During the next school year, I, along with three other undergraduate students will be representing Mississippi State University in the first exchange program with the Universidad de Alcalá de Henarés. This is an incredible opportunity, but with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes the burden of leaving behind friends and family for an entire year (well, ten months actually).
This blog is for family, and any friends and anyone who would like to follow, although, as usual; I´m sure to get verbose and even boring.
As of right now, I just wanted to get used to the whole blogging thing, and give an update on where I am exactly in the process of becoming a student of the University of Alcalá de Henarés.
As I said, there are four of us in total: Lastarsha Jammerson, Kim Fron, Robert Jones, and myself. We´re all in different majors at Mississippi State University, but we´re all linked by Spanish. I can´t speak for anyone else in the group, but as of now, I have been accepted by MSU for the program, and have applied directly to UAH. I have been in contact with the Office of Socratés-Erásmus which deals with all exchanges, and they have all of my materials. I am waiting now for a letter from UAH stating that I will be a student next year in Alcalá with which I can apply for a student visa at the Spanish Consulate in New Orleans. Once I get my student visa, I have only to apply for a family to live with, and I will be ready.
I have to be in Alcalá for three weeks of intense Spanish lessons by September 1, but I will more-than-likely try to arrive by the middle or end of August to get settled and used to Alcalá and hopefully go see some friends in Catania, Italy. After three weeks of Spanish lessons, I will officially register for my classes and attend orientation. I should be placed in the College of Humanities where I will finish up a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish by taking some much lacking humanities and social sciences (I say much lacking because getting a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology doesn´t require near as many hours of humanities and social sciences: I´m behind).
To prepare for next year, I´m spending the majority of my Summer working at the Social Science Research Center in Starkville, and, for three weeks, at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. I´m trying to save money and find scholarships to help pay for next year, and it´s definitely keeping me busy.
Finally, I´m trying to prepare for my final Medical College Admissions Test in June, so I can go to Spain without having to think about that test any more. I may decide to go ahead and start my application to medical school for fear of not being able to access the website next summer while I´m in Spain. All of this said, I do plan on coming back for my "super-senior year" and finish the few classes I have left in Microbiology and then going to medical school with the knowledge and experience that a year abroad in a foreign country will have given me.
It may be a little difficult leaving family and friends for this long of a time, but I believe that after a year away I will return with the ability to not only appreciate the differences in opinions, politics, and ways of life of other people; but the ability to view my nation with different eyes, and this is something that I think is extremely important in today´s world.
Maybe I´m completely wrong about the gravity of this trip. Maybe it will be a superficial and even boring. But, I invite the boredom because, hey, I´m going to Spain.
I´m a huge fan of quotes as you´ll be able to see, but I end with this quote by Mark Jenkins. "Adventure is a path. Real adventure-self-determined, self- motivated, and often risky- forces you to have first-hand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness, and bottomless cruelty of humankind- and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white."
