June 1, 2012

Republished from their personal blog with permission from the authors, we’re going to catch up with Gamecock volleyball student-athletes Cara Howley and Lindsey Craft during their trip to Spain as part of their international business program. Content may be edited from its original form. These were originally posted on May 21 and May 26, respectively.

Last Week in Spain
We only have eight more days in Spain and luckily only six more classes. If you would have asked us two weeks ago if we were excited to get home, we would have probably said yes without hesitation. Now, we have finally adjusted to the Spanish way of life and are actually comfortable. We are content without our cell phones, without constant internet access, and we are even content without the comfort of American food and the English language. How that all happened we have no idea!

This week, we are not only finishing our classes but also finishing last minute things here and there. We made a bucket list of the remaining things we need to do before we leave Spain. Somehow, it seems like we have more things we want to do and not enough days to complete it all. Hasta luego amigos!

It’s A Small World After All
It is our last weekend in Spain, and we are feeling mixed emotions. This week has been filled with studying and writing essays, but luckily we took our final exam yesterday! After the final, we put on our tennis shoes and athletic wear and hiked all around our little city. We walked in and out of cathedrals, looked inside the buildings we didn’t know the names of, and took pictures like your everyday tourist. We had a blast, even finishing up the day with sitting in the plaza eating gelato and people watching. An older couple walked up to us as we were baking in the sun eating our melted ice cream, and asked us if we were from South Carolina. Not only did they speak English, but they also lived near Clemson! They asked us how our baseball team was doing, told us they would come to a volleyball game next year, and asked us about our time in Salamanca. It was such a refreshing conversation for both of us, somehow managing to find a taste of home all the way out in a small town in Spain.

We are quite proud of the fact that we are essentially done with school here, have made some good friends through the program, got Rosario to like us (somehow), and have improved our Spanish. More to come before we leave for Belgium!