¡Olé!

I can't believe it's almost time for me to leave! On Wednesday (Jan. 21) I will fly to Spain to begin a four and a half month study abroad experience. I have always wanted to study abroad and I am so happy that I'm finally doing it. I will be living in Granada - a city of about 250,000 people in southern Spain. Granada is overlooked by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and it's also not too far from the Mediterranean coast. The city has a unique mix of cultures, as the Moors dominated Andalucia for centuries and left their mark on the architecture and style of the region. One of the most famous Moorish monuments in Spain, the Alhambra palace, exists in Granada. I will take classes at the University of Granada's Centro de Lenguas Modernas. The university was chartered in 1531! All of my classes will be taught in Spanish, but will likely be with other American or non-Spaniard students.

I will live with a señora - a single woman who lives alone and is a homemaker. Her name is María and she is 63 years old. I'm really looking forward to meeting her. I will also have an American roommate. Her name is Courtney and she's from Virginia. We've communicated a little bit through email. She goes to a private school in Pennsylvania where she plays soccer for her university. She seems very nice, and it's great that we already have our love of soccer in common.

Wednesday will be a very long day, with a total of 15 hours in the air. I will fly out of Portland and make connections in Chicago and Frankfurt before my final stop - Madrid. After arriving in Madrid there is an orientation meeting and a group dinner. The group will spend the next three days in Madrid and Toledo where we will see El Museo del Prado, El Palacio Real, El Escorial, La Iglesia de Santo Tomé, and more. Then we will take a bus to Granada to meet our host families and get settled in before classes start.

It still hasn't sunk in that I will be in Spain this time next week. I'm so excited to get going!