My adventures in Granada, Spain have now come to a close and I'm home to begin the real world. Overall, the experience was the best anyone could have whether it was trying new Spanish dishes, seeing new places every day with Mike, or simply spending time at home with the family. I want to first thanks Mike for everything he did for us throughout these five weeks, without him we would certainly be lost and not have learned anything. I'd also to thank my family, Rut, Raul, Emmanuel, Gabriel, and Nazaret, for having me stay in their home and feel part of the family.
With Mike, not knowing him at all, I didn't know what to expect from him as they told us he would be our supervisor. After these five weeks, I wouldn't have considered him my professor or supervisor, Mike is a great friend. He was helpful with everything such as how to use the buses, learn the Spanish language and culture, and showing us around the city of Granada. Of course, he did make some great burgers when we had a movie night and watched the big soccer match. It is sad to leave behind a great person like Mike because he is an exceptional, hard working man who I will consider as a great friend of mine.
One of the biggest changes when going to Spain would be the food, as I thought it would be big on seafood since the city is only 45 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea, but I was wrong. Every Spanish dish I did try, I couldn't every complain about it including two dishes I had in the final week. The first was made by my host dad, Raul, who made a dish where it is white rice with eggs on top. They would then put a tomato sauce in it to give it more flavor. Raul and Rut are both excellent cooks from making simple dinner like an omelet with ham or a big lunch filled with paella.
As for the other dish I had in my final week, at a restaurant with Alexi, it was french fries topped with eggs and ham. That's basically everything you could want all in one. We did have a side of tomato slices with fresh mozzarella on top of the slices.
On the final night in Granada, all of us and our families came together for one final celebration, but before that was the final group outing with Mike. We all wondered where we would meet him and once we all saw, it was one of first places we visited on week 1 as a group with this great view of the Alhambra. At the celebration, we gave our families a group photo of us all in a nice frame as presents to say thank you.
We also received our official t-shirts as the first students to go to Granada. To follow that, Ellie presented an amazing video for everyone to watch of our times in Granada. The celebration would come to a close with eating all the food we had along with a gigantic group photo and family photos.
The most important thing I will miss is my host family. They were amazing to me and I was glad to have lived with him. I do wish I could have stayed longer as Emmanuel thought I was staying for a year. The morning I was leaving, Emmanuel and Gabriel were not awake yet and I didn't want to wake them, but I feel I should have. Emmanuel ended up crying when he saw and heard I was gone and it is sad to know that happened, but I'm proud of myself to have made that kind of impact. I have talked to Rut since being home and look to continue talking to her and find times to video call the family, maybe one day I will see them in Spain again.
