Challenges I Faced

During my trip abroad I faced a couple of challenges that I will be talking about. Even though some of you will consider my points to be big/small challenges, being faced with them on your own and being so far away from your comfort zone made challenges seem very big at times. I do have to say that in hindsight, I have definitely learned to appreciate what I have at home and most importantly how much family means to me. 

Not knowing how to cook:
I've always been lucky enough to have my mommy cook for me. On top of that, during my college years so far, I have had food available to me all day. Even when I lived in the sorority house, we had a chef. Needless to say, I really never cooked before, or had to. I found cooking to be a huge challenge while studying abroad. Not only because of my cooking knowledge (or lack-thereof), but also because even when I went to the grocery store I really didn't know what to buy. Ultimately I bought simple things and things to make for the few things I did know how to cook. I did end up eating a lot of pasta, sandwiches, and fruits. 
 
No air conditioning:
During the summer months in Madrid it is about 100 degrees everyday. Add to that no air conditioning and it was miserable! The first thing I bought when arriving in Madrid was a fan. It became a habit of coming home sweating everyday and showering two times a day in the morning and before bed. You do get used to the weather a little bit, and you do find ways to manage your life with the heat, but I definitely learned to appreciate air conditioning a lot more. 
 
Catalan language:
Even though I speak Spanish I was fully aware before traveling to Spain that my Spanish was more slang than proper Spanish. I was prepared for those differences but not so much for the change in dialect. Spaniards speak what is known as the Catalan language. When my co-workers would speak to me it would usually take me a few seconds to catch onto what they were saying, but more times I would not catch what they said at all. It would be hard to understand because they speak Spanish faster than what I was used to and with a lisp. This made my initial training more challenging. Fortunately, my supervisor caught on that I did not understand most everyone before I was able to say something. After that he slowed down his speaking and so did everyone else. 
 
Homesickness:
Yes, I did get homesick. Back at home my family and I are really close, and there were many moments when I missed them. There’s not much to do about those times other than to find something to distract yourself with. I was fortunate that my brother, my boyfriend, and my cousin were able to visit me at different times during my stay here in Madrid. They were able to bring home to me, which did help in comforting me. Even if you are not that fortunate, know that those moments will pass. Also, that's a perfect time to reach out to friends and family.
 
Money:
Money, money, money. The exchange rate here in Madrid is high. $1 USD = .80 Euros. When I would exchange money I would get less than what I paid because of the rate so that’s something you have to prepare for. Budgeting as much as you can ahead of time will help you overall. This will save you from looking at your bank account and seeing your balance decrease. When I checked my bank account online all saw was “deduct”, “deduct”, “deduct”.  Also, back in the states, summertime is when I was able to work to save all my money for the school year. This summer since I was studying abroad, I obviously didn't get the chance to do that so it was a huge change for me and a challenge for me this coming school year. Being prepared and thinking ahead will save you grief and stress.

Where I Lived in Madrid

While studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, I lived in a residencia. What is a residencia? It is basically a dorm like residential facility. You get your own private bedroom and bathroom and share a kitchen with other people throughout the building. You have to maintain and clean your own room but the rest of the building is maintained and cleaned every day.  The building itself has 7 floors. There are private rooms on each floor and on the 1st floor there is a laundry room where everyone in the building can wash and dry their laundry.  On the 3rd floor there is a nice outside terrace area, and the kitchens were located on the 5th and 7th floors. Overall it is a really nice building and a nice place to live.

Living at the residencia, felt more like having your own apartment than living in a dorm though. I had to cook for myself which was a bit of a struggle because I do not know how to cook very well. I ended up sticking to the basics and had a lot of pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. I also had to do my own laundry which cost 3 Euros for washer and 2 Euros for dryer. My room did tend to get really dusty but that was probably because I left the windows open all the time to have air circulating throughout the room. I'm a clean freak so I did find myself dusting & cleaning all the time. 

My reason for picking the residencia instead of choosing the homestay option was because the residencia is located in downtown Madrid. Who wouldn't want to live downtown Madrid? I wanted to get the chance to experience the city life. The only downside to the residencia that I noticed was that there is no air conditioning in the building. I bought a fan as soon as I got there so that helped a little.

I did get a chance to talk to the other interns who lived with a homestay family and I found that there are only a few reasons why I would pick that option. Living with homestay families has a few perks like they do your laundry twice a week. That is really nice because you save money. You sweat every day from the Madrid summer heat and re-wearing sweaty clothes is not comfortable so having set laundry days is nice. The homestay families also give you breakfast and dinner. If you can't make it for dinner they will save your plate for you. It can get expensive eating out all the time or like in my case I didn't even know what to make for myself so having someone to assist with meals is definitely a perk.

Ultimately I think that your living arrangement while studying abroad is a personal one and comes down to independence. Some people may choose to experience everything in a more grown up, independent way. While others may choose to focus on the internship and may not want to worry about having to make daily decisions about meals and laundry. Either choice is just a small thing in the grand scheme of the whole experience; which is awesome!

My Weekend Trip To Portugal

Having the opportunity to do an internship in Spain has been a dream come true for me. Not only am I learning and experiencing so much, but I also have had the opportunity to explore Spain and do a lot traveling. 

Let me tell you about my favorite excursion which was a weekend trip to Lagos, Portugal. Initially, I was not planning on taking any trips other than staying here in Madrid. I personally thought that being in Madrid, Spain was enough, but I was wrong. After arriving in Madrid and meeting all the other interns, all they talked about was their plans on visiting all these different countries. My first thought was about it being really expensive to travel and I didn't think that I would be able to afford it. Little did I know it was the thing to do when you travel to Europe because traveling within Europe is inexpensive. 

You have many options when traveling. You can travel on a bus, a budget airline, or the European rail system. For those of you who have planed a trip before, I feel you, trying to make plans can get a bit overwhelming. Two of the other interns and I decided to do a package deal with a program. The program we decided on provided a travel guide and bus travel that departed from Seville, Spain and arrive in Lagos, Portugal. The package also came with a condo stay, breakfast, and a bus ride back to Seville, Spain. The main reason we decided to do the package deal was because it was safe, and we were going to get the opportunity to meet other kids who were studying abroad as well.
The plan was that we were going to leave Madrid on Thursday afternoon and travel to Seville and stay the night at Seville. On Friday morning we would meet with the program & leave to Portugal and spend the whole day Saturday in Portugal, and on Sunday we would leave Portugal at 6pm to Seville, and catch the bus to Madrid. Even with these plans made, we still had a list of all the things we had to figure out before we left such as: 

How are we getting from Madrid to Seville? We took the metro in Madrid to a one way European rail system to Seville (2 hours).
Where will we be staying in Seville for the night? We booked a hostel.
What will we be seeing in Seville? (get our trip's worth) We really didn't plan this, but we got lucky enough that the hostel receptionist told us all the spots we needed to see.
Where is the meeting spot to catch the bus to leave to Portugal? We booked the hostel close to the meeting spot so it was only an 11 min walk.
How we getting to Portugal? Roundtrip bus ride was provided with the package deal (4 hours).
How will we be getting home from Seville after the trip? We booked an overnight bus from Seville to Madrid (7 hour trip).
It also was really important that we got back on Monday morning since we all had work. In the end, we made it all work! We got to work just in time, although were all running on no sleep, but it was a small sacrifice and totally worth it. 

Throughout the trip I met so many people. Many of them shockingly were students that were studying in Madrid as well and some who were studying in Seville. I got to experience so many things like eating a hamburger that is considered to be one of the top 50 hamburgers in the world. Believe me, IT WAS DELICIOUS. We went on the beach, where I got really, really burnt..ha! We went on a 3 hour hike. This was my favorite hike of all time. It was awesome climbing the rocks, seeing beautiful views, and getting a great workout. We also got the chance to see downtown Lagos. There are plenty of things to do, restaurants, shopping, bars, entertainment, etc. Overall, the trip was amazing. If I were able to do it again I would in a heartbeat. 

Visiting Portugal was just one of the many perks I got while studying abroad. I hope that if you get an opportunity to travel abroad, you remember to also take time to enjoy yourself and experience new things like traveling to other countries. 

Introduction Post

“Don’t let fear or insecurity stop you from trying new things. Believe in yourself. Do what you love. And most importantly, be kind to others, even if you don’t like them” –Stacy London Who am I? Hey everyone my name is Krystal. “Krystal with K” is usually the way I go about introducing myself. I have also received many funny and odd nicknames from family and friends like Krissy, Kris, Naca, Chrysler, Kevin, Natalia, and KG. I am currently a full time student majoring in Marketing with a certificate in Interactive Marketing (research marketing). I was raised to be independent women and to be kind and grateful. I love to travel and meeting new people. I have been traveling my whole life. I have been to many states in the U.S., including Hawaii, but not Alaska (yet). I have also traveled internationally to Mexico, Paris and Barcelona. So why am I here? First let me put this out there- I have never written a blog before. I also wouldn’t say that my writing skills are the best... BUT I am excited to be sharing my upcoming experience and to be able to share it with you. I'm definitely stepping out of my comfort zone, but I'm challenging myself to try a different way to express myself and to improve my writing skills. My blog. I will be traveling to Madrid, Spain this summer I figured that it would be a great opportunity to start a blog about my trip. I plan to write 5 posts about my experience in Madrid, Spain. Not only will I be traveling there but I also will be interning in the Marketing and Promotions Department for popular basketball team in Madrid called Movistar Estudanties. You don’t really hear about many 21 year olds going to another country for an internship (at least I don’t know any). My goal to get out of this internship is to be able to grow with the company as well as networking opportunities. As a business major, networking is SUPER important especially if you want a job with great growing opportunities. It should be tattooed on me to show on how important it is (just kidding). Depending how I fit with the company I hope that it goes great and It will lead to the possibility to be able to live and work in Spain for a couple of years after college. I'll start by saying that today I am about to leave the comfort of my home and travel by myself to Spain. I'm excited and nervous, but mostly excited. The main thing on my mind right now is that hope the TSA lines at the airport are not ridiculously long.