From markets filled with fish, fruits, and fresh breads

To watching the sunset each night on the beach surrounded by friends

Host families, street music, living with a partner, and plenty of new food

When in Spain there’s no reason to worry, never a day seemed blue

Doing good takes not much, if the heart is feeling giving

Some apples, oranges, and crackers may mean an extra day of living

It’s not often you see so many stray cats, scattered along your walk to school

Yet we see plenty of the fancy pet dogs, in their sweaters looking cool

Learning is fun, with classes taught by those who love to teach

Classes four days and no homework, who wouldn’t want to spend Fridays at the beach?

Cadíz is the place to be, to study, to explore

But the adventure won’t stop here, there are still two weeks more

~Kellie Serrell

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A text to my parents

Still studying, this is the last week of school though. We have an exam and final presentation on Wednesday and Thursday this week and we leave at noon on Friday to go to Córdoba for a few days and then to Llanes on the north coast for 4 days, and then after that we have free travel and returning to the US. Learning Spanish is harder here, since we’re all in one group together, and I have the worst Spanish out of everyone, but I still feel like I’ve been learning. Last Saturday and Sunday we were in Ceuta, which is a Spanish city on the north coast of Africa (surrounded by Morocco), learning about immigration. The Spanish border is appalling similar to the US border with Mexico, minus the guns. People desperately try to make it into Spain and a few do successfully, but the vast majority don’t make it and either get deported or held by Spanish border control. Some people who make it into Spain destroy their passports and official documents so the border patrol doesn’t know where to deport them to, when they are caught.