TOLEDO
“. . .rocky gravity, glory of Spain and light of her cities.” - Cervantes
“…the most brilliant and evocative summary of Spain’s history.” - Cossío

Hola Domers,

My name is Dan Robinette, and I am a junior studying abroad in Toledo, Spain for the 2003-2004 year. Originally I was only going to be here in Toledo for the first semester in the fall. But after spending the first half of semester here in this ancient city and living with a great family I started to realize that I was experiencing something that I will never have the opportunity to experience again in my lifetime.

I live in the Casco Antiguo or the old part of the city, and every morning I wake up and look out my window to see mountains and the river to my right. I see the over a thousand year old cathedral to my left and the sprawling city of small family owned stores and little shops and houses in front that lead all the way up to the city's castle, where King Ferdinand and Isabel lived in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.

Here in Toledo, we do not have classes on Fridays, which have me plenty of time to travel Europe and see more of Spain as well. In Toledo, the nightlife is very exciting and there is always something to do and somewhere to go. I remember calling my friends in the U.S. last semester telling them “this is the best time I have ever had in my life.”

Keeping that in mind, when I had the chance to change my plans and stay for the whole year, I stopped and gave it a lot of thought. At first I was hesitant, because I thought I won't see all of my friends and missing an entire year might hurt me as far as classes. So I looked into these things and found that I would be completely fine, because I could finish my university requirements like history and theology here in Toledo as well as classes for anthropology and Spanish or any other major requirements like business classes and political science. I thought about my friends and realized they will still be there when I go back, and staying another semester gave me the opportunity to make many more new friends from all over the U.S. and in Spain as well. Most importantly, I wanted to learn the language fluently, and one semester is not enough time to accomplish this. As soon as I finally felt comfortable with my family, with the city, and with the language, I was going to have to get up and leave. So I told my self, if this is the best time I have ever had, why pass up the opportunity to keep on enjoying it.

There are also many things here in Toledo that I did not have the time to see and explore first semester, so I am very happy to have the chance to go back and explore. For any student thinking about studying abroad in any of the programs, I would highly recommend staying for the whole year. One semester is great, but is not enough time if you want to truly get to know the culture and the people and be able to speak the language. Even more so, when in your lives outside of college will you have to opportunity to be in a foreign county for a whole year without having to work but only to study, learn, and have fun.

And so far I am very happy with my decision to stay. I am meeting many new people even many from Notre Dame whom I didn't know before. We are already making plans to travel across Spain on the weekends and to be here for Semana Santa and The Carnival, two among the many festival that take place across Spain during the spring.

If anyone would like to ask me any questions about my abroad experience or Spain or traveling in Europe, please fell free to e-mail at drobinet@nd.edu . I will post updates about the Domers here in Spain every couple of weeks with pictures and information about what we are doing.

Sincerely,
Dan Robinette