Callie Parker, Pitt in Spain Summer 2024
While abroad in Alcalá de Henares during June of 2024, I stayed with a host family and another roommate who is a student at Pitt. My host mom was married with two children who both lived at home. She had a son who was 27 and a daughter who was 33. The host family and roommate were selected for me by the University of Pittsburgh. Looking back on the experience, I am very glad I stayed in a host family as opposed to a dorm because of how many more opportunities I was given to speak Spanish and place myself outside of my comfort zone. I had taken very few Spanish classes at Pitt, and I knew that the experience would be a challenge for me, but the immersion I experienced while staying with a host family helped me learn more than I thought possible in such a short amount of time.
On top of a great learning experience, I found it very valuable to be able to experience my host family’s day-to-day life and some of Spain’s customs. They were very family-oriented. Dinners could last up to two hours just because everyone would sit and talk about anything and everything; politics, family history, old memories, how work was that day. I got to experience a family gathering as well because it was my host mom’s birthday the last week that I was there. This dinner went close to three hours and joining us was her sister and sister’s husband, and their daughter. Later in the night, the neighbors heard us outside and came to join us with their children as well. It was a gorgeous celebration; they had set up lights outside with balloons and banners, and the table was so filled with food there was barely enough room for our plates. We sang happy birthday (twice), and I spent most of the night laughing so hard my stomach hurt. It was a very fun, loving, and lighthearted environment.
With staying in a new environment, you will always come across some challenges. I struggled to adjust to the new eating schedule. Lunch was at 3:00 pm, and dinner for my host family tended to be around 10:00 pm and lasted quite a while. I did begin to adjust later in the month, but this was very different from my usual schedule of being asleep by 10:30 pm in the States. It was also challenging for me just to adjust to living with a new family and figuring out the language barrier. I sometimes grew frustrated when I felt like I could not explain exactly how I felt or talk about a subject as detailed as I wanted to. I felt some of the same frustration when I felt like I could not understand exactly what they were saying. I think that feeling of frustration initially comes from putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Once I reminded myself that it was okay not to understand everything and was just more open-minded to asking questions and trying my best to piece things together, I found myself learning a lot more and gaining a lot from the experience.
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