Hello blog people! What a week. Starting my third week of my internship today! But some fun updates first. Last weekend, I traveled to Valencia for a little beach getaway which was amazing, probably one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to and now I need to go back. My friends and I spent the first day lounging on the beach and getting to know each other better. The second day, my friend (who happens to be originally from Valencia) acted like our tour guide and showed us around her city. SO great, so much history and architecture I would’ve been able to spend so much more time there. It was a great way to relax after a long work week. Back in Madrid, I took advantage of the many art museums in the mornings. Since I don’t need to arrive at my placement until 2:30 in the afternoons, I get to explore all morning before I leave. This past week, I went to the Museo del Prado, the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, and did some vintage/thrift shopping in a nearby neighborhood. The Thyssen museum was definitely my favorite. The pieces were donated by the Thyssen family who have, over years and generations, collected a museum’s worth amount of art. I really liked how it was set up because you essentially walk through different eras of art and see how the style has changed over the years. There was also a really cool special exhibit called De ballenas which was a big room with a bunch of beanbag chairs that face a screen that was playing what I think is supposed to be a representation of what whales would see when they swim around. There was also some jazzy, lowfi, whale-sounding music playing, and I was so close to falling asleep, it was so peaceful. I have loved my mornings so far, I have plans to explore a new neighborhood during this coming week, and I am getting tickets for the Reina Sofia, Madrid’s most famous art museum. 

My internship has been going well so far, in the past week I have received more responsibility and have been feeling more and more comfortable with my role. The language barrier has remained difficult, but I have been finding it easier to understand and communicate during my shift. Since many of the kids we work with at the center are young and learning to speak or nonverbal, much of the conversation during sessions is very basic and I am able to understand all of it. However, occasionally when a child must miss their session or there is an empty hour, my supervisor and I will go over evaluations and more statistical data of the patients. These times are more difficult because I have never had to learn scientific psychological vocabulary in my classes and the sophistication of the conversation is higher than I am used to. During times like these, I occasionally get mixed up on directions and need my supervisor to repeat something for me. While it is a bit embarrassing at times, I can feel myself getting better as the days go on. Another bit of unclear instructions has come when my supervisor needs to talk to patient’s parents without their child present, and she asks me to take over the therapy session for a short period. The first time I was asked to do this, I was taken aback and a little flustered. However, I had watched these sessions enough to know, basically, what the right formula of activities were and got along just fine. Now, I have been left working with kids for longer periods of time and I understand that my boss trusts me to work with them without her supervision. Last Friday, I was left with a few kids throughout the day and before I left, my supervisor gave me a great compliment, a hug, and told me I shouldn’t go back home at the end of the summer. I was so exhausted from the week, but her comment was extremely validating and has given me a boost of confidence in my ability to do this job. Even though my Spanish is far from perfect, I know that this experience is giving me invaluable exposure to the field and moments of insecurity or uncertainty are the moments where I am going to learn the most.