My study abroad program in Spain has been astonishing! It didn’t hit me that I was going to be staying in a different country across the world for a month until I got off the bus I took to Oviedo from where my flight landed in Madrid.

My host mom picked me up from the bus station and from there, we went to my host family’s apartment. One of the first things that caught my eye was the architecture. The buildings were beautiful. When I found out that the majority of the people live in apartments, I was shocked and I was also shocked at how small they were.

When studying abroad, it is important to have an open mind and a willingness to experience a new culture because different countries do things differently. One of these things in Spain is that they air-dry all their clothes. Having socks that were stiff from being air-dried was a different experience for me.

The schedule for eating is also very different from the U.S. For breakfast, it is normal to have something small like café con leche and a cookie and then lunch isn’t until 2-3 p.m. The sun sets later here and dinner isn’t until around 9:30 p.m. This has been one of the hardest things for me to get adjusted to, but all the food I have eaten here has been amazing.

I may have also developed a small coffee addiction because there are cafeterías everywhere. I have loved being able to experience the culture of another country and recommend this program to everyone. ¡Chao!