This last week we wrapped up our interim class studying the regions of Spain and literature from certain regions as well. On Wednesday morning we finished our exams for both parts of the class – regions/history and literature – and left for Barcelona for a group excursion in the afternoon. This was somewhat of a stressful time for us students because they were our first exams in Spain! Despite some nervousness we got through it and set off for Barcelona excited for our first weekend excursion with the group and our last weekend with Professor Diana Zandstra. We got the chance to go with a group of about 25 seniors from the local high school here in Denia. Some Calvin students got to meet and get to know their partners for conversation groups for the semester. Others of us just got to make some new Spanish friends! Getting to know the students and learning what life is like for high school students in Spain was quite the experience. We found we had much in common with many of them and got along well. Also, meeting the students challenged our speaking skills as they were the fastest and most colloquial speakers most of us had encountered! Also, we became more aware of cultural differences like volume of speech and even the hours Spanish teenagers usually stay out!
Overall getting to know the Chabas students was extremely helpful for pushing our language skills and our abilities to adapt culturally. It was tough when our Spanish friends were used to staying up until 5 in the morning and then we had to get up around 7:30 or 8:00am to make it to breakfast and out to museums and sites all day! I personally got to spend a lot of time with a lot of different students from Chabas and got the chance to learn lots of new things from colloquial phrases to how to say bobby-pin in Spanish! Overall, spending time with the Spanish students really opened our eyes to Spanish culture from the point of view of people that are closer in age than our Spanish parents or professors. I know that because I spent time with Spanish students I got the chance to see Barcelona through a different set of eyes than my own. When you’re with Spaniards you don’t seem as much like a tourist and people DO treat you differently when they know that you can speak their language suddenly, we were able to appear more like Spaniards than like American tourists! Experiencing Spain and Barcelona in particular with the Chabas students was a window into a whole different cultural world. We are so grateful we got to know them and we had a blast in Barcelona seeing everything from Gaudi’s works, art museums, to the well know tourist street of Las Ramblas!
-Written by Rebecca Larson
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