Garrett Murphy Spain 2018 LITA South Trip

Arriving to Spain

After getting off the seven hour plane ride to Madrid from New York City, I was ready to begin my Spain experience. I met up with 12 other Americans, and we drove to northern Spain to stay in a small village called Tamara de Campos. Tamara de Campos was one of the smallest towns I have ever visited. Here, we stayed for one week accustoming ourselves to Spanish culture and language. The town consisted of 58 people. During the days, we excursioned to different places such as going hiking, learning about the history of different churches, walking the Camino Santiago, and going caving. We stayed in Tamara de Campos for a week, before we began our homestay experience with a host family. While staying in Tamara de Campos, we visited different places such as Valledolid, Torrecillas, Velilla del rio carion, Fromista, Mucientes, and Cigales.

The Small Town - Tamara de Campos

Cooking Traditional Spanish Plate (Paella) in Valladolid

The Church in Tamara de Campos

The Alhambra in Granada 

Hiking in Velilla del rio carion

Overlooking the city of Granada

Osuna

After spending aweek in northern Spain, the group of 12 americans and I ventured into southern Spain for a 3.5 week homestay experience in Spain. After a week in Northern Spain listening to the Castilian accents, I felt very prepared to converse and understand the spanish language. Getting off the bus in Osuna, I had no idea the Andalucian accents that awaited me. The accents were so strong, that it sounded as if they weren’t speaking Spanish at all. Osuna would challenge me to raise my spanish abilities to a whole new level. By the end, my spanish was the strongest it had ever been. In Osuna, it was an incredible opportunity to establish friendships and meet the town people. Here, I worked as a waiter for the 3.5 weeks in a churreria (a churro stand). Working was one of my favorite parts of my trip, for I was able to become very close not only with my other workers, but also to the townspeople by taking their orders every morning. I made so many friends and created so many memorable experiences staying in Osuna. My host family was incredible. We traveled to the beach together, swam at their campo (pool house), traveled to Seville, and cooked together. My host family was a family of eight people not including me, so I was blessed to stay in such a close and tight-knit family.

View of Osuna

The beach in Cadiz with my host brother and two of our friends

My host brother and I in Osuna

My host family

My host brother and I in front of the football club Seville's stadium

Final Week of Traveling Around Spain

For the final week of my trip in Spain, we adventured around Spain. First, we traveled to a contemporary nature museum and stayed in Aracena. We visited a huge cave in Aracena and then drove to Alajar. For the next two days in Alajar, we hiked 26 miles and saw amazing views of Spain. After the two day hike, we traveled to Vejer de la Frontera where we learned the historic background of the city. From Vejer, we drove to Bolonia for the day to go to a cheese factory and later to the beach. Learning about the cheese process was interesting, for cheese is a large part of the Spanish diet. For the final three days, we traveled to Seville where we went to the giralda, la catedral, and el alcanzar (the church tower, the cathedral, and the king’s palace). On the final day we visited the plaza de espana where there was traditional spanish flamenco, and we reflected on our journey.

The View after the hike from Alajar

Vejer de la Frontera

La Plaza Espana

Cheese Factory in Bolonia 

The goats at the cheese factory in Bolonia

The King's Palace

The view from the Zetas in Seville

Thanks

It's hard for me to put into words the gratitude that I have for the opportunity I was given for this amazing trip in Spain. I have created so many new friendships in Spain, and I plan to return to Osuna to visit my host family and friends again next summer. This trip was life-changing. After returning to the United states after the trip, I have been debating whether or not to take a gap year in college to work and experience Spain for a second time. I would never trade any of the memories from this trip for anything. Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity.