Final Post

El Gato

A semester and some time ago I wrote a study abroad essay that was rejected. I was told that it was too narrow in scope and that it did not convey my wishes to study abroad as feasible. During this time I was dumbfounded as I had no idea of what else I could say as I did not know what to expect. What was I supposed to write? I rewrote a new essay from scratch and got accepted. After an experience of a lifetime I am sitting here writing my last post, of which I am put in a similar position. I could take snippets from my super private Madrid journal and take the reader of this essay deeper into my thoughts. As I peruse my various writings and mull over what I learned, I learned more about myself than I did about the Spanish people, culture, and education. It may sound cliché already but my best experiences were not with any of these things. The best times I had were when my commanding curiosity beat out my senses of better judgment. I do not by any means want the reader to take this as rebellious statement, but sometimes one can hurdle barriers to find what is really exquisite. If you don’t understand me, you can listen to the lyrics of “Turn Me Loose” by Lover Boy which ironically is playing on radio as I write this essay. 

As I compare my accepted essay to my rejected essay, I can honestly say that in my accepted essay, I was just more specific with my B.S with sexier metaphors (with a Neil Young lyric smartly added if I do say so myself). My point is that I did not have the slightest idea of why I wanted to go abroad, I did not know how to put my curiosity of another world into words. I want to recount three facets of my experience abroad that are ingrained in my brain that I promise will stick with me for the rest of my life (even if my family genes  stricken me with the inevitable Alzheimers).

The world is full of beautiful people. People are so different than what Brian Williams can tell us on the nightly news. Pitted in a 10 foot by 10 foot hostel room with 6 students, all of different languages and nationalities, I learned exactly this. The room consisted of Two Germans, One Spaniard, students from Japan and France, and me, the lone American. It may sound lazy of me to say this but the feeling was indescribable. I had no semblance of any of their languages, yet they all knew mine. In the beginning I felt exactly like the clichéd ignorant American that I have come to understand, but as time passed, we started having some fascinating 3 A.M banter. Jokes that would be perceived as elementary to an American my age became elongated fits of laughter to these twenty somethings. They all had visited each other’s countries, but strangely did not converse of tourist traps or attractions. They spoke about the beauty of countries as a whole and not of the physical monuments. To help put it in perspective; I half lied and futilely attempted to join in this multicultural conversation by telling Ray, the Japanese student, that I loved Kung Fu. The expression on his face was enough words to say that he knew that I knew nothing about his home country. Continuing, they all had Americanized fashion, Americanized grammar, and spoke fluent English. I chokingly had a lingering feeling that I was the only foreigner in the room…full of foreigners. I had come to learn that night that Kung Fu is in fact a Chinese art and that I have a bunch to learn about the world’s people, to which no online blog nor nightly news reporter could ever teach to us Americans.

During my independent travels throughout Europe, I can honestly say I made many, many friends. Though my time with these people was brief, I appreciated every second I was with them. Johannes Forrester from Leipzig, Germany taught me about the importance of ecological innovations and environmental implications by widening a river in California. Ray talked my ear off about surfing in Tokyo and how the Chinese put too much oil in their dishes. Leila taught me about the importance of family before she left for hers in Cairo, Egypt during the riots. And of course, the American girls from Minnesota, who taught me through their actions that nothing but hard partying is a laughable waste of time in Europe. I met the whole spectrum of of people, and they all had a part on my journey. Each personal glimpse led me to believe that I am just another person looking for something on this 7 billion people planet. If I learn how to end this paragraph I'll let you know.

            They say that variety is the spice of life; the more experiences a person tries the more exciting life can be, and this particular moment in Morocco took the cake. Too excited to be in Africa and sleep, I explored the city of Marrakesh at 2 A.M. An eventful stroll led me to find a group of kids playing soccer in a mosque courtyard. Immediately I was asked to join. Even though I didn't understand his language, his massive cheery smile and wide eyes under bushy eyebrows were all the translation I needed.  The game was Amazing. The kids loved me. Every time someone scored on my team between the two makeshift goals of stolen graveyard rocks my team came up to me and gave me high fives or pad on the back as if I was the play's tactician (I hardly touched the ball). On top of this I would let out Americanized interjections whenever a team scored (booyah, oh yah, woo) of which the kids would emphatically repeat. It’s hard to say why this would be my top experience to someone who wasn’t there, but the stroke of luck by finding these kids at 2AM just by following a map of my own curiosity led me to believe something about myself that I would later piece together on the plane ride home.

Some of the best things in life are the things that you discover yourself. These unexpected moments of meeting a person and the spontaneous moments that surprise you the most all have lasting impacts. The places I visited such as the Madrid stock exchange and Anne Frank house were some of the most interesting places I visited, but were not the truly unique, spur of the moment occasions that I can say I found myself and could call my own. If I could be an advisor to anyone studying abroad, I would tell them to open themselves to these moments, as these instances are fleeting and can only be experienced by the capacity of a person’s curiosity. And then I would tell them to cherish them for life as I will.