A WestMo Student Finds Herself Abroad

Above, Karen Hardeman, ’15, rides a camel in Morocco. Karen is spending spring semester 2014 studying in Oviedo, Spain. Read on to find out how a rough start turned out to be the start of something great.

When I decided to study abroad, I expected to learn a lot. I expected to learn the names of countless new friends. I expected to learn new vocabulary and how to speak Spanish with more fluency. I expected to learn about the history and culture of Spain and Europe. However, I didn’t expect to learn so much about myself – at least not so quickly.

The days leading up to my departure to Spain were filled with tearful goodbyes to my best friends, packing as much as I could into a massive suitcase and two carry-on bags (still leaving a little room for souvenirs!), crying some more with my family and boyfriend, and trying not to cry while accepting the fact that I was about to move to a country where I didn’t know a soul and I wasn’t fluent in the language.

Traveling by myself wasn’t an issue; I had traveled enough by plane that I knew exactly what I needed to do once I landed in each airport. The real growing started when I landed in Madrid and needed to communicate in Spanish with people who didn’t speak much English and didn’t seem to have much interest in helping a poor little American girl navigating her way to Oviedo by herself. I (figuratively) put my big girl pants on and did my best to talk with a less-than-friendly lady at the bus kiosk to buy a bus ticket and make sure I was out at the right bus stop at the right time.

I reached my final destination 36 hours after leaving home. By that time, the traveling was over, but my next obstacle was upon me: communicating with my host family in Spanish on a regular basis, meeting people, and making friends. Classes started a few days after my arrival, and I learned that I was one of the very few people who had come to Oviedo alone. Countless commented on how courageous I was to venture out in the world on my own and how they didn’t think they could have done the same. Most of my classmates here came with a group of students through a university program, numbers ranging from three to 30!

I met a solid group of people at the first social event (one with free food!). Our little group of five Americans has since added a handful of English, so it’s a pretty fun bunch. I had a complete emotional turn-around in a matter of days. I had started out counting down the days until I returned home, but less than a week later, that number scared me because I realized how limited my time was. The tears that seemed to never stop for the first couple days had completely dried less than a week later.

This experience, even though I haven’t been here for very long, has changed me for the better. I have become much more independent, and I feel like I can handle so much more emotionally. My confidence level has soared and I take more risks. I am far from fearful of traveling to other countries. Now I relish the idea of grand adventures in places on my bucket list. I can’t imagine how I will be five, even 10, years from now, but I know that studying abroad has been one of the best decisions I have ever made, and it has helped me mature incredible amounts in just a couple of months.

 By Karen Hardeman, ’15