A taste of tapas
I honestly can’t believe that today is the last day of our program. This past week in Spain has flown by, despite the decrease in the number of meetings we had.
My favorite city was Granada, with its old medina and the Alhambra sprawling over the hills in all its glory. There is nothing that quite compares to that beautiful place! I’ve also definitely enjoyed the culture of tapas; sometimes I never ate a true dinner, but went from tapas place to tapas place trying all the different snacks they set out. Since I’m a nibbler at heart that suited me perfectly.
One of the greatest moments this week, however, was the Real Madrid game; a group of us went to see a charity soccer game between Real Madrid and Liverpool in the Real Madrid stadium (none of the main players were there, but it didn’t matter to us). I’m a soccer girl through and through; I’ve played the sport for fifteen years, and never thought I’d get to be in the stands at a soccer game in Spain. Not only that, but I was surrounded by some of the most amazing people! The group from this trip has morphed into a crazy huge family, and it will be such a shock to not see them every day. We had our final group dinner tonight as well; it consisted of so much food that we all thought we would burst, but our reflections on the trip and loud laughter made it worth it. I’m really hoping these relationships last once we get back to the states.
All in all, this trip has completely changed me as a person. I know how to listen to how I’m feeling, and know whether I need some time to myself to recharge (the introvert in me still needs that time). But I also learned that I actually like being more social, and that there are certain types of people that I’m drawn to in making friends. My research has gone through a transformation too, now with a focus only on perceptions of genetically engineered crops in Morocco (instead of a comparison between Morocco and Spain). Although a lot of what I heard from the people I talked to in Morocco echoed the research I had done before the trip, it’s interesting to hear their responses and reframe my own definition of what the major issues in sustainability are.
It has been an absolutely amazing trip, and after a couple days in Barcelona I’ll be ready to be back in the arms of my family again.
