If you know someone who has been on exchange, or have been on exchange yourself, or even if you have simply spent a few days in another country, you are not surprised to hear me say that I feel changed. I expected to change months before I even left - it's what happens. It's what would have happened anyways, because people change in every circumstance. I am sure that my friends and my family could all tell you hundreds of ways that they have felt they've changed in the past year, without having gone on exchange.
And yet, and I'm sure my fellow exchange students would agree with me, living abroad in another country, especially for an amount of time such as 5 to 10 months, changes you in ways that I already know I'll have trouble explaining to people back home. This is because it is an accumulation of small things, sometimes coupled with moments that you know you'll remember for a lifetime. And it all has to do with being immersed in another culture, and getting to know people who come from a life so completely different than yours you have to stop and wonder at the incredible diversity of the world. It changes the way you think, the way you talk and act, because suddenly you are questioning: how is this different? How does this difference affect me and my life?
A lot of my blog posts get pretty deep, but this one didn't have it's origins in me sitting around and musing. The other day I got back from a week and a half trip to visit friends in Logroño and Barcelona, and getting back was pretty startling (not only because I was super tired and got sick). I realized how little time I have left in Spain, and began to think more on all of the time I have been here. Honestly, I do not remember much from the first three months that I spent with my first host family, it was a great experience but (obviously) due to the language barrier I felt pretty clueless a lot of the time. Occasionally I'll hear a song or smell a certain type of food and it will bring up a very clear memory, but other than that, it doesn't feel...real. It feels like a completely different person had those experiences. This isn't a good or bad thing, but it's helped me realize, again, how much I've changed.
Even my trip to London seems like a lifetime ago. I can only suppose that all of this is due to the huge amount that exchange students feel, learn and experience on a daily basis. It's like trying to fit an entire childhood into one year; because here we have to create, in some senses, a new identity for ourselves. We have to adapt. Of course it's no surprise when we come back and feel changed.
Overall I feel like I have changed (am changing) for the better. I feel more mature and responsible, more critically-minded. With 7 weeks left, I'm curious to see how much more I will learn before I return home.
Now (as though you all haven't seen them already on facebook) some pictures from my independent travel!
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| bike ride adventure in Logroño with Marianne |
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| Robert - the fellow AFSer I stayed with in Barcelona - lives really close to the beach |
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| La Sagrada Familia |
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| his host dad took us sailing |
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| one night a bunch of us went to Tarrega (a little town outside of Barcelona) to celebrate David's 18th birthday with him, we found this cool graffiti there |
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