Fin de semana de inmersión

I just got back from the Advanced Liberal Arts Fin de semana de inmersión lingüística (“Linguistic Immersion Weekend”)! The 30-odd students in our program, plus a handful of Spanish students from universities in and around Seville, spent the weekend in the Parque Natural de la Sierra Norte, about an hour and a half from Seville. We stayed at the Complejo Turístico Sierra Hueznar, which is a kind of camp/resort where groups can have events. The place is located in the middle of the country where there are tons of hills, valleys, and lakes. It was a beautiful location, and a nice escape from the city.

View of El Pedroso, one of the nearby pueblos (small towns) we could see on our senderismo (hike).

The housing! We were hardly “roughing it”, haha. It was basically a hotel. But in the middle of the country.

The main goal of the weekend was linguistic immersion. We weren’t allowed to speak English, and to encourage us to stick to the rules, there was a competition! Everyone was given a pulsera (bracelet) that said, “Hablo español”, and if anyone else caught you speaking English, they could take your bracelet away and keep it for themselves! The people with the most bracelets at the end of the weekend won various prizes like University of Seville sweatshirts and coffee cups. I didn’t win, but I had fun watching some of my friends walk away with prizes, as well as observing some friendly competition.

Our giant table! There was a lot of great food, haha.

There were planned activities, like rompehielos (ice breakers), discussions with the Spanish students, and presentaciones (presentations). These were all designed to encourage us to practice Spanish, and for me were successful in that they encouraged me to find ways to express what I wanted to say even if I didn’t have the vocabulary. I often find myself getting frustrated when I’m speaking in Spanish but I don’t have as complete of a vocabulary about topics like psychology, feminism, academia, or whatever else, as I do in English. This weekend showed me where I have room for improvement, but still managed to boost my confidence. Sometimes it was awkward interacting with the Spanish students, because they would occasionally speak too fast or use words I didn’t recognize. This isn’t the first time this had happened to me with a Spanish-speaker, but it’s a more challenging experience in a one-on-one conversation with a peer. However, it was somewhat comforting to hear the Spanish students in turn speak in English. Once in a while I would hear a Spaniard quoting a song lyric or trying to explain the translation of a word, and they would use English, sometimes riddled with grammatical errors or incorrect pronunciations. I don’t mean to say that in a critical way, but it was nice because I knew that I sounded just as “off” to the Spaniards when I tried to speak their language! For me, this leveled the playing field, haha.

In addition to the more “educational” activities, there were also a lot of fun cultural and outdoorsy items on the schedule. I enjoyed bike riding, archery, wine tasting, hiking, and a cooking lesson!

There were lots of vacas (cows) roaming free in the fields.

Tiro de arco (archery)! Call me Merida or Katniss, whichever you prefer.

Beautiful! This isn’t what I pictured when I used to imagine what Spain would look like, but I love it!

Montar en bicicleta (bike riding)!

My attempt at more “artsy” photography!

“I’m in Spain!” –actual thing I said before this photo was taken, haha.

Wine tasting! ¡Qué elegante! It’s weird being of legal drinking age!

Senderismo (hiking)!

“Climb ev’ry mountain…”

Orientation group reunited!

More fun with photography!

Cooking class! We learned how to make tortilla española, which is essentially a potato omelette. It’s really fun to watch someone flip them like a pancake!

We also learned how to make paella, a very typical traditional Spanish (specifically, Valencian) dish made with rice, vegetables, and seafood. Yum!

All in all, it was a fun weekend. I met some great people and tried some new things in a beautiful place, all while working to improve my foreign language skills. And I think that’s what studying abroad is all about!