Howdy! Coming into this study abroad trip, I had no idea what to expect. I knew that the culture here would be wildly different from that of America, however, I truly didn?t realize the extent of how deep and rich the culture is here. Arriving at my small 3 bedroom apartment was probably the first culture shock I had while in Barcelona. I had always heard that apartments and houses in Europe are a lot smaller than their American counterparts and quite honestly, the first night was a tough adjustment. However, I have gotten used to the smaller living quarters and the fact that air conditioning is almost non-existent quite faster than I expected. With that said I am excited for the next 4 weeks here! Another interesting thing I have noticed about the culture here is the meals. I?ve come to realize that many locals do what?s called tappa hopping. This is where you go to many different restaurants and bars during lunch or dinner and get one tappa from each place. This is something that I did not know I was going to enjoy as much as I have so far! Lastly, the culture in Barcelona seems to be more environmentally friendly than that of America. While America has recently pushed its citizens to become more environmentally aware, Barcelona takes it to the next level. During my apartment tour the first day I arrived, one of the first things our tour guide stressed to us was the importance of recycling and putting your trash in the right trash can, otherwise, citizens here will get angry. This shocked me and I figured it wasn?t that serious, however, that was until I messed up and got scolded by a native Barcelonian.
While there has only been a couple of classes so far, I feel like my knowledge of Barcelonian, Spanish, and European business practices has already grown tremendously. Being able to learn about the economics of how business works on this side of the world is something that fascinates me. Besides the classes, just walking around the city has also taught me many things. Something I?ve noticed is that there doesn?t seem to be too many big corporation buildings where people work unlike in America. While I found this to be kind of odd, I asked our tour guide who told me this is actually very common. The only place that has the big corporation buildings is the high-tech area of Barcelona. Secondly, I have also learned some amazing facts about the EU and its creation. I had no idea that the EU was formed from the fallout of WW2 and that it is a constantly changing agreement. I found it really interesting that instead of making a solution, the EU acts more as a response to whatever the current crisis Europe faces.
Overall, I am very excited about this trip and all of the great knowledge and experiences I will gain from coming. The first 4 days of this trip have been interesting and a struggle at times, however, I can?t wait for what is to come!