Wow…. how are we already halfway through the semester? I feel like I’ve just gotten comfortable here in España and all of a sudden I only have a month and a half yet, where has the time gone. As the end of October is nearing I realize I still have so much to do in these next 7 weeks. I’ve been attending classes for about 5 weeks and can now say I love all of my classes. The university doesn’t give much homework but I still feel like I’m Me and my friends have planned trips to Rome, Seville, Barcelona, and Paris.
Along with these planned trips, we also have excursions that are a required part of the program that are going to be held all of the weekends we aren’t traveling. In addition to the traveling and all of the excursions I’ve also recently been offered a position to assist in helping young children learn English. This position requires only working 6 hours a week, but with classes every day, upcoming exams, excursions, and trips, it seems like my schedule is going to be extremely packed this next half of the semester. Besides the dread of feeling like I have a busy month and a half coming up, looking back at the first half of the semester I am grateful and happy with all of the experiences I have. In my last blog I had written about my experiences at the start of the the semester up until the beginning of classes. Since then I have traveled to Las Islas Canarias (Tenerife), and gone on multiple excursions with my program director. I’ve really appreciate all of the excursions and recent time I’ve had to explore and get acquainted with Oviedo and the rest of Asturias.
As mentioned, I also have two other trips planned to explore to rest of Spain, one to Seville, and one to Barcelona. The trip to Seville is quickly approaching while the trip to Barcelona is planned for the end of November. Unfortunately, there is currently a lot of chaos in the city of Barcelona with protests and young adults advocating for the separation of the region of Cataluña, an autonomous community in the East of Spain. I don’t know much about the political situation in Spain, or even too much about the riots, but I do know that the people who are protesting and violently acting out in Cataluña are unhappy with the current political and social situation in Spain. I’ve seen images of buildings being destroyed and cars being set on fire in the middle of the street by large groups of people. Besides the fact that we might not be able to go to Barcelona (we’ll see) I find it extremely interesting to see how political matters and protests are handled in other countries. I’m able to watch the news every night with my host mom and see updates on what’s going on in the streets and if the situation is improving. Even if that situation doesn’t clear up before late November, we still have many other trips planned and I also look forward to getting to explore the rest of Europe.