#studynshine

15.8.2019 \\ 2/30 days of productivity

I spent the whole morning in the city looking for a present for my mom's nameday. I was not succsessful with the present but I bought a toy for our dog. He can be such an attention whore 😂 So in the afternoon we were playing and working in the garden.

Goodbye February, Hello March

This transition's been rather difficult and I'm still unsure about myself. I've got heaps of things to do and deadlines coming up; I'll also be taking on new responsibilities this Semester that I will have to get used to.

5/6/18

✨Days 29-35/100 Days of Productivity Challenge ✨

1 7 A U G 1 8 | Brainstorming

A few pictures of me thinking about my personal project for the competition exam of this upcoming year. It’s not perfect, it’s just me thinking and instantly writing my thoughts on paper. I use mindmaps for a specific part of the project, it helps me to stay focus on the one specific part with the big red title. Juste quelques images de mes notes pour mon TIPE sur le thème transports. Je dois battre la note de 17.9, ça va pas être de la tarte. Je compte pas sur l'originalité donc je bosse à fond ! Mes notes ne sont pas parfaites, mais utiles. Les cartes mentales me permettent de réfléchir sur des points particuliers donc c'est pas mal. :D PS : J'ai eu l'internat je sussas heureuse.

Courtesy of @jbens1017

Background on me

  I figured I should let you know some background on me first since everyone has different experiences. My name is Jessica, I’m a cis woman and I was 21/22 (I had my birthday while I was there!) when I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain through an exchange program. I am from New Jersey, USA. I was a Psychology major with a minor in Spanish. While there I lived with a homestay (a local family).

  Disadvantages

  I don’t have many so that’s why I’ll talk about this first.

Personally the number one thing that should and will concern many people is the money. Living in another country just doesn’t sound cheap, and sometimes it’s not. I was going to a private college in the states and that was expensive and the program I was in required that I still pay my home university’s tuition (so it was a lot haha).

As a woman, I felt that I needed to be more cautious than say the male students. It was a new environment, new culture, I didn’t know anyone, and just different expectations for women then I was used to back home. I would say that the world seems safer for men but while I was abroad, I noticed a lot more female international students. I think as long as you keep aware of your surroundings and make some friends, this disadvantage to women would almost zero out.

All of my classes were in Spanish which I am not fluent in, that’s on me but this really could mess someone up. I did fine though because they had us take a placement test and put us at a level we would be ok at. It’s just something to be aware of when you are looking to study abroad in a country that doesn’t speak your language.

So I was older when I went so a bit more mature (even though I would have loved to have been their earlier or longer). I was in good physical and mental health when I went but this could definitely pose a problem for someone else. I had to take the metro/subway to school and I did a lot of walking all over Madrid and other cities. Also, there will come a time during studying abroad where you just break mentally. It could be the stress or frustration of living in a culture so different than your own or it could just be you miss friends or family even if you love your host country. I think knowing that it is bound to happen and being prepared for when it does was super helpful. It is so common and it was nice to know that I had made friends at my host university that would totally and whole-heartedly understand what I was going through.

Advantages

  Learning a language (Anyone who goes to a country that doesn’t primarily speak their native tongue will start to learn the language no matter the level you start out on. Being immersed into that culture and only hearing another language will only bring your skills in that language up)

Back to money real quick. So yes I said that my tuition was high but because I chose to live with a homestay, I saved a little money. The homestay was actually way cheaper than the room, board and meal plan at my home university.

My host family was amazing! I learned a lot through them and since they only spoke Spanish it gave me even more practice with the language. I don’t know if this is common but my host mom cooked 3 meals a day for me (sometimes more haha she was a great woman), she did my laundry and would change the sheets on my bed. I really didn’t have any house duties and that was great considering I had homework to do in another language.

Other international students offered me a chance to learn about other countries (I met a few girls from south korea and a girl from england and many others) but also it gave me a chance to reminisce about the states and take a break and talk English.

Time - Management and Organization skills go through the roof. There is a lot of paperwork that goes into studying abroad and you need to make sure you get everything approved on time. It felt a bit like I was running around campus to get all the signatures I needed but it really paid off in the end. Once you are in the new country those skills come in handy to do assignments and explore the new country. I was traveling almost every weekend and that took a lot of time to plan with friends or to plan transportation.

Seeing the World! Coming from the states to Europe was huge! It wasn’t the first time I had been away from home or even been to Europe but it was the first time that I would actually be living in a new country for an extended amount of time. Traveling was my main motivator. So Spain is split into 50 autonomous communities kind of like the 50 states in a way, each has a history, culture and atmosphere all their own. I had the opportunity to visit 11 of those communities! That’s one fifth of the country, I can’t even say the same for my own country lol. I also got to visit Morocco and Portugal while I was there and man I wish I had gone to more countries. Flights were so cheap, once you’re in Europe that is.

How could I forget the food! Amazing new foods to try! I am not a picky eater in the slightest and I was always down to try the local grub. I think food really opens your eyes to what the culture holds as important. Do they value heartiness and comfort over nutritional value? Do they value taste over presentation? Are the foods mostly to take away or are they sit down meals? There is a lot to be learned about a culture through their foods. Spain had some bomb food!

  Adjustment Back Home

  Ok the food adjustment coming back was hard. I had eaten all these fabulous dishes and then I came back to the dining hall. It’s not that the dining hall was bad but it wasn’t Spanish or cooked by my host mom. It was sad when they would try to serve paella and I had eaten paella in the city where it had originated, Valencia.

Also the language adjustment. I had gotten so used to thinking and speaking in Spanish that I had to reboot my brain to English. I found that since my time in Spain I have been forgetting English words for things. Lol now I sound like an idiot when I can’t remember what something simple is called in English. I did take one more Spanish course when I came back to my home university and I was happy to be using my skills but since then I feel like my skills are slipping because I don’t have anyone to practice with.

My friends had to adjust. I just wanted to talk about my experience and they got bored of it quickly. I applied to be a study abroad ambassador at my school so I could talk with prospective students about my time and answer questions they might have. This really helped give me an outlet for talking about my time in Spain because I loved it and I wanted to share that love with others.

The travel bug has bitten and there is no cure. I want to see more of the world. I got a small taste and now i want more. It’s like the more you see of the world the more you know that there is so much more to explore, I think there is a quote like that, but it is true. Since my semester abroad, I went to Peru to do some service work and I got to see Machu Picchu, I just recently went on a trip where I visited Prague in the Czech Republic, Munich and Berlin in Germany and London in England. My next goal is France.

It was sad not seeing my study abroad buddies anymore but thanks to social media we can keep up with each other’s lives. I have actually met up with one of my friends from studying abroad since I have been back since she lives kind of close. We all bonded over being in Spain at the same time, learning and exploring together, those kinds of friendships are for life.

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23.8.2019 \\ 7/30 days of productivity