Tag Archives: new friends

A Letter to My Pots of Gold

Dear Friends,

Since coming home from Study Abroad I have been asked so many questions from friends and family members. And of course everyone’s first question is what was your favorite part. I can’t pick out a specific country or place that was my favorite to visit but I can say all my best memories from abrtemplebaroad have one thing in common. They all gelatoinvolve you guys. The people I met while studying abroad and the friends I became even closer to by getting to travel and try new things with. All of you made a huge footprint in my study abroad experience. You made me laugh when we got lost in giant cities, you never gave up on finding that specific gelato place we just had to try in Rome, you watched and laughed while we rode camels, you took pictures to capture all of the amazing memories we have. I want to thank you constantly keeping me moving asintragrouppicturend always reminding me that we will never all be here again together. All of you truly made me appreciate all of the experiences we were having that much more. If one of us was tired there was always somewhere there to keep of the group going so we could enjoy everything that every city had to offer. Without all of you I would not have gotten to sing and ddublinparade2ance in pubs at all hours of the day. I never would have had the courage to climb to the tops of castles in Portugal or mountains in Scotland. I never would have tried exotic food like haggis and fish with their eyes still staring at you. I never would have even thought to bcliffsofmohrathe in beer in Prague. Without all of you I would have laughed a lot
less. Getting lost would have been way less fun and language barriers would have only been annoying and never funny.  I have pictures and memories that I love to look back on when I want to remember all the amazing and crazy things we did.

I really did find my pots of gold in Dublin and I’ll always treasure all of the memories we made and can’t wait to make more.

Love,

Sammie

 

 

 

 

 

“Demasiado cappuccino”

Aaah!! Today we started orientation. I checked out of the room I had last night at 11:30, which was funny because Kaytee and I had agreed to get up and go to breakfast around 9. Minus the few hours I was up in the early morning, we both slept almost 12 hours! I can’t imagine how screwed up my sleep schedule is going to be for these first few days. Enrique, one of the contacts from We Love Spain that I spoke to earlier in the week and met yesterday, said that on a normal night Spaniards go to bed at 2am. Or at least he does. I mean, I knew they stay out late, til 5 or 6 in the morning on weekends, but I don’t think I’m going to be ready for that for a while :-/

My first encounter with the CIEE staff was totally terrifying!! Everyone was speaking Spanish to me and I could hardly understand a thing they were saying. I have issues understanding people in English as it is, so it’s clear I need to work on listening closely. An even bigger challenge will be trusting myself to start producing Spanish regularly. Having taught English for the past few years, I know that breaking that confidence barrier is one of the most difficult, but also one of the most important parts of becoming proficient in a second language. Now in the position of the language learner, I’m going to see just what a challenge that is. Though intimidating, this experience will hopefully not only improve my confidence in learning, but also help me to empathize and cater to  the same insecurities my future students might have.


I missed breakfast, so when I finally had lunch around 2 I also wanted some caffeine because I was a little groggy. I knew there’s a lot of caffeine in European coffee compared to that in the States, but I thought I could handle it because I usually drink coffee every day. I thought wrong. Two tiny cups of cappuccino and I was “temblando por todos partes” (shaking all over). I tried to go take a nap but could hardly lie still for more than 5 minutes, so I went downstairs to talk to some of the CIEE staff. I figured it would be a good opportunity to acquaint myself with some of them, and speak a little Spanish so I wouldn’t be so intimidated late. It helped a lot. I told them I felt weird from all the caffeine, and needed to sit and drink some water, maybe walk around for a bit. One guy, Luis, showed me a map of Sevilla and where all the classes are. We talked about Pennsylvania, and where I’m from a little bit, and they told me about themselves.  I don’t think I have to worry about making friends, the staff are all very open and friendly, and it seems most Spaniards are this way.

I’ve been inside all day, and it’s a shame because it’s finally soo beautiful out. I was supposed to go out to see some shopping with Kaytee and some other girls, but I missed her FaceBook post and just ended up hanging out instead. In about an hour we have our first orientation meeting. We’re going to find out our homestay situations and then get a good night’s rest because tomorrow we’re getting split into groups and going for walking tours. Tomorrow night we’re also going to go out for the first time with our staff and they’re going to show us some places to have tapas and drinks 🙂 It’s cool that they’re all our age, because they’re more like peers that we can interact with than authority figures.

Think that’s about it for now, will post again when I find out about my housing and get all the info at our first meeting!

Location: Hotel Sol Melia. Seville, Spain.