After more than 6 months of preparing for this experience, it is finally time for it to begin. Due to concerns regarding arrival and acclimating to the new environment ( in addition to a desire to see some of the main sites within the region before work and class obligations arise), my mother, brother, and I have decided to arrive in Seville a week early. In planning for this process, we had decided to visit Cadiz and Jerez as well as Seville due to the fact that these locations are not directly built into the CEA schedule. Although this process will make getting to my home stay slightly more complicated due to a lack of airport pickup, I feel that the benefits will far outweigh the potential challenges.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have begun to have quite polar feelings about this trip as a whole. On the one hand, I am very excited to be able to practice my Spanish language skills in both a formal work and informal personal environment. At the same time, however, multiple concerns have arisen. These concerns have primarily revolved around uncertainties in the program structure. Although the housing assignments regarding home-stays have finally been sent out (to my great relief) concern still remains regarding the program structure, as much of the general program structure is quite flexible compared to internships in the United States. This uncertainty has been a lasting concern throughout the internship application process, and I feel that this will be one of the main cultural challenges which I will have to deal with during my time in
Seville. In this context, communication has also proved to be a significant issue here, and I feel that, if I am able to adjust to it, this will ultimately prove to be one of the many ways this internship will improve myself and my job opportunities in the future.
Over the course of the past week and a half, numerous preparations have been made in ensuring that this trip will occur as smoothly as possible. These have included downloading maps to the cities within and outside of Spain which I will likely be traveling to during this excursion as well as various communication based apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook messenger which will make it easier and cheaper to communicate while I am there. In this context, the fact that WiFi signals are considerably more prevalent in Spain then they are in the United States is reassuring.
During the short amount of time before I go, I plan to try and look into the details of where I will be working before my internship starts. In addition to this point, I also plan on looking further into various cities and countries within Europe which could be reached relatively easily during my time there.
I hope to send out an additional update upon my arrival.
See You!