The Unexpected Trip That Sparked Lifelong Friendships

By: Amelia Anderson

Studying abroad with CIEE this semester has been full of new friends, new adventures, and lots of spontaneous decisions. One of my favorite experiences so far was the overnight trip to Cuenca. I’m currently in Madrid for blocks 2 and 3, and during my first week here, my roommate and I saw that CIEE was offering a free overnight trip to a small town a few hours away called Cuenca. We booked it on a whim, and honestly, the morning of the trip, we even considered skipping it. But thankfully, we didn’t. When we arrived, we checked into the hotel and then spent the afternoon walking around the city. We met a bunch of really nice people from our program and quickly fell in love with the place. Cuenca was small, charming, and full of character—way different from the busy streets of Madrid. One highlight was finding this tiny coffee shop where we had one of the best breakfasts we’ve ever had. That day, we also went on a walking tour of the city. It was so cool getting to explore all the little corners and hidden gems of Cuenca. That night, we had a dinner mixer with local students, and they brought out tons of different tapas for us to try. I had croquettes and a Spanish omelet—two of my favorite things to order now in Madrid. After dinner, the local students invited us out to some bars, and it ended up being such a fun night. I got to practice my Spanish (a lot of them didn’t speak English), and it really felt like we were experiencing the culture first-hand. The best part of the whole trip, though, was how close we all got with the other CIEE students. We’ve become such good friends since then, and now we hang out together every week in Madrid. What started as a trip I almost didn’t go on turned out to be the one where I met some of my best friends abroad.

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