Hitting books in Barcelona

Aug. 21—A local woman recently had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn the pages of her calendar while enjoying the sights and sounds of different countries.

Carmen Alderman, of Rowan County, is currently a student at the University of Kentucky working toward two bachelor's degrees in communication sciences and disorders as well as psychology.

After her summer adventure, she is now a seasoned traveler at the ripe age of 21; and the memories she has made, and the things she has learned, are things that she will carry with her and cherish for the rest of her life and career.

Alderman said during the past fall semester she had developed an interest in studying abroad but was unsure how to go about it.

"I found out that UK actually has Study Abroad Fairs where you can go and get information, and I went to that," she said.

As it turned out, after turning in information, she chose to attend one of these fairs at exactly the right time.

"When I walked in, they were giving away scholarships for studying abroad this summer. and then I found out I had won one of these scholarships. Once I got that, I was able to pick the location — Barcelona, Spain," she said.

"That was where it all began. and it was a wild ride," Alderman said. There was the application process through UK and their third-party institution first of all, and then the choice needed to be made whether to chose taking classes or an internship, she said.

"I was already ahead on my classes, so I chose the internship to gain more professional experience," she said.

That began the second step of being accepted and being paired with an advisor from UK's third party — International Studies Abroad.

"I had to give her my resume," Alderman said. "And then she dispersed that through companies in Barcelona. After that there was an interview process, and I ended up getting an internship in a private practice in Barcelona."

Traveling proved to be an eye-opener in many ways, Alderman said.

"Before I went, I had goals and expectations," she said. But it was also a little confusing and a somewhat emotional adjustment for her.

"I had never been out of the country," Alderman said. "But the biggest thing I discovered when I got there was the lifestyle difference. It wasn't quite what I was used to here in the United States.

"Their schedule is completely different," she added. "Over in Spain they have a different mindset on work. They have the attitude of working to enjoy the life they have, but in the United States, I would say we work to live. Here we focus more on work itself."

Regardless of the differences in attitudes, Alderman said she was able to learn a lot while abroad. One of her goals had been to develop an accurate global perspective; and that is something in which she succeeded.

"By doing the internship I was exposed to the different cultures, and that also allowed me to gain a lot more self-awareness," Alderman said. "As I engaged and interacted with others there, it allowed me to also take a closer look at my own beliefs and practices."

That lesson and experience is something she said she thinks is invaluable to anyone because we all have a habit of "getting stuck" in our own ways.

"And this really allowed me to have a more open mind of others' views and opinions," she said.

Her travels yielded more than just practical knowledge to Alderman, however.

"It was also a lot of fun," she said. "And what made it more fun was I actually had three roommates while I was over there. They were all from the U.S., and it really eased my nerves knowing there would be other students there I would be able to relate to. They helped make the experience more fun because you can discover more if you all are interested in a lot of the same types of new stuff."

Alderman, who did not speak any Spanish when she embarked on the journey, said it also made things easier that two of her three roommates were fluent in Spanish, removing what might have been a huge impediment to her experiences.

Alderman said she and her roommates were able to enjoy a lot of amazing sights, including one right outside of their apartment, La Sagrada Familia.

"It is a Roman Catholic Church that overlooks everything," she said. "And it was probably my favorite thing to tour while I was there. One of the big differences between there and a big city here is architecture. Buildings in bigger cities here tend to be more modern, but over there all of their buildings are very old. That's something you can't get much of here, but it is everywhere in Spain and the surrounding countries."

Though she definitely appreciated the architecture, Alderman and her roommates also took advantage of travel to other countries as well.

"Going to all the surrounding countries was every bit as interesting as Barcelona itself," she said, "because they are all so different from one another."

The ease of travel was something that impressed her, she said, noting that the size of many of these countries were comparable to individual states within the United States. But each country had a rich history and individual identity, she said.

In Barcelona, in addition to La Sagrada Familia, Alderman said she was impressed by the Gothic Quarter, or "Old Barcelona."

"Old Barcelona is heart-shaped," Alderman said. "But as you spread out from it, the city is laid out in squares. They do a lot of tours, and on one of those tours we learned that when they expanded, we learned they took into consideration things like the sun, disease and just life itself.

"Barcelona is very small with a lot of people, so they learned that their streets had to be a certain width to allow the sun in and not crowd too many people in."

Alderman said prior to going, she expected the experience to be more intimidating and challenging with the language barrier.

"But I discovered that as humans we really don't grow as much in a comfortable area," she said. "I felt that to grow as a person I needed to take the chance this represented, and ultimately it helped me to grow and progress as a person and made me more open minded with other people's viewpoints."