From Spain to New Orleans: A Foreign Exchange Student’s Journey to an HBCU
October 30, 2022
Hello y’all my name is Lara and I’m an exchange student from Alicante, Spain. I’m in the mass communication program here at Xavier, but in my Spanish university, I take courses in advertising and public relations.
First of all, I have to talk about the hard decision of leaving all my family and friends and traveling 8,000 kilometers to start school, in a different country as an exchange student. Personally speaking, it’s a beautiful experience with negative and positive parts. I really wanted to come, it’s my first time in the United States.
New Orleans is a very cute city, I love it. In fact, when I look at Google maps, I thought it was a beach here, but then my friends told me it was a lake, that was so disappointing. I live next to the beach in Spain, and I miss it so much. Also, we don’t have hurricanes in Spain, so the presentation about what to do in case of flooding, tornadoes or hurricanes definitely scared me a little bit.
Talking about HBCUs, in Spain we don’t have them. And coming here, I’ve learned that an HBCU stands for historical Black college or universities. Their purpose was to provide Black youths the opportunity, where they were discriminated for attending established colleges and universities. Attending a Black college, I’ve learned facts of Black history, and lots of things more than in my Spanish university that we don’t study. For example, in my Media Criticism class, we’ve learned the typical Black male stereotypes in American movies.
One of the most different things that I’ve noticed is the food. I have to say that literally everything is spicy, even pasta. From where I am we don’t eat too much spicy food. We like Tortilla de Patatas [Spanish omelet], Paella [rice dish], Gazpacho [soup] and a thing called “ir de tapas” [small appetizers]. I’ve never seen that here. A few weeks ago I went to a Spanish restaurant in New Orleans with my friends and it was hilarious, and so spicy too!! Nothing in common with real Spanish food. I really miss it. One curious thing is that in Spain we don’t have mac-and-cheese.
In Spain, we have lunch at 2-3 p.m. and we have dinner at 9-10 p.m. For my first days, it was a little bit strange having lunch at 12 and dinner at 6. Then at night I was so hungry!
