Day 5 Adventures – May 12, 2022

Today, our group took a trip to Cruz Roja (Red Cross)— one of 29 locations in Alicante, Spain. We learned about how the Red Cross uses technology similar to Life Alert to help keep the elderly safe in their daily lives with a watch, belt, or necklace button that they can press to receive emergency help. There is also an app that, when needed, can send emergency services to one’s location to help young women feel safe when going out at night. This app and the physical button option are also frequently given to those suffering from domestic violence. They also have programs for addiction in the homeless population, a call center to keep in touch with their elderly weekly or sometimes even daily, comprehensive assistance for refugees, and methods to reduce the spread of STI’s.

After touring Cruz Roja and learning what they do there, our group had the opportunity to play an interactive game based on real life situations that highlighted the difficulties faced by refugees from all over the world. The activity demonstrated the variety of causes for needing to leave one’s home country like fleeing persecution due to: war (Ukraine and Syria examples), conflict between families due to interracial marriage (Nigeria example), or even one’s sexuality (Honduras example). Featured is a photo of three students’ success of the Ukraine scenario of the game, where the husband sacrificed himself by getting arrested while his wife and child fled; the family was then reunited when he was released from prison.

After the tour, we went home for lunch with our host families. Then, we reunited for a debrief session in the park in Plaza de Los Luceros. Each student shared two things they had learned about themselves and one observation about the difference between Spanish and American culture. The beautiful park and the students seated in a circle on picnic blankets are featured below.

Once the reflection was over and before heading home for dinner with host families, a group of students went on a shopping trip. Alicante is full of all kinds of shops, from big name brands like Zara (picture featured on the escalator of one of seven floors in the store) to smaller stores like Ale-Hop which is found only in Spain and has hats, shoes, bags, and all kinds of fun accessories. After shopping, we all headed home to prepare for our trip tomorrow to… Granada!

-Jamie Warner

Tiempo Libre Para Explorar (Day 4 – May 11, 2022):

Today, we had the morning off from formally scheduled activities and were free to explore Alicante on our own.  Just like any other day, we tried to accommodate as many activities as possible to make the most of our day.

Brianna, Emi, Brittany, and Eveling took the morning to explore Santa Barbara Castle and appreciate its spectacular scenery.

Meanwhile, Britt, Nicolle, Ela, Taylor, Emily, Mia, Jamie, and I made plans of our own for our time off.

To start, we met up at Plaza de Los Luceros at 10:00 am to get some coffee and breakfast from a café. I definitely recommend ordering some churros and hot chocolate to dip them in if you haven’t tried this already. The hot chocolate was very rich and thick, but that made it good for dipping the churros. I asked the manager of the café to take a group photo of us and we almost lost Emily’s phone… not actually though. He pretended to walk away with it for a second and then turned back around, chuckled, and handed it to Emily. We all got a good laugh and had a great start to our day.

From the Café, we ventured to El Mercado Central to re-explore this venue with some more time than we had yesterday.

Along the way, we stopped at a small perfume shop to see what it was like there.  I have to admit, it was nice to get the opinions of the chicas before purchasing a cologne.  I’m grateful that they didn’t let me get the really strong cologne and seem like a fool. Thanks again y’all!

Once we arrived at El Mercado Central, we noticed many stands that we didn’t see previously and some of us bought food from these stands. Jamie bought ham and a few different types of cheeses to sample with our group. Emily tried a pastry that I remember Vinayak telling us about yesterday. This pastry is called Coca Mollitas and is a staple of Alicante. I tried it, and honestly, I’m not sure what I thought of it. It had a unique texture and lacked flavor. To me, it tasted a bit like a saltine cracker. That would make sense given that it is typically the base of pastry and bread in Alicante. It is intentionally bland. On my way out of the Mercado, I bought some jamon serrano and chorizo from one of the stands to have in the coming days.

Laura joined us and then we were on our way to El Corte Inglés, a 7-story store that has much to offer. It was bit pricey, so none of us bought much there. At least the Starbucks in front of it sold drinks at a cheaper price than in the U.S. Jamie and I took advantage of this and treated ourselves to some beverages.

From there, we all split off to have lunch with our host families. Afterwards, we returned to our regularly scheduled program. At 4:00, our group met at our usual rendezvous point: Plaza de Los Luceros. From there, we walked together to the Cede de la Universidad de Alicante to meet Rafael Alcazar, a forensic social worker. Señor Alcazar gave us a very insightful lecture on “The Role of the Social Worker in Legal and Judicial Settings.” As a Psychology major, I was very interested in hearing about the role of social psychologists within the legal system and enjoyed hearing about how cases involving children are handled in court. Although he was not fluent in English, he spoke it well, communicated with us effectively, and sparked many questions in us. So, given the lively group we have, you can bet that we were very active in the Q&A. Before we left, we took a group picture with Señor Alcazar and thanked him for his wisdom and time.

Wow, that was a lot for one day!  Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun.  I hope everyone had as great a time today as I did.  Looking forward to the rest of the week!  Maybe there could be just a little less walking in the coming days though, because after going all over town today, my legs hurt.

– Ethan Skidmore

Third Day Shenanigans – Day 3 (May 10, 2022)

Today was our first official day that started in Alicante, at least that’s what I think. We were able to wake up in a whole new country and enjoy a light breakfast with some of our host families. My travel buddy, Nicolle, and our new neighbor, Ethan, joined at the lobby ground level of our building and walked over to the bus station to meet everyone in the program at the usual Plaza de Los Luceros for the morning meetup. It seems like we are the only ones in the group who have gained experience (and confidence) with the public transportation in Alicante. Thank you for the extra croissant Ethan. Armando and Vinayak met with us to explore more of Alicante’s beautiful landmarks such as the Mercado Central.

Inside the Mercado, we learned about the quirks of Alicante’s nutrition and routines. Most of the people of this city go to market everyday to buy small things for that day’s meals based on what is in season, best catch, or simply best made by competing sellers in the market. Compared to the Publix supermarkets in Florida, this way of life allows for interesting fluctuations in people’s diet and conversations with sellers on where the food is from and how to prepare all those fresh foods. 

Afterwards, we got to use the Tram to get to the Universidad de Alicante. There we met with Professor Cynthia Miguelez and her students in the department of translations. They were super friendly and one woman, Paola, told me how she wants to do translations for anime! We explored the university campus a little bit, with flowers growing everywhere, and met together with a social work professor. Professor Mari Carmen Pérez Belda gave us a lecture in English on the evolution of social work in Spain and how it has developed and been given emphasis in society over the coming history such as the impact from Franco’s Regime and the Big Recession of 2008. 

From there, almost 50 of Alicante’s social work students flooded the room and we grouped up with them to discuss our cultures, politics, and social issues to see where we had similarities and differences. Nicolle and I talked to interpreters and social work students about racism, the intersection with poverty, and aid with people with disabilities. It was great meeting people from an entirely different country who share the same passions and motivation to repair the world or connect people beyond language barriers. Some of the other people from our program actually got their phone numbers and social media to meet with them another time! From there we all went back home for siesta and la comida (lunch). Later we met up with everyone in our program to reflect and meditate on the day and the program. It was a long day!! Now my ankles look swollen. – Ella Wdowinski

Day 2 (May 9, 2022)

We started our second day the same way we finished the first, still traveling. We have one more flight from Madrid to Alicante. I’m very tired but I can’t sleep on planes and I’m going on 18 hours of no sleep. Some of us went and found coffee while we waited to board our flight.

We finally made it to Alicante and are on the bus on the way to meet our host families. We drove on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea which is very pretty.

We all our now with our different hosts families and our host mom lives right by the beach so we have a beautiful view. She is very kind and she made us pasta for comida.

We then unpacked and showered and took advantage of siesta before we headed to meet up with the group for dinner.

For dinner we went to a pizza place and a lovely drunk man showed up. The pizza was delicious. After, some of the girls and I went to get ice cream. 

We then walked back to the house and went to bed because we were so tired from traveling. – Hannah Maingot

Journey to Alicante (May 8, 2022)

Our journeys began in several places as most of our group flew out of Tampa, I came from Orlando, with one participant traveling all the way from California. With travel came many layovers and for some unexplainable reason a myriad of misshaps. My journey started with little to no sleep the night before take-off, because I was so nervous about traveling that I couldn’t stop packing and repacking my bags. As a chronic over packer I thought just this once I would be able to travel carry-on only with no issues, but I was wrong. With my first flight came a missed opportunity to utilize TSA precheck and a last minute checked bag. I had managed to get through security with four small bags, but once I got to my gate I had to check one bag and consolidate before boarding my flight; I was the last to board, but I made it. My second flight had a four hour layover,  and was the most uncomfortable flight. Upon arrival in Madrid I quickly realized that I was not going to make my next flight. After a lot of running around and confusion about where my bag had gone, I found out I needed to rebook my flight. All was well until I went through security, and listened to what I can only assume was a conversation in which the security guards were trying to determine if I had taken something from the plane. After much deliberation, they decided to believe me when I said I had purchased the item on Amazon due to the lack of airline markings.  After traveling solo for an entire day, I relieved to be reunited with my group members. Seeing the group was a relief, especially since this flight would be the final stretch on our journey to Alicante. We had traveled halfway around the world, for nearly 24 hours, and to say I was exhausted was an understatement. After a long day of travel we finally made it to Alicante, and tomorrow is when the real fun begins. I can’t wait to see what awaits us as this long held dream of visiting Spain begins to unfold. – Julie Wynn

Pre-Departure Orientation (May 2, 2022)

On May 2, 2022, 15 students (one of which was attending online all the way from California!) met with Dr. Carrion and Dr. Joshi for orientation in order to prepare for the trip. We had a day filled with getting to know each other activities, guest speakers, an introductory lesson to international social work, some delicious snacks, & much more. We also discussed social justice issues and how the role of social workers has evolved over time in these communities.

One of our guest speakers was Professor Melania Macip-Billbe, LCSW who completed USF’s MSW program and is also from Barcelona, Spain! She was able to give us a lot of information about the history of Spain and why there may be conflict among the citizens. She was also able to give some insight on the populations and services that need the most attention. We were lucky enough to have someone who grew up in the Spanish culture because we were able to get some firsthand tips and advice about adjusting to the culture while abroad.

The other guest speakers, Jenny & Ariana, are previous students who attended the Spain Study Abroad trip a few years prior and were able tell us about their experiences as well as answer some questions we had to put our minds and anxieties at ease. At the end of the day, we felt much more informed and prepared for this trip and are (im)patiently waiting for our arrival in Spain! – Brianna Leigh

Two students completing a “Getting to know you” activity with a student joining online.