OGP’s Peer Advisor Explores: Maria’s Travel Videos

Studying abroad is about immersing yourself in your host environment and creating a life in a new city, as well as exploring nearby countries and discovering even more cultures. During her time in Paris, Peer Advisor Maria Giménez Cavallo filmed the best sights when visiting other cities in order to create these short travel videos.

The “OGP’s Peer Advisor Explores: Maria’s Travel Videos” are a monthly series to bring snippets of the foreign experience to Columbia students who may be thinking about studying abroad and are looking for places to visit. Watch Maria’s first videos on:

 

Spanish homestay

I had the (mis)fortune of being able to experience both the best and worst of home-stay experiences. I picked my roommate during the orientation trip before we arrived in Madrid. Our host-mom (our senora) was Lola, a pharmacist with two daughters around our age and lived smack in the middle of Madrid. The pictures of the room were from strange angles and it looked quite small but we were very excited to meet her,move in, and maybe even make friends with our “sisters.” However the situation didn’t pan out quite as smoothly.

It turned out that it wasn’t a camera trick that made our room seem so small, it was in fact tiny. Barely two twin beds fit, and neither the closet nor entry door could open all the way. The tipping point though was the lack of a window in the room. We were essentially living in a closet. We didn’t want to immediately complain though so we gave it a try. We soon realized that this was more like a boarding -house than a home stay. We barely spoke with Lola, and never with her daughters. Additionally, an unidentified person in the house would smoke even though we had specifically stated we could not live in a smoking house. My roommate and I were very unhappy in these conditions and contacted the housing liaison with our program. She was very attentive to our issues and had us weigh all our options before making a decision After much debate and deliberation (this apartment was in the CENTER of Madrid)  my roommate and I decided to look for a new home-stay. We interviewed two other “Senoras” and decided to live with Maria Antonia who lived slightly outside of Center. We were scared but moving was the best decision we could have made.

Our new bedroom was huge and had french doors that opened onto a balcony with tons of natural light. More importantly, we now had a Senora who loved conversing with us and having us around. We immediately felt like her “ninas” but she allowed us our space and didn’t infringe. An important aspect to keep in mind with host families is respect. In my first home-stay the respect was lacking and you could tell. With my “Senora” there was mutual respect on both sides. If we had any concerns, we made sure to voice them to Maria Antonia and not just bottle them up and visa versa. Home-stays can feel awkward at times, but just like in most circumstances, it’s important to push past the awkwardness to get the most of the situation.