My STEP Signature Project Proposal entailed a study abroad to Valencia, Spain. There, I took classes at a university; lived in a homestay; and participated in various excursions around the city and country.
Regarding transformation of myself, I was placed in an environment that demanded I utilize Spanish to communicate. This immersion allowed for a precise self-diagnosis of my ability to fend for myself in a Spanish-speaking foreign country. I realized that I knew more than I thought, and was more able in certain aspects. However, there were many times when I struggled to effectively communicate or accurately understand. In addition, I was forced to utilize and enhance my navigation and awareness skills to get around the city as well as ensure my safety. I assumed Spain was a country of always beautiful weather, friendly people, and similar accents. However, Spain is a country ravaged by wild fires, majority reserved individuals, and a plethora of varying accents. My perspective on numerous aspects such as these were altered and influenced by the month I spent in the city of Valencia.
Key aspects that transformed my perspectives and assumptions of Spain were the courses I took, excursions I participated in, and homestay life. To begin, the courses I took were culture and literature. The culture course was extremely informative about history as well as contemporary circumstances. For example, we learned about several festivals; political conflicts and governments; and foods and traditions. The literature course was informative in a similar manner, however focused more on the history of the country e.g. the Neoclassic or Romantic eras.
The excursions we embarked on included visiting other cities or exploring Valencia. We began our journey in Madrid. There we learned about art, architecture, history and more. We saw famous landmarks and were given the freedom to completely explore the city. Next, we visited Toledo where we saw many churches and traditions e.g. metalwork. We also went to Gandia where we participated in water sports, saw the Sagrada Familia and Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, and the castles and fortresses of Peniscola. We explored as much of these cities as we could and with all our energy we had because we knew that time was short. We walked, learned, ate, and spoke as much as possible to take advantage of this experience. This freedom and desire allowed me to form some of the strongest and greatest bonds with like-minded people in the program. We leaned on each other for help all while laughing our way through countless endeavors. Going into this trip completely alone in a place I was entirely unfamiliar with and coming out of it with so many friends and knowledge of the cities and places I visited has caused me to evolve into a much more expressive, accurate, and improved version of myself.
The homestay aspect of this trip was the most daunting and terrifying thing. My roommate and I did not hit off at first, and I am used to living alone as I live in a studio apartment. That said, I went from just living with my cat to having a roommate and sharing a bathroom with three other people – all of which were complete strangers. The first few nights I dreaded it and I could not wait for this trip to be over. However, as things progressed my roommate and I began to speak more; and while we did not become the best of friends, we were cordial and talked a lot. My host mother was the sweetest old woman with a kind heart and fantastic cooking skills, and her daughter was extremely insightful and always giving recommendations or helping when we needed it. I am lucky to have had them as my host family, and feel I learned a great deal from them regarding life in Spain e.g. the economic job crisis.
This transformation of myself regarding cultural understanding, linguistic acquisition, and new relationships is one of the most valuable experiences I have ever done because of the intricacies and aspects of Spain life I experienced juxtaposed to my life in the US; the advancement and gauging of my ability to speak Spanish accompanied by improvement of my Spanish; and the pure joy that I experienced with the wonderful new people I met. Not to mention, obtaining credit for my courses. Such personal development has allowed me to reflect of my life and goals, it affirms my love of learning and epiphanies my desire to travel and diversify my world perspective; especially as it relates to my degrees in Economics and Spanish.
