Madrid, Spain

Why I chose to go to Spain:From the time I was a little girl, culture was everywhere in my home. It hung on the walls in Korean paintings, commemorating the two years that my mom had spent in the Peace Corps. It rang through my house every Saturday morning in the melodious African beats of the songs my dad had heard while in Nigeria. My parents have always encouraged me to love and respect other cultures. Now that I am in college, I realize that I don't need to be pushed to discover new cultures; my parents have passed their passion on to me, and inspired me to study abroad.

Aside from wanting to explore the world as my parents
did, I chose to go to Madrid because I have always been drawn to Spanish culture. I am going to Spain to figure out this mysterious attraction. I want to live with a host family, speak another language with confidence, be exposed to different ideas of what it means to live life, and I want to be better and more humble as a result of my experiences.

How has this class helped me prepare for study abroad: This class has definitely better prepared me for my journey abroad. It is very easy to think that you “work well with people.” I know I've often said this about myself. However, we usually make this statement based on our successful interactions with people from our own culture. It is easy to think that interacting with people from other cultures will be the same as interacting with people from the United States, but I now know that's not necessarily true. "Common sense" and many other unconscious behaviors that we use daily in interacting with other people are not the same around the world. In class, we learned that culture is not always something you can easily recognize. We found that many things can be misinterpreted by a culturally tainted pair of eyes. We have worked hard in our class to bring the unconscious to the surface and to develop a mindset that does not feel threatened by differences. I hope this new way of seeing things will help me cut down on negative judgements and make room for understanding and appreciation.

What I identified as the greatest challenges facing me as I began my study abroad program: Although I believe that my study abroad experience will be amazing, I do not think it will be free of challenges. I imagine that my greatest challenge will be making friends. I thrive on having a few close friends to whom I can tell anything. Almost daily I make contact with my close friends. I need that time to release stress, to get advice, and more importantly, to feel connected. I do not know many of the people in my program and I am afraid that I will really miss feeling a deep connection with someone. I depend on my friendships to get me through stressful situations and I feel that while abroad, my stress level could even be higher than it is here. In this situation, I do not want to be constantly writing to my friends or spending time trying to contact my support system back home. This initial separation and my need to develop self-reliance will be extremely difficult at first.

How life abroad might be easier than life at K: In some ways I feel it may be easier for me to be abroad. I will be interacting with a whole new group of people. This includes the other Madrid participants, whom I will also be getting to know for the first time. People will not know anything about me, there will not be as many expectations about how I should act or who I am, and I will be able to develop myself in the ways that I choose and strengthen qualities that I want to improve.

I will also have a lot of time alone in which to reflect, as well as time to slow down the pace of life. Sometimes my notions of time and individuality are not in line with typical American attitudes. I believe in living in the moment and not rushing life. All too often at “K” I feel an intense sense of obligation; if I am not constantly busy, I feel guilty for “wasting time.” Slowing down and rethinking what life is really about will be a major part of my time abroad. My stress level at “K” seems to be rising a few levels every quarter; this can sometimes handicap my ability to learn about myself. I am looking forward to uncovering existing personal qualities that I've lost sight of during my hectic life in college and to developing new ones that only my time in Spain will produce.

What I'd like to say about study abroad: Before leaving, I was nervous about what lay ahead of me in Madrid. Would I get along with my family? Would the language become a barrier to making new friends? Would all of my insecurities force me to draw back from the culture and miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime? I am proud to say that none of these fears came true. My host family was incredible. They were open to me, talkative, and took me in as another family member. I still remember watching the same game show every afternoon with my padre and learning to cook Spanish food with my madre.. The study abroad program has ended, but our connection has not. We have promised to keep in touch and it feels so good to know that I meant a lot to them, too. As for the whole language thing, yes, it was incredibly hard at first, but I caught on. I can now speak Spanish really well and I no longer hesitate when someone needs a translator and I can help facilitate communication. As for my insecurities, sure, they were there for the first month, but they were not strong enough to hold me back. I dove into the culture — dancing lessons, bull fights, language and all. I made use of my time there and truly learned to live in the moment and really breathe life in. It was one of the best times of my life, one that has forever changed how I live.

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Read excerpts from my letters home.