I have a long list of favorite quotes and sayings from this semester, but one that always sticks out is, “El mundo es un pañuelo.” My host mom says it sometimes, but I never knew what it meant. So I asked her, and she said that she doesn’t even know. Then I asked her, “Could I just say ‘el mundo es una mandarina’, and it would mean the same thing?” Her answer: “…I suppose!”
The translation of the phrase is, “The world is a handkerchief” (or chusteczka, for my Polish readers). I found out later that it’s sort of like, “It’s a small world after all.” But why the use the word handkerchief, I have no idea.
In this day and age, the world is very small, and it’s only getting smaller. It’s hard to imagine what studying abroad meant 30 years ago, or if it was even possible 50 years ago. A person is now able to take a semester from their four year undergraduate program, travel halfway across the world, live in a foreign country, learn a new language, and meet new people (and in most cases, the cost of it is not much more than what you already pay for a semester). It’s incredible that I am in Toledo, Spain, but met people from Puerto Rico and Japan at my school, traveled to Belgium, the UK, France, and Italy, and even Skyped my 93 year old grandmother in Florida (which is always surreal to her) while being here in Spain.
Today is my last full day in Spain. It will consist of picking up our semester grades, having lunch at the Fund, going to a vigil mass, and finally our diploma ceremony at 8pm with the administration, our professors, our host families, and our classmates. I woke up this morning already feeling nostalgic and have been on this decline for a few days now, knowing that everything is ending and before I know it, I will be stepping off the plane at the MSP Airport, most likely in weather that is 50 degrees colder than here.
I don’t know where to start when naming off everything that I have learned here. I took classes I would have never been able to take at Notre Dame. I learned to see things from a new perspective. I was taught to be critical of the very country I come from and to not be naive when it comes to accepting “facts”. I now can speak a third language fluently. I became part of a new family abroad, who has already told me that I have a home here if I ever come back to Toledo. I have met incredible people. I have seen breath-taking things.
I will keep this post relatively short so I can continue to enjoy my last day here, but the end is near and I will be leaving this beautiful country in less than 24 hours. Life does not end: I have my own family in Minnesota to come back to, friends to reunite with, the holidays to look forward to… But Spain has made itself a new place in my heart. And, after all, the world is a handkerchief. I know I will come back one day.
Viva España.
Julia Goes to Spain 