I am late on writing about my intro, pre-departure and arrival. I have already been in Spain for a week and a half. I started my program a week ago. I have already been super busy, but enjoying my time.

INTRO

Hello Everyone!! My name is Lidia and I am studying in Zamora, Spain for 6 weeks. Ill be completing my whole second year of Spanish. That is why I chose this program. I need my second year and I have always wanted to go to Spain. I am completing to things at once. It is also a great way to get to know a different culture and a different style of Spanish that people speak here.

Pre-departure

I knew barely anything about Spain and its culture. I only knew that they speak Spanish and leave a different life style then the US does. I was very nervous to leave my home where I am comfortable at and know how to speak the language. I was worried that I would not be able to communicate well with my host family or other is the community. I wondered how it would all work out or if this town would have a good amount of English language people. I also did not like how bad the time difference was going to be. Its a 9 hour difference back home. I knew it would make it hard to every have time to communicate with my family and friends back home.

I did some research on the life style of people in Spain, what the young people like to do in their spare time and what the fashion was here! I did not want to stick out as a tourist, even though I would. I was told this town would be small, so I pictured it having old building, maybe a few places to shop, far from everywhere, and other things like that. I was hoping I would be wrong. This is what I say when I looked it up Zamroa!

Arrival!

I was nervous to arrival in Spain. My Spanish is not the best and I am somewhere that is foreign to me. Me and another classmate came a few days early before our program to explore Madrid. This was the best decision ever. Not only did I get to see other parts of Spain, but it gave me time to adjust to the time change, language and culture shock before meeting my host family and where I would be staying for 6 weeks.

When I arrived in Zamora I was greeted by my host dad and professor, along with my classmates family. It became real that I was about to depart from my English companion and be on my own. It was hard to communicate with my host family, but my host family is so understand and just awesome that I felt right at home right away. They let me know that I was free to make the house my house and just enjoy my time here.

My first outing to the town was that day I arrived. My host family took me to met their friends and my Spanish had to kick in them. They were all so nice. I did not expect that. I also got to explore the rest of the town with my classmates that evening and found out that there was a night life for people my age. The day I arrived, the town was having a huge festival so many people where there.