That's all, folks!

For a long time, I nurtured the dream of studying abroad.  I planned to go for a whole semester my junior year.  I quickly discovered that wanting to study abroad is much different than its actualization.  As the prospect of graduating without studying abroad become more likely, I thought I had squandered the opportunity.  Then, I heard about this Global Seminar from Javier and I jumped at the chance.

I'm so glad that I did.  Living in Barcelona and traveling to its surrounding cities gave me an inside look into Spanish culture and its people.  Staying with a host family integrated me naturally into the daily rhythms of the city.  At first, it was unnerving to walk around a bustling city where most of what you hear are smatterings of conversations in Spanish and Catalan. However, being surrounded by the language continuously engaged me.  I'm especially grateful to my host mom Elena, who spoke Spanish to Dawson and I the entire time.  I feel like my speaking skills have doubled in only five weeks.

This program gave me a breadth of knowledge that I could not find in a classroom in Boulder, even if Javier or Juan was teaching it.  (In their infinite wisdom)  I liked the day trips because they cemented what I learned from lectures.  I appreciate the genius of Antoni Gaudí now because I witnessed it.  Words and pictures can never do justice to the first look up at the internal columns of La Sagrada Familia.  I appreciate the allure of Montserrat because I felt it, scaling the stone steps to the top.  Engaging with culture and literature at its source was formative in my understanding of it.  

I never thought I would grow accustomed to living in a big city, but I was wrong.  I returned to Barcelona for a few days after walking a segment of El Camino de Santiago along the coast of northern Spain.  Emerging from the metro onto Plaza de Espana, I breathed deeply for the first time in over a week.  Not because the air was cleaner than at the coast--it was something else.  My host family lived two minutes away down La Carretera de la Bordeta, my favorite gelato place a few minutes beyond that.  I could see the red letters of a supermercat I visited frequently.   My favorite restaurant only a block away.  The Font Magica.  Montjuic.  Everything within reach. 

For the first time in a week, everything was familiar.