Granada: un sueño verdadero

I always imagined studying abroad in a Spanish-speaking country, but Granada exceeded my wildest dreams for a study-abroad experience! Granada is the ideal city for study-abroad: it’s small enough to feel intimate, yet large enough to have a bevy of concerts, bars, and cultural activities. It’s a youthful college town, yet has centuries of rich cultural history –from the Islamic empire to “Los Reyes Catolicos.” That being said, Granada makes for the perfect hands-on classroom –with IES, I took a class on Islamic Art and Architecture where class consisted of weekly visits to the Alhambra. Also, Granada is surprisingly affordable! 2 Euro wine with a free tapa of paella have forever spoiled me for American prices.
IES does a great job coordinating all aspects of the program and catering it to your specific needs/goals. My goal was to fully immerse myself in Spanish. Not only did IES offer courses entirely in Spanish, but they also helped me register in classes at the University of Granada. The Program Director, Javier, is incredibly dynamic and genuinely cares about each student –by the second day of the program, he already knew everyone by name! The IES staff helps immensely with cultural immersion: they connected me with a local hiking club as well as sending out weekly agendas with local cultural activities. The program also included free trips to major sites like Sevilla, Ronda, Cordoba, and Cabo de Gata, which were great bonding experiences and enabled me to get a better sense of Spain as a whole.
One of the most memorable and immersive parts of the experience was my homestay. My host mother was an incredible woman –always cooking delicious Andalusian dishes, asking us about our lives, and trying to find solutions to any challenges that came up. She called me her “niña” and insisted on celebrating my birthday as if I were her own daughter. We still keep in touch over email and Skype, and she sends me photo updates of her adorable new grandson.
After spending a semester in Granada, I can honestly say that it was one of the most positive and powerful experiences of my life. Immersing myself in another culture gave me new perspective on my own culture and daily life. I learned to slow down from the fast-paced American lifestyle, appreciate all the wonderful people in my life, and when something doesn’t go according to plan, just shrug it off with a “no pasa nada” (the Granadino catchphrase). I have definitely become more open-minded, flexible, and independent because of this experience!