Wheels up in 8 D A Y S

If you happen to see me in the next 8 days, specifically in the next 5 school days, I am SORRY. I have officially checked OUT. I received my final grade for student teaching (I passed, YAY) completed ALL the work, gone to ALL the meetings, built ALL the relationships and met some pretty awesome kids. The next 5 days have been mapped out, and I am seeing the BNA airport carpet in my near future. 

I have begun the hoarding stage of packing. I have kept a list for the last 2 months of the important things I thought I might forget, the toiletries I needed to buy, the paperwork I needed to copy, and the gifts I wanted to find for my host family. My list went from being REAL long, to about 3-4 last minute add-ons. A corner of my living room has become the "to be packed" corner. There is so much stuff.

I am so excited to finally meet my host family. I have been in communication with them for a few weeks, and they are SO cool. I have found so many goodies for them, and so pumped to give them all the American candy they have asked for. 

The day I arrive, my host mom has informed me is St. Jordi's Day and also the oldest son, David's birthday. St. Jordi's day is a Barcelona tradition, they celebrate every year with a festival in the city and the men buy women roses and the women buy men books. Local authors set up in the city and sign their books.. 

It coincides, on one hand, with the fact that Sant Jordi has been the patron saint of Catalonia since the 15th century and on the other hand, it comes from the famous legend of Saint George and the dragon (the knight defeats the dragon, who was terrorising the village and the princess, and after penetrating the dragon with his sword, Saint George gave the princess one of the beautiful red roses that spilled out of the beast’s body) and the old medieval tradition of visiting the Chapel of Sant Jordi in the Palacio de la Generalitat, where a rose fair or ‘lovers fair’ used to take place. This is why Sant Jordi is also the patron saint of lovers in Catalonia.

During my international student teach experience, I plan to fully immerse myself in the culture and language to take away as much as possible. As a group, we are planning to explore Barcelona, and France during our weekends abroad to widen our perspective of not only the Spanish culture, but French as well. 

One specific experience we are looking to do is going to Disney Paris. This will be a great experience to really compare cultures and social norms. I have been to Disney World and Land in the US, and excited to see what the similarities and differences of the social norms of amusement parks from country to country. We also are hoping to visit many art museums, as well as visiting the original Statue of Liberty, a significant symbol of freedom in the United States, that was gifted by France, in Pont de Grenelle, France. This is something I am most excited about during my trip to France. 

These mini trips will also broaden my knowledge and experience to bring back to my students and classroom. I hope this trip helps me to better hone in on my own culture, as an American. Trying to really pinpoint what American culture is, I have found is taught, because there are so many factors. I know we are the melting pot, and I know America is known for our freedom, but I want to better be able to understand and explain my living culture, as an American.

I hope this trip will widen my knowledge as well as life experiences to share with my students. I hope to learn many new recipes from my host family and teach them many recipes and social norms of the United States. I am a proud Kentuckian, and American, who’s excited to share my culture and lifestyle with people who really have no idea what life in America is like. This will be an adventure of a lifetime for me, and I am so blessed to be going.

Can't wait to take you all on my trip with me! My next entry will be across the pond! 

Until next time,