On the Road with Julie

February 13th, 2026

Unfortunately, the time has come to say goodbye to my time in Spain.

Once again, I have done my best, as an exercise in forcing myself to reach towards a capacity for expression in the language I’m learning, to write a post in my target language. And, once again, I must thank my Spanish teachers, Miguel and Junior for doing their absolute best to correct my attempts. Thanks to them, my Spanish version of this post is, at the very least, intelligible. After translating my Spanish version to English using an online translator, I can see how my initial attempt to write a post in Spanish is, at best, that of a fourth grader, and, at worst, more like a confused robot. But, hey, I am trying! And, there are sentences with words and punctuation and general ideas are communicated. So, I’ll take that as a win. If you speak any Spanish and want to take a gander, you can read the shorter and much less articulate Spanish version here.

So, alas, it is time to say goodbye to Spain and, specifically, to Granada, my dear Granada! Every person I know who was been to Granada has told me that Granada is one of their favorite places in the world. Now, I understand why. There is something special about this place. There are things I can point out to try to explain what makes it special – the architecture, the landscape, the people, the language, the music, the food, the history – but there is something else. Something indescribable, but undeniably present. If you decide to visit, my guess is that you will see it and feel it for yourself.

I had hoped to catch up on my blog before arriving in Spain so I could post along the way, but once again, I’m at the end of my time in a country, sitting, intimidated, in front of the daunting task of summarizing all the moments along the way before leaving. I’ll do my best.

In just two weeks, so many wonderful things have happened.

When I arrived in Spain, I landed in the grand city of Madrid. I was absolutely exhausted, having not slept much the two days prior. But, I was determined to see Madrid during my only day in this city. No way was I gonna spend the day resting in a hotel room, no matter how much my body begged for it. I knew I had a day of rest in front of me if I could just stretch myself through this one day in Madrid.

One of my favorite moments of the trip, up to that point, was actually, the moment my plane touched down in Spain. It was the first moment that I got a chance to experience, in the purest forms, one of my deepest motivations for doing this trip. It was the rush of the changing of the guards inside my own mind, from one language to the next. It is hard to describe this sensation – but, for me, it is a fantastic feeling. It is almost like taking your neurons through a carwash where every little nook and cranny gets a deep scrub. It is refreshing, renewing, exciting and, for me, a total rush. When I stepped off the plane, the entire language of the world I was in had transformed, and there was a familiar sensation in my mind as French meandered towards the back where it will hibernate for a time, while Spanish burst into the light to populate those newly vacant nooks and crannies. Like the feeling of stretching when you first greet in the morning, there is a sense of waking up and opening sleeping places that are ready to step into the sunshine of a new day. As I walked the long stretch of airport towards the exit, I was absolutely elated. In a certain way, this was the first moment I felt truly deeply entrenched in this trip – as it was the first moment I got to have the feeling of traveling to many different places with different languages all together as one massive experience.

Despite my linguistic bliss, I was nervous and scared to put my newly awakened neurons to the test when I stopped at the tourist desk to ask, in Spanish, where were the must-see stops for a tourist that only had one day to take in the city of Madrid. I was elated when I uttered my first words in the language of this new world I was in and even more so when the woman responded with a map and recommendations – and I understood what she said!

My one day in Madrid was absolutely marvelous. I ended it exhausted and deeply satisfied for my time in this wonderful city and, even more so, intoxicated by the joy of this new language filling up my senses and my mind.

The rest of my time in Spain was spent in the absolutely magical city of Granada.

The first week in Granada, I had the pleasure of staying with a wonderful hostess and her son. It was such a lovely experience worthy of numerous posts all of their own. I felt so at home. More than that, living in a homestay with a warm and nurturing host, I got to feel like I was a little kid again. And, I loved every second of it! Every morning, my hostess made me a sandwich to take with me to school. I’d grab my sandwich, say a warm goodbye to her and head out the door with my backpack on my walk to school. And, I would be greeted at the door when I got home with a “how was school”? It was actually pretty hilarious as I walked to school with my backpack and my sandwich right along with all of the parents with their actual children walking to their school too. For a week, it was like riding a wormhole through time, getting to steal a few extra moments to enjoy being a kid again.

And, so far, it is two for two in terms of the language schools I have chosen for my trip. I loved my language school here in Granada. All the teachers were wonderful and the students warm and welcoming. The school was not as intensive as the program I attended in France, clocking in at a mere 4 hours per day. Anyone that knows me, knows that, “not as intense”, is a problem that begs a solution. So, I added two private lessons for myself, one before class and one after to notch up the intensity just a bit.

I learned very early that, during breaks between classes, all of the students in my class preferred to speak English. As any who know me might imagine, this was a tough pill for me to swallow! Each of us attending were there for different reasons, so different paces and levels of intensity made sense. So, I understood completely. But, it was still a bummer for me. I didn’t travel thousands of miles for a language-learning trip around the world to speak English! No thank you! For me, the entire point of studying while traveling is to try to get a taste of an actual immersive experience, where my brain has little to no escape from the language I’m learning in hopes that, out of sheer will to survive, it will surrender to learning and improving in the language I’m attempting to learn. And, I have to say, that strategy has been effective and really fun, where I can get it. But I also know that I am doing something very specific, and not every school is built for the immersive experience. And, since I was living with a Spanish family and hiking with a Spanish guide, I was happy enough to get most of my immersion covered after school. Each day, I learned a ton in class and had a blast with my fellow students, in and out of class, whether we were speaking in English or in Spanish. And, all of my lovely classmates were very kind to humor me when I continued speaking in Spanish while they spoke to me in English in between lessons. I was grateful for their patient welcoming of my single-minded intensity, even though it was against the norm.

I made fast friends with one of my classmates. Suzanne, from England. She even made great efforts to speak Spanish with me as much as we could during the meals we shared – until both of our Spanish brains wore out after time. Once the neurons started begging for rest, we’d eventually close out the meals in english.

We enjoyed some crepes together at a creperie (yes, I found gluten free/dairy free crepes, once again!)

We ate paella and took in some incredible flamenco dancing in a restaurant called, Jardines de Zoraya.

I had my first taste of snails at a well-known restaurant in Granada, Los Caracoles (which means, you guessed it, “Snails”!). [If you are wondering, while I took some pictures of escargot in France, I wasn’t able to eat them as they are typically prepared drenched in butter. Here in Spain, olive oil is the drenching mechanism of choice!]

Of course, while in Granada, I had to visit the most special, important and well-known monument around which the city is built: the Alhambra. There is no great value in me elaborating on the Alhambra when there are so many great resources that can describe it to you so much better than I can. If you want to learn about it, it is best to read any of the resources that exist to describe it. I will simply leave my comments to this – I agree with everyone that says that if you are in Granada, you must not miss it.

I felt so inspired when I was there that I found myself compelled to express my feelings in a poem.

I read my poem to my Spanish teacher. He told me that he liked it and that I was brave for having written it. We all know what that means! He was encouraging and supportive of my “brave” efforts. I’ll present it to you here and let you decide if the bravery paid off:

Here, in this cavern in the Alhambra
Where foreigners flock
All the people chirp, in murmurs, the sounds of the world
And the air is fresh
The words fly out of their mouths like little birds leaving their footprints in the air
Like flapping wings, the sounds rise to the sky until they touch the ceiling
The roof, a net, to catch them
And, in this cavern, the sounds of the world rise and leave their footprints there
And the ceiling becomes the sky within

I had to make some edits to the English version after I put the Spanish version in google translate, to make it sound more like what I meant. I have no idea how it actually reads in Spanish. Actually, I have made a lot of edits to my post here in English to many of the sentences that google translate gave me when I translated my Spanish entry back into English. So – I’m guessing, my Spanish version probably reads like a fourth-grader wrote it – but, with my sandwich and my backpack in toe, with my Spanish, that’s probably about where I’m at.

Anyways, though my efforts at poetry in Spanish are most aptly described as brave, I was relieved that my teacher still knew exactly what room I was in when I wrote the poem. That’s something.

And lastly, of course, I can’t write about my time in Granada without mentioning the topic that is why I chose to study here. Before I understood that it is a city not-to-be-missed on its own merits, the reason I decided to study Spanish in Granada out of all of the potential options for studying Spanish, was that I found out there was a school that combines Spanish classes with hiking in Andalusia. Yes, please! Getting to learn and practice my Spanish while learning about the region in Spanish WHILE hiking through gorgeous mountains, foothills and vistas. Sign me up!

Unfortunately, my two weeks in Granada have been two weeks out of the rainiest month that most Granadinos remember seeing for a very long time.

The rain was a constant presence and factor to navigate. That said, nothing could ruin the beauty of the streets of this incredible place and my experience in them.

Granada is a beautiful city whether in sun or rain. However, every time we had a hike planned, thanks to the rain, we had to wait to see if the weather would allow it. I crossed my fingers the day of every planned hike, hoping that we would get to go out. And with all of that, we only ended up missing one hike! Two of our hikes ended up being, not just okay, but absolutely beautiful. We visited the Alpujarras and went up to two mountain towns named Carataunas and Soportujar. The hike was steep and gorgeous. All the walks with my guide Teresa of Sierra y Sol have been great. I highly recommend Teresa if you are in Andalusia and want to move your body and do it in the incredible mountain landscapes of Spain!

Well, I have barely scratched the surface of my 2 weeks in Granada. I could say so much more, but I am just happy that I managed to say as much as I did. I am deeply humbled by how much I needed to edit the English version of my post after google translating my Spanish version. There is no question that my Spanish has improved, and, this exercise of writing a blog post in my target language has been tremendously educational, on many levels, not the least of which is showing me how far I have to go before I can really have an authentic mastery in the language. Though there is a ways to go, like hiking, it is the act of climbing the hill that is one of my favorite parts. Don’t get me wrong, the views from the top are fantastic – and definitely the goal – but I love the muscle burn of every step, lifting myself up against the the resistance of gravity, taking in the views and breathing the fresh air along the way!

Like my stay in France, I am leaving Spain with more capacity for the language. But, even more so, I am leaving with more fire to improve it. And, perhaps even more importantly, I am leaving another country with gratitude to my teachers and for my new friends, with feelings of affection for the people, the language, the place and my experience in general. Thank you to Madrid, thank you to Granada, thank you to Spain and thank you to Spanish. And, to all, I offer a warm goodbye – for now.