Summer Classes in Madrid, Spain

Today is exactly one week from the day I will be starting my classes in Madrid, Spain! I am so excited, because ever since I was in high school and a group of my classmates went to Spain for a few weeks, it has been a dream of mine to study abroad there. I have taken Spanish since my Freshman year of high school, so this will hopefully help me to become more fluent, and also help with sounding more like a native speaker!

I will be taking two classes while I am there; Art of the Prado (Arte del Prado), and Food and Culture (Comida y Cultura), as well as exploring the sites and cities in various parts of Spain! It truly is a dream come true, especially because I have never been out of the country, or even on a plane!

I will be living with a host family, which I am told will be a mother, and her daughter. Her daughter is 22, so I'm very excited to meet her, and to be able to see what its like for people my age over there! I also will be living with a roommate, who is another Purdue student participating in the summer study abroad program. I am very much looking forward to meeting her as well - it will be fun to get to know someone new at Purdue!

The group that is going consists of about thirty Purdue students, and since we have three day weekends every weekend we will be taking multiple trips throughout the country over the six week period. Some of them are arranged through the program, while other weekends we can get our own groups together to go where we wish! I will also be celebrating my birthday while I am there, which is something I am really excited for - not many people can say they have celebrated their birthdays in another country! Hopefully it will be one to remember! I can't wait to leave this Saturday, and I can't wait to give an update once I get there!!

--- Ariel Demoret