I had the privilege of spending 9 months studying abroad in Seville, Spain, an experience I would not trade for the world. It was a time of immense growth and change, and I learned a lot about myself, gained independence, and repeatedly pushed myself out of my comfort zone. During my time in Seville, I pushed myself to become involved in the community and to build relationships. As a person who loves (practically needs) to be busy, I decided to fill my schedule with extracurricular activities, including taking piano lessons, joining a choir, and enrolling in a university physics class for math majors, hoping that the universality of music and math would assist me in overcoming the language barrier… not only did I like these subjects, but I was good at them… and aren’t music and math universal?! How different could it be? Piano Lessons I should start by saying that my Spanish was pretty poor when I arrived in Spain, and the Andalusian accent did not help. Trying to enroll in a music school was not as easy as I expected, but after a couple weeks I was successful and registered for weekly piano lessons. As I had 8 years of piano lessons under my belt, the director assigned me to the most difficult and advanced piano teacher. She spoke Spanish with a strong Russian accent, and did not speak a word of English. My piano teacher had high expectations for me. I practiced for one to two hours a day, 5 days a week, but she was always criticizing me. She was appalled when I couldn’t answer her theory questions but she seemed to not understand that it was a language issue, not a lack of knowledge, as I had studied music theory for years, beginning at age 5. When she would ask me a question, I would ask her what a certain word meant and she would be horrified that I couldn’t tell her what “la armadura” (key signature), “el tiempo” (time signature), or “el compás” (measure) was for a certain piece, but I simply didn’t know what they translated to in English. I never seemed to fully adjust to having her yell out a correction every time I hit a wrong note. Trying to apply her corrections on top of having to translate what she was saying proved to be too much for me. She would yell “¡Si bemol!” every time I missed a B-flat or “¡Li!” for A-sharp, which brings me to the biggest difference is between music in the US and in Spain. In the US, we use a “movable do system”, meaning that solfège is applied based on scale degrees, where “do” is always the first degree of a major scale. In Spain (and in several others countries), a “fixed do system” is used, meaning that do-re-mi-fa-sol… correspond to specific pitches, where “do” is always “C-natural”. In addition, instead of “ti” they use “si”. It all took some adjusting to, but overall, I am glad I took piano lessons in Spain because it was a great opportunity to practice and improve both my piano and Spanish abilities! Choir Being enrolled in the music school offered the opportunity to join a “coro de familia”, which was an introductory-level choir open to all students at the school and their families. It met once a week for an hour and a half. There were about 15 of us, covering a wide range of ages, children as little as 5-years-old to mothers in their 50s. Unfortunately, I was the only college-aged person, but I loved the community feel. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming to me. I was the only member with experience singing in a choir so I became the MVP of the group and led the alto section as I had experience harmonizing. We rehearsed Christmas songs in Spanish and Latin. I enjoyed learning the Spanish versions of traditional Christmas songs like “Silent Night”, and although I already knew “O Come All Ye Faithful” in Latin thanks to my many years of singing in the church choir, I had fun learning the alto part. In December, we performed all of our songs at the music school’s winter concert. Being part of this choir gave me the opportunity to meet and build friendships with many Spaniards, practice speaking and singing in Spanish, and share the wonderful gift of music with others in the community. Physics for Math Majors When looking for a study abroad program, I sought out programs that had the option of taking classes alongside native Spaniards. I chose Spanish Studies Abroad Integrated Studies because I could take both Spanish language classes and classes at the university. I enrolled in Física I for first-year students studying math at USEV (Universidad de Sevilla). Everyone’s eyes popped out of their head when I told them which class I was taking at the university. I was their first and only study abroad student to take a STEM class at the university; everyone else took literature, history, psychology, etc. To me, it made sense. I had a strong math and science background and I thought that that would give me a leg up in the class and hopefully make up for the language gap. I also thought that by having a solid foundation of background knowledge, I would better pick up the material and be able to focus on learning Spanish in the class. The physics class was a little intimidating to go to at the beginning. First of all, math majors spend their entire school day in the same classroom with the same students. The class had about 50 students in it and everyone was so confused as to why I was there for only one class twice a week. However, it gave me the opportunity to meet university students, and I ended up becoming close friends with a girl named Paula.  The class met Tuesday and Thursday for two exhausting hours each day. I loved attending class but after two hours, my brain was friend. Frantically scribbling down notes, writing vocabulary and questions to myself to later translate and trying to follow the complex math. It was challenging because the professor spoke extremely fast and didn’t stop to translate or define Spanish words that L2 speakers wouldn’t know. I was the only study abroad student in the class so the focus was purely on the math and physics content, as it should have been. In terms of content, it was at the perfect level of difficulty. I had taken Physics 151 at UMass and had been an SI for the class twice, so after sitting through the class three times and teaching the material, I had a thorough foundation of understanding. However, this physics class was calculus-based, so much so that to me it more closely resembled the three calculus classes I had taken (131, 132, and 233), except in the context of position, velocity, and acceleration. Both the material and language were challenging but I loved it. The material was interesting to me and the building of language skills was rewarding. Unfortunately, in the end I was not able to take the class for credits. The final exam (which was 100% of your final grade or 60% if you had done well on your first exam) was scheduled for January 17^th. My housing in Seville ended in December for the fall semester and didn’t start again until late January, and I already had plans made and plane tickets booked to not only go home for Christmas but to spend 2.5 weeks in India for a relative’s wedding. Despite my requests and efforts, the math department would not allow me to take the exam early or late. However, I got permission to attend the class, which I did for the rest of the semester. Although I would’ve liked to see how I would’ve performed on the exam, maybe it was for the better (and definitely a lot less stressful) as a large percentage of the class failed the exam. Advice My year in Seville gave me invaluable learning opportunities including taking music lessons and attending a physics class. To anyone studying abroad or even just moving to a new place, my biggest recommendation is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone to become involved in the community and meet new people, maybe just read up on Spanish musical terminology or physics vocabulary beforehand. I understand how challenging and intimidating it can be, especially when there is a language and/or cultural barrier, but it is worth it. Getting involved is the best way to not only learn Spanish and culture, but more importantly to build meaningful, lasting relationships.