This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Emma’s story demonstrates the value of immersing oneself in a host culture and taking advantage of every opportunity, no matter how uncomfortable it initially may seem.
Emma Baumgartner is a 2011 Newark Academy graduate and a rising senior at Boston College, majoring in economics with minors in math and Hispanic studies. She recently returned from a semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain. In this talk, Emma shares her experiences in Barcelona and on a high school immersion trip to Pontevedra, Spain. Her story demonstrates the value of immersing oneself in a host culture and taking advantage of every opportunity, no matter how uncomfortable it initially may seem.
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everyone I’m Hema
and this past semester I studied abroad
in Barcelona Spain and before September
and my only experience with really
living abroad was a three-week
conversion to cultivators Spain that I
did as part of the IDI immersion program
when I went on this trip I was so
excited I couldn’t wait to get to Spain
to meet new people to have this
experience I was overjoyed that I got
the chance to go I got to fly there with
my na family and a teachers and a
friends and I was so comfortable and
really just ready to dive in until a few
days into our trip when we took a train
from Madrid out to Pontiff Asia and we
split into host families I left for any
teachers my ending friends behind and I
was alone
I lived with a family for two beats that
didn’t speak any English
they lived on a farm I was pretty
isolated it wasn’t a major city and that
first night I got there I didn’t do
anything but cry and I was so afraid of
what I was going to getting myself into
I felt completely isolated and totally
alone as a days went by I got a bit more
comfortable with the situation and one
day I was lying with my host sister by
the pool taking in some rays and the
host father who came up to us with this
cute little baby rabbit that lived on
their farm and he put the baby rabbit on
our chair and the rabbit jumped around
and frolicked in the grass and we were
all laughing and smiling and it was a
good day
later that night a family dinner father
asked me in Spanish he said and how’d
you like the rabbit and I said oh was
kriti like I loved it and he said oh
good we’ll have rabbit for dinner this
weekend and I said I was shocked and you
realized that he meant that he had asked
me if I like to eat rabbit who aren’t
you
cook is cute little baby rabbit for me
for dinner on their farm and so I
stumbled through my Spanish and I
realize I said oh but I love chicken and
then we had chicken for dinner every
night after that so needless to say I
was pretty nervous when I embarked on my
four-month trip to Barcelona in
September I this time I didn’t have my
any family behind me I knew nobody that
I was going with I didn’t know the city
I didn’t know where I was going to be
living I got to Barcelona and I had to
find my way to my dorm all by myself
I got there I didn’t have towels they
didn’t have sheets I with on no sleep I
had to go and find these essentials
before I could even really start to have
my study abroad experience and in the
first week of classes I was taking a
Spanish class where I was really one of
the only American students and on
September th our professor gave us an
aside yet he said write about the events
of September th about the politics
about what you experienced and you know
what you think about it that’s not that
I was like that’s kind of weird you know
I’m in a Spanish class in Spain and I
asked me to break about September
like years later even still it didn’t
hit me until I walked out the door of
that classroom that he meant nothing to
do with the turret terrorist attacks in
New York and meant everything to do with
the this Catalan independence state that
was happening the next day in Spain and
so I said okay and the next day my new
classmates and I went out and we
explored this celebration turns out that
Catalunya is an autonomous province of
Spain that has been fighting for its
independence in and September th
is the day that they celebrate this
drive for independence and it was filled
with the streets of Barcelona with these
catalan flags and so my classmates that
I walked around seeing this pride that
these people had to be Catalonian and it
was shocking and something that I never
thought I would experience I didn’t even