It is hard to believe I have already had my mid terms and I am halfway through my semester here! I'm really starting to get used to the Spanish lifestyle and living in Alicante. Everyone I had talked to while I was deciding to study for a semester or for a few weeks in the summer really encouraged a semester. I am soo soo glad I made the move to spend the entire semester abroad. It is challenging to get adjusted to such a different culture if you've never experienced it before, and to be leaving after 5 weeks would hardly seem to give you a taste of becoming a part of this culture. We all are definitely going through the homesick part, missing friends, and wanting to see our families, but overall, like in Spain is great. We sometimes sit over our dinner at the Villa (the dorms), talking about our favorite restaurants from home and our favorite foods that we don't get here.. I'm not sure if that helps or not, but it's fun to see differences in all these different cities across the country.
I'm also so grateful to be here for so long to be able to make real friendships with everyone. Going from living in a homestay where I was alone a lot and unless I made an effort to go spend money and sit at a coffee shop or something with a few people, I was really only hanging out with people when we went out.. The dorms has been really nice to be able to eat with a group of kids and just hang out like the dorms freshman year at Mizzou (without my 514 ladies, of course, but Abby brings back the Jones memories enough :) I never had friends outside of the Midwest, when I actually thought about it. Even at Mizzou, most of my friends are from Missouri, with a few exceptions to Texas.. These kids are from literally all over. East coast, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, California, Wisconsin, Washington... It is as interesting to learn about Spanish culture and lifestyles as it is to hear about the different regions of the US and how their campuses are different than mine. The mannerisms and accents are fun to pick up and make fun of each other for too :) I'm really going to miss everyone I've met! I've made some great friends who are all going through what I am, and we've all realized how this experience is an important part of our lives and is definitely changing the way we make decisions and look at situations.
The cultural integration has set in, I think, by now. I can hold conversations with Spanish people easily and am really surprised by how much I've picked up in just two months.. We've been going to more of the Spanish clubs rather than the "Erasmus" bars (Erasmus is the study abroad term for kids in Europe who study in another European country, so the foreigners who speak English) so I've found I use my Spanish the most when I go out actually.. Another excuse to go out more I guess, because around our friends we always speak in English.
Everyone has been asking if it's what I expected, and to be honest, I don't really know what I expected. I thought I would be really overwhelmed and lost by the language but I honestly thought people would speak English.. Like in Madrid, everyone spoke English to us. And after the first few days of Abby and I wandering around this ghost town eating terrible food and not being able to speak to anyone at all, we both thought we would hate it and want to go home. Good thing that changed real quick when the other kids came and we learned Spanish.. Now I'm getting to where I really don't want to leave! Life here is so much more laid back than my crazy busy life at school where I was working so hard to study all the time and get ahead and apply for jobs, build my resume and get leadership positions, that I kind of forgot sometimes about just living life. This was really what I needed to take a step back and appreciate life right now. Spaniards have that philosophy it seems like with a lot of things. There is no rush to get things done, they sit in coffee shops for hours talking with their friends, they stay out until discotecas close in the mornings, and they walk super slow like they are in no rush. Ever.. I'm always running around, doing three things at once, always checking my phone or twitter.. Its like i cant appreciate a moment because I'm always thinking about whats next or making my to do list for the next 4 hours of the day..
I'm happy to say that at the halfway point of my semester in Alicante, yes, I'm missing my friends, going home for a nice meal that I know what I'm eating, sitting at the kitchen table with my parents talking about life, and having a nice gym to go to much less a grocery store that doesn't wreak of fresh fish, but I also don't regret a thing. This is another one of those things that can be scary and challenging at times, but something that has allowed me to grow and experience things I would have never had the chance to if I didn't take the chance to just do it. Until you throw yourself at age 21 into another country where you don't know how to communicate and have to live there for four months, you can never understand how an experience like this changes your outlook on life and opens your eyes to such a big, big world.
-k
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