granada is one of the few places that they are always free. Yep, order a drink and you get a free little plate of food. The province of Granada itself is incredible as well. You can literally go skiing and to the beach in the same day. Let's just say life in Spain wasn't very difficult to get used to.

Another reason I chose to go to Spain versus South or Central America is that it's in Europe. Flights are so cheap, it's tempting to plan trip after trip. I was lucky to do some pretty amazing traveling. Some of the highlights included Rome, Berlin, Morocco, and Portugal. Traveling was probably one of the most rewarding experiences in more ways than one. Not only did I see things that I would never dream of seeing, it was challenging. Ryanair flights to obscure locations outside our destination city, bus stations unexpectedly closing, volcanoes erupting, getting mugged, language barriers, broken tents, etc. There was not a single trip that went off without a glitch. But, I think that those experiences are what studying abroad is all about.

Things that aren't easy force you to grow up, mature, learn, and become a more self-reliant and confident person. To all undergraduates, if you are able to study abroad, I would DEFINITELY recommend it. Never again will you have such an easy opportunity to live in a different country. While I certainly missed my family, friends, and home, a semester or even a year is such a small amount of time in the grand scheme of your whole life. And it's well worth every minute!