On May 22nd, I landed in Madrid. Today is June 22nd, and I cannot believe that it has been an entire month since I arrived. This month has been full of a whole lot of fun, a little bit of craziness, tons of new friendships, several awkward experiences, and even a little bit of stress. This month has certainly been one for the books.
After exploring Madrid for a couple of days, I arrived in Sevilla on May 25th to meet my lovely host family. My host dad, Jesús, and my host mom, Ana, are absolutely lovely people. However, my first day in Sevilla was very overwhelming. After seven years of studying Spanish, I thought I would be prepared to live with a host family. My first day with Jesús and Ana certainly made me rethink this idea. In the car on the way to their house, I could barely understand a single thing Jesús said to me. Trust me, I was so worried that this whole trip I wouldn't understand anything he said to me. Fortunately, that is not the case. After a couple of days of anxiety about my Spanish abilities, I was finally able to settle in and understand them. They are such wonderful people, and I absolutely love practicing Spanish with them, as they are so patient and encouraging. They are so willing to re-explain words or phrases if I don’t understand them at first, and they love teaching me new words and phrases. Ana is so accommodating and does everything she can to help me enjoy my stay here in Sevilla. I am a vegetarian, and I was super worried about what I was going to eat here in Spain because of all of the meat in the diets, but Ana has made me some of the most delicious vegetarian meals I have ever had. She cooks tons of vegetables and uses food like chickpeas and mushrooms to help me get protein. My favorite part is that for dessert we always have some kind of super fresh fruit. I was expecting to end up eating a ton of junk food, but my diet has been significantly healthier than in the states, and I love it!
During this past month, I have been studying at the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies here in Sevilla. The center itself is absolutely breathtaking with beautiful hand-painted and colorful tiles and two beautiful patios. The center was once a house, and it must have been one of the most magnificent houses because it is unbelievable. Plus, the walk to class is so enchanting. To get to the center, you walk over the peaceful river, next to the magnificent Cathedral, and through windy and colorful streets of the heart of the city. With such a spectacular walk like this, it definitely motivates me to walk to class every day. This month, I have had two classes. One class, through the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, called the Foundations of Spanish Culture, and another class with a professor at my home institution, Mercer, called Real Language Application. Both of those classes were in Spanish, and at times they were very difficult. My culture class was more like a history class, as we covered 2000 years of Spanish history in three weeks. At times, it was so exhausting to try to focus on Spanish history for four hours, and at the end of each class, my head just ached. Now, I am so glad I took the class because I feel like I have learned so much about speaking Spanish, and I feel like my natural ability to understand Spanish has greatly improved. During a lot of the classes, we visited a lot of cultural sites that played important roles in the history of Sevilla and it was super cool to relate what we were learning in class to the city of Sevilla. It definitely helped give a lot of meaning to the history. Like, we were studying this form of art called, Mudejar, which is Christian art with significant Islamic influence. Then in class we took a field trip to the Alcázar, and we saw all of the beautiful Mudejar art that decorated the magnificent building. I think back on all of the times in high school when I learned about European art, barely caring about any of it, but here I am so intrigued by everything because it is a crucial part of the history and it is part of what makes Sevilla so spectacular.
Not only have we had so many opportunities to actually explore Sevilla, we have seen so many beautiful and unique cities throughout Spain. We visited Madrid, Córdoba, Cádiz, Granada, and La Rábida. And on our free weekend, my roommate, Sarah, and I explored the English city, Gibraltar. Each of these trips was so unique and different and they each gave us such special experiences. I think one of my favorite trips was to Cádiz because it had such a lovely mix of both city and ocean. It was spectacular to visit the cathedral, because not only is it a magnificent building, but the views from the top are outstanding. You can truly see the entire city as well as the ocean. Plus, while you’re swimming in the ocean, you can look back and see the beautiful city, as it is located directly on the shore. That’s something that I absolutely adore about Spain because it truly connects the historical part with the natural aspect to provide a truly authentic experience, while avoiding the touristy aspect. I am so grateful that I have been able to see all of these amazing places in Spain so far, and I am so excited to see so many more!
