Hola!
I arrived in Barcelona, Spain 3 days ago, and these past 72 hours have been an absolute incredible time filled with a variety of activities and events that have made this trip such a wonderful experience thus far! Everything about Barcelona has been fantastic ranging from the amazing Mediterranean food, the unique architecture of the city, the different things that are always happening, and of course the culture “shock” has taken some adjusting too but that’s what the whole study abroad experience is about, to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar place with different cultures than yourself and learn from them.
On my first day it was a little hectic because I was suffering from jet lag and had barely any sleep on the plane, and with the 6 hour time change from the eastern coast of the United States and Barcelona, I felt like I skipped a whole nights sleep and was expected to be ready for another day! It’s something I had never experienced before and definitely won’t forget, but the time spent doing different things on the first day really helped me overcome my sleepiness and immerse myself in the Spanish culture. We took a group excursion around the entire city via bus, which lasted roughly 2 hours but was really interesting because of the amount of information they gave us regarding the history of their sports (1992 Olympic games & FC Barcelona) as well as the artistic background (Antonio Gaudi & Pablo Picasso) that helped contribute to the city’s beautiful architecture.
On day number two we went on a tour of the Gothic Quarter which began in the Plaza del Angel which was cool because our guide explained to us about the architecture of the city, when things were built and for what purpose, which really shows the true age of Barcelona. After this we gathered as a group and got all of the information regarding the classes we were taking over the next month and a half. The rest of the day was spent at the beach and exploring the city even more including the Plaça de Catalunya and the Barcelona Cathedral.
Today was the first day of classes and I really think I’m going to enjoy both of the classes that I’m taking which are International Marketing Strategies and E-Commerce and Online Business. Both of my professors seem like they know what they’re talking about and are very happy to be teaching students from America about the ways in which the Spanish education system works as well as helping us learn and grow in their culture during our stay here.
This upcoming week we are going on a trip to Sitges, Spain and hopefully to a few more places within Spain or Portugal because we don’t have class on Monday so we plan on going somewhere during the long weekend. I’m absolutely loving every part about this study abroad experience so far and am extremely excited to see what these next six weeks have in store for me!
Hasta luego,
Matt Schafer