Like Caroline Davis, Gabriela Roberts is studying in Salamanca, Spain. Gabriela mentions that living in Spain has surpassed “all of [her] expectations”. At the university of Salamanca, Gabriela is
taking Women’s History in Spain, Arab history and culture in Spain and Spanish grammar. The most interesting class for me is my Arab history class because we learn about something that makes Spain unique from the rest of Europe which is the large amount of Arab culture that has influenced and shaped Spanish culture. This large amount of Arab influence did not happen in any other place in Europe and Spain is able to provide this special mix of Spanish and Arab culture and I love seeing how that influence still effects so many aspects of Spanish life.
From all her classes, the grammar class is the most challenging one. I believe you, Gabriela, Spanish grammar can be hard….
In Salamanca, Gabriela is practicing Spanish with an “intercambio”. They meet “about once a week, have a coffee and switch between speaking in Spanish and English”. She is also having a great international experience with “international students …. from France, Germany, and England”. As Gabriela points out:
One of the aspects I am most enjoying from studying abroad is making friends from all over Europe and learning about all of the different perspectives on topics that we discuss, and through this, beginning to look at things with a more open mind and from different view points. I think that being able to have friends from different parts of the world who have grown up in such a different way than we have and being able to learn and discuss with them different viewpoints on how things are done in the world.
And she continues
[this] is something that is very important if you want to be a more well rounded and knowledable person about the world since understanding different cultures and perspectives is what allows us to better appreciate the differences that exist in the world instead of looking at it all from a very ethnocentric view.
Not surprisingly, Gabriela thinks that “the time is going by too fast and I feel like I am already approaching the end of my time here even though I feel like I just started!”. Yes, that happens to all of us!
