This is my last week of classes, which means a paper and two finals, but it also means a lot of going away parties. The last ISA excursion was to Córdoba and Granada. Córdoba's heat was almost unbearable, and Granada was just as beautiful as the last time I saw it.
I am becoming more integrated into Spanish culture, which makes it difficult to point out cultural differences. But I am also coming to the realization that there are just as many similarities between my own culture and this "foreign" culture.
It's miserably hot in the summer, so we find ways to keep cool. We enjoy hanging out with friends, and we get really loud when we're having fun. We have childhood memories, we suffered through teenage angst, and we never want to grow up. We dream, we laugh, we cry, we bleed, we communicate, we share, we love.
Webster's has one definition of foreign as "alien in character: not connected or pertinent". I find this definition to be incredibly archaic in today's society. With technology, especially the Internet, people are no longer disconnected, and what happens in one country is pertinent to a country on the other side of the world (e.g. the economic crisis). Thus, although I am in a country in which I wasn't born, a country in which the language isn't my mother tongue, a country in which my family and ancestors have never lived, I feel I am very connected with it's people, culture and civilization. When it comes down to it, despite all of our differences, we are still one people.
No comments:
Post a Comment