My time in Oviedo is something I will never forget. Before I even got there, I missed my second flight and had to spend a night in Amsterdam, a city I quickly fell in love with and intend to return to someday. That was my first lesson: the unpredictability of travel. You can let it get you down, or you can use it to learn and grow.
Once I got to Oviedo and navigated to my housing for the month, I met up with several people from my program for dinner. What followed was a month of new and exciting experiences. I was in Spain when they won the world cup! I saw a church inside a cave and 33,000 year old cave paintings. I ate an obscene amount of cheese and drank cider from the region of Asturias. The sights and the smells and the tastes were all so inspiring, and I was able to use that inspiration for my writing. This taught me another lesson: you can gain inspiration from anything, it is up to you what you use it for.
One of the biggest struggles was the language barrier. I didn’t know a lick of Spanish, aside from “hola” and “gracias”. Thankfully, I made some friends in the program who knew some Spanish. Sometimes I felt uncomfortable and even a bit stupid when I didn’t know what was being said or asked of me, but this taught me my final lesson: it is okay to be uncomfortable, it is not okay to run away from the discomfort.
I felt every ounce of discomfort, and it allowed me to feel so much more. If I had let the discomfort scare me away, I would not have seen the sights and met the wonderful people I was so fortunate to meet. Do not run away from the discomfort!
Studying creative writing in Oviedo has been a blast! It’s a beautiful city, and being able to be so creative in such an inspiring place has allowed for immense growth. I have made so many friends and memories. The language barrier was intimidating at first, but you catch on to sayings and use lots of hand gestures to get the point across. I think everyone should try to study abroad at least once while they’re in college because it offers so many adventures and so much self-discovery!
Natalie Pagan, Creative Writing in Oviedo
