Katherine Berko is majoring in Psychology and receiving a certificate in Policy, Journalism and Media Studies and a minor in Creative Writing. The fall of her junior year, she participated in the Duke in Madrid program. Here, Katherine shares snippets of her experiences living with a homestay family and taking classes at a Spanish university, as well as some deeper life lessons she learned while immersed in the Mediterranean culture.
On why she chose to the Duke in Madrid program…
“I went to a bilingual elementary school, where we spoke Spanish for half of the day, and ever since then, I have continuously worked toward increasing my fluency in the language. I thought that studying somewhere Spanish-speaking, where I could live with Spanish speakers, was the best way to improve my Spanish. I chose Madrid in particular because I had been to the city before and had fallen in love with its vivacious people, its world-class art museums and stunning architecture. It was a place on my bucket list of cities to live in. I also knew that the Duke in Madrid program was one of Global Ed’s oldest and most well-established programs, so it would not disappoint.”
On being away from home for four months…
“To be honest, I did not miss the U.S. at all – perhaps in part because there was an election going on – kidding! But really, I did not miss it. I could message or Skype with my friends/family if I needed to, and I think I wrote over 100 postcards while away. People sent me letters too, which I hung around my room, but realistically I was too busy speaking in Spanish and exploring my new home to get homesick. Also, having a loving homestay family definitely helped keep the homesickness away.”
On how living and studying Madrid changed her life perspective…
“I have to admit that some of the greatest lessons I received abroad came from living with my homestay family. I lived with a youthful mother and father in their 30s and their two children – an 18-year old daughter and an 11-year old son. I did not see them argue once throughout my entire time in Madrid. They were always laughing, smiling and cracking jokes. The mother and father always cooked together after work and caught each other up on their busy days, and the entire family always sat down to eat dinner together. My homestay parents chose to work fewer hours, with a cut to their paychecks, but this allowed them to spend quality time with each other and their family. The grandmother lived a couple of floors above them in the same building, and she frequently came downstairs to check on everyone or invited us up to eat in her apartment. Living with such a close-knit family reminded me that no time is better spent than with loved ones. Whenever I’m having a particularly tough day at Duke, I close my eyes and think back to my time in Madrid, and I can’t help but smile.”
On what surprised her about the program…
“I was impressed by the number of activities the program planned for us to explore Madrid. Every day, we’d go into the Duke in Madrid office and jot our names down on sign-up sheets for doing things like: hearing Spanish poets read their works in a beautiful baroque building, going to Spanish plays, attending baking classes, hiking with Spanish students in the mountains outside Madrid, touring El Prado with an art historian and so on. I was also surprised by how close we grew to our Duke in Madrid staff; I genuinely miss them. They were so caring and willing to help us with whatever we needed. I loved that whenever the Duke in Madrid program went somewhere outside of Madrid as a group, we had art history professors or architecture professors with us to teach us about things like cathedrals, the Alhambra, the agriculture in Galicia. Most of all, I am impressed by how much I grew to love my homestay family by the end of the trip. I was truly blessed to live with them.”
On what skills she developed/improved while abroad…
“Without a doubt, my Spanish improved tremendously to the point where I was starting to dream in Spanish by the end of my four months there. Sometimes, local Madrileños mistook me for a Madrileña because my accent was so convincing. I also became a better writer and astute observer during my time abroad because I wrote a biweekly column for The Chronicle, how in the world, about my experiences living in Madrid during an election season. Every two weeks, I had to reflect on my recent experiences and create some sort of narrative about it, for the public to read. This meant that wherever I went or whatever I did, I found myself thinking like a journalist. I’m also proud of how much art history I learned while in Madrid. I took an art history class at Universidad Carlos III, and we spent about half of our classes in the various art museums around Madrid. I learned so much at the Prado that one weekend I took some friends there and gave them a tour, describing how one can tell the age of a painting based on how an angel’s halo looks and so on.”
On how her study abroad experience plays into her future…
“I try to keep the Spanish perspective alive in my life back in the United States. I found that whatever the Spanish did, they did with great zest: They dressed stylishly, they only cooked foods from scratch, they laughed a lot and never took life too seriously. At a place like Duke, it’s especially difficult to remember to do the latter, but when I think about my time in Madrid, I certainly try. I also know that I will continue to message my homestay family and visit them in the future – they also know that they can always visit me here in the U.S. And, of course, I know that one day I will move back to Madrid. Those four months were just a start.”
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