What a final week to school in Barcelona! Although my week was filled with a ton of studying and preparation for my two presentations, I also had time to enjoy the city and learn about Barcelona’s culture through experience. I got to visit Park Guell on Monday, worked hard on school Tuesday and Wednesday, relaxed on Thursday after our last day of school, Friday we got the opportunity to visit Barcelona’s port, and on the weekend I took a trip to Madrid.
Park Guell was quite an interesting experience. Our visit reinforced the fact that Gaudi is an extremely talented man and quite a blessing to Barcelona. The geometric design throughout the park was incredible and the engineering was mind-blowing. It is incredible to see how sophisticated engineers were more than a century ago. In addition to the amazing design of the park, our tour guide did an incredible job of sharing her own fascination with our group.
The middle of my week was filled with learning about the EU, monetary policy, and Pablo Picasso. I had my final exam for EU economics and a presentation over the ECB’s monetary policy. Also, I had a presentation over Pablo Picasso in Dr. Panina’s class. Studying for my final exam helped me reinforce my learning about the story of the EU. In my opinion, our classes were very interesting to me because I learned about things I had never even heard about before. Giving a presentation over the ECB’s response to crisis was also very interesting because it allowed me to analyze the comparison between the ECB and the Fed. Their policy was not similar in response to the 2008 financial crisis, however, monetary policy is very similar in response to the Corona virus crisis. Both the Fed and ECB are implementing the system of quantitative easing. Quantitative easing is essentially pouring money into the market in order to stimulate economic growth. In addition, both central banks are keeping interest rates low and keeping a close eye on inflation. Lastly, I learned a ton about Pablo Picasso through research for my presentation. It was very interesting to learn about all the different artistic phases he went through. Also, his full name has twenty three words and “Picasso” comes from his mom not his dad. Pablo Picasso left a profound impact on not only Barcelona, but Spain as a whole; and even America as many grade schools teach about him.
The highlights of my weekend consisted of my visit the Barcelona’s port and a weekend trip to Madrid. Our port visit was awesome because we got to hear a presentation about its history, goals, and operations. Also, we got to take a boat ride around the port along with a guided tour. The boat ride was my favorite part because it was relaxing being on the water. My weekend was capped off by a group trip to Madrid. We learned a lot about the history there by visiting the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum. I am looking forward to my last two weeks in Spain!