Some people are really well-suited to the study abroad experience. I am absolutely not one of those people. But after five months of perpetual angustia, I think I’m finally okay with this. Granted, I’m peacing out in less than a week, and the light at the end of the tunnel is doing wonders for my mood. The terrifying prospect of final exams worth up to 65% of my grades, however, is not. According to the dozens of study abroad blogs…
Each time I post one of these things, I imagine getting something like this in the comments: “Jackson, you’re the worst travel blogger I’ve ever read! You never travel! Why did you even go to Spain when there are plenty of libraries on this continent in which you could loiter?!” And yet here you are reading this, so I have to assume you’re not here for the travel. You’ve come because, like a turtle flipped onto its back, my semester…
La Universidad Carlos III reminds me of Vassar in the sense that there are, in fact, students here and also buildings, with chairs and desks. The similarities end there. In some ways, this has been a welcome change. As much as I love Vassar, there came a point when the novelty wore off just a bit. And while Vassar’s student body of almost 2,500 dwarfed my high school’s (roughly 120, grades 9 – 12), you’d be amazed how claustrophobic the…
At the end of our orientation in Granada, I found myself in another airport, desperately wanting to miss another flight. Not wanting to get on planes has kind of become my thing lately. At that point, I had decided that Spain might end up being okay. I mean, really, Grenada was a sweet gig. All I had to do was sit through three hours of exceptionally boring classes each morning and then Nicolás (our dauntless director) would herd us through…
Ironically, I’m writing my first blog post about Spain while on my way back to the United States. The plane is almost empty—I guess not many people have to make a day-trip to Chicago—and it’s the perfect time to finally force myself to write this because I’m so sure nothing else exciting can happen before my deadline. Please God let me be right. My creative writing professors told me not to start any piece of writing with a flashback, but…