The first week in Spain with my new family has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. My expectations for what this trip was going to be have already been blown away. Between my family and the cultural experiences I’ve had, this trip is nothing like what I thought it was going to be like. The amount of amazing things I have witnessed are uncountable. To start I want to talk about mi familia. My host family has gone above and beyond what I thought they would be. The best way to describe how they have been would be with examples. The first example comes from my first day being in Spain. My host sister Maria, the person I first met from the family, picked me from the plaza and brought me to the house. We talked a little on the walk from the Plaza de Gracia, but not much. Just a very basic conversation about how the plane ride was, I think both of us were trying to figure out the language barrier. Plus, my jet lag left me feeling exhausted, so my mind was focused on finding a bed. We got home and I told her I was very tired and asked if it was ok if I took a nap. She said it was totally fine, and told me that she would wake me up for lunch. Just to give you some background information, I was worried about what my family was going to be like. I speak a very limited amount of Spanish, I know it’s awful, and I was terrified that we would just sit there in silence and eat, and then I would return to my room and hunker away. My fears melted away after five minutes of sitting down at the table. In English my older host brother, Thomas, introduced himself saying, “Hello, I am the Dad.” Apparently my stammering and confused stare was the perfect response because they all erupted with laughter. He explained that he was the oldest brother, and since their Father was away at work, they were fighting over who got to use that joke. After that, all introductions were made. The children, Thomas, Enrique, and Maria spoke amazing English, compared to my Spanish. The parents understood very little English, however, through the children we were all able to have an amazing discussion that went on for almost two hours. After that we all went up to the roof, and my siblings pointed out things all over Spain. I was very scared that talking with my family was going to be impossible, but it turns out that talking with my family has been the best part so far. The Parents know very little English, and my new fear turned into having to talk to them alone. The other night I was going to the bathroom and I walked by the living room where the father was watching TV. He looked up and called me over. He pointed to the TV and asked if I like Brad Pitt. I knew that phrase and respond saying I like him and his movies. He did the entire conversation in Spanish, but clearly used very simple words to make it easier for me to translate. Between that and the patience he had while I used google translate, the conversation became a conversation with actually depth. He told me where he was from and showed me on his computer, and I showed him where I was from. I never expected them to work so hard just to talk to me, but I can see how much effort they are putting in. My trip started off with fears of never being able to talk to my family. And now I am over the moon with how our conversations go. We sit at the table for hours and talk about everything that we can communicate. Even if the kids aren’t there to help translate, the conversations are still amazing. My family so far is my favorite thing about this trip, and I have a hunch that it will probably stay that way.
So far the most eye opening experience, in terms of culture, has been visiting the internships. All my life I have worked with kids, mostly handicapped and not underprovided/ underprivileged. When we where going to visit the children at the after school program, I was expecting the kids to, for lack of a better term, seem sad. From how it was explained to me, these children do not have a lot, and their home lives weren’t great either. We walked in, and I was unsure how this was going to go. A bunch of strangers coming in who don’t speak the language, our amazing professor (Mike) needing to be the translator just to understand what they wanted to say. I was worried they wouldn’t want anything to do with us. But the second we walked into a classroom it became very clear they wanted us there. The children where striving to be the designated student who told us what they do everyday. In the classrooms where they could get out of their seats, they rushed to the door and begged their teacher to let them try their hand at speaking English. They wanted as much talking time with us as they could get. Even as we where leaving the school, one boy called out to me saying, in English, “friend”. I turned to him and he asked me what my name was. I told him, and we had a fun time going back and forth on how it was pronounced. The kid was all smiles, and his friends were laughing from just watching the exchange go down. I was not expecting to see such a poverty stricken neighborhood. That was hard to see, and even harder to accept to myself that I knew nothing of what that was like. But after being with those kids, and seeing how excided they were to just have us in the room. It was enough to make me want to be there. I love my internship, and I don’t plan to give it up, but I’m not letting the opportunity to spend some time with those kids pass by.
This first week in Spain has been one of the best weeks of my life. I feel blessed to be here with people I now call friends, and a hosts I now call family. It has only been a week, but I am no longer scared of any language or cultural barrier. I’m excited to see where this trip takes me, and I’m sure it will be in a positive direction.
