Ever since I began my journey of the Spanish major at the start of my junior year in college, fellow students and faculty alike have been insisting that spending a semester abroad is the be-all-and-end-all of the major and will essentially make or break one’s experience in the program. I have inwardly challenged this idea from the start, not only because I am inherently adverse to rules and what may be considered “the norm”, but also because I had a strong desire to learn Spanish and had heard from too many people that their respective study abroad programs were essentially a college in the US replicated artificially in a Spanish-speaking country.  Of course, I am aware that many decisions made during time spent abroad greatly influence people’s experience with the language (housing choice, language spoken by friends, the amount of conversations started for practice, etc.) and am intent on spending at least a year in a Spanish-speaking country after I graduate.  Because I was lucky enough to attend the summer language school at Middlebury College in Vermont, I had all the Spanish immersion I could ask for without the stress of travel and being in a foreign country alone, which is significant for me because I’m a naturally anxious person. Continue reading →