Enseñar, aprender, dar y recibir

I was talking with my Spanish mother over lunch about how I was doing with speaking the language and making friends here. I told her about how I met some Tufts alumnus who had also studied abroad here and were now working in Madrid, teaching English. When she asked if I ever wanted to come back and perhaps live and work here, I realized I never asked myself that yet. But I said that I'm very interested in coming back, but I don't know how or when.

She then began talking about a student she hosted about three years ago, through a different exchange program. The student was only 16 or 17 years old, and she was from Japan, and she was blind. But despite being blind, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and going out with friends and could find her way around the city without the mother's help. She also apparently had an amazing singing voice. One day, the little girl made Maria José (my host mother) sit down and sang 'O Sole Mio and it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever listened to.


Maria José kept on repeating, with her hands on her heart, that she doesn't know about us (meaning study-abroad students), but she learns so so much by hosting us. "I don't know if you all learn anything from us, but we learn so much from you." I almost burst into tears >.<, trying to say that we also learn so much from host families and that we're given such a valuable experience.