Great report! Did you notice your Spanish improving over the course of the trip? I went to Mexico City once for 5 days and noticed my ability to read and listen got gradually better over the course of the trip—not sure how this scales up to the B2 level.
Love the use both HelloTalk and Bumble to meet new people. Seems like "random" meetups like this is such a great way to both make some friends and get a real glimpse into the culture/ground level of the place without it being tourist-washed for you.
Any takeaways on the kindness? I think a huge piece of traveling is the learning from other cultures and trying to bring pieces of it back to improve your own culture (e.g., kindness from Spain, trust from Singapore, community from X, etc). (You seem like a very kind person already so probably not much more you can do on that front haha.)
Strong agree on "When we come at travel from this manner, rather from that of openness and a desire to learn, we end up changing the place we are visiting rather than that place changing us." I guess this is just the market adapting to the demands of the customers, which may be better in some sense for the businesses, just at the expense of their roots.
I found that my listening got much better throughout the trip. The mental strain of reading and listening didn't really change though. Think that's more of a long term thing.
Random meet ups are certainly the way to go. Run clubs and being vegan are both very helpful as they are such dedicated subcultures with a lot of built up trust. You don't have to do much else besides tell me you're vegan for me to instantly trust and respect you much more than the average person.
I think a big takeaway from Spain for me is to just make meal times more social. People in Spain seem much more well adjusted socially than most Americans (of course there are many many exceptions), and I think this is literally just because they get much more practice on a daily basis. I'll talk about this more in the new years update, but inviting people round for dinner or going out to eat with a group at least a few times a week is something I want to do more of in 2026.
Brillaint breakdown of the extroversion discovery. That tension between authentic local interactions and consumptive tourism is something I've wrestled with too, especially when I did a month in Buenos Aires few years back and realized the best days were just hitting the gym and grabbing coffee with locals ratherthan museum hopping. Language immersion forces that authentic engagement in a way that packaged experiences never can.
Cool to hear you had a similar experience. I’m hoping to spend some time in latin America at some point, so will have to hit you up for contacts when the time comes!
Great report! Did you notice your Spanish improving over the course of the trip? I went to Mexico City once for 5 days and noticed my ability to read and listen got gradually better over the course of the trip—not sure how this scales up to the B2 level.
Love the use both HelloTalk and Bumble to meet new people. Seems like "random" meetups like this is such a great way to both make some friends and get a real glimpse into the culture/ground level of the place without it being tourist-washed for you.
Any takeaways on the kindness? I think a huge piece of traveling is the learning from other cultures and trying to bring pieces of it back to improve your own culture (e.g., kindness from Spain, trust from Singapore, community from X, etc). (You seem like a very kind person already so probably not much more you can do on that front haha.)
Strong agree on "When we come at travel from this manner, rather from that of openness and a desire to learn, we end up changing the place we are visiting rather than that place changing us." I guess this is just the market adapting to the demands of the customers, which may be better in some sense for the businesses, just at the expense of their roots.
I found that my listening got much better throughout the trip. The mental strain of reading and listening didn't really change though. Think that's more of a long term thing.
Random meet ups are certainly the way to go. Run clubs and being vegan are both very helpful as they are such dedicated subcultures with a lot of built up trust. You don't have to do much else besides tell me you're vegan for me to instantly trust and respect you much more than the average person.
I think a big takeaway from Spain for me is to just make meal times more social. People in Spain seem much more well adjusted socially than most Americans (of course there are many many exceptions), and I think this is literally just because they get much more practice on a daily basis. I'll talk about this more in the new years update, but inviting people round for dinner or going out to eat with a group at least a few times a week is something I want to do more of in 2026.
Loved this!
Lol how do you read so fast Anastasia!
My notifications are on🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️
Brillaint breakdown of the extroversion discovery. That tension between authentic local interactions and consumptive tourism is something I've wrestled with too, especially when I did a month in Buenos Aires few years back and realized the best days were just hitting the gym and grabbing coffee with locals ratherthan museum hopping. Language immersion forces that authentic engagement in a way that packaged experiences never can.
Cool to hear you had a similar experience. I’m hoping to spend some time in latin America at some point, so will have to hit you up for contacts when the time comes!
So sick. I am very jealous.