¡Purdue Promise Viaja a España!

Hola from Spain! It’s the 10th day here for our group, and has been one of my favorites. We started off the day with a very important discussion of how to tell a story.  This may sound simple, but it’s a valuable skill to have when talking with specific groups of people such as friends, family, and even potential employers.  It was very interesting that one of our teachers, Tommy, began the class by describing to us two very important stories that have shaped who he is today and how we can share similar experiences in our life. After class, we had the very fun activity of making hand puppets in the ISA office.  This activity wasn’t originally planned for today, but the scheduling worked out and it was a great experience. After a long time planning, cutting out, and decorating our puppets, we finally finished them.  We had a lot of good ideas, and they turned out really well.  They were made for children at La Casa Grande Charitable House, and we will bri...

Buenos Días Chicos!! Today was a super exciting and fun-filled day spent at a farm that was just a short train ride away from Valencia. We went to a farm that is famous for their Paella. So famous that Dolce and Gabbana had even come to try it. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish that contains rice, your choice of meats, and vegetables. Paella is definitely worth trying, especially at Barraca Toni Montoliu. When we first got there we were able to watch the chefs fry some of the meats on their outdoor stoves while having refreshments in their outdoor restaurant area before walking out to the fields. While walking to the field, the owner of the farm showed us his really cool motorized bicycle and can not only ride it forward, but can also sit on the handlebars, face backwards, and ride the bike as well! In the fields we were able to see some of the animals they own like donkeys, horses, and chickens. Also, we were able to taste some of the Spanish vegetables used in their salads. ...

It’s the fifth day with our homestay families, who at least in my case have been saints in putting up with my horrible Spanish. Today we also had our second class, where we talked about the different ways people perceive and process cultural differences; a very relevant topic considering many of us have never left the United States. Many of us fall in the same area of the continuum, so we will no doubt be able to help each other get past our shortcomings to get the best understanding of this new culture we can in the short time we’re here. After lunch at our homestays, we took a bike tour of the park in the old river bed of Valencia. Everyone ready to explore the river bed Not all being avid cyclists, a lot of people in our group were understandably hesitant to ride a bike in the city. Personally, having not ridden a bicycle since I was eleven, I assumed my face was destined to be together with the ground. After trying to ride the bike for the first time, I concluded that the...

Today is the most important day of the trip. Sunday, May 14, 2017 is our co-leader Tommy Van Norman's 27th birthday. Knowing this is a crowning moment in history, we gave him half of a ripped Burger King paper crown found on the sidewalk in order to celebrate the occasion. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Tomás! Today we went to Modern Valencia and visited the City of the Arts and Sciences Museum (Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències) and went to the Oceanográfic. This place is the largest aquarium in Europe and something I have seen numerous pictures of online before. However, seeing these buildings in person is an entirely new experience. It has such a contrast to antique Valencia's large limestone churches and towers. The Modern City's buildings look futuristic with many windows and oblong shapes. When we first arrived at the museum, we watched the IMAX movie "Jean-Michel Cousteau's Secret Ocean" about the creatures of the ocean. We wore headband speakers that n...

Hoy nos fuimos de un adventura. The day started out bright and early at 10:00am. Today was our first service-learning activity in Valencia. We spent the morning playing sports and games with children involved with a charitable organization in Valencia called IUVE Foundation. They support kids who have difficult home lives and provide them a place to go after school and on the weekends to prevent them from doing other things. Beforehand, I was nervous to interact with the students because I do not really speak nor understand Spanish that well; however, I feel that everyone had found a way to connect with the kids we were working with by the end of the activity. We taught them different games, like duck-duck-goose and other school games, and played sports, like fútbol and basketball. We were able to spend time with these kids to see the different personalities of all the children. It was an amazing experience. Spending time with the children from the IUVE Foundation After w...

Today, we had our first class with Michelle and Tommy. We ate breakfast with our host families before heading to class. The breakfast for most students was prepared and ready for the students when they woke up. Many students appreciated the gesture. Around 9:15am, we all met at the Valencia soccer stadium. The stadium will be our meeting place most of our trip. Student's host families live various distances from the stadium. Standing underneath the bell of the Valencia Cathedral.  In class, Michelle taught us our first lesson: Global Leadership. In the class, we went through various PowerPoint slides and various videos to learn about global leadership. The overall main topics of the lesson were the 3 aspects of global mindset inventory: global intellectual capital, global psychological capital, and global social capital. Americans typically demonstrate high emphasis on global intellectual capital, but may lack in other areas. The cultural differences between Spain and United ...

Today is our fifth day, and the day we finally met our homestay families! As we finished our morning in Toledo, and traveled to Valencia, we anticipated the moment we would walk into our new homes, for the next two weeks. During our final hours in Toledo, our groups split up to walk the historic streets, visiting shops, restaurants, and enjoying the beautiful weather. At noon, we set out for our next destination: Valencia. Our drive from Toledo to Valencia was about four hours, with a break to stop and grab lunch and refuel. During our drive, the scenery was filled with orchards, grass valleys, mountains, and many trees. Most of the orchards we passed, I assume were grape and olive trees. We watched the perfect rows and columns of the orchards pass by, and took appreciation for the difference in scenery. Getting comfortable in our homestay! I'm on the right and my roommate (Kendal) is on the left. One of the beautiful views on our journey to Valencia. When we finally ar...

Today is the first chance that we had to see how Spain is beyond its capitol of Madrid. We started off the day with breakfast in our hotel before checking out of our rooms. We then boarded our tour bus and began the hour long journey to Toledo. Toledo is a magnificent city that has been around since the Roman times. The city was founded on a mountain that has a river running in the East, West, and South sides of it, therefore the Romans only needed to build a wall to defend the northern part of the city. When we arrived in Toledo we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and proceeded to go on a panoramic tour of the city while riding our bus. The tour showed us the beautiful scenery that surrounds Toledo and gave us the opportunity to see one of the best views of the city possible as pictured below. The panoramic tour concluded on the west side of the city, where we then began our walking tour of the city. The first building we came to was San Juan de los Reyes, this building w...

Today in Spain our amazing Purdue Promise group did so many things. We started off the day at 8:30am by eating breakfast at our hotel, NH Zurbano. After breakfast, we met in the lobby and got ready to go on our walking tour of Madrid. We took a huge luxury bus to the Royal Palace of Spain and began our tour. When we arrived, we met up with our dear friend, Mario, who was to give us a wonderful walking tour of Madrid. The first important piece of information Mario told us was that Spain is a mix of all cultures and actually has a lot of Arabic origin. The first piece of art we looked at was an amazing bronze sculpture of King Philip IV of Spain. He was known as the womanizer and is featured in the photo below. This statue was the first ever to feature a horse in the upright position and was actually planned out with the help of Galileo Galilee! Me in front of the King Philip IV statue The walking tour was very long, but it was worth every second of it. Our guide, Mario, did an am...

¡Hola de España! (Hello from Spain!) Our nearly two day trip from Chicago, Illinois to Madrid, Spain has sadly come to an end. Needless to say, we have had a very long and eventful day - from being on an eight hour flight, to hitting the ground running with activities as soon as we arrived in Spain. Exploring Madrid (I'm in between Kirt and David)  Before this trip, the longest flight that I had been on was for maybe two or three hours. I had no clue what to expect from an overnight flight or the two meals that were to be provided. Surprisingly, the flight was not bad at all! As soon as I got on the plane, I found a movie that I wanted to watch for a couple of hours and then slept for the rest of the flight. For dinner, we were given the choice between chicken or pasta. From what I heard from other students on the trip, the chicken wasn’t all that great, but I really enjoyed the pasta! I didn’t feel very much jet lag when we first got to Madrid because I was so excited about...