News & Blog

First weekend in Cádiz – tapas, surfing and telenovelas

by Hayden M.

Hola! It has been an exciting weekend here Cadiz with a lot going on. On Saturday, we had a more in-depth tour of old Cadiz. We stopped at a gorgeous park where there was also a playground, so we looked around for a while before heading back home for lunch.

 

Later that night, we all went out to dinner in Plaza Mina. The rest of the girls and I decided to go eat tapas at a restaurant while the boys chose a more upscale meat restaurant. After struggling to decipher the menu we ordered our food. The difficulty didn’t stop there; once we got our food we couldn’t figure out which plate was what! We spent a solid 20 minutes passing plates.  On Sunday, we went whale watching in a nearby town and visited ancient Roman ruins.  An hour and a half boat ride turned into a three hour boat ride. We had great views of the African continent and even saw some small whales and dolphins, so it was a successful trip. 1

After that we hopped on a bus and headed to Bolonia, a nearby village, where we saw ancient Roman ruins and enjoyed time on the beach.

Monday was our first day of class and it was a lot different than school back home. It was more relaxed and I have already learned so much in such a short time. Later that night, we had a scavenger hunt all around the city and after sprinting the entire time my partner Lauren and I unfortunately didn’t win.

Today we got to venture into new Cadiz to take a surfing lesson. We all had our wipeouts and our moments of victory when riding the wave to shore. It was so much fun — how many american teenagers can say they learned to surf in Spain?

Tonight is noche en casa, so I am watching a novela (Spanish soap opera) while writing this. I think we have all already changed in some ways from being here. We have all become incredibly close very fast and that makes all of this so much more enjoyable.

Well, that’s all for now…more updates from Cadiz later this week. I hope everyone back home in the States is doing well.

Here is a quote the rings especially true to me now:

“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”

― Mary Anne Radmacher