{"id":20625,"date":"2025-01-04T14:00:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T20:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/?p=20625"},"modified":"2025-01-07T14:09:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:09:31","slug":"abroad-in-alicante-month-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/2025\/01\/04\/abroad-in-alicante-month-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Abroad in Alicante: Month four"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before we left for Spain, our study abroad adviser had us write down goals on an Alicante postcard. Now that I\u2019ve been back home for about a week and a half, and the chaos of the holidays is mostly over, I\u2019ve had a while to reflect on my time abroad. And what better way to do so than to return to those initial hopes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goal #1: Grow a close relationship with my host family. Check! I got so incredibly lucky with my host family. Carlos and Rosie were the best I could have asked for. Kind, caring and generous. I will be holding those relationships tightly moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"IMG_9326\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
My host family and me. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Goal #2: Make new friends. Check! There were about 24 people in my program, so there were a variety of personalities and always something new to talk about. I went on trips with different groups of people and regardless of our differences, we were all united by our desire to travel, meet new people and learn about new cultures. I will always be grateful for the \u201cbuilt-in\u201d friends the ALI Abroad program afforded me and the memories that we shared together. Not to mention the Spaniards I will be back to visit in the future!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"92a23ad5_ed37_4919_bbb8_f714b60eb24d\"<\/a>\n<\/div>
Program group photo. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Goal #3: Become proficient in Spanish. Check! Before I left, I had the idea that I could reach full professional fluency in four months. That did not turn out to be true, but I did improve a lot. At the beginning of the semester, it took so much brain power to understand people when they spoke, whether it be professors or just people on the tram. By the time I left, I could understand most everything without having to think about it. Speaking is more difficult, but I am at the point where I can have friends that don\u2019t speak English, and I ended up talking to a stranger on a plane for an hour once!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goal #4: Grow comfortable traveling solo. Check! This one was important to me. I\u2019ve always been independent, but I had never traveled anywhere by myself before. I was curious to learn how I would feel about it. Would I feel lonely and wish I had someone there to share the experience? As it turned out, I loved it. I found that I met new people when traveling solo that I probably wouldn\u2019t have spoken to if I was already with a group. I met four girls in a hostel in Barcelona, and I ended up going to a Soul Festival with them. In Bilbao, I spent a day with a mom and her son (who\u2019s an actor on Netflix!). In Madrid, I spent a weekend with family of a close family friend. So many wonderful experiences, and I know that I will be talking about my time in Spain for many years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more about this blogger\u2019s study abroad program: ALI Abroad: University of Alicante<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before we left for Spain, our study abroad adviser had us write down goals on an Alicante postcard. Now that I\u2019ve been back home for about a week and a half, and the chaos of the holidays is mostly over, I\u2019ve had a while to reflect on my time abroad. And what better way to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[177],"class_list":["post-20625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-spain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20628,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20625\/revisions\/20628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}