Week 3 of Barcelona may have been one of my favorites! This past week was filled with a lot of school. We had presentations, quizzes, and exams to finish before wrapping up our classes. In hindsight, I am very pleased with how much I learned in these classes. Taking the exam, I realized how much I had learned about the EU in such short amount of time, and also how little knowledge I had before taking the class. I really enjoyed the schedule of walking to class, going to our favorite coffee shop during breaks, and taking a siesta after school, but I am excited to have more freedom during the days! Our group has many activities and trips planned in the upcoming two weeks, it should be a lot of fun!
When we weren?t studying or doing school work, we had a lot of fun this past week. On Monday, our group toured Park G?ell. It was awesome! I love seeing more of Gaud?s work and how his talent shows up around the city in different ways. I love the colorful mosaic parts, but I especially liked the brick architecture in the caves and tunnels. Tuesday, we studied hard and then rewarded ourselves with a Mexican dinner. It is interesting eating Tex-Mex in Spain. It was good, but definitely not the same, and no queso! On Wednesday, we took our exams. After the exam, we decided to reward ourselves with chocolate croissants and a nice dinner with the other girls on our program. We went to an Italian spot in the plaza on La Ramblas, it was awesome! We also got to see some street performers near our table. Thursday, we finished our last classes and heard many final presentations from peers in the class. After our last class, we grabbed a sweet bite at Ecriba with our professor. It was so fun to hear the different stories she has from the many visits she has had to Barcelona. That night almost our whole group went to a bar. It was a ton of fun! The next morning we had a scheduled tour of the Port De Barcelona. It was interesting to hear how big the port is and how many logistics and organization it takes to run such a large operation. I especially liked and enjoyed the boat tour. We were on a top of a boat and got to see the cargo ships up close. I was shocked at how big they were and how much cargo flows in and out of the port. It was hard to wrap my mind around! After the tour, my roommates and I decided to see more of Barcelona that we hadn?t seen yet. We went to the Picasso museum, walked to the Citadel Park, and to the Arc de Triomf. I loved seeing new spots that we hadn?t yet explored even though it was extremely hot. My favorite part was the fountain at the Citadel Park. It was so beautiful and a great spot for photos! That night we got dinner and gelato of course. We are creating bad habits of needing ice cream to top of every spanish meal. Anita Gelato is in a plaza in the Gracia area behind our apartment. Their milk chocolate pretzel and fresa have been my favorite orders so far.
Now, we are in Madrid. We traveled here on Saturday morning and are expecting a weekend full of fun. I am excited to blog and reflect about it in next week’s post!