This summer I had the privilege to travel to Spain for three weeks with the Spanish department here at LeTourneau. There were a total of six students, along with our professor, Arturo Morales. While there, we traveled to Palma de Mallorca, Salamanca, Madrid, and Barcelona to experience the language, culture, and people of Spain. When we arrived in Spain we were all pretty nervous about the language barrier. We all kind of knew the basics of Spanish from our previous Spanish classes, but we had never been put into situations were Spanish was the only language spoken.
We spent the first three days in Palma de Mallorca (an island east of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea) to kind of get used to the time difference and have a few class sessions with our professor. Palma de Mallorca is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It had the most incredible landmarks, beautiful scenery, and the friendliest people. We then spent about two days in Madrid. Madrid was an incredibly awesome city. There was so much to see. We then went to Salamanca for a week to study at an international Spanish language institute. The classes we took in Salamanca were probably the most intense classes that I had ever taken. They were solely in Spanish because there were other international students there who spoke French, German, Italian, etc. By the end of the week, we had learned an incredible amount of Spanish. It was a very challenging week, but totally worth it because of what we learned. After Salamanca, we then went and spent two days in Barcelona. This was another beautiful city that had so much to see.
For about the last week and a half we stayed in Palma de Mallorca. While in Palma we were each individually placed to live with families. These families were members of a church that we worked with while we were there. At the end of the trip, all of the students in our group agreed that our most favorite part about Spain was the families that we stayed with while in Palma. They were so incredibly nice to us. They were always eager to take us to another beautiful landmark, to talk to us, or to just hang out with us. There is no doubt in any of our minds that God knew what He was doing when He placed us with our Spain families because each of us could not have been placed with more perfect people. We were all so sad to leave Palma because we had not just made acquaintances in Palma, but family.
When we finally left Spain, we left with a better understanding of the Spanish language, culture, and people, as well as made memories that will last for our whole lives. But most importantly, we experienced the love of God through some of the most amazing people.
LeTourneau University offers many opportunities for students to study abroad or to do missions work. I highly encourage you to experience other cultures outside of our comfortable bubble here in the United States. Look forward to seeing you when you finally get to LeTourneau!!
In Him,
Matt Barr
Social Studies Education Major
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