For those of you (anyone?) that have kept up with my blog for a while, you will have probably seen the bucket list that I created and aimed to complete whilst I was living in Spain. Well, my year abroad has ended and so my time is officially up – time to see how well I did!
Overall, I had eleven things on there and I’m pretty pleased that I managed to tick off eight, which were:
- Order some food
- Have a phone call in Spanish
- Take a class in something
- Teach English to somebody
- Practise my Spanish with locals
- Travel around Spain (at least 5 other cities)
- Go to the cinema
- Get a haircut
Which means there were just three things that I didn’t quite manage:
- Go to a gym/swimming pool
I put this on the list because I don’t really like going to new places on my own, and the fact that it was in Spain with a different language made it worse. Despite living across the road from a gym, I never quite made it, because whenever I fancied exercising I just did it in the flat instead. It would have been nice to complete this one, but I’m sure over the year there were plenty of other similar occasions that tested me in this way!
- Learn how to cook something Spanish
Ideally I wanted a Spaniard to teach me something, so I could learn a dish that was perhaps more authentic, or something with a personal twist that was unique to a certain family. I did briefly mention to the host family I was living with that I would like to be taught how to make something, and she seemed willing enough, but I didn’t ask again for fear of pestering her, so it never happened. But the good thing about this one is that, technically, I don’t have to be in Spain to do it. So, whilst it might be late, I will endeavour to learn to cook something Spanish over the next year!
- Watch a Spanish film/some Spanish TV without subtitles and understand the majority
This has been a goal of mine for a long time, so I thought my year abroad would be the perfect opportunity to finally tick it off my list. However, living with a 7-year-old meant that the TV was almost always turned onto the Disney Channel, which not only didn’t really appeal to me, but also was originally in English and dubbed into Spanish. As well as that I don’t tend to watch a lot of TV, so it never occurred to me naturally to spend half an hour in front of the TV to relax. Again, this will still be achievable from England thanks to modern technology so I don’t have to kick myself too much for never getting round to this!
Of course, when I wrote my list, I wanted to complete everything on there. However it was only intended as a bit of fun and a way to challenge myself, and if became too obsessed with it then it would just become a chore and worry more than anything else. With that in mind, I’m pleased with what I managed to achieve over my 9 months in Spain, and glad that I did manage to do the ones that I most wanted to.
Having slightly more things on the list than I could do meant that there was also a next challenge in mind, which helped me to focus on something. I found that very useful when I was having a not-so-good day! And finally, if I ever go back to Spain, I can pick right up where I left off!
Life of a Language Graduate 