Jackson Owen- Spain

The Flight

On June 28th, I left by myself from the Nashville airport to meet up with my EIL group at the JFK airport. There I met the 15 other students from across the United States who were also in my group. We did not know it yet but we would grow to become very close friends. From there we left for Madrid, Spain, an eight hour flight which landed at 10:00 am. This was the beginning of a four week long adventure with a brand new group of people in a country completely foreign to me.

Madrid

My first day in Spain proved to be rough, I had hardly slept on the plane ride and landing at 10 am I had to fight my fatigue and continue the day, resisting the urge to sleep. With its interesting architecture and friendly people, Madrid proved to be one of the most interesting cities of the trip. As my group and I grew on one another we began to come out of our shells and had some great memories in the capital of Spain. Since the theme of our program was contemporary and historical culture and diversity, we started every city off with a scavenger hunt to get to know the city and the history more. In a city filled with history we made many sight-seeing escapades. With these scavenger hunts we were able to learn what was most dear to the people of Madrid and the history behind many of the buildings and statues. We stayed in Madrid for five days before it was time to move on to the next town, Toledo.

Statue of Don Quixote in Madrid

Toledo

Toledo was the oldest and most historically rich city that we visited over our four week stay in Spain. It contained one of the biggest and most important cathedrals in all of Spain and was a very religious city. We were luckily able to go inside the ‘Catedral de Toledo’ and witness the incredible architecture on the inside of the building. The Cathedral started construction in 1226 and construction did not finish until nearly 270 years later in 1493. We met many unique individuals and had a great time in our short stay of 3 days in Toledo. We took a bus to our next destination: Bilbao, where we had our stay with a local family.

Bilbao

I was definitely nervous going into my homestay. I was living with a family that I’d never met speaking a language that I had only studied for two years. Luckily I had Sr. Kamm as my teacher so my spanish was just fine. My host father, whom I called ‘Aita,’ which is the word for Dad in the Basque language, picked me up from the bus station in downtown Bilbao and drove me to their house and the smaller, suburban city of Umbe. It was there that I met my wonderful host family of Aita, Ama (the Basque word for Mom), Julen, Xabier, and Nerea. Julen was 17 years old so I spent most of my free time hanging out with him and his friends when the family didn’t have something planned. My family however, had a lot of stuff planned and I kept very busy. I went to a music festival, the San Fermin Bull Run, the beach and many other places as well as eating delicious food throughout my 11 days. I made very close relationships with my host parents and brother and I will never forget the kindness and love they showed to me. We still keep in contact and they are urging me to return to Spain this next summer. I was nervous going in, but I was sad to leave as Bilbao was easily the most fun portion of the trip and of my whole summer.

With my host family at the San Fermin
Bull Run Festival

Estella and Barcelona

Next up on the list was a 5 day stay in the small town of Estella. We spent most of our time doing community service work and teaching a class of young children english through games. Estella was a town rich of culture and it may not have been on of the more fun cities that we went to, it was exciting to see how close the town was together and I learned a lot. Finally, we had a 3 day stay in the popular tourist city, Barcelona. This begun my favorite part of the trip. We went, to the beach, visited La Sagrada Familia and stayed up all night with my group in the apartments we had rented. We celebrated my birthday at dinner and took trips down the famous street La Rambla. Overall it was a fantastic journey and I am so glad that I was given this opportunity.

With members of my group in Park Guell in Barcelona

Thank You

Firstly I want to thank the Wilson Family and Mr. Gioia for making this trip possible. Thank you Sr. Kamm for everything you taught me the two years that I was in your class. Thank you Sra. Victoria and Sr. Paolicchi for making sure everything with the grant and trip went well. Thank you to my gracious host family the Prieto's for providing me with a great family and awesome experiences along the way. And finally thank you to the leaders and everyone else in my group for making the trip everything I could've dreamed and more.