Prepare For Takeoff

       Culture to me is the way of life that connects a group of people, and this connection usually comes from the ideas, food, art, music and the similar thinking process that they all share. What I have heard about Spain, is that it is a lot more unified than the United States of America, with very strong traditions, and because of their deeply inherited ways I expect that it will be hard for me to completely understand their culture in its entirety at first, but once I become familiar with it I do believe I will feel apart of it. Being that I have never experienced the country of Spain first hand I cannot speak on the things that I know, but only on the things I have heard. I became good friends with a foreign exchange student from Madrid in the 2015 - 2016 school year and the main thing he preached was the freshness of food and the difference in quality of it, so I'm expecting a difference between that and the food I've been eating most of my life. I have heard that not everything is so time sensitive and the days are a lot less stressful. The first thing I hope to gain from being in Spain is a better Spanish-speaking accent and expanding my conversation skills. I hope to flourish inside their cultural ways whether that be thinking similarly, listening to their music and even perfecting my Bachata and other dances. I hope to view the historical landmarks that we will visit and learn about the stories behind it. I plan on not only being able to repeat these stories, but provide a total experience through words to people that that aren’t fortunate to know what it is like to be in Spain for a month. I hope to learn a lot about the people and myself for I am also doing something I have never done before, and by the time my last blog is due I hope to not refer to the Spanish culture as “theirs, they” but use words like “we , our”, which in fact would prove of a successful cultural immersion.