Hello everyone! It’s Jasmine again. It has now been a while since I’ve come back home from studying abroad in Spain. Although I’m sad to have left the beautiful country and amazing friends I made back in Europe, I am thrilled to be back home. I learned so much not only in the world of the Spanish language but also learned more about myself and I’ve grown as a person since I first left the U.S. back in January.
Like I stated before, I personally enjoy being around my family and friends here in the U.S. so I was relieved to come back home. I’m a little nervous about going back to campus in late August, classes in Spain were so different from the classes here at home so I think it’s going to take some getting used to especially since I have an internship to complete this upcoming semester! Something I miss the most about my host university would be the coffee machine, haha! There was this cool coffee machine in the building that I’m sure I’ve talked about in other blog posts. It had dozens and dozens of coffee options for just a few euros which was truly a bargain.
Moving along, some soft skills that I learned while abroad would be communicating more effectively with people and taking leadership. I was the only native speaker in my class of 5 people so most of the time if my classmates didn’t know the answer to something I would catch myself answering which is a rare sight to see! I learned how to be more outgoing and how to take more risks. I believe that these skills will help me with my teaching because as a teacher you have to be able to take initiative and lead as all of the students look up to you!
The academic expectations that I had of my host university were definitely something different than I expected. I do believe that my needs were met, I was challenged on the daily and I’m proud to say that I have learned new things. I am always willing to improve because the more you learn, the more knowledge you have to share with others! I haven’t really changed any of my beliefs towards my current/upcoming academic program, but I do have more respect for the overall process of it now.
Next, I would like to talk about my host university a bit more. I envisioned it to be different and I was pleasantly surprised with what I was presented with. I studied at the Language Center at the University of León which is a small building on the other side of town. It was very cozy and you got used to seeing the same faces every day. I didn’t know much about the location beforehand, I had never heard of the city of León, but as soon as I arrived I knew I was going to love it. It’s a beautiful, smaller town with many places to explore such as parks, shops, libraries, cafes, etc. The only thing is that it took a while for the Spanish people to warm up to me as I am clearly not light-skinned like my fellow classmates, but I also speak fluent Spanish. I seemed to confuse the people of the town, but I never had any true problems with anyone. I don’t believe any of my preconceived notions have changed, I believe that the Spanish people have good hearts and that Spain is a beautiful country with many things to offer.
The best thing about being home is the fact that I get to spend my time with my family and my cats. I missed my cats dearly while I was away, I had never been separated from them for so long, and going 6 months without them was very difficult for me. On the other hand, the hardest part about being back home is the fact that I have to drive everywhere if I want to go out. Back in León I would just walk everywhere or catch public transit which I absolutely loved doing. Everyone was very respectful of each other’s space and it was very cheap to travel as
well. If I needed some bread or something else from the grocery store all I had to do was walk about 50 feet from my apartment to the grocery store around the corner!
Something that I wish I had done differently would be housing. I loved the apartment that we rented and the landlords were extremely nice and very welcoming, but living with friends sometimes can get difficult. I would have had a much calmer and more relaxed experience if I had gotten a place of my own, but even then if I could go back and do it all over again the exact same way, I definitely would! It was all worth it in the end.
I personally don’t think that I’ve changed the way I live in any major way besides going out to exercise every day. I got accustomed to walking everywhere so when I got back home for the first few days and didn’t walk much I felt my legs growing angsty! It was a weird feeling. I decided to start going on daily walks and I love it so much. I love feeling the sun on my face even if it’s boiling hot outside! Going out and being able to connect with the outside world is a feeling that will never get old for me. Spain taught me how to love the outdoors and how to appreciate the simplicity of nature.
The thing I miss the most overall about my host location would be how easy it is to just do things. It’s easy to get from one place to the other. It’s easy to catch a bus and go on a trip. It’s easy to go to the cafe to sit down and study. It’s easy to make plans with people. To be honest, I miss everything. I think about my time there and how lucky I am to have had the privilege to study there. It’s something that I will never take for granted and a memory that I hope to be able to pass on from generation to generation and hopefully spark something in future familiars to go and study abroad on their own as well!
Lastly, I would like to give some advice to students preparing to study abroad and to students who plan on going to my host university for their program. You may not believe that you’re overpacking, but you are definitely overpacking. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. You think you’re going to need every single piece of clothing that you own, but you won’t. You’re most likely going to purchase some stuff when you get there so don’t overthink it and try not to take more than two big suitcases!! I would also recommend that if you don’t want to lug around too many suitcases/bags when you plan on coming back to the States, use a luggage mailing company to send some back! I used a website that charged me 170 euros to send a big checked suitcase from Spain to the U.S. and it got here in less than two weeks! It was definitely worth not having to roll it around the Madrid airport with me as it was very busy and I could barely move around with the one suitcase I had with me.
For those who plan on attending my host university, I would definitely recommend living somewhere near the language center. If you live on the other side of town it’s about a 35-40 minute walk or a 20-30 minute bus ride, depending on if the buses are running late or not. I personally did not stay with a host family, but some of the friends I made at the language center didn’t really have the best experience with their host families as there are many rules you have to abide by and you don’t get the same amount of freedom that you would have if you were living on your own. The last piece of advice that I can give is you should not be afraid to talk to the staff/professors. They are some of the nicest people I met while studying abroad. They were so helpful to me whenever I needed help with documents or I needed to request something from the secretary. The professors are amazing and all they want to do is see you succeed. They’ll provide
you with extra resources you can use outside of the classroom in case you feel like you’re falling behind. Other than that, I think you just need to have fun, but also remember that you’re there to learn. Being there, it’s easy to forget that you’re actually studying, but never lose sight of that. Going out with friends and traveling is fun and doing both is EXTREMELY possible. You will have more than enough time to do everything you want. Don’t stress out over it too much either, your personal journey will work itself out!