By asthaa
“Sometimes it’s the small things in life.” Spain continues to reaffirm this for me twofold. One of my favorite experiences this week has been making a new friend close to home (in Madrid). On the route to my flat, there are quite a few little shops, restaurants, and bakeries. Last week I decided to bring home some sweets from a pastelería around the corner. As I decided which cookies, or galletas, I was going to take home, the girl who worked there kindly guided me through chocolates and the crèmes. We struck up a conversation about where we were from and whether she lived nearby, and I left the store feeling like I knew one more friendly face in my neighborhood. A couple of days later, I saw her working and stepped in to say hello. Luz told me her name and that she was from Paraguay and we decided to meet up to get some coffee. This simple gesture of making plans with a new friend in Spain on my own was one of the highlights of my week when it comes to engaging more with Spanish people.
I begin this way because making friends in a new country is not as easy as it might seem, even if we are studying in a university environment. While I enjoy being a part of GW Madrid and taking classes with La Autónoma professors, exchange students can often gain the reputation of not mixing with native Spanish students – especially Americans. I hope that this semester we might be able to reverse some of this sentiment by making a conscious effort to build lasting friendships with Spanish students. It can be easy to forget about this aspect when all GW students are together – chatting in English, taking classes together, and hanging out. We do spend time with our university student guides, but it will be a challenge to take the step (in Spanish) of building friendships when school begins for all La Autónoma students. It will mean crossing our comfort zone and being like freshmen again in some ways, but like most things in life, it will be worth it. At the very least, we will have practiced our Spanish some more.
The prospect of connecting with more Spanish people and delving further into the culture of Madrid is exciting. I’ve already taken some baby steps; stopping by the pastelería to say hello to Luz has become a part of my routine on most days. You never know what else you might gain with a sweet tooth!