![]() |
Our CEA group at La Mano on campus at the University of Alicante photo by Leah-Beth Peroni |
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Today was a really wonderful day! Woke up as usual at the wee hour of 6 a.m. and left our apartment while it was still dark to catch the tram for school. The past few days I have made friends with a girl named Samantha who always catches the same tram, and it turns out she's our neighbor! It's fun to start the morning chatting sleepily in Spanish with her and Cynthia, my roommate, as we ride the familiar tram route and the sky slowly lightens outside the windows.
![]() |
Samantha and I riding the Tram to the University |
Right afterward I have Spanish Civilization and Culture, a one-hour elective class. It's designed to barely skim the surface of a pretty broad topic, but I have still learned a ton of really interesting things I'd never learned about in other history classes! We're focusing on 20th-century Spanish history, talking about the Second Republic with its education and modernization campaign in the 20's, the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, and the dictatorship of Franco for the following thirty-six years, a national trauma that has left a lasting impression on the country. Our professor has us paste photocopied pictures, excerpts of novels, and newspaper articles in our notebooks, taking a scrapbooking approach to learning history.
![]() |
Sharing lunch with friends on campus |
After class I had organized a little lunch gathering of friends. The group was made of myself, my roommate Cynthia, our neighbor Samantha, another friend from CEA, and three friends from my class. We sat around chatting in the beautiful sunshine outside Club Social II and shared lunch together. Around that circle we represented five different countries: the U.S., Mexico, Russia, Albania, and Vietnam. I feel so lucky to be living and studying in Europe, meeting people from all over the world! I now know what it's like to be an international student – it's not easy. You have to be prepared to face communication barriers, but form relationships despite them. More than anything I feel like a global citizen – my world isn't limited to my college, my city, or even my country.
Like the friends I've met, I am venturing out into places that were formerly just colorful zones on a map and making my own way in the world. Julian, my professor, shared a really cool quote the other day in class: "Hay que estudiar para hacer extraño lo familiar, y familiar lo extraño.” It's necessary to study to make the familiar strange, and to make the strange familiar. For me, that's what studying abroad is all about.
![]() |
Pathway to campus |
Hillary Harder is the Spring 2014 CEA MOJO in Alicante, Spain. She is currently a sophomore at Goshen College.
Read more about our CEA Content Creators.