“Wait, where are you studying…?”: Why I’m in Bilbao, Spain

The decision to study abroad was, for me, an easy one. When I was in high school, my sister spent a semester in Santiago, Chile – her exceptionally positive experience there put study abroad options high on my list of important aspects of the universities I applied to. As a perspective student, the fact that Loyola offered opportunities to study just about anywhere in the world was a huge plus. When it came to actually picking a program, though, I was overwhelmed by the options. How could I pick just one place out of all of the fantastic options? I considered Australia – I’ve always heard it’s a beautiful country, I already speak the language (score!), and I’m more than a little bit fond of the accents. Or maybe Ireland, where my grandmother’s family is from – the history, the greenness, and the access to the rest of Europe all called to me. Or the Copenhagen program, which sounded incredibly interesting and would introduce me to a new culture. I knew I didn’t want to go to our Rome center, because even though I was sure Rome would be a phenomenal experience, I wanted more of an immersion… but what about Beijing? And the East in general? I couldn’t neglect that side of the world, either; a great deal of my education has been on Western culture and thought, maybe the best use of my semester abroad would be to spend it in Asia, rectifying the imbalance in my cultural awareness.

The more I weighed the options, begged for advice from friends, and researched new programs, the harder the decision became. To be perfectly honest, a big part of me just wanted to stay in undergrad forever, and study abroad everywhere. Ultimately, I met with an advisor in the Office of International Programs, and she helped me narrow down what I wanted out of the semester abroad, and where best to go to get the experience I was looking for. Her suggestion of Bilbao, Spain was one program I hadn’t really considered at all. Being from the southwest, I’d taken Spanish through middle and high school, and was lucky enough to have the chance to visit Spain via a program through my high school. In the short span of a few weeks, we hit Madrid, Seville, Segovia, Granada, Costa del Sol… I knew I was by no means an expert on the country, but I hadn’t really researched any Spanish programs, because I wanted to go somewhere new. I figured that with all the options at hand, why go somewhere I’ve been, even if it was a brief trip? As such, when I first looked into the Bilbao program, it was not exactly an enthusiastic investigation.

Six months ago, all I knew about Bilbao was that it was the home of architect Frank Ghery’s Guggenheim museum. It is a major landmark and architecturally, hugely significant – but of the city around it, I knew next to nothing. The more I learned, though, the more perfect Bilbao started to look. It’s a relatively small city, the 5th largest in Spain, but its location in Basque country means that it is actually a very different kind of Spain than the one I had experienced in high school. Formerly a heavily industrialized area, Bilbao has recently undergone a dramatic revitalization (thanks, in part, to the presence of the Guggenheim) and is currently a fantastic modern city, with plenty of fantastic cultural outlets, a rapid transit system, and a great deal of international business. Surrounded by mountains and just off the coast of the Bay of Biscay, it balances city life with nature in a phenomenal kind of way. The final factor that made me choose Bilbao, though, was the language. One friend, when I asked him for his vote on where I should apply, made a point that really hit home for me: “Australia is gorgeous, sure, but save that for your honeymoon. Don’t waste this semester going on a vacation, challenge yourself! Learn a new culture, get better at a language. Go to Spain.”

I do really love a good challenge.