This will be my final post, and though I didn’t intend for it to arrive so late, I’m very happy that I am reflecting on my experience now after a semester back at Alabama. I think when I first went to Spain to study abroad over the summer, I saw the experience ending there and not really following me into my life beyond- I feel like a ton of people study abroad and it’s a little chapter of their life that they reflect fondly on but don’t necessarily revisit. On the contrary, for me, two people that I studied abroad with are some of my closest friends on campus and I see one of them weekly. I am in two Spanish classes this semester and one of my classmates was in Spain with me- he and I get to collaborate in class on assignments and keep our silly rapport from all summer while continuing to grow in our skills. I review literature in my SP 375 class and get flashbacks to all the deep information and analyses I was given in my classes in Spain from my Italian teacher who spoke so passionately. I have actually had multiple people now ask me for recommendations for going to visit Spain and I have become somewhat of a spokesperson for it, even having a girl that I went to elementary school with ask me about what learning Spanish has been like for people of our major and what I enjoyed about being in Spain. My answer to the latter question is frankly everything. I miss it so deeply and still think about the memories I made there. I work on my scrapbook. I still haven’t finished, if only because I do not want to leave that part of my life in the past. Spain is, was, and will be a part of my life forever.
