Before coming to Spain this fall, I had never left the United States. In fact, it was not until my first year in college that I left the state of Texas! Knowing that I was going to be spending the next four months 5,000 miles away from where I had spent my whole life to date, I had no idea what to expect. During my flight to Europe, I browsed the internet to see what advice and tips people had to offer for living in a foreign country, or in my case studying abroad overseas. After reading a few articles and blog posts on travel websites, I realized that very soon I would not have to read others' experiences because I was going to be living my own.
For the first few days, I was overwhelmed by Granada, even though it is a small city relative to the bigger cities in Spain such as Madrid. I looked to my host mom for help, and she has been a tremendous help to me integrating into Granada. During orientation, our program director repeatedly assured us that we did not have to worry because we are not tourists in Granada, but rather locals.
The first activity I tried to get used to living in Granada was playing soccer with other American students in my program and students from the University of Granada. I played football and baseball as a kid and in high school but it is fair to say that I never truly experienced soccer until I played in Granada!
