Today began a brand-new adventure in my life. I have always wanted to visit a Spanish speaking country and UA en Colombia has provided the perfect opportunity. There was a lot of excitement for the trip as I packed the day before. I finished packing around 12:00am and had to wake up at 4:00am to catch my flight. The boarding and checking process was super simple and I had no trouble arriving at my various destinations. I arrived in Barranquilla, Colombia around 1:00pm along with a lot of my other group members. From there, we had a brief introduction and we separated into our groups and made our way to our homes. As a part of this program, we are assigned homestays where we live with a native speaker/family and other students from the UA program or other college programs. This feature was a big plus and incentive for me to go on the trip because it will allow me to practice my Spanish a lot more. We had an amazing first lunch with our host and roommates. After we took a much-needed nap and then explored the surrounding area a little bit. One of our roommates has been in Colombia since January and has lived with this host family the whole time. He knows the area very well and took us around the block to get a good grip on our surroundings. He showed us some restaurants, a variety of clubs, and basic stores to get simple needs. Overall, it was very fun, and I look forward to this experience.
