During the week of 11/30/15 I was able to attend a couple of events in the newly renovated Weiss Language Center, and both were very helpful in preparing me for my upcoming trip to Madrid, Spain where I will be studying abroad for the Spring 2016 semester. One of the events was showing me how to use multiple websites that were created in order to help students out with their language skills and become more proficient in whatever language they are studying and trying to learn.

In my case, I will be working on Spanish in order to make sure that I will be prepared for a whole semester of only speaking Spanish with a little bit of English if I really have to. This was a good opportunity for me to learn about resources that I didn't even know that I had access to that I am sure will be really useful and make sure I don't lose any of my Spanish during the break.

Through the use of the websites I will be able to be a much better Spanish speaker and increase my vocabulary at the same time. This will really help once I am in Madrid, and will hopefully ensure that I am not in any embarrassing situations where I do not know how to say something and have to take some time while in the middle of a sentence to think about what I want to say. There are also placement tests that are built into one of the websites which will also be helpful to me to give me a general idea of where my Spanish speaking skills are. After using the websites I will feel a lot better about transitioning from speaking English all the time with a little Spanish to speaking Spanish all the time with English as a last resort.

Along with the websites by going to the events at the Weiss Language Center, I have learned a lot about Spain and about the different foods they eat as well as the different meal schedules. I learned that breakfast and dinner are not very big meals with lunch being the biggest meal during the day, and that for breakfast it is not the usual milk and cereal that I am accustomed to as well as dinner being later than I am used to. Along with the changes to what I eat I will have to get used to the changes of when I eat which may take some getting used to but I am looking forward to my semester in Spain and everything that I will experience while I am abroad for the spring 2016 semester.