How to fall for a city in 4 short months

Granada has my heart! From the constant life on the street to sunsets from the top of old fortress walls and hills covered in olive trees and murals, playing pick up soccer before watching Granada FC home games with the extended homestay family or stumbling upon festivals and music on my walk home, I absolutely loved my time abroad with IES. A week without tapas or shwarma seemed unfathomable, a day without watching motos weave around on the street just silly. Granada is a beautiful blend of a city with architecture from many different times, religions and styles and a huge student population that keeps it young. It's walkable but not too small, a true city city but not without great hikes and the Sierra Nevada mountains close enough to touch. I'm so grateful for my warm and wonderfully wacky homestay parents and the Spanish pace of life and sense of time. IES program staff, professors, and orientadores are very supportive and provide unique immersive opportunities and excursions. Trips around Andalusia and Morocco helped us understand and explore social and political contexts. Classes were diverse and helped improve my Spanish (the accent and slang in southern Spain is notorious) while allowing for time to get to know and be a part of the city. I had the chance to take a course at the University of Granada through which I made my best Spanish and international friends, people who I will cherish forever. Every day in Granada can be, and was, its own little adventure.