While I have been in Europe for almost two weeks now, I finally arrived in Valencia, Spain last Wednesday. Coming into this, I was extremely nervous. My Spanish isn’t amazing, and my internship for the next two months is with a Soccer Academy (I do not play soccer).

Despite this, I also came in extremely excited. Travel is a major passion of mine, and I highly doubt I will have the opportunity to spend two months traveling Europe (oh, and working of course) again anytime soon. I was only assigned my internship and my housing placement a few weeks before leaving the States, so I had very little time to prepare and talk to my host family.

Upon arrival, I met my incredible host family and roommate, and honestly do not think I could have gotten luckier. My roommate and I have spent no time apart, besides work, and my host family has been nothing but kind. We have had the most amazing meals cooked for us, and our hosts have the best recommendations for eating, drinking and night life.

I also was a bit nervous about meeting the other people in my program, as I did not know anyone prior to arriving. It was especially concerning because all of us have individual internships, so would not necessarily be spending extreme amounts of time together. During our first group meeting, I realized there would be no problems. In the past five days, we have only been apart to sleep.

In my first week, I have visited the Hemisferic, a museum of arts and sciences, L’Oceanografic, an incredible aquarium, done a bike and walking tour of the city center and the river which used to run through the entire town, and spent several days on the beach. As I have quickly discovered, there is not shortage of things to do in this sunny little town.

With today being the first day of my internship, I have little to say about my experiences with soccer thus far. However, I have a feeling I will learn to embrace the sport very quickly.

Until next time,

Morgan