Buenos D?as!
This last week was probably my favorite one yet. My parents surprised me with a visit to Spain and we had the most amazing few days together. Neither of my parents has ever been to Europe so this was such a treat! While I was in class during the day they explored the city and toured Barcelona for themselves, but at night it was super special to get to spend time showing my parents where I have been living the past few weeks. I began to realize that I actually feel really comfortable in Barcelona as I gave them tips and tricks and planned out all of their daily visits for them. Their experience in Spain was definitely very different from mine since I am living here and they were solely visiting, but I know they left very excited about everything they had learned and the culture they had absorbed while here.
One really fun experience we had this week was going to a restaurant called Cocovail and finding a wall full of different college flags signed by people from those universities. If you looked really closely you could find a tiny Texas A&M flag that of course, we all had to sign. And the funniest part of this was that there was no flag for t.u., but a small signature on the wall next to a drawn-on t.u. flag. Even in Europe, the rivalry continues.
It has been really interesting acclimating to how people operate in Spain. Waiters are not rushing you out of your table to fill it with the next customer and it is completely expected for workers to take a 2-3 hour siesta during the workday. Though that sounds super relaxing, it does mean that people work fewer hours and therefore earn less money. Spaniards also take more vacation days than Americans. We learned in class that this is the reason for Europeans to be poorer, yet seemingly content as a “lifestyle superpower”. They seek more time for leisure and place less importance on making the most money. I aspire to live a comfortable life and have a successful career in the future and it is eye-opening to see that people here do not place as much emphasis on success and money as in the United States. There is a lot of joy to be had in this leisurely lifestyle and I hope that I am able to set aside more time for myself next semester to continue to enjoy what I have experienced this summer.
This weekend is the start of our opportunity to travel all throughout Spain so we chose Valencia! We are visiting the aquarium, walking through this city’s beautiful streets, taking a catamaran boat trip, and trying out a hot springs tour while we are here. So far every city here is gorgeous and I know I am going to miss the constant beautiful scenery so much when I go back to Texas.
With less than two weeks left, we are going to try to explore as much as we can. Granada and Sevilla better watch out because we are headed there next!