In reflection from when I first got here, I am surprised how quickly I became so comfortable here in Spain. Having arrived three weeks early to spend time in Madrid, I had the opportunity to explore on my own and acclimate to living in a new city before starting classes. Due to Madrid’s student metro card, I was able to immediately start traveling all over the city and learning the metro system definitely gave me the confidence to feel comfortable about being here for an extended period of time. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, having awesome discussions in Spanish with my cab drivers has been such a cool experience that really makes me feel like I’m truly living within another culture, one that is so rich and proud. 

      I think my first “oh my gosh, I’m abroad” moment happened while I was visiting Barcelona with some friends for a concert of one of my now favorite artists, Rauw Alejandro. I found myself in the middle of the RCDE stadium field surrounded by so many Spanish people, screaming all the lyrics to all of the songs he sang. Some older women next to us cheered as they noticed Rosalia, another famous Spanish singer, dancing along in one of the boxes. In this moment, I really felt like a Spanish college student, taking advantage of everything that Spain has to offer. Also, I had another similar moment, while in Porto, Portugal, in which it hit me how lucky I am to be in Europe, doing such cool things. I have included a photo of the sunset on the Ribeira in Porto, a beautiful river that divides the city in two. 

      While my experience here has been so amazing so far, I have had a moment of culture shock. During my three weeks here early, I took a solo trip to Barcelona to go site-seeing and experience the culture of Cataluña. I did have a great time, but I chose to stay in a youth hostel and quickly realized it was not for me. Although I did meet some really cool people, I didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in a room with 11 other strangers. I found it very hard to sleep as people would come in and out of the room all throughout the night and coupled with the fact that the main language of this region is Catalan, I felt a little bit homesick for the first time. Other than this, I have not felt culture shock while being in Madrid. I have loved every moment and experience here and only wish I could be here for a longer period of time. I truly believe I could see myself living here in the future or completing a graduate program either in Spain or another Spanish speaking country.