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Foreign Correspondent: Living in La Coruña
Filed Under EN
In Spanish, the expression “…And they lived happily ever after” translates as “…Fueron felices y comieron perdices.” No one, however, is happy to leave La Coruña. Nor did we eat partridges in celebration. The last day spent in that pleasant port city in Galicia, Spain was, at best, melancholy.
It was fitting that our final day in La Coruña featured typical Galician weather. Humid, breezy, with clouds that threaten rain but don’t fulfill their promise. A wan sun that teases but doesn’t provide much light or heat. On such a day, John, Katie, Jake, Julia, our Spanish friends, and I went shopping in the mall. Afterwards, John and I, being neighbors, walked home with a Spanish girl whom we had just met. As kind and pretty as the girl was, something felt empty about the interaction; I knew that, in a little more than twelve hours, we would inevitably be saying goodbye to La Coruña, perhaps forever. And so when John said, “Man, I really should have gotten her number,” I just shook my head and sighed.
Perhaps that week spent going to the same café to order the same coffee every day would have been better spent on the beach. Or perhaps those three days spent exclusively at the beach getting sunburned would have been better used searching for a new café to hang out in. There’s nothing wrong with habit, for it is necessary for survival in a foreign, unfamiliar land. The development of new habits is also necessary however, if one wants to experience a culture fully. Whether or not we were creatures of habit in La Coruña is still up for debate, but the weather didn’t leave us much choice between the beach and the café: the first few weeks in the city were full of the kind of sporadic Galician rain showers that make risky the prospect of staying outside for more than a few minutes.
A month and a half is not nearly enough time to experience a culture. Unfortunately, life rarely affords us more than a moment to explore a new place before it whisks us off on to the next adventure. And so the two-month study-abroad program should not and will not be considered as more than a taste of Spain. Nevertheless, for most participants, it will be the broadest, richest, most delicious slice of culture they have yet tasted.
I have mixed feelings about returning to the germ-phobic, politically correct, fully attired, familiar United States of America. I thoroughly enjoyed my slice of Spanish culture and am hungry for more. Based on this experience, I love travel but I’m aware of the ephemeral nature of such experiences. And with this thought, I am happy. I will never, however, eat a partridge.
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