My month in Spain is over and I'm sad to see the month gone by so quickly but I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad to be home with my family and friends. While I was in Spain, though, I came to realize something. Studying abroad is one of the greatest experiences one can ever have but its not enough if you don't step out of your comfort zone once in a while. To fully appreciate the country you're in and enjoy the time there, you can't be afraid to step outside and immerse yourself in the culture. This was something I was deeply terrified to do and I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy my time in Spain if I didn't at least try.
When I first applied to study abroad, I checked the little box that asked if I wanted to stay with a host family. I was a little apprehensive at first because I didn't know what living with another family would be like and I thought it would be safer for me to live in the dorms the school provided. Even with this doubt in my mind, I checked the host family box and I began all the paperwork that came with applying to stay with a host family and being in the study abroad program.
About a week or two before I was supposed to leave for Spain I got the file information with the family I was to be staying with. It was a family of four, the mother and father and their two sons, who were around my age. I could tell my parents were very apprehensive about me staying with a host family and even more so when they found out I would be staying with a family that had two sons. I was a little nervous, too, but I decided that if the family had students stay with them before and they were deemed good enough to have a student in their home by the university then it was good enough for me. I knew that I had made a commitment to go to Spain and get involved as much as I could with the culture and I was going to see it through.
That was my biggest motivator when I was getting ready to go: I wanted to learn as much as I could about life in Spain and adjust to it so that I wasn't just visiting Spain, I wanted to become a part of it. And that's exactly what happened. I became a part of a routine with the host family and on the days that I went out with friends for a couple of drinks, the family wasn't phased by it and just asked me to let them know when I would be home or if I'd be home for dinner. They treated me with the respect of a guest, but at the same time treated me like I was a part of their family. They never made me feel unwelcome and made sure I was comfortable enough to live in their home for the month I was there. In my short month, I literally became a part of the family and I became a part of that small piece of culture.
Of course I had some rough moments when I would come home from school and have lunch at three and be hungry by seven but dinner wasn't until nine or nine-thirty. That was just a minor bump though, soon I knew I was becoming fully diverged into the culture when I heard my host mom in the kitchen, bustling around and I thought to myself "it's only seven, why is she starting dinner so early?" I also knew I was becoming a part of Spain when I started picking up on their basic, everyday terms, like "vale" for "okay" and "ciao" for "goodbye". I haven't been here long enough to pick up their specific dialect but there were moments when I would pronounce "salud" with a "th" sound.
I think my decision to stay with a host family and allow myself to be integrated into the family's everyday routine and culture was the best decision I could have ever made. Of course I would go on the excursions the school had planned to visit Madrid and Toledo and even took a weekend trip to Palma de Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain, and I would feel somewhat like a tourist but at the same time I wasn't. I had free time to wander the cities with friends or by myself and in those moments, I truly felt free and like I could easily blend in with the crowd. I would wander the historical streets of the cities and take in the beautiful scenery and it felt like home to me. That was what I had wanted to accomplish while studying abroad. I wanted to come take some classes, learn a few things, but most importantly, I wanted to feel like I belonged in a country I had never been to before. I think that's the most important thing anyone can do if they study abroad or just simply travel to a new country.
So if there is anything I could say that is of complete importance it is this: don't just visit a country or city, become a part of it. Live their lifestyle, eat their traditional foods, wear their fashion, learn to speak their language or lingo, become fully integrated as much as you can. You won't just learn a few things about the area, you'll learn a few things about yourself too.
