Great Expectations
Before coming to Spain I had many preset thoughts and goals of what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to better my language skills, learn about a new culture, and travel. Now its not that I still do not want to do those, it's just that my concept of Spain and studying abroad has changed. I had no idea how different, uncomfortable, and amazing things could be here in Spain.
Now that I am in my third week, I feel that I have finally set in; well, at least to a comfortable point. I realized here that if I want to have a Spanish experience that I cannot guard and schedule my life. I cannot set timetables for when I will be comfortable with the language or the culture. I guess my main goal now is to dive into the culture. For the first two weeks I held back, sometimes watching from a distance, allowing myself to keep things under control. My goal now is to break that, and just let Spain happen. I don't know exactly what will happen, but that is what is exciting. If I just let the time pass, scheduling everything, then all I am is a traveler, and on this trip I hope to be more. Its difficult but within only three weeks here I have discovered how truly dynamic and exciting the culture is, and by the end of the program I would love to take a piece of that culture home with me to Allegheny. In my desired career, this will be important. I aspire to be a doctor and I hope that this experience will not only help me with Spanish, but also help me to better understand other cultures and traditions.
Of course, I have other academic goals. I hope to do well in my classes, but to be honest; my main concern is that they will aid me in learning the language and understanding the culture. I understand that becoming fluent in only 4 months will be impossible, but it will be rewarding at the end of the program to see how far I have come. I also hope that in the next few weeks I will meet more Spanish speaking people to better understand the life of people my age in Spain.
In the end I hope to have learned a great deal, but most importantly had a truly Spanish experience, whatever that may end up being.