From Madrid With Love [Study Ablog]

Today’s Study Ablog post is written by junior and UHPer Kimya Forouzan, and ESIA student studying abroad in Madrid!
Hello my lovely Honors Program members! Where am I writing to you from? Madrid, of course. The actual city that never sleeps. It’s 2:00 AM, and I’m just finishing up my homework for midterms week, astonished that I am still functioning despite never sleeping. Getting used to the schedule in Madrid was the hardest part of adjusting to the new city. I eat dinner with my host family most nights around 10:00 PM, and often don’t meet friends on weekends until 12:00 or 2:00 AM.

My time in Madrid has flown by so far, although that’s not to say it didn’t begin with some bumps in the road—because it did. I still remember the first day I met my host mom. She forgot to give me a key, which convinced me that she already hated me and just didn’t want me to come back home ever.
Once the first three days of orientation passed, I was tasked with having to navigate through the city using Spanish. At first, it was so hard to just say words. I was so afraid of being completely wrong and embarrassing myself that I hid behind a few phrases that I repeated. I was late to almost every single class I had because of my long commute, and I almost fell off a donkey.
But eventually, I learned that my host mom actually loves me, started getting comfortable with the language, got the hang of the city, and vowed to never be within a 100-mile radius of a donkey ever again. Despite all of these bumps that I had in the beginning, I have come to realize that studying abroad is the most valuable thing I’ve done while at GW, and I already cannot wait until my next travel experience.