Harvey Scholar Travels- Hailey M. in Spain

I found out on the day that I arrived in Barcelona that my internship would be assisting the Federació Esportiva Catalana Paralítics Cerebrals, the Paralympic boccia team of Catalonia. While it has no Olympic equivalent, the rules and design of the game is similar to bocce ball. Beyond the rules, the skill and precision of the athletes elevate boccia far above a mere garden game. The team trained every evening during the work week except Thursdays, and I was paired up with a man named Fido and his original assistant, Gloria. When playing boccia competitively, athletes are separated into classes based on how they play the game. Some athletes throw the balls unassisted and other athletes work with an assistant in varying degrees to allow them to play the game. Fido works closely with an assistant (for the summer, that was me) and a ramp set-up. When an assistant is involved in the game, the athlete faces the court and the assistant faces the athlete. This way, the assistant cannot see what is happening on the court, and all decisions are being made by the athlete. The assistants job is to take direction from the athlete on how to situate the ramp. Heights, angles, and positions are all taken into account, and the entire process is much more involved that it looks. Fido knew his ramp and his set of balls so well that he could manage to play the game with an incredibly impressive precision. Language barriers seem like an insurmountable obstacle up at first, but I found that the more I worked with these two amazing people toward a common goal (training), we were able to reach a point of communication that was beyond language.

The Castellers of Catalonia were one of the things that was repeated to me over and over before my arrival as one of the spectacles that I could absolutely not miss. The building of castells, or human towers, dates back to the 18th century (so relatively recent for a Spanish tradition) originating in Valencia as part of a religious dance routine meant to show gratitude to the Virgin Mary. Since then, the dance has phased out but the towers and the accompanying music live on. UNESCO officially added the castells to the list of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage Humanity in 2010. Castellers usually perform and compete at the climax of large festivals in the Catalonia region. I finally had the opportunity to go see a few Casteller teams with my own eyes at the Raval barrio festival.

After finally having some time to sit and breathe, I have been looking back on my summer and thinking…”Wow. Just, wow”. I know that everyone says that travelling changes you and that you’ll never forget it and it’ll be the most incredible experience of your young adult life…and while I am not sure if I am far enough removed from the summer to comment on all that quite yet, I am sure that I can look back on the last 2 and a half months with endless gratitude and wonder. I have a lot to be grateful for: the people that got me here with both financial support and a seemingly boundless belief in me (shout-out to the CSM Harvey Scholars, the McBride Honors Program, and my mother), the people that I met while travelling, the places and cultures that I experienced. But I think I am most grateful for, in retrospect, for the challenges and the hard moments and the sticky spots that I encountered. It was the language barriers and the culture shock and the need to rely completely on myself that brought me the highest highs of the summer. I got to really test my resourcefulness and my ability to figure out situations where it seemed I was in deep over my head.

This summer has made me even more curious about, well, everything. There is just so much beauty in this world, if you just have the courage to ask for it. Beauty in people, beauty in knowledge, beauty in a hole-in-the-wall place that only the locals know about. There is beauty in getting terribly lost in a new city and learning to ask for help (in whatever language is necessary). Beauty lies in the triumph of being able to give directions in a foreign city (seriously, it’s a freaking awesome feeling) and feeling like you made a little piece of home halfway around the world. But the best part is the beauty that you find in retrospect, looking back on the day or the week or the summer and saying to yourself “Wow. I did that. And if I can do that, what else can I do? Really, what can’t I do?” This is where I am. After this unspeakably incredible summer, I am entering my last year of engineering school and preparing to graduate. And what will come after that? I don’t know yet, but I do know that whatever it is, I can do it.