By Rosa Rejano

The biggest difference that Alyson had noticed between her home town (Athens, Ohio) and this town was the possibility of walking around anywhere in Pamplona

Ever since the first students from Athens, Ohio showed up in our school in the fall of 1997 there's been language exchange in the alleys of our school. Some times inside the classrooms, other times outside, or even those times in the nearby parks (and cafes), this exchange program helped broaden everybody's minds.
Three different groups (fall, winter, spring) make a lot of people for our school. As a last activity after the eight-week program there has always been a sort of interview which compares both the town of Athens and Pamplona/Iruñea.

What follows is the one carried out by student Rosa Rejano to studen Alyson...

Our City Seen from Ohio Rosa and Alyson talk...

It was raining cats and dogs when I was walking around the old part of the city so I decided to have a tea in my favorite cafe.
I just went in and I could see her sitting alone in the farthest table. She seemed very friendly and I went up to her.
Her name was Alyson, 20, and she was from Ohio. Alyson was studying here at UPNA/NUP for three months. We spoke all afternoon because she was very nice and really hilarious. Alyson told me about her experience living here, in Pamplona. The biggest difference that she had noticed between her home town and this town was the possibility of walking around anywhere in Pamplona; "in Ohio the streets are bigger and full of drivers." She loved walking around the city centre: her streets, her monuments, her atmosphere ...

Firstly, she didn't find it easy to meet people from here because she was nervous with the language, but later she met people from Pamplona when she went out because the atmosphere was more comfortable and the people were friendlier.
She said that living here was much too expensive for her because the money exchange was terrrible. Although she thought that the food and drink (especially wine) were cheaper. Alyson liked Spanish food a lot, but it was much too heavy to take some to her country. Really, I think that she was looking forward to her mother's meals.

Alyson told me that she had learnt a lot of Spanish although three months living in a foreign country wasn´t enough to learn a language well. She thought that one year was a better for it. She improved very much our language in her Spanish classes at University. The funniest expression that she had learnt was "de puta madre."
She would have liked to travel around the country to know other cities such as Granada, Seville, Valencia, Salamanca .... so she will come to Spain some other time.

Do you know what was the most important present that she was taking to her country? The Osasuna T-shirt. I don't understand why football can be so popular.