No Pasa Nada

IES Abroad Granada truly is the perfect study abroad program. Initially, when I chose Granada, I only thought of it as a small city in Southern Spain. I didn’t know anything about the local culture, the rich history that every inch of the city holds, or the Alhambra. I had never used the words “siesta”, “tapa”, “tinto de verano” or “no pasa nada” (all of which a local uses at least 5 times a day). The laid back, easy-going way of life makes it very easy to fall in love with the city.
One of my favorite memories was celebrating my host mom's 54th birthday. Her birthday fell on our last Saturday in Granada, so she wanted to celebrate with us. In the morning, my roommate and I had our final performance flamenco show (from our flamenco class) that our host mom and host sister attended. When we got home, we found that our host mom had prepared a huge feast with traditional seafood paella, tons of bread and olive oil and tossed salad. Her daughter bought mini cakes at a local bakery for us to eat once we were stuffed from lunch! My roommate and I bought our mom a "birthday crown" and had her wear it throughout the meal. We sang happy birthday to her, watched her blow out her candles and gave her a present (a dark H&M scarf that she had been admiring). The best part of this lunch celebration was talking with our family. In total, the meal took 4 hours because we just sat and talked (in Spanish, of course:) about life. This was an extremely special experience for me.
Each day was a new learning adventure while I was there: whether it was learning a new Spanish word with my host mom at lunch, finding a new tapas restaurant with friends, exploring a portion of the Alhambra, watching flamenco performances on the street or wandering aimlessly around the city. My study abroad experience in Granada provided me with countless life lessons that I could not have possibly learned in a classroom. My 4 months in Granada gave me some time to step back, relax and reflect on my life. I would strongly encourage anyone to look into this program, because it truly changed my life. Granada no longer is a small city in Southern Spain, Granada is home.