4.18.17

Bucket List! Proud to be a “Gettysburg Great” in our Bullet Points newsletter. Will celebrate this (upon conclusion of @haymakers4hope training of course) with some award winning whiskey from fellow Alums @manatawnystillworks . #kocancer #gettysburgcollege #gettysburggreat #bulletpoints @danafarber #pancreaticcancer #nvna (at Gettysburg College)

Post Abroad

So I’ve been home for almost four months and I can still feel the Sevilla air kissing my check. I can still smell my host mom’s pollo con cebollas y arroz and I can still close my eyes and see the Alfafa strip at 1am full of American students. Going abroad was a big step for me, not because I doubted my ability to adjust in a new country, but because I doubted the impact it would have on me. Being thousands of miles away from East Harlem, I never thought I’d find another place to call home. 

A lot of people go abroad and build houses, volunteer at schools/villages and help paint rooms in under privileged communities, I did not do any of those things. However, I did end up getting a job “teaching” two young, rambunctious Spaniard boys English. I quote the teaching part because we literally spent our sessions teaching each other. Each Monday and Wednesday I spent an hour and a half singing taylor swift songs, typing phrases into my Spanish Dictionary  and explaining why Americans were so over weight/killers/racist or whatever other generalizing views that they had developed from watching American movies. Although most of the time I was completely overwhelmed by their non-stop questions I am grateful to their mom for even hiring me to work with them because they helped me see the spaniard reality through the eyes of a community’s greatest stakeholder, a child. Spending time with the boys not only bettered my Spanish, but it also bettered my experience abroad because it was a part of my routine and was something that helped make Sevilla my home.

I use to lay down in my Airbnb bed, usually next to Yesenia and think about how I would have never guessed that I would be in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam etc...It never failed, I always got that feeling of disbelief when I traveled. It was not until I took my last walk to the E2(Airport Bus) on San Bernardo that it sunk in that I was going to have to leave Sevilla. I remember giving my host mom a big hug and telling her “gracias por todos, esta experiencia hay sido muy incredíble,” as i lugged my suitcase out of the door. She waited for the elevator and when it came she blew me kisses and said “adios mi niña.”

I am sure my experience has it’s overlaps with the experiences of several others but even with the overlap, we all leave with something different. I cannot speak for others but I left with a better understanding of myself, one that is honest and does not allow me to cut corners for the sake of appearances. I left with a greater appreciation for being alone. I have always been the type of person who enjoys little company but basically being in a whole different world without any of my friends and family taught me how to utilize my me time effectively. Distance also helps you see who really cares about you, it puts a strain on the ties that were meant to be broken while adding notches to the ones that are meant to be permanent. 

4 months later and I miss being abroad just as much as I missed home while I was there. I woke up, ate, laughed, cried and lived in Spain for five amazing months and although I was more than ready to return to El Barrio, I can’t help but miss it. So for now I’ll just be straddling my heart across the atlantic, but not for long..... Because as the cliché saying goes, “Home is where your heart is”. NO8DO.

#Springfest2k15 will giveth and will taketh away #gettysburggreat #RollTheta

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