Letter of Intent

9 days away from leaving for escuela, I am submitting a Letter of Intent to study abroad in Spain this winter. Impulsive? Of course. Far-fetched? Maybe. But I'm doing it and I'm excited. Tell me if this letter doesn't make you want to send me to Madrid. 

I remember the first time I saw the sun rise from across the Atlantic Ocean like it was just this morning. I was still on the plane, about to land in Dublin, when the woman sitting next to me opened the window shade. The mental image itself is mostly just a mix of colors (the clouds were orange-yellow, the ocean was gray, the Irish coastline was black and bumpy), but in that brief moment of sitting up and blinking away sticky plane-sleepiness, I felt like a new person. For the first time ever, I knew for sure that the sun really did rise on the other side of the world. Maybe that sounds silly, but it awoke in me a new sense of yearning to see the sun rise everywhere; that morning, I made a goal that I will carry in my heart until it is completed.

I want to go to Spain this winter for many reasons. Since I have been taking Spanish classes for almost five years now, I feel like now is a good time to really dive into a culture that doesn’t just speak Spanish on the side. I would be able to enjoy exploring new places while also strengthening my language skills and becoming better acquainted with a country and people I have studied since high school. I enjoy meeting new people and working in groups, and since I have been to Europe before in a student-tourist setting, I feel like I’d be an asset to the entire group. I am familiar with the currency-change and feel confident using public transportation (buses and subways specifically) on my own, and since I have friends that have traveled in Spain before, I already have a list of things to check out.

Adventure aside, this program would be highly valuable to me as a European Studies major. Like most European countries, Spain has a rich history of crossing cultures and lasting traditions, but the particular degree of religious presence (both Catholic and Muslim) in everything from art and architecture to daily cuisine and holidays sets this country apart from others in my eyes. While I hope to attain a certain familiarity with Europe in general as I continue my education and travels, Spain is definitely one of the specific countries that I find intriguing for personal reasons (not to mention, one of the few European countries that I would be able to communicate in, mostly on my own, free of the limits of a translating device.) The opportunity to study Spanish in an immersion setting, as well as the chance to walk the streets of a country steeped in multiple individual cultures and yet still unified by language, are lessons that would surely be life-changing and priceless.