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 Gregory
"Greg" Collins
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2010-11 Outbound to Spain
Hometown:
Fleming Island, Florida
School:
Fleming Island High School
Sponsor:
Fleming Island Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida
Host:
Benahavis-Costa del Sol Rotary Club, District 2203, Spain
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Bio
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| August 19
"One time
when me and Tatiana were going out I tried to wear a very nice Ralph
Lauren T-shirt. She said (in translation) "Get dressed" and I said (also
translated), "I am dressed". She started freaking out like I just shot
somebody and before I knew it, I was in a button down. " |
| August 28 "...bull doesn't actually HAVE to go after the
picadors and matadors, but even after getting stabbed they keep coming back
for more. Also the bulls have much better lives than say.... steaks. " |
| November 25 "Even my English teacher
cannot speak English. It's like the blind trying to teach the blind over
there." |
| March 1 "The
pro-Francos wanted me to kiss their portrait of Franco and the anarchists
wanted me to burn it." |
| July 6
"I´m
making space for another person to experience this great country." |
| July 26 |
Greg's Bio
|
 I’m so excited to be writing this bio because this means it’s
official -- I’m going to Spain! Since I found out this dream come true, it’s
been one Wikipedia search after another to learn everything I can about anything
Spanish. Jeez, Wikipedia is super addictive! I just can’t help myself because
I’ve found Spain to be incredibly diverse with an overwhelming sense of fun and
festivity. I CAN NOT WAIT to get started on my journey! I am so grateful for
this tremendous opportunity that Rotary has given me. I plan to take advantage
of every minute of it; be it running and screaming down the cobblestone streets
of Pamplona during the Running of the Bulls, or merely sitting here, today,
dreaming about it.
I live in the quiet suburbs of Jacksonville in a place
called Fleming Island, tennis courts and pool access included. I have a mom,
dad, and sister. I usually spend my time living the Florida lifestyle with
lots of beach trips, sports (in the water and out of it), and no White
Christmases. My father is an airline pilot so we travel a lot, but only for
short trips (2 to 5 days tops), making it impossible to fully immerse myself
in the culture of the foreign city and country. We stay just long enough to
speed over to the city’s famous art museums and important buildings and then
take off for someplace else. Of all the countries to explore I have always
been the most interested in Spain and Spanish culture, and now I have the
time and opportunity to fulfill that dream. With my enthusiasm and
confidence I am sure I can make this dream into a workable, livable reality.
Spain has an immense amount of influence on the world and
even my home state here in Florida. To see the Spanish influence on Florida
you needn’t look any farther than its name. Florida actually means “land of
flowers” in Spanish. They were the first explorers and conquerors of the
Indian masses, taking over large parts of the Americas which (gasp!)
included Florida. The many Cubans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans who populate
the state are Spanish in origin and language. Spain is the seed which all
Latin American culture has sprouted from. As much as I love Latin culture, I
love its mother culture even more.
Learning to speak Spanish fluently will also help me help
my community. When I get back I plan to work as a translator for The Way
free clinic in Green Cove. It is a great charity organization which fills
basic medical needs for lower income families including many Hispanics. They
need translators to make sure they clearly understand their symptoms and
give them the proper medical help.
Rotary, thank you so much for choosing me to work as an
ambassador of the US in Spain. I can’t believe I have to wait a whole eight
months to get started on my journey. |
August 19
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Y´know
I think foreign exchange is kind of like skydiving. You can either
start flailing and shriek´, ´´NO NO NO IM GONNA DIEEE!´´.... or you
can really go for it and have the time of your life. Here I was, on
a plane from Brussels to Malaga attempting to communicate with a guy
that spoke neither english nor spanish and I suddenly realize.....
I´m in the air.
I LOVE YOU MOMMY!! Because my mom is probably
my most avid reader, I just wanted to tell her that. Well
Brussels airport was an adventure. From the urinals that are
shaped like those ultra-modern egg-shaped chairs and all of
extremely beautiful shops to how they liked to spontaneously
change my gate to the other side of airport they liked to
make things exciting. I frantically ran to the other side of
the airport while Justin Bieber played over the
loudspeakers.
I got to Malaga in one piece on August
14th and met my family. They´re all really great people and
I´m really excited. Tatiana is 16 just like me but she´s
leaving for Minnesota August 20th (sad face). La Feria del
Malaga is going on now so I get to hang out with Tatiana and
her friends and dance the night ,and part of the day,
away. I owe you one Tati! We get home at like 6 o´clock in
the morning which is just perfect for me because I´m still
on US time. After so many hours every day of dancing I´ve
learned how to dance! Now I know what your thinking....´´
Greg, you know how to dance now? with that plus your
devilish good looks you must get all the girls!´´ The thing
is actually I learned how to ¨´´dance´´, not ´´dance well´´.
As any self-respecting Spaniard will tell you, there is a
difference. haha
La Feria Del Malaga is a weeklong
holiday. We need more weeklong holidays in the US
por favor. This holiday is made up of two parts...
During the day there are festivities in the center
of town. There are live performances, bull fights
every day, and lots to see and do. However, that is
not La Feria Del Malaga. La Feria Del Malaga is the
one at night at the edge of the city. Half of the
fleet of buses in the city are running to La Feria
and the other half are running back to the homes. La
Feria is all lights and huzzahs. It obviously has an
ENORMOUS fair-like section which is definitely the
biggest fair I´ve ever seen with its got four small
rollar coasters and countless rides and attractions.
The side we went to mostly though was even more
interesting... They had set up makeshift clubs in
the middle of nowhere complete with bouncers and
dance floors! And I´m not just saying one or two.
There are rows upon rows of these things. Each have
their own unique style. The only difference between
these and regular clubs is these don't actually have
ceilings.... or stable walls. ´
So I have to admit even though I feel
like a girl saying, it was really hard for me to
decide what clothes to bring. I´m sorry but I just
couldn't leave without my t-shirts. wouldn't have
been right. I believe in ´´No T-shirt left behind´´
so I ended up bringing like my entire closet of
them. Funny thing is, people don´t wear t-shirts
outside of their homes here. No matter how classy
and high-end my tuxedo t-shirt is, it just doesn´t
make the cut here in Spain. One time when me and
Tatiana were going out I tried to wear a very nice
Ralph Lauren T-shirt. She said (in translation)
´´Get dressed´´ and I said (also translated),´´ I am
dressed´´. She started freaking out like I just shot
somebody and before I knew it, I was in a button
down.
Now its 5:12 in the morning here and
Tatiana (plus another Spaniard going to Minnesota
and the family) are heading to the airport. I was
ready to go with them but either the car was too
small or I was too big. Either way its time to go
back to sleep. Here´s Greg signing out.
... Here´s Greg signing on. In
the last two hours I went for a run and ate a
bocadillo (glorified version of a sandwich). I
thought of some extra memories to tell you all
about and even though I´m delusionally tired I´m
writing them down. Only for you Rotary!
My next topic is an extremely
serious one. I´ve come to find that Malaga is
being controlled from behind the scenes by a
group with potential mafia connections. Only at
night can you see whos truly in power. That´s
right. Cats. If your out at night in Malaga you
have a right to be afraid. Not of robbers.....
of rabies. Everywhere you go there are packs of
these little sirens ready to strike. There are
the super cute lil´ kitten ones and the
semi-scary miniature pumas. All look like they
just want someone to pick them up and start
petting them... that is until you get in their
paw zone. Then they scratch the hell out of your
hand until you need serious medical attention.
Do all European cities have kitty problems?
Because there is definitely too many homeless
cats here. If you want a new cat or two (or a
dozen) don´t go to the pet store. Come to
Malaga, Spain.
So yesterday was Tatiana´s last
day in Malaga, so I decided to make her a
Florida style Key Lime Pie! Turns out they don´t
have pie crusts in Spain (or half of the
ingredients in the recipe) so everything had to
be done from scratch. Pilar showed me how to
make the pie crust and I figured out how to make
Key Lime Pie with only half of the ingredients.
We threw some extra stuff in there hoping that
they would make good substitutes, and guess
what? they did! Only problem was the crust was
really buttery like a croissant. Butter and Lime
isn´t actually the best combo so instead of
eating it as a pie, we had key lime pudding.
delish.
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Hello
America. (Or small group of friends and family. whatever.)
I´m here to explain in
excruciating detail the second leg of my adventure in Spain. Because of
the rave reviews (mostly from my Mom and Grandma) I have decided to
write so much that upon reading it you will stand up and suddenly
understand exactly how to flamenco dance... PS please don´t ask me
how to flamenco dance. I have no idea.
I didn´t know this but
to dance the Flamenco you need one of those little Japanese fans. The
women here not only use them when they´re flamenco dancing (which they
do surprisingly seldom) but also when they do anything else. These fans
have a lot of holes all over them so I´m pretty sure you don´t get much
airflow from waving them around. Maybe they´re just for waving. Which is
cool too.
Pictures
just don't do Ronda justice...... |
Yesterday, with many
fan-waving women in tow, we made our way to Ronda which is the best
pueblo blanco ever. A "pueblo blanco" is a town with all white buildings
and they dot the andalucian countryside. Andalucia is a hot region so
the people made white buildings with thick walls to insulate the
buildings and keep them cool. They´re pretty much man-made caves. Ronda
is the best of the bunch with an unforgettable history and it´s own
exacting culture. (I should write travel books). Looking past that it has
a history going back to the Phoenicians in 900 BC and the fact that it
was the birth place of bullfighting, It also looks like it´s from
freakin´ Lord of the Rings. The city is built on a plateau split in two
by a massive 30 story gorge with an epic bridge connecting the two. The
cathedrals, a bull fighting ring with mystique, horse ride, and
fantastic, unreal views. Everything was perfect. Everything minus one.
Yep, tourists.
Dang tourists who aren´t
me! The population of Ronda doubles in the summer because of the huge
amount of day-trippers coming from the surrounding area. At least,
unlike in Venice, the people like you. They are extremely happy to take
your money.
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The food of Spain are
actually super different than I expected. Where are my burritos? Where
are my jalipiño peppers? The actual food of Ronda of Andalucia and of
Spain have a less obnoxious and more finessed nature to them. Less
flames and more wine. I´m proud to say that I successfully tried rabo de
toro (bull tail) and let me tell ya... it is delicious! It was so juicy
that in the instant it glanced my tongue, it turned into a stew. (Maybe
that´s because it´s like 100% fat or something) either way, its like
chocolate and bacon had a baby in my mouth. I also learned how seriously
the Spanish take their jamon (ham). It looks like bacon and when I said
that at the restaurant, the family said if I keep talking like that I´m
going to have to sit at my own table. They treat ham similar to how we
treat good wine. The pigs are taken excellent care of and then they are
slaughtered and mixed with salt and spices. This is then stored for
several years until it is ready to eat. Unlike bacon, jamon is extremely
soft like a pillow and (like the robo de toro) easily breaks down to
juicy goodness. I guess the Spanish really like meat that you don´t even
need to chew because this is the second one of the day.
For all you Ernest Hemingway
fans (if you aren´t one you should be) Ronda is one of his favorite town
and he some of his best stories were written about here. Other such
notables who used Ronda as a place of inspiration for their works
include Alexandre Dumas, David Wilkie, Orson Welles (buried in Ronda),
and Rainer Maria Rilke. I would like to recommend you read A Dangerous
Summer by Ernest Hemingway which immortalizes one of Ronda´s greatest
matadors, shows you the inner struggles experienced by
bull-fighters, and will make you cry while doing it. Three for the price
of one.
Many of the writers look
to the bull ring of Ronda for inspiration. As any true bull fighting
enthusiast will tell you, the greatness of the sport is in the way the
matadors gracefully dance with their powerful partners. They don´t think
it is a sport at all because there is no winning or losing but is more
alike to art. The Rondan bull ring is a true marvel and has been there
for over 400 years.
Many people (especially
in Barcelona) take a totally different view of bull fighting. Strangely,
they think bulls actually have feelings like pain and that they don´t
like being repeatedly stabbed with swords and spears. The response is
that the bull doesn´t actually HAVE to go after the picadors and
matadors, but even after getting stabbed they keep coming back for more.
Also the bulls have much better lives than say.... steaks. Cows have to
live in super close proximity and are killed in 9 months. Bulls get to
roam the fields for several years before the fight. Also if they are
exceptionally brave or don´t fight at all (whatever extreme you want)
they will be allowed to go back to the fields for the rest of their
life. So I dunno.... maybe I need to watch a bull fight to know which is
right.
Barcelona must´ve seen a bull
fight they didn´t like because they´re making bull fights illegal in
Catalonia right now. Catalonian politicians are attempting to separate
themselves more and more from the larger Spanish community. I´m not
exactly sure what they want and I´m pretty sure they don´t know what
they want either.
Systematically, all
electronic devices are turning against me. When I arrived here my host
family gave me a phone. I don´t have a phone anymore. Did I lose it? Did
it get stolen? Did it break? No. No. And sort of. Actually my Spanish
cell phone has lost it´s soul. It now wants a PIN number and it refuses
to work until I get it. Problem is... I have no clue what the PIN number
is. Rafael (my host dad) said he had it on a piece of red cardboard
under the phone when I arrived. Ok. But we have a cleaning lady here
which means that piece of cardboard didn´t have a chance. Yesterday, my
camera also decided to stop working for no reason. Next was all the
electricity in the house (at a time when its 104 degrees here.) I was ecstatically
happy to accompany my second family on a trip to Marbella primarily
because their car has air-conditioning.
I have two tourist books
about Spain and both just cannot stand Marbella. One says," Marbella,
once a humble fishing village, is an eyesore filled with tacky resorts."
Good thing I´m a fan of tacky (I will take a trip to Las Vegas any day
of the week). My second family is really cool and we had a great time barbaque-ing
on the grill, swimming in the pool and ocean, and playing a very
interesting hybrid of tennis and wall ball.
On a note of language
frustration the people of Malaga have lost their S´s. Here it´s "Buena
Noche" instead of "Buenas Noches. ¿Como eta? instead of ¿Como estas?.
This is very confusing to me and i wish they would speak Español instead
of Epañol. Thank you.
While traveling around and
being with my host family I learn sooo much Spanish. but I want to learn
much much more Spanish. Faster. That´s why I´m taking a two week Spanish
course at the Insituto Malaca starting this Monday. Wish me luck!
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November 25
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I 've
started school and I´m proud to say I have mastered the English language
better than anyone at my school! I can say that with confidence because
1) I can count in English higher than 20 and 2) I know all of my colors.
What I´m trying to say is no one speaks any English here. Even my
English teacher cannot speak English. It's like the blind trying to
teach the blind over there. I´m helping them out a lot and I´m sure I'll
have a lot more Spanish masters (by the requirements I specified above)
in the next week or so.
So, I've been waiting with such anticipation for my first dream in
Spanish but It hasn't happened yet. Yesterday however, my whole family
overheard my sleep-talking/yelling , ¨AHHHH! MISQUITOS GIGANTES!¨ and
sleep-talking/not yelling ,¨uno más cuatro son cinco.¨. (how these
connect im not exactly sure.) Alright asleep Greg. I say that's close
enough. Check in the box! whooo!
I´m going to make an exemption to my new ¨your not allowed to talk about
things that would make people jealous¨ rule for Gibraltar. I´m sorry but
that was just too amazing to leave out. They have wild monkeys! That's
right Thailand, you are not the only one. The other Pillar of Hercules
in Tangier looks close enough to touch and the people there speak a
sweet and sour Spanish and English mix which is my new favorite
language. Who knew there are actually people who speak Spanglish as a
first language? They can start the sentence in English and end it in
Spanish. They are like language DJ´s..... Awesome.
PS you know that Tacky Eyesore town named Marbella that I talked about
in the last segment? I live there now! I actually really like it here
with it here ( I've seen Antonio Banderes)
The Spanish really need to fail in some sports pretty soon because this
is getting ridiculous. Top in Fútbol, top in Formula 1, winner of this
year's tour de France, winners of motor racing, top of Europe in
Basketball, Top in tennis..... I like sports but I can't watch this
stuff all day! I don't why but I don't really like being number 1
because then you're supposed to win. It's no fun saying,¨ Yeah, beat
those underdogs! Woof woof woof! Wooow who expected the team that was
expected to win, to win? INCREDIBLE!¨ Good news is I know my soccer now.
No not exactly the playing part but im a great spectator. I know all the
teams in Europe. Who's good, who's bad, and who the heck is Zlaten
Ibrahimouvic. I'll get to the ¨exactly knowing how to play¨ part of the
game later. Right now there's some Champion's league to watch.
I´m always singing. Even when I´m not singing aloud, a song's bouncing
around in my head or at the least some kind of commercial jingle. The
problem is most of my backtrack of songs are in the English language. To
combat this, I have learned a complete arsenal of Spanish songs. Yes,
they are mostly Disney and world cup songs..... to be fair they're ALL
Disney and world cup songs. Still worth it. They're just so easy to
learn now! =)
According to Wikipedia, only 35 percent of Spain's citizens complete
college. It has one of the worst educational programs in Europe. After
reading this I was thinking, ¨ whooo hoo! eaaaasy A! (or 10. whatever.)
So turns out the reason there is such a low success rate is because
Bachalauriate is SO HARD. Like seriously everyone here knows how to
study. 3 hours a day. every single day. I´m proud of myself if I look it
over for 15 min the day of the exam.
The Spanish people are slowly but surely sabutaging my Spanish. Here
they speak a dialect called Andaluz which is still considered
Spanish..... just really really difficult to understand Spanish with
loads of slang. Its Slanglish. As a greeting they say ¨Que paja io?¨ or
¨Que pa pisha?¨. Lets break these down for ya. The regular Spanish
phrase is ¨Que pasa (nombre aqui)?¨ What happened to that? Well, the s
turned into a j on the first one because the adalusion people really
like j´s and ¨io¨ is from ¨tio¨ which means only uncle in
Spanish,however in andaluz it means pretty much everything. ¨oye tio!¨
¨Tioo!¨ ¨ Tioo, no deberías haber comido eso, solo era decoración tio¨.
And the other one makes even less sense. Im pretty sure ¨pisha¨ means
the same thing as ¨polla¨ but nothing is certain. This is Spain. Plus
they really like to cuss here but its in Spanish which for some reason
makes it seem totally normal to me.
Y hay algo mas? Well I'm living in San Pedro now, (a barrio of Marbella)
and I´m with a really great family (they do not replace my real family
but they do a nice job trying). We have Puerto Banus nearby which is a
place with a great beach, six 5 star hotels, and pretty much a car show
every single day along the water. I´m playing a lot of padle with my
host brother at the local club. Padle has all the same rules as tennis
except it is played on a smaller court and you can hit it off the walls
makes it about twice as fun. Life is good. Hard and complicated but
all-around good. Toda esta bien pero nada esta perfecto. I will be
hearing from me by next month I promise ;) Don't sweat the small stuff
cuz thats not what counts. You gotta keep going to what lifes all about.
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March 1 |
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I
lied. You did not hear me by the next month. Sorry! I didn´t think that the
journals would be so hard to keep track of when I first got here (hence two
were written in the first month) but after a bit of time, it was getting
much harder to separate my emotions in an easily understandable, logical
manner.
Life gets really complicated really fast on exchange. I´m going to have to
take AT LEAST a billion years of psychology to understand what I feel
sometimes while I´m here separated from my parents and my American friends
because it´s a rollar coaster. Seriously, yesterday I was crying about
something and the next minute I was laughing until I cried (no, someone did
not come cheer me up. yes, I am weird like that now.) I just thought of
something that happened that day and it totally destroyed that great
depressed feeling I had going on. I really felt good about it after I was
done because I hadn't cried since the ¨YOUR ALL ROTARY EXCHANGE STUDENTS!¨
day and the Rotex speech. After the crying and the laugh/crying it was over
I looked in the mirror (Don´t tell me you don´t do that. Your face gets all
red and splotchy and for some really it wills you to look at it) and felt
calm about what I needed to do and how I wanted to finish the rest of my
exchange year and live my life.
My family and I went to Ponferrada for two weeks during the Christmas
holiday and I had the best trip and new years of my life while still having
time to have the worst Christmas Eve. Life is fickle that way. We got there
on Christmas Eve and I went to dinner my host parents´ parents and their
friends. Now just for that to settle in my host parents are 60 and 55. Their
parents and their friends are in their late 80s early 90s. It was a very
strange night between getting yelled at for being American and being told
how ignorant and stupid Americans are. Then I went to bed. The end. haha
it´s not exactly my ideal white Christmas fantasy. The next day was much
much smoother. I met the other younger half of the family and they were all
extremely hilarious and distinct. There were the ones that were pro-Franco,
Monarchists, anarchists, socialists, and communists (my host parents). The
pro-Francos wanted me to kiss their portrait of Franco and the anarchists
wanted me to burn it. I said I´d give him a handshake but we didn´t know him
well enough for first base yet. This joke satisfied almost everyone so I sat
there in the middle awkwardly pleased. The food was as rich and diversified
as the entertainment
That night I went out with my newly met host cousin and her friends. They
were really fun but I´m starting to feel doubt in Spain's wildly
inconsistent taste in music. They love techno and house music, but somehow
balance that with a love for glam and hair heavy metal. The disco we went
didn´t play any songs less heavy or more modern than ¨killing in the name
of¨ by Rage Against the Machine. They had the Christmas Day NBA games on so,
I watched Orlando Magic beat the Lakers and did victory dances to Moterhead
and Metalica for the rest of the night.
The next day we went up into the mountains and on top of a giant dam. you
could see of hundreds of miles around because other than the small mountain
range there, Castille-Leon is as flat as Florida but without viewing
obstacles such as houses or trees or life. It was actually one of the most
incredible views that I had ever seen.... until I went on my daytripping
tour of northeast Spain. After that the view from the dam seemed like an
everyday occurrence like going to school or getting your hair cut (they just
never do my hair exactly how I want it so I keep going back. I think they
have a pretty good business model)
I´m just amazed how nice the people are here! They are like Canadians or
something. If I ask a random person on the street where a good restaurant or
tourist site is they don't just tell me. they show me, even when the place
is like 6 blocks away. It´s like ¨hey can I take 30 min out of your day so
you can bring me on a mini-tour of your town?¨ ¨Why sure random American who
speaks Spanish!¨ They are that cool. Things are going well and I´m looking
forward to the rest of the ride. |
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July 6 |
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So
finally it´s here! Summer. All the Spanish have been telling me that the
Costa del Sol is the place to be during the summer with David Guetta at the
discos and the beaches fill up with foreigners in bikinis.
Also finally all my friends in university get back from Salamanca, Madrid,
Granada, and Barcelona. I was super excited. I´m pretty sure this was one of
the first things they told me. "Heeyy so were you here for summer?" "Uh no."
"Wow, man you missed out big." Summer fun is taken very seriously here. I
couldn't wait for all the excitement to start. Too bad when they say
¨summer¨ they really mean ¨July and August¨. See, the thing is the majority
of the universities in Europe don't let out all of their students until mid-
July which for me is like a year without a Santa Claus or 4th of July (read:
things not really celebrated in Spain). I
I´m leaving my home here on the 5th of July so times running out for me in
la Costa del Sol but I like to think that I´m making space for another
person to experience this great country. |
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July 26 |
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As a truly profound philosopher once noted, "Life is like a box of
chocolates. You never know which one you're gonna get". Life is full of
choices and results but sometimes these two do not correlate. Making a
decision that seems to lead to happiness or enlightenment sometimes ends up
leading somewhere unexpected. You may reach for that nice heart-shaped
chocolate, which you are sure is caramel filled, only to find it to have all
the charm of eating straight toothpaste.
Foreign Exchange is like picking up that nice heart-shaped chocolate,
which you are sure is caramel filled, only to find out..... it is not. At
first bite you are thinking, "Hey this isn't what I bargained for! I'm a
caramel kind of guy" but then you get to the second stage of it's sensation
and it's much sweeter than it's initial state. It then wistfully dissolves
with a bittersweet aftertaste left like a lump in the back of the throat.
It's a much more complex flavor than that mere caramel you had beseeched the
chocolate gods for. You then are forced to ponder.... what if I had chosen
the caramel-filled one I had so wanted? As said by the great American poet
Robert Frost,
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
One symptom of reverse culture shock is a newfound struggle with the English
language. To my immediate frustration and my friends infinite amusement,
common English words that I've spent my whole life speaking now oafishly
stumble along like my father after the magic tea cups ride. They vomit out
but never in the order nor context that I desire. I can't even figure out a
good style of writing to use for this journal. I want to play the role of
the deep thinker in here but my own feelings and doubts are damaging the
script!
I guess I'm going to have to get used to mixed feelings for a while. Can I
seriously be pathetically overjoyed? Or happily depressed? Excited to be
home but sad to have left all my friends in Spain ? There is a moment of
reflection at the end of any trip but this year in Spain will probably keep
me contemplative for years to come. This poem by Elizabeth Coatsworth helps
put into perspective the feelings I have for Spain and the hope I feel to
come back to it someday...
What is once loved
You will find
Is always yours
From that day.
Take it home
In your mind
and nothing ever
Can take it away.
With pride I can report that I am now a much greater help at the Way Clinic
in Green Cove Springs. I volunteer as a translator for the medical staff and
check the patients in for treatment. Without this year abroad It wouldn't
have been possible to help as much as I am now. Thankfully, with the help of
the RYE Florida program I have this opportunity to volunteer at a great
organization and be a benefit to our community.
THANK YOU ROTARY FLORIDA !! |
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