Lessons Learned

Experiential Learning Blog 7:

I despise this question of what I would do differently if I studied abroad all over again because I feel as if it takes away from the real lesson learned: that we can live life to its fullest no matter where we are, but time goes on and we must make mistakes. Moving into a house full of strangers, barely able to speak the language, is so uncomfortable within itself that I could have been two doors down from home and felt like a foreigner. I could say that I would be more outgoing, that I would stop my señora from what she was doing and make her talk to me... But I didn't. And if somehow I could redo my first study-abroad experience, I wouldn't do anything differently. 

That isn't to say that I did everything perfectly. Knowing that I only had three months to do everything I wanted to do in Sevilla and in my travels was incredibly overwhelming. It filled every free moment with pressure that I should be spending my time here or there. When I wanted to stay in at night I had to weigh the guilt into my decision. But after a while, all I really wanted was to feel comfortable doing nothing. I wanted to spend an evening talking to the friends I've made- American and Spanish- without feeling like I wasn't taking advantage of being in a different country. And what I learned is that doing exactly that was taking advantage for me.  Sevilla began to feel like home, and the friends I made I have missed every day since I left. 

 

 So whatever I did during my experience, however I dealt with all the challenges and struggles that I expected and those I did not, whatever made me fall in love with Sevilla the way I did, I wouldn't trade for any other experience, because it was mine.

Cultural Icons

Experiential Learning Blog 6:

NO8DO is Sevilla's motto. Walking down the street, you will see it written on newspaper stands, manhole covers, buildings and souvenirs sold in kiosks. I didn't find out the meaning of this motto until a few weeks ago, but it may have been for the better, since when I did learn it, it meant so much to me.

The symbol in the center represents a knot of wool, called madeja in Spanish. With the knot (reminiscent also of the infinity symbol) in between NO and DO, Sevilla's emblem signifies "No me ha dehado," meaning "She has not left me." This little cultural gem describes perfectly the sentiment that is Sevilla. Sevillanos are born in Sevilla and stay in Sevilla. They don't say they are from Spain or that they are Spanish, they say they are from Sevilla. I know that when I return to the Bay Area and to Allegheny, Sevilla will never leave me. The experiences I have had and the relationships I have made with the kind people that live here (and stay here!) will always be a part of me.

Global and Local

Experiential Learning Blog 5:

I agree in many ways with what McKay Jenkins has to say in his article "Why I'm Not Preparing My Students to Compete in the Global Marketplace." He touches on the dangers of imperialism, which always poses a threat in light of this globalization that faces us today. If we are too quick to focus our attention overseas, to problems in foreign countries, we are making a quiet assumption that they are graver than those which contaminate our own backyards (literally and figuratively speaking).
Something I've learned from living abroad for these last months is how difficult it truly is to integrate into a new culture. The transformation from being an outsider looking in, to becoming a part of a community and understanding the sentiment behind even the slightest gesture, is wonderfully challenging. It is also, I've learned, incredibly crucial. To understand the problems that face a society, one first must understand the people within it, and how they view the problems they face. To simply possess an academic understanding of, say, the effects of deforestation in Southeast Asia does absolutely nothing in light of this problem without some level of cultural understanding.

As a philosophy major interested in social welfare, I chose health care and Social Security as the topic of my final paper in Spanish Society class. Spain has one of the most universal health care systems in the world, even providing free healthcare to tourists and undocumented immigrants in Spain. Well, amongst the economic crisis that this country is facing today, Spain's Popular Party decided to change this law, requiring immigrants to pay for health care (with a few exceptions). Nevertheless, hundreds of doctors, and six out of 17 regions of Spain, pledged to ignore this new law and continue to provide health care to immigrants despite any lack of documentation. To an onlooker, this might seem crazy, considering Spain's economic struggle today. For me, this reaction is so obvious in light of the culture I have become to understand little by little. Nearly everyone in Spain is being affected by the economic crisis, especially in Andalucía which as a southern region is poorest of all. Despite these circumstances, I continue to see people helping other members of the community that are even the slightest worse-off economically or just the same. There is an ideology deeply rooted in Spanish culture that creates a connection between people, and this connection thrives despite what the government determines as law.

Thus, learning to "compete in the global marketplace" is not so helpful after all, since more importantly we must learn how to understand each other as people.