Week 3 by Murtada Aljassim

I believe that last week was really an interesting experience for me since I'm taking both the culture and history classes, and I believe that talking about the history of Merida while we are touring it and visiting each place that we're studying is the most efficient way for the information to stick in my brain for the longest time. It was full of activities. I liked it all starting from the trip to Mérida to visiting the museum of modern art and the old cathedral. I enjoyed most of each activity. However, I wish that I was able to comprehend the touring guide in Caceres so I get the story behind each place and each piece of art...etc

Luckily though, Gemma was able to give a brief description in both Spanish and English of what we have visited on the day after that in class, which gave me a little bit of a background about both visits. 

I believe that I've gained a lot of knowledge in this whole experience. Maybe one month is not an enough time for someone to master the speaking, or writing skills of a new language. However, I believe that living with the people that speak it and being around them most of the time will give someone at least the gist of what should be said or not in certain situations. Also what the cultural difference is between different countries that speak Spanish, and how that it can be the same word used differently in two Spanish speaking countries. I also learned a lot about the Spanish culture of which certain things I liked, but others not that much. Sometimes I feel like I'm confused about how to feel about certain parts of the culture because sometimes I have 2 opposite feelings toward one thing. For example, I like how nice the people are and how they really like and care about socializing with each other. However, it bothers me that the way they express that socializing is through smoking. 

Nonetheless, I would definitely enjoy having another experience in Spain, and I would recommend having the study abroad experience to my friends even if it was only to get to know new people and learn new things about someone's self and travel as much as they can because that in itself has many benefits.