This past week I spent some extra time and more than usual preparing for my study abroad trip next semester to Madrid, Spain. On Wednesday, 10/28 Isabelle Carrasco the resident director of the Madrid program for Marist, came for a week in order to meet all of the students going abroad to Madrid and to meet future students going abroad to Spain. On Wednesday morning, she came to my Spanish and gave a brief talk about the Madrid program, what it is, what the students do on the trip, and a general overview of the program all in Spanish. This was a good test for me to see if I could keep up and understand a local Spaniard while she was talking. Isabelle technically works for Marist, but lives in Madrid and works through the Marist study abroad program and helps all of the students from the minute they arrive in the Madrid airport. She gave a great description of the program in my Spanish class and announced that later that night there was going to be a language social in the library, where anyone who is interested in studying abroad can attend and hear from other students who have already gone abroad to help them decide if the experience is something they are interested in, and check out the new language lab in the library that was just renovated.

After my Spanish class I had another pre-departure meeting which Isabelle attended, along with a fellow student who had gone to Madrid for a whole year, and both were able to give me and the other people in the Madrid group good advice on what to pack, where and how to travel once we are there, and even about the student visas, which is a requirement for the program. This was the most helpful and informative pre-departure meeting I have had thus far, by providing me with a better understanding on what life is like in Madrid. At the meeting I was also informed that getting around Madrid is not that bad, and that best piece of advice I received was that I will get out of this trip what I put into it. I thought this was great advice because it tells you that in order to have the best experience as possible you have to do as much as you can to make it the best experience, by putting time and effort into planning a budget, where you want to travel to, etc.


Later that night, Isabelle, along with the other language professors at Marist, and one of the professors from the branch campus in Florence, Italy called Lorenzo de Medici, attended the language social that Isabelle had mentioned earlier that day in my Spanish class. The event was hosted in one of the vacant meeting rooms on the third floor of the library, with food and light refreshments. It was great talking to Isabelle and getting to know her, especially since I will be in Madrid for a whole semester and want to be able to learn from her as much as possible. Even though I spoke mostly English to Isabelle, before I left the language social, I was able to lean a new expression from her, called "vale" which is supposed to mean ok, or it can mean "yeah I agree with you." Additionally before I left she also provided me with the challenge that as soon as I arrive at the Madrid airport, I have to speak only Spanish from that point on until I arrive home. I am more than up for the challenge and am looking forward to all that I am going to experience studying abroad.