Submitted by Isabel Berté on the 2019 summer session program in Granada, Spain sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
In the third week of our study abroad, lies our program’s free weekend. With a monthlong minimester jam-packed full of classes, excursions and activities, we knew these four free days would be important to fill up with anything we wanted to make sure to do before leaving. We decided to go to Rome for the free weekend, since we are living so much closer to Italy now than we do at home. While there, we saw St. Peter’s Basilica, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, and the Spanish Steps. We had been touring so many cities with our classes and had become accustomed to traveling with our professors and classmates. In Italy, we missed having our professors as guides to ask all of our questions and to help us to navigate the city. While we missed the organized trips we were so used to, I also realized how comfortable we had become living in a new place. Before this study abroad program, I would have been very nervous to conquer a new city, that speaks a new language, in an entirely new country. However, this program has opened up the world in my mind. I now view the world as being far more open to travel. I feel I could work around any language barriers, talk to locals, navigate public transportation, and relate new experiences to past travel experiences. I owe it all to my time in Granada. I think that these three weeks have been truly eye-opening to how accessible the world is if you are willing to take the time to learn about the corner of the world you are in, and keep an open mind to a new language, a new culture, or a new place.
