“I chose Spain Study Abroad through SPC as my first trip outside the U.S. When I arrived in Spain, it was almost surreal. The people did not speak much English and the food looked different. It was obvious I was no longer home in the U.S… Two weeks later, all of these observations have become less and less foreign to me. Through Spanish classes and immersion, I have become more comfortable with the language and I am navigating my way through tapas, pinchos and racions with no problem.
Our first night with our host mother reminded me that I needed to hit the ground running and speak Spanish in order to get through the first meal. After one day, I was successfully communicating with my host Mom with only a few miscommunications here and there, but I never went hungry or had dirty clothes! Days in Spain are very different than in the U.S. The sun doesn’t go down until almost 11pm and comes back up around 6am. To help with the jet lag, I forced myself to wake up in the morning and run with my professor as often as possible. Running through a city is one of the best ways to explore and see things.
My first day in Spain, I ran over a bridge that was built 2,000 years ago with a bull sculpture from B.C. As I ran over this bridge, I felt goosebumps thinking about the different people that have crossed the same bridge before me. In the first few days of the program, I was exhausted. Constantly listening, trying to understand, and becoming familiar with my professors’ tone and pitch (my head was spinning). During this time, even English seemed too difficult to speak.
Prior to this immersion program, my last Spanish class was 7 years ago in high school. I’m truly impressed with how quickly my brain forced itself to remember just by hearing only Spanish for so many days. The culture here is very much relaxed. The people in Salamanca are very social, they value time spent with others, and they walk EVERYWHERE. With the intention of practicing Spanish and exploring a new country, I am truly impressed with this immersion program and hope to be able to have more experiences like this in the future.”-Devyn LaPlume, SPC student, Spain 2018
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