Farewell Madrid

Hola amigos!

I am now on my flight home to Chicago from New Jersey (I wrote this on the plane ride home). The flight from Madrid to Newark was not bad at all, I watched 3 movies, some Friends and took a mini nap. It is hard to believe that I have been away from home for over 4 months. Although Spain was the best experience of my life, I am more than ready to be home. I have travelled to all the places and done all the things that a few months ago I had never dreamed would possible. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I have made so many new friends, learned new things, experienced a unique culture and visited the beautiful cities of Europe. Here is a quick reflection on the past 4 months.

Favorite trip: Lisbon and Italy

Favorite thing: Learning to surf

Favorite place in Madrid: Retiro park

What I will miss

·      Maria, the most amazing host mom in the entire world

·      My awesome roomies

·      Being able to travel to a ton of different places easily and relatively cheaply

·      Seeing the culture in these old European cities

·      Speaking Spanish (only a little though- I missed English a lot)

·      The easiness of the metro

·      The amazing view we had from our apartment

·      The ability to walk most places

·      My new friends

·      All of the parks in Madrid, especially Retiro

·      The cool architecture

·      The abundance of things to do

·      Real Madrid games

·      Free things

·      Sol

·      Paella

·      Sangria

·      Siesta time (let’s be real I did this before I came to Spain)

·      The laid backness

What I won’t miss

·      The amount of people that smoke

·      My shaky bed

·      Having to pay for water

·      Not having free refills

·      The schedule (with store hours and eating hours)

·      The lack of diversity in the food

·      The judgmental stares

·      Fear of pick pocketers

·      How expensive food is

·      The 35+ minute commute to school

·      How small SLU Madrid was

·      Street signs on buildings that make it impossible to see

·      The horrible feeling after you spend a ton of money planning a trip

What I’m looking forward to

·      Seeing my family and friends

·      Eating so many different types of food

·      Playing with my puppies

·      Road tripping down to STL

·      REAL DIET COKE

·      Having a car

·      My own bed

·      All the things that you can do in America that you can’t do in Spain

This has been the most amazing experience of my life. I have learned so much about myself and life in general. I am so thankful to have had such an amazing opportunity. I honestly think everyone should get a chance to study abroad because it teaches you about other cultures other than the US. Although I am very proud to be American, I think we grow up in this little “America bubble” and going to other countries allows us to learn about other cultures and gain new experiences. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in my study abroad experience, you have made it truly phenomenal. And thank you all for reading this blog, I thoroughly hope you have enjoyed it. I’m considering making a new blog just to write about my experiences at school if anyone would be interested in that, but I’m sure it will be infinitely less exciting. I might do an adjusting back post, but this may be the last one for this blog. Thanks again, and long live Espana. 

Love,

Ashley