Series Like Spain on the Road Again

It wasn't until I stepped out of the cab in Barcelona, Spain, with viii fellow Ohio University students I didn't know, that it truly hitting me: I was studying away.

I thought the realization would have struck me sooner, considering I knew eight months prior to my departure engagement that I was leaving. Only nothing could have prepared me for the month I was about to experience.

The concept of leaving the United States continued to feel unimaginable in the moments leading upward to my departure. Everything from putting downwardly the deposit for the trip, filling out the endless paperwork, attention weekly informational meetings, maxim goodbye to all my friends and family, packing a month'south worth of vesture and even arriving at the drome seemed unimaginable.

Even after waiting for half-dozen hours in the John F. Kennedy International Airport and boarding a jumbo aircraft, I withal hadn't recognized that I was virtually to have the adventure of a lifetime. On the plane, it didn't have me long to realize everyone surrounding me was speaking Spanish.

Earlier I left, I had a lot of people ask me what exactly I was going to be doing in Spain. Candidly, I didn't even know myself. I would tell them I was creating a documentary script on sustainable style in Spain and that I was going to be adapting one of Washington Irving'south short stories set at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, into a screenplay. But other than the bookish side of the experience, I could have never expected what I was going to acquire and feel.

For starters, the American way of life isn't the merely way of life. If someone had told me that I would discover so much about the globe and myself as a person in just four brusque weeks, I wouldn't take believed them.

I failed to requite myself enough credit for the footstep toward independence, cultural appreciation, perception and open-mindedness I was near to take. Information technology would be simple to say that "studying abroad" inverse me, but it was overcoming all of the little adversities, experiencing pocket-sized epiphanies and being able to see myself through the lens of new people that led me to understand myself on a deeper level and come up back to the United States more appreciative, ambitious and aware.

Every bit I stepped off my eight-hour flight from New York to Barcelona, I took a deep jiff and told myself this was it.

The infinitesimal I emerged into the unfamiliar Barcelona airport, I grew nervous to go through community by myself, considering I had never traveled alone — let alone to a foreign country. I was fortunate enough to have assistance from the passenger side by side to me, who happened to be from Barcelona and attended a small school in Pennsylvania, giving u.s.a. common footing.

I got my first postage stamp on my passport, grabbed my luggage and thanked my new friend, who was home for the first time since the onset of COVID-19. I then gathered with the other eight students in the airport as we left to come across one of our coordinators for the trip.

Undeterred past the tiredness we all felt subsequently traveling and the 6-hour time difference, we were elated to finally exist in Spain.

I recollect gazing out the window of the taxi at everything that seemed so foreign to me then, seeing a Zara and McDonalds one minute, and then in the adjacent, seeing an ancient, glittering cathedral. The contrast between new and quondam was so thrilling.

Subsequently a much needed nap and our orientation session, the trip began with a welcome dinner where I experimented with card items I could barely pronounce. As I pointed to the menu and attempted to pronounce what I was reading, which everyone handled with practiced humor, I idea about how difficult it must be to come to America, where people wait non-English speakers to speak English fluently as soon as they go far. Contrastingly, those in Spain were patient with me.

Simply put, information technology was some other example when I realized how different other countries, like Spain, truly are from the world I have always known back in the U.South.

Every bit I walked through the urban center streets, I remained in a abiding state of awe. The feeling in those moments is something I only hope I get to feel once again. It was the feeling I was on the border of something incredible, fresh and new.

In the few short days we were in Barcelona, we saw it all: builder Antoni Gaudí's Park Güell, Casa Vicens and the Sagrada Família. The architecture of each was quirky, colorful, curvy and fairytale-similar. I had studied these landmarks in my high schoolhouse Spanish classes, but seeing them in person made it clear the photos couldn't do the artwork justice.

With every passing minute, every narrow street and fleeting local provided new insight into the civilisation. Time passed, and we ended the night by attending a flamenco show — one of my favorite experiences of the unabridged trip.

The shoes of the dancers clanked on the wooden floor equally their frilly dresses flowed from side to side and their arms swung gracefully. Meanwhile, the ring in the back continued to play, the vocalizer continued to sing, unphased by the loudness and vibrant motions in front of them, as this was just another 1 of their many shows.

Though our fourth dimension in the populous Barcelona was cursory, information technology was optimized and lived to the fullest.

In merely one month, I had the chance to visit iii cities in Kingdom of spain: Barcelona, Granada and Seville. Studying away requires an all-encompassing amount of energy and the itch to learn and explore, considering afterwards but two days in Barcelona, we were back on a aeroplane headed to where we would stay for the majority of the trip: Seville.

As we dragged our luggage through the cobbled streets of Seville, we wondered what our "residencia," the place where nosotros would be staying, would look like. We also wondered virtually Rosa and Noberto, substantially our "mamacita" and "papacito," who would be providing us with meals and giving us a place to stay.

Moving in was pure chaos. Nosotros were welcomed by Rosa and Noberto, and to our surprise, 15 other students from Bryant Academy who had been staying with them for all of fall semester. They were unfortunately preparing to head dorsum abode afterward an eventful four months away. Luckily for us, they helped us get more acclimated with Seville by providing us an all-encompassing list of all of their favorite spots for food, nightlife, excursions and shopping.

After a few days of familiarizing ourselves with the streets of Seville, getting to know Rosa and Noberto and maxim goodbye to our new friends from Bryant, we were on the route again for our weekend excursion to Granada. We visited the Alhambra, a cute palace and fortress complex fit for royalty with its marble floors, high ceilings and outdoor gardens.

A unique attribute of Granada that was different from Barcelona and Seville was that any time we ordered a drink, we also received a free tapa, a small plate of various titbit-like dishes. In Spain, they are all the rage, and for good reason.

Non only did Granada have tapas that were to die for, only information technology also had chocolate con churros, my new favorite dessert. The rich, thick chocolate is used to dip the crunchy and sweet, withal oddly savory, fried churro in. America needs to adopt it immediately.

After another 2-and-a-half-hour passenger vehicle ride later, nosotros were dorsum in Seville for the remainder of the trip, including the holidays. I thought about how foreign it would be to not spend Christmas with my family, and I questioned whether or not I would feel homesick. Only as I grew closer to the eight other group members, the thought began to seem less offshore and more appealing. We had plans to exchange gifts, attend a holiday luncheon with our professor and go to Seville on Ice, a holiday fair that was occurring simply a block from where we were staying.

For the first time in my life, Christmas would be celebrated by doing something different, practicing different traditions and immersing myself in a dissimilar culture. A month ago, this would have been entirely out of my comfort zone.

On Christmas day, I discovered that some of the smallest nonetheless most significant moments on the trip were some of the ones I would think the nearly.

From water ice skating on Christmas and falling several times, to riding a sketchy, yet exhilarating, carnival ride called the tarantula or tartantula — nosotros're still not really sure the name of it, going on a x stop-destination dessert clamber, hosting a gingerbread house contest that we yet oasis't decided who truly won, to racing downward the sidewalks of Seville, Chirstimas in Spain was too heady to feel homesick.

Befriending locals, coming together some chefs from Belgium and grabbing drinks together, going on a bike tour where I may or may not have collided with a woman on a scooter, eating at 5 Guys despite the considerable corporeality of fine dining foreign food options and Rosa's pleasant cooking are the miniscule moments I concord close to my heart.

The sight of people conversing on the streets, walking and biking everywhere, is something that will forever be ingrained in my memory. I can still see the tranquil expressions of locals as they strolled from one identify to some other, threw their heads dorsum laughing as they enjoyed and sipped their morning time java outside, versus taking it to become and gulping it down. The way of life is unforgettable, and it is the manner I at present intend to live mine.

Part of our coursework included watching weekly screenings of Spanish films, where nosotros had the chance to inquire questions and hear from the filmmaker following the screening. Each picture show was unlike from the final, and gave usa insight into the making behind the magic and further insight into Spanish culture.

As a journalism major, I didn't come into the program with an intense passion for screenwriting, but following the screenings and the adaptation procedure, screenwriting is now something I plan on practicing in my costless time.

Additionally, we toured The Plaza de Toros de Sevilla, one of the virtually significant arenas for bullfighting in Spain; took a Paella cooking form; and toured diverse Spanish radio and Television set stations, where 2 students may or may non have had their chance to make their on-air debut.

We visited numerous cathedrals with the near intricate and breathtaking architecture, artwork and instruments; toured the Alcázar of Seville, where Game of Thrones and Star Wars: Episode Ii - Attack of the Clones were filmed; took a gunkhole tour on the river; and made our way up to the Setas de Sevilla — big wooden structures resembling mushrooms — where we enjoyed fantastic sunset views from 26 meters above.

Clearly, I could write a novel on everything nosotros saw and toured in such a brusque amount of time, given the list is endless, and the stories to accompany each occasion are fifty-fifty longer.

But for me, ane of the moments that stood out the well-nigh was the second vacation we all historic together in Spain.

New year's day's Eve was undoubtedly one of the near eventful nights of my life. Everyone dressed in their best clothes and gathered in the city center with bottles of champagne and 12 grapes to eat for good luck once the clock struck midnight. Fireworks outburst the infinitesimal everyone began to count down from "Diez" to "¡Feliz año nuevo!" Anybody in sight appeared delighted with life, and the party lasted until the sun rose the next morn.

Every bit I ate my 12 grapes, I believed, in 2022, peradventure I truly would have expert luck as I took abroad, after beingness away, that perhaps life didn't always take to exist so serious. People didn't ever have to be stressed.

We don't always have to exist then disconnected from one some other.

I have never seen fewer people on their phones, more people hugging ane some other while only passing on the streets and strolling as if time was only a concept. Whether it be grabbing a drink or waiting on someone at a restaurant, the people in Spain were less burdened. If at that place is anything I learned from them, it is to enjoy the mean solar day-to-day moments we often take for granted a little more.

Looking dorsum, it'due south incomprehensible to remember that during the cab ride from the airport to our hotel in Barcelona, I had never seen what was waiting for me outside of America. It was crazy to think I didn't fifty-fifty know the other students on the trip. Now, I feel as if I know them improve than I know some people I've known for years, and I know what it is like to alive life a piffling fuller.

It is often said that in that location is no surer way to find out whether you similar people or hate them than to travel with them. And information technology's rubber to say, I don't only love Spain, the civilisation, its people and all it taught me, but I also love the people that fabricated the long-lasting memories alongside me.

This piece is part of the Postal service Perspectives series, where Post writers share their lived experiences. Please note that the opinions of the writer do non reflect those of The Postal service.

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Source: http://projects.thepostathens.com/SpecialProjects/spain-screenwriting-documentary-storytelling-program-ohio-university-study-abroad-ogo/

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