Housing and classmates
While on our Dialogue, we are staying with host families in the neighborhood Porvenir in Sevilla, and in a hostel in the neighborhood Gracia in Barcelona. Right now in Sevilla we stay with a married couple probably in their early 60s or so. The husband is a retired banker and the wife sometimes works at a restaurant. They have three sons, two of whom work in a restaurant in London, and one who is a student that lives at home and works in a bar. There are also two very well trained dogs, Bimba and Proa, who are not related but look identical.
I am grateful for my host family. The host mom speaks English well, but always makes sure to say everything in Spanish so that we learn. She is incredibly caring and adamant that we treat this like our own homes. As polite American guests, we tend to be overly passive and shy, but the people here are direct about everything they want to say. Our host mom is always calling us out on whether we like the food (I always do) and whether we give her our laundry for her to do. Initially it was uncomfortable giving so much control of my own care to someone, especially someone who was a complete stranger, but she is so sweet and welcoming that it really does feel like my own home.
Our host mom has a lot of experience hosting students and knows what our touristy expectations of Spain are, but she is always giving us insight into what local life is like. When we told her that we were going out to find Sangria — the drink we thought was synonymous with Spain — she told us that Sangria is a tourist trap and no one here really drinks it. Instead, she recommended a local favorite: Tinto de Verano. She is a fantastic source of information about the city.
Our program is an intimate group of eleven, which may be as small as a Dialogue is allowed to get. No one in the group knew anyone before this trip, so everyone is open and willing to make friends. Being a small group makes it easy to mobilize and get together outside of group events and classes to just hang out and explore the city. We are, however, a little indecisive. Perhaps because we are still all getting to know each other and nobody wants to impose their plan for the day on anyone else. We usually end up meeting up, and then spending a few minutes going in a circle with everyone saying: “I’m down for anything.” Luckily, we always find something interesting to do and get along well.
Back in Boston, I have a fairly homogenous group of friends, so it is interesting to not only be in a different country taking classes of a different field of study, but also to be with a group of individuals with such different backgrounds. I am excited for us to become closer as our month together continues.
