Back when I was getting ready to go to Spain for the semester, my parents wanted to make sure I knew enough about Málaga so that I wouldn’t come across as a tourist. In order to do this, they asked me various questions about the city and gave me disapproving stares if I didn’t know the answer. One such question was, “What famous people are from Málaga?” I had done enough research to know that Antonio Banderas was from Málaga, but it wasn’t until I arrived that I learned about another famous malagueño: Pablo Picasso. Why do I bring this up? Because I haven’t done very much with this knowledge.

In order to explain what I mean by that, I’ll tell you how I found out that Picasso came from this lovely city: the Dickinson language tutorial classroom. Before I first walked into the classroom, I predicted that its walls would be decorated with posters of verb conjugations or maps of Spain. As it turns out, the nearest map is in the hallway and I haven’t seen a single verb conjugation poster in the entire building. Instead, the classroom is decorated with Picasso pictures, as you can see in this photo. This led me to investigate further, and I learned that there is a Picasso museum in the city center. A few of us were intrigued, but it took us quite some time to get around to picking a day to go. Then, when we did go, we learned that it wasn’t free until later in the day, so we decided not to go.

Why do I feel like talking about this? Well, ever since I was accepted to the Bremen, Germany program for next semester, I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do once I get there, which has led me to think about what I’ll do with the remainder of my time here in Spain. And this means that I’ve been thinking about what I’ve done so far in Spain: How have I decided what to do so far? Should I change my methods?

To be honest, my main method of deciding is letting other people decide: One of the other Dickinsonians thinks of something he or she wants to do and Facebook-messages the rest of us with information, and we individually decide if we want to go. I tend to go because I find the ideas interesting, but I’ve yet to come up with my own idea. Nobody in the group has complained, but I feel bad because it seems like everyone else is doing the work.

So, what can I do to change this? I suppose I could start Googling actividades en Málaga since there’s undoubtedly plenty left to do. And I suppose I could ask my host family for ideas, especially since I need more topics of conversation with them. But overall, I think I need to act on the ideas I do sometimes have, but don’t bother sharing, such as the Picasso museum. In short, I need to do more to make sure I don’t miss anything before I leave.