I got to the Dallas airport with a bit of a knot in my stomach. The idea of being unable to simply reach for my phone and text or call someone from the US over the next 6 months, paired with an 8 hour time difference, had me uneasy from the start. I was looking forward to savoring a few minutes of online communication with some friends and family before boarding my international flight until I learned that the Dallas airport does not have free wifi internet. Great. Luckily for me, two other students from my program would be on the same flight to Madrid with an equally long layover in Dallas. In retrospect, this is probably one of the best things that could have happened to me at the start of this trip. Aside from helping to distract me from my anxiety of traveling, they are two of the funniest and most easy-going people I have met on this trip thus far. I am sure we were all quite grateful to have each other as we waited for American Airlines to find a plane for our flight (yes, our original plane was damaged and for about an hour we did not have an aircraft available for our flight), entertained ourselves through a 3 hour flight delay, navigated through the trendy and large Madrid airport, and managed to go about 24 hours without eating. Needless to say, we had already experienced plenty of adventure before even arriving in Madrid!
After arriving to Madrid, we made our way to the Instituto Internacional, which is the building where we and several other American universities have class. We were set to have a meeting and then promptly begin traveling to the south of Spain where our orientation trip would begin. We stopped for the night at a hotel to have dinner (at 10:30pm, not too much later than is customary in Spain) and resumed our travels the next morning. Our first stop was Granada, the last city to be under Moorish control and resting place of Fernando and Isabella, the Catholic kings responsible for unifying Spain. We visited the historic town of Albaycin and the magnanimous Moorish palace known as Alhambra. The city was beautiful and full of history, especially Alhambra.
Alhambra
Albaycin
After our day in Granada, we traveled to a coastal city named Nerja. We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the edge of the beach and enjoyed wonderfully warm weather for the day and a half or so that we were there. This was also our first night we had free time to explore a Spanish city; we were all excited to head out to a bar together and (legally) drink and be merry. At this point it felt almost impossible that most of us had only really met the day before
The view from the castle in Frigiliana
Oh- I also need to explain that my study abroad program in Madrid is strictly Spanish-only. This means that at home, at school, in the streets, out at restaurants, etc. we are expected to only speak Spanish. (Yes, our classes are taught in Spanish as well). This was a bit daunting and can be a bit challenging at times, but is actually probably the reason why we all bonded so quickly. I am fortunate enough to have been surrounded by the language my entire life and to be able to speak and understand it quite well, but not all are as skilled. I really praise and admire all my classmates who have done such a great job so far functioning in daily life in such a foreign language.
We visited a traditional Moorish village in Nerja called Frigiliana and learned some history about the coastal Mediterranean culture and the different religious influences on the architecture. We climbed a mountain (literally) to see the remains of a castle and had an incredible view of the village, the surrounding mountains, all the way out to the sea. We had some traditional, sit-in-a-classroom class time as well, but this was actually kinda nice because we had spent so much time walking (and at times hiking) the previous days.
On Monday we traveled again, this time to the city of Cordoba where we visited a mosque turned cathedral. We learned about the Moorish influence on architecture and the interesting way in which Christian and Islamic influences coexisted closely, so closely, in fact, that the majority of the mosque is still completely in tact and simply had a cathedral built inside of it.
Afterwards, we traveled to a place outside of Cordoba to visit the castle of Almodovar del Rio. It seems like most of the landmarks we visited required climbing very steep hills - a tiring, but certainly much needed workout after all our delicious Spanish meals.
Early Tuesday morning, we traveled to Toledo which is known as the religious capital of Spain. This city more than any others saw the coexistance of Muslims, Christians, and Jews for a many years. We visited a beautiful church called San Juan de los Reyes and a church turned synogogue turned church that was originally built by the Moors. It was fascinating to learn about the different influences each had on each other and how Fernando and Isabella ruled their country based on the Catholic religion.
We also stopped briefly in Consuegra before reaching Toledo to see the windmills that Cervantes wrote about in Don Quixote!
But after all these fun trips and cultural insight, we had yet to face one of our biggest culture shocks of all: our host families.
[to be continued...]
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