Worry Less, Enjoy More, by: Vanessa Huss

Coming from a country where being on the go and hurrying is so common, I’ve noticed how ingrained that mindset is in myself after spending time in Spain. This mindset can cause so much stress and worry because there are always thoughts of rushing everywhere. At a certain point you think to yourself, “why am I in such a hurry? why is everyone in such a hurry?” This demanding way of life that been long-established in me has diminished greatly while I’ve lived here, and it’s been so interesting to see the processes of acculturation and deculturation take place.

Usually when I drive home from school or work in the U.S., I’m not taking my time and I’m rushing straight home. However, here in Spain, I’m so lucky to have a beautiful 30-minute walk home from my study abroad program center. When I first arrived, I was turning that 30-minute walk into a 20-minute walk because I was just in such a rush to get home. But why? There wasn’t any rush to begin with, I was simply just so used to having to do that. Now, I enjoy my walks home, in fact, I look forward to them. I don’t walk fast, and I don’t spend that time worrying about what things I need to get done when I get home. I take in everything around me — the beauty of Sevilla, the kindhearted nature of the people, the architecture that never fails to astonish me, and so on. When I’m at a restaurant with friends, I don’t worry about getting the bill paid as soon as we’re done eating. I appreciate just sitting, talking and enjoying every moment after we’re finished. When I’m in a store, I’m not adamantly fixed on getting what I need and getting out of there as quickly as possible, I take time to look at everything that piques my interest. Being here has made me realize that living in the present moment and taking life at a slow pace reduces so many worries. In fact, it has made me realize that maybe we’re just worried and hurried for absolutely no reason. Spain has enlightened me with completely new perspectives on many things, especially time; it’s no wonder the country is ranked as one of the best places in the world to live. (https://www.idealista.com/en/news/lifestyle-in-spain/2020/08/27/7794-why-spain-is-one-of-the-best-countries-in-the-world-for-expats)

I feel very lucky to study abroad in a culture that emphasizes taking life as it comes and the importance of spending time with family and friends. I think way less about the future and spend my time in the present, taking life one day at a time and enjoying what I have in this moment. What is life without experiencing more enjoyment and less worries?

Attached are photos from my favorite views on my walks home!

Siesta time, by Jake O’Brien

When coming to Spain the one thing I was not aware of was what a siesta was. A siesta is a time in the United States this is not a thing. We are so going to go that we don't take any breaks. People here in Spain value their time and their time to take breaks. They value life, happiness, and family over their jobs. With that, they scheduled a couple of hours in their day dedicated to a break and family time. This part has become a crucial part of my day. I like to take this time when there's no class to take a break. I get a chance to just relax and take in the beauty of Spain. It gives me a chance to catch up and just take a few hours to myself before going back to class and other activities. We in the USA are consumed in our work life. We are all about work and not about life or happiness. Another way to show that Spain values a siesta and family over work is having nothing open on Sundays. They take Sundays as their family time and their time to take a break. They use this day to spend with their families and not worry about work. Back home we are working all day every day and have limited time without families. Coming here and taking a couple-hour break was a culture shock. We talked about in class how people can experience culture shock in many ways. I was shocked to come and not be so go go go. I got a chance to come relax take time for myself and catch up on life. In a few months when I go back to the United States, I will miss my siesta time. I will miss the couple of hours I have to myself and relax. I will miss having that time in my day to catch up and more. Because once I go back it's all about working and school where here I got the chance to value life and friendships a lot more. It gave me a few months to reflect on the beauty of life and value the friendships and time that I have for myself more.

New York vs. Sevilla, by Aria Mustary

New York, for the first 18 years of my life, I thought was the best city in the world. Nothing could beat the diversity of cultures, thought, and expression.
It wasn’t until I came to Sevilla that I realized that I could love another city just as much, but in a completely different way. Although culturally there are many differences such as the food, the way people look, and the history, the main difference is the pace of life.
New York contains the most fast-paced, ambitious, and capitalistic people. It’s an incredibly large city, but tight with over eight and a half million people. Sevilla, on the other hand, with only two million people, are much slower-paced, and not nearly as capitalist centered.
One of the main things I learned are that the lifestyles are a lot more outdoors here than New York, and why. One is able to socially spend their time outside here than in New York. I personally believe that this goes way past individualistic and collectivistic cultures, because although that is an important factor here, I believe it matters geographically too. Currently in New York City, it’s 1° Celsius, whereas here, it’s 14° Celsius. I believe that this dramatic difference allows changes in mindsets for both cities. It’s clear that because there’s an enormous weather difference in both New York City and Sevilla during the summer, but also in the winter. Hence, even in the winter, you will see people eating and drinking with their friends and families outside. I’ve talked to my host mom about this and she agrees, the Spanish cannot keep themselves inside. And that’s incredible.
I’ve loved everything about living in Sevilla the last couple months. In more modern and Generation Z terms, I loved the “vibe”. The people were generally warmer, friendlier, happier. Although I was born and raised in New York, I would love to be here again.

Startups in Sevilla, by Daniel Ziegler

When coming to Sevilla, I was not sure what to expect. I did not read much about cultural norms or how businesses worked, all I knew is that I wanted to participate in an internship offered by my program. As I began interviewing with different companies, it became somewhat overwhelming. I had 4 interviews in English and 3 interviews in Spanish. One of the interviews in English really intrigued me. It was with a company called Scope, which is a small tech startup that provides insights to improve productivity of software development teams. Once I had received the offer for the internship with Scope, I did not really know what to expect. I had previous experience in the prototyping stages of a small finance startup in the United States, but I really did not know how this startup would work. I soon learned that Scope is part of Andalucia Open Future, an acceleration program for startups in Andalucia. The building I worked in is called El Cubo, which had numerous startups working in a very tech-driven environment. At El Cubo, I worked on a software development team of 5 people. We had two small tables in an office building that had a very open floorplan. We were surrounded by other tech startups that were hard at work. Due to the fact that El Cubo is an acceleration program, companies there worked diligently to improve their software so that they could gain clients and investors in an effort to grow their companies. I mainly worked on developing the user interface and documenting the software of Scope, but I also had other tasks including proofreading presentations because my three bosses were all Spaniards who wanted help with their English. The startup work ethic here in Spain turned out to be very similar to what I had experienced in the United States. The only main difference was that here in Spain, I worked alongside numerous other startups.

Through my internship experience in Spain, I learned that although I had a set number of hours to complete each week, my bosses were not always going to be present when I was working. I had to learn to be more relaxed, work independently, and go with the flow. Another thing that I learned is that when someone asks if I want to go to get breakfast, I should always say yes. This is where I had some of the most valuable conversations with Spaniards. Overall, my internship experience taught me more than I could have ever imagined about Spain. When I look back on my semester abroad, I think that the first thing to come to mind will be all of the great experiences I had in my internship.