Final Study Abroad Thoughts

Nine European cities, one class, countless memories. Now, thirty days after the adventure began, I’m writing my final “study abroad” blog from the airplane heading from Madrid to Dallas! Hard to believe. This last month has been one of the best trips ever, and I would recommend anyone considering studying abroad to definitely take the plunge. It’s worth the cost many times over. I learned a lot about Spanish culture and international commerce and how to navigate foreign cities. I also made some great new friends!


This last week in Spain has been remarkably different than the first several. Instead of the week being jam-packed with daily excursions, I’ve had a lot more time to relax, enjoy exploring Seville, and study for my final. The final exam on Friday went really well. Through taking the class in a team environment (with two other people on my team), my team skills have definitely improved. I’m not normally a fan of group projects in school because it’s hard to find a group whose members pull an equal share of the weight, but the team environment in this class worked extremely well.


Because the last week has been more relaxing, I had time to visit several other sights in Seville and go shopping for some souvenirs. One of the coolest places I visited last week was Plaza de Espana, best known as the movie set of the planet Naboo in Star Wars.

                   Plaza de Espana in Seville


Another fun part about last week was getting to visit with some long-time friends who happened to be vacationing in Seville during my last day there. Since it had been five years since our last visit, it was particularly cool to see them here in Spain! They live in Virginia now, so hopefully we’ll be able to meet up again while I’m working in Washington, DC later this summer.


One of the hardest parts about leaving Spain was saying bye to my host mom, Teresa. She is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and while my roommate and I were staying in her apartment, she treated us like family. She cooked three (very good) meals a day for us, helped us learn to navigate Seville, told us we were blessed with good looks, etc. The whole works. If there were a “host family of the year” award, she would win it. On our last day in Seville, Sagar and I bought her a box of chocolates and a bouquet of her favorite flowers. She was so excited that she immediately called three of her friends to tell them. Mission accomplished.

             Mama Teresa


Although I’m fairly good at planning trips now, I certainly wasn’t before studying abroad.  I was so inexperienced that I didn’t notice I had a 22-hour layover in Madrid until after I had booked the plane ticket. At first I was planning to spend all 22 hours in the Madrid airport (which was a terrible idea to begin with), but after learning about the prevalent pick-pocketing across Madrid, I decided to stay in a hotel near the airport. My dad stays at Hilton hotels almost every time he travels, so he was able to negotiate a free upgrade to the “executive floor." 


This hotel was legit. And not excessively expensive either. Easily one of the nicest hotels I have ever been. The service was great, the people were friendly, and staying on the executive floor was simply awesome.


My friend and I put on our nicest clothes and spent most of the evening in the executive lounge pilfering a variety of snack foods for dinner. I'm sure we blended right in...


                          Executive Lounge


While we were hanging out in the lounge, a guy sitting across from us struck up a conversation. Turns out he’s a current college professor at the University of Arizona, former US diplomat to several countries, and Harvard graduate. We had a great discussion about everything from foreign languages to college to Washington, DC politics. It was great.


The Hilton breakfast was my last meal in Spain - and it was easily the best breakfast of the entire trip. If I ever stay in Madrid again, the Hilton will be at the top of my list.

After traveling for a month though, I’m ready to be back in the United States. Many of the great things we take for granted in the United States rarely exist in Spain. Things like peanut butter, cold milk, large breakfasts, cars the middle-class can afford, showers bigger than 3 square feet, and air conditioning. And on a more serious note, things like the United States’ (relatively) low unemployment rate, vast business opportunities, and quality of college education. I’m glad I studied abroad in Spain. I wouldn’t change any of it and I learned a ton; however, studying abroad has also made me feel more fortunate to live in America.

Gibraltar: A British Land of Caves and Monkeys

Wild monkeys. Caves. One of the world’s best viewpoints.  Welcome to Gibraltar.  This is where I spent my weekend.

Where is Gibraltar exactly?  It’s a small British colony on the Iberian Peninsula to the south of Spain, also 12 miles from the north coast of Africa.

My travel group consisted of my Spanish roommate, Sagar, and three other friends - Brooke, Hannah, and Kate.  It was an awesome bunch so I knew we’d have a great time.  

The Rock of Gibraltar

Our bus got to La Linea (the Spanish city bordering Gibraltar) fairly early Friday evening, so we did some basic surveying of Gibraltar on Friday night and went to sleep at a reasonable hour so we could wake up early on Saturday. Walking into Gibraltar was really cool because the only way to get through is by walking across the airport runway.

I loved every minute of my time in Gibraltar.  It’s a British colony, so from the second we stepped across the Spain/Gibraltar border, everyone spoke English - and with a British accent.  It was great. I fancied every “blimey,” “bloke,” and “cheers” I heard.  The phone booths were pretty swell too.

Our first mission Saturday morning was to order an English breakfast.  Spaniards typically don’t have large breakfasts (it’s usually just toast), so eggs, bacon, coffee, and orange juice was a nice change in pace.  It was also delicious.

After breakfast, we found a tour guide for the Rock of Gibraltar.  The rock is massive, and we were fairly limited on time, so the additional 12 euros each for a guided tour was well worth it.  Our objectives: to see the caves, monkeys, war tunnels, pillars of Hercules, and viewpoints in less than two hours.  Mission accomplished!

St. Michael's Cave

Eating Carrots

Monkeys on the Rocks

 

Chilling on the Tour Guide's Car

 

Hold a Wild Monkey: Check!

 And the other sights...

Pillars of Hercules

Former War Tunnels

Antique Cannon

View of Gibraltar

Gibraltar also has one of the world's most amazing lookout points.  From the top of the rock, we could see Gibraltar, Spain, and Morocco - three countries, two continents.  Breathtaking, no doubt.

After the tour, we had the obligatory British fish & chips for lunch. Then we shopped around for a while, relaxed for a bit, and then hopped on the bus back to Seville.  The length of the trip was just about perfect, and the weather could not have been any better during our rock tour.  Gibraltar will definitely be one of my favorite memories of study abroad.  And I’ll definitely never forget those monkeys.

Portuguese Splendor

Hola!

My time abroad keeps flying by quickly.  Hard to believe there's just over a week left!  This past weekend was my favorite so far.  From Thursday to Monday, my group took a trip from Spain to Portugal. There are many similarities between the two countries, but I might like Portugal more overall.  It was remarkably easy to communicate over there and the Portuguese were really friendly to Americans.

View of Lisbon

The Portugal trip started in Lisbon.  Lisbon definitely has more of an older-town feel with some aspects of a newer city as well. I really enjoyed the view of the city atop one of Lisbon's nicest hotels (we bought drinks on the roof as an excuse to go up)!










One of the highlights of visiting Lisbon was a company visit to Portugal Telecom (PT), an international telecommunications firm with operations in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, and other South American countries.   It was interesting to learn how Portuguese businesses operate; surprisingly, there seemed to be many similarities between PT and American technology companies.  They have a team-focused, relaxed work environment that reminded me of operations at Microsoft or AT&T.  They are also building one of the largest data centers in the world to support cloud computing, so PT seems to be keeping up with the times.  I’m excited to see how the company will fare in the next few years.

One of the most impressive qualities I noticed in the Portuguese was their incredible knowledge of English.  At Portuguese Telecom, for example, company reps said that nearly 100% of new hires (many of whom are just high school grads) can speak fluent English.  I found this to be true throughout the country as nearly everyone in restaurants, hotels, and even on the street spoke almost perfect English.  It would be fantastic if schools in the US could also teach languages that well!

The highlight of the Lisbon trip was watching Portugal win

against Russia in a world cup qualifying soccer game.  It was one of the most exciting sporting events I’ve seen, and I was thrilled when Portugal pulled through 1:0.

Lisbon, Portugal's Soccer (Futbol) Stadium

Part of the group at lunch in Lagos

After Lisbon, my group went to Lagos for a few days.  Lagos is probably my favorite city on the trip so far.  It has a coastal feel with temperate weather and beaches that rival America’s best.  Compared to other tourist beach-towns, Lagos is relatively small and never felt too crowded.  The food was also probably the best of the trip. Lagos is even home to one of the world's top 50 burger joints.

The "End of the World"

Another highlight of the Lagos trip was getting to see Cape St. Vincent in Sagres, Portugal - once considered the "end of the world" before the discovery of the Americas. Hard to believe that people once thought only sea monsters were beyond this point.

My favorite part of Lagos, though, was hiking to the beachside cliff formations and admiring their splendor and uniqueness.  The caves, grottoes, and sea arches formed naturally over millennia.  It was quite possibly the prettiest place I have ever seen in my life.

Part of the Ponta de Piedade cliffs in Lagos

With all the traveling associated with this program, several of my friends have asked if I’m actually “studying” at all, and the answer is yes!  I have class for 3 hours almost every day.  On days that I don’t have class, there’s usually a company visit or another class-organized excursion.  I’ve just had to spend my time more productively and to work together with my team to get our work done.  My professor is teaching the class (Operations Management) in a way that requires lots of teamwork and collaborative learning, and much of the course also incorporates case studies and our company visits.  I’ve learned quite a bit from the class so far.  I just wish that all classes were this enjoyable.  It’ll be tough going back to normal semesters. Heck, it'll be tough going back to real life.

Week Two: Italica, Cordoba, Granada, and More!

Hola!  

Hard to believe another week of study abroad has flown by.  Every day of this trip has brought something new, and I love that aspect.

On Monday my class took a trip to ancient roman ruins outside Seville.  Italica was once the site of a civilization of more than 10,000 people.  The intricate architecture and brilliant engineering made it a really fun site to visit.  For being nearly 2,000 years old, it has held up remarkably well.

Tuesday we got to visit the massive cathedral in Seville, the largest Gothic structure in the world and the world’s third-largest church.  It was initially built as a mosque but was converted into a Cathedral and expanded by the Catholic Church in the 1400s and early 1500s.  It is also the burial site of Christopher Columbus.

Later in the week, I got to see a Spanish bullfight.  It was definitely a unique cultural experience, but I am thankful for laws in the United States that protect animal rights.  Bullfights are savage spectacles in which the bull is teased, tortured, and then slaughtered in front of thousands of fans.  According to my host family, Spaniards use “Spanish tradition” as the main justification for bullfights, and to me this reaffirms the issue of blindly following tradition in general.  At any rate, I am glad the United States has a more developed position in regards to animal rights.  

The group took a Friday trip to Cordoba, Spain, which was about a 1.5 hour train ride from Seville.  It was interesting to see the massive mosque in Cordoba and some different Spanish architecture.  The mosque (mostly converted into a church in the 1200s) has hundreds of elegant columns lining the structure.  

This weekend my class joined a group from OU to head to Granada, Spain.  Granada is on Spain’s southwestern coast, about a 2 hour bus ride from Seville.  The bus left from Seville’s train station at 7AM, which meant I had to wake up at 5:30 to make the 6 o’clock bus to be at the train station before 7:00. This entire trip has been full of late nights and early mornings, but it’s been a blast!

The first stop in Granada was the church where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand are buried.  In this church, we also saw the spot where Christopher Columbus prayed before heading out on his New World expeditions.  It was fantastic.

The highlight of the Granada trip was seeing the Alhambra Fortress. Well over 1000 years old, the Alhambra was absolutely awesome.  It took us a couple hours just to walk through it and see the rooms available to visitors. The pictures definitely don’t do it justice.

Saturday night I went to the gypsies’ part of Granada to see a Flamenco dance show.  Flamenco dancing is sort of like tap dancing but it also involves ethnic music and some storytelling.  Although I couldn’t understand most of the stories because they were in Spanish, it was an interesting experience and I’m glad I went. Most of the group felt the same way.

I’m getting excited for the trip to Lagos and Lisbon, Portugal later this coming week. I've heard that's the best trip of the program!

Adios!

Joseph