Community is a vital part of Spanish culture, and what better way to establish community than through food? From the pastries to the tapas to the home-cooked meals, food was involved in just about every social interaction I had in Salamanca, always making it taste so much better.
During, my stay in Paris, I did not go out to eat at restaurants very often. Since I was planning on staying for a little over 6 months, I was planning on budgeting my money so I could spend more when my friends would have come to visit.
During my time abroad, food was always more than just food. It was a chance to be with friends, have conversations with locals, learn culture, and, in the end, say goodbye to the most important people to me in the program.
My most unforgettable meals from my journey were two traditionally Costa Rican dishes, un casado and gallo pinto. A casado has white rice and beans as the staple of the meal and is accompanied by a protein, plantain, and a salad. Gallo pinto is similar, but the beans and rice are mixed. On the side, gallo pinto is often paired with eggs, a specific fried cheese, and ripe plantains.
Most people do not associate excellent food with any of the nations in the United Kingdom, and to be honest, neither did I. Dishes such as haggis, blood sausage, and kidney pie come to mind. Let me just say, do not believe everything you hear.
Before I left for Spain, I made some goals that I wanted to achieve. Although I achieved them, I realize now that the main lessons I learned did not fall into some traditional plan that I crafted beforehand, but instead encouraged me to become uncomfortable with being uncomfortable.
This is a rather obvious or even odd title, but it is the single greatest lesson to come out of my study abroad experience.
As I look back and reflect on my time in Milan in the spring of 2019, there’s no way for me to separate my experience abroad with my experience as a black woman. Regardless, it has been by far the most impactful part of my undergraduate career.
I never expected to find myself out to dinner in Athens with friends relaying stories about different countries and how they were handling the onslaught of COVID-19 cases. Being abroad during COVID-19 was unusual, but it left me with much to reflect on and many lessons learned.
Returning from abroad is like going through a breakup. It comes with a wave of emotions, from excitement to frustration. But what if your experience ends early due to crises, like COVID-19? Fortunately, there are several ways to cope and to bring your experience back to life at home.
