American Love <3

Valentine's Day marked a month of me being in Spain. It feels like the longest and shortest month of my entire life! Thinking back on the incredible amounts of things I have seen and places I have visited it seems like 3 months have passed, but at the same time it made 30 days just fly by. I'm completely saddened by it to say the least. Something I am completely not ready to do is leave Spain. There is so much to learn still, so much language to practice, and so many places I still need to see!

It's hard to describe in a blog the things that happen to you while you are abroad. Lately, I've been thinking about how fortunate I am to be an American, how lucky I am to have the people at home waiting for me to come home to, and how wonderful it is that I have had so many opportunities to learn about myself and the world through traveling. It's not that Spaniards have a terrible quality of life AT ALL, I just feel so happy to know that there are still opportunities awaiting when I get home and that this isn't my last hurrah. Many people in the U.S. are disappointed with the country and losing their patriotism, but I wonder why? Yes, we have had quite a rocky few years, but is it really that easy to lose faith in a country and a government that provides us with so much? We came from nothing, and worked hard to be one of the strongest countries in the world. I feel sometimes people are sad because they lack the cohesive cultural roots that, say, a Spaniard would share with all other Spaniards, but what is overlooked is that we have all come from struggle of Native Americans, the first Pilgrims, the open ports of Ellis Island, and from many soldiers giving their lives for us to continue being a country where a person is entitled to human rights and happiness.

Think of our opportunities and our freedoms: our large country with it's wide range of climates that we are always free to travel to and from, our society that values hard work and upward movement. We are born into the chance of lifetime. While people throughout the world are proud of where they came from, many will comment to me that they love the States and want to come back, visit just once in their lives, or want to live there. We can travel almost anywhere and still have all the benefits of being an American, we can even vote abroad! It's frequently overlooked. My friends here say sometimes about how awesome it would be to be European, Spanish, etc., and while I realize that it would be fantastic, being an American is something that is so often taken for granted.

Returning to the States has been on my mind a lot lately. I am caught up living the Spanish life and I definitely don't want to leave right now, but going back to America is something that I can't take for granted. May 9th (the last day of my program and my 21st birthday) will most likely be the most depressing day of my life, but I can't forget where I come from :)


This is a picture of Christopher Columbus that is one of the largest monuments in Barcelona, Spain. While he is not actually pointing to America (he is pointing East towards Italy across the Mediterranean, which I thought was hilarious) he is a symbol of the beginning of the Golden Age in Spain, as well as the very beginning of our American history. He stands on top of a globe as a way of showing his desire for discovery and the opportunities for travel that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave him in 1492.

Spain and the EU: The New Melting Pot?

While some would say that immigration should be seen as flattering, I'm not so sure that is the general opinion. To quote some graffiti in the river park in Valencia, "La imigracion es una triste lacra", meaning the immigration problem in Spain is sad and a mark (or scar) on the Spanish people. In what I have learned in the past and as well as living here in Spain, immigration is seen as a sort of invasion. The EU is becoming more of a melting pot similar to the United States. The borders of each country in the EU are becoming more liquid, making it easier for citizens to move from country to country. In effect, this creates a huge mixture of races, cultures, and backgrounds in the countries, taking away from each their authenticity and individual history.

When I cam to Valencia after being in other areas of Spain, I noticed the people here were very dark skinned. It wasn't until recently that I realized they were all immigrants from South America. People come from Colombia, Bolivia, Africa, Asia, etc. and they are living in Spain now. What I learned from talking to my house mother is that they come here and get paid less and are not respected like people should be. She was expressing to me how upset she was with the outsourcing of jobs to China. "Todos los cosas estan hecho en China ahora (Everything is made in China now)," says my host mom with a look of worry on her face. She then began explaining to me what happened in Alicante. Alicante is a coastal city an hour and 1/2 South of Valencia that used to have good toy and shoe factories. Then, all of the jobs were moved to China and now the factories are abandoned and those Spaniards can no longer work there. However, my house mother and others still see immigration as a good thing. From what I understand, there is opportunity for Spaniards to learn from immigrants and to fill jobs that Spaniards won't take (sound familiar?). For example, last Monday I woke up to a stranger in my house. Her name is Laura and she is the maid. Laura is a Colombian living in Valencia. According to many of my friends in the program, they have had a similar experience to waking up to find a South American girl doing their laundry. Why is it necessary to have a maid for 3 people living in a small apartment? Couldn't they just do their own chores?


In Poland, the problem was reversed. The NGO that I worked for was becoming increasingly aware of the problem with migration FROM the small villages all around Poland. They were trying to encourage the development jobs in making traditional goods to restore the populations in these areas. The Poles were very concerned with their children growing up and moving to the city or to another country. Many Poles are in London and Chicago, which has the second largest population of Poles in the world besides Poland. As I said before, more Poles spoke English than Spaniards, making it appear that they were more open to and encouraging of immigration/foreigners into their country. The only thing I could think of was that it is because Spain's economy is better.

In the US, we have a similar situation with Cuba or Mexico as Spain has with Morocco/Africa. Many immigrants pass through the southern border of Spain that is just 8 miles from the tip of Africa! It's the illegality of the matter that makes the difference in America, but is that the case in Spain? Of course it accounts for some of the problem, but not all of it.





This picture on the left is of the gate that protects the entrance to the old part of downtown Valencia. It was meant to keep intruders out. On the right is the bell they rang to warn everyone of an invasion.