Yesterday, we landed back in the United States, which has allowed me to further reflect on my time in Barcelona.
These past two weeks have been a whirlwind but in the best way. I’ve learned a little bit of Catalan and a lot about Spanish and European culture.
In the last blog that I wrote, I mentioned that it was Three Kings Day. On that night, we all went to a neighboring street to watch the parade. At first, I thought this parade would predominantly be confetti and candy, but this parade was so much more ? it even brought tears to my eyes. People were dressed up on massive floats, dancing through the streets and singing songs of joy. The performers handed out paper crowns and put magic into the eyes of all the children watching. It was beautiful and one experience I will cherish for years to come.
Throughout the trip, we saw the influence of Gaudi’s architecture all across Spain in the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and several buildings across the city. When I first saw Gaudi’s architecture, I didn’t think it made sense, but when we went to Park Guell, I realized that Gaudi put intense thought behind his designs, like designing park benches that provide back support and columns that catch rainwater. At that moment, his fascinating architecture meant so much more than obscure designs and bright colors.
One thing that Spain is incredibly good at is public transportation. If we could have high-speed trains like Spain does to transport people and goods from Dallas to Austin or really any major city in Texas, we could save time and provide a more sustainable solution than cars for travel between cities in Texas. On one of the days of the trip, we visited Girona, Spain, which was a short train ride from Barcelona. Our tour guide, Christina, walked with us around the city and told us about the deep Jewish roots of Girona. She also spoke of their famous church and Arab baths that make Girona unique. One of my favorite aspects of Girona was the way they designed the buildings on the exterior part of the city. The apartments were very colorful, with hues of pink, orange, yellow and white overlooking a small river. They especially looked nice when the sun caused them to reflect on the river below.
After a weekend spent in Mallorca, we spent Monday touring BCN Activa, which is an entrepreneurial incubator that allows entrepreneurs to test their ideas before pitching them as well as helping entrepreneurs find funding. The interesting part about BCN Activa is that it is government-funded, so taxpayer dollars are used. One thing that stuck out to me was that people who lose their job and are eligible for a monthly stipend can choose to receive their stipend all at once to help start their business. At first, I thought it was a pretty novel idea, but after reflecting on it, I considered how risky that could be. Instead of using a stipend to feed your family or pay your rent, you could invest it in a business that either worked or didn’t with everything on the line. Not that entrepreneurs don’t have to take risks like that anyways, but I found it interesting how willing the government is to believe in those entrepreneurs. After BCN Activa, we hiked up Montjuic. On the way, we saw the Olympic village, which was really cool. I didn’t realize when we started the tour that Mountjouc was a mountain, but after 30 minutes on a steep incline resulting in a breathtaking view, I realized we had, indeed, hiked a small mountain (or hill but I call it a mountain). Instead of hiking the way down, I took a gondola for the very first time. As we flew across the city, I was able to point out many of the sites Christina had taken us to on the trip.
The next day, we visited the port. We hopped on a boat on the Mediterranean and cruised around, while our tour guide pointed out massive cranes that unload shipping crates and massive ships that sail the seas to get us goods. I was amazed at how much she knew about America’s supply chain crisis, a few of my classmates had even heard about the supply chain crisis and the troubles with the shipping crates in Long Beach, CA.
Next came my favorite experience of the trip. We took a bus up windy, icy roads to Montserrat, a quiet, alluring town with a monastery. In this town, there is a boarding school where children ages 8-14 come, mostly to pursue professional singing careers. The boys’ choir at this school sings twice per day as praise to God, and we had the opportunity to watch one of their praises. They were incredible, especially considering these boys are so young. It is clear they are very disciplined and very committed to their work. Prior to the boys’ choir, we hiked up the mountain, and I learned the meaning of having my head in the clouds. I felt as if I was close enough to knock on the doors of the heavens and ask to meet God himself. I never quite understood why someone would leave society for a life in the mountains, but at that moment, I had full understanding and was contemplating it myself.
On our last day in Spain, we attended a cooking class, and I learned how to make several of the dishes I had been eating all week. We made potatas bravas, croquettes, chorizo sausages as our tapas, and then made paellas for our main course. For the first time, I was given a shrimp with its head still attached and I learned how to cut up a squid. After the cooking class, my boyfriend and I took the subway to the Bunkers, which provides a view of all of Barcelona. We got there at sunset and were able to watch the sunset over Barcelona. It was quite a wonderful end to a great trip.
While I had several amazing experiences in Barcelona that I would not trade for the world, I am so thankful to be back in the United States. I missed our bigger living spaces, our food cooked with butter, our less polluted air, and the people I love so dearly. With that said, I am extremely grateful for the experience of a lifetime I had in Barcelona and the wonderful people I met. It showed me the importance of expanding my horizons and studying abroad to learn about people and cultures different than my own.