Clay Center Blogs

I'm writing you from my new campus for the semester, Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (well technically Getafe), where I'm living the life of a madrileña for a semester.

A little bit about me: I'm a junior Marketing and IB major, Spanish minor, from NJ. When I'm on campus I'm involved with the Villanova Dance Company, VSB Ambassadors, business societies, break trips, volunteering at Special Olympics and St. Thomas of Villanova Day, and a Spanish tutor for athletes. I spent this past summer working as an Affiliate Relations intern with Telemundo in NYC and spending time with family and friends before saying goodbye and jetting off to Madrid on August 23^rd. I've been in Madrid for a little over a month now, and I miss a lot about Nova—my friends, taking classes in ENGLISH, and everything else that I love about Nova which is way too much to get into, but, all of those things will be there when I come back next semester and it's definitely worth "missing out" on all of that to be here.

I'm studying abroad with the CIEE Madrid Liberal Arts program (taking a lot of language and core classes, and a direct enroll International Commerce class with 4th year Spanish students but I'll explain how that all works later). I'm living in an apartment right in the center of Madrid with a Spanish host for the complete immersion experience. 2 summers ago (summer after my freshman year) I studied abroad for 6 weeks in Valparaíso, Chile with Dr. Trujillo and the Villanova program. That was my first time out of the U.S. and I fell in love with the culture—the language, the discotecas, TODO (“everything” in español). When I got back to the states I was already set on studying abroad for a semester and I honestly couldn't be happier to be here. Madrid has a really vibrant culture, and everything and everyone is all about enjoying life.

I have much to catch you all up on in terms of what I've been doing here and why I love it so much, but I'll leave you all with this: if you have the slightest interest in studying abroad, make the trek down to the Office of International Studies to talk to them about all of the summer, semester, and year long programs. You'll find that you have even more options to choose from than you did applying to colleges, and they are really helpful (it's totally worth the trek). If studying abroad is something you haven't really considered but you've found me interesting enough to read this whole entry, let’s see if I can change your mind!

¡Hasta luego!