Afterwards

      Thinking back and telling all the stories from my trip to my friends, I realize I had such an incredible opportunity and experience. I went with such great people that I did great things with. Whether it was shopping one day for class, or going to see and hear Flamenco at night; it was all so much fun. Truly, the whole trip was so much fun, I really enjoyed every part. The classes in the mornings with the teachers were a delight and not at all boring. I learned about so much that I got to put to practical use. Chris "Poncho," our director, had so many great ideas about what to do; like our trip to Ronda which was definitely my favorite trip. When we went to the town of Ronda, we had all day to explore the city. My friends and I spent part of the day relaxing in the towns great park and taking pictures by the great cliffs, and the other part of the day climbing down to the bottom of the cliffs to check a massive waterfall. I made so many friends from across the country that I have been saying in touch with. I really got close with my roommates, and we loved our host mother Pepi. She was awesome; She had been taking foreign students for 11 years and knew all the ends and outs. Overall, I had a magnificent trip where the worst part was going home.

Post Trip Photos 2

Getting Home, I have a lot of photos on my camera from my trip. I didn't have a chance to upload while I was there so I wanted to upload all of those now. Enjoy!

Sightseeing 2

More photos that made it in the original sightseeing post but were blurry and had to be re uploaded. There are also some new photos in there too.

Post Trip Photos

Getting Home I have a lot of photos on my camera from my trip I didn't have a chance to upload while I was there so I wanted to upload all of those now. Enjoy!

SightSeeing

             Today we got to tour the massive cathedral they have in Cadiz. It was breathtaking to see this   building. We got to climb to the top of the bell tower and from there you could see the whole city. It was a pretty awesome group trip.

The last three days

The past three days have been so awesome. On Sunday, we slept in really late and then we woke up and went to the beach with our host family. Then we went to the abbey road olympics that unfortunately got cancelled due to lack of space, but that didn't matter, we had still had a great beach day. We ended up going to one of the plazas and played hacky sack.

Then on Monday, we had our last day of class that was an hour later than normal, so we got to sleep in. During class, we made a guide for future students in the city. It was a lot of fun and then we got to go to a cafe afterwards to share out guides. Right after that my roommate and I went straight to the beach. We spent all of our siestas on the beach, it was awesome. That night we went to hear some really good classical music. I really like the second sonata they played.

Tuesday was probably the best day so far, we went to a water park. It was a great group activity, spending the day riding the rides and playing in the wave pool. We had so much fun hanging out together. We came home and went right to the beach and I'm getting ready for dinner now.

Carnival

We went out to the carnival celebrations the other night with the group. We went to see Flamenco dancing and music live at a restaurant. It was a lot of fun.

Friday

In photography Friday afternoon, we had an assignment where we had to do a photoshoot slash ad campaign and props were given. I worked with Dennis and we got spider man. We took pictures of spiderman in random places across the city. It was a lot of fun. After that, we went to the beach and had a great afternoon.

PS Uploaded late. Computer troubles more to come this afternoon.

A Activity night

We went out the other night for a cultral activity. We had a great time watching these great dancers

Day of the photoshoot

Had a great time today in photography, my elective. In class we wanted to work on taking pictures of people, so we had a photo shoot. We each took turns modeling for everyone else. Also, we were given random emotions and we had to go and take pictures of them with us modeling these emotions.

Cathedral

                                         Went to the cathedral here, it was awesome day trip.

Photography

Having so much fun in my photography class here in Cadiz, We have a great teacher. Really enjoying everything that we have been doing while we have been here, and I can already feel my Spanish getting better.

Cadiz

                                                     First official day, Tour of the city

Pre-Departure Jitters

Pre-Departure Essay

            I am so excited about my trip to Cadiz Spain. It is such an honor to be selected to go on a scholarship, and I am looking forward to making the most out of this trip. It will be my second time that I have crossed the Atlantic. The first time aboard, I went to France that was an amazing trip despite the fact that I do not speak a lick of French and I was only six years old. Being able to speak Spanish, I will be able to immerse myself in the culture so much more. When I was in France, my mom and I were staying at a friend’s home in Leon when the neighbor approached us. We were outside and our friend the one who spoke French was out. The neighbor repeatedly handed my mom a head of cabbage as a goodwill gesture that my mom refused because she did not have any cash with her to pay for it and did not understand French. The neighbor turned out to just be graciously giving us the cabbage for nothing in return. Looking back, the people that we met and interacted with in France were nicest people. It is those kinds of moments that I look forward to the most in Spain. I know I will meet the most interesting, awesome people who have a completely different culture than mine or maybe not so unfamiliar.

 I am also looking forward to taking digital photography while I am in Cadiz. It will be a fun class to take during the day. My father was a photographer. I have never studied photography before so it will be new to me. My mother works for the film industry, and I share her passion for the industry. I am in the video production class at my school. It is probably my favorite part of any school day.  I think I will like learning about digital photography.

           I am part of the mentor program at school that helps new families learn about our school.  At school events for new students, I talk with people about any problems they may face and help them to feel at ease about the daunting experience of a new school. I know that my skills at communicating will serve me on my trip. I hope it will encourage me to make new friends, and not be shy though I never have been. I am really excited to meet my home stay family that is opening up their house to me, and I am excited to meet all of the other I am traveling with. I can’t wait.

                                                                                                                                                                                   -Kirby