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Ashley is discovering what it's like to be out of her element as she studies abroad with SMU-in-Spain.

"On Sunday," she writes in , "we went to El Rastro (in Madrid), the open market. It was insane: street after winding street closed to cars, packed full of people and stalls selling everything under the sun. I didn’t bring my camera, but all of those people on every street were a sight to see. We wandered through the streets for about two hours . . .  (and) we still hadn’t been down every street in the maze."

A junior majoring in Spanish and psychology in SMU's Dedman College, Ashley is an ºÚÁÏÀÏ˾»úDistinguished Scholar who hopes the experience will help her improve her Spanish while she explores Madrid and the rest of Europe.

Some random observations included in her blog:

• "I have realized that I don’t like asking for directions. Why? I don’t know. But I prefer to wander around aimlessly, frustrated and lost, rather than asking for help. Stupid but true."
• "I went to Dia the other day in search of some basic groceries, including peanut butter and ziploc bags, neither of which they sell there! What?! I knew that peanut butter would be expensive, but I didn’t know that they actually wouldn’t sell it some places. I thought this was interesting because in America, I could find both peanut butter and ziploc bags anywhere, like at a gas station, and here they’re not at the grocery store!"
• "All yogurt here (that I have encountered so far) is white, no matter the flavor! I didn’t even realize that we dye our yogurt at home, which obviously we do, until I opened up a strawberry yogurt here and, while it tastes like strawberries, it looks like vanilla!"
• "Spanish has seemed harder than ever. Yesterday was a particularly challenging day for me trying to speak in class and at home. I’ll think of something in English and want to say it, but it’ll just be too complicated for me to figure out. Or I’ll open my mouth and conjugate every single verb incorrectly. . ."

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