JIYOUNG SIM- It feels like it has not been so long since I first came here but now we only have less than two weeks left in Madrid. I still have one more post to write but that one will be about my trip to Cuenca which will be later this week, so in today’s post I want to talk about how I feel having to say goodbye soon.
When I first decided to come to Madrid, I could not be more excited. I stayed in Madrid for a month and a half in the Summer of 2014 and I loved it, so I just could not wait to come back. But by the time I had to leave home, I was a bit nervous about having to work and take classes in Spanish. I remember feeling frustrated in class on the first day at the University of Alcalá and honestly, I would have dropped one of the two classes I took there if I could. Unfortunately, I had to fulfill major requirements for both Mathematics and Economics to graduate on time so I had to take both of them. But everything went okay and now I only have two final exams left.
Looking back at my life here definitely not everything was like what I have imagined. Before I came here I imagined that by the time I go back my Spanish would be very fluent and that I would have many Spanish friends. All of these did not come true but thinking of how I learned English and how important language is in communicating with people, now it makes sense that 4 months is not enough time to do all of that. But still I had a great time here, met nice people, traveled a lot, and had experiences that I would not have had if I had not studied in Madrid.
So if you are thinking of studying abroad, I want to say go for it, because even if your experience abroad might be something different from what you imagine, you will still have valuable experience that you will not be able to have elsewhere. I love traveling, so my favorite part of my experience abroad was traveling. I loved discovering different parts of Europe, different cities in Spain, and even discovering more of Madrid. Travel a lot while you’re abroad to make the most out of your time abroad.

Jiyoung Sim, Skidmore in Madrid

I also feel lucky that our program was very supportive with helping us have more cultural experiences under better conditions. I have seen many other students studying through other programs having to look for places to stay on their own, travel with their own money, and basically do everything on their own with their own money. So I am so happy that our program was so supportive in every aspect and want to say thank you too all the program staffs. I also want to say thank you to my host family for always being so nice and caring. There were times that I felt happy about my choice of coming here and there were also times that I felt disappointed but overall, I do not regret it and I will miss the time here when I go back home.