¡Bienvenidos amigos! My name is Amanda and I’ve been a MOJO Blogger and internship abroad student in Seville, Spain for the past two and a half months. Perhaps you’ve read some of my other blog posts about life here in Seville, but I thought it would be a nice change to take time to introduce myself and tell my story. This feels kind of like that moment in Wizard of Oz, when they finally unveil the green curtain to reveal the anassuming person behind the scenes. Okay, well maybe this isn’t the same thing...I just really like the Wizard of Oz. Cheesy antics aside, let me explain a little bit about my journey to CEA.
As a Global Studies major, I’m required to study abroad for a semester, complete eight semesters of a foreign language, and obtain an internship in a foreign country. After months of submitting CV’s and cover letters to various companies and organizations in Spain for a potential internship, I found myself getting discouraged by the lack of response. Originally I was just going to do a 3 month internship during the summer, but when I started to explore my options with my study abroad advisor she told me that our university had just recently partnered with CEA. After searching through CEA’s programs on their website, I discovered that they offered a combined internship and study abroad semester program - I had struck gold!
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| The internship crew in Seville, Spain! Me, Marissa (upper center), Brittany (lower center), and Morgan. |
After completing the application, submitting all of my documents, and letters of recommendation, it was time to start the interview process for an internship placement! I had a preliminary phone interview with Sadi, the Internship Specialist, and discussed my experience, skills, and what I was looking for in an internship. Then, I had a Skype interview with Caro, the Internship Coordinator in Seville, and we had part of it in Spanish so that she could gauge my Spanish skills. A few weeks later, I got an email notification from Caro saying that she had found a potential internship placement with a television production company in Seville called Indalo y Media and told me the date and time of my interview. I spent a lot of time preparing, as this was exactly what I was looking for and within a few days I had my Skype interview - I was filled with nerves, especially when we spoke in Spanish but she could tell that I was both excited and determined to obtain this placement.
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| The Set of La Tarde Aqui y Ahora, The show that I work on, at Indalo y Media! |
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| Backstage shenanigans! This is typical headwear that women wear for a type of flamenco called "Verdiales" that originates from Malaga, Spain. |
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| Every day the audience will bring in homemade pastries for the crew. This was for the halloween special... so delicious. |
A week later, Caro emailed me saying that I had been accepted for the internship position! And as of the past two and a half months...I have been loving it. It's entirely in Spanish, which has proved to be quite a challenge. However, it has not only had a huge effect on my language skills, but also on my relationship with my coworkers. They like when I ask them about their language, culture, and colloquialisms and in turn - will go out of their way to explain things to me, express patience, and will always give me chances to take responsibility for important tasks.
Oh, and meeting Spanish celebrities isn't such a bad perk either ;)
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| Impromptu live interview with the show hosts Juan y Media and Eva as I was handing out cookies to the audience. Possibly the most nerve-wracking moment of my life! |
Amanda P. is the Fall 2017 MOJO Blogger and international intern in Seville, Spain. She is currently a Senior studying Global Studies & Communications at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.