Howdy! This past week has probably been the most exciting and bittersweet. Starting off with the exciting stuff, this weekend I was able to take a train to Madrid and experience this beautiful city. This city has such a different culture and feel to it when comparing it to Barcelona. Instead of having a more laid-back culture like that of Barcelona, Madrid has all the hustle and bustle tendencies of a big city like New York. The food here is a lot different than that of Barcelona. While you still can order seafood in Madrid, it does not come in abundance as it does in Barcelona. Instead, Madrid offers more types of food that you would find in America and more American-type restaurant chains such as Mcdonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, etc. Something that I also noticed about Madrid that is different from Barcelona is that the city is more modernized. In Barcelona, there are modernized areas, however, these areas are not as widespread as I would?ve thought for such a big city. In Madrid, the whole city feels modern. The infrastructure, restaurants, and shopping areas are all examples of aspects of Madrid that are more modern than Barcelona. When it comes to my experiences in Madrid, I went to many different tourist attractions. One of my favorite things that I have done on this trip was visiting the Prado art museum. While inside I got to see many famous artworks such as Velasquez?s Las Meninas, and Goya?s The Third of May. Something that I found very interesting was the story that went behind many of these artworks. For example, Goya?s The Third of May was a painting that showed the inhumane attacks that french soldiers exercised on innocent Madrid civilians. While the painting and story behind it was sad, it was nice to be able to learn some very cool history regarding Madrid. Another place that I visited was Buen Retiro Park. This park is home to many different amazing things such as the crystal palace, the palace of Velazquez, and the monument of Alfonso the 12th. As aforementioned, this week has been the most exciting one to date. However, it was a very bittersweet feeling knowing that class is officially over. Being able to learn so much about the culture in Europe and the EU has been a lot of fun. While some mornings I wish I didn?t have class, it was always nice to be able to leave every day learning something new. This week, we spent a lot of time learning about GATT, the WTO, and the rationale of trade policies. One of the things that I found really interesting was the fact that GATT was the predecessor of the WTO and that it started in the late 1940s. All in all, this past week of school and traveling has been very interesting and informative. While I do wish I still had the opportunity to go to class and learn many interesting things, I?m very happy that I can now have more time to experience Spain and learn about the culture in a hands-on way.