One of my favorite things about this program is that we get refunded for any travel in Spain, cultural activities, and extracurricular activities. This allows low-income students like me to really live a study abroad experience with fewer setbacks. More specifically it allowed me to have one of the most beautiful weekends of my life in Barcelona. 

My friends and I booked an AirBnb 1 hour away from Barcelona in a town called Sitges. I won’t lie, at first we tried to use public transportation to get from the airport to Sitges and it did not work out. But in the way we found a beautiful highway bridge and were able to take an uber from the wrong address to the right one. That ride through the curves on the side of a mountain facing the sea. Afterwards, we explored the area and found our nearby beach as well as an awesome burger place. 

The next day we visited the Parc Guell, the free parts, where we appreciated columns among the trees made of stone designed by Antoni Gaudi. As we learned Gaudi was very much inspired by nature. One of his signature styles can be seen in both the church and the columns at the park, leaning columns. These actually work better at supporting big structures. These park columns were also made to match the plants that would be placed above them. Going here was truly a magical place. Then we visited one of Gaudi’s most famous works, La Basilica Familia Sagrada, with a guided tour. This church was like no other, completely majestic. Personally, I have fallen in love and I’m completely obsessed with the history and intricacies of this place. It has been in construction for 137 years and it is now on its 9th architect. Gaudi was its second architect just a year after construction started and remade the 1 tower design to now have 18 towers. Gaudi’s plan is to dedicate this church to the Holy family and the aspires will be represented in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the Virgin Mary, the four Evangelists and tallest of all, Jesus Christ. Next to the church, there’s a museum dedicated to the construction and Gaudi’s works and plans and it describes how Gaudi was not only an architect but also a senior engineer, decorative designer, and acoustic designer of the church. He designed a balcony inside the church at the perfect height of the church to create what we today know as a surround sound system for a choir of 1000 singers. If you ever visit, there is so much more to learn about this beautiful place and Gaudi’s genius. I urge you all to really come for a guided tour to see one of the wonders of the world. I will definitely be keeping tabs on it as the 6 missing towers are to be finished by 2026. 

That night back we enjoyed delicious paella and churros and ice cream dessert in Sitges. And although it isn’t nearly as warm as we’d like it to be, we took a stroll on the beach at night near our apartment. The next day before the airport we made sure to grab a bite at the oldest taperia in Sitges where I had the most delicious flauta yet, burrata tomatoes and arugula, simply delicious. It was truly a perfect weekend and I hope you visit too at my recommendation.

Every student in our program is required to take an advanced Spanish language course. This includes students like me, who are already fluent in Spanish. I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and completed my education until the first half of 7th grade there. After doing so I moved to New York where I learned English, however I only spoke Spanish at home. In college I continued my language education by taking three semesters of high level Spanish. For other students they have a similar experience where the first language they have come in contact with is Spanish. Since we’re all fully fluent in Spanish you might be wondering why this class is also required of us and what we learn there. 

The class is officially titled Advanced Spanish Language Studies for Heritage Speakers’. The thing about Spanish is that as a result of colonization, it is officially the language of 20 different countries today. Additionally, over 572 million people speak it worldwide. Now we can’t imagine that all those people speak the same Spanish. We all have different dialects, styles, and even different words for the same thing. So, how can you teach Spanish to a group of 12 students that come from all different backgrounds? What Spanish do we learn? Many would think that there is only one correct Spanish. Afterall the first official grammar book of any of the Romance languages was Antonio de Nebrija’s Spanish grammar book. After this, there’s been tons of changes and updates to the grammar book and the Spanish dictionary. However, not even the Real Academia de Español could tell my mother that she’s wrong. 

In the end, we learn the Spanish rules and complexities of the Spanish language as dictated by the Real Academia. We learn that what we are studying is simply a way to go about speaking the language. Studying any language is a good exercise for the brain, even if it’s a derivative of your own. Also, we do amazing activities that make learning fun and exciting. This is one of my favorite classes because of how we learn. While learning how to put on accents on words, we also watch TedTalks on how some orthographic rules in our current language rules need change. We listen to the use of verb conjugation from current music bands. I love how we’re able to talk about which verbs are in imperfect tense while acknowledging that language rules can be used as a tool for oppression. Additionally, we learn about Spain, its politics, the gossip in the royal family, and how to make up our own words. And most recently all the students are doing presentations on autonomous communities in Spain. My presentation on La Rioja is this week! Every day I learn more and more about the intricacies of language, how it evolves, and where my mother tongue lies in the beautiful spectrum of the Spanish language.

P.S. Miguel is an awesome teacher and always wears cool shirts. No day is a regular day, every button down is a work of art.

Hand selecting a host family for each of 75 students is probably as hard as it sounds. I think this becomes especially hard when trying to place students with different needs who are already putting themselves through a gratifying but tumultuous change in their lives. I, for example, wanted to be in a family with only women and no children. I am also an extremely picky eater and wanted to live with LGBTQ+ friendly. Imagine 74 other tall orders like mine with different variations. Of course, there is no way to get every single match right, but for the most part, everyone has had good matches with their families. Personally, I absolutely love my host family. 
They are camera shy so it is hard to get them on the picture but this is a photo of them at pride ten years ago here in Madrid.

Sara is getting her Ph.D. in philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. As she is writing her thesis, she is an active participant in many social justice groups. Raquel is an event producer at an events company. She has seen clients such as Volkswagen and Disney. In her job, she gets to see all types of disciplines. They are both from Galicia, a region in the northern part of Spain, and speak Galician which is close to Portuguese. When I get home, they’re usually sitting next to the computer, watching all kinds of movies. We eat at around 9pm and discuss many topics throughout the night. They keep me updated on social justice movements, Madrid slang and invite me to participate in intricate discussions about the world. My favorite part of dinner is that we always have bread, and they have worked really hard to get to know what I like and don’t like to eat. If I truly don’t like something, they are ready with a backup plan. Here are some of my favorite meals so far. 

Next, they offer me about five different options for dessert which I love, ranging from ice cream to chocolate bars to cookies. We truly respect dessert in this home. And finally, if we’re all up for it we play some cards or dice games. I will just add as a final point that I win all the time. 

Sometimes I feel it’s necessary to run away from the city. Don’t get me wrong I love city life and love even more NYC where i’m from. The accessibility to public transportation and skyscrapers are home to me. In Madrid it’s similar to that city ambiance. However, this Saturday we decided to get away from noise pollution and concrete to go hiking. 

We took the Cercanias train to the stop Cercedilla and walked through the town towards a hiking center where they showed all the paths that we could take through the mountain with all different difficulty levels. We chose the Camino del Agua in which we found lots of creeks and little water streams flowing to through the mountain as we walked by. 

The path consists of a total of 5.7 kilometers, with little slope, and can be completed in less than two hours, although that depends on how many stops are made throughout the trip. The path is marked with blue paint circles on the trees along the path. With good shoes, appropriate clothing (which depends on the weather), snacks, and a water bottle you’ll be ready to make this route. The Camino del Agua is called that because it is the path that has the tubing from the river to the reservoirs. In fact, you can see parts of the pipes in some sections while you walk. Along the way you can see, among hazelnuts, ferns, oaks and pines, interesting views of the Fuenfría, La Peñota or Peña Bercial. The end of the path is marked by a fence and you will pass through some shacks, after which you will arrive immediately, in about ten minutes, to the town. After the hike we got back on the train to Madrid. We slept the whole way back to Atocha station since we were so tired. 

Overall it was a beautiful and well spent Saturday. It was amazing to be able to step away from the city and all of my homework to enjoy nature. The only sounds I heard while hiking were the cowbells, birds, the cracking of the leaves under our feet, and the many many laughs. I was also born and raised in the Dominican Republic and the more I looked at the views, the more I felt like I was back home. The only thing that was missing was the heat.  If you have seen my other blogs you also know I am taking a sketchbook class and many of the plants and beautiful views that I saw throughout the hike were dying to make it to my sketchbook. I can’t wait to come back and try a more challenging path, and to bring more friends for a nature escape. Next time we will also try El Tren de la Naturaleza which is a train that comes out of Cercedilla and goes on the same route as the Cercanias but through the nature view and mountain range and who knows, maybe that will be my next post. 

Today I want to introduce one of my favorite classes at the program center: Sketchbook: Walking in the City. Sketchbook is an on-site studio art course, based on drawing, designed for both art majors and non-art majors (like me). Personally, I just know how to draw stick figures. Since that’s the extent of my skills, I decided to take this class to learn how to draw. I won’t lie and tell you the first day wasn’t intimidating. Afterall not all of us have the confidence to take up all the space on the sketchbook page drawing a bottle. That day I didn’t even finish the box in which I was supposed to draw the bottle in. Nonetheless, after the third class I started to get the hang of things and couldn’t be happier that I signed up for the class. Additionally, this class serves as a much-needed break from the heavy content of the rest of my classes. Here we learn a concept and put it in practice through 3-4 drawings a week. The moments in which I sit and try my best to draw something are truly comforting and meditative. To give you a quick rundown, this is what i’m taking abroad:

1. Advanced Spanish Language Studies for Heritage Speakers
2. Identity and Intersectionality in Spain: Gender, Sexual Orientation, Race / Ethnicity and Migration
3. Database Systems II
4. Sketchbook: Walking in the City

My favorite part about this class is that every Tuesday morning I get to visit a different place in Madrid and draw a picture from it to keep forever on my travel sketchbook. It’s a completely different way to remember my time abroad in Spain. Today we went to the Jardín Tropical de Atocha. It is a collection of tropical plants inside the Atocha train station. As you can see in the pictures below, this part of the train station is a glass and iron greenhouse to keep the plants in the sun. During this class we learned how to draw trees, and bushes. Everyone then picked a plant and simply drew for the rest of the class. Our assignment for next class is to finish this drawing and then draw a different plant. Next time we’ll learn how to draw volume into our objects at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional.

This semester we have planned visits to the Museo del Ferrocarril in Madrid which is one of the largest historic railroad collections in Europe, and even the JUST MAD XI Feria which is an international contemporary art fair where we will use works as inspiration for our drawings that week. Additionally, we will be visiting the neighborhood of Lavapies and exploring graffiti street art and learning about how it is drawn. 

I am really excited to continue to learn how to draw better. Additionally I am even more excited to visit places in Madrid I would have otherwise never known about and to get to know the city and its culture through my sketchbook and pencils.