The beauty in history

By:

Will Morales

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Will Morales

<i>Home Institution</i>: Mt. San Antonio College <i>Expected Graduation Year</i>: 2023 <i>Academic Major / Minor</i>: Sociology & Gender Studies <i>Destination</i>: Madrid, Spain <i>"Hello" in your host country's language</i>: Hola <i>Demographics</i>: Hispanic/Latinx, First-Generation American, First-Generation College Student, Community College Student, Transfer Student, Returning/Adult Learner, LGBTQ+ <i>Future Career Goals</i>: I plan on doing research and becoming a Gender studies professor, hopefully expanding it to the community college level. <i>Top Three Study Abroad Goals</i>: My top three goals would be exploring learning about the history and culture; Challenge the way I think, comparing cultures on how we are different and how we are similar; Develop a global mindset, a better understanding of global issues.

A lot of Spain is filled with art, architecture, and history!! The weekend we got here we toured the city of Madrid on a bus and then did a walking tour of the Real Palace. Had a traditional welcome meal with all the students in our program! The following week we went on a day trip to visit Salamanca. On the bus ride, I had a sandwich with a tortilla Espanola and Iberico ham(which I thought was bacon). I also got to try some ham and cheese-flavored ruffles! Salamanca was filled with history where students would write out Victor on the walls of the college with bull’s blood to celebrate their accomplishment of graduating.

Staying in Madrid I got to tour the Real Madrid stadium (even though I don’t follow soccer). It was interesting to see the accomplishments of the team and the history of the stadium it was under construction but I still got to learn about the process.

I also got to tour the Alhambra in Granada and the cathedral in Cordova learning how Spain had heavy Arabic influences and realizing that even the language was influenced by the Arabic language.

We also visited places like Toledo which was Spain’s first capital. Such a small city but nonetheless very beautiful and filled with history the cathedral that is in Toledo took 700 years to build (mind-blowing) because of this the cathedral has many different characteristics from different eras like Gothic and traditional. Toledo had a heavily Jewish community and the way the city was built was to help them escape the city seems like a maze to someone who isn’t familiar with the city helping them escape when they were being prosecuted.

We have done many tours of different communities and plazas within Madrid as well as museums like the Prado and the Reino Sophia. Where I got to see paintings by Picasso or the Mona Lisa, replica at least but the artist was an apprentice. (still really cool) I also learned and was told about how the Reino Sophia is haunted which I loved because I am a big horror fan! I actually even got stuck in the bathroom and had to call someone to come open the door from the outside because the inside handle broke. The guide even made a joke saying the ghosts didn’t want me to leave.

I have learned and will remember this for the rest of my life!! Especially because I would have never thought I’d do something like this can’t wait to explore more of the world.