Meet and Greet in Valladolid

It's been a little over one week since I've arrived to my small village of Sahagún, and I'm so glad that I have 2 more months to spend here. I flew into Madrid where I met the other volunteers of the Castilla y Leon program. From there we took a bus to Valladolid for our orientation. On the way I was able to chat with and get to know a bit more about the other volunteers and why they chose to come to Spain. It's amazing how quickly we befriended each other. In fact, we've already made plans to meet up sometime during our stay here.

Once we got to Valladolid, we had a walking tour of the city, a three course dinner, and got to spend a night in a nice hotel. After dinner, a few of us went to some bars to grab drinks. The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed to our orientation destination. We covered many topics including the specifics of our program, what is expected of us as volunteers, cultural differences between our home countries and Spain, what safety precautions to consider when traveling, and so on. Overall, the orientation was very informative and well organized.

Afterward, we met with either a member of our host family or a school representative. We had lunch together and took the time to introduce ourselves a bit. It was very nice to meet everyone, and I honestly wish we had more time to spend together. Once everything was finished, we took a group photo and were soon on our ways to our respective towns in Castilla y Leon. Even though we had only known each other for less than a day, it felt like we were already such close friends. It's amazing how the orientation period brought us so close together in such a short amount of time, and I'm psyched to see how my fellow volunteers will impact the lives of their students! ☀️