After 2 weeks in Spain, I’ve decided to make a list of reasons you should study abroad, as well as my personal reflections on them. While the initial reasons seem cliche, I hope you’ll read my thoughts and experiences, and be given new insight into the joys of studying abroad.
- Food. Who doesn’t want an excuse to eat? Being in Spain meant I got to try new food and drinks during every meal. We got to have authentic Catalonian cuisines such as Paella and native tapas such as patatas bravas (a LOT of patatas bravas…) I also got to see some of my more adventurous classmates cook their own meat at the table and try mussels straight from the sea.
- Language. As someone with very limited knowledge of Tex-Mex Spanglish, I’ll admit that the thought of going somewhere where the primary language is Catalan, a mixture of French and Spanish native to Catalonia, was very daunting. But I found that if we were at least trying to learn and say things correctly, the natives were more than happy to help. They laughed alongside us as we butchered our coffee orders and eagerly asked us for the English translations and pronunciations as well. It was a learning experience for them and us alike–one that reminded me that we aren’t so different after all.
- People. Put 28 strangers together and send them off to a different country 5,000 miles away for 2 weeks during a pandemic in the most formative years of their lives and see what happens. I promise they’ll come back with stories, experiences, and relationships with each other that will last for years. Getting to know these 27 other students has impacted my life in a way that only studying abroad together can.
- Sights. As an American, the notion of history is a strange thing. This country is 240ish years old, and there aren’t too many structures that date more than 200 years before that. If we think that things from the 1920s are “old” imagine what it’s like walking through a church from 1417 or wading through the Romanesque-style Arab baths from 1100. It’s hard to comprehend, and I even found it momentarily overwhelming to be in the presence of so much history. But wow, it’s something that we just don’t get to experience in America.
- Walking. In my experience with major cities abroad, there’s a lot of walking. If you’re not walking, you’re taking public transportation. Instead of buying an Uber, or even hailing a cab, you’re feeling like a native while navigating the metro or the busy city streets. This was one of my favorite parts about the whole trip: we got to walk around and get to know the city through first-hand experience.
- Culture. We were in Spain during a once-a-year holiday, Los Reyes Magos. This is a celebration of the Three Wise Kings, about two weeks after Christmas. While America traditionally has Santa, Spain has the three wise kings. Children write their letters to them and hope that the kings will visit them with presents as they sleep. Being in Barcelona in the middle of this holiday was an experience like no other–we got to see the special pastries in the bakeries, the parade through town, and families excited to be together. This was a unique, and wholesome, glimpse into Spain that I hadn’t been expecting.
- Education.?This was my first experience dealing with doing business in a foreign country. We had to run all of our ideas by Cristina, the most phenomenal tour guide, to see if our American ideas were feasible in Spanish culture. It’s a strange thing, having to consider that what seems so obvious to you isn’t something that can be realistically considered to someone else simply based on culture and customs. My education in Spain was not merely augmented in the world of academia, but also in a practical sense. I’ve picked up some Spanish and Catalan phrases, learned about Catalonian Independence, and been taught so many other things through this experience that I would never have known about.
- Personal Growth. College is a weird time. You’re in this in-between age of no longer a child but not quite a full adult. These 2 weeks in Spain were one of the first times I felt like I was truly independent. I was responsible for getting myself places on time, navigating the city to classes and meetings across Barcelona. It was a nice reminder that I’m more capable than I think I am sometimes. It can be scary thinking about the future, but this showed me that even in a new place where I don’t speak the language or know the culture, I can survive.
As a graduating senior I want to leave you with this: Now is the time to put yourself in uncomfortable positions… it’s how we grow. You have a family of Aggies waiting to help you if you fall.
Thanks and Gig Em,
Georgia Bond ’22