Henry Caver Spain 2018

Arrival

As usual, I arrived late to the airport meaning that I needed to hurry in order to catch up with the rest of our group. I may now be known as the caboose of the group of MBA boys to visit Spain this summer. The flight to Spain was the beginning of my first ever intercontinental trip. The flight would have been an average one for any regular traveler, but airplane meals and free movies were firsts for me and a very interesting start to my travels. Upon arriving in Madrid there were quite a few noticeable differences. For example, our wait for the bus from Madrid to Salamanca exposed our group to the reality of how much Spaniards smoke. The difference in architecture, natural landscapes, and surprisingly even graffiti were observed on each trip from city to city. Meeting my host mother and seeing our new home of three weeks were both a bit shocking, but I and the two other boys that shared my small bedroom in the apartment were calmed by the amicable nature of our wonderful host mother, her daughters, and especially their tiny dog.

Anti-corruption protest seen on the afternoon
of our arrival in Spain

The Plaza Mayor of Salamanca on
 night of our arrival in Spain

Salamanca

The plan was to stay in Salamanca for three weeks with a host family and attend a language school before traveling from city to city during the final week. We would learn much about the Spanish culture, realities of Spanish life, and how to improve our utilization of the language. We soon learned that most homes are much smaller in Spain than they are in the United States, warm water becomes cold very quickly, and air conditioning is optionable even in the summer. Each day we would spend three hours in school initially reviewing what we had learned about the language prior to our travels and then later diving into more difficult facets of Spanish grammar and vocabulary. Our classes were a mix of mostly American students our age, but I also had the opportunity to meet two Indian students and a Japanese-Italian student from Budapest, Hungary who also attended our language school. I encountered many different types of people while in Salamanca for various reasons. First of all, it is a bit of a tourist destination due to its large cathedrals, historic district, and the plaza in the center of the city. Second, Salamanca is considered as somewhat of a college town with its very old universities. This means that there were many tourists in the city whom I observed to usually be from Western Europe and Asia. There were also many students in the city. Some of which were students of the universities, but the majority of them were similar to myself: Europeans or Americans my age that had come to learn about the culture of Spain and improve their language skills. Whenever I would go out to the plaza or walk around the city, we would meet other students like us. I really enjoyed my experiences with students from Ireland, the Netherlands, Hungary, and France. Many of these experiences I had in my first week were organized through my language school. We would go on “excursions” each weekend to a different town or city nearby to see the various historic landmarks. We visited Alba de Tormes where we met a man who had dedicated his life to traveling by wagon, specifically on the “Camino de Santiago” and we visited an old cathedral where the heart of a saint was held. Our second excursion was to Segovia where we visited the famous castle in which Christopher Columbus asked the royalty of Spain for the funding of his first trip to the Americas and the ancient Roman aqueducts of the city. I believe my time spent in Salamanca were three of the best weeks of my life.

My friends and I playing soccer on a futsal court

My friends and I making gazpacho and messing around

Soccer field in a beautiful park next to the city

Sevilla

        My visit to Sevilla is highlighted by memories of the FIFA World Cup and tapas. In the mornings, afternoons, and evenings we would enjoy assortments of tapas highlighted by ham and cheese, coffee, Spanish omelets, and more. Our entire group went out for dinner one night at a tapas bar where they were showing the Spain vs. Morocco match on the television. This experience was fun due to the tense but exciting nature of our Spanish peers in the restaurant. Spain scored a last-minute goal and it was very exciting. We visited an enormous cathedral, a large garden, and a grandiose plaza. I can still remember the street musicians singing, “Sevilla tiene un color especial.”

Sevillan sunset

Breakfast tapas

Granada

In Granada, we encountered a culture that was different to the other Spanish cities which we had visited. Granada has a Mediterranean climate and much cultural influence from the Moroccan neighbors to the south. I tried sardines as well as calamari for the first time there and spent much time walking around the city looking for the city’s soccer team’s shop. We visited a spot upon the hills of Granada which provided a view of the city, the Alhambra, and the Sierra Nevada in the background. We toured the Alhambra which showed off the Islamic influence of the city. I did, in fact, end up finding the team shop and still have the jacket I bought there.

Left background: the Sierra Nevada mountain range; center:
the Alhambra; foreground: Granada

Madrid

I loved walking around Madrid and observing the similarities of the metropolis with familiar American cities as well as Spanish cities that I had visited. Parades, celebrations, music, performers, and large groups of people all seemed to be themes in the capital city. Our group had opportunities to visit the Royal Palace, parks, famous plazas, markets, restaurants, and renowned art museums like the Museo del Prado and the Museo Reina Sofia. We spent one of our days in Toledo visiting the large cathedral and touring the old city. We dined on our own a few times while in Toledo and Madrid providing us with opportunities to challenge ourselves in learning the language by ordering and functioning as a Spaniard. Madrid was a very exciting place to be but also an exhausting place to be due to the extensive walking required.

Scenic view of the Royal Palace and the city of Madrid

Thank you

I would like to thank the Wilson family and any teachers and administrators that made this trip possible. I learned and improved exponentially in my speaking and understanding abilities while in Spain. I learned so much about Spanish culture, how it compares to American culture, and what I can learn from my new understandings. I have countless memories and stories to tell my friends, siblings, parents, future children, and their future children. Finally, I made important friendships that I have continued since I have returned to the United States. It is not an understatement to say that my 2018 trip to Spain has genuinely changed my life.