By: Sthefany Flores<\/p>\n
International students Sophia Buch\u00f3\u00a0and Irene Carretero are studying at Gardner-Webb for the fall semester to meet the requirements for their education majors in their home school, Universidad de Le\u00f3n\u00a0in Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The United States] is a total different world from Europe,\u201d said Buch\u00f3. \u201cIt certainly gave us both a culture shock.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Spain, there\u2019s less space between homes,\u201d said Buch\u00f3. “It\u2019s strange to drive on your highways and only see trees in the background.\u201d Carretero nodded in agreement to Buch\u00f3\u2019s assessment and added, \u201cEverything here is bigger too, and the food is very different from Spain. Not just the sizing but also the type of foods. We\u2019re not very used to fast foods of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the roads and foods, Buch\u00f3 and Carretero are taking the opportunity to take a few athletic classes\u00a0at Gardner-Webb.<\/p>\n
Carretero has played volleyball for years, but she said that she enjoys the opportunity to try a variety of sports. She has taken advantage of the fact that the athletic courts at Gardner-Webb are accessible to all students without an additional cost unlike her school in Spain. \u201cHere we are free to use the courts as we see fit, and that\u2019s quite amazing,\u201d said Carretero. \u201cGardner-Webb is like an athlete\u2019s paradise to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As international students and native Spanish speakers, they face a variety of challenges including the language barrier, but they maintain a positive attitude toward the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so thankful for the close knit environment that Gardner-Webb provides. We recognize people everywhere, and even our professors know us by name,\u201d said Buch\u00f3. \u201cThe hospitality that the campus has shown us gives us a sense of security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buch\u00f3 and Carrereto plan to explore America in the time that they have been allotted. They have a trip to Disney World planned for their Fall Break, and they hope to see New York, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park during their time in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day here is like an adventure,\u201d said Carretero. \u201cI wake up in the mornings, and I don\u2019t know what I will experience and I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Sthefany Flores International students Sophia Buch\u00f3\u00a0and Irene Carretero are studying at Gardner-Webb for the fall semester to meet the requirements for their education majors in their home school, Universidad de Le\u00f3n\u00a0in Spain. \u201c[The United […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[288,285,286,22,281,282,283,287,86,284,289],"class_list":{"0":"post-1654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-feature","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-education-major","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-gardner-webb-university","12":"tag-international-students","13":"tag-irene-carretero","14":"tag-sophia-bucho","15":"tag-spain","16":"tag-sthefany-flores","17":"tag-study-abroad","18":"tag-universidad-de-leon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}