Studying abroad has become an extremely popular activity that students in college will do. Over 1,200 students at UMass participate in these programs of studying in another continent. Studying abroad has been something that I have always wanted to do. My dad studied abroad in Argentina when he was in college and he says how it is something that he will never forget. My roommate is an engineer and he has a small window for him to go abroad. His schedule only allows him to go during his sophomore year and he could only pick from a few schools, while being a Spanish major has really given me flexibility to be able to pick a program that I like and have an option to pick between multiple countries to study in as well.

I had been to Spain once before on a school trip I went on my junior year over my April vacation. We spent a few days in Madrid and did a bunch of day trips to different cities that were close by. Then, we each stayed with a Spanish family with a Spanish brother or sister for a few days. I went with my Spanish brother to the school he went to, I hung out with his friends and it was actually a lot of fun. As cliché as it sounds, this trip made me want to go back to Spain and being able to study abroad gives me this opportunity.

Studying abroad has always been something that I have thought about doing and it really did not become a reality until this year. As I said earlier, my roommate could only go during the second semester of our sophomore year. We always talked about going to Europe and how cool it would be meeting up on the weekends in different countries etc. Him and my other friend decided that they were going to go and they found a school in Dublin that they would study at the following semester. They had all their stuff filled out while I had not even started the process really. This put some pressure on me because I was nervous about all this because I would be pretty much going all by myself since I would not know anyone going.

I wanted to pick a place in Spain that was not to mainstream but still a big enough city. I was not really interested in studying in Madrid. Barcelona sounded really cool but it was also sounded really mainstream. My brother’s girlfriend studied in Seville and doing research about it really made me confident that this was the place I wanted to go. I picked the Universidad de Sevilla because of the classes that they offered. They offered more options and I felt more of variety than the other schools that I could have chosen from.

Now, a whole bunch of paper work later, I am leaving for Spain in a month and am super excited. I am obviously still nervous and anxious but I feel that that is normal. My excitement definitely outweighs my nervousness.