For my study abroad experience I decided to go to Granada, Spain. This quaint town soon turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. Every corner that I turned was a new and exciting experience.
The city of Granada is filled with an immense amount of history that is just waiting to be discovered. One of the main highlights of this trip for me was being able to relax at the Mirador de San Nicolas. When staring out into the beautiful city all my stress and worries just melted away. I felt truly connected to the people and their culture.
The idea of respecting another culture can come into play both in your personal life as well as your professional life. As future educators it is important to understand that our students will come from many different backgrounds. —Alexandra Bahul
Another highlight while abroad was being able to visit a few other cities in Spain, such as the areas of Alpujarra, Sevilla, Rhonda and Nerja. These places allowed me to see a different perspective and caused me to examine my own values and culture, which is what I was looking for when applying for a study abroad program.
I believe it is important to travel abroad in order to open your mind to different cultures. My peers and I were put in situations where we had to adjust to the lifestyles of our homestays — which at times was vastly different than our own. However, we had to respect the differences and try to work with our hosts.
The idea of respecting another culture can come into play both in your personal life as well as your professional life. As future educators it is important to understand that our students will come from many different backgrounds. We will need to be able to understand them and try to adjust our outlook on how to help them and not let our own preconceived biases affect our instruction of students who come from other cultures.