La Universidad de Purdue en Cáceres

 Por Adam Davis 

CÁCERES, Spain—There is comfort in the fact that I know how to ask someone where the closest coffee shop is. That’s not a luxury that I had my first day in Cáseres, Spain.

Nine months ago I walked into my very first Spanish class. I was blown away when my amazing teacher, Cindy Torres, started speaking in Spanish — and I couldn’t understand a word.

I was given the foundations of speaking in Spanish during those first weeks in class, but I have never been confident using even the most basic phrases from chapter one.

When my caffeine addiction reared its ugly head on my second day in Cáseres, I had to find coffee one way or another. So I asked. In Spanish. I kept trying to communicate and I kept recalling words and phrases.

That is what I have benefitted from the most in the first week spent in Spain. The immersion process has forced me to communicate in Spanish and apply what I have learned over the last two semesters.

Foreign language has been an academic challenge to me. But the study abroad program has turned Spanish from a Communications major requirement into a skill that I can use at home and in my profession.

The study abroad program is academically rigorous and personally enjoyable. I have enjoyed Spanish during these last few days. That is a surprising sentence for someone like me to write.