Nate Long Blog 2

Preparing to study abroad and then actually studying abroad can be very difficult to prepare for and then do and it helps if you possess certain skills to help you transition into another culture.  Personally, I feel that my strengths are some of the characteristics I have, two of the most important being my calmness and my self-confidence.  First, how calm and collected I am usually helps me a lot because it helps me to not get as stressed out in many situations.  When it comes to schoolwork, for example, if I have a week coming up with lots of work I tend to not stress and just look at what needs to be done and just get it done as it is due.  As far as self-confidence, I feel that this will go a long way to helping me in Spain.  I think it will be most useful when I find myself in situations where I am not completely sure what is going on for whatever reason I will be able to look past it and know that I will know what is going on next time.  I think that the self-confidence will give me the ability to learn from all situations, even when they aren’t the best for me and apply it in similar situations in the future.  I feel that some of the biggest challenges for me will be forming new friends.  I feel this is something I am not always the best at because I am generally quiet around people who I do not know well and I feel this may be even more true when talking in another language.  This is where I feel that I should learn more about the media around me upon arrival so as to see what is popular in that location.  For example, as suggested on the “Culture Learning Strategies Inventory” I could read local newspapers to find out about current political and social issues in the country.  I think expanding this idea further to other media outlets would be useful to learn more about the way of communication and what people talk about most.  Lastly, as an American I think I want to prove to the people that I meet in Spain that many of the negative stereotypes are untrue.