CMC offers Cultural Journey to Spain
“The first most amazing thing I have noticed about Spain is it comes alive at night,” wrote Annabelle Allen in a newsletter home from Madrid during Colorado Mountain College’s Spring Semester in Spain in January 2007. She told of getting up the next morning and walking to the Museo del Prado, where she saw all of the paintings she’d studied in her art history class the previous semester. “Las Meninas was my favorite and definitely the most spectacular! The architecture is so beautiful, and you can feel the history.”
Allen is just one of many CMC students who has studied Spanish language and culture through the college’s Spring Semester in Spain. More people will be able to experience the culture and language of Spain in February 2010 when Colorado Mountain College professor Mary Ebuna leads students in a Cultural Journey to Spain.
The class starts with a week of cultural exploration of Madrid, Spain’s capital, with its museums, monuments, theater and flamenco restaurants. Students then spend a day in the historic capital, Toledo, home to the revered painter El Greco. Those enrolled in the class walk the ancient city walls of Avila, have lunch overlooking the Roman aqueduct in Segovia and explore the castle where the Catholic kings planned the re-conquest of Spain.
Those taking the shorter, three-credit-hour course spend the next two weeks with host families in Granada. The students attend classes every morning and walk the narrow lanes of Granada to discover more history and culture at every turn, including the world-renowned, historic Alhambra Palace and its gardens. Students meet in the little teahouses in the Albaicín (Arab Quarter) to study, converse in Spanish and compare notes with other students from all over the world.
Students can also choose to register for the Independent Spain Semester, in which they stay an additional nine weeks in Granada. In addition to the three culture credits earned in the first part of the course, they can earn up to 11 credits of Spanish.
Many students plan their college career around a study abroad program because they know that learning doesn’t take place only in the classroom. Colorado Mountain College students can earn credits doing “amazing” things in Spain for a semester, says Ebuna. “Many find a new self-awareness, new direction and new motivation for their future studies,” she adds.
Participants include full-time CMC students and community adults who are looking for a learning vacation in February. The college still has room for a few more students for spring semester 2010; students should inquire now to get a place on the roster. To find out more, contact Ebuna at (719) 486-4224 or mebuna@coloradomtn.edu.