On Monday I had a meeting with my Spain people and I'm totally stoked to go! The more I find out about this program, the more excited I seem to get!
I'm going to be living in Granada, Spain from May 29th to July 1st (ish). I'm going to fly over there with a couple girls from the program, meet my instructor at the Madrid Airport, and take trains/buses down to Granada. Once I get there, I will move in with my Host family and get ready for school the next day!
First day of school: test day! I'll be taking a placement test to see how much Spanish I know and then placed in the corresponding class level. I'm not too worried about this- I've been learning Spanish for 5 years and I think I can handle the complete immersion.
The rest of my month will be a mix of classes, program excursions, and personal excursions. I will be about an hour from the mountains in one direction and an hour from the beach in the other. How exciting is that?! I'm scared and nervous, but I know that the experiences will be priceless!
Remember how I love it when my classes all correspond? Yeah.... me too.
We've been talking about the Social Penetration Theory in my Res. Life Class (to be an RA), my Teamwork/Leadership class, and my Nonverbal Comm. class. What is the Social Penetration theory, you ask? Well...
The social penetration theory states that as you get to know a person, you reveal more personal things about yourself. I like to call it the "Onion" theory- as you get to know someone then you let them into the deeper layers of your soul. There are 4 layers to this theory:
1. Orientation: this is the surface stuff that you tell anyone that you meet. What's your major? Where ya from? What's your favorite color? What year are you in school? etc. There is a lot of breadth here, but nothing very personal. Usually you could find these things out if you facebook stalked for a minute (not that I'm guilty of that or anything).
2. Intimate/Exploratory: this is when you start getting to know someone's personal life. This is where you tell stories- "One time at band camp..." or "When I was ice fishing in Alaska...." and the like. You can't find these on facebook as easily, but the information isn't secret either. This is a place that I put a lot of people- I'm pretty open and I like to tell stories, but nothing I tell people is secret either. It's a good place to be.
3. Personal/Affective: This is where close friends and family fit in. This is where you share your drama, feelings, doubts, fears, and anxieties. It's a good place to be, but when it comes to my life, it's really hard to get here. I don't share personal drama/ perceived flaws with just anyone. I'm afraid that people will judge me or take advantage of my trust if I let them into this circle. It's been a long process to find out if I actually could let people get to know me this way, but I can confidently say that I've been better about it this year! My close friends and family are so great!
4. Core: This is the super secret stuff. The stuff you don't tell ANYONE. In RA class they said that the only people that know each other on this level are married couples. Needless to say, my deep dark core is NEVER shown to the outside world. We don't want people to see how weird I really am :]
Thanks for Reading!