Hope College

Living in another country may seem daunting, and let me tell you it is, but soon enough it begins to feel like home: you start to love being there, and when you come home you miss it. My time in Granada could be summarized in that very sentence. The weeks leading up to my semester were a rollercoaster of emotions. I was very excited to meet everyone in my program and explore the other side of the world, but I was not sure if I could leave my community at Hope and my friends and family for four months. Not only would I be on a different continent, but I would be dealing with a six-hour time change, having to get a new SIM card for my phone to get data abroad, and living a life I wasn't sure I was ready for. I do not know when it happened, but at some point, a switch flipped during my time in Spain, and I couldn't be more glad that it did. I went from feeling homesick to making new memories, new friends, and fully embracing what Spain had to offer along the way.