Submitted by Jaclyn Roman on the 2012 spring semester program in Granada, Spain…
Last week I embarked on my first trip outside of Spain since my arrival. Given a long weekend off from classes, my roommate and I had planned a trip to Paris. It’s important to first note that before traveling to Europe, Paris was never at the top of my list of places to go. Countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece always posed a greater interest to me.
However, upon hearing about our long weekend, most of the students in the group began making travel arrangements. Flights direct from Granada to Paris were fairly cheap and easy to book, which obviously helped sway my decision to travel there.
I have to say that since being in Spain for almost two months already, I do feel that part of my heart is now rooted in Granada, which I’ve touched on in my previous blogs. Still, Paris was by far, one of my most incredible places I’ve been in my life. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the trip.
Since I’ve only just begun to gain confidence with my Spanish speaking ability, it was extremely grounding to tour a city and not understand any of the language at all. I’d like to think it enhanced my Parisian experience. I was able to get by using “Bonjour” and “Oui” and was very grateful for the few citizens who understood English.
It’s hard to sum up three days’ worth of traveling into a short blog, but all in all, it really was, simply put, a culturally enriching experience. I experimented with food of course, trying smoked duck and the famous French crepes. Touring the Louvre felt utterly surreal, and just the art and architecture throughout the city of Paris were breathtaking. Everything from the public street markets to seeing the Eiffel tower was truly incredible.
Above all, throughout the trip I reminded myself as often as possible to enjoy each moment and experience everything possible in the short time I had. I think that’s the underlying theme to life in every European culture, whether it is Spain or France, and I’m discovering it more and more as I go – beauty really can be found anywhere.
