Recommendations for Future Students

It’s hard to believe that this past weekend was the last of the trip. It is hard to believe that my time here as passed by so fast. I had a very busy weekend. On Saturday I went to Segovia. Segovia is where my señora, Sagrario, is from so she was able to tell me lots about it. Our first stop was the aqueduct. It was created to transport water into the city. It’s incredible to see because it’s 10.6 miles long and was made without cement. It’s also one of the last surviving monuments made by the Romans, so I felt lucky to see it for that reason too. After the aqueduct we walked through the town to the Cathedral. While we were in the Cathedral a wedding party walked through. I love weddings and the Cathedral we were at was a beautiful place to get married and actually later that day we saw the same bride at the other places we went to visit. After the Cathedral we went to The Alcázar de Segovia. That was my favorite part of the trip because the castle was something straight out of a Disney movie, it even had a wishing well. The rooms in the castle still had furniture set up in them, unlike like Alcázar in Andalucia that I saw so it was easier to picture what it may have looked like years ago. Our last stop of the day was the Palacio de La Granja; once again another beautiful monument. It is so huge that in our two hour tour I don’t think we even saw a quarter of it.

Window of Cathedral in Segovia

Alcazar in Segovia

Thongdam and I at Palacio de La Granja

Sunday I went to Madrid. We took the metro from the train station to the center of the city and then made our way to the Reina Sofia. I was really excited to go to the art museums in Madrid because most of the paintings we studied in History of Art are there, either in the Prado or the Reina Sofia. Visiting those museums made me realize how different it is to see a famous painting in it’s actual size, in color than to see it on a piece of paper. There’s absolutely no comparison. It was incredible to stand in front of the famous paintings by Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Goya, Velázquez, and Sorolla. I especially liked seeing Las Meninas because I did a project on it earlier in the summer. I also liked seeing Dos de Mayo and Tres de Mayo because I didn’t realize how large they were and I was blown away.

Me at the Reina Sofia

Guernica!

Palacio Real in Madrid

I have had a great time here and would definitely recommend this program to future students. My other recommendations to future students are:

1. Speak in Spanish every opportunity that you can. Your time in Spain will pass quicker than you think so it’s best to be practicing your Spanish throughout the trip. Talk to your señora, tell her about your day, watch the news together and ask questions about the stories, or show her your schoolwork and discuss it. Other ways to practice speaking Spanish is to reach out to other international students. Or go to the same bar or tapas restaurant and make a relationship with the people who work there. That also helps make Spain seem more familiar.

2. Try to reach out to your host family. Offer to help around the house and make an effort to get to know them. It’ll be a much more comfortable six weeks if you’re on good terms then if you never thank them for anything.

3. Travel on the weekends. Cursos offers some excursions but I found that it’s more fun to plan your own trips. If you go on your own then you don’t have to keep to a schedule and your travelling experience is because you’re more independent.

4. Salamanca is a very safe city but always walk home with someone. Also when you’re traveling keep a close eye on your belongings. Don’t bring a tote that doesn’t have a zipper and put your valuables in the bottom of your bag.

5. Eat Jamon Iberico every opportunity you can. It’s delicious and very hard if not impossible to find in the states.

6. Take advantage of office hours to voice your concerns to the staff. They want you to have a good experience and receiving feedback is helpful. If your having a problem the staff is a great resource so don’t be afraid to go to them.

7. Bring comfortable walking shoes. Most of the students live about 30 minutes away from the university so if you don’t have good walking shoes those long walks are needless to say uncomfortable.

8. Always remember to turn the lights off in your room because electricity in Spain is expensive and it makes the señoras very mad.