La fundación de José Ortega y Gasset

La fundación was what we called our small school.  The school has graduate programs for Spanish students and a program for international students (us).  The international program only consisted of students from USD and SMU- a total of about 90 students- so it was a close-knit group.  The teachers were great.. and treated us like family. We called our professors by their first names, and some of them even took us out to restaurants after our last class with them!

Miriam, my Imagen de España professor, and Nacho, our program director, even came out to the bar with all of the students on the last weekend in Madrid!  How often does that happen among professors and students?

The week before finals, we had an end-of-semester party with drinks and tapas. It was kind of emotional, because we were all reminded of orientation in Toledo and how fast the semester went since then, and how much we have learned and gotten to experience. A few students spoke in front of everyone and it was very nice. I personally had already been feeling sad and emotional earlier that day, so I was tearing up during that part. But I don’t think I was the only one…

It is crazy to know that most of us will never see those professors again.

Pictures from the party:                                                                                                                    -group picture of the USD students with professors
-Devin and I with Miriam

-with Estrella, my Conversation teacher

-with Nacho