Living Abroad in Another Language

Traveling solo A double-major in Elementary Education and Spanish, Gabrielle ’19 lived abroad in Granada, Spain during the spring of her Junior year.  There, Gabrielle developed a newfound independence during her solo travels in Germany, Switzerland and along the Camino de Santiago.  Leading up to her far-reaching solo travels, Gabrielle learned to appreciate the solitude of her weekly walks within the streets of Granada. Listen to Gabrielle’s story. Transcript

On Mondays, I had about 2 hours, where I’d just walk through [Granada]. And I thought that’d be a little weird…I’m not used to being on my own. I’m used to being on a college campus where there’s tons of students who speak your language, but it was mostly one of my favorite parts of the semester. Just having that time to myself and putting my headphones in and walking through the city. Seeing things that I wouldn’t have been able to see if I had just been confined to my bubble, to my group of friends. And I think that was a really large part in what moved me towards traveling alone and then doing the Camino de Santiago. So definitely that’s one of the biggest changes I’ve seen being back on campus. I don’t know if it’s always been a positive thing. Sometimes it’s hard to reintegrate into this culture where we’re surrounded by people all the time, but it’s just that independence and that knowing that I can do things that I might not have been able to do before.