Goal 9 – Study Abroad:
One of my favorite aspects of Honors is that it requires you to step outside of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in a culture that is not your own. For my study abroad experience I was able to journey to Valencia, Spain for an entire month. I had the privilege of staying with an amazing host mom who welcomed me into her home with open arms. While in Valencia, I was able to teach in a bilingual school, Caxton College, in a year three classroom (equivalent to our second grade). Not only was I able to gain new ideas from a completely different school system, but I was also able to learn about the beautiful and vibrant culture of Spain.
While in Spain, the bulk of my time was spent in the city of Valencia; however, we were able to check out a few other places as well. This particular study abroad was a combination of structured as well as flexible time. When it came to what we wanted to do around Valencia we had free reign, however when it came to going outside of Valencia our time was fairly structured. We were able to take excursions to Peníscola, Granada, Cordoba, Cullera, and Segovia as a large group. In Peníscola we explored the dungeons of a castle that was built by Knights Templar in the 1200’s and relaxed on the white sand beaches of the Mediterranean Sea. In Granada, we uncovered the 9th-century corridors of Alhambra, spent hours looking at the intricate floor to ceiling hand carvings of the Arabic people, and stood in the exact spot where Columbus gained the charter in which he would use to “discover” America. In Córdoba, we stood under what they called the forest of orange trees, which was really just arches in a Mosque turned Gothic Cathedral. Our time in Cullera was spent discovering the importance of rice to the Spanish culture and sailing down the La Albufera, a freshwater lake, uncovering the secrets within the barracas. Lastly, in Segovia, we stood under a massive Roman aqueduct and immersed ourselves in their culture by eating their traditional dish cochinillo or roast suckling pig.
I walked away from gaining so much insight and knowledge about the importance of true immersion into a culture. While in Spain, I tried to lose the mindset of a tourist and instead see the country through the eyes of those that live there. I wanted to take the long way and find the little cafe that only locals know about, I wanted to try the foods that, in my schema, sounded terrible but turned out to be amazing, and I wanted to embrace every aspect that I could in the short time period that I was there.
After I returned from this experience I was able to work with a group of people who had traveled to different places around the world. We then created a presentation that we presented at the National Honors Conference in Seattle. The purpose of our exploration was to uncover how to have a successful Study Abroad experience while using techniques such as “place as text.” Specifically, I focused my portion of the presentation on the physical space found in Spain. While there I tried to consider what this space looked like for the locals, but also for the tourists. I have attached my portion of this presentation below.
The biggest thing that I took away from this entire experience was to step outside of your comfort zone and put yourself in the local’s shoes. Talk to them; find out what’s important in their lives and what their every day looks like and before you know it you will no longer be that tourist that can be spotted in a crowded room, but rather you are acting like a local all because you took the time to look around you and see how the locals interact with the space that they have. The quote that I ended my presentation with, I believe, truly embodies everything that I learned and tried to portray in my presentation.
“The traveler sees what he sees and the tourists sees what he has come to see” –Gilbert Chesterton
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kpFLCcgS15Z0dMtRgGGf7j_uC-07f3gCT5HRGH4Rs7I/edit?usp=sharing