Hola, or should I say Howdy! My name is Ellie Horton and I am a junior Supply Chain Management major at Texas A&M University. I have been so excited to arrive in Spain since I applied for this Study Abroad program in the Fall semester. It seemed like this trip would never come, but my best friends and I have been anxiously counting down the days since we were accepted. I got lucky enough to have two of my closest friends here with me in Spain and to get to experience and navigate all these new adventures together. We were also paired up with two other awesome girls as our roommates and we have been having a blast together.
I was very nervous about adjusting to the time difference here since it is a seven-hour difference between Spain and Texas. I tried my best to sleep on the plane, but I could not manage to get more than about two hours of rest while we were on the flight. But the amount of sleep didn?t matter once we landed, everyone on the trip was so overcome with excitement about being here that all tiredness got left on the plane.
We loaded busses and saw the city of Barcelona for the very first time as we headed to our various apartments. I was astounded to see the immediate and drastic difference in the architecture here versus what we are used to in the United States, Texas especially. I love the character and history that each building reflects even with renovations that have had to take place over the years. And surrounding all of these beautiful buildings are the people of Barcelona. Locals walk everywhere! We quickly learned to choose comfortable shoes over cute shoes as I am still healing from some painful blisters from the second day here. It is so refreshing to be moving my body so much compared to driving everywhere in Texas.
Once we were dropped off at our apartment we quickly settled in, unpacked, and took a tour of our surrounding neighborhood. La Sagrada Familia is right outside of our front door (something I will never get used to) and our balcony overlooks a small playground and market. It is so sweet to sit out on our balcony and watch children play, hear our neighbors chat, and relax with the smell of fresh laundry drying on everyone?s porch.
One of my biggest challenges so far would probably be navigating the metro. It seems so intricate and if it weren?t for my roommates, I would not have made it out of our little neighborhood yet. I have started to understand how to use the metro better as we use it more and more each day though. It is such a quick and interesting way to travel but be sure to watch your bag or something might suddenly go missing!
Since being here for just five days I have gotten to learn how to navigate the metro, use a tiny combination washing machine and dryer, and use some Spanish that I haven?t practiced in almost three years. We have also gotten to visit some beautiful places such as the beach, La Sagrada Familia by Gaudi, and Los Bunkers del Carmel which overlook all of Barcelona. I cannot wait to see what these next 7 days will bring. Stay posted!