How I found my way in Spain

By: Michelle Sears, Operations member

Being an outsider studying in San Sebastian, I knew I had a lot to learn.  Not only was I hearing a language I had never come into contact with (Basque), but I also had to get used to walking everywhere and not getting lost. At first, this seemed like a huge undertaking. However, I soon realized walking around San Sebastian was pretty simple. Here is how I found my way.

My first couple days seemed daunting; I had no idea how I was ever going to get to places without getting lost. But soon I learned some easy tricks: when in doubt I continued to walk in the same direction until I ran into the ocean, the canal or a landmark. After a few days, the city was pretty easy to navigate and life went on.  I met a lot of people who were helpful, especially my neighbors in the apartment building and other students at the university. Walking around a city is a great way to understand the culture. It allows for observation to understand how they interact with each other and observe local habits.  

I learned a great deal about many cultures from the other students by comparing our cities and lifestyles, but my own experiences led me to compare my new home San Sebastian to my hometown, Wichita, Kan. and there were things that stood out to me. San Sebastian seemed so cohesive, on the walk to school in the morning everyone seemed to know each other and chat while they walked their dogs. This was an amazing thing to witness, it made Wichita seem so isolated.  

San Sebastian is a great place to learn by walking and exploring. For instance, at most any time of the day, it is not unusual to see people in the local bakery picking up baguettes and eating the heel as they walk home. 

One of my favorite adventures was spring break vacation in Spain.

Armed with advice from our cohorts, we set off on our 12-day trip and visited Paris, London, Dublin, Frankfurt and Venice. It took planes, trains, automobiles and bicycles to get through our journey, with many mishaps along the way. We almost missed a few trains, had a hostel reservation misfortune that almost left us on the street, and times of exhaustion due to the amount of travel, but it was completely worth it. At several points on the trip I found it was really hard to stop thinking and speaking in Spanish, but there were so many different languages all around me, it was hard to adjust to all of them. But I loved seeing the differences from city to city.

On this trip I realized how fast the first half of the semester had gone, and was in shock. There was still so much to do, so much to learn and I wanted to take advantage of every opportunity.

After spring break, school projects and tests consumed my time that I wasn’t able to take any more major jaunts around the continent. But my cultural learning continued on a local level. One of my most invaluable experiences was once a week I met and conversed with a lady from San Sebastian to work on my Spanish and her English.

We have emailed back and forth since my time there and I continue to have a link to my second home.

 The best advice I have for newbie travelers, like I was, is to go with the flow and not to get upset over the little things. Making mistakes, like using the wrong word when being interviewed for a TV show in Spain, is all part of the learning process.

The culture and pace of San Sebastian life taught me to have more patience and my experiences taught to try new things, some of the best things are the ones where you literally fall down a mountain while trying to ski for the first time….Just make sure you wear a helmet. You will surely find your way. I did.