I’ll miss you Granada

Well no I’m not leaving yet, I still have about a week left here in Spain but as I’m writing this post, I am beginning to feel a little sentimental thinking back on the past four and half months I’ve lived here. That’s right. I LIVED here; my life has been completely changed. I’ve experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’ll never be the same.

While I have done a bit of traveling and most of my blog posts have been about that because I wanted you to see the incredible opportunities you have when you study abroad, particularly in Europe (I can’t vouch for any other area). For this post I’d like to highlight a few of the common everyday things I experienced while living in Granada that I will miss.

• My half hour walk to school every day….several times a day.
• Tapas.
  • Because um, they’re free. How can you not miss them

• The Alhambra

• Churros con chocolate
  • Nuff said.

• Euromania
  • Card night every Wednesday with the Squad.

• Cobblestone streets
  • Killer for the feet and long walks.

• Walking everywhere
  • I have calves of steel now.
• Erasmus trips
  • Some of my best and favorite memories.

• Tiny streets
  • Hi, yes, I’d like to not be hit with a moving vehicle, thank you.

• Bread
  • Where’s the tortillas?..
• Siesta
• Dogs everywhere and walking without leashes.
  • Like why isn’t my dog so civilized?
• The food
  • No it isn’t the same as home (I’m Mexican, can you guess what I eat on an everyday basis?…jealous?)
  • Nevertheless, I will miss some certain foods like tortilla de patata, and eggplant everything!
    • I still carried a bottle of hot sauce everywhere though.
• Seeing graffiti everywhere. It’s beautiful especially since it has meaning.

These are only a few of the things that I will miss. I’m sure there is more but I feel like I won’t notice them until I am back in the states and I’ll be walking to class and I’ll miss having to dodge pigeons or saying hi to someone I know as they walk by. The closer it gets to the day I have to leave the more it hits me that I have made Granada my home and I’m really sad to leave it behind. The next time I come here, I possibly won’t be a student anymore and I most definitely won’t see the same people everyday like I used to. Coming here has really made me think about “change”, with all of the traveling I’ve done and hopefully will do, I have become accustomed to change. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. I have lived in a completely different culture the past almost 5 months and during that time I have traveled to other countries and experienced doubly different cultures. It’s difficult to fathom that I will miss having to adjust every few weeks because of this cultural change.

In short, I have learned that there is much to learn and I’m not done learning. Granada, Spain has introduced me to the travel bug and I’ll forever be infected, gladly. Today in one of my classes, a classmate presented on a muslim traveler, Ibn Battuta, who said a famous quote, “Traveling leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller.” This is 100% true. I’m glad I made the choice to study abroad and I’m even happier with the location I chose. It was the right choice for me even though I had people tell me otherwise. I made so many new friends and gained a  new perspective on everything basically. It’s like I see the world with a new set of glasses and I hesitate to think how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t taken this opportunity. I’m sad to leave Granada and my new found friends, but I am glad to be heading back home soon. Granada, I’ll miss you but I will be back soon!