This summer, I had the privilege of returning to Spain for undergraduate research. A few things were notably different than my last time in the country when I was in a city on the outskirts of the community of Madrid; for one, doing independent research was an entirely different setup than a regular semester with structured classes, and another difference was that I was located in a port city nestled near the ocean in Andalucia. Being in Andalucia, the people were kind, the food was delicious, the weather was near perfect, the architecture was beautiful, and the nights seemed to last forever with the never-ending crowds of people casually eating or drinking after the sun went down with a tinto de verano in one hand and a fan in another, depending on how hot that might may be. This location was one that I wish I could live in forever, as the quaint and home-like feel made me feel at peace there.
Aside from appreciating the space in which I got to temporarily call home, I also can realize some other aspects worth appreciating from my time spent this summer, as my experience has allowed me to grow in both my academics and my personal life. Gaining an entirely new sense of confidence is something that has gone hand in hand with my abroad experience, whether that be confidence to go out and speak to people in a foreign language, or to plan multiple trips to different countries and for them all to go pretty smoothly, or simply a newfound confidence in
your capabilities as an individual. This new confidence has resulted in an added layer of independence and a new sense of self that would not have been possibly found if I had stayed
stagnant back at home and not taken this risk to go and live my life abroad. As an Anthropology
major, we occasionally talk about other culture groups in my classes and we discuss how we
must try to immerse ourselves into their lives as best as possible without carrying opposing
viewpoints into the experience but to actually be able to immerse myself and do and see the
practices taught in your classes before even graduating has been a turning point in my academic
career thus far.
I have learned a few tips and tricks along the way to make life abroad and traveling abroad much easier. For one, Skyscanner and google maps are amazing tools to see what the cheapest locational may be for any given dates if you choose the “anywhere” button for the destination. Even when you do make it to your destination, it is also a great idea to see how close you are to other major cities via train, since some options are so close and so cheap it would be a shame not to explore, but it could be easily missed if you aren’t aware. For example, my friends and I chose to go to the cheapest place possible one weekend, which happened to be Luxembourg. We didn’t know anything about Luxembourg aside from how small of a country it was when we booked it, but after booking we realized we could take a bus and visit a Romanesque town in Germany, Trier, in 50 minutes for $5 roundtrip one day and then take a three-hour train to Brussels, Belgium for $20 roundtrip the next day. For very cheap and without too much travel time, we got to see three amazing cities in three different countries in three days, but we wouldn’t have known this if we hadn’t gotten on Skyscanner or Trainline. On the other hand, though, while traveling to other countries and seeing other parts of Europe was eye-opening and completely different from Spain, it was also important that I try to travel within Spain to see how the culture and environment vary from city to city. While Sevilla was only an hour away from my home in El Puerto de Santa Maria in Cadiz, it had a liveliness to it that I had never experienced before as if the streets buzzed constantly.
I am extremely grateful for being accepted into this program that UTC offers to go to Cadiz and do research under a mentor’s guidance. Through this program, they emphasized experiencing the culture of Spain and the rest of Europe as much as possible while we were there as an almost equally as important part as the research itself. I will forever be thankful for the life I was allowed to live this past summer, for the connections and forever friendships I have made, and for the experiences I gained and will remember forever.
McKenna Patterson (BS Economics, Anthropology) participated in the Summer 2023 international summer learning opportunity for students offered through the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors. The International Summer Undergraduate Research Program represents a collaboration between The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the University of Cadiz in Spain. The purpose of the initiative is to support students to participate in an eight (8) week intensive research experience during the summer in a global environment. McKenna had the following to say about studying abroad, “Studying abroad was the best decision I could have ever made for myself for so many reasons. It is easy to find millions of reasons to not do something, but to have the courage to say yes and take a risk becomes addictive once you finally give in. I have grown and experienced so much as a 20 year old in such a short amount of time, but none of this would have been possible if I hadn’t have said yes and gone abroad, meeting amazing people, exploring new towns and cities, and inevitably experiencing uncomfortable and challenging things that became easier to figure out over time.”
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